In the meantime, while waiting for edits to come back, I began making revisions to the Janus Project. It is likely this will be GWO's second RPG, once Time Heroes is finished and out. What is the Janus Project, you ask? Why, the topic of today's blog entry!
Once upon a time, in 2012, there was an online kingdom called RPGGeek. In this kingdom, lords and ladies came from all ends of the kingdom once a year to participate in a gruelling 24-hour marathon. It was a test of wits, and game play, and fortitude. Each participant had 24 hours to pen a game of roles and submit it to be voted upon by all members of the kingdom.
One of lords, called MasterGeek (as well as a few others), requested an additional challenge: Three words that must be included in the game in some aspect or other. The three words chosen by one of the Dukes of RPGGeek were Accessibility, Reactor, and Phase. One of those words was, fairly normal. The other two, however, vexed MasterGeek until finally, they meshed together. The rest of the game rose up around those two words, and thus the Janus Project was born.
Right, so I think I've stretched the attempt at bedtime story-ing the history as far as it will go. The point is, the Janus Project started out as a thrown-together (and not winning, for the curious, for good reason) system to enter in my first RPG contest. While the game as submitted didn't pull any awards, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.
The Lore
Earth is
overpopulated. Has been for as long as anyone alive can remember. Nations don’t
fight over moral disagreements anymore, or even political. They fight over food
and space for their people to live. Pollution has devastated large portions of
the world, lowering even further the available space to inhabit.
We tried for many
years to find a way to colonize space. Every attempt failed drastically, ending
each time with the deaths of all volunteers. Things were looking bleak.
Then a group of
scientists discovered Eden. This wasn’t a new planet, but a dimension that runs
perpendicular to our own where magic, instead of technology, evolved. At the place where the two meet is a natural weak
spot. However, we found that we couldn’t colonize Eden, at least not in the normal
way, without endangering those who already lived there. That’s when the Janus
Project began and the creation of the Reactors became necessary…
I figured the best way to give a brief synopsis of the world is by stealing part of the introduction from the 24-hour contest document. However, I should probably expand on that a bit.
Scientists found that biological matter could not pass through weak points, but inanimate matter and radio waves, brain waves, etc. can. When they discovered this, scientists found that if a resident of Eden with compatible brain waves could be found, someone from earth could ride along like a passenger inside their head. At first the scientists merely observed the world they called Eden, but they soon discovered they could communicate with their host. When a scientist's body died while she was touring Eden, she discovered (thanks to her host) that their two personalities could merge into one, becoming one being with the memories of both. This is where everything went wrong.
Some of the less altruistic of Earth found that, by destroying their bodies once their personalities were riding in the mind of an Eden resident, they could overpower their host, thus leaving only the Earth personality intact. In the world of Eden (and then to those of Earth who wanted to prevent this), they became known as Ravagers.
The response of Earth was not overwhelming disgust, but there were groups around the world unwilling to devastate another world simply so humanity could survive. These people made contact with members of Eden, creating the Janus Project. This project consisted of Earth folk willing to sacrifice their physical bodies to merge peacefully with a willing resident of Eden in order to prevent the Ravagers from wiping out a civilization in an attempt to save Earth's.
That's an extremely basic history of the game world. The PCs are Reactors, those of Earth and Eden whose brain waves react favorably to each other, allowing them to merge into one being when the Earth body dies. Reactors are able to switch dominant phases of the personality. When the Eden half of the personality is at the forefront, the Reactor can utilize the magic of Eden. When the Earth half is dominant, she can harness and command the nanites behind the tech of Earth that is able to be transported between the dimensions. Groups of Reactors work together to keep the Ravagers from completely decimating the ecology of Eden.
In the next JP Design Journal entry, I'll be going over the basic game mechanics. The new goal is to get at least one GWO Blog entry posted a week, preferably 2.
Some of the less altruistic of Earth found that, by destroying their bodies once their personalities were riding in the mind of an Eden resident, they could overpower their host, thus leaving only the Earth personality intact. In the world of Eden (and then to those of Earth who wanted to prevent this), they became known as Ravagers.
The response of Earth was not overwhelming disgust, but there were groups around the world unwilling to devastate another world simply so humanity could survive. These people made contact with members of Eden, creating the Janus Project. This project consisted of Earth folk willing to sacrifice their physical bodies to merge peacefully with a willing resident of Eden in order to prevent the Ravagers from wiping out a civilization in an attempt to save Earth's.
That's an extremely basic history of the game world. The PCs are Reactors, those of Earth and Eden whose brain waves react favorably to each other, allowing them to merge into one being when the Earth body dies. Reactors are able to switch dominant phases of the personality. When the Eden half of the personality is at the forefront, the Reactor can utilize the magic of Eden. When the Earth half is dominant, she can harness and command the nanites behind the tech of Earth that is able to be transported between the dimensions. Groups of Reactors work together to keep the Ravagers from completely decimating the ecology of Eden.
In the next JP Design Journal entry, I'll be going over the basic game mechanics. The new goal is to get at least one GWO Blog entry posted a week, preferably 2.
