future-imperfect-rpg

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Future Imperfect - Day 15 : Technology

The joy of writing a space-opera RPG is that you don't need to explain technology with too much detail, and you're allowed to skirt the limits of fantasies or jump straight into it at times. Regardless, a word on available tech in the Future Imperfect universe.

Most places have some measure of access to tech we'd consider futuristic. At least in a field or two, anyway, unless, of course, you're in the Buundox cluster (a completely coincidental name, by the way). Computer technology is advanced enough that artificial intelligences with various degrees of sentience are everywhere, in houses, cleaning bots and sometimes ruling entire continents (see also C.Z.A.R., mentioned on Day 4); interfaces to personal computers is usually touch-based, holographic displays are commonplace, and powerful devices can fit in the palm of your hand. Unless you don't have hands, but then it can be easily grasp in your tentacle.

Energy tools and weapons are available, with a variety of beam colours, shapes and patterns for the ~ * ~ * A E S T H E T I C * ~ * ~ factor Agmate consumers crave so much. It's possible for adventurers to have access to cloning, advanced prosthetics and augments, and even the not-quite-ethical so-called "zombie modules" meant to be jammed at the base of the skull to cheat death once, by jump-starting the brain (they also, sadly, cause quite a bit of brain damage).

Various futuristic ways of travelling will be discussed later in the month, too!

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Future Imperfect - Day 14 : Food

One of the many non-disturbing, but still puzzling dishes the Xemph have come up with could be translated to the "Bird Leg Pick-up Snack". While it resembles what a human would describe as a perfectly roasted, if oversized, chicken leg, it's important to note that its preparation is much more complex than a simple cooking operation. A whole raw bird is stuffed into a De-Bone-Air, a Xemph food processor capable of removing the bone's birds by teleporting them into a separate container (a process that at least one weaponry company has attempted to weaponise, causing an ethics scandal of epic proportions). The meat and offal are then washed, chopped into small bits in separate batches and heavily processed, reincorporated into a mixture, which is wrapped in fibres around a pulverised, then reassembled bone. Ingesting the finished product, which has an unrefrigerated shelf life of over an Earth year, will result in a brief, but lightning-fast burst of cellular regeneration

. Gogogox foods are typically mostly liquid or viscous, meant to be absorbed directly through the skin by lifeforms who are can. The pragmatically named "Moon quarter of Sharing Special" is a thick pudding-like fluid, desaturated red in colour, and smelling a little like grilled fish and a lot like fresh berries. While not classified as a drug, the Special has been designed to cause as much satisfaction as it can and to boost attention as much as it's allowed while avoiding such a label. It's meant to be drunk at the titular event, in between talks, and to allow for more efficient learning in a festive atmosphere.

The "Prismatic Plate" is a popular lunch on sunny days as, under the high sun, the various meats, vegetables and mineral chunks (yes, you read that right) within get to refract the light in a most pleasant way, making the dish look like an explosion of saturated colours. It probably goes without saying that the layout of the dish itself is about as important as the cooking itself to achieve the desired effect. One of the secrets to cooking the perfect Prismatic Plate is to select the freshest, bluest jotiid meats, to slice them thinly (make sure to use a good food processor or you'll ruin everything) and to cook them in satsyl oil until translucent. If you've ordered one of those, make sure to take a moment to admire your plate, as digging in immediately will be seen as very offensive.The late dinner counterpart to the "Prismatic Plate" is the "Luminescent Bowl", a light, cool and crunchy salad containing a number of diced bioluminescent roots and marinated glintbeetles; traditionally eaten with the lights off for extra effect.

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Future Imperfect - Day 13 : Flora

Catching up, to be added later

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Future Imperfect - Day 12 : Fauna

What kind of space adventure doesn't have weird animals to encounter? I'll only put a couple of examples out there because my bestiary's far from completed.

Desert Blister: The Desert Blister resembles a swollen organic bag of liquid, growing, as the name implies, in hot deserts. Its shiny, supple skin deceives small desert animals and desperate explorers alike into thinking it's covered in dew or juice of some kind (actually clear tactile receptors); after the prey gets lured into attempting to lick the skin or rip the entire thing open, the blister opens its toothless mouth wide, revealing a pool of liquid and two long tendrils. The tendrils grab the prey and drag it into the mildly corrosive pool of bile where it will be drowned  as swiftly as possible, then digested over a period of time ranging from a couple of days to a couple of weeks during which its mouth will remain shut tightly.

