Black Ops+IOU+Infinity= Alice 2.0!

The Final Door · 07-28-2009, 06:15 AM

I am not used to posting my campaign setup, so please bear with me :) It seems to be a popula rthing to do, though, so I thought I'd give it a try!

Highly summarized. I am trying my hand at a deeper introduction to Alice 2.0, but wanted to post a little something... (EDIT: A still Work In Progress extended PDF, currently 30 pages, is available here)

Alice
She appeared in 2007, 78 miles of the Moroccan coast, popping out of the sky in a blast that rivalled The Tunguska Blast. With global military and media scurrying to get a fix on what happened, she got out of the water (which she dropped into from quite some altitude!) and raced towards the Saharra. Scouting out an area far removed from any city, she then contacted towns at the desert's edge, somehow setting a lot of people into motion. Using connections established within the first 48 hours of her arrival, she started building what came to be called Babylon, in the desert, centered around a ziggurat of her own making. Firs ttents, then simple buildings, and then growing, Babylon was a small town within days. It is now a small city, with around 25,000 emigrated citizens, known as Babylonians.
The media dubbed her Alice, from Lewis Carroll's famous stories.

Babylon
Though mainly composed of small buildings, Babylon is a very functional city, with its own security force, hospitals, educational facilities, and a big secret. It is permanently surrounded by a large, international military presence under the (constantly debated) control of the UN. The armies are there mainly to prevent anyone from provoking Alice into taking unpredictable actions, and in case something military pops up in the city, by Alice or someone else. Relations between Alice/Babylon and the military barrier are diplomatic and surprisingly positive. Alice has even delivered a few terrorists to the UN, after they tried to attack Babylon and failed badly.

The Secret
Alice did not just arrive out of nothing. She travels between worlds, and she has secretly created eight large portals in Babylon to send others to other worlds, as well. The portals are demanding technology, and the cost of sending out ('launching') agents to other worlds is high. Furthermore, travel is one-way, though two portals are equipped for retrieval, which requires agents to be at an exact spot at an exact time in the target world. Agents constantly work in other worlds to create portals that will send people back to Babylon (arriving in the portal they left from; only agents launched from Babylon can go back this way), or even larger portals that can send people into worlds as freely as the Babylon portals. Alice is trying to establish strong outposts in as many worlds as possible!

The Worlds
Any kind of world might be out there. One annoying detail is that they all eem to work differently, natural laws behaving in deifferent ways. Therefore, portal technology must be adjusted to fit a world exactly before any portals can be built. Scouting misisons bring back (via the two portals equipped for unassisted retrieval) tons of information for Babylon scientists to understand how portals can be created in these worlds. But it also means that bringing heavy weaponry into a world might be as futile as bringing magic into another! Agents with bodily modifications that do not work in our world have a hard time adapting when/if they return to Babylon!

Foreign Hazardous: The Resurrection Device!
Babylon has good (free) hospitals. The Central Hospital has a secret: In Foreign Hazardous, a small, round building handling highly infectious diseases without cures (a kind of Babylonian CDC), most place is actually occupied by a series of large machines capable of repairing any still living (or very recently dead) body, restoring it to near-full function (physical therapy is needed, and some medical treatment. Pill-popping resurrected agents are not uncommon). They cannot raise the dead, but they have saved many agent lives. The machines are not used for non-agent patients and cannot cure diseases (though the physical damage caused by them can be fixed). It also has no effect against magical curses or the like, but if you got shot down, run over, torched and ate bad chinese food, it can fix the immediate damage and allow you to live with the memories.
Some non-agent allies and close relations of Alice or someone Alice respects may be given rare access to the machines. One high-ranking (unnamed) UN officer's daughter is known to have been saved by it after a helicopter crash.

