Background
The world has ended.
It’s easy to start out with that: the world ending. Because it implies everything ended. And that, as many things are, is a lie. The thing about this world: it’s creatures and its inhabitants is that they continue to survive long after things should have brought them to a designated end.
When the great blackout came, it came at the worst time globally. Scholars still argue what caused the great blackout; some argue it was the biggest solar flare in the history of earth; others argued it was an EMP blast launched from some foreign nation. It didn’t matter what caused the great blackout, only that it happened and it took away our entire modern world.
Everything had become so mechanized. Machines and computers controlled most of our modern lives. They built our machines, ran our cities, kept us alive and entertained us. And in one swift moment: we lost it all. Cars stopped working. Infrastructure broke down. Millions died in the first week. By the time the winter came: a cold and harsh winter; millions more died. Cities became giant crypts of the dead, wrecked with disease; and as the years passed, became dangerous crumbling monoliths to the old world.
America was no more. How could it persist when nearly every leader perished in the first weeks? But there’s something about humans: even when most them die out; some still survive. Against the odds they continue to scrounge and scavenge. They form groups, then communities, then settlements and finally we have the world today.
Modern technology was lost to us; but in that loss we discovered that some things still worked: old technology, tossed to the wayside and put out of use for centuries now became the tools to keep society alive. Steam combustion, black powder, horses; things regarded as quaint in the old world became the way to survive. Those with the means to harness this technology became the new centers in the new world.
These new growing cities were called Steamtowns. Built on rivers, on the banks of old decaying cities, in large farmlands or anywhere safe from the debris and danger of the old world, these became the seats of new nations in the shadow of nations passed. The most famous Steamtown was known by many as Blackfinger, though its true name was Baker’s Rest. Blackfinger was the heart of manufacturing in this new world; acting as both a trading city on the lower banks of the Great River, and as the heart of new invention. It’s the heart of the Freetowns, a loose government based around the Great River. It’s where this tale begins.
Premise
Steamtown is a heavily multigenre roleplay: a thick mixture beginning with a post-apocalyptic setting; and then mixing in both a steampunk and a western theme to the world. Simply put, a world-ending catastrophe has occurred and an event--unknown to the characters--has made all modern technology completely unusable. Cars, computers, modern trains and planes; everything that could be destroyed by an EMP or a solar flare has. This caused mass deaths: around 75% of the human population has died in the past 80 years.
The characters of this story come from all walks of life; from traders, farmers and engineers to bounty hunters and ex-gang members. The story converges in Baker's Rest; more popularly known as Blackfinger; the Menlo Park of this new era where engineers and machinists build new technology based off of 1800s-early 1900s technology. It's very much steampunk in that sense, but instead of a bright and Victorian world, it's a dark, gritty western world where people scrape by to survive.
The RP is both plot and character focused. I'm looking for RP'ers who are happy to really paint an interesting and varied cast of misfits who adventure through this harsh and dangerous world. I've got tons more background and world information saved up for this RP; but i'll be posting that giant dumb of information in the OOC topic (if I can get enough interest in this whole shebang). If you've got questions, concerns, bad jokes, insults or requests, feel free to shout them here or shoot me a PM. Thanks everyone!
