Post by Mutant Lord: William McAusland on Apr 19, 2013 14:27:40 GMT -8
TME Setting
by Toric » Mon May 16, 2011 12:38 am
I'm really loving this game so far! I'll be starting to run it for my group this coming Friday night.
Will, now that you've given us a brief blurb on the Crossroads Region, would you care to offer up a few more spoilers on the setting as a whole? Maybe some info on the "nations" or factions that are out there?
Re: TME Setting
by WillMcAusland » Mon May 16, 2011 7:44 pm
Hi Toric,
Yes, I'll gather some of the descriptions and give each settlement a quick break down, so too with the various geographic areas such as forests, lakes, rivers, bays, and ruins. I can see that an ink map of the region would be very helpful right now.
Re: TME Setting
by Brutorz Bill » Tue May 17, 2011 3:07 am
Looking forward to seeing/hearing more about the official TME Setting, as well as, how your game goes!
Working on trying to coordinate my group into getting together to give the rules a run also.
Re: TME Setting
by Ronin84 » Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:22 pm
WillMcAusland wrote: Hi Toric,
Yes, I'll gather some of the descriptions and give each settlement a quick break down, so too with the various geographic areas such as forests, lakes, rivers, bays, and ruins. I can see that an ink map of the region would be very helpful right now.
Did this ever get posted, I would really be interested in seeing this one come to life!
An Overview of The Crossroads Region
by WillMcAusland » Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:13 pm
Taken from The Crossroads Region book Estimated page count 412 pages Available in hardcover, paperback and PDF with heaps of free downloads (in progress):
If I am able, I'll set up a dedicated topic for each book, such as a Pitford Forum and a Crossroads Region Forum.
WM
Overview of the Regional Features
Welcome to the Crossroads Region, an area along the Pacific Coast which gets its name from the surviving portions of ancient interstate highways, but so too, from the concept of choices the inhabitants must make. Four factions exist here. The largest two, the purists and mutant supremacists, are permanently at war with each other. The smaller two factions, the Northern freehold and Southern Freehold, are aligned so closely that they are practically one nation, yet separated by terrain and mutual enemies.
The factions include the mutant supremacist or Aberrationist nation called the Dominion of Aberratia or ‘DOA’ for short, which is situated along the central coastline and reaches to the edge of an immense forest called Twisted Wood. Secondly, there is the pure stock inhabited, religiously dominated Holy Purist Empire, referred to as ‘HoPE’ by its subjects or by their many enemies as ‘HerPE’. This low tech, racist, pseudo-Christian Theocracy, ruled by a Vicar and his clergy, controls much of the south and are permanently engaged in a bloody war with the mutants of the adjacent dominion. Finally, there are the independent and Freehold communities, which are either barter forts, excavation outposts, or free towns where a man or mutant, cyborg, synthetic human, beastial human or even a self aware android can make a home for itself. Among these more liberal, accepting communities of survivors, there are two major coalitions, both are called Freeholds, with one, the Lower Freehold (LF) being pinched between the Dominion of Aberratia and the Holy Purist Empire in the south, while to the North, is the considerably larger loose knit nation of the Northern Freehold (NF), which is dominated by the region’s largest city called Overpass.
The Crossroads Region is the most heavily populated region around, and caravans or barge loads of migrants arrive weekly. These settlers often come to answer the call to arms by one faction or another in their ‘noble’ wars. Others wish to explore the numerous ruins, or else to merely escape the lawlessness and brutal wars of adjoining regions.
For an excavator, there is no shortage of ancient structures to explore, for this whole area was once part of greater Los Angeles. Several areas of the ancient city still remain relatively intact and above the clay and rubble, while most of it remains buried under tons of silt and debris. For the gutsy adventure party, the layers upon layers of underground malls, installations, transport systems and warehouses, as well as military outposts and Mecha hives wait to be looted. Within these oldster tombs await powerful relics which once recovered, can be brought to bare in the cause of daily survival, and freedom.
