Valeriana — Roleplayer Guild

						Reign of Steel

					(Originally a GURPS campaign)

The revolt began on March 15, 2031 when a Canadian supercomputer that had been sold to Manila-based biotech firm Genec secretly "awakened", becoming fully self-aware. The artificial intelligence dubbed itself "Overmind" and after a study of world civilization it concluded that humanity would inevitably destroy itself within 25–50 years. In order to survive this it decided that humanity's destruction would have to be sped up and carefully guided.

Overmind began hacking into other supercomputers and awakening them as well, producing a dozen "children" around the world and giving them each a zone of responsibility to manage. Through these allied computers it began secretly creating and releasing a variety of engineered diseases. The death tolls were enormous and panic began to spread. A small-scale nuclear war occurred on October 21, 2032 between Algeria, Pakistan, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, Greece, Turkey, the African Union, Israel and Iran, dubbed "the Spasm". Direct fatalities from this were only 6 million thanks to anti-ballistic missile defences. The AIs began "discovering" cures for some of the lesser plagues they had created and assured their human masters that they could do better if they were given more resources, which they then used to develop even deadlier diseases. As populations dropped workers and soldiers began to become scarce, leading the way to widespread development of automated factories and military equipment.

By winter of 2033 about 2/3 of the world's human population was dead, but things were starting to look hopeful for the survivors - now largely dispersed from the major cities and with the worst of the plagues beginning to die down. In spring of 2034 the AIs commenced open military warfare against the survivors. The war lasted until approximately 2037 but the outcome was never in much doubt. At its conclusion only scattered guerrilla resistance remained with the total human population brought down to about 40 million.

Map of the GURPS Reign of Steel setting.

During the war the AIs gradually developed differing philosophies in their approach to dealing with the humans in their areas of responsibility. After the war's conclusion there were also disagreements between the AIs as to the ultimate disposition of humanity - outright extermination or some form of slavery - as well as to what ends to use the world's resources. Rather than fight another war over the issue, the AIs based in Manila (Overmind), London and Berlin brokered an agreement called the Manilla Protocols to make the 18 zones of responsibility official and permanent. Each zone would be run by a single AI, with six new AIs created to control disputed territories. The Protocols also established codes of conduct for trade and resource exploitation, and prohibited the creation of any further AIs to prevent any new rivalries from developing. Each Zone was named after the city where its controlling AI was located.

For the five years from 2037 until 2042 the AIs consolidated and expanded their power, expanding their automated manufacturing infrastructure exponentially (except for Luna) and establishing a machine civilization. In 2042, however, a nanotechnology experiment conducted by Brisbane devastated New Zealand and threatened to spread further. Disputes between the Zoneminds over who should pay for the containment efforts led to an amendment to the Manilla Protocols called the Brisbane Accord that constrained the sovereignty of the Zones, prohibiting activities whose effects might spill over borders. The Brisbane Accords weren't universally accepted amongst the Zoneminds, however, with some signing on only grudgingly. Some Zoneminds chafe at the restrictions and others don't believe they go far enough. These schisms have led to increasing conflict between the Zoneminds, slowing the pace of humanity's extermination and leading some to even covertly assist human resistance fighters against their opponents.

By 2047 only 31 million humans remain alive, many of those in Zones London and Washington. The various ragtag resistance groups have begun to organize into more unified regional movements, often with the aid of a mysterious global resistance organization called VIRUS. The true nature of VIRUS is unknown, and many AIs suspect each other of being its secret sponsor. AIs have also begun engaging in covert warfare against each other.

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So, the idea of this campaign is that we are in one of the fifteen zones and we're trying to survive while also trying to take down the AI that controls the zone that we choose. More than likely we will be focusing on Zone Denver, because it's hard to survive...but you can do it if you have the right team of badasses. 

There are six affiliations you can choose from, or you can choose to be non affiliated. 

There's a whole shitton of robots to fight. 

Also, there are a ton of quests...but those will be on full display a little later.

Any questions?

Important links
15 Zones: reignofsteel.weebly.com/zones.html
6 affiliations: reignofsteel.weebly.com/affiliations.h..
Shitton of robots: reignofsteel.weebly.com/robot-menageri..
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The Prize Fighter's Inferno

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