Hellworld: Pitch and Premise

“In October 1962 the Americans dropped depth charges in international waters to force the Russian submarine B-59 to surface during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With no communications from Moscow, and standing orders to open fire if attacked, Captain Valentin Savitsky launched the subs 10 kiloton warhead upon Orlando, Florida causing damage on par to Hiroshima some twenty years earlier.

The Americans launched on Cuba and the Soviet Union; the Russians retaliating which triggered essentially the end of the world. The plumes of radioactive smoke singed the atmosphere which in turn brought a horrific acid rain that left few countries untouched.

This is the world, or what’s left of it…”

**

Welcome to Hellworld

Its Mad Max meets Waterworld meets Escape From L.A meets Fallout. Gangs roaming the open wastelands with pockets of civilisation, or what passes for it. Bullets and technology are prized but nothing more prized than fresh water. Survival is the name of the game.

As the map shows the areas in red were hit with one if not more nuclear strikes. Entering these areas without a proper radiation suit, which is as rare as rocking horse poo, and you’ll die within a month due to the toxicity the closer you get to ground zero. The cities are run by warlords and those who took charge, by fortune or committee, in the aftermath. Some a quite reasonable like Willow Creek and Goldsboro, and some are run by tyrants and psychopaths like the Principality of Savannah and Fresnotown.

There are rumours of a massive fresh water reservoir in Kansas, just like there are rumours of a functioning munitions on an abandoned army base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Also there seems to be someone called ‘The Commander-In-Chief’ trying to re-establish the United States headquartered somewhere in Albany, New York.

It’s a cruel, nasty, dog-eat-dog world but it’s home. Primarily (as the map suggests) its set in the USA but if you want to see other parts of the world because you want to do a Japanese based story, we can probably accommodate.

If you want to come play there’s some rules, conditions, hurdles and such but there’s the pitch.

Ready to unleash hell?

@batkevin74: Does it have to be grounded in real science/ physics, or has the radiation caused things like giant brontosaurus sized geckos? I guess I'm asking what the conditions and hurdles are.

@ficopedia: I'm initially going normal physics but radiation mutates things. Just googling 'animal mutated by radiation' and the real world has some nightmarish things like six legged cattle and cycloptic sharks! These things could breed and spawn a new species.

But for the moment no giant acid spewing lizards, but we never say never until we say it :)

@batkevin74: Hmm...okay. My only thought here is: I think the reason Wild Western turned so quickly from straight Western to Weird West was that it was more flexible. Real physics/ science requires research, and bleh research lol. #researchishard <tilts head to one side with defeated pleading look> ;)

@ficopedia: nothing wrong with a bit of research, gets people out of their comfort zone of inserting magical deus ex machina type stuff in.

Though its probably the best bit in Red Fog, the werewolf scene was only added coz we allowed vampiric gunslingers, spider-witch women and the children of Michael J Fox in when it could've, should've just been straight gunslinging and rodeos. Most of Morgan is just that

But if someone has a good reason and story on WHY and HOW a giant brontosaurus sized gecko is romping through Little Rock Arkansas asides from "oh it ate radioactive waste and now its a Godzilla" then probably yeah. Also it's about 1980 so gene-splicing, DNA and the like didn't get invented yet due to a nuclear war

@batkevin74: Well, I was being very tongue-in-cheek about the research thing, but I'm saying it seems less popular than it should be. I get the best feedback on the stories I actually research. In groups though, everyone seems to want to jump off the starting line and sprint for the first few issues, rather than take time to research anything. Just wondering if that will be a factor here for potential writers. ...Realizing this is the second group idea we've nitpicked this week. It's official: I'm an old nag today. lol

Sounds cool. The characters you named are NPC and can be used by the members of the group?

@johnjo719: There will be some NPC's for communal use if people want, and people can create their own cities and townships

Sounds cool. I might really want to join up

@johnjo719: Coolio! At the moment it's just you and me, will give it a few days before we start see if others want to come play

@batkevin74: I assume that's a blanket no on Fist of the North Star type stuff?

@joshmightbe: You mean a guy who pulls giant bullwhips out of his head and people cutting off other peoples arms with chi-razor things?

Yeah I'm trying for a slightly believable post apocalytpic world but I'm not totally banning it. It needs a excellent explanation though instead of "oh coz he drank radioactive sea water and he's a ninja so that's why he can shoot fireballs and fly!" More Mad Max than Fist is what I'm hoping for.

@batkevin74: Fist of the North Star is just one of the things that pop in my head when the whole post apocalyptic thing comes up. The weird thing is I'm not even really a fan of it.

@joshmightbe: Seen the movie several times but the ending is weird...actually the whole damn thing is weird!

Hellworld could/can/might have people who are "better" than normal just like Mad Max with Humungus who's a giant masked guy or Master Blaster who is two guys operating as one. But right off the bat I'm going to keep the powers at a minimum

@batkevin74: That's fine by me.

I think if we do this we need to make sure we have all our characters interact sometimes with each other. I think this was already mentioned. A way to manage that I think is too kind of decode a short term direction for the group like: are our characters working build up civilization again? Or are they just out for personal gain? Or are they living for pure survival?

@johnjo719: agreed, josh started a PM which I'll add you too and we shall discuss

@batkevin74: I was just about to ask if you'd had a chance to see that.

@joshmightbe: sent, more soon

I wonder if @time_phantom wants to play

Bumped

Awesome stuff.

Keep up the good work.

^_^

Casual bump

@batkevin74:Would it be cool with you if I wrote a one-shot in this world?

@whoisme: Sure, I'll add you into the PM so you can see the rules, guidelines and feel of the world and if it fits with what you want and what we want.

@tommythehitman here's that thing

This actually seems really cool. Already got an idea flashing through my head that could prove intriguing, if this gets started let me know.

@tommythehitman: It got started, then came to a halt, and Batkevin' recently started his story back up again. You know how it is. ;)