Nearly two centuries ago the Crossroads Region vicinity was swept clean of humanity by a series of catastrophes, which included nuclear strikes, Mecha extermination ‘treatments’, earthquakes, tidal waves, and plague. About a hundred years ago, people began to repopulate the area as the ocean receded. Present day scholars believe that finally, after centuries of heated warfare, pollution and natural climatic changes, the polar ice caps are beginning to freeze again. These modern thinkers also claim that the Tainted Sea will continue to drop, as indeed it has been for decades, about 5 centimeters per year, leaving behind stout buildings, sunken ships, bomb craters and the twisted hulks of immense war machines.
Presently, the Crossroads Region is a important area in former Southern California, with the emergence of new faiths and factions threatening to spill out into surrounding areas. The balance of power is held between two diametrically opposed nations, the Dominion of Aberratia and the holy Purist Empire. These factions, one lead by fundamentalist pure stocks, the other by mutant supremacists, struggle on a daily basis to defeat one another. If one is ultimately victorious, that faction will aim to obliterate the two remaining freeholds and independent communities of the region, and thereafter sway the tides of war in both the Shattered Region to the East and the Shallow Sea Region to the North. No power in these adjacent regions could sustain a war on two fronts, given that these factions are already hard pressed and barely managing to hold their borders.
For most free people, a victory by either the mutant supremacist Aberrationists, or the mutant burning, religious zealots of the Holy Purist Empire would be a calamity, as both are commonly seen as extreme factions who promote intolerance and extermination. For the most part, however, the Aberrationists plot to enslave all non-mutants and eliminate pure stock humans through forced marriages to mutants, which although is a terrible fate for most, is somewhat less drastic than the policies of the Holy Purist Empire. The purists cannot abide any beings other than unadulterated pure blood, non-deviated life forms, including plants and animals. The purists of this region absolutely believe that they can eradicate all mutant, mechanical and synthetic life forms and return earth to a pre-apocalyptic state, going so far as to strive to return the land to an age before genetic science was practiced, before even DNA was understood. Their plan is to turn the west coast into a vast, church state, cleansing the world of the devil spawn, including pure stock humans who have been modified to become cyborgs or are proven or suspected to possess mental ‘gifts’ such as telepathy and telekinesis, even though these ghost mutants show no outer mutations.
Given these threats, most free people of any race or ‘type’ have more dread of a Purist victory than of an Aberrationist one. Of course, neither option is acceptable, therefore most able bodied men and women of the Freeholds and independent towns do whatever they can to thwart the two warring factions, weakening them both equally, so that neither becomes more powerful than the other, and gain the upper hand and tip the balance of power.
Excavators, mercenaries and other adventure orientated units, both those born and raised in this region or newly arrived travelers, will very likely get caught up in the power struggle around them, either on purpose, or by accident. Even in the smallest independent towns, Purist and Aberrationist agents participate in espionage, sabotage and the assassination of each other’s minions as well as those of the opposing ‘race’. For this reason, adventure teams should make considerable effort to see that their group is comprised of a liberal mix of cyborgs, pure stocks, beastial humans, mutants and synthetic humans, if not stranger individuals. A group of mixed type will often remain unscathed when in trade towns or the unclaimed and freehold lands, since the citizens there will immediately assume the armed mix-race characters are neither purist nor Aberrationist raiders, and welcome them through their gates and into their bars, brothels and shops.
The Crossroads Region is a complex and lively territory, offering nearly every terrain type, surface or underground ruins, as well as fresh water and sea going adventures, woodland treks and rides through open steppes, stinking swamps, small villages and great emerging cities filled with every vice and service one could dream of. It is the perfect area for a new adventurer to set out and make a name for oneself, where one’s deeds can seriously impact the fate of emerging nations, and where earning fame and fortune are a very real possibility in such a diverse and dynamic land.
