Rain Dog
Failure
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Here's an idea I've been kicking around for a while. It's basically a deconstruction/parody of Saturday Morning cartoon shows:
Twenty years ago, the world was invaded. The great Galactic Empire descended upon the Earth like a mighty shadow. Attacking every major city simultanioiusly with giant, monster soldiers and flooding the planet with ground troops, the Earth came very close to falling. A coalition of the major military powers quickly formed. They were aided in the defense of the planet by Yil, a mysterious alien entity who had been exiled to Earth generations ago, and his Celestial Knights, a holy order of warriors weilding technology that blured the lines between the physical and metaphysical. The War lasted a year, with the Empire setting it's base on the moon and regularly gaining territory against the Earth coalition, which ever day resembled a rag tag group of guerilla fighters than an enemy army more and more. Ultimately, however, the war was won when Yil sacrificed himself to turn an enemy Super Weapon against the Empire.
The word, as well as the galaxy, has been changed forever. In order to rebuild, the United Nations took upon itself greater executive powers, and now served as a shaky world government. All the cities destroyed in the war have been rebuilt, but with a few exceptions most have yet to reclaim their former glory. As a result, many smaller neighboring cities and towns which served as a haven for refugees have grown to rival the former status of their neighbors. The presence of alien technology left behind has also changed everything. The military has successfully reverse engineered cruder versions of the technology of Yil's Knights, and has created a special squad of their own Knights to combat special threats. The same technology, as well as other technology left behind by the Empire or reverse engineered from Imperial weapons, has made it's way to the black market, and is used by criminals of all types. In day to day life, the leftover alien technology has greatly altered the day to day lives of average people, with advanced tech available everywhere.
One significant example of this is the DNAlien craze, genetically engineered pets made from terrestrial and alien DNA that have special skills and powers and can perform many tasks, as well as being designed to fit multiple aesthetics. Owning one is a status symbol of sorts, and shows and compititions for them akin to dog shows are a common occourance. Raising, training, and breeding them has become a subculture. Underground fighting rings are illegal, but not unheard of.
Games have become a significant part of the global culture and very serious business. As many athletes died fighting in the war, more intellectual games and sports became crucial for raising morale post war. Chess, various card cames (including trading card games), even tops have become major spectator sports, often with millions of dollars on the line.
The Galactic Empire was seriously effected by the war. After the defeat on Earth, the military was weak enough to fall victim to wide spread rebellion. The royal family went into hiding, and the Empire splintered into many smaller states. While in most cases former member worlds became fully independant once again, several formed a coalition in the form of a federal republis. Smaller than the Empire, it struggles to hold it's former place in the galactic community.
Back on Earth, two major shifts are in the works. The first is physical, as the United Nations space program is on the verge of entering space in the form of a starfleet. The second is metaphysical. There is a change coming. The spiritual world and the physical world are blending in places they didn't before. While magic has always existed, it is regaining strength and prominance it once had, but adapted for modern times. Spirits and Gods are manifesting much more than they used to, perhaps because humans horizons have been opened to the possibility of what lies beyond once more. When they do manifest, their forms are strange. Reflecting pop culture and archtypes of today. In many cases seeming very wry, very sarcastic, very strange... loony, you could say.
The point of the RPG is to be a desonstruction/parody of saturday morning kids shows, so characters should be based on or in reference to cliches and tropes from those shows, albeit through the lense of deconstructions.
I really like the idea of a saturday morning cartoon parody/deconstruction but, I dunno, the plot seems kinda complicated. It could just be my feeble brain, though.
