Liner Notes for Fear And Death In Novapolis
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Novapolis was conceived as renaissance-cyberpunk, so here we have a brief scene of a Jacobean revenge tragedy that’s also a farce. I don’t have any more of the play than this, sorry. Or if you hate it, you’re welcome I guess.
Anyway, people doing business at entertainment is a real thing, and continues to this day, though we’re more likely to call it “networking”. Go to an event, meet some people, try and get some work or offer some deals, then if you seem to click arrange a formal meeting later.
The renaissance-cyberpunk motif comes back in the politics which are convoluted and sometimes nonsensical. Still, take a look at modern political parties and coalitions. Can you honestly say there aren’t groups who would ask for people to help in their own subjugation?
The five Guardians, Pain, Fear, Weakness, Death and Despair are an idea I’ve carried around for a long time. The walkers of the wall of the world. Pain was Quintus Curtius Atlanticus, the Roman general who conquered Atlantis. They were just myths except that whenever Death turned up someone died in that scene, and so on and so forth. None of the projects I shoved them in have ever come to anything, so in the year of a global pandemic I put them in this, might as well use it up before the plague makes it completely useless.
A motif of Novapolis is turning people into weapons and how this is bad. Each of the worlds was supposed to have one of these and they would come together in the final story God Machine Prison Break, hopefully offering a new perspective on them, but at the least interacting with each other in a cool manner. See you in December’s Liner Notes to discuss if I got anywhere with this.
When I first started with the Deep Patrol they were going to use Plasma Pistols the whole time, the Leatherman of energy weapons. Then I swiftly came up with a whole stack of less-lethal weapons and rounds. Which I generally haven’t used in the TetraHedron sequence as the threats keep escalating. So I used a whole bunch here, stun rounds, noise makers, glue, jelly and net, Quintillius just running through the inventory. I had fun anyway.
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