New: Ark pbem d20 Modern using basic rules - reality TV will never be the same again

From: wyntersong@foreverpeoplerpg.com

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:45:20 +0000

This pbem was written by fantasy author David Sharrock. It ran as a
vague play by email about three years ago, I believe. The scenario has
been rewritten and polished up by Dave for Forever People Games & RPG
and,  being a member of that site, I have my hands on an advance copy
and will be running a pbem for anyone who would like to play!

Read the following for a taster. If you want to play one of the eight,
contact Wyn at wyntersong@foreverpeoplerpg.com with a background for
your character idea. If you don't know d20 modern, don't sweat it. The
system is dead simple and we won't be using anything but the basics.
Hardcore d20 modern fans beware: I'm not using any of the Shadowkind
rules, the advanced classes, superhero stuff or bestiarys. This is a
modern era game for realistic characters stuck in extraordinary
situations but grounded very much in the real world. That's not to say
your PC needs to be average. Unique character ideas are welcome.
Criminals won't be allowed into the Ark, so no overt criminal
characters please :)

The premise:

A television network called Dark Tide Productions announces the
imminent arrival of a reality TV show hailed as "reality TV to end all
reality TV". The show will take place in a custom built dome called the
Ark, an enormous bubble construct assembled on a floating pontoon in
the Atlantic Ocean, a few miles east of Manhattan. The contents of the
dome are kept strictly secret. Eight previous unknowns will enter the
dome and live within for an unspecified period, their every move
recorded by cameras and beamed to television screens worldwide.

The nature of the show remains ambiguous. During months preceding the
show's opening night, Dark Tide productions undertake a massive 'no
publicity is bad publicity' campaign spanning the entire globe. Though
little is said of the show itself, much is made of the Ark dome and a
new controversy surrounding either Dark Tide or the construction site
seems to arise every day. A spectacular amount of free press combines
to create a global furore of unprecedented excitement, and as the big
day approaches, the world holds its multi-national breath.

Eight players have been chosen from all walks of life and all corners
of the globe. They are whisked through a surprisingly quick opening
show in Manhattan to the pontoon itself and an introduction to the
Ark's enigmatic producer, Andreas Anderton.

Then the eight are taken inside the dome and abandoned, to live, to
co-exist... to survive.

For there has never been TV quite like this before.

The Ark is more than a holding pen for eight wannabe celebrities.
Within that vast metal bubble, hidden beyond the misty horizon of the
great Atlantic and barely visible even from the lofty torch of great
Liberty herself, something extraordinary is about to unfold.
And before the game is over, the world will ask itself a simple
question:

Have we gone too far this time?

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I AM LUCY
THE CHAMBERS ARE AWAKE...