A few days after New Year's Eve in 2000, desperate Russian terrorists take control of a missle  silo located near St. Petersburg and launch two tactical warheads against Germany. Germany had refused to support the starving country any further. As a reaction to this (understandable) aggression, UN troops are sent into Russia, wreaking havoc and killing hundreds of thousands of people. China reacts quickly and sends several hundred air strikes over America. The land of the free is shocked, millions of US citizens cry for revenge. Unfortunately, some nukes have also countries in Germany's vicinity: France and Austria. Both governments decide (Austria first, followed by the French) to support Germany and the United States. A full-scale, all-out war is the result. Millions of soldiers and civilians are killed. The Third World War ends in 2003.

Also in 2003, the first wave of genetically mutated but lively babies is born. Most of them have a significantly increased ability to perform so-called PSI maneuvers like telepathy or telekinesis. Scientists are baffled and feverishly begin to search for plausible reasons.

The aggressive political climate still remains, and in 2005, the USA, Russia and China clash once again. This time, America is defeated and is forced to give Alaska to the Russians. The trade embargo against China is cancelled once and forever. Historians can prove that both the US and China had sent so-called PSI forces into the war. Eyewitnesses tell of military aircraft falling to the ground like stones, or of soldiers that were able to lift tanks with their bare hands. The press calls this conflict the PSi War.

In 2008, radical Buddhists shoot the Chinese ambassador. China nukes them as an answer. Europe, especially Germany and France, attack China "to free Tibet from the despotical yoke of Communist China". America remains silent, still licking its wounds. In Germany, a stage magician called Fred Zaubermann produces gold coins out of thin air. In a famous German TV show, he repeats his trick, closely examined by cameras and scientists. Neither TV tapings nor examinations can disclose the mystery. Two days after the TV show, Zaubermann leaves Germany; his whereabouts are unknown.

In the following years between 2009 and 2018, Egyptian authorities repeatedly report sights of luminescent humanoid creatures seen in the vicinity of the pyramids. In 2019, a giant golden pyramid appears above Cairo, and the city is filled with ten clearly audible voices speaking an ancient Egyptian dialect. Four stealth bombers try to take the flying pyramid down, but they disappear in a bright and silent explosion. Government specialists can't find any traces of the planes and their pilots. The pyramid hovers for 33 days above Cairo before it suddenly blinks out of existence.   That very same year, mythological creatures known from fairy-tales or legends (like goblins, orks, dwarves, gnomes, or giants, or dozens of others), appear on earth. A great percentage of them are born as children of human parents. This phenomenon has been coined "Second Birth" by the public, or "Prenatal Phenotypical Infection" by scientists. Both titles are nothing more than a helpless try to describe a fact that can't be explained yet. Some theories say Second Birth is possible because of high amplitudes on the Zaubermann Scale. Most of the parents accept their sometimes scary children (about 80 percent). Public reaction is surprisingly positive: Only 10 percent of the population hates the Second Born so much that they would like to see them dead.

2020: Tourists all over the world report phantastic animals to the press. Six-legged elephants get more and more common in Africa.     England, Scotland and Ireland found the United Celtic Countries.

2022: After 10 years of continuous election victories for the far right end in France, the French Fascistocracy (FF) is founded. Embittered resistance is met with relentless brutality. Foreigners are shoved into so-called Camps Of The Underprivileged (COTU), and lose most of their civil rights. Most of those people don't have the money to go somewhere else.    In the same year, Germany renames itself Das Vierte Reich (VR) (Fourth Reich), and kicks out the remaining 10 percent of left-wing and democratic politicians. Governments all over the world recognize both the FF and the Vierte Reich, shaking hands with their leaders. Israel threatens to drop the bomb on the VR.   Corporations are granted legal extraterritoriality, ie. they can have their own executive, legislative and judicative organs. Officially, these corporations and firms are still citizens of the country they are located at. Within weeks, most major corps have organized private armies and courts.