The Academy
Agents need extensive training. The Academy does this. Built like a university split across three sub-campuses in Babylon, it teaches sciences, languages, social interaction and psychology, strategy/tactics, sports, combat, and a host of other things very efficiently, with a heavy slant towards practical application. It is actually a 'standard' univeristy, but caters to agents, discreetly. The three sub-campuses are known colloquially as The Lab (tech & sciences, compelte with vehicle test track, blast areas and robo-fighting arenas), The Club (languages, socializing, politics, psychology and other Machiavellian topics, as well as extensive board- and strategic computer games. Very posh and cultural, and a bit arrogant), and The Gym (sports, physical training, martial arts, yoga, aerobics, athletics, physical meditation techniques, and a lot of other stuff that is really exhausting. Has both public and elite martial arts competitions, a bunch of arenas and a stadium, and well-equipped firing ranges (handguns and rifles; anything bigger is done at The Lab's blast areas!). To the frustration of North Americans, neither (American) football, baseball or hockey is practiced, and no 'artistic' sports are taught (synchronized swimming, figure skating, etc.)).

Alice Abroad
While Babylonian expertise is becoming valuable and Alice is erecting profitable schools on foreign grounds, and her security forces assist handpicked anti-terror and anti-crime operations around the globe, nobody really knows how deeply she has infiltrated the world, placing highly trained agents in foreign governments, corporations and local areas. The rest of the world is having a harder time infiltrating Babylon, though not for lack of trying. Aloce has never taken to harhs punishment of discovered spies, apparently prefering media embarrasment of their employers. nobody dares wage an actual war on Babylon, fearing what tricks Alice may still be hiding.

To be continued...

Nemi3e · 07-28-2009, 12:40 PM

It sounds very shiny, but...what's Alice?!

The Final Door · 07-28-2009, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemi3e

It sounds very shiny, but...what's Alice?!

A girl, who appeared as described. She's kinda my version of the IOU Archdean, only a bit more Anime-supergirl inspired. She's short and fairly cute :)

Nemi3e · 07-28-2009, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Final Door

A girl, who appeared as described. She's kinda my version of the IOU Archdean, only a bit more Anime-supergirl inspired. She's short and fairly cute :)

Ooh, so she's an original creation and not from something I haven't heard of. Gotcha.

The Final Door · 07-28-2009, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemi3e

Ooh, so she's an original creation and not from something I haven't heard of. Gotcha.

Yup, all mine ;) More detailed PDF coming up, got some good writing done today and yesterday, and a lot of ideas blooming!

LoneWolf23k · 07-28-2009, 06:29 PM

Oooh, I like this. I might swipe her for my Custom Freedom City/IST supersetting.

The Final Door · 07-28-2009, 06:56 PM

Tahnks, LoneWolf23. Once the first PDF goes up, I hope you'll get more useful stuff from her!

On the subject of Alice (very on-topic, I guess)... Does someone have links to good inspirational pictures for drawing her? I'm thinking a younger version of The Archdean (IOU), only in pressed pants (slightly Ellen DeGeneres wardrobe, but a little more feminine)?

Nemi3e · 07-28-2009, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Final Door

Tahnks, LoneWolf23. Once the first PDF goes up, I hope you'll get more useful stuff from her!

On the subject of Alice (very on-topic, I guess)... Does someone have links to good inspirational pictures for drawing her? I'm thinking a younger version of The Archdean (IOU), only in pressed pants (slightly Ellen DeGeneres wardrobe, but a little more feminine)?

Deviantart?

The Final Door · 07-29-2009, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemi3e

Deviantart?

80 trillion pictures... something more specific? ;)

The Final Door · 07-29-2009, 09:19 AM

So, enjoyed a bit of writing these last three days, got something done on the setting.

WIP, Alice 2.0 (PDF)

Most of it is just more verbose versions of what has already been described, but The Academy and Portal Technology should give an early indication of how IOU and Infinity fit into the original inspiration. What Black Ops inspired will come as I detail missions. Other than that, I am looking really forward to doing the (still Work In Progress) Alice Theories chapter, and Twisting Babylon in the Style chapter :)

If I continue to enjoy the writing, I think I will expand the concept of Alice as the center of a campaign of most kinds (when I get Twisting Babylon done, that will make more sense). Any ideas on how Alice could feature in various campaign concepts are very welcome!

