Build the World
First things first, we need a world to play in. This will walk us through inspiration, genre and setting up Reach.
Every solo gamer out there will tell you "prep is play". And I'm no different. In order to begin playing you need to have a basic concept of what you want to play. Some idea of the world and the character.
Today we are going to focus on the world.
You can ask yourself all kinds of questions. You can roll on inspiration tables. But it all comes down to what you feel like playing -- what type of game tickles your fancy.
Me. I have a few go-tos: Urban Fantasy, D&D style high fantasy, Cyberpunk and Post Apocalyptic. I'm not big into the Horror or Sci-Fi and definitely not into the Super Hero tropes. Though I like heroic characters.
For our sessions I'm going to choose Cyberpunk. I have a world in mind that I can build out with you.
Year is 3107. The earth has slowed by 4 hours causing massive radiation to change the face of the earth. All vegetation is gone from land, all that remains is those in hydroponic pods deep with in the earth. All food is completely synthetic. A mega city spans every inch of the globe with one floating city, Olympus, and a floating archipelago like man-made island city, Atlantis, stretching from the east coast of North America to the west coast of Europe. Governments are non-existent and the world is run by 6 mega corporations - Applied Horizons, Everett Alternative Research, Augmented Equipment, Vang Scientific Agricultural, Odom Radioinnovations and Corvus Atmospheric Systems. The mega-corps are challenged by local gangs in every major borough of the mega-city. The largest boroughs are Old New York, Old China, Mecha, Olympus, Atlantis and Sydney.
Human reproduction has ceased normal operation. At puberty DNA is harvested from reproductive glands and removed. All reproduction is based on financial means and on a first come first serve basis. The world’s population is kept at 13,433,856,702 people. When one person dies a child is “auctioned” off. A continued treatment in citizen’s food continues to dampen any residual fertility issues.
Every person has a serial number that identifies them tattooed on their collarbone, where their identification chip was implanted. The serial number consists of the facility number they were conceived in, their biological parental 7 alphanumeric codes, their own unique 7 alphanumeric code and a random batch code. Each batch code indicates a genetic predisposition that an embryo possess.
F-MMMMMMM-DDDDDDD-UUUUUUU-BBBBBB
There are 6 prenatal facilities, one in each of the largest boroughs with exactly 2,238,976,117 (36^7) individuals birthed from their facility at any given time.
This is probably more detail than you have right now.
You could start with just a single location sentence as your setting.
This location is a [descriptive] [location type] that [distinctive feature or role in the world].
Earth is a [overpopulated] [planet] that [has become one giant mega-city].
Let's choose one location where we are going to play.
I'm going to pick Old New York. And create a sentence for it
Old New York is a [grity] [borough] that [is a strained hub of the mega-corps and gangs].
Earth has three layers -- the Spire, The Cloud and The Slag.
The Cloud is middle layer of toxic clouds that spans the entire earth blocking out light from the sun. It is about several hundred meters thick and a kilometer or so above the surface of the planet.
As the light faded over the years humanity built towers and entire portions of the cities that rose above The Cloud -- this became known a the Spire.
Everything below the cloud in the darkness is The Slag.
The Cloud is a [toxic] [region] that [covers the surface in darkness and mutates anything it comes in contact with].
The Spire is a [towering] [region] that [provides luxury to the elite and corporate big-wigs].
The Slag is a [lightless] [region] that [is the home to the underbelly of the world].
I think that's enough for the basics of the world. Let' talk about Reach.
Reach is the only numbers in the game that is just a number Most Reach doesn't change as you play -- Status and Reputation do, but those are game numbers. Your Magic and Tech reach never change. They are based on the world and your own personal aptitude towards it. It is your potential, it's what you are born with or the world gives you.
In this world, magic is low -- you can have it. But it's not something everyone has access to. It requires a mutation of some sort.
Magic Reach starts at 0 for this world.
Technology on the other hand is high -- everyone has access to it. Even the poorest soul. It's everywhere, you don't think about it.
Technology Reach starts at 4 for this world.
Most of the citizens of the world are not in the Spire, they are not elite. Most people are barely getting buy. This is a classic trope of Cyberpunk. Status starts at 2 for this world.
And as usual your Reputation starts at 0. We are just starting out.