The Fourth World War begins in 2028 and lasts only one year. The Orthodox Government Of Israel (OGI) had decided to attack Egypt because "this country was setting free demons and evoking dangeroues gods". Supported by US troops, Israel manages to destroy 75 percent of Egypt, including most of the pyramids. Once again, the world is on the brink of war. Germany decides to stay neutral, while Great Britain, France, Italy, and the Arabic countries support Egypt. After eleven months of war, all parties decide to end the senseless killing. Again, millions of people have been murdered.

2036: More and more animals are born with a level of intelligence that comes close to that of a six year-old child. In Bangkok, chimpanzees are able to communicate with spoken language, although their voices are so rasp that they're barely understandable. The press proclaim a breakthrough in genetics, but the scientists say it wasn't what they had worked on. In the Munich Zoo, a gorilla known by the name of Jacky is witnessed writing simple poems on the glass walls of his cage - with a lipstick someone had thrown to him.

2038: Internal conflicts break up the United States of America. The large country is divided into the Northern Territories and the Southern Territories. The economically backward Southern Territories re-introduce slavery while the Northern Territories concentrate on further industrial development.

In 2041, several tens of thousands of people all over Europe and America demand recognition as magically-gifted  beings. When the governments refuse to do so, unexplainable fires destroy various religious landmarks, among them the famous St. Peter's Dome in Rome, or the Temple Of The Golden Buddha in Thailand. Six weeks later, people who claim to have magical talents must take a test before they are officially recognized as sorcerers or, if they prefer, "shamanic practicioners". Most of the common people tend to shy away from these persons.

2050 is the year when most governments in the world recognize intelligent animals as regular citizens. Tests have proven that these creatures have the same IQ as human beings. They're granted passports and all other civil rights. In countries that do not recognize them as citizens, animal civil rights movements are founded. Most of them operate covertly.

35  years later, in 2085, artificial intelligences and their "vehicles of transportation" (aka, bodies) are granted civil rights - as long as they have an IQ that's not higher than 120. The little rest of those AIs that are too clever to become citizens either goes terrorist, or works for secret governmental units.

2087: sociologists of the University of Austin, TX, coin the word "Mobworld" for the first time to describe planet Earth. Within weeks, more than 98 percent of the world population use it instead of the old one.

Until 2092, there are no major wars going on in the world. Hundreds of small-scale battles take place almost every dayin almost every corner of the world. Scientists are still not able to build vat-grown spare parts for the human body. Computers can now communicate via voice-input/output (VIO), freeing users from typing in commands. The first, albeit crude, human-machine interfaces can be bought (by those who have big money), enabling the users to directly link their brains with the computer. Artificial intelligence is quite common. Cybernetic limbs are all the rage. Magically gifted people can choose between 27 official denominations, among them "TS (Tolkienesque Sorcerer)" and "LSH (Lunar-Shamanic Healer)". Each denomination has its own rituals and traditional ways of performing magic.

Two years later, in 2094, ancient gods awake and appear in almost every country of the world. Some of them are peaceful and call themselves gods, while others take a liking to mass-killing and large-scale destructions. On May 1, 2094, one hundred and eleven gods found the Free Theocratic State Of Himalaya, a self-proclaimed country open only to gods and semi-gods. As governments decide to stop these goings-on, the world is shattered by an 11 days long war between humans, intelligent animals, robots and the awakened gods. It is known as the Mortal's War. On the 12th day, the battles come to an end; neither side has won. Laser weapons, devoelopped couple of years before, don't work any more. Cybernetic technologies and human-machine interfaces show irregularities that need yet to be explained. 44 computer users die while they are "jacked in". In each case, coroners find eon-old mystical signs and tattoos on the faces, hands and the back of the dead. Governments all over the world ban the use of "virtual-reality devices". A large portion of computer technology is thrown back to 1999 standards.    Cybertechnology corporations have already found an exit out of this dilemma: they're producing the so-called extra-somatic units (ESU), machines that try to replace the internal cybernetic devices with external ones.

