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The World Of Broken Zone 5

Introduction:

Broken Zone 5 is a post-apocalyptic RPG. The setting is the year 2010. Each player begins play as a normal, unaltered human, struggling to survive in a war-torn world against legions of mutants, warring deities, and rampant uncertainty.

Background:

The events leading up to game start began centuries prior on Earth, and countless millennia on another plane of existence.

Two dueling deities waged a violent and devastating war across Hirth, their original plane of existence. Lt’yr (God of Change and Chaos) and Kestril (Goddess of Life and Balance) fought bitterly and tirelessly for a century, obliterating their home realm. Their fellow pantheon and mortal followers were laid low in the conflict, known to both as The Genesis.

Lt’yr, realizing he was without resources and near death, fled the dimension and went into hiding. Kestril attempted to follow, but without an immediate source of released power to track, found herself lost between realms. Lt’yr, on a new dimension of existence known as Yrthe, found a largely populated area and released a massive blast of transforming magic, mutating the surrounding populace in horrendous ways while enslaving their wills to his (Lt’yr christened these beings Aberrants).

With this release of power, Kestril was able to track him and arrived almost instantaneously. Their second war ended with nearly half of Yrthe’s population dead or mutated beyond recognition and sanity. Lt’yr fled once more, but not before he cut away Kestril’s left leg below the knee and Kestril sliced away his right eye. This pattern would repeat many times over many millennia. Neither side ever gained a clear victory (though some would say Chaos was well served by Lt’yr’s actions) and ruin would always be left in the wake.

It was after his arrival on Earth eight centuries ago that Lt’yr began formulating a plan. Knowing that Kestril could trace large releases of his power, but not smaller traces, he bided his time over the centuries, slowly seeping his power all over the globe, building up small Aberrant squadrons and stockpiles of mutagenic radiation and material. Keeping the overall buildup minor allowed him safe hiding from Kestril’s watchful eye. His ultimate intention was to not only overtake Earth as his new base of operations, but to use the mutated populace as an overbearing army to claim every other parallel plane of existence as well. Building up his magical force would also prevent Kestril from being able to enter the Earthen plane and stop him. Many of the creatures of urban legend, such as Bigfoot, Nessie, the Chupacabra, and the Jersey Devil are now known to be early Aberrants. Some of the nastier environmental disasters of the last century, most notably Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, are believed to have been his handiwork as well.

On October 27th, 2006, at approximately 10:22 AM EST, Lt’yr launched his ultimate offensive (now known as The Final Day). Having placed stockpiles of his own power at strategic locations around the globe (primarily large metropolitan areas such as New York City, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, London, Los Angeles, and so forth), he released the energy all at once. It is estimated that as many as 40 million people were painfully transformed into Aberrants. Animals and plants within the discharge zones were mutated as well, each one enslaved to Lt’yr’s will.

As panic and destruction raged on Earth, Kestril tried in vain to penetrate the seal created by Lt’yr’s massive energy field. She could only watch helplessly as Earth fell under his onslaught.

Four years later, as the Abberants’ shortened lifespans caused the originals to begin dying en masse, Kestril found herself finally able to breach the shield. She bore witness to a world on the brink of madness, with a scant few humans struggling to survive, and knew that if Earth fell, no other plane would last. Realizing she would need to unleash powers she had sworn never to use, she quickly sought out whatever survivors remained, intent on giving them the edge needed to destroy Lt’yr and his army once and for all.

The Current World:

The current Earth population (counting only unaltered humans; a human with any genetic alteration is immediately counted as an Aberrant) stands at approximately 50,000. The current Aberrant population is estimated at around 7 million.

Governments, corporations, and organizations have become non-existent. The few organized groups in existence are loosely organized at best, and generally limited to a single Zone.

An almost universal designation for areas has grown into common practice, largely since concepts as cities, states, and countries no longer have practical usage. All areas are now referred to as Zones, and are accompanied with a Descriptor (used to indicate the general state of the Zone; Broken, Toxic, Wasteland, Safe, Chaotic, and so on) and a Count (used to indicate the level of radioactivity and mutagen present, including the general level of Aberrant activity. 1 is completely clean, 5 is average and tolerable with caution and proper equipment, 10 is uninhabitable by anything but Aberrants). The game begins in Broken Zone 5 (formerly known as Seattle), a badly damaged but semi-serviceable city.

Technology has not advanced at all since The Final Day, apart from a few survival-related innovations. The most important has been the development of lead-based weaponry and shielding, as the Aberrants have exhibited a common allergic reaction to it (the only commonality they share, really). Items such as untainted food and water, gasoline, radiation suits and sickness pills, and electrical generators are extremely rare, and have become the world’s new currency. Items such as radios still work, though cell phones and computers are all but useless, as their towers and networks have long since fell out of maintenance.

Character Creation:

First and foremost: Gaia TOS and Rules apply, as do the Guild Rules.
Second and equally important: I prefer literate and committed roleplayers for this.

