What will the world do when life expectancies reach 150…or 250? CRISPR and synthetic intelligence threatens to create havoc with our legal, governmental, and social systems. How will people find purpose when genetically modified humans and humoids can do their work faster and better? Will engineered humans displace the unmodified, or will they live at the fringes of society without the legal protections of traditional organics?
Megacorps
Megacorps? Yeah. Zone 17 is replete with megacorps. And as you expect, they run the walled cities throughout the Zone. Some critics hold the opinion that corporations make terrible governments. Of course they do. That said, every government has always been a corporation. Heh. As a great power collapsed, modern princes leveraged unconscionable wealth to fill the power vacuum and build a new society. Scary stuff? Our future?
Of course, international corporations devoted to making numbers go up don’t make for a very stable basis for society. Your average megacity consists of a few islands of clean, orderly corporate enclaves surrounded by urban decay and threatened by plots by rival corporations, interference from nation-states, criminal gangs, revolutionary cells, and terrorist organizations. All of which are fighting between each other for influence and control. Which makes the Zone a terrible place to live, but a great place to find work as a mercenary.
A Dark Future
The world currently faces a clutch of serious challenges. Megacorporations. Climate change. The Singularity. Demographic collapse. Half of Zone 17’s background is extrapolated from current events. The remaining half comprises nudges made to bring everything into a cohesive narrative. Zone 17 is a TTRPG that has all the action and adventure of your favorite RPGs but also includes the tools to explore some of these aforementioned challenges. Some of this exploration can take players to places some might find a bit dark. You don’t have to play using any scary stuff if you don’t want to. But let’s be real. You wantz it. You NEEDZ it
Cyberpunk...but not Cyberpunk
What does Cyberpunk but not Cyberpunk mean? Cyberpunk has several foundations: Dystopia. Cybernetics. High tech. Societal collapse. Zone 17 dabbles in some of these themes. But cybernetics? No. Not really. In the game, technical body mods are possible…but not recommended. Mods are a fetish, perhaps even a lifestyle. But modding carries extraordinary costs and risks (e.g., surgery, hacking). As such, only a small fraction of people mod without extraordinary medical reasons.
So, what is Zone 17?
So…this Zone 17 game? It’s kind of everything. It’s mostly its own thing. Cyberpunk…but not Cyberpunk. Mecha. Bands of bandits fighting over wasteland ruins. Mutated horrors. Genetically engineered meta humans. Synthetic intelligence-driven androids. Dogs and cats living together. Probably some mass hysteria. We cram all sorts of cool ingredients into the soup. Mmm. Tasty.
Sketch Art Styles
Now we’re trying pen sketches. They have a bit more of a third dimension than silhouettes and Rage Mode, and they bring art from different sources into a domain in which they appear somewhat homogeneous.
New Old School
The original Traveller form factor was amazing, but the typesetting and layout were, well, products of their time. Forty-five years have passed. We sorted that out too, to ensure we’re providing a modern, perhaps a bit futuristic, product. We’re bringing the interior page count to a total of 80, almost doubling the original page count. We cleaned up the typesetting and layout. We’re adding interior art and amazing color covers. Our target for the individual printed booklet price is $14.95.
Blasts from the Past
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this booklet size was common. From Nova Games’ Lost Worlds to Task Force Games’ StarFire, publishers and customers enjoyed the high-value and low-cost this design provided.
Format Inspirations
One of the many inspirations for Zone 17 is the original Traveller RPG. Three black and white 48-page booklets. Saddle-stitched. Limited art. I loved the size and Bauhaus-nature of the booklets. They were simple, organized, and inexpensive. Booklets fit into a large pocket. Amazing.
Character Sheet Changes
We are editing the Zone 17 Character Sheet…again. See? This is why military programs cost a bazillion dollars each. Every couple of months, some ridiculous playtester makes some preposterous suggestions about how to improve organization or ergonomics. Ergonomics? Is that even a word? The current Character Sheet is available on our website (Resources — OSS) for you to download. We’ll get the new one posted when I’m finished with it. What? When will that be? WHEN I’M FINISHED WITH IT.
