Setting:CATastrophe

CATastrophe Alpha Release - Click to download.

On the post Civilized water world of earth, from which humanity has long vanished.
The only traces left of this once-mighty race is ruins, and their creations.

As the moon and the northern ice-cap were struck by immense fresh water comets, the oceans rose quickly in a matter of hours and days, flooding the civilized world in the blink of an eye.
The remnants of humanity that survived the initial cataclysm were faced with a new threat; in the wake of the impact as the frozen alien algae and bacteria thawed from their icy prison, and fed on earths rich oceans.
Poisonous gases were released into the air. As some mammals were struck by the new inhospitable new climate, none were hit harder then mankind, almost as if by exact selection, man could not continue breathing with the new atmosphere.

With their time running out, the last great minds of humanity spliced their genes with those of the remaining adapted mammals, the new breed would be able to survive earth's new climate, and perpetuate some semblance of intelligence on the planet. They released their new creations on the flooded constructs across the globe and what little dry land remained and with that, humanity faded into the sea. Some say the leftovers of a bygone era still lurk beneath the waves in a suspended animation, sleeping a dreamless slumber and waiting in the desperate hope that sometime in the distant future, their creations would learn to restore them to life. Of course, the Earless have become little more than a legend over the years, so it would be impossible to separate the facts from the fiction of these stories.

Earth is now the Endless Blue, populated by races of demi-humans known to themselves as Kemomi who scavenge, survive and thrive amongst the rubble and making their home in humanity's remaining legacy of flooded metropolises that jut defiantly above the Endless Blue, repurposed and refurbished for the carefree kemomi life.

This is the world of Catastrophe.

Premise

Sun, sea, catgirls, and shinies!

The carefree and curious Kemomi are left to explore the ruins of human society, and enjoy nothing more then to embark on new dives, for treasure and adventure.

Catastrophe is a post-humanity world where pristine waters have risen to flood human cities and arcologies.

FAQ

Can I be a CatBOY or some other type of male Kemomi? Is it female only?

You can DEFINITELY be a male. Only in early threads was it female only. The rumors about the gender ratio skewing way towards females are also generally untrue, unless your GM decrees otherwise. Of note is that gender roles are less defined in the world of the Endless Blue; what sex you are has pretty much nothing to do with the profession you choose.

Are there any remaining humans?

No, to avoid the usual grimderp bullshit about humanity reasserting itself, the Earless have completely died off, or left the planet. For the most part there will be no secret underwater bunkers or isolated pockets of surviving Earless, just the slowly decaying underwater ruins, and the various pieces of technology they left behind.

Is this just some furry bullshit?

No. Kemomi are not anthropomorphic animals, they are a genetically engineered successor species to humans, made to be stronger, and able to survive the plague, sickness or whatever it was that killed off humanity. Kemomi are generally accepted to have animal like ears and a tail, and beyond that they do not have fur, or other furry attributes.

How high have the waters risen?

This is at the discretion of the GM. It is also debatable whether or not the setting is on Earth or not; even an unrealistically high amount of waters rising due to an ice comet would not make the earth into a Waterworld-like planet. For those interested in trying to find a realistic amount of water rising, and a map of the world post flood, see: http://merkel.zoneo.net/Topo/Applet/

What killed off humanity (the Earless)?

It is unknown to the Kemomi what killed off the humans. Likely it was an alien plague of some sort carried by ice comets, which also introduced various alien life forms to the oceans. This is generally left up to the GM, allowing them to come up with a storyline that might find out what happened.

What kind of Kemomi are there to play as?

This is largely up to the GM of the game you are playing. Generally-agreed upon races are Felines (cats), Canines (dogs), Lapines (rabbits), Ursines (bears) and Vulpines (Foxes). Other races could include Mice, Otters, et cetera -- but as far as the setting has been established, only mammalian species would have been genespliced with humans.

What kind of creatures are there in the Endless Blue?

Check the CATastrophe Bestiary, FATE and CATastrophe system stats will be uploaded as the people working on those systems get them ready.

What are the Kemomi like?

Again largely this is up to your GM, but CATastrophe is meant to be a lighthearted carefree system for people who are bored of the grimdark of systems like Warhammer 40k, or the high-fantasy aspects of systems like Exalted. There might be violent bands of Kemomi, but most fights will not be to the death, and there is no large-scale violence in the Endless Blue. This does not however, mean that there is no conflict or danger. Dealing with various other species such as Kleptomanders will be an issue, as well as dealing with the relics of the past such as the Oldguards in the Earless ruins. There is also the old standbys of Giant Squids, Sharks, and other marine life.

Game mechanics

CATastrophe game mechanics

MAID Conversion System for CATastrophe and Character Creator

MAID Conversion CATastrophe game mechanics

MAID CATastrophe Character Creation

Shiny Dive (Writefaggotry)

“So this is it, huh? I don’t see any treasure.” Shansha took off her scuba mask and began scratching aggresively at her ears and wringing out her tail to the best of her ability. Those rubber straps always irritated her ears and the water did her no favors either.

