I recently began work on my own Wild West Sci-Fi board game. This is the basis for the setting that I'm working with. This is only a rough draft but its meant to give my friends that are looking at it a reference point to see what my initial concept is.
“…Around
2218AD Mankind spread to the stars. They called it “A New Age of Exploration”. The Global Conglomerate of Earth had begun the scientific exploration of
space in earnest. Resources on Earth were facing complete depletion and massive
polluted zones had forced overcrowding. Food shortages, deplorable living
conditions, and the violent suppression of worker’s rights had been sparking
riots for decades. Earth was in its twilight and the corporate heads could no
longer maintain their wealth and supremacy. Humanity needed room to expand and
new resources to consume, and the corporations needed new markets to exploit.
The first concerted colonization of space was set to begin.
Skip
ahead to 2277AD. That’s when we
saw “The Great Colonization”. The colonization of space over the
next fifty years created genuine excitement planet-wide. It was common for fit
and hopeful youths to volunteer for the colony ships and be trained as miners,
farmers, builders, and security troopers as needed. Many saw these dangerous,
but better paid, opportunities as a way to save their people back home from crushing
poverty. Hired under contract, they traveled to far off worlds and built the
earliest colony domes to sustain resource harvesting until initial terra-forming
had begun.
2277AD is also around when we
saw “The Rise of the Star Cults”. People
had lost faith in the old religions and felt the answers missing in their lives
could be found out amongst the stars. These new religions were not readily
accepted, prejudice was commonplace, and religious persecution was on the rise.
Adherents of the star cults signed up for the colony ships in droves. A new
galactic work force was on the move and the newly dubbed Interplanetary
Conglomerate flourished with the new markets and influx of cheap labor. Those
pilgrims in good standing who could accumulate enough wealth from their flock
could even purchase steading rights outside the domes as long as they could pay
a quarterly tithe. Life outside the domes was hard and unforgiving. Many died.
But it afforded a level of freedom to those who sought it.
“The New Corporate Supremacy” as it was
dubbed was around 2303AD. This is when the Interplanetary Conglomerate made a
trade agreement that brought most of the colonies under one banner, the Incorporated
Worlds. That’s when they made our lives of Contracted Service mandatory unless
we could buy our way out of our contracts. That’s when folks really fostered dreams
of life on the run. You know it’s bad when people feel like anywhere is better
than where they are right now, and they’d rather be hunted down than stay. You’d
think there’d be plenty of places to hide on these newly colonized worlds, but
most of them are only partially terra-formed. Without a breather and a source
of food, you might last a week or two on your own if you’re lucky. But I
digress…
The
initial waves of expansion had bolstered the power of the corporations and
their wealth had reached new levels of luxurious extravagance. Wherever Steader
society thrived due to abundant resources, the corporations stepped in quickly
and took control. Many of the Incorporated Worlds had developed verdant
agridomes, massive mining colonies and other resource harvesting facilities.
Building industry was the next logical step. Most of the commodities produced
were made available to the settlers who produced them for outrageously inflated
prices. The corporations did this, they said, because they had to offset the
costs of shipping products off world to their other holdings. From time to time
they’d switch it up and blame it on increased labor costs, but we all knew that
was a farce. Every credit of our wages pays for the food, barracks assignments,
healthcare, and transportation costs, all rudimentarily provided by the
corporations we work for. We are all indentured servants held in place by a
system where working our way to freedom is a deliberately impossible goal.
As
far as I can see, throughout the Incorporated Worlds nothing comes easy for the
Contracted Workers or the Pilgrim Steaders, but Security Forces, Contract
Enforcers, and of course the Executives and Magistrates live quite well. It’s
very rare to see someone rise up out of the bottom rungs of Contracted Service
to higher positions. Class, upbringing, and wealth are the limiters that
determine our position and we are all more likely to descend over time than to
climb.
For
everyone outside of the roles of corporate governance across the Incorporated
Worlds you can live a meager existence from day to day in the frontier towns
with some hope of getting ahead if you are wealthy enough to have bought land
or live amongst the flock of someone who has, or you can work as an indentured
servant under contract in the domes and live relatively assured of having your
basic needs met. Moderate freedom or assured subsistence - that is the choice
each person makes.
There
is a third choice, one fraught with peril as it is a life on the run. Those who
throw off the shackles of servitude, break their contracts, and make a break
for freedom are known as Breakers. Contract Breakers are dangerous to Corporate
power and are dealt with harshly. The Executives are not keen to waste a strong
back, so they will typically double the length of a contract and can assess
penalties to a Breaker or their extended family. Reclaimed Contract Breakers
are required to pay off the expenses incurred in their hunt. In the end, first
time Contract Breakers who are apprehended are forced into the longest, most
dangerous, poorest paid contracts imaginable. They become little more than slaves
for the duration of their new contracts. Flee a second time and get caught, and
a Contract Breaker can be reasonably assured of a violent death at the hands of
Enforcers. Those are just some of the risks of the 3rd choice.
Exposure, Steaders, and other Breakers can all be threats to your existence.
Life of the run is often dangerous and tragically short. Some manage to sustain
their flight for years, but most don’t. Instead they go back to living the life
of a slave or lying in a pool of their own blood.”
-Goran Anderson.
Contracted Miner and Ex-Breaker under lifetime contract to FeSky.
In
“Broken Contract” you have to make the choice between playing a posse of
Contract Enforcers, employed by the Incorporated Worlds of the Interplanetary
Conglomerate to capture fugitive Contracted Workers, or you can play an escaped
band of Contract Breakers trying to flee to the freedom of the Steader frontier
towns. Broken Contract is a game of fast paced action using dice, rulers, and
28mm miniatures to recreate cinematic high adventure tales with your friends in
a world where corporate greed has become law and breaking your work contract
puts a price on your head.
-Nick
