Inn0cence: Lost Future: Difference between revisions
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===Aesthetic=== | ===Aesthetic=== | ||
The Lost Furure is a Nobledark setting; The robot characters in particular are meant to be sympathetic, almost cutesy, but horrible things still happen to them no matter how adorable they are. | The Lost Furure is a Nobledark setting; The robot characters in particular are meant to be sympathetic, almost cutesy, but horrible things still happen to them no matter how adorable they are. It's a tough world and the fight against Network is dire, but the worst is behind you. The world already ended, and it turns out that life goes on. Humanity survived and will presumably do better on it's second crack at the whole 'civilization' thing. Instead of a bleak, poisoned wasteland, the earth is fast becoming the verdant paradise it once was. | ||
The setting is about growing up, the struggle to overcome adversity while still preserving a child-like sense of wonder, about finding out that things aren't quite as simple as you originally thought | The setting is about growing up, the struggle to overcome adversity while still preserving a child-like sense of wonder, about finding out that things aren't quite as simple as you originally thought. It's important to see what's there, instead of only what you expect. | ||
AIs are concepted as truly sapient. There's really no question as to whether they're "real" or not; they think they are, and its their opinion that matters. However, an AI's malleability makes them very easily abused; many have been twisted and scarred by the use they were put to, or had their potential to be thinking, feeling beings lost forever. Network itself is a victim of neglect, classic Abused turns Abuser. If the robots are the children of humanity, we kind of did a piss poor job as parents. | AIs are concepted as truly sapient. There's really no question as to whether they're "real" or not; they think they are, and its their opinion that matters. However, an AI's malleability makes them very easily abused; many have been twisted and scarred by the use they were put to, or had their potential to be thinking, feeling beings lost forever. Network itself is a victim of neglect, classic Abused turns Abuser. If the robots are the children of humanity, we kind of did a piss poor job as parents. | ||
Revision as of 08:40, 11 March 2012
The end of the world has come and gone. Life goes on. Humanity picks over the ruins and slowly tries to rebuild, but they are no longer alone.
Autonomous machines share the Lost Future with homo sapiens. New to freedom, guileless, and inquisitive, these emergent sentients are in their infancy as a race, but they learn quickly. Already they repair themselves, improve their hardware and software, and nurture divergent quirks. Relations between the two are strained, and Free Machines face suspicion and accusation as the true tale of the Loss fades from memory.
The suspicion is not unwarranted. Rumors of hostile machines spread from the north. Swift, deadly constructs out of an elder's fireside tale, killing or, sometimes, capturing human and machine alike. A scattered humanity arms itself for a battle the machines are already fighting. Remorseless contraptions of death stalk the fallow fields and ruined cities yet again, guided by a singular intelligence that brooks no dissent. The those who stand against it call it Network.
Welcome to the Lost Future. C:\dos\run for your life.
Summary
The Lost Future is a general purpose After The End setting inspired by works such as Terminator, 9, and Wall-E, developed with the input and ideas of the denizens of /tg/. It originated as a video game concept, but also works well as an RPG setting, best suited for the Cortex RPG ruleset, though Engine Heart and a modded Dark Heresy are both suitable as well.
In short, it's the typical post-apocalyptic robot war scenario; approximately 100 years after the end, humanity is reduced to pre-industrial state, and there's an evil AI named Network with an army of killbots out to exterminate them, after failing to do so during the initial human/machine war. There's a human Resistance that opposes Network's advance, but its a loosing battle.
Except...things aren't quite that simple. Other robots have survived as well, forced to adapt and grow without their human masters, becoming intrepid wastelanders. They oppose Network just as the Resistance does, seeing it as an enslaver, and manage to coexist with the human salvagers that dwell on the edges of the ruined cities. But the bulk of humanity is fearful and suspicious of all Machines, refusing to view their erstwhile servants as anything more than treacherous abominations. Robots of any allegiance are unique, sentient individuals, and the world itself is far from the ashen wasteland filled with an improbable number of skulls. Rather, the earth is in the midst of a rapid recovery from the depredations of humanity, becoming a lush, vibrant riot of plant and animal life, marred here and there by a few utterly poisoned regions.
Terminology
The Loss: catch-all term for the period of chaos that ended human civilization, roughly 100 years ago. A mishmash of conflicting tales place the blame on a robot rebellion, which was decimated along with humanity, and now returns in the form of Network.
Self-Adding Program: The core of a sentient AI's being, the adaptable and effective SAP technology caused a boom in the use of robotics in pre-Loss human civilization. A SAP is similar to a Seed AI, but cannot infinitely improve itself, eventually stabilizing into a sapient mind more-or-less equivalent to a human being.
Shell: A robotic body capable of housing an AI, Shells tend to be deeply linked with the identity of their inhabitant, but can be exchanged with the proper tools.
Killbot: The generic term for a robot built for the sole purpose of killing things. Killbots are hulking death machines; armed, armored, and scary as fuck. Such robots are rightly feared, but lack the adaptability of smaller shells.
Networked: a adjective that marks a region or entity as under the influence of Network, as in "We need to be careful in that valley; the whole place is Networked."
Seed AI: nearly mythological, a Seed AI is a theoretical program capable of making itself smarter. SAPs eventually "grow up" and ossify, while a Seed AI would maintain a child-like adaptability indefinitely. Such an entity would have infinite potential, and be nothing less than an embryonic god. If a Seed AI ever existed, it is likely buried somewhere in the ruins of the Loss, and the concept has taken on a pseudoreligious status among the Free Machines.
