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What is Fallen Cities?

Fallen Cities is set in a post apocalyptic world where a small section of the population, The Rich, live in comparative paradise within their City, whilst the rest of humanity, The Poor, live in ruins. On top of this are the Aliens, creatures from another dimension who seek to enter this world and make it like their own (or maybe they are trying to escape their world).

The players are mercenaries, chosen from The Poor to serve The Rich. They harvest the Aliens to gain MIASMA, that can bestow immortal life. The players live good lives, but serve the City. It is a dark world however, Despair is killing this world, only Hope can save it. The players seek Hope in the form of images or short vignettes from amongst the Despair. They collect Hope, maybe even create some themselves, and when the game ends they examine their efforts to see what the future holds. There is no solution to this world’s issues within the lifetimes of the characters, it is their legacy that they leave that may make the world a better place.

Fallen Cities is a fantasy, a flight of imagination. As such it is totally made up in your’s and my mind, and can therefore have anything in it. Dreams, magic, Hopes and Despairs. None of it has to be justified, and usually the only reason we don't strike out into altered images of reality is the comfort we share in everyday expectations. For me it is easier to assume the physics of this fantasy world are pretty much exactly the same as our real world. It makes everything so much easier to explain, you and your players already have an innate understanding of reality. The only things I need to tell you about are the differences, and that is what this book is about, what’s different in this world.

Role Playing Games.

“It’s a story.”

There are plenty of rpg games out there now, and plenty of sites on the internet to tell you technically what a role playing game is, so I leave that part to you and Google. What I would like to talk about is my understanding of what that means, and how I use it in this game.

For me a role playing game is about one person, the GamesMaster (GM), having an idea of a story, and asking a bunch of others to involve themselves with it. This can be a very short story, or it can be an epic tale of derring-do. Other people have the opinion that the GM should not come to the table with a story in mind, that they should improvise the entire scene in conjunction with whatever your players want, construct the story on spec. Well those people haven’t played with my players, who are, after all, who I am creating this game for. If I ask them what do they want to do they will reply ‘Let's play History of the World (a boardgame)’. So in my world I take a lead. Which doesn’t mean I railroad them down a tightly scripted adventure, it means I have a broad idea of what can happen, where the more obvious paths lead, but I am happy to deviate from that at anytime, and often do, as humour, interest and drama dictate.

“It’s a conversation.”

What an amazingly succinct description of a complex subject.

Conversations are exchanges of opinions and ideas. They are often argumentative, contradictory and complex (and Monty Python has nothing to do with the first two). Most of the time people will come to the table of a conversation with preconceived ideas and opinions on the subject matter, and hopefully, over the course of the conversation, you blend all the different views into a cohesive whole. Sometimes however this isn’t the case and you need a moderator to guide, direct and even take control or it degenerates into chaos. Hence the GM’s role. Life for a GM is much easier if you have some idea of where you want to go when everyone else has none, hence my opinion that a basic outline of a story is always helpful.

The Apocalypse World Engine is so very attractive to me because it relieves the GM of a lot of tedious work, and allows them to pay attention to the game more, freeing them from a lot of dice rolls, freeing them to ad-lib and conceive entertaining story moments to keep their players and themselves entertained.  Entertainment is after all, what it is all about. If your role playing game is boring, or doesn’t stimulate your players, then they will quickly rip out ‘History of the World’. Your task as GM is to entertain, by sharing a conversation with your players.

“It’s sharing.”

Which means there will be a lot of talking, which makes it imperative that you, as GM, do a lot of listening. Nearly everyone can talk, but it takes great skill and effort to listen.  A lot of conversations become pointless if anyone present stops listening, and often you won’t know till a lot of effort has been wasted. Chronic non-listeners are easy to spot, they don’t let you get a word in edgewise, others are busy looking away at something and not at you. Playing with their fingers, or a small object, probably not listening. You cannot GM properly if you are not listening to what your players want.  How many times have I specifically told a GM:

“I guard the door in case we are attacked”.

“30 orcs rush thru the door and surprise you!”

DOH!

Its hard work. As GM you will have many voices clamoring to tell you what they consider the “MOST IMPORTANT THING” - Listen to me!

Another part of your moderation is controlling all this. This will mean at times, when character lives are at stake, that you take control, slow things down and give everyone a chance to let you listen. Then make sure they are listening to you!  That is the equally important other half of the conversation. As GM you are lucky in that you really only need to make sure half your players are listening to you, and when those who were not say the obviously dumb thing, you just let peer pressure go to work for you. Also helps when someone is on the loo, getting drinks or taking a phone call. Its up to them to get back up to date as quickly and unobtrusively as possible.  Try to avoid repeating yourself, you may say different things each time and confuse everyone.

“It’s still a story.”

