Twilight
From Multiverse
Twilight
Plague. Throughout history, mankind has been subjected to various viral and bacteriological pathogens, which have altered the course of human events. Greece 430 BC, Constantinople 747 AD, Italy 1575 AD, the great plague of London in 1592, the Black Death, a virulent apocalypse which decimated nearly two thirds of all the peoples of Europe in the fourteenth century. Even the riots of 1771 in Moscow and the pandemic of China in the early 20th century were the result of frail human immunities.
In the opening years of the 21st century, war and violence were rampant across the globe. A succession of wars in the Middle East brought the world to economic collapse; bloodshed was the currency of the new world economy.
Poor health, starvation, contaminated waters, and political unrest; in these lay the foundations for the great plague of the new millennium. What were thought to be isolated incidents of death and disease began to overlap, interwoven across several continents; international airports became the new vector as the pathogens were carried around the globe. Ebola, dengue fever, Malaria, West Nile virus, Asian black lung, American viral hemorrhagic fever; containment was impossible in the new global community. Countries adopted isolationist policies, closed borders, and even the threat of retaliation, but no political means seemed capable of stemming the increasing numbers of sick or terminal. Throughout the world, health organizations and agencies worked feverishly to find an answer.
Nearly a year would pass before North American scientists had announced a cure - an inoculation against a wide spectrum of the plague - which had, by this time, affected nearly three quarters of the world’s population. The first generation of serum was hastily put into production, and distributed to all the major cities on the American continent, administered by the Center for Disease Control, the CDC.
The first generation of the serum was flawed, this much, history will record.
Many died only a few weeks after inoculation, in areas which were determined to be free of infection; some grew ill and then, apparently, simply recovered, while a select few exhibited no reaction to the serum at all.
What history will fail to record, however, was far more ominous.
It was not the myriad natural viruses and contagions present in the world, but a plague which we brought upon ourselves. It was not until the first rash of deaths that this truth would come to light. Those that died in the weeks following the innoculations… did not remain… dead. They had arisen from the grave to become the Undead, to taunt the still living, the corrupted strain of the serum infecting everything it touched.
Those who did not die in the weeks following the inoculations, their skin festered and bruised when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, their eyes burned in the light of day, and their flesh grew pale, driving them from the day into the darkness. They had become the Revenants, the pure strain of the serum coursing through their veins, driving them mad with an unquenchable thirst for uncontaminated blood.
And still, there are those who were never inoculated, when the first production run of serum had been exhausted, and the truth of the horror had been revealed. And there were those who were apparently unaffected by the serum.
They call us innocents, and call them, Untainted.
Before the collapse, the CDC seemed to control nearly everything; they were the only branch of the government to remain intact when the plague ravaged the country. Now, even the CDC are just trying to get by, though some warlords and militants have an eye towards reconstruction.
That was ten years ago.
Society did not completely disintegrate in the intervening years, but the edges now seem…edgier, the consequences for mistakes more pronounced. Food is scarce, but an accomplished scavenger can still pull a canned good or two from an old market shelf, a skilled gunsmith can reload spent shells, and a good mechanic can keep an old generator running to provide light against the pitch black.
Now, we hunt in the light of day, and sequester ourselves in the strongholds, abandoned buildings and fortified shelters during the night. You see, I am revealing the secret of our brave new world…
The real danger exists in the time between the comforting rays of day and the cold and bitter night; hours we call Twilight.
Synopsis
Ten years of struggling for survival amidst a decaying environment, the players take on the role of civilians or military (The CDC is the last vestige of order left in civilization), scavenging for supplies, attempting to bring comfort to their environment, and hunting their everpresent nemesis, all the while attempting to avoid succumbing to the infection and becoming one of them.
Features
Over 16 civilian backgrounds and six military backgrounds conferring skills to beginning characters. Before the collapse, people held normal lives.
A Classless skill structure with over forty skill trees and over 200 individual skills and special abilities.
A complex economic barter system. Cash is worthless in this dark future; Food, Water, Ammunition and Fuel are the tenders of the new world.
Full, rich crafting system which drives the player economy.
Full PvP with areas of 'safe zones', city blocks protected from most violence, where some measure of control remains.
Structural elements built into the game design to foster roleplaying.
Preliminary design on a player judicial system.
Set in a fictional midwestern city on a great lake, the playing field sprawls for literally hundreds of kilometers. As players evolve, additional cities will become available for play, as well as the dangerous wasteland in between.