2099: UN studies estimate the total world population at 12 billion human beings ( including mutated people), plus 3 billion intelligent animals, plus 2.5 billion Artificial Intelligences, plus thousands of minor gods or demigods.   Magically gifted people are rare: only 0.009 percent of the total world population (= 1.35 million people) have the gift.

2100, Now: The Free Theocratic State Of Himalaya has closed its portals to the rest of the world. Foreign ambassadors and diplomats have been removed from their positions within the state. Egypt and the United Celtic Countries report increased numbers of shifts and changes in the magic climate of their countries (at least 8.3 on the Zaubermann scale). Something is going on - but we don't know, what. Will you find out?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Free Theocratic State Of Himalaya (FTSH) is a very powerful government located on the highest mountain in the world. The FTSH consists of various councils whose 111 members are all gods or demi-gods. Mortals are a rare sight in this country. For more info on the State Of Gods, as it is called by the rest of the world, click here.

The French Fascistocracy (FF) is one of the world's oldest fascist governments.

Das Vierte Reich (VR).  The Fourth Reich is the country formerly called Germany.

Northern Territories: The Northern Territories are what's left of the old USA after the break-up with the Southern Territories in 2038. A good starting point for player characters could be Boston.

The Orthodox Government Of Israel (OGI) is lead by a right-wing committee that denounces Arabic states as "demon priests and cultists". Its aggressions against those countries are numerous, though about 50 percent of them are retaliation strikes.

Southern Territories: this is the Southern section of the USA, what has been called Confederate States Of America in 1861. After years of mismanagement, the Southern States' industrial potential is very small. Secessionists and racists use their influence to re-introduce slavery.

The United Celtic Countries (UCC) consists of the former states of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Their politicians are all members of the Celtic Church who cooperates with the old Celtic gods.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Architecture: the look of buildings has changed a lot these days. You can see more and more organic designs. Also, arabesque forms are quite common in Mobworld, turning cities and towns into a conglomerate of hundreds of different cultural expressions and handicraft. Of course, many old buildings can still hold their place, but this is only the case when a country's government doesn't have enough money to build new ones.

Cement Disease: a disease that's not very common even in the crazy world of the 2100s. A person infected by C.D. begins to feel a certain painful stiffness in his body. The reason is easy enough: His tendons and ligaments and muscles slowly turn into  cement; thereafter, his body fluids slowly petrify. Their faces are also paralyzed, and their skin slowly but surely becomes white and very hard. While persons infected by C.D. are not at all a nice sight to look at, the last stage of C.D. is especially gruesome. Upon extreme psychological or physical stress, the persons die by turning into big slobs of liquid cement. This liquification does not last long; shortly after it's begun, the cement hardens again, resulting in a pile of cement with various cement body parts sticking out. Ick!, you say? You bet!

Chess Boxing: one of the most successful and popular sports in the world. Chess Boxing is played in a boxing ring with chessboard fields on the canvas. A complicated rules manual defines which moves a boxer is allowed to make. Then, upon contact with the opponent, the chessboxer tries to beat the living hell out of him. A boxing match can only be won by a real knock-out (ie., the ten-count is full). The second match is a chess match the two boxers have to play against each other. Both disciplines - boxing and chess - are equally important. The World Chessboxing Association is the world's largest professional organization for this sport.

Citizen Cards: these are the passports of the fascist governments. Most countries issue citizen cards that are valid for 6 months, though some governments have one-year permits. A C-card costs about as much as one monthly salary of worker. Citizens who don't have the C-card are treated as Non-Persons, having no right to vote or to work. Non-Persons have the chance to regain their status as citizens by working three weeks in special government camps.

Dimensioneers: these are people living in Mobworld who have a special ability called "shifting". Shifting is the ability to switch between the different reality levels of Mobworld. There are quite many Dimensioneers on Mobworld.  Dimensioneer characters must spend 1 Plot Point to be able to "evoke" some creature or item from another dimension and force it to appear on Mobworld. By spending 9 Plot Points, they can switch reality levels and explore them. Click here for in-depth coverage  of shifting.