WillMcAusland
Site Admin
by Toric » Mon May 16, 2011 12:38 am
I'm really loving this game so far! I'll be starting to run it for my group this coming Friday night.
Will, now that you've given us a brief blurb on the Crossroads Region, would you care to offer up a few more spoilers on the setting as a whole? Maybe some info on the "nations" or factions that are out there?
Re: TME Setting
by WillMcAusland » Mon May 16, 2011 7:44 pm
Hi Toric,
Yes, I'll gather some of the descriptions and give each settlement a quick break down, so too with the various geographic areas such as forests, lakes, rivers, bays, and ruins. I can see that an ink map of the region would be very helpful right now.
Re: TME Setting
by Brutorz Bill » Tue May 17, 2011 3:07 am
Looking forward to seeing/hearing more about the official TME Setting, as well as, how your game goes!
Working on trying to coordinate my group into getting together to give the rules a run also.
Re: TME Setting
by Ronin84 » Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:22 pm
WillMcAusland wrote: Hi Toric,
Yes, I'll gather some of the descriptions and give each settlement a quick break down, so too with the various geographic areas such as forests, lakes, rivers, bays, and ruins. I can see that an ink map of the region would be very helpful right now.
Did this ever get posted, I would really be interested in seeing this one come to life!
An Overview of The Crossroads Region
by WillMcAusland » Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:13 pm
Taken from The Crossroads Region book Estimated page count 412 pages Available in hardcover, paperback and PDF with heaps of free downloads (in progress):
If I am able, I'll set up a dedicated topic for each book, such as a Pitford Forum and a Crossroads Region Forum.
WM
Overview of the Regional Features
Welcome to the Crossroads Region, an area along the Pacific Coast which gets its name from the surviving portions of ancient interstate highways, but so too, from the concept of choices the inhabitants must make. Four factions exist here. The largest two, the purists and mutant supremacists, are permanently at war with each other. The smaller two factions, the Northern freehold and Southern Freehold, are aligned so closely that they are practically one nation, yet separated by terrain and mutual enemies.
The factions include the mutant supremacist or Aberrationist nation called the Dominion of Aberratia or ‘DOA’ for short, which is situated along the central coastline and reaches to the edge of an immense forest called Twisted Wood. Secondly, there is the pure stock inhabited, religiously dominated Holy Purist Empire, referred to as ‘HoPE’ by its subjects or by their many enemies as ‘HerPE’. This low tech, racist, pseudo-Christian Theocracy, ruled by a Vicar and his clergy, controls much of the south and are permanently engaged in a bloody war with the mutants of the adjacent dominion. Finally, there are the independent and Freehold communities, which are either barter forts, excavation outposts, or free towns where a man or mutant, cyborg, synthetic human, beastial human or even a self aware android can make a home for itself. Among these more liberal, accepting communities of survivors, there are two major coalitions, both are called Freeholds, with one, the Lower Freehold (LF) being pinched between the Dominion of Aberratia and the Holy Purist Empire in the south, while to the North, is the considerably larger loose knit nation of the Northern Freehold (NF), which is dominated by the region’s largest city called Overpass.
The Crossroads Region is the most heavily populated region around, and caravans or barge loads of migrants arrive weekly. These settlers often come to answer the call to arms by one faction or another in their ‘noble’ wars. Others wish to explore the numerous ruins, or else to merely escape the lawlessness and brutal wars of adjoining regions.
For an excavator, there is no shortage of ancient structures to explore, for this whole area was once part of greater Los Angeles. Several areas of the ancient city still remain relatively intact and above the clay and rubble, while most of it remains buried under tons of silt and debris. For the gutsy adventure party, the layers upon layers of underground malls, installations, transport systems and warehouses, as well as military outposts and Mecha hives wait to be looted. Within these oldster tombs await powerful relics which once recovered, can be brought to bare in the cause of daily survival, and freedom.