07-28-2009, 06:15 AM	#1
The Final Door Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Not really there...!	Black Ops+IOU+Infinity= Alice 2.0! I am not used to posting my campaign setup, so please bear with me :) It seems to be a popula rthing to do, though, so I thought I'd give it a try! Highly summarized. I am trying my hand at a deeper introduction to Alice 2.0, but wanted to post a little something... (EDIT: A still Work In Progress extended PDF, currently 30 pages, is available here) Alice She appeared in 2007, 78 miles of the Moroccan coast, popping out of the sky in a blast that rivalled The Tunguska Blast. With global military and media scurrying to get a fix on what happened, she got out of the water (which she dropped into from quite some altitude!) and raced towards the Saharra. Scouting out an area far removed from any city, she then contacted towns at the desert's edge, somehow setting a lot of people into motion. Using connections established within the first 48 hours of her arrival, she started building what came to be called Babylon, in the desert, centered around a ziggurat of her own making. Firs ttents, then simple buildings, and then growing, Babylon was a small town within days. It is now a small city, with around 25,000 emigrated citizens, known as Babylonians. The media dubbed her Alice, from Lewis Carroll's famous stories. Babylon Though mainly composed of small buildings, Babylon is a very functional city, with its own security force, hospitals, educational facilities, and a big secret. It is permanently surrounded by a large, international military presence under the (constantly debated) control of the UN. The armies are there mainly to prevent anyone from provoking Alice into taking unpredictable actions, and in case something military pops up in the city, by Alice or someone else. Relations between Alice/Babylon and the military barrier are diplomatic and surprisingly positive. Alice has even delivered a few terrorists to the UN, after they tried to attack Babylon and failed badly. The Secret Alice did not just arrive out of nothing. She travels between worlds, and she has secretly created eight large portals in Babylon to send others to other worlds, as well. The portals are demanding technology, and the cost of sending out ('launching') agents to other worlds is high. Furthermore, travel is one-way, though two portals are equipped for retrieval, which requires agents to be at an exact spot at an exact time in the target world. Agents constantly work in other worlds to create portals that will send people back to Babylon (arriving in the portal they left from; only agents launched from Babylon can go back this way), or even larger portals that can send people into worlds as freely as the Babylon portals. Alice is trying to establish strong outposts in as many worlds as possible! The Worlds Any kind of world might be out there. One annoying detail is that they all eem to work differently, natural laws behaving in deifferent ways. Therefore, portal technology must be adjusted to fit a world exactly before any portals can be built. Scouting misisons bring back (via the two portals equipped for unassisted retrieval) tons of information for Babylon scientists to understand how portals can be created in these worlds. But it also means that bringing heavy weaponry into a world might be as futile as bringing magic into another! Agents with bodily modifications that do not work in our world have a hard time adapting when/if they return to Babylon! Foreign Hazardous: The Resurrection Device! Babylon has good (free) hospitals. The Central Hospital has a secret: In Foreign Hazardous, a small, round building handling highly infectious diseases without cures (a kind of Babylonian CDC), most place is actually occupied by a series of large machines capable of repairing any still living (or very recently dead) body, restoring it to near-full function (physical therapy is needed, and some medical treatment. Pill-popping resurrected agents are not uncommon). They cannot raise the dead, but they have saved many agent lives. The machines are not used for non-agent patients and cannot cure diseases (though the physical damage caused by them can be fixed). It also has no effect against magical curses or the like, but if you got shot down, run over, torched and ate bad chinese food, it can fix the immediate damage and allow you to live with the memories. Some non-agent allies and close relations of Alice or someone Alice respects may be given rare access to the machines. One high-ranking (unnamed) UN officer's daughter is known to have been saved by it after a helicopter crash. The Academy Agents need extensive training. The Academy does this. Built like a university split across three sub-campuses in Babylon, it teaches sciences, languages, social interaction and psychology, strategy/tactics, sports, combat, and a host of other things very efficiently, with a heavy slant towards practical application. It is actually a 'standard' univeristy, but caters to agents, discreetly. The three sub-campuses are known colloquially as The Lab (tech & sciences, compelte with vehicle test track, blast areas and robo-fighting arenas), The Club (languages, socializing, politics, psychology and other Machiavellian topics, as well as extensive board- and strategic computer games. Very posh and cultural, and a bit arrogant), and The Gym (sports, physical training, martial arts, yoga, aerobics, athletics, physical meditation techniques, and a lot of other stuff that is really exhausting. Has both public and elite martial arts competitions, a bunch of arenas and a stadium, and well-equipped firing ranges (handguns and rifles; anything bigger is done at The Lab's blast areas!). To the frustration of North Americans, neither (American) football, baseball or hockey is practiced, and no 'artistic' sports are taught (synchronized swimming, figure skating, etc.)). Alice Abroad While Babylonian expertise is becoming valuable and Alice is erecting profitable schools on foreign grounds, and her security forces assist handpicked anti-terror and anti-crime operations around the globe, nobody really knows how deeply she has infiltrated the world, placing highly trained agents in foreign governments, corporations and local areas. The rest of the world is having a harder time infiltrating Babylon, though not for lack of trying. Aloce has never taken to harhs punishment of discovered spies, apparently prefering media embarrasment of their employers. nobody dares wage an actual war on Babylon, fearing what tricks Alice may still be hiding. To be continued... __________________ Proud contributor to GEARS. *GEARS Third Draft* is available! Creator of GURPS Organizations, too! Last edited by The Final Door; 07-29-2009 at 05:49 PM.

