Sunday, October 15, 2017

when changes lead to the better

I had recently made a One Sheet Setting for Savage Worlds called Age of the Imaginals.  I am very excited to expand on this project and take it to the mini setting.

One of the first major changes I had to make was taking the super power companion elements out of the setting.  Which in turn has made it much stronger.

I was making a premade character and used the Street Fighter power level. It was way stronger than what I wanted to the setting to be. I pictured how fights would go and it was a bit to much. I wanted powers and intense combat but not four attacks around dropping a bunch of damage.
I then brainstormed on how to just use the Deluxe rules.
 
I started by using the racial abilities to make the mutations for the Imago. This will keep the power down and allow for a whole host of innate powers and abilities. Each Imago has two default negative racial modifiers, racial enemy and cyber resistant. The player then has 4 positive racial modifiers to create their unique character.

This also allowed the vision I had of not all Imago having powers.  The coolest part is i came up with a Arcane background that is Magic but trapped so Imago can consciously allow them to manipulate their Cellular structure to create super powers. These individuals have come known as Imaginals.
  
By definition of the word it means interference to the Imago. In the setting word it is based off of their ability to manipulated their Imaginal cells. Every Imago begins as a normal looking human child. As they mature they begin to have incredibly vivid dreams picturing them selves as their future Imago self. This is caused by the Imaginal cells laying dormant in their body. When they begin the chrysalis those cells begin to wake up and replace the previous human cell structure. Once they emerge they have become the being that they created in their childhood dreams.

I knew I wanted cybernetics and advanced technology to play a role in the setting. Mostly it was humanity's attempt to balance the field with the power of the Imagos. It ended up becoming an attempt for humanity to adapt to the new verdant world.  The final product is a group of scientists and corporations formed a group called the Promethean Project. They advanced technology greatly and gifted all the technology to the world. This included robotics, nano-tech, cold fusion.  When I dropped the power level I included the Arcane Background Weird Science as a way to represent the next stage in advanced technology.

Then I needed a Arcane background for humans to use as well. I absolutely love the idea of psionics.  So I had to include them. 
 
I came up with psionics have always existed but in a very limited capacity. With the millions of deaths caused by the plague it caused a massive accumulation of psychic energy in the world. This energy has become known as the Collective. Those with the psionic potential are able to draw energy from the Collective and manifest their will upon the world.  There is always a danger that they will fail drawing energy and cause a powerful backlash, wink wink, in the Collective harming those around them.  This has made them very untrusted and deemed as dangerous as the Imago by the human authorities.

Next I wanted a way to create full conversion cyborgs. Mostly because my son really wanted to play a robot, and it is a major part of cyberpunk, well in my opinion at least.
I ended up making a Mechanoid race. This sets them apart as more than a basic cyborg and different than a robot.  Mechanoids are people that have uploaded their consciousness/soul into a robotic frame.  Unlike a standard robot they use cyberware to modify themselves instead of the modification point system.

This has left the surviving members of the Human race in a tricky situation. Millions of their species are dead. The world has quickly become overgrown in plant life. Weird mutated animals roam the forests. Mutant humans are now a reality and almost as great as numbers as themselves. Powerful dangerous psions are among them. Then there are traitors to humanity that would rather become a glorified machine instead of staying a human and help the species survive.
The surviving governments and the newly formed city states rule viciously in an attempt to keep the humans safe. This safety has stolen away the rights and freedoms of many, but they are distracted with all the shiny baubles of fancy technology in their attempt to cope with the changes to their world.

I am finally satisfied with the base structure of this setting. I know this because my creative mind wanders are no longer focused on the races and history. They have now wandered into developing city states, adventures, and how these people interact with their world in this new Age.

 Below is a link to the current document

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