Airship Pirates RPG book
How is that?
Damn fine. The system is very similar to Shadowrun (1s and 6s are successes, and rather than taking dice away for difficult tasks, "Black Dice" are added that have their "successes" take away from the regular skill dice. That's about it.), the universe is... Astounding.
Looking forward to the novel by "Captain" Roberts (The lead singer for Abney Park, the music of which the RPG is based off of), which goes into the full backstory as to how the alternative history came about. (Basically, the crew of the time traveling airship HMS Orphilia had good intentions... And we all know what road that paves.). By 2000, the Earth hadn't seen a war in generations, every country was a Democracy (With all the corruption that entails), pollution and overpopulation was out of control.
One man, the President of the USA, had a plan. All he asked was that the nations elect him President of Earth. Yeah, warning bells galore for us, but these are a people with a different history, remember? No WWI so forget WWII. Hitler was a forgotten painter to them!
He got elected, and as his new edicts went into place, people started asking questions. Then those people went missing. Then the questions got harder, but a lot quieter as well. Mainly, "You know, maybe we should have asked him how he was going to go about overpopulation a bit more, eh what?"
Well, that was 155-years ago. It's now 2155. Humanity, for the most part, is in North America, and held in four different groups:
The Empire (founded by said "President Of Earth") holds people in giant cities built on a Victorian style and technology, fed from Fungus enriched with vitamins and nutrients and kept perpetually hungry (Even the noble class!). The lower class work 14-hour shifts at hopelessly unsafe and manpower intensive factories, in "Blocks" that can be broken off from the rest of the city by the automations that run the bureaucracy and the police force. There is 0% Population growth, with any additional children being "Thrown to the wild animals outside the city", but actually are forced into the Imperial Air Navy and Air Marines, which is a harsher and worse fate as the Emperor slowly builds up his forces to see his Grandfather's dream come true.
The Skyloft people were the few lucky cities that got a hint that something was going on (Destruction of telecommunications was one of the main edicts of the President's plan to stifle technology, the root of pollution's evil.). They took their cities, and lifted them skyward and hooked them onto mountain tops, as the Empire had a Army and Navy, but no air force whatsoever. Their once rich and powerful technology is hopelessly running out, the cities, already small and crowded, are massively overpopulated, and only their shipyards producing massive amounts of airships to do trade with, and protect them from the might of the IAN, is all that's keeping them from being destroyed outright.
The Neo-Bedouins were the people that saw the origins of the President's plan, said, "Screw this", and went out to be dirty hippies in VW minibuses, motorcycles, and diesel trucks. Their descendants are still traveling from oasis-to-oasis, dodging toxic areas, ravenous beasts with a genetic-infused taste for Human Flesh, and all the other dangers. They, however, live life, laughing and singing at all the world throws at them to kill them from heartbeat-to-heartbeat. Some have made small, hard to see settlements where they grow food, harvest wood and ores, and other essentials for the skyloft cities, where they then trade to their roving cousins for meat.
Finally, there's the Airship Pirates, the last bastion of freedom in the world. With the IAN declaring any cultural or scientific material not allowed by the Emperor to be "Piracy", the group might be a comedian act, musicians, or a circus as well as traditional pirates. They hammer the blows against the Empire and sell their goods to the Skyloft people who "Secretly" work with them to try and quell the Empire's might, and to stave off some of their overpopulation, as well as provide assistance to the Neo-Bedouins and Imperial Citizens who wish to rebel. Or, you know, just pillage, rape, and burn in whatever order they like. Freedom is like that.
Hopefully I'll be able to get something going... I'm getting their first adventure book as a Christmas Present, so... Here's hoping.
