Y 2 K

A world of analog sci-fi and shattered space-time.

This Playgroup has open memberships. But you must Sign up or Log in to join.

Latest World Events

View all World Events
Soren made a Move (kathymer GMed) 1 week, 3 days ago. View Move

Secure Facility

Soren gets the opportunity to see something few while returning alive: a Prometheus Ventures blacksite. Buried in the woods a few miles outside the city's Stability Field, it contains state-of-the-art medical facilities capable of treating the sting. Unfortunately, a bag over the head means Soren can't track the exact location (at least without making another Move or two) but he now knows of its existence.

Blackburn seems very reluctant to let him go.

Jax Maxwell made a Move (kathymer GMed) 1 week, 3 days ago. View Move

Rolling Thunder, Crashing Drums

Jax Maxwell and The Thunder Rollers perform a show at the Moore Theater, elevating them to local celebrity status as well as overseas.

Latest Journals

1 week, 2 days ago: Jax Maxwell wrote a Downtime Journal for Bobasaurus

Getting to know the crew

In the past, Soren's contracts had always been for others. His first contract was the save the life of his Daughter. His second, to secure he financial future. His third, to restore the health of his Mother. But now, after years of waiting for word from "the other side", Soren is finally ready to pursue his original pledge. His family is safe, defended, and secure. Now it is time for him to become the servant, the tool, and the weapon that is best suited to whatever his Lord (non-gendered title) needs from him. 

Soren had always been interested in the gifts that his Daughter and Mother had gained. In fact, he had even begun to suspect that his Mother was secretly a contractor as well. But this was his first time experiencing one of these boons for himself. In the wake of the Bobasaur incident, Soren ability to fight with blades improved. 

While this might have been imperceptible to someone who had never seen him fight before, or was not themselves a master of the martial arts. For Soren the effect felt immediate, and powerful. His movements when he trained, once so thoughtful, so much the result of strain and concentration, now came to him as if he had been practicing for decades. Advanced blocks, attacks, and sweeps that he had previously struggled with, or hoped to one day work towards, now flowed easily. He moved with greater efficiency, so that his movement took less effort, and yet, with that increased efficiency, that lower effort often resulted in even greater levels of speed and power. 

Soren, being an agent, was equal parts efficient field operative and skilled office worker. He was used to writing complex reports that concisely laid out the details of missions. But as he thought about his most recent mission, there were several unknown variables. He had been partnered with a man who appeared to be a half-naked fool, barely able to differentiate between reality and fantasy and struggling with Sarcasm as if he were a child. And yet, it was this very same man who first figured out where their initial target was located, and who then lured the manager of that facility into a false sense of security so that Soren could take him out. Oh, he had whined and complained, and been quick to flee when things got tough, but he had also, undoubtedly, been valuable. 

Then there was Maurine. She had seemed a normal business woman. An artist type who'd been working long enough to be over and fed up with just about everything. And yet, she had managed the little drummer boy, secured a sample of the drink, and deceived their targets. She had also stepped up and shown bravery when it came to draining that horrid tub, and the uncovering the source of evil within it. 

Soren made a point of accepting the little drummer boys invitation when he invited him to a concert. And when it was over, and he traveled back home, he also made a point of researching these two new people, who may or may not be passing in and out of Soren's life in the near future. 

 1 week, 3 days ago: Jax Maxwell wrote a Downtime Journal for Bobasaurus

Taiko Drum Show

Having been invited to Seattle for a cultural showing of his Taiko Drum expertise.  He invites his fellow contractors to his showing, Marine and Soren, at the Moore's Theater.  Soren attended the show.

 

The show was a huge success!  The Thunder Rollers, quickly became the talk of the town and gained a following with the local Seattle population.  Jax Maxwell then goes on to collaborate with some local musicians to make more music and experiment with Taiko Drums in new genres.  Everything from Rock & Roll to Blue Grass.  Jax not only shows off his musical skill, but he also learns about the local musical culture as well.

 

Jax then gets curious about the local Native American culture and contacts then to get their take on the state of the world and learn things from them.  This allows Jax to pick up some occult tips and tricks.

 

Jax's is starting to regret listening to that tape...

Latest Completed Contracts

1 Contracts have been run in this Playgroup
Y 2 K was created by kathymer 1 week, 6 days ago

kathymer
Playgroup Leader

Sloane Ingram the damaged photographer psychic
A 0-Victory Newbie Contractor

DenBlackwolf
Playgroup Judge

Soren the former jock champion of justice
A 1-Victory Newbie Contractor

foodoman
Playgroup Judge

Jax Maxwell the Professionally Taiko Drummer ancestor caller
A 1-Victory Newbie Contractor
Zeta 9 the Android transdimensional anomaly
A 0-Victory Newbie Contractor

GlitterRaven
Playgroup Judge

Maureen Lavender the artist fairy
A 1-Victory Newbie Contractor

Earth, Y 2 K

It is the distant future -- 2000 A.D. -- and the Cold War burns hotter by the day. The 1995 detonation of a Fracture Bomb by an unknown terrorist cell shattered the sky into a nightmare kaleidoscope and cracked the fabric of reality.

