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| Apparently books are a treasured resource |
Now I am back at my grown up job (I am a teacher) things are moving a little slower in the game I am writing, Detritus. That said however I have written all of the mechanics that I want to test for my alpha version of the game as of last night and so this is going to allow me to move on to my setting component of the game. There are sections of the rules that I need to write that are in my head still but in the alpha stage of development I am going to be the only GM all I wanted written down was the rules mechanics so if there were a question I could read the mechanic to players.
All images in todays posts are flavour images taken from various websites and are referenced on my Pinterest page. they are aimed at giving a feel for the game through this blog only and any copyrighted material will not be used in the final product without the express permission of the owner of the material.
But to the setting. I have been a little coy about it only teasing with images and a bit of a hint that the game will revolve around a survival horror theme/genre. There is another attached genre but I am not going to outright come out with it and say this is a horror/x setting. I want the following, first ever publicly released, flavour text let you get the first peek into what is my game. What has been forming over 28 years of gaming to be the setting that I want to bring to the world of tabletop gaming. I am hoping that a portion of this following text survives to the final cut being that it is the first that I am willing to share.
Don’t know what I am s’posed to write but I’ll give it a go. First let’s set the rules. Don’t try and find out about me. You find out about me and you may drag me back. I have seen it happen and it ain’t happenin’ to me cos I’m the King of Mayfield. I’m a god. Well maybe a lesser god back home where you are from but here I have followers. Worshippers, hordes of ’em here. In fact it is cos of my high priest I have to do this stupid letter. This stupid dangerous letter. Words from their god in a hope to bring heroes here to this place. What do I know, I’m near dead anyway so lets give it a go.
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| King of Mayfield? |
Your reality is a sham. I know half of you think that you are the centre of the Universe or some sort of shit like that. Well let me tell you that you live in a reality. One of many. One of at least 6 that I know of. I used to live in your reality when I was a functioning member of society so to speak. But the day I went over the bonnet of that learner driver. Wiped my Harley out and started a process that made me the god I always knew I was. Well you see, I got my payout. In the Eighties it was though I was the cool guy. I was “Easyrider” on the back of my Iron Horse. The payout was enough to make me comfortable. Buy some land, put some fences up. Work with electronics jobs, cash in hand so it never affected my disability payments. Build up some more money, build some more fences. I was determined to own it all. I was the King of Mayfield I tell you.
But the fences did more than keep people out. theuy kept me in. More and more people began to forget about me and that was how I liked it. After all you were all just cattle and I was a god. My family stopped coming. My friends stopped coming and finally everyone stopped coming. You would all just drive by the fence and think nothing of the god that lived behind it. So little in fact that I ceased to exist in your reality and came to this one. I am now where all the forgotten things go. I live in what the locals call “Detritus”. They think it is fantastic here. So do I cos here I am a god. No doubt. I know what some of this rubbish does. It is hard to get it to do its purpose because of the rarity of electricity here but they don’t seem to care.
Every day it seems something new arrives through the portals. There are five portals. Five distinct realities all attached to Detritus. Stuff appears from each of them, simply scattered over the landscape. No-one sees it fall but we all know it comes from the portals. Some of the holy men here know how it works but they are well protected cos the Consumers want to possess them. I am a god to them cos I know what some of the stuff from Earth’s reality does. Though it has been thirty years since I arrived and the things you forget about now! I have no idea, it is all small and so much plastic. Lots of stuff comes from Earth and so I do what the natives do now and make it up. They seem to listen to me.
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| Repurposed materials |
So, the natives. The ones that worship me at least as there are, or were more natives than just these. These guys are short. I am talking Bilbo short and they make their bodies out of the Detritus. they are spirits that got forgotten from one of the realities. I couldn’t tell you if it were Earth cos I would have forgotten ’em too. But the core of them are spirits, though they don’t know it, and they build their bodies from the Detritus. Lot of ’em like the porcelain doll bits that they find here and there around the place. They think it is their own bodies and they can feel pain through the shell but given time they will absorb more from the piles of forgotten stuff and heal ’emselves up.
They are clever too! They take the stuff that comes through the portals and repurpose it how they think it should work. You see they make the coolest things out of the stuff you don’t think about no more. Roofs made from LP shingles, armour out of Oldsmobile parts. It is the coolest, weirdest thing you will ever see. They have Gadgeteers over here that make the coolest powered unibikes out of old bikes! But it is hard to power things, they normally need to use steam or the like as electricity is a treasured commodity. Only a few of us have it and it is generally the gods that do because we know what it is worth. I will kill to keep my stash secret. Got to keep it safe from them all.
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| Natives |
The locals use some kind of magic too. Well some of ’em do and they don’t seem to think of it as special. I wanted to learn and they tried but I guess I am just too material to be able to understand the mystical crap they were telling me. They all have some form of ability to move things remotely and unconsciously I have seen their bodies repair after being beaten down to mere shattered pieces. New bits accumulate if they are near but they trie to reform the old if it aint. It is creepy.
There are others here. A race of mystics who have been missing for five years are the ones I remember most. They came to me and told me that soon the Consumers would come. They told me that they were not going to be forgotten and they were gonna break in. They were coming so they could find out about the other realities and find a way through their portals and Consume their worlds too. We laughed at em, the other gods and me and they disappeared. We aint laughing no more.
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| Consumer Construct |
Weren’t no more than a couple of weeks after they vacated that the Consumer’s arrived. The fifth portal, the one that the least stuff comes through (really weird organic stuff too, dangerous) turned a weird colour and then dilated. Streams of black fell that day and then it stopped and everything seemed normal. But it aint normal. It aint at all.
I cant say much about what the consumers are cos I never have met one that I know of. The natives tell me that they are evil spirits that take over your mind and are invulnerable. They have other spirits that serve ’em and get placed in the heart of machines. Horrible machines. The natives tell me that they are searching for them that know the secret of how to get through the portals from this side. There aren’t many but they exist.
These Consumers also collect the forgotten stuff. It is as if they are studying the other realities. they spit out the old stuff they know but collect anything new that comes. They want to know how they operate. Some of the natives tell me that they want to come and take you all over. They tell me they will not stop until all the realities have bent to their will.
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| The possessed |
And this is why one of my priests asked me to write this. Listen to his words. He knows how you can help. Even if you aint forgotten he knows a way that you can project here. He knows how you can come and make a difference against the Consumers. Listen to him although I think its too late. Follow his guide and come, fight the Consumers cos it seems if they can get into your reality it is already too late. The only way you can save you, your own and those that you love, or at least don’t forget is by beating the Consumers before they come. Cos Detritus aint much like it used to be. The Consumers have damn near enslaved all the natives and only pockets of resistance are left. Help em.
And whatever you do, don’t go lookin’ for me or my history. This reality is almost overrun but I am still a god here. In your reality I am simply, well… forgotten!
So, there you have it, the first public release of setting to the inter webs. Please comment and let me know what you like or don’t like. The first play-tests are now looming and a call for players will go out soon!