March 23rd, 2004. The world shatters.
They say the first meteor that struck us was smaller than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs—hardly a consolation when it was followed by a storm of projectiles. The Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, entire regions were devastated and millions killed by the impacts themselves or the tidal waves they generated, to say nothing of the chaos in the aftermath.
The old order was irrevocably broken. Entire cities were swallowed up and coastlines forever changed, an ecological disaster of a scale never seen in human history. In total, more than two billion people died.
And yet the more things change, the more they stay the same. In any crisis comes oppurtunity, and with the Cold War powers of the United States and the Soviet Union crippled or outright collapsed new players have entered the game. The world now tilts on a southern axis, with the balance of power having shifted to those nations that had been spared by the Heavenfall. Megacorporations rule their private kingdoms, able to do what they want without fear of backlash due to their control of industry and global trade. Criminal syndicates have taken advantage of the chaos and in many places superseded their remnant governments. Old borders have been carved up by squabbling feudal states, and the Neo United Nations, one of the international alliances trying to keep the carnage to a minimum, is stretched far too thin to deal with all of them at once.
Sometimes it falls on someone else to make things happen. PMCs are a regular part of geopolitics now, openly engaging with hostile nations and other mercenaries on behalf of their client states. However, not every conflict is one the N/UN wishes to be publicly involved in. There are times when even the use of PMCs is too transparent. When prudent, the N/UN turns to stealth and sabotage. The operators involved are experienced, intelligent, well-versed in subterfuge, and most importantly...
Entirely deniable.
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So, I've been inspired by @Rhona W to run an RP for the first time, using his Heavenfall setting. You can read the lore in the link Here, but the gist is that the Cold War didn't end in 1991, and the Soviet Union continued to exist as a world power until 2003 when the planet was rocked by a series of massive meteor strikes, the Heavenfall. While not quite science fiction the setting is very much advanced compared to real-life 2014, or even 2025.
Whereas Shattered Steel (the original RP) is centered around air combat, this one focuses on special forces operations, drawing heavily from military and espionage fiction. The characters would be elite operators inserted covertly to do elite operator stuff: kick in doors, shoot people, and exfiltrate under heavy fire.
In terms of tone I'm shooting for things like Sicario, Ghost Recon, and the Jason Bourne books/movies. While I'm not interested in strict adherence to realism I am going for 'heightened' reality as opposed to pure guns-akimbo old-school action movie logic.
Tone-wise, it'll be somewhat dark. The setup is that you're hired guns in a foreign country working with shady people to overthrow the local government, but said government has it coming. That said, we'll be keeping it professional. No gunning down civilians, no lone wolves who can't work with a team. It won't be nonstop action, I plan on including downtime so that characters can interact and form relationships.
As this is my first time GMing I'm looking to keep the group relatively small, four or five players. We might extend the roster down the line, but for now the team will be a single squad.
They say the first meteor that struck us was smaller than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs—hardly a consolation when it was followed by a storm of projectiles. The Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, entire regions were devastated and millions killed by the impacts themselves or the tidal waves they generated, to say nothing of the chaos in the aftermath.
The old order was irrevocably broken. Entire cities were swallowed up and coastlines forever changed, an ecological disaster of a scale never seen in human history. In total, more than two billion people died.
And yet the more things change, the more they stay the same. In any crisis comes oppurtunity, and with the Cold War powers of the United States and the Soviet Union crippled or outright collapsed new players have entered the game. The world now tilts on a southern axis, with the balance of power having shifted to those nations that had been spared by the Heavenfall. Megacorporations rule their private kingdoms, able to do what they want without fear of backlash due to their control of industry and global trade. Criminal syndicates have taken advantage of the chaos and in many places superseded their remnant governments. Old borders have been carved up by squabbling feudal states, and the Neo United Nations, one of the international alliances trying to keep the carnage to a minimum, is stretched far too thin to deal with all of them at once.
Sometimes it falls on someone else to make things happen. PMCs are a regular part of geopolitics now, openly engaging with hostile nations and other mercenaries on behalf of their client states. However, not every conflict is one the N/UN wishes to be publicly involved in. There are times when even the use of PMCs is too transparent. When prudent, the N/UN turns to stealth and sabotage. The operators involved are experienced, intelligent, well-versed in subterfuge, and most importantly...
Entirely deniable.
----------------------
So, I've been inspired by @Rhona W to run an RP for the first time, using his Heavenfall setting. You can read the lore in the link Here, but the gist is that the Cold War didn't end in 1991, and the Soviet Union continued to exist as a world power until 2003 when the planet was rocked by a series of massive meteor strikes, the Heavenfall. While not quite science fiction the setting is very much advanced compared to real-life 2014, or even 2025.
Whereas Shattered Steel (the original RP) is centered around air combat, this one focuses on special forces operations, drawing heavily from military and espionage fiction. The characters would be elite operators inserted covertly to do elite operator stuff: kick in doors, shoot people, and exfiltrate under heavy fire.
In terms of tone I'm shooting for things like Sicario, Ghost Recon, and the Jason Bourne books/movies. While I'm not interested in strict adherence to realism I am going for 'heightened' reality as opposed to pure guns-akimbo old-school action movie logic.
Tone-wise, it'll be somewhat dark. The setup is that you're hired guns in a foreign country working with shady people to overthrow the local government, but said government has it coming. That said, we'll be keeping it professional. No gunning down civilians, no lone wolves who can't work with a team. It won't be nonstop action, I plan on including downtime so that characters can interact and form relationships.
As this is my first time GMing I'm looking to keep the group relatively small, four or five players. We might extend the roster down the line, but for now the team will be a single squad.
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