The Artifact RPG

While I’m tweaking the Player’s Handbook, I also started moving The Fringe setting sourcebook over to the 3rd edition rules. That might take a while. In the meantime, I need something cool to talk about for the blog here. For that, let’s delve into what was going to be the first sourcebook for The Artifact.

The main game starts in the year 2085. The intention was to take the game from that point and imagine what would happen just 5 years later in 2090. This will be the project for once the other two sourcebooks are completed. I may try to integrate the posts under Chezbah sourcebook into this project instead of a whole separate book. There’s a lot of really cool stories to tell with the Chezbah but that may have to happen after this sourcebook.

Here’s a sneak peek.

The Artifact 2090

In the few short years since Earth forces arrived, they have quickly assimilated the technology available. Massive exploration campaigns have uncovered amazing insights about the planet. A series of events have altered the political and scientific landscape for the entire planet.

The Indo-China Alliance has made an astonishing discovery deep in the Methane Wastes. They have released a composite image of a massive hulk over a kilometer in length. The image appears to be a previously unknown creature dated to approximately four thousand years ago. The I-CA claims there is evidence that this is the creature that the Methane Wastes were designed to accommodate.

This may be the first direct evidence of the planet’s builder’s. So far there has been no comment from the Chezbah. Kelrath sources have no records that would describe them but have asserted that this may be one of the old gods, killed in the great war.

ASO and The Kelrath

In a major diplomatic reversal, the ASO has announced that the Kelrath have agreed to a peace treaty with ASO member nations. In a surprising turn of events, the Oracle Depta’ have directed the Rantaa’ to forming democratically controlled governments like the one pioneered in the Kelrath city of Gethilsichk. The Rantaa’ are to retain executive control for the time being until parliamentary elections can be held. Rantaa’ families have been promised that they will keep their land and property rights. Part of the motivation for this move is thought to be a growing of rebellion among the Kelrath Kaloord  caste who saw the revolt at Gethilsichk as an opportunity to gain power.

Although the transition is expected to be slow, some of the largest and most powerful Kelrath city states have already begun preparations for elections.

ASO officials are reporting extraordinary cooperation from Kelrath scribes that control records from generations of Kelrath. Huge caches of historical books have been made available and are being scanned for translation and academic study.

Kerdi quantum liquid brain technology has also become available and is already finding it’s way into ASO autonomous drones. Some have voiced concern over the technology by so quickly deploying drones using the alien processors but ASO engineers have commented that Kerdi brain programming has been well understood by the Scimrahn for centuries, it was only the production of the brains that was a mystery. Some scientists are proposing to further augment the advanced processors by integrating teleporter technology.

The ASO have completed their moon base and are now able to teleport thirty percent more cargo and personnel to and from The Artifact with even higher reliability. On August 3rd 2089, the ASO began deploying its new Defender E-suits and arsenal four months ahead of schedule. In a technology sharing bid, the ASO helped to complete designs on the Kelrath built Rall 5.

The Chezbah

Intelligence on the Chezbah provided by Kelecs produced evidence that a new technology was in production. The ASO and I-CA took notice and on February 24th 2089, a mixed Division of over five thousand men moved in on the collector wells where the technology was under development. Few of that force survived the counter attack. Those that did reported the Chezbah to have highly advanced capabilities. Among the reports were personal force fields capable of withstanding repeated missile attacks, personal plasma weapons that defeated E-suits, tactical teleportation without a transmitter or receiver pad and greatly increased Hunter and Demolisher capabilities.

The reports greatly concern the ASO and I-CA military commands, if these technologies make it into main stream production, any advancements made so far will be outclassed by these weapons.

The Ken-Telex

On January 9th 2090, the I-CA encountered another never before seen life form. A group that numbered into the hundreds was found moving through Chezbah territory. They displayed social grouping and used technology. Attempts to communicate were unsuccessful. At first, the creatures ignored the I-CA communications officer but when more vigorous attempts were made to communicate, the creatures killed the officer.

The I-CA platoon followed the creatures for two weeks where the aliens were intercepted by a large Chezbah force consisting of a sea of Hounds, several hundred Warriors, A hundred or more Hunter E-suits and Eleven Demolishers. In the ensuing battle the aliens were defeated but only after heavy losses on the Chezbah side.

After the battle, a broadcast was sent to every functioning terminal on The Artifact. It translates to the following.

“I am Loc. The time that I have had to prepare for the events you will soon witness have come near to their end. I am very close to finishing my work that has spanned three thousand years. An enemy of man is trying to stop this work. I will do everything in my power to protect you but they are powerful and are making their way here. They are the Ken-Telex. It is in the best interest of all that they be stopped or all of man(kind) will die.”

The name “Ken-Telex” given these creatures is a Chezbah name meaning “Thoughts bound to the master.”

The I-CA has not released any photographs of the creatures and descriptions redacted from the documents made available.

Mark Plemmons has a new game he’s running a Kickstarter for called Corporia. While the setting isn’t my cup of tea, one thing really peaked my interest about the project, the art. That might not seem unusual, a lot of people look at games and say “Whoa, that’s amazing art!” In this case though, it’s not just the quality of the art, it’s the format. These aren’t drawings and paintings, they’re photographs.

Mark isn’t the first designer to use photographs in his game but so far as I’ve seen he’s the first to use them extensively and well at the same time. The pictures have a specific magazine cover look. Indeed, some look like mock ups of a cyberpunk future Cosmopolitan cover which really grounds the setting. It has the effect of the subjects looking mundane, while doing really out of character things, like a businessmen wielding a broadsword.

I asked Mark why he went in the direction he did and he related how, when he started, the project was intended to be smaller than it is now. As he worked on it, he kept finding artists he really liked and the art took on a new dimension.

Here’s why I ask if RPGs should leave saturday morning cartoons behind. Mark looked at this as an opportunity to make a game that was visually attractive not just  to gamers but to non-gamers as well.

We often forget that the style and the subject of the art in game books can be a bit juvenile. Yes, there are a lot of extraordinary paintings and drawings out there but there is a lot of silly, poorly proportioned art too. Often, that has the effect of putting people off.

There’s been a lot of discussion about representations of women in games. Again disproportionate bodies and physically impossible poses are frequently lampooned. Using photographs of normal people in fantastic situations reduces that problem significantly. There could still be the issue of if the art is tasteful but let’s take what advantages we can.

There’s been discussions of using photographs in RPGs over at RPGGeek, the conclusion really pointing to the idea that good art is just good art but we tend to be less forgiving of flaws in photography.

There are a lot of games where it would be amazingly hard to pull off with photographs. Mark has the distinct advantage that his subject matter of business men wielding claymores involves reasonably easy to acquire props. I was talking to a cosplayer that did an amazing job of a cyborg and his suit is estimated to cost over $350 in materials probably double or triple that for the labor. Although you could use the suit repeatedly for game art you’d probably need dozens of costumes like that to make a full sized game book. That’s $8000 and up just for some of the props. Now you need the photographers, the graphic artists and to pay the people in the picture. Probably an art director too. In short, expensive. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Mark’s cost were in the same ballpark though.

So why isn’t Hasbro or Pazio doing this? They have the budget and if they don’t have the talent in house, they should be able to acquire it. If you can make a movie about a genre and have it look good, why can’t you make a photo of the same genre look good? Mark and his crew of artists are making it happen. In the next ten years, will we be looking back at Corporia as being the game that broke the mold?

If you’re interested in finding out more, Corporia’s Kickstarter page is here.