A while ago, I shared a Fiasco Playset that I wrote . As of today, I have completed my second foray into playset creation, this time for the criminally underexposed game, TechNoir. TechNoir is a self described high-tech, hard-boiled, roleplaying game. The game is light, focuses on short, evocative descriptions, and relies heavily on single word tagging as a system. It’s really fantastic, and it deserves more love than it has gotten. It was my favorite table top game I have played in an extremely long time, Fiasco included.
Well, some people locally have been clamoring for a game, and I realized that this would be a great opportunity for me to do a little bit more work and get some more stuff put together that’s ready to show. What ended up as a result is a far-future version of the Hulder, the city featured previously in the Fiasco playset. Only now, it’s a walled-off mega city full of tiered skyscrapers, and run by two MegaCorps. Where there was once grafting and flesh golems, you now have splicing and cyborgs. It’s a natural fit. Well, as natural as these things go. Here’s the teaser for The Hulder Stacks.
Technology
After walling itself off to keep the devastating plagues at bay, the Hulder was soon bursting at the seams as healthy refugees filled the streets. With outward expansion out of the question, it had nowhere to go but up. Soon, the city shifted away from medical and engineering research and became a center of production and development. Vehicles run on the EverLattice, high tensile, gripping ribbons that serve as roads to allow the city to be scaled. RituTech is the world leader in cybernetics and computing, while Guild Industrial Systems provides the engineering that keeps the city going.Environment
With most of the world outside the walls still declared an Infection Zone, the Hulder keeps expanding upwards. Air purifiers and nano-bots that root out disease are spread throughout the city. Buildings have been reinforced time and again, as new construction builds upon old. Single buildings are home to not only residents, but businesses, schools, recreation, and crime. These mega-complexes have become their own city-states within the city, having their own governments, laws, and ecosystems, but most of the city is still employed by Guild Industrial Systems, GIS, or RituTech in some way.Society
Within the last few years, rumors have begun to circulate that the outside world is clean, but that GIS and RituTech are jointly preventing people from leaving. An old religion has surfaced with a new name and modern branding, the Crimson Throne. The Throne is promising people a better life outside the walls, but this talk is spurring protests and unrest. As chaos being to erupt, the corporations are clenching their fists even more tightly.
You can find the full PDF here:
The Hulder Stacks
Once I recover from this, expect a full-length post detailing the harrowing experience of trying to make these two playsets, and what needs to change.