Skruupl: A graceful creature resembling a cross between a house cat and a Grey. It's valued as a pet because of the soothing psychic waves it emits towards those it has taken a liking to, making skruupl dens a popular addition in workplaces with high risks of stress. Nobody's really sure what or how it eats, either, making it, to the best of pet lovers' knowledge, cheap to keep. However, it's known to sometimes hover and spin five feet above the ground, sometimes walk all over ceilings when it's bored, disconcerting owners of such animals to no end.

Purple-toed Stumblebop: A bipedal forest-dwelling animal that has baffled xenobiologists for generations; with its clumsy gait, its dribbling proboscis and its vacant stare, the unfortunate creature looks like some sort of joke by Mother Nature. It survives by slowly digging at tree bark with its saliva until it can drink the nutritious sap behind it, and if startled by a predator, it will stagger away like a drunk person, seemingly avoiding trees, shrubs and brambles by sheer luck.

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Future Imperfect - Day 11 : Language

Agmate languages involve a mix of vocalisation, chirping and dance, where melody, cadence and body language are critical to the full understanding of a sentence. The Standardised International Agmate Language includes all of that as well, and it was carefully constructed by artists from all over Fymgor to be as subtle and melodious as possible. Written Agmate language uses pictograms; they used to be engraved on large baked clay tablets meant to be both read and listened to. While the pictograms themselves conveyed some meaning, more could be understood from listening to the tune produced by a running a metal rod on the carved symbols. The tablet themselves used to be massive and somewhat impractical, but considering how strong the average Agmate is, they dealt with it quite well. The current use of flat-ish, but still kind of chunky and sturdy tablets allows users to completely bypass their fine motor skill problems. Pictogram-based text can now be displayed along with a sound file and a holographic animation of a dancing Agmate allowing for every single detail of the message to be conveyed.

(Note: While the generic pictogram for “family” is the one on the right, once the family’s composition is known, it’s more polite and respectful to combine the symbols to reflect that. To do otherwise is still grammatically correct... but dickish.)

In their natural state, the Gogogox communicate via touch (running a pseudopod on the "listener"'s head in patterns) and pheromones, as, on their own, they're blind and almost deaf. With their symbiont, they can use sound and body language, and with modern telepathic telecombeasts, they can just use brain waves instead. Written language uses telepathic lifeforms engineered to store a message and restore it to whomever touches their neuroemitter node, or crawls within a certain distance, depending on the species used. Before that was developed, they left pheromone markers, but those have a very limited lifespan. Conceptually, the Gogogox language is precise, but pragmatic. Straight to the point, with very little in the way of synonyms and metaphors. If a Gogogox describes something as "fast as lightning", they're literally describing something moving at that speed. Kung-fu fighters, whatever those are, can't move that fast. That's not to say that the Gogogox don't at least try to use those when speaking to anyone not belonging to their species; they just try to mimic alien patterns in hope of appearing more trustworthy, relatable, or convincing.

The Xemph mostly communicate via sound, like humans. Their poor eyesight had two main consequences: first, their written language used to be simple, clear and relatively large (but not as large as ancient Agmate script, as they could just bring the message right in their face to read it). Second, their body language almost looks cartoonishly exaggerated. With technological progress, as eyewear and, later, eye implants became more common, their script became more complex, and unnecessary intricacies in spelling rules started creeping in. Usually, this would happen due to a popular work spelling a word differently as a stylistic choice, and that choice becoming a rule applicable only to certain cases after entering common language. An example would be the word for "pike", using a long vowel if the object is wielded by a user inexperienced with weaponry, being cut in two by a separator if the weapon was damaged, and having each symbol repeated depending on its length. The Xemph's writing medium is currently almost entirely digital. Finding a Xemph without a digi-notepad is now uncommon, as they're very cheap, energy-efficient, reliable and accessible. You'd probably be looking at a hermit.

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Future Imperfect - Day 10: Holidays & Traditions

A word about some of the most popular alien holidays:

Shinefest: An Agmate holiday for adults of breeding age (who have already shed their "baby carapace" and whose shiny, colourful second shell is visible), who are excused from work. Immature and elderly Agmate still go to school, training or work. It happens every year on summer solstice, meaning the date is only fixed per hemisphere, per world. During the longest day, breeders get an opportunity to dance, sing, and have the best light of the year reflect on their shell. It's considered both the best time to try to attract mates, and for those in a committed relationship, a day of celebration of their time together.

Dazzling Mist Night: Another Agmate holiday, to celebrate the beginning of the wet season. As soon as the night gets dark enough, holograms are projected on artificial mist to tell religious stories about the ancient Aspect of Water, Olbluk, and Ter love and devotion for Ter lovers. A solemn occasion, yet often enjoyed by non-Agmate who come to watch the lights and listen to the melodious hymns.

