Friday, May 05, 2006


Edit: Crap. I just found out there's a German game called Industria. A search I did a few month ago came up clear. All that work on the logo...shot to hell.

My current personal gaming project. Industria is being designed from the ground up to be the first player-created trading card game. The basic intent is that players will given tools to create cards, rules, and art for the game. The basic setting, rules, and factions will be established at the beginning to provide a launchpad for whatever fans choose to do. While the setting is meant to be a dark, sci-fi, environment, where it goes will be largely decided by the players. At least, that's the plan.

Setting:

Industria is a 10,000 square mile city, surrounded and engulfed by a sea of poisonous gas. Only the upper levels of the thousands of towers provide complete safety from the poison below. The city is controlled by the Monastery, an enclave of super scientists and self-proclaimed gods. While they are in control, they are far too apathetic to rule. That is left to the oppressive Ministry of Technology, who use tidbits of super technology provided by their masters to keep a stranglehold on the workers who keep the city's massive mechanised life support systems functioning.

Factions:

The Monastery - Amoral super scientists who see the city and its inhabitants as nothing more than raw materials for their bizarre experiments. Two factions control different aspects of the Monastery. The humanoid Mages have unlocked the secrets of biological immortality and appear human, at least on the outside. The monstrous Priests have long ago replaced thier organic bodies with mechanical apparatus designed to prolong life indefinitely. Priests constantly tinker and modify themselves, so the older the Priest the more twisted and inhuman it appears.

Ministry of Technology - The Monastary's tool for controlling the masses. The MoT is for all practical purposes the governement of Industria. It does not govern the people directly, however, but instead is responsible for keeping the city's massive and labor intensive life support machinery functioning...at any cost. Keeping the masses in line is simply a by-product of their assigned tast. The MoT answers only to the Monastery.

The Hidden - Shadowy figures with mysterious goals and powerful mental abilities. Such is their power that they move completely unnoticed through the corridors and platforms of Industria.

Unionists - Rebel workers and scientists who fight the MoT for what passes for freedom in Industria. Unionists use forbidden knowledge and technology to gain the upper hand on the well equipped and numerically superior MoT, though such victories seldom last.

Underlurkers - Forced by desperation into the structures built below the poisonous cloud level, these poor souls have been mutated by constant exposure to the gas. The Underlurkers range from mentally enhanced super scientists, rivaling the Mages of the Monastary to beast-like sub humans. Most have a powerful hatred of those that live above the cloud.

Minions - Millions of people toil, steal, con, and otherwise make their lives in the city. Some are fiercely loyal to one faction or another, others couldn't care less for the Industria's politics. Anonymity is the only thing all Minions have in common.

The Game: While still early in development, the basic system will most closely resemble a simplified DoomTown TCG, with characters, locations, and missions setting the scene for action and victory.

This game will require more than just game design to succeed. Web design, art, and other talents will be needed in order to make the user-generated trading card game a reality.