“S’what the wanderer said. Said he didn’t have the gear to go down himself, but he could somethin’ shinin’ down underwater.” Marko stretched, also removing his mask and letting it hang around his neck. Their troupe just hit the air pocket on the old tower. He hopefully wouldn’t need it for a little while now. He liked the taste of this stale air the ruins captured. It tasted like…history.

“You met a guy wandering all alone? Why didn’t you bring him back to town?” J’kai cut in, ears perking up as she suddenly became interested in the conversation.

“Because I'm not evil enough to wish that upon even my most hated enemies.” Quipped, giving her ear a little flick as he walked by her.

“Hey! Meanie! ‘Sides, I never hear YOU complaining.” J’kai countered, rubbing her ear defensively.

“That’s, enough, ladies!” a woman, the only one still wearing her scuba mask, barked at the trio before remembering to add on a “…and Marko. We came here for a reason, so let’s get whatever it is you were looking for and get the hell out of here before any Oldguards show up.”

“You the boss, BB.” Marko shrugged. He seriously doubted there would be any Oldguard in this ruin. They usually only showed up in the ones with real shiny stuff. The only reason this place hadn’t been picked clean by other treasure hunters yet was due to how far off from any settlement it was. They would’ve never bothered to even check if it wasn’t for that tip. Of course, it was Bahi-Bahi’s job to be cautious, that eyepatch of hers was a constant reminder of what happens when you get careless while spelunking. Not that she’s any less aggressive than before. If anything, she got meaner and tougher from the encounter. You know what that say about porcupine dogs…

The quartet wandered around the ruin for a spell, grabbing an energy drink here and some catnip there, but never finding anything to make the trip worthwhile.

“I think that wanderer sold you bad intel, Marko.” Shansha smirked

“Nah, he seemed trustworthy enough. It’s gotta be around here somewhere…”

She only giggled at his denials “Face it. You got scammed, sweetheart.”

“Aha! There it is!” Marko’s face brightened as he ran forward and hugged a strange looking box with a glass panel on one side.

“A box? That’s what we came all this way for?” J’kai raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“None of you have ever stepped foot in the Archives, have you?” Marko sighed

“Reading about all that old stuff is boring when you could be finding it!” J’kai countered cheerily

“That’s men’s work. No reason to bother myself with it.” Shansha shrugged.

“I keep meaning to, but…” Bahi-Bahi offered weakly.

Marko let out another sigh. “Well, if any of you HAD bothered to listen to all the voices captured on the speakyboxes, you would know that the Earless used these things to store information, if I can only get it to–” he plugged a few wires into his portabattery and began pressing buttons seemingly at random until he was finally rewarded with a glimmer of light from the glass panel “–turn on. And there we go. Time to find out what the Earless saved on this one.” After typing on the tablet in front of him and gazing intently at the screen for a few minutes, much to the mystification of the three girls, Marko leaned back and pulled on his ears in frustration, letting them droop flat. “And the thing is locked. It needs a password, I think, but I have no idea how to figure out what, though”

“Well, if I was going to put a password on something, I would make it something easy to remember like ‘password’.” J’kai offered helpfully, entranced by the gentle swaying of a nearby dangling light

J’kai, bless her heart, was virtually every stereotype about her kind rolled into one. She was scatterbrained, as lazy as any of her kind in even the most dire of circumstances, it was damn hard to motivate her to do anything she didn’t want to do, and Bahi-Bahi would NEVER trust her with an arc rifle. And yet, when push came to shove, she was one of the best treasure hunters around. To this day, no one knows how she managed to lift an entire energy drink vending machine, much less swipe one from the middle of a den of kleptomanders without waking a single one of them up. Marko shrugged and decided to try her suggestion anyways. It couldn’t hurt.

“…It worked.”

“Hah! I'm a genius! In your FACE, Marko!”

Marko just chuckled quietly to himself and got back to work, removing various electronics from their waterproof containers and plugging them into the ancient machine and typing and clicking furiously, pausing occasionally to shoo away J’kai whenever her boredom compelled her to bat at his flitting tail. Finally he let out an exuberant cheer and began packing up his equipment.

“So what’d you find?” Shansha looked up from the rubble she had been occupying herself with, some nondescript object shining in her hand. “Some sorta treasure trove of old words?”

“Nope, something better.”

“Blueprints for some of the mechworks back home?”

“Even better.”

“Just tell us already!” J’kai interrupted frustratedly.

“Fine, fine, but only because you asked so nicely.” Marko hit a button on the speakybox he brought with him, prompting it to emit a bizarre noise.

“Is that…music?” Bahi-Bahi eyed him from her defensive point watching the door they came in from, lowering her arc rifle ever so slightly.

“Earless music.” Marko triumphantly corrected her.

“Oh man, this is gonna be the BEST pool party ever when we get back!” J’kai shouted before falling into jubilant gossip and planning with Shansha. Even Bahi broke down and started discussing what she was going do when they got back to town and who she was going to woo with her loot, her tail wagging so fast that Marko could feel a gentle breeze as he walked behind the group, silently praising himself for his decision of career change from mechano-historian to treasure hunter.