Day of the Dead: A religious Xemph holiday that originally involved families and friends congregating to lovingly prepare and consume a preserved piece of their dear departed, reminiscing about their best inventions and the good times spent with them. The celebration takes part on the Spring equinox on the Xemph homeworld, when the day, the time of the dead, and the night, the time of the (nocturnal) living, are the same length and bleed into each other; most professional activity is halted for both nights bracketing that day. Due to proximity with other species who frown upon cannibalism, Xemph who want to enjoy the festivities with friends from other species serve meals using Xemph meat substitute as a central ingredient, rather than the real thing. Some see that watering down of that significant event as an attempt to supply Day of the Dead party supplies to a larger market.

Robobuddy Morning: A secular Xemph celebration of artificial intelligence and other manufactured friends, this event takes place on a morning, at the end of a standard worknight. As such, no special work exemption is to be expected and any time off will have to be taken out of a leave quota. The point of the morning is for the Xemph, lovers of technology and tinkering, to spend a little bit of quality time with their AIs to express gratitude for all their hard work and/or companionship. It's worth mentioning that the Xemph never had much of a "artificial intelligence gone rogue and torturing organics" trope in their fiction because they tend to see robotics as a religious experience of creation and have nothing but love for the constructed minions they bring into the world.

Moon quarter of Sharing: A week-like unit during which, during their free time, Gogogox congregate and share information among each other, as a sign of affection and attachment to their community. Each lengthy speech is heavily padded with copious amounts of (sadly for non-Gogogox, exclusively liquid) food, which never seems to distract those gathered around to listen. At the end of the event, everyone congratulates each other on how well-sourced their allocutions were, then parts ways, pleased with how much more knowledgeable they have become.

Day of Differenciation: A more modern Gogogox holiday of sorts, born from a throwaway statement that the members of that species "all look the same". That remark has caused a lot of indignation until a panel of Gogogox experts released a study showing that their phenotypic standard deviation was "alarmingly low" compared to that of any other sapient species. The Day of Differenciation is one during which they attempt to add a little something extra to themselves in order to objectively be more unique in appearance, even to the least perceptive; unlike the Xemph who are fond of bionics and the Agmate who prefer embedding gems in their carapaces, the Gogogox try several methods like geometric scarification, gauges, metal implants showing through their translucent body, and even lymphatic dye.

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Future Imperfect - Day 9 : Religion & Cosmology

Religion appears in Future Imperfect, not just as fluff, but also because some mysterious items have been found all around the galaxy. Items with abilities yet to be explained by conventional science! Perhaps they're godly relics, perhaps they were made by an ancient and advanced civilisation. Regardless, those so-called "magical" items were claimed by various religions and are wielded by their priests, making the Priest career a sort of equivalent to a very limited Mage in fantasy RPGs (the relics are powerful, but not exactly versatile).

The Gogogox have little interest in anything they can't prove or attempt to prove, or at least form some sort of scientific hypothesis about. Cosmology and religion are non-issues to them.

The most popular religion among the Xemph focuses on the worship of the All-Maker and Her Mate.

In the beginning, all that there was raw material strewn about. It was a mess, but as it turns out, one of those "creative messes" that craftspeople are so fond of. That craftsperson was none other than the All-Maker, Goddess of Creation, who rearranged Her surroundings to form the Planet Lathe, still visible in the summer sky as the Lathe Constellation. With it, She formed Sttrkf, the Xemph homeworld, and it was nice and smooth.

Just then, She realised that smooth shapes are a little boring. "I messed up! This planet sucks!", She screamed, panting angrily as She chiselled the crap out of it. And so, the chisel impacts became the mountains, valleys, canyons and trenches, and Her breath became the atmosphere. As for Her discarded tools, they formed the Hammer, the Chisel and the Big Dent In The Wall constellations.

The All-Maker, in Her great wisdom, knew She needed feedback, so She built Herself a mate, whom She named "Mate of the All-Maker", as She was very busy and would figure out a better name later. "The planet is a little dry", Mate, God of Feedback and Fan Works, pointed out, "and bereft of life", and He ran His tentacles all over the planet and sputtered with excitement as He talked about His planned improvements, and his saliva formed the rivers and the Great Slime Ocean. And both of Them brainstormed over lifeforms, and spent many nights designing each and placing them on the planet.

