So, what is a|state?
a|state
is a tabletop roleplaying game produced by Contested
Grounds Studios.
Set in The City, nearly one thousand years after the Shift, I'll let
the creators summarise the setting for you in their own words:
Nearly one thousand years ago, as far as anyone can tell, an
event took place. Why and how this event happened remains unknown. But
it happened, and since then, things have been different in The City.
Philosophers, scientists and poets agree that the The City once had a
name. In the present it is simply called The City, for there is nowhere
else other than the blasted Outlands.
The event came to be known as The Shift, a change in reality
so great that the very fabric of The City was changed forever. Places
and people were altered, new beings sprang, fully formed into
existence. One fact that is known is that almost immediately after The
Shift, The City was subjected to a rain of fire known as The
Bombardment. Infernos fell from the sky and laid waste to whole tracts
of land. More important than the destruction of the physical was the
destruction of knowledge that The Bombardment caused. Datacores were
wiped, libraries reduced to ashes and the memories of the survivors
scarred. No remnant of life before The Shift and The Bombardment
remains, only a few structures of vast size and strength remain to
remind the inhabitants of the past. For centuries people have lived in
limbo, the only history that of the past hundred decades.
Now, centuries later, The City is a study in contrasts. The
majority of the population live in tenements and towers built of brick,
stone and concrete. Their dwellings are lit by gas piped in from huge
rubbish heaps, their clothes made from crude fibres and their property
that of a society barely reaching the industrial age. In the domains of
the macrocorps, things are very different. The corporate citizens have
access to the finest food, to unlimited power and light, to shining
vehicles and well made clothes. Their soldier who guard them ward off
rioters armed with black powder sparklock weapons, the soldiers
themselves carrying sleek gauss rifles and compact lasers.
Excerpt © Contested Ground Studios 2001-2006