07-28-2009, 12:40 PM	#2
Nemi3e Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: NYC	Re: Black Ops+IOU+Infinity= Alice 2.0! It sounds very shiny, but...what's Alice?!

07-28-2009, 06:29 PM	#6
LoneWolf23k Join Date: Sep 2004	Re: Black Ops+IOU+Infinity= Alice 2.0! Oooh, I like this. I might swipe her for my Custom Freedom City/IST supersetting.

07-28-2009, 06:56 PM	#7
The Final Door Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Not really there...!	Re: Black Ops+IOU+Infinity= Alice 2.0! Tahnks, LoneWolf23. Once the first PDF goes up, I hope you'll get more useful stuff from her! On the subject of Alice (very on-topic, I guess)... Does someone have links to good inspirational pictures for drawing her? I'm thinking a younger version of The Archdean (IOU), only in pressed pants (slightly Ellen DeGeneres wardrobe, but a little more feminine)? __________________ Proud contributor to GEARS. *GEARS Third Draft* is available! Creator of GURPS Organizations, too!

07-29-2009, 09:19 AM	#10
The Final Door Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Not really there...!	Re: Black Ops+IOU+Infinity= Alice 2.0! So, enjoyed a bit of writing these last three days, got something done on the setting. WIP, Alice 2.0 (PDF) Most of it is just more verbose versions of what has already been described, but The Academy and Portal Technology should give an early indication of how IOU and Infinity fit into the original inspiration. What Black Ops inspired will come as I detail missions. Other than that, I am looking really forward to doing the (still Work In Progress) Alice Theories chapter, and Twisting Babylon in the Style chapter :) If I continue to enjoy the writing, I think I will expand the concept of Alice as the center of a campaign of most kinds (when I get Twisting Babylon done, that will make more sense). Any ideas on how Alice could feature in various campaign concepts are very welcome! __________________ Proud contributor to GEARS. *GEARS Third Draft* is available! Creator of GURPS Organizations, too!