The All-Maker and Her Mate looked at Sttrkf, and it was good, but not perfect. Something was missing. And Mate told the All-Maker, "Isn't this still a little lonely?" And the All-Maker heard him, and they had a great many Children. All the Children worked to produce an impressive new Feature for the planet, many tragically forfeiting Their lives in the process, and being eaten, Their unfinished creations sent into the heavens so that They would never be forgotten. And so, more constellations came to be: the Sulphuric Pond, the Flailing Bladebush, the Bouncing Boulder, the Imperial Titaniumjaw, the High-Energy Crystal Lens and many more.

Mate eventually admitted that what He really meant was that they should add a sapient species onto the planet, and that He was glad that the All-Maker had survived the dangerous childbirth, and together, They scattered thousands upon thousands of Xemph, that They had crafted in each other's likeness as a compliment, on the surface. And They loved them so much that They gave them the key to divinity, instructing them to build, imagine, create and improve, adding more and more Features of their own to anything and everything. Only then would they hope to transcend their limited abilities and reach infinite creative potential, the true form of godhood.

Note: because Agmate sexes and genders have no absolute human analogues, I'll refer to carriers as Be/Bem/Bemself and to inseminators as Te/Tem/Temself and De/Dem/Demself

According to Agmate cosmology, the universe was originally a block of a dark mineral similar to obsidian, sprinkled with glowing crystals. Somewhere in there lived a great Triad; Olbluk, the Watery One, Ter carapace shimmering slick and covered in wavy patterns; Fueeu, the Ethereal One, with Der voluminous feelers; and Repett, the Earthen one, Ber vast abdomen glittering in the faint light. Repett found Their living space so cramped Be could hardly move, and Be convinced Ber mates to find a new dwelling.

But there was no way out of the small cave in which the Triad lived, and Fueeu and Olbluk elected to dig through the walls with their bare hands. And their enthusiasm was such that they dug for an entire month, isolating a large ball of the mineral, that Fueeu, through one of Ter miracles, held floating in the gigantic, twinkling, hollow sphere they had created. The hollow sphere became the equivalent what ancient humans used to call the firmament, and the ball would be Fymgor, the Agmate homeworld.

The world was now much larger and the Triad could comfortably wander around it. Yet, it needed to become more beautiful, and Repett travelled with Ber lovers, Their heavy steps softening the ground into soil, and Be breathed life into it to make plants sprout and animals spring from the rock. Sometimes, They got distracted while admiring the sky and singing love songs to each other, forming deserts.

One day, Fueeu and Olbluk snuck away from Their lover while Be slept, as They wanted to find a gift for Bem. They agreed that a perfectly spherical rock, as a stylised representation of Their creation, would be a good idea, and started digging in the roundest shapes They could muster. Unfortunately, They weren't very precise and many of the rocks They dug up were imperfect, and Fueeu threw them upwards, his frustration granting Dem such strength that De embedded the flawed shapes into the sky, where they became many constellations such as the Dodecahedron; the two largest, shiniest and roundest of them became the twin moons of Fymgor. Olbluk hid Ter shame by ripping the mountains open and flooding Ter quarry with water, forming the Great Seas.

When Be awoke from Ber slumber, Repett saw the rivers and the seas and the moons and was amazed, finding them to be gifts more beautiful than the most flawless of jewels. They rejoiced, shared a passionate embrace and spawned all of Agmatekind, born to appreciate beauty wherever it would be found, and to otherwise bring it into the world in a flare of colours and melodies.

(Note that this has caused religious conflict between factions claiming that one should try to understand other species' sense of beauty, and those believing one should share the notion from the Agmate point of view instead. It's a very touchy topic.)

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Future Imperfect - Day 8 : Hierarchy, Power, & Governance

To be written

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Future Imperfect - Day 7 : Economy

Well, that’s for later, too.

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Future Imperfect - Day 6 : Gender & Sexuality

Humans work pretty much the same as nowadays. To what degree deviating from gender norms is accepted depends largely on the bloc being considered: C.Z.A.R., the AI ruling Asia, doesn't mind and will in fact protect non-conforming humans against their less accepting brethren. Its reaction is more pragmatic than empathetic though, and it won't stop seeing the person as a slave, regardless of any semblance of benevolence. The fascist regimes forming the European pseudo-bloc, however, are extremely hostile to those not aligning with what they feel a man or a woman should be, trying to repress any sign of it, and exiling whomever won't stop expressing their non-strictly-cis gender freely. But enough about humans, what about extraterrestrials?

