The world of Calamity resembles what you may have learned in history class, but in our world things have taken a turn for the worse.
Specific details will be released over time in a series of newspaper articles, but we felt it was important to paint a brief picture of America post Calamity. This will have a huge impact on Travel (Blog coming soon!) and better illuminate why people are willing to face the risks to venture into the Whispering Hills.
Carrion Creek
Where is Carrion Creek? It’s in the territory that used to be the state of Arkansas, up in the northwest corner in the Ozark Mountains. The Whispering Hills are an imaginary part of the Ozarks that cover about 200 square miles. Carrion Creek is an old town that has had a resurgence since gold was discovered. Because the Tribal Nations control this land, and because they have learned to not trust the American government, they have leased this land to private parties.
Out West
Since the Calamity, few Americans have travelled west of the Mississippi. Communication with the west has been cut off completely. The few exceptions are the refugees that made it back East with harrowing tales of a landscape forever changed, spirits of the dead not staying put, and dark things stalking the night. When the game begins, the town of Carrion Creek will be the furthest west most Americans have been since the Calamity. The Tribal Nations now control most of the lands west of the Mississippi and even they do not know what now lies further west.
Back East
As you may have read in the Timeline, the Civil War is still ongoing. There have been lulls and cease fires, but they are always broken and the war never changes. Both sides have instituted drafts. There are shortages of food and other essentials. The battle lines may stay the same for a year, then move 50 miles and suddenly you are in occupied territory. Bands of guerilla bushwhackers and deserters from both sides prey upon those they catch outside the protection of towns or more formalized military units.
Practical Impact
Most of us have either run or played games that have spanned continents and even galaxies. For these games travel was an important part of the story, and thus the game was designed in a manner that supported it. For Calamity, we want to change the focus and emphasize the story about life in the Whispering Hills. With travel West being nearly suicidal, and travel East entailing a long and dangerous journey, our focus will be on stories that are taking place locally. Players traveling far outside the Whispering Hills will be nearly impossible in the normal course of play.
The Wars will have little impact on day to day life in Carrion Creek and news about national politics may be weeks out of date when it reaches the frontier. We wanted to be transparent about this facet of the game as we feel it may impact character concepts and decisions.
Between Game Actions (BGAs)
We do not intend to include BGAs as you know them. Instead will we be implementing a concept called Character Insight Reports (CIRs) that will be similar in origin to BGAs, but differ in mechanic, thus the choice to change the name and thus expectations.
These CIRs will allow players to tell us how they envision their life between games, tell us about goals and hopes they might have. Think of them as a “how I spent my summer vacation” report. Ideally these forms will allow us to respond to these goals and hopes with on-screen content.
We will be posting guidelines around these as we get closer to the launch of Calamity.
