Tell me about Underground (Mayfair Games circa '93)

Soel

First Post
I remember flipping through this book upon its release many years ago...(I wasn't yet a gamer, but it had fantastic Geof Darrow artwork!) It sort of intrigued me, but I didn't roleplay, so I never sought much out about it...

Anything you can tell me will help... Setting, rules, how it played...

Thanx in advancery,
Soel
 

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Think cyberpunk superheroes strongly influenced by Aeon Flux and sprinkled with political commentary. The PCs are veterans that find themselves in a strangely Vietnam-era atmosphere back home. The PCs have superpowers.

Please note that I'm calling them superpowers even though the powered characters are actually the result of genetic engineering.

It's one of the games I'd love to buy the rights to. Ahead of its time, wacky, and fun.

Highly recommended.
 


More importantly, this game has a VITAL game mechanic that every game should adopt -

it has mechanics on how to change the world, the country, the state, or just the neighbourhood.

You decide how you are going to change it ("I want to get rid of AIDS"), the DM decides what it will take to do it ("Hmm... have to increase taxation for research, and increase education to reduce transmission...")... and the players can then work towards this goal with a system behind them.

Obviously, it is easier to change something locally than it is to change things globally, etc.

Very nice set of rules, especially if you are running a game where the players are expected to try to change things (like in the Storyteller games, or CyberPunk).
 


HellHound said:
it has mechanics on how to change the world, the country, the state, or just the neighbourhood.

Mutants & Masterminds also has a similar rule (in Crooks!). But yes, this was a very cool concept.
 

While I didn't like the art in the rulebook the design of it was amazing, it was either the most confusing or easiest book to read depending on your view point, as it color coded text depending on if it was an example, fiction, core or optional (I think).
 

The game was an amusing political commentary on the world of 1993, as expressed through a vision of the world in 2021. I believe the tagline was "It's 2021 and the dream is dead" (referring to the American Dream).

Some of the jokes/commentary:
An excerpt from the inaugural speech of President Darryl Gates which said "As an old friend of mine once said, 'Why can't we all just get along'"?

The Democratic and Republican parties fused together into one party, the Republicrats, whose only political agenda is to oppose anything promoted by the dominant Plutocrat party, founded by Ross Perot, which believes that the rich people are always right and what's good for the wealthy is good for everybody.

Loads of new constitutional amendments, complete with corporate sponsorship (as in an actual clause of the amendment says something like "this amendment brought to you by suchandsuch corporation "<insert ad slogan here>".

Constitutional amendments restricting free speech to requiring a license, so that if you want to say something potentially controversial you have to get a license from the government first. Now, this isn't technically supposed to be limiting free speech, just the government regulating the time, place and manner you can make that speech in.

Scientology has conquered Europe, and rules most of Europe with an iron fist, it has sent the Vatican into exile in Central America.

The most popular resturant chain in the country is Tastee Ghoul, which serves prepared human flesh. Cannibalism is the hot fad in 2021, and instead of an organ donation card on the back of your driver's license, there is a cannibalism consent form that pays your next of kin money if you sell your corpse to a food distribution center after you die. There was some disturbing art of a teenager's first job being working at a Tastee Ghoul franchise and the meat locker there with arms & legs hanging from meathooks that still sticks in my mind.

The PC's are genetically superenhanced ex-mercenaries who were given superpowers by reverse engineered genetic technology recovered from a UFO crash that happened in 1996. People are given extensive genetic modifications, along with psychological conditioning in the form of a VR simulation that looks just like a 4-color superhero comic book, except it's ultra-violent, as they are taught how to use their new powers and become desensitized to violence. Then after being augmented they work as mercenaries for any one of several private armies, fighting in small wars around the world (mostly Africa and South America as I recall). A PC's playing career begins as he's discharged from service, a genetically enhanced warrior conditioned to think of himself like an ultraviolent superhero, into a decaying ruins of American culture with civilians who fear and hate them and a corrupt and totalitarian government, so the PC's often join up to form underground organizations.
 

wingsandsword said:
The most popular resturant chain in the country is Tastee Ghoul, which serves prepared human flesh.
One of the books had an amusing "Circle of life" ad from Tastee Ghoul. It basically went: "You buy food from Tastee Ghoul, Taste Ghoul makes money, Tastee Ghoul sponsors minor wars in sucky countries, gene-modified super-veterans come home from wars and are nuts, super-vets kill people, people get made into Tastee Ghoul food, which you buy at Taste Ghoul."
 

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