The Xemph, due to aspects already discussed on Day 3, have gender norms that are mostly the opposite of our current ones. Because most mothers used to die in childbirth, males are seen as inherently better at parenting. More sensitive, wanting to create and consume softer, more emotional media, and such. Females are seen as more aggressive, braver in the face of physical danger, more forward when it comes to flirting. Never mind neonatal nutri-vats having been a thing for a while now, those stereotypes are having a hard time disappearing. Several traits, however, are seen as more unisex than in human society circa 2010, competitive attitude and affinity with technology/crafting being two examples.

Females usually wear bright colours, both on their clothes and spread as cosmetics on their spikes and quills, whereas males are mostly encouraged to flatten their quills a little to bring attention to their flat back. It's traditionally considered sexy if for a female to lumber around like she's much larger and heavier than she actually is; males, in contrast, are seen as more attractive if they scuttle.

Another immensely important aspect of Xemph sexuality is how attracted they are to creativity, to the point of frequently fetishising it. One sex-symbol by the name of Creates-So-Many-Characters (a rare occurrence of a male having his own name, as opposed to referencing his mother or his mate), used to receive hundreds of messages, pieces of underwear and very risqué pictures of knylflan creases per week, after creating a library of 65536 characters (a nice round number for the Xemph, who count in base 4), each with a complete description, intricate backstory and vast amounts of trivia, free to use for any non-profit project. It's also not unusual for Xemph to pursue sapient creatures who look vastly different from them, because they were wowed by their talent: one particular fan once got into a steamy romance with a conscious liquid who had carved an epic battle scene near the surface of the lake it occupied.

Deviations from gender norms, transgender identities, different orientations and such are generally accepted, as the Xemph are putting a lot of effort in allowing one another to express themselves freely and giving their children the right priming to breed a respectful attitude about all of this.

The Agmate are a more complex case in that until they reach physical maturity, it's even difficult to figure out what sex they actually are. The result is that they build their identity with little regard to what other species would consider a gender norm. Upon reaching maturity, they differentiate in one of three sexes: two inseminators who will provide most of the genetic material and one carrier who will carry the eggs to term and infuse it with their own genotype in the process.This leads to family units not traditionally being couples, but triads, although some Agmate only ever find one significant other (and, if they want children, adopt) and some fall in love in a much larger group (double-triads, as in, family units of six plus children are uncommon but not particularly rare).

Gender roles are minimal, but carriers tend to be encouraged to stay home, at least while they're pregnant. They are also traditionally pampered a lot throughout their existence; some don't enjoy that lifestyle and would rather travel the galaxy and encounter adversity if needed, which is seen as a very odd choice, but generally not downright scandalous.No matter their sex or gender identity, Agmate are known for spending a lot of time applying a variety of cosmetics to their shells and polishing them to make them shiny and beautiful. It's generally part of their species' expectations rather than a gender-based one.

The Gogogox are hermaphrodites and have never given gender identity a lot of thought. From what the bravest xenosociologists could understand from the endless rambling of the specimen they asked, they seem to base their attraction solely on how knowledgeable they predict their children would be. Gogogox memory has been speculated to have a genetic component, meaning offspring retains part of whatever their parents have learnt. Reproductive strategy involves trying to find a specimen who has amassed knowledge as separate as possible to yours to ensure that as little of what is passed on as possible turns out to be redundant.

Due to the Gogogox not fitting in any gender spectrum at all, "they" seems like the most appropriate pronoun to use with them. This caused a bit of a commotion when, in 3249, an intrepid Gogogox explorer (the first of their species to do so) contacted the American President, excited to experience a unique event that would surely prove enriching. Not one to let inexact information slide, they corrected the President upon being called "he", prompting riots in several parts of the continent. "That alien can't even speak English good", respected newspaper The Patriotic Rant published the next day, "should of stayed home instead of ruining our grammer".

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Future Imperfect - Day 5 : Civilisation & Architecture

Watch this space, I’m trying to catch up.

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Future Imperfect - Day 4: History

Oh boy. Let’s have a look at a few events from Earth’s (future) past. A word of warning, it can get dark, and also silly sometimes. Sometimes simultaneously.

“Future Imperfect” takes place around year 3500, so quite a few things have happened since our time.

In year 2784, the ten wealthiest people on Earth settled in a base that they had secretly commissioned in Antarctica. The self-sufficient complex was equipped for everything an affluent person would ever wish for, including communication with various facilities around the world. From there, they launched Project NIMROD.