Characters begin play as ordinary, unaltered humans. They may be transformed by many factors during play, including injury from Aberrants, handling/exposure to radiation, certain items, and Kestril’s direct intervention (which WILL occur at some point, determined by me).

Characters may have a certain degree of overkill to them (they are survivalists, after all), but don’t go overboard. A former military officer with a semi-functional rifle is fine; also being a ninja/shaman/cyborg/part-time superhero with an Abrams Main Battle Tank is not. Keep it believable.

Equipment is kept to a minimum, for maximum survival potential. Each character may have the following (again, keep it reasonable):

--One large firearm/rifle
--One melee weapon
--One backup weapon (either type)
--One suit of clothing
--Small gear that can fit in pockets (exact types as appropriate)
--One semi-functional vehicle, with weaponry if the character has a military background

Introduce your character as such:

Name/Nickname
Age
Race/Ethnicity
Description (the better this is, the better the TF’s will be)
Style Of Dress
Personality/Outlook/Mannerisms
Tactics (Are they more likely to use stealth to elude Aberrants, fight them directly, lure them into traps, help others fight, etc.)
Former Profession
Skills
Equipment

NPC’s will be introduced/described as appropriate, and controlled by me unless otherwise designated.

I look forward to running this game, and I hope you all look forward to playing it. I’ll make my best effort to check in on the action at least once every day and keep the world moving, as long as you all can keep your characters active as well. (Unless I’m PM’d, I’ll assume after a month of inactivity that the character has been abandoned, and craft events accordingly.)

Enjoy…and welcome to Broken Zone 5! Good luck surviving it…

--Eve Ill

Name/Nickname: Hane Jin/"The Berserker"
Age: 23
Race/Ethnicity: Japanese-American
Description: Slim and athletic. He keeps his straight black hair swept back, and his brown eyes are a pale, almost orange color. He bears the scars of countless fights.
Style Of Dress: Very dark, prefering black, deep-pocketed jeans, a t-shirt, and black jacket. Oddly, he wears gold jewelry whenever possible.
Personality/Outlook/Mannerisms: Normally, he's cool, calm, collected, and arrogant, with a dark sense of humor. When excited, however, he becomes excessively violent, displaying almost inhuman bloodlust. His sanity is often questioned.
Tactics: Hane's tactics are fairly simple, usually consisting of 'sneak behind the enemy and kill them.' In battle, he lives up to his nickname. He ruthlessely tears into the enemy with incredible speed and savagery, and is known to continue pulverizing the enemy even after they're dead.
Former Profession: Athlete and boxer, but was jailed after critically injuring an opponent, which he has also done in more than a few bar fights.
Skills: He is very agile, which can lend itself well to driving and combat. As you have probably figured, he is a highly skilled fighter.
Equipment:
Colt Python (Handgun)
Ancestoral Katana
Small, claw-like sheaths that go on his fingers, designed in his spare time.
The clothing mentioned above
Small motorbike

Yaaay...

(Gonna go ahead and start. I'll work everyone else in as they join.)

A cold wind blew through the dessicated landscape of Broken Zone 5. On the far end of the city, a three-story building long since abandoned finally surrendered to gravity and crumbled to the ground below. Unserviceable vehicles cluttered the roads and powerless traffic lights swayed listlessly in the air.

Through it all, one constant remained: the Aberrants.

Variable in mutation and functionality, but common in their mental decay, they roamed the streets and alleys and sewers aimlessly, trying to fulfill their most base needs of food and shelter.

In the midst of this city of ruin, stepped several humans, as yet untouched by the chaos around them...

Hane looked up. Pieces of construction may fall on their own, but it was a bit too convenient that there were a horde of uglies under it when it did. Interesting. He entered the building, quickly making his way to the top.

Hane approached Raleigh. "So...what keeps you fighting? You don't actually expect to win, right? Not discouraging it, of course. Just curious."

Hane looked around, confused. We? I don't see anybody else here...this guy crazy? "I fight, but only because there's nothing else to do. I know that humanity's doomed, but hey, if you're gonna die, why not go out swinging?"

"There are at least a hundred of them for every one of us, and whenever we lose one, they gain one. The odds are just too far in their favor. Besides, even if we do exterminate every last one, then what? This planet's wrecked."

"We like the planet the way it is." Raleigh said peaceably. "It's quiet and there's plenty of places to sit and think. And talk." He gesticulated to himself. "We have plenty of things to talk about. But until the Aberrants are gone, we cannot simply sit and talk. We must kill as many of the foul abominations as we possibly can. Now, if you're going to sit and be defeatist, we will toss your corpse to the Aberrants. Or perhaps keep it to talk to." Now his eyes looked a little dangerous.
(Remember Eben, the crazy 12 year old with the osteomancy from the 'dream' rp? This guy's personality is based off of Eben's.)