Fiction first, everything happens with the fiction first, then the rules.  That was hard to learn for me, and still is. I came from boardgaming and figurines where the reverse is true, so it took a lot of reading and many years to let go of the rules. Stories are fantasy, and as we noted above, fantasy does not have to follow the rules. The rules are there to provide common ground and convenience. When I say you fall 10ft and maybe hurt yourself, you automatically understand that you fell 10ft at 9.8m/sec/sec in the direction of the strongest gravitational field exerting attraction upon your mass, and that the solid ground you fall to is actually really solid and doesn’t allow penetration at the atomic level in anyway. And that when you stop suddenly after achieving the specific momentum it might cause structural damage to the systems controlling your body that are not ideally built to control the energy exchanges that will occur. You take 1 Harm.

Do not use the rules as a crutch to control your story. ‘You can’t do that because we don’t have rules for it till the next book comes out!’ Use common sense, use the entire collective mass of fiction that you read growing up, as a guide and “MAKE IT UP!”. There are very few things a player will do that have not been done in a book or a movie or a comic before. If you find there are then you probably should go out and read more or watch more.  Use that massive library of images, cliches and stereotypes to your advantage. Get your players to use them. Stereotypes and cliches are your friend. They provide amazing clarity to everyone at the table in the shortest possible time. “I pick up the grenade launcher, turn to face everyone and say “I’ll be back!”, then walk out the door...’ Is there a person in the western world who does not see that imagery immediately and understand what he is doing? It doesn’t even have to match the cut scene, the words alone can convey a thousand images. USE THEM! Players love it, GMs love it. Everyone understands it.

Hope and Despair.

Fallen Cities is ultimately a game about allowing you to try to make a better world. But the world itself is against you in the form of vested interests. The Rich don’t want a better world, they already have the best world. The Aliens don’t want a better world, they want to pull it all down and shift it into a world of their making. The poor can’t do anything much, they are just too oppressed. There are no kings with no shit on them. There is no watery tart to throw a sword at you and make things better. There are HEROES though.

Your players, most players, will take up the mantle of hero and try to overcome the oppressors and make a better world, if only for themselves. In Fallen Cities however the chances of actual revolution are small. What is needed is a shift in attitude, and this can only be achieved if you can provide the chance, the hope, of a better future. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen.  Fallen Cities is a battle between Hope and Despair. Your players should try to provide the Hope, you as GM should provide the Despair.

Hope in the game is a collection of vignettes created by your Heroes in their lifetimes. These images and scenes become the mythology of their journey and provide the context that future generations look back on and gain hope from, that life can get better. Hope is the struggle you undertake so that others who follow you will know that it can be done.

Of course you might be fatalistic and prefer seeking after utter despair and finishing with a heavy metal finale where everyone and everything dies horribly.

Either way, I HOPE you enjoy my game.  

My thanks to Vincent Baker for Apocalypse World, and to Taylor White for Lonely World, both of which gave me inspiration, and Hope.

Apocalypse World was a game developed by Vincent Baker, and the system (game mechanic) used to run that game is what I have adapted for this game.

Inspirational art:

The following pictures got me started. I looked at them and something just gelled in my head. It amazes me (but doesn’t surprise me) what a stunning effect a still picture can have on you.

http://alexandreev.deviantart.com/art/Cover-art-for-Twisted-Dagger-TV-series-534385759

http://alexandreev.deviantart.com/art/Groovy-Kuulostaa-533136482

http://alexandreev.deviantart.com/art/ZONA-06-467038052

http://alexandreev.deviantart.com/art/ZONA-04-465580357

http://alexandreev.deviantart.com/art/ZONA-01-463828687

Terms and Labels.

AGE: Anti-gravity engine.

RIFT: dimensional breach between the alien dimension and our own and the area it covers, as well as the effects it has.

LIFTED: an area of land that has been lifted by using the AGE. It includes the structures and peoples living on the land as well. The people consider themselves ‘lifted’ above the common man, both in a physical sense and a moral  and psychological sense.

CRATER: the hole left when an area of land is LIFTED.

LIFT: the term used to describe the action of lifting a section of land using the AGE.

FALLEN/LIFTED/RAISED: a section of land/city that has been LIFTED, then dropped back down, Fallen, onto a platform construction to keep the LIFTED object above the ground. Most RAISED platforms are 100-200m above the ground level.

DROPPED: when an AGE fails the land drops back down into its crater, catastrophically.

FOG: general term for the RIFT fog, as opposed to natural fog. The fog has a reddish tinge to it, combined with the fogs reduction of sunlight this causes a unsettling blood colour to blanket the area. It also has a subtle bitter, metallic taste. The Fog generally extends to around 50-100m above the ground, and limits normal visibility to around 50m.

TEAM: the collective term for the characters.

CLEANERS: a term used by City people to describe a player character team.

SOLDIER: more formal and technically accurate name for player characters.

GRENADIER: soldier trained in heavy weapons and armour.

FUSILIER: soldier trained in guns.

SAPPER: soldier trained in explosives and mines.

CARBONIER: soldier trained in melee weapons (particularly ‘carbon’ weapons).

VOLTIGEUR: soldier trained in electrical weapons.

HOSPITALIER: soldier trained in medical functions.

TECHNICIAN:  technical support dude.