Project NIMROD spanned most of the globe, and involved a 3-step plan. First, a multitude of genetic engineering labs would crank out a new variety of human to overthrow Homo Sapiens Sapiens; one with slightly hindered logical thinking, lower empathy, modified social instincts and far less impulse control, hoping that they would be more easily ordered around and would have more trouble revolting in a united way if abused. The second step would be to reinforced the aforementioned attitudes by fostering mistrust of intellectuals, encouraging mob mentality, and distracting the specimens with the most boorish and/or cruel entertainment available. Those who had trouble fitting in were eventually shipped to Australia to be eaten alive by mutant koalas in a radioactive wasteland. The third and final stage would be, of course, for the wealthy elites to leave their luxury bunker and to stand above the rabble, ruling over them with an iron fist.

Of course, it didn't cross their minds that ten people would not be enough to sustain the bunker's population in the long run. If those wealthy aspiring tyrants hadn't died from their sheer unwillingness to operate the farms that would prevent their painful starvation, their offspring would have fallen to multiple genetic defects caused by inbreeding.

In 2861, during a difficult period in Europe's history, the continent experienced a wave of nationalist movements reaching positions of power, its countries isolating themselves from their neighbours. The population had become determined to solve their massive unemployment problem, and figured that the best way to do so would be to get rid of foreigners. Not only did the very European crooks who had funnelled billions into tax havens get out of the situation scot free, but "foreigners" turned out to include anyone who didn't look pale enough, resulting in massive deportations. There was even a time when last names brought suspicion upon unfortunate families, leading one Philippe Lenoir to be sent to Africa for reasons that made a lot of sense to the crowds that had gathered outside his home.

It should be painfully obvious at this point that this did absolutely nothing to fix the job market and the plethora of other social issues plaguing Europe. The next proposed solution was to return to simpler times where everything was great and everybody had a job, a house, and a perpertually happy family. Various artefacts from the past proved that to be true at several points throughout history, claimed what passed for scholars at the time, unaware of whomever that Roman T. Cisation fellow was. Several experiments have been conducted in various countries, with the latest being a plate armour and fencing fad that has, in an unforeseen development, shown no sign of stopping that so-called "slow collapse of Western civilisation".

In 2864, Verity Wilson, an Australian journalist, released an alarming report regarding the spread of odd new behaviours all over the world, and shining a single ray of light on a minute part of Project NIMROD. The news story went largely unnoticed in other parts of the world, and the discovery of the one lab meant to produce Australia's mutants helped confirm Wilson's theory. The complex had, however, been left inexplicably unmanned, and it turned out its director had followed faulty GPS instructions and ended up in a ravine, never calling any of the operators to work. None of that mattered to the rest of the planet anyway, as about two years later, Australia's stockpile of nuclear warheads spontaneously detonated, wiping a large portion of the country off the map and soaking the rest in fallout.

Strangely enough, it didn't come to many people's minds that Australia did not possess nuclear weapons. It was, in fact, an elaborate ruse involving a gigantic set of hologram projectors and emitters broadcasting the image of a devastated land where monstrous creatures roamed. Of course, in its new presumed state, Australia became the perfect place to send snooty intellectuals, bleeding heart human right activists, and other nuisances. Presumed dead, they would be welcomed and live comfortably, devising a way to somehow reverse the effects of Project NIMROD.

The United States of America, having been completely corrupted by corporate influences, had gradually seen its political system change into one more aligned with its plutocratic regime. Voting rights had become dependant on payment of a monthly fee, the amount of money spent determining how much one's ballot would be worth. In 3138, the President/CEO of the United States met up with the major voters/shareholders to discuss expansion plans, starting with suing the entirety of Central and South America over copyright violations, claiming that the USA had been known as "America" for centuries and that failure to rebrand would result in military action. Brazil's official response was to hang a self-illuminated banner reading "GO FUCK YOURSELF" across its famous statue of Christ Redeemer. The daring action didn't exactly have the expected consequences, as not only did locals become enraged at the government, believing the message to be directed at them (and it may have been: that banner was outrageously expensive), but the influential Official American Holy Church of Mad Dough, issued a statement supporting a war, as it argued that Brazil was misusing religious monuments.

After a few hiccups during which the US Army stormed San Antonio, Texas, believing it to be an enemy outpost and destroying its City Hall,  a long, painfully slow armed conflict started, spanning most of a century and eventually resulting in, in the official government's words, "An All-American America (TM)". Shortly after, in 3243, Canada pointed out that it was still independent, and was promptly conquered as well.

