Rob Toth
First Post
Hi there, folks--
My name is Rob Toth, and I'm the designer of Damnation Decade, a d20 Modern and True20 setting just released by Green Ronin. Taking a page from the designer of True20 Nevermore, I'd like to open a thread for anyone who has questions or comments about the game.
I'll start off with a quick summary of the game world. (You can read the complete introduction to the game in fabulous PDF form here.) Below that, I'll post links to the design diaries for the game, which appear on GR's site.
And then let 'er rip!
***
Welcome to 1976.
The nation's finest and foxiest are shimmying into discos and singles bars, snorting powder off mirrors, and bumping their booties to earthshaking basslines. Turtlenecked suburbanites spend their afternoons in Group and their evenings with the spouse next door—sometimes both of them. You'll find a lava lamp on every desk, a muscle car in every garage, and a pet rock in every pocket.
But don't let the funky facade fool you. This isn't the year you remember. While the United States of Americo gets its bicentennial groove on, the foundations of the world are starting to crack—and unearthly forces are slipping in through the fissures.
The temperature is soaring. The ice caps are shearing apart, flooding the coastlines and wrecking the weather. Droughts and acid rain are turning farmland to ashes, leaving millions hungry and restless. The oil wells are down to their last drop. Even the bees are getting angry—and organized.
And that's just the respectable bad news. Tabloids and trashy television shows are filled with off-the-wall stories that get more plausible each passing day. Saucers swooping out of the midnight sky to snatch people from their beds. Hulking man-apes stomping through the deep forests on outsized feet. Dinosaurs haunting the nation's lakes. Devils forcing their way into people's heads.
What the hell happened? Nobody who knows the truth is telling. But it all seemed to start two years ago—on August 9th, 1974.
President Stanton Spobeck's dirty tricks had finally caught up with him, and he was about to resign before he could get booted from office in disgrace. Then a once-in-an-epoch earthquake snapped off the West Coast of Americo and plunged it into the ocean. Spobeck stayed in office in the interest of national stability, promising to face the music once the crisis was over (wink wink).
But things just kept getting worse. The environment tanked. The monsters (or whatever they are) came out of the closet. And Spobeck put the entire Southwest of Americo under martial law. He claimed the area had been contaminated and was facing dangerous aftershocks from the quake. But everybody knows he's trying to keep something trapped in there. You can't turn on the news without seeing elliptical reports of massacres and riots across the farm belt. Something big and hungry is on the hunt. But what woke it up? And what does it want?
Nobody is taking this well. Americo's Cold War enemies are striking while the country is distracted, gobbling up huge chunks of the free world. And of course, back at home, the nation is partying in deep denial, shaking their money-makers in BootyDome dancehalls or cheering along to Omegaball, the blood sport that has become the fastest-growing pastime in the world. Others have taken refuge in secular cults promising everything from a peek at your past lives to a ticket on an ancient astronaut's saucer.
Just about the only people who aren't raving up a storm or making a power grab are you and your team of adventurous friends. Why? You know something everybody else doesn't. According to the prophecies of an obscure 16th-century mystic named Abednego Trestle, the world as we know it is going to end at the stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1979—unless someone does something to stop it.
That's your job. Welcome to Damnation Decade.
My name is Rob Toth, and I'm the designer of Damnation Decade, a d20 Modern and True20 setting just released by Green Ronin. Taking a page from the designer of True20 Nevermore, I'd like to open a thread for anyone who has questions or comments about the game.
I'll start off with a quick summary of the game world. (You can read the complete introduction to the game in fabulous PDF form here.) Below that, I'll post links to the design diaries for the game, which appear on GR's site.
And then let 'er rip!
***
Welcome to 1976.
The nation's finest and foxiest are shimmying into discos and singles bars, snorting powder off mirrors, and bumping their booties to earthshaking basslines. Turtlenecked suburbanites spend their afternoons in Group and their evenings with the spouse next door—sometimes both of them. You'll find a lava lamp on every desk, a muscle car in every garage, and a pet rock in every pocket.
But don't let the funky facade fool you. This isn't the year you remember. While the United States of Americo gets its bicentennial groove on, the foundations of the world are starting to crack—and unearthly forces are slipping in through the fissures.
The temperature is soaring. The ice caps are shearing apart, flooding the coastlines and wrecking the weather. Droughts and acid rain are turning farmland to ashes, leaving millions hungry and restless. The oil wells are down to their last drop. Even the bees are getting angry—and organized.
And that's just the respectable bad news. Tabloids and trashy television shows are filled with off-the-wall stories that get more plausible each passing day. Saucers swooping out of the midnight sky to snatch people from their beds. Hulking man-apes stomping through the deep forests on outsized feet. Dinosaurs haunting the nation's lakes. Devils forcing their way into people's heads.
What the hell happened? Nobody who knows the truth is telling. But it all seemed to start two years ago—on August 9th, 1974.
President Stanton Spobeck's dirty tricks had finally caught up with him, and he was about to resign before he could get booted from office in disgrace. Then a once-in-an-epoch earthquake snapped off the West Coast of Americo and plunged it into the ocean. Spobeck stayed in office in the interest of national stability, promising to face the music once the crisis was over (wink wink).
But things just kept getting worse. The environment tanked. The monsters (or whatever they are) came out of the closet. And Spobeck put the entire Southwest of Americo under martial law. He claimed the area had been contaminated and was facing dangerous aftershocks from the quake. But everybody knows he's trying to keep something trapped in there. You can't turn on the news without seeing elliptical reports of massacres and riots across the farm belt. Something big and hungry is on the hunt. But what woke it up? And what does it want?
Nobody is taking this well. Americo's Cold War enemies are striking while the country is distracted, gobbling up huge chunks of the free world. And of course, back at home, the nation is partying in deep denial, shaking their money-makers in BootyDome dancehalls or cheering along to Omegaball, the blood sport that has become the fastest-growing pastime in the world. Others have taken refuge in secular cults promising everything from a peek at your past lives to a ticket on an ancient astronaut's saucer.
Just about the only people who aren't raving up a storm or making a power grab are you and your team of adventurous friends. Why? You know something everybody else doesn't. According to the prophecies of an obscure 16th-century mystic named Abednego Trestle, the world as we know it is going to end at the stroke of midnight on December 31st, 1979—unless someone does something to stop it.
That's your job. Welcome to Damnation Decade.
It is a pretty good read, although I have not had time to fully digest all the details yet.