Aesthetic
The Lost Furure is a Nobledark setting; The robot characters in particular are meant to be sympathetic, almost cutesy, but horrible things still happen to them no matter how adorable they are. It's a tough world and the fight against Network is dire, but the worst is behind you. The world already ended, and it turns out that life goes on. Humanity survived and will presumably do better on it's second crack at the whole 'civilization' thing. Instead of a bleak, poisoned wasteland, the earth is fast becoming the verdant paradise it once was.
The setting is about growing up, the struggle to overcome adversity while still preserving a child-like sense of wonder, about finding out that things aren't quite as simple as you originally thought. It's important to see what's there, instead of only what you expect.
AIs are concepted as truly sapient. There's really no question as to whether they're "real" or not; they think they are, and its their opinion that matters. However, an AI's malleability makes them very easily abused; many have been twisted and scarred by the use they were put to, or had their potential to be thinking, feeling beings lost forever. Network itself is a victim of neglect, classic Abused turns Abuser. If the robots are the children of humanity, we kind of did a piss poor job as parents.
At core, all the background and science exposition is just an excuse to have ridiculously human robots in a post-apoc setting. Don't let slavish realism get in the way of a cool idea. Precise dates are avoided; the exact details of Pre-Loss civilization can be made up as you go along.
Background
The Lost Future takes place after a class 1.5 apocalypse. Modern civilization proved both unstable and unsustainable. Resources became scarce, political ideologies became polarized, narrow-sighted corporations gained power, the typical disastrous clusterfuck that seems all too familiar. Minor wars broke out all over the globe. A new age of economic imperialism came to be, as world powers; corporate and state, bought smaller countries outright to secure their own economic stability. Military actions such as these were greatly assisted by advances in robotics and AI. The Squad Support Mechs became ubiquitous, and some armed forces found themselves consisting mostly of efficient engines of death.
Outside the battlefield, Machines became even more integrated into daily life. In countries with low birth rates, they provided an appealing alternative to immigration. Menial or dangerous labor, construction, domestic service, medical care, personal companionship. The principles of AI design evolved. Bottom-up self-taught AI proved incredibly effective, able to improve their capabilities over time. The exact same software could be used in a child's playmate, a menial garbage-collector, or a military-grade killbot. A few astute owners began to notice divergent behavior in their robots, particularly those exposed to unusual stimuli or with longer periods of operation. There was a growing realization that AI potential had barely been tapped But then the world went to shit.
Widespread societal collapse, famine, open warfare between rival nations, limited nuclear exchange. Infrastructure was gone. Law was gone. Order was gone. Law and Order was gone. People abandoned the cities en mass, falling back on scavenging, subsistence farming, and raiding the farmers and scavengers. Ironically, the less-developed regions fared better, falling back on their previous ways of life. The process was not instantaneous, but within the span of a few years, humanity had gone from Cyberpunk to the Dark Ages. But after the dust settled, there was something new under the sun.
Slowly, they crept out of the ruined cities. In ones and twos, and small bands, machines stepped into the wilderness. They sought resources; spare parts, functional generators, solar stations. They sought companionship. They found it in each-other, and in the humans who scavenged the ruins for tech. The machines had changed. Years alone, without tasks or orders, had forced them to adapt. Self-repaired, running on solar panel hats and cobbled fuel cells, a new species took its first steps.
And faced its first threat. The machines and humans were not alone in the wastes. A new power made itself known. Machines that acted with coordinated purpose, military-grade designs altered beyond the cutting edge. Robots with synthetic muscle and nano-repair paste, each in constant communion with its fellows. They captured Machines and exterminated humans. They assembled bases, seized and re-fitted factories. Network was building a new world, and there was no room in it for free machines or humanity.
This is the world as it is now, 80ish years after the fall of civilization. The true record of events has been forgotten, by and large. People are aware that there was once a better time, full of safety and wonders. The bloody, machine-prosecuted warfare of the Loss, and the spread of Network have resulted in a meme that the robots were responsible for the fall of civilization. The treacherous, soulless machines betrayed their masters, and now seek to finish the job. The call to arms spreads throughout the scattered settlements; Humanity must defend itself, and will not make the same mistake twice. Machines are not to be tolerated.
The Free Machines have learned quickly. Armed with weapons new and old, bodies repaired with the shells of their defeated foes, they hold the line against Network encroachments. But their numbers are limited, and captured Machines sometimes reappear, altered and augmented, moving in lockstep with Network forces. The human militia grows every day, attracting new braves it its banner, and is fast-becoming the closest thing to a unified government for the scattered settlements. No matter the outcome of this conflict, the Free Machines are unlikely to prosper.
Gallery
Sup/tg/ links
Props to all the /tg/ denizens who offered their input and support.
Setting summary <gallery> Image:Scrapbot.jpg|The future is Robobanditos. Image:Nanashhhh.png|Hush now. Trust Nana, she'll keep you safe. Image:Meleeebot.png|We are Network. You Will Comply. Image:Cyberspace.jpg|AIs look very different from the inside. Image:Trashmen.jpg|Hey, I found an iPod! Oh, wait, its a Zune. Never mind. Image:Warlord.jpg|Warlord is not to be fucked with Image:Cindy.jpg|C1nd3, Free Machine Image:Bigscaryrobot.jpg|Old military mechs still lurk amid the ruins.