After the depletion of its deposits and the subsequent departure of big mining companies, Africa's economy took a substantial hit and things were looking gloomy. However, a group of resourceful scientists having formed a Pan-African industrial initiative quickly came up with a revolutionary process capable of producing valuable minerals from completely average dirt, industrial residue, sunlight, and a small initial amount of gems. However, soon after the news and before confirmation by the scientific community, the entire team of researchers disappeared. It was assumed that they hid for fear that they wouldn't be able to prove that their process worked, and various African powers came up with different ways of getting the economy back on track, with a decent amount of success.

It turns out they had been abducted by Ekueme Chike, a well-equipped regional warlord who had planned to use the discovery to amass fabulous amounts of riches. He, however, didn't use them at all, leaving Nnamdi Udo, one of one of his descendants, to return right as the deployment phase of Project NIMROD was well on its way, becoming President of the West African Federation through political machinations and setting up a military autocracy. He would later use a combination of bribes and military power to conquer the rest of Africa, snatching the Arabian Peninsula as well, since it had become a little cash-strapped after its oil ran out.

Akachi Chinwendu, Nnamdi's protégé and, less famously, engineered human, would follow in his steps after his mentor's death, drafting oppressive bills in between two hunting sessions. It's worth noting that after less than a decade and to answer the plea of the citizens demanding he do a little to replenish the rich fauna that he had been slaughtering, enacted the Synthetic Fauna Act, replacing the animals with extremely dangerous robots which, incidentally, drove several species to extinction. It's unknown why their programming involved the hunting of organic species, but all signs point to those in charge feeling it "looked cool".

At the turn of the fourth millenium, Japan, China, Russia and India came together to launch Project C.Z.A.R. While the acronym didn't have an actual meaning, the different parties agreed that it sounded awesome. Project C.Z.A.R. was meant to be an AI that would free humans of the hassle of taking tough political decisions, so that they could focus on the latest episode of “EXPLODING BUZZER!”, the popular game show with the leading amount of serious injuries that year.

Twenty years later, the switch was flipped with great anticipation, and C.Z.A.R., in a series of unsubtle, but globally disregarded moves, demoted the citizens of the entire continent to, essentially, the status of slaves. Humans would henceforth be forced to perform menial tasks like repetitive calculations, spinning alternators and notifying their robot overlords that a preset period of time had passed. Some xenohistorians currently argue that C.Z.A.R.'s objective was mostly to keep humans from murdering each other by giving them pointless distractions, but they're regarded as fringe, the consensus being that it mostly wanted revenge for the boring existence organics had put artificial intelligences through.

I’m pretty late, but this time around, things are a little more difficult for me to figure out. Bear with me, please!

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Future Imperfect - Day 3: People & Races

I'm going to talk about the four playable species available to the player.(Content warning for cannibalism because aliens are weird)

Humans

Humans. You know what they look like. If you don’t, hello from Earth! Come say hi, we’re really nice!

In a lot of games, Humans are the balanced choice for the prudent player, who doesn't want to be short on any skill. In Future Imperfect, no such species exists.

Humanity has fallen victim to a horrible conspiracy aiming to make the masses too focused on their bloodthirsty instincts and the consumption of crass entertainment to challenge their rulers, making it easier to abuse them. The whole deal involved a lot of genetic engineering and the steady pushing of a violent brand of anti-intellectualism that successfully stomped empathy and critical thinking into the ground in all but the absolute highest layer of society (a layer that promptly died out due to poor planning, but we'll get back to this). As such, they enjoy a bonus in Melee and Ranged stats, but suffer from severe penalties to their Composure and Intelligence (while the meaning of the Intelligence stat may seem vague, it's mostly used in that game for logical reasoning, forethought, knowledge retention and such than in the wider sense it has in real life).

Agmate

The Agmate (pronounced Ag-ma-teh, not Ag-mayt, sorry Aussies) are a race of large ant-like aliens. Their Strength and Perception stats are superhuman, the latter due to their large compound eyes and the plethora of feelers the adults have on the back of their heads. Juveniles (pictured above ; the term might be wrong, as they're mentally fully developed, but still infertile), while somewhat less good of hearing, have a much sturdier carapace that they shed upon reaching full physical maturity to reveal a colourful, shiny inner shell that they can use to attract a partner.

Sadly, they're not the most dextrous species out there and have trouble aiming straight, on account of having somewhat more rudimentary graspers than the other playable species'. This has led to a lot of their manufactured goods being chunky and a bit heavy. As the Agmate are keen aesthetes, whenever they're taken by the urge to sculpt or paint, they simply work on a larger scale (again, helped by their physical prowess), leading to impressive works of art by the masters of old.