Life goes on as usual for the average person, save an increasingly grim news cycle and frequent intrusions from alternate realities. But behind the scenes, global pressure is mounting. Recently, entities calling themselves The Harbingers have slipped through various Fractures, claiming to be representatives of the Powers That Be. They offer Gifts from other worlds... if you're looking for a side hustle.

House Rules

Contractors from Y 2 K Are portable, and may play in Contracts in other Playgroups.
Y 2 K grants 6 Experience points to GMs who achieve the Golden Ratio.

Supernatural Powers: All non-mastery, non-concealed Powers must be obviously supernatural when activated or grant a mutation that marks the wielder as supernatural or bizarre if discovered.

Full Setting Description

Jan 3rd, 1945

The Manhattan Project

Seven months before the Trinity explosion (what we know as the "first" detonation of an atomic bomb), the real first test is conducted. The bomb, named "Derecho", is set up on a blast site deep in the New Mexico desert. The researchers' instruments, however, are insufficient to detect the presence of an anomaly in the site itself: a small Fracture in reality, only two nanometers long.

With one minute left on the countdown to detonation, every monitoring and control instrument on site shuts down. The retrieved data shows readings as though the bomb had already gone off. Later study reveals this effect as para-causal. A shockwave rippling backwards through time. With their machines scrambled, the researchers have no way to stop Derecho from going off.

There is no explosion. The Fracture absorbs all of the energy of the blast and tears, leaving a 74-mile long hole through space and time in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The site is quarantined. Only three people survive the rip and subsequent anomalous fallout, one of them a physicist by the name of J. Robert Oppenheimer. 

The Manhattan Project is repurposed. After the war, research on the Fracture is given a new name: Project Titan.

December 10, 1987

The Ultra-USSR

A whistleblower goes public with the details of Project Titan. The Fracture becomes public knowledge, as does the knowledge that the United States government has been developing an apocalyptic weapon known as a Fracture Bomb as part of the arms race with the Soviets. Should even one go off, the Earth and its surrounding space will be destabilized completely. Global relations are, to say the least, shaken. The USSR immediately withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by Reagan and Gorbachev two days earlier. 

Fleeing allies and neutral countries that condemn the actions of the US join forces with the Soviets. The Ultra-USSR is born, and a Cold War on the verge of standstill reignites.

November 5, 1995

The Great Fracture

Early morning, November 5th, an eighteen-wheeler plows through the side of the King's Cross station in London. An unidentified terrorist group seizes control of the Underground. They are masked, extremely well armed, and make no demands. The standoff with authorities is globally televised and only lasts the hour it takes for them to run a large amount of power to a device in the back of the truck. By the time someone recognizes it for what it is, it's too late.

The Fracture Bomb detonates.

Photographer Fuses Different Snapshots of Sky Into Single Images


London is obliterated instantly. An area with a diameter stretching from Manchester to Paris is rendered uninhabitable. Around the world, those outside witness the sky itself crack and split into a nightmare kaleidoscope of skies not our own. Smaller Fractures appear and disappear at random. First contact with entities from other times and dimensions is messy and violent. The fact that the Great Fracture happened to erase the USA's strongest allies does not escape those in power, but every military finds itself newly preoccupied with securing its own borders. Ironically, the sheer chaos unleashed is the only thing that stops the Cold War going hot in the wake of the bombing.

Jan 1, Y2K

The Here and Now

2000 A.D. Most major cities protect themselves from dangerous Splitstorms, anomalous weather events, and the occasional kaiju attack through a combination of large, expensive-to-maintain Stabilizer Fields and martial law. From the Fractures have come the Harbingers, beings from other worlds and times that all claim to represent "The Powers that Be"... though no one is able to clarify that point with them. The Harbingers prove near-impossible to kill or contain. They act as something of a talent agency, passing on Contracts seemingly at random from corporations, 3-letter agencies, and powerful individuals. There is no apparent pattern to the jobs they accept or deny, but those that accept these Contracts from a Harbinger are given Gifts in return; anomalous powers and items that are, of course, immediately made highly illegal.

Despite the best efforts of the remaining nations, the Harbingers become public knowledge. Those who can find them test their skill and mettle in exchange for power. The streets run over with the newly-Gifted. Paranoia builds as the remaining nations build up their stock of supersoldiers. The events of this year will determine the

World Events

Soren made a Move (kathymer GMed) 1 week, 3 days ago. View Move

Secure Facility

Soren gets the opportunity to see something few while returning alive: a Prometheus Ventures blacksite. Buried in the woods a few miles outside the city's Stability Field, it contains state-of-the-art medical facilities capable of treating the sting. Unfortunately, a bag over the head means Soren can't track the exact location (at least without making another Move or two) but he now knows of its existence.

Blackburn seems very reluctant to let him go.

Jax Maxwell made a Move (kathymer GMed) 1 week, 3 days ago. View Move

Rolling Thunder, Crashing Drums

Jax Maxwell and The Thunder Rollers perform a show at the Moore Theater, elevating them to local celebrity status as well as overseas.

Posted by kathymer, 1 week, 3 days ago. Permalink

Riots Around Seattle University

Senseless violence erupts in the Seattle University area, affecting a large majority of students, faculty, and other locals. Suspected to be a supernatural event, it lasted approximately five minutes before coming to a sudden and confusing halt.

View all World Events