Nearly two centuries ago the Crossroads Region vicinity was swept clean of humanity by a series of catastrophes, which included nuclear strikes, Mecha extermination ‘treatments’, earthquakes, tidal waves, and plague. About a hundred years ago, people began to repopulate the area as the ocean receded. Present day scholars believe that finally, after centuries of heated warfare, pollution and natural climatic changes, the polar ice caps are beginning to freeze again. These modern thinkers also claim that the Tainted Sea will continue to drop, as indeed it has been for decades, about 5 centimeters per year, leaving behind stout buildings, sunken ships, bomb craters and the twisted hulks of immense war machines.
Presently, the Crossroads Region is a important area in former Southern California, with the emergence of new faiths and factions threatening to spill out into surrounding areas. The balance of power is held between two diametrically opposed nations, the Dominion of Aberratia and the holy Purist Empire. These factions, one lead by fundamentalist pure stocks, the other by mutant supremacists, struggle on a daily basis to defeat one another. If one is ultimately victorious, that faction will aim to obliterate the two remaining freeholds and independent communities of the region, and thereafter sway the tides of war in both the Shattered Region to the East and the Shallow Sea Region to the North. No power in these adjacent regions could sustain a war on two fronts, given that these factions are already hard pressed and barely managing to hold their borders.
For most free people, a victory by either the mutant supremacist Aberrationists, or the mutant burning, religious zealots of the Holy Purist Empire would be a calamity, as both are commonly seen as extreme factions who promote intolerance and extermination. For the most part, however, the Aberrationists plot to enslave all non-mutants and eliminate pure stock humans through forced marriages to mutants, which although is a terrible fate for most, is somewhat less drastic than the policies of the Holy Purist Empire. The purists cannot abide any beings other than unadulterated pure blood, non-deviated life forms, including plants and animals. The purists of this region absolutely believe that they can eradicate all mutant, mechanical and synthetic life forms and return earth to a pre-apocalyptic state, going so far as to strive to return the land to an age before genetic science was practiced, before even DNA was understood. Their plan is to turn the west coast into a vast, church state, cleansing the world of the devil spawn, including pure stock humans who have been modified to become cyborgs or are proven or suspected to possess mental ‘gifts’ such as telepathy and telekinesis, even though these ghost mutants show no outer mutations.
Given these threats, most free people of any race or ‘type’ have more dread of a Purist victory than of an Aberrationist one. Of course, neither option is acceptable, therefore most able bodied men and women of the Freeholds and independent towns do whatever they can to thwart the two warring factions, weakening them both equally, so that neither becomes more powerful than the other, and gain the upper hand and tip the balance of power.
Excavators, mercenaries and other adventure orientated units, both those born and raised in this region or newly arrived travelers, will very likely get caught up in the power struggle around them, either on purpose, or by accident. Even in the smallest independent towns, Purist and Aberrationist agents participate in espionage, sabotage and the assassination of each other’s minions as well as those of the opposing ‘race’. For this reason, adventure teams should make considerable effort to see that their group is comprised of a liberal mix of cyborgs, pure stocks, beastial humans, mutants and synthetic humans, if not stranger individuals. A group of mixed type will often remain unscathed when in trade towns or the unclaimed and freehold lands, since the citizens there will immediately assume the armed mix-race characters are neither purist nor Aberrationist raiders, and welcome them through their gates and into their bars, brothels and shops.
The Crossroads Region is a complex and lively territory, offering nearly every terrain type, surface or underground ruins, as well as fresh water and sea going adventures, woodland treks and rides through open steppes, stinking swamps, small villages and great emerging cities filled with every vice and service one could dream of. It is the perfect area for a new adventurer to set out and make a name for oneself, where one’s deeds can seriously impact the fate of emerging nations, and where earning fame and fortune are a very real possibility in such a diverse and dynamic land.
WillMcAusland
Site Admin