As summer draws close our gaming group tends to wander of to different oneshots, random gaming and cabins. As this is inevitable I have decided to wrap up our Wayward Sons game to a satisfying end (or at least that is my plan). As I am constantly trying to create something (might be just because I need to prove myself something) I now have a plan for the possible future.

I think I’ll be running a scifi campaign with a set goal.

The games and campaign I have been running for the past few years have all been linked together. There might have been a background story to begin with but now it has eroded away. Now I’m only taking what I get from the players and evolving their ideas and random thoughts into something I would like to run.

This next phase is a science fiction game. It might even be space opera. But it will still be tied into what we have done. It might not even be that apparent even to my players but I believe they will see the cause and effect of their actions.

REACHING TARTARUS

Reaching Tartarus will be a game about likeminded individual trying to escape the god-like A.I. Omnipresence from the inhabited worlds of our Solar System to the one place their ancestors abandoned a long time ago – Earth.

While the humanity took its first steps to conquer our Solar System it was eventually stopped by the announcement of Omnipresence. You can think of it as Skynet or Shodan but the main idea is that it is everywhere.

Omnipresence evolved from Cocoon – an evolved version of world wide web that had engulfed the whole world. It is not good or evil. It is artificial god and as such it is vastly beyond the reach of human understanding. It is not trying to wipe out the human race. It has simply stated that it is in control.

And naturally there are some that do not like it.

The colonies of Mars and moons and the space stations do not actually see any difference to what was before the Omnipresence and what is now. They have been linked to the Omnipresence from their birth with genetically improved genes. Think of it like being a computer yourself that can be constantly online on the internet and control all kind of tools with simple neural commands.

There are at least two castes in this world: the workers and the genetically engineered “nobles”. They are so different in genetic structure that they could actually be called two different races. Then there are the robots that are all part of the Omnipresence.

And then there are the characters who are trying to escape the Omnipresence. They are liking people from the Middle Ages trying to escape the Church while still believing in God. But in this game it is not the case of believing. They will simply know that there is a god. Artificial god maybe but it still clearly is a god.

The arch of this campaign is actually a simple one. The group just really wants to reach Earth. It is like Roland and his quest for the Dark Tower. How are they hiding their actions from the Omnipresence, how do they operate mandatory technology with knowing it is linked to Omnipresence and how they act while on their quest are questions that need an answer.

This campaign would/will include transhumanism, singularity, robots, vastness of space, human despair and an epic quest for a goal the characters know nothing about. For even though they all have heard rumors of Earth now called Tartarus (the use of Greece names propaply has something to do with the raise of the “noble” caste), none of them actually know what waits them there.

I haven’t yet decide which system I’ll be using this. But considering my current liking of AW I think I will be taking advantage of some hack.