Monstrous diseases. Climate destabilization. Enormous meteors streak the sky. One small team gets into the know about supernatural occurrences, and it leads all the way to the top--decrepit warlords hoping to survive as the new god-kings of a crumbling reality, or perhaps, hoping to buy-in to the next cycle.
This is likely the Nightmare Alternate Reality that exists in one episode of a brighter setting.[1]
Setting Verbatim[]
- Character Creation: The PCs are special-ops troopers and spies – the last good men in a suicidal civilization, witch-hunters with stealth helicopters and silver bullets. Or they’re an alliance of Cabalists like the Brotherhood of Phlebas, ones who fear the truth – but who fear ignorance more. Non-Cabalists should begin with robust survival and intelligence skills, to keep them alive until they learn enough of the truth to use countermagic.
- Power Level: 150-250 points.
- Genre: Horror, conspiracy.
- Modes: Gritty, investigative, possibly splatter or technothriller.
- Background: Modern, globetrotting, possibly urban.
- Notes: Conspiracy theory as modern noir. The protagonists stumble onto something that points to a reason for the world going to hell, something that throws them into conflict with a callous and inhuman Inner Circle. The Inner Realms should be kept grim, horrific, and very alien. Played with more emphasis on the dramatic, this could become a dark modern pulp game. At higher, perhaps cosmic levels, the heroes might even be black ops (see p. 82)
Notes[]
p.82 has this sidebar:
GURPS Black Ops -- Against a global conspiracy of undead monstrosities and sorcery-slinging maniacs, the only weapon is the black ops. Dr. Selden Graves (p. 17) is likely a key member of Argus in a Black Ops/Cabal crossover game. The black ops may be a little disoriented by the Inner Realms at first, but that’s why they have a Technology department. Alternatively, perhaps Argus and the black ops are a front that the Cabal has set up to fight off the Grey invasion without endangering the secret of magic. That’s why they tell the ops that the “Lodges” they go up against are rogue, self-deluding psionics. When the black ops figure out that they’re being played, do they turn on Argus and the Cabal – even if it means letting the Greys in?
References[]
- GURPS Cabal, p.86
- ↑ Fan interpretation