SCOUT:  soldier trained as point man, fast and alert.

CAPITAINE: soldier rank, highest.

LIEUTENANT: soldier rank.

SOUS LIEUTENANT: soldier rank.

ADJUTANT-CHEF: soldier rank.

SERGENT: soldier rank.

CAPORAL: soldier rank.

SOLDAT: starting soldier's rank.

COMMANDER: Player’s immediate superior, a Citizen of the City.

CITIZEN: someone who lives in the Raised City and belongs to the social/corporate elite.

CITY/CORPORATION: the owner/controller of the Raised City. This may actually be a corporation or a society that has adopted a corporate style social system as the best way to manage their situation.

Citizen Terms:

The following is a list of insulting and derogatory words that Citizens might use in reference to those who live on the surface, and who are not Citizens, including the players.

Downers, Grounders, Blues, Plebs, Muck, Sleepers, Sweepers, Workers, Freaks, Scum, Scavs, Scars, Trash, Maggots, Pales (those living in the darkness of the crater), Slaves, The Grounded, Foggers, Helots.

Most ‘organised carbons’ are antithetical to aliens and cause their natural physical forms to break down catastrophically, ie kills them.  Speculation is that organised carbons do not exist in the aliens dimension and are severely toxic when they make contact. Soldiers will use bullets, swords etc made of organised carbon. They are not overly effective on humans or natural materials compared to steel or lead, but they are very effective against the natural form of aliens. Normal bullets, or weapons, have very little effect on the natural form (fog) of the aliens. Even carbon bullets do little damage as they pass through quickly, minimising the catalytic effect, so most carbon rounds use a weak charge to allow a slower passage through the alien’s body (which makes them less effective vs human bodies).

ELECTRICITY: Aliens are vulnerable to the effects of electricity (EMP effects or current), which seems to disrupt their ability to remain in our dimension. The aliens avoid electrical fields, even weak ones, if they are at all able to. Electricity can be used to drive aliens from their host structures, which in turn allows them to be attacked with carbon in their natural forms. Continued use of electricity results in the collapse of the field keeping the aliens in our world, and they vanish back into their own. This is considered a poor result by your superiors who favour the collection of MIASMA.

Cleaners will be equipped with various EMP or current/voltage generating weapons to allow them to apply electricity to the alien within their host (the localised region of the host where the alien is currently formed - it’s Eyes). Most electrical weapons have limited range and quite variable results, plus you have to monitor the amount of damage you inflict to try to prevent the alien ‘escaping’.

The Fog

Where the Rift exists also exists The Fog. The Fog is a manifestation of the overlapping of the two worlds. As you move away from the area of the Rift, the Fog will eventually lessen and fade away. Generally the Fog will stretch out for 10 to 20 miles from a Lift site, however in many locations several sections of a large city were lifted and the Rift areas will overlap to create a very large area of effect. The Netherlands in particular lifted most of their low lying lands above sea level and is now one enormous Rift. The Aliens can only exist within the area of The Fog.

The Fog is a blanket, for whatever reason it fades out at 50 to 60 metres above the ground. If you can climb a ruin of sufficient height you will emerge above the Fog and will be able to see it rolling and roiling beneath you, a living thing lying over the corpse of the metropolis that once existed here.

The Fog is quite thick, restricting visibility at all times to about 50 meters. Out to about 20 meters there will be little effect, although you may lose small details. From 20 to 30 metres things begin to become shadowy and detail is lost, recognising someone may be difficult. Out to 40 meters everything is reddish and still figures are difficult to distinguish. Out to 50 meters you will only be seeing things that are moving, and they will be dark shadows. Past 50 meters and you will see nothing unless it wishes to be seen. Sound is a much better sense to use in the Fog after 50 meters, and Cleaners will all be equipped with Echo’s (echo location scanners) to assist them.

Sunlight gets through the fog sufficiently to provide the visibility noted above. The Fog is translucent ((of a substance) allowing light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through; semi-transparent) and slightly luminescent. At night it is slightly illuminated, visibility is like moonlight, but with very limited range (halve the above).

The Fog works on all wavelengths, its a Rift effect. Thermal imaging, ultraviolet imaging, all of these things are also limited to 50m.  The overlapping nature of the Rift, the layering of dimensional borders, are the issue here.

The Fog dulls normal human sound, out to no more than 100 meters. Echo scanners are fine tuned to get the best results.

The Fog and The Rift interfere with electronics to a degree, creating interference and system glitches occasionally (GM option).

The Fog has a blood red tinge that colours everything in blood style macabreness. It also has an unpleasant metallic taste.

The Fog is an awesome tool for the GM to use as they wish. Oh that doesn’t work? Must be the Fog.

Invaders.

Invaders are extraterrestrial or dimensional in origin, not The Aliens. Men from Mars are invaders of the real world, coming from distant stars (or Mars if you like). Invaders from another dimension come using the same physical laws that we do, they do not cause Rifts or Fogs.

Invaders are a literary device you may use to spice up your game and add confusion to your players.