Drugs: An every-day sight on Mobworld. Chemical substances are as common as acid rain. Click here to read more.

Ice Hackey: you have read correctly, Ice Hackey. This sport is the successor of the ice hockey of the 20th century. Ice Hackey has all the same rules ice hockey has, but with one important exception: players are allowed to foul their opponents. Everything  is allowed, from headbutting your opposite into oblivion to severing off hands, arms, feet, legs or even the head. Injured opponents and the body-count are calculated into each team's score. The team with the higher score wins, as always.    Special Matches are very popular with the audience: international championships, for instance, or, even better, the so-called Blok Battles, where teams of different political systems do battle to the death.

Propaganda: Mobworld's governments love propaganda. They endorse it. They breathe it. They live it. Regardless of what country, its government will launch propaganda. Remarkably, the subtle style of propaganda governments preferred in the late 1980s and 1990s, has been given up completely. The 2100s style - the Mobworld style - is offensive, brutal, and obvious. And 99 percent of the population love it.

Reality Levels: some spots on planet Earth of 2100 are known to be so-called "shifting places". These places have an open channel to different realities which manifest on earth. The number of realities that can exist in these places is endless. This means that on one day, a whole city from another dimension appears, and on the other day, it's gone. Some people are able to willingly switch those reality levels. These persons are called Dimensioneers. Different reality levels mean different (sometimes very different) creatures and physical laws. As a rule of thumb, shifting places are potentially dangerous places. Click here to read all about shifting.

Scales: In the year 2100, there is an objective measurement for everything. Scientific scales give you  numbers that exactly inform you about every aspect of a situation, feeling or being. There's no aspect of life without a scale. To give you an idea of what scales you could use in your game, read some of the following:    Abravcik-Michel Scale: informs you about how comfortable a building or room is (from 1=terrible  to 100=heaven)    Briggs Scale: determines how brutal a physical conflict is.   Modified Clerks-Simmons Scale: tells you how "normal" something is (from 1=perfectly normal to 6=warped)    Durandon Scale: tells you exactly how hungry you are (from 1=full to 10=extremely hungry)    Zaubermann Scale: measures the amplitudes of the magical energy waves in a country. The higher the Zaubermann scale, the greater is the chance for unexplainable occurences. Theorists say that a 8.5 or higher is required to enable mythological creatures to visit Mobworld. (from 1=very low to 9=max)   Scales are so common these days that they have even entered colloquial conversation ("Yo, I'm feeling 10 plus on Durandon!")

Weapons are as common as they were in 1999. In fascist countries, no citizen is allowed to have any long-range weapon, though blades of all forms are legal. In democratic countries, automatic weapons can be purchased after a week of governmental checks. Firearms have not really developed any further than in 1999, though their cadence is slightly higher.    As a Mobworld GM, you have to decide how detailed you want to play. Some GMs are really into the weapons game, and they like to have charts and tables listing the different energy of different bullets. For others, it's enough to know that an NPC is toting a submachine-gun, and that being hit by such a gun hurts. Anyway, this is your Mobworld, so please go ahead and come up with whatever modifications or additions suit your taste. One thing is important, however: extremely advanced weapons like lasers and such don't work any more since the Mortal's War of 2094.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Briggles Inc.: small company that produces ESUs. Located in Brighton, United Celtic Countries.

Cartwick's Fine Infernal Devices Inc.: Cartwick is the largest producer of extra-somatic units in the Northern Territories. Manager is William Cartwick. Their products are renowned worldwide for their sturdy yet elegant design. Cartwick has specialized in speed-enhancing ESUs, and is the official sponsor of the International Ice Hackey Championships.

Celtic Church: a business-oriented organized church whose members closely cooperate with awakened Celtic Gods. Members of the Celtic Church must pay a monthly fee that equals the price of ten good meals. The Celtic Church has about 100 million happily paying members.

