World Overview
A talking head from the Empire News Network came on the air during prime time. Somberly, she told the universe the news. Feroxidite, the material used in Faster-Than-Light (FTL) travel, was gone. We’d used it all up. Choose your final destination and get on the last transport there.
For one reason or another, you’ve chosen to travel to the Uzkallan system, home to the Uzkallan people. Uzkallans are the youngest species inducted into the Empire following their discovery that the Empire 6 observation station in orbit around their planet was not, in fact, their god.
Empire 6 is where our story takes place. On the outer fringes of Empire space, trillions of light years from Old Earth and getting further away with every passing moment. The station was built several hundred years ago and, while it has been constantly upkept by the Empire, now has had its main source of support cut off. Survival in the wilds is the name of the game.
The Species of Empire 6
In Empire 6, there are 10 separate species. 5 of them are unplayable and we won’t go into too much detail about them until later. The other 5 are considered the ‘main’ species of the game.
Humans - Love them or hate them, Humans make up the vast majority of the citizens of the Empire. They simply have a larger population than the others! As the founding species of the Empire, they have tirelessly worked to bring all sentient life together in harmony.
Uzkallans - These humanoids come from a planet that is more than 95% water. Any aquatic (non amphibian!) creature mixed with a human describes the breadth of these folk. Their population is split. Some hate the Empire for giving them false gods while the others seek to gain modernization through assimilation into the Empire.
Rakkuri - When humanity first settled the stars, this colony decided their bodily autonomy was worth more than Old Earth’s laws. They spliced their own genome until they became something entirely different than human. Part human, and part animal, the Rakkuri seek to better themselves through exploring the limits of genetics.
Kurile - When greed goes unchecked, the cost may be too great. For the Kurile, it was their home planet. Now, these space-faring nomads have suffered centuries of radiation-induced genetic destruction and their bodies are not quite the same. Every group of Kurile travels with at least one Axiom, who is their guide to morality within capitalism. Where there is an Axiom, all peoples greet them with reverence and respect while remembering to read the fine print.
Solibract - On Old Earth, life came as fish evolved legs to take their first steps on land. For the Solibract, it was the plants that decided to stand up. They just waited billions of years to do it. Their colonies survived every mass extinction event of their home planet and they will survive any to come.
RIGs and the Essex App
In every sci-fi media, there is some sort of gadget that is used by the characters to ‘scan’ or ‘analyze’ the important macguffin or medical patient. For Empire 6, this is the Remote Inspection Gizmo (RIG). For our players, this is their cell phone. We’re working on creating an app that you can use on your phone to scan and interact with various elements of the game in real time, without requiring any staff members to monitor your progress.
Empire 6 is a tech-enabled game that takes full advantage of modern tools to create a truly sci-fi experience. We aim to remove as much theater-of-the-mind as we can reasonably accomplish.
How To Use Your RIG In-Game
Your team is on a job to investigate a derelict freighter that appeared on the Station’s scanners that morning. After getting your shuttle docked in the freighter’s landing bay, you make your way to the bridge. The doors to it are locked! Thankfully, you’re Licensed to utilize hacking tools. You use your RIG (cell phone) to scan an NFC tag positioned under the door’s key pad. After a quick ‘mini-game’ of hacking based on your scans and RIG upgrades, your screen lights up with 4 digits. Punching them into the keypad, you hear a satisfying click as the door opens.
No storyteller or other staff member needs to be standing there waiting for you to punch in the numbers. We’ve pre-programmed the lock to respond to a specific key code and wired that to the hacking mini-game. If you complete the game within a certain time limit, you get the code. Otherwise, you may find yourself locked out and needing another, more explosive, method of entry.
RIGs Have Other Uses!
The RIG is not just a method of interacting with hotspots in game. The app can be used for:
- Booking time at a podium, a planter box in Ag-Sec, or a shuttle flight
- Signing up for a posted job
- Checking your in-game bank balance
- Looking up rules in the rulebook
- Viewing primers (such as crafting recipes or maneuvers)
- Looking up other Occupants
- So many more things!
The Essex application is still under development and we’ll be launching new features as we playtest the rules and see how they can be done with the RIG itself.