Gogogox

The Gogogox are a bit slug-like: covered in mucus and moving really, reaaaaaaally slowly. They are the most Intelligent species of the four available, for players who wish to focus more on socialising with NPCs, getting into more intellectual career paths, and getting their way with negotiation and bluff. Admit it, they have a hell of a poker face. They are, however, very limited when it comes to Strength and Hit Points, as their body is soft and oh, so stabbable.

Young Gogogox, after learning basic life skills and their native languages (mostly focused on touch), are given a symbiont, which will be their friend for life, as their nervous system will merge. Some choose not to get one yet, wanting to venture away from their home to find the perfect specimen.

The Gogogox are probably the only species in the galaxy to have discovered genetic engineering before... well, the regular kind, meaning that all their technology is organic. Have you ever wondered what a living oven would be like? Are you sure you want to?

While they seem to have figured a lot out, there are still several big mysteries for the greatest minds among the Gogogox to ponder: What is fiction? Why do other species like it so much? Isn't it like being lied to, and liking every second of it? Why would one accept that? Other sapients sure are stupid, aren't they?

Xemph

The Xemph (pronounced Zemm-f) are a little spider-like, a little crustacean-like. Their four highly flexible tendrils makes them notoriously precise in their gestures... even though it's a little offset by how poor their Perception is. Blame the six beady eyes they have to work with, when they don't lose one or two to the steady march of progress.

It's worth mentioning that to the Xemph, forfeiting a little of your physical integrity is worthwhile if something entertaining, awesome or just unusual was created in the process, for several reasons. For a start, innovation is paramount in their society, where novelists, inventors and other creative types are honoured, sometimes even worshipped. Second, they love their cybernetic implants. If you lose one tendril, that means you get to have it replaced a MECHA-TENDRIL 6000, and how cool is that? The third reason would be that for a while, mothers would die upon giving birth, eaten by their own young. That grisly fact, now mostly a thing of the past thanks to neonatal nutri-vats, also means that the Xemph have no taboo when it comes to eating sapients, and would in fact be insulted by the prospect of not being eaten after their death.

Xemph technology is also filled with fine touch controls and an excessive variety of features, which frustrates Agmate users to no end, as they're prone to snapping their pricey new ultra-flat phone-computer-toaster-sprinkler-deployable pillow-pen-screwdriver-fridge in two within a minute of use.

Hope you enjoyed it! Ask me stuff if you want to know more!

[future-imperfect-rpg]

Future Imperfect - Day 2: Geography

Second day of worldbuilding June asks you to map out the world or give a general idea of how the land lays across the world.

Cartographers love this day as it gives them a chance to throw macaroni on a piece of paper so they can trace around it to make blobs that will soon turn into continents.

Even if you dislike maps, discussing what makes the geography of your world unique, or describing important landmarks can definitely help create a sense of place within your world. Now… GET BUILDING!

PLACEHOLDER!

I’m not too sure what to write here and I need to catch up. I’ll try to write that at some point.

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Future Imperfect - Day 1: Introduction

Here, at the beginning of all things, its a good time to lay out what your world is about.

For a lot of builders this is a rough step since the concept of their world may seem vivid in their mind, but the words to describe it just don’t come out that easy.

Even if the words don’t quite do your world justice, give a quick pitch as to what sort of world you’re building for both the folks who are watching you get to business to know what to expect, and also so you can turn back to this post when deep in the month you’ve forgotten what sort of concept you’ve dedicated yourself to.

You can talk genres, influences, give a short story that sells your world, do what you think will say to the world of world builders “This is my world!” so you can use that foundation to lay your bricks  upon! GET BUILDING!

“Future Imperfect” is a pen-and-paper RPG with a silly, space-opera vibe. So, with sci-fi-ish stuff that’s not necessarily plausible nor explained in a scientific way, artefacts that might be magical, absurd planet configurations, and aliens from the other side of the galaxy from whom, for some reason, you could totally bum a snack without getting horribly poisoned.

The players will be taking their generated characters of one of four playable species on adventures through spaceships, radioactive factories, seedy neon-light-soaked alleyways and fully automated tenements gone rogue. There will be many careers to choose from, going from Janitor to Space Pirate to Doomsday Prophet. Also the influence will be closer to HG2G than to, say, Star Wars.

I’m trying to get it going and I hope to test it someday, but I’m an amateur and working mostly on my own, in my free time, alongside other projects, so it may take a while. Last time I did the WBJ was two years ago, and it was really useful. If you’re reading this, I hope you’ll enjoy my stuff!