Daimler-Chrysler: this corporation has been in existence since the late 1990s. Still, D-C is big in car manufacturing. During the 2050s, D-C also started the production of tanks and other military vehicles.

Dimensioneer's Block: this is the only official organization of Dimensioneers on Mobworld. They offer switches to other reality levels (for a handsome fee), and they help other Dimensioneers if they are in trouble (for a handsome fee, of course).

QuikSuitz: a small corporation producing bod suit ESUs. Located in Los Angeles. Manager: Bernard Lohan.

World Chessboxing Association: the largest organization for professional chessboxing. A big-time money-making machine.

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Computers: After the Mortal's War, the highly developed computer technology was thrown back to 1999 standards. That means that hackers will hack like 1999 data jugglers, using their keyboards to type in commands, and modems to connect to networks. Another variety is hacking via glove-and-goggles ("GAG"), or via dermatrodes interface (glued to the temples of the hacker). Hacking via keyboard is called "snailing" and works on a purely two-dimensional and very abstract level.    When using GAG or dermatrode hacking, the data are depicted as rudimentary three-dimensional items in virtual space. GAG hacking and dermatrode hacking is better than snailing, because it's faster, it's also more expensive. A few aspects of computer tech are relatively enhanced: hard disks or CD-ROMs are still available as storage mediums, but the better option are the so-called organic storage mediums (OSMs). OSMs are the brains of deceased human beings, swimming in nutritional fluid. They're connected via fiberglass wires to the computers, providing enormous storage quantities. OSMs can be bought at every computer shop, but they're not cheap. Most corporations know what damage hackers can cause, so they're ready to send out the troops if necessary and possible.

Extra-Somatic Unit: ESUs are sophisticated technical devices that are available on the market since about 2094, the year when the Mortal's War took place. Due to the life-threatening irregularities in cybertechnology and the subsequent worldwide ban of cybertech, technicians and engineers all over the world looked for new ways to enhance bodily and mental activities of the human and animal body. They came up with the idea to replace the internal cybertechnology with machines that work completely outside of the human body. Most ESUs are strapped on the body parts they shall enhance, or come in the form of coveralls.    Due to their experience with advanced technologies, ESU producers have been able to come very close to cybernetic technology standards. ESUs may sometimes look clumsy or weird, but they're highly complex technology. All players out there, you better not forget this. One of the most renowned corporations for ESUs is Cartwick.   Some examples for ESUs are (for more info on ESUs, click here):   *the Crawler: an ESU that looks like a hip-belt with eight fragile-looking spider-like suction-cup legs dangling from it. Once activated, the legs enable the wearer to climb most vertical surfaces.   *the Receptor Stimulation Unit: this ESU looks like a (more or less, depending on how much you pay) clumsy jacket. On the inside, hundreds of dermatrodes connect to the user's skin; latest  models even use fiberglass needles. The dermatrodes send electrical impulses to those muscle groups the wearer wants to use. This way, the user is given a highly enhanced muscular performance, resulting in enhanced upper body and arm strength and/or speed.

Flyhicles: these are a common means of transporation in Mobworld. Most flyhicles have - like so many other things in Mobworld -  a bizarre, insect-like look. They are either powered by fuel (quite cheap), or fusion power plants (ranging from average to extraordinarily high price levels). Speeds vary between 150 kph to x mach. Rumor has it that The Free Theocratic State Of Himalaya (FTSH) has developed some kind of mechano-magical engine for flyhicles - but this is yet to be proved.

Organic Design: new technological breakthroughs combining growth plant algorithms and flexible building materials, enable engineers and designers to errect buildings or construct any other item bearing an elegant, smooth look. Skyscapers are not built any more, they're "grown". Still, a lot of machinery is required to do this, but it takes only about 75 percent of the time it took before the times of Organic Design.

Organic Storage Medium: OSMs are brains of deceased human beings or intelligent animals. They're sold on the open market. The brains are put in nutrition fluids and connected to the computer. They have storage quantities and performance data that easily surpass hard disks and CD-ROMs. Usually, one OSM is enough of storage space for a hacker. Computer artists or large databases use linked OSMs (L-OSMs). Citizen can make a brain donation to a computer shop. This results in a large sum of money given to the relatives of the donor (between a one and five years' income of a medium executive officer) , while the donors themselves are dead.

Subways: In many countries of the world, subways are still common. They are able to shove millions of people from place A to place B every day, and they're cheap. Most subways, especially in poor regions like the French Fascistocracy, are pretty desolate. Riding these subways is always an adventure, and a potentially deadly one indeed.

Vehicles: still, there are some corporations that build old-style (aka, year 2000) cars and planes. Most of them offer a broad variety of classic style and organic design vehicles. To each his own (and all the money to the corporations).

 

The Mobworld Rules

Welcome to the rules section.    For Mobworld, all the Heritage rules are valid. But there's one addition to the character creation. In Mobworld, players are allowed to play everything/every person/every being they can imagine. This means that they can play:    Human beings, intelligent animals, monsters, gods, robots, cyborgs, shapeshifters, mages ... everything they can imagine. Mobworld is a wild and whacky place, and such are her inhabitants.    But players: Be careful. In some corners of the world, intelligent animals and robotic lifeforms are not granted civil rights. Some countries even have banned them. For more details, please read the Places section.   Gods are a difficult matter, too. Since the Mortal's War, large portions of the world population have a hard time trusting or even liking gods.   These are examples of player characters:    As a GM, all you have to do is to take care that each storytelling session is a challenge for every player involved. Got a party of gods and some adventurers? OK, just be sure to bring in some heavy-duty opponents for your gods, and some "normal ones" for the rest of the group.     GMs: see to it  that the game is balanced. Gods, for example, are nothing more than really mighty characters. If your players want to play such creatures, make them write a really interesting and really voluminous background for them.    Remember: it's not the player characters that are too powerful, it's the GM who's too weak.

A special Mobworld ability called "shifting".    As you may have read, Dimensioneers are able to shift between different reality levels, or to "evoke" creatures or items from another reality level.    By spending 1 Plot Point, the Dimensioneer can evoke something. This something can be any creature or thing the player imagines. The character must know this creature or item, else he can't perform this task. As always: the more powerful and mightier the evocation is, the longer it takes the Dimensioneer to evoke it, and the less possible is a successful evocation, and the better must be the description the player gives the GM and the other players. Such a creature or thing lasts until it dies or is destroyed. Concentration is crucial here. The Dimensioneer may not be disturbed during the evocation, or he blows it. Examples: the Dimensioneer evokes a sabretooth tiger (this is powerful and dangerous animal compared to the average human being, so this evocation should take a while); heavy rainfall, the Dimensioneer evokes a small tent so that he can spend the night without getting wet (this is easy, so the evocation should take him about 10 seconds or so, maybe even shorter)  By spending 9 Plot Points, the dimensioneer can switch into another reality level (dimension). Switching does not mean that the Dimensioneer teleports into another dimension, but he forces a part of another dimension to physically manifest on Mobworld. The more different (aka, weirder) the desired reality level is, the longer it takes the Dimensioneer to switch, and the less possible is a successful switch, and the better must be the description the player gives the GM and the other players. A switched reality level last for about 7 hours (though there are rumors that say once a reality level lasted for seven weeks).  Example: Nik Tikkle, a Dimensioneer, needs some very exotic magical plant. Nik knows that the plant grows only in Brazil, but only in summer. Bad luck for him, or so it seems, because it's mid-December now. After some weeks of investigations, Nik finds out that the plant can be found in a place called Orlow, located on a reality level called Sub. Nik sees no other chance than to go there by himself. After about fifteen minutes of concentration, Orlow slowly begins to manifest on Mobworld, replacing whatever reality level there may have been before. If Nik's concentration had been disturbed, the switch would have failed.