RIP RPG

RIP RPG intends to be a module hosted on a server that will be listed in GameSpy. To be developed through September 2009, it will showcase a whole new world of adventure.

Restrictions

 * 1) The rogue class is not available at level 1 (at character creation) because rogues get 16 more skill points at character creation than any other class. If a player chooses to start their character as a rogue, the game will send that character to a holding place where there are no doors, no windows, and no escape.
 * 2) The classes wizard / sorcerer / druid / cleric are forbidden to be combined with each other because of the conflict of spells. (Characters must choose one path to follow.)
 * 3) The shadowdancer prestige class can only be selected after character level 19 because of hide in plain sight. At that point in the game, most players and creatures should have a decent spot. (If a PC takes a level of shadowdancer before character level 20, a DM will reset that PC to level 1.)
 * 4) The devastating critical feat is not allowed, mainly because it unbalances the multiplayer experience. (If a PC takes this feat, the game will automatically re-level that PC.)
 * 5) By character level 40, every PC should have at least 10 levels in his/her secondary class, and at least 5 levels in his/her tertiary class. (A DM will reset violators to level 1.) This means harper scout and purple dragon knight can only be tertiary classes because they cannot go above level 5.

Background introduction
Planet earth continues to move forward during the 21st century. Mankind has established a permanent moon and mars colonies and many underwater cities. Population has been stabilized at 60 billion people, and wars are kept to a minimum. Food production is at an all time high with advanced underwater harvesting. The standard of living for the average person is comparable to a middle class citizen in the USA during the late 20th century.

Medicine has cured hundreds of deceases, and life expectancy has increased to 120 years. For accident victims, bionics, robotics and cybernetics can return limbs, mobility, vision, sound and speech. But a new discovery is set to bring everything to an end.

Man has been able to travel at incredible speeds but the light barrier will keep him connected to one solar system. Then in the early part of the 70s (2075) a new technology could finally release mankind from the constrains of physics. Teleportation via wormholes was theoretically possible, and then came the RIP program, nothing fancy but the ability to rip a hole through space and time between two points and send and object or person through it.

The idea has been a common one for a hundred years, but during the 70s it could finally be experimented upon. The concept was simple; with enough energy, a rip could be produced and an object could be sent through. The Alpha Project was meant to be the beginning of a new era for mankind. It proved to be so, but not for the same reasons.

Project code name "Alpha" (meant to symbolize the beginning of a new era) came with such a high cost that no one nation could afford it. In the end it was the English Conglomerate (made up of every English-speaking nation) and the investment of some major global corporations that footed the bill, which amounted to trillions of dollars.

At the bottom of the deepest ocean trench at the equatorial line, a simple hatchway marked the access point to the deepest research complex ever created with the sole purpose of causing the first ever rip.

In level 1000 of this complex, 20 km below the sea floor, there existed two simple rooms set just 10 meters apart. The first rip was meant to open a portal between these two rooms so that objects could be sent through. Around these two rooms (stacked one on top of the other), the six largest nuclear reactors ever constructed where ready to fire the biggest burst of energy the Earth has ever experienced.

At the right moment, when a solar eclipse took place on the opposite side of the Earth and the equator was at its closest to the sun, the experiment fired. With the sun's, moon's, and earth's gravity and the six nuclear reactors providing an energy burst of 60 gigatonnes, the rip was all but inevitable. From room two above to room one bellow, a distance of just 10 meters and objects could be sent back and forth. They were actually sucked back and forth with incredible force.

A success! Soon tons of cargo and resources and even men will be able to be transported from a base on Earth to one on the moon, Mars, or beyond instantly, and from the farthest part of the universe back to Earth! Mankind had assured its survival and could now conquer the universe.

Then the sun and moon moved out of alignment, and the nuclear reactors turned off, and the rip was to close. But it did not. With no energy to keep it open, all the scientists were in astonishment; it was impossible.

Then a rip was reported in Asia. Hours later, another in Africa, then one in the middle of a busy Los Angeles market, where hundreds of people got vacuumed in to the unknown, never to be seen again.

Project Alpha was classified above top secret until a solution to the rip problem could be found.

The average rip stayed open for no more than six hours, but some super rips stayed open for 28 days. All rips were vacuums that sucked everything in front of them and deposited it on the other side.

It was a super rip in India that brought the first living thing from another world. It made global news and then fears as to what else could come through one. Six months later, in December 2078, the first monster come through. Immune to energy and normal kinetic force (a Super Monster), it destroyed everything from Toronto, Canada, to New York City, USA, before nuclear bombs destroyed it.

By the one year anniversary of the experiment, millions of people were missing, and even small cities had been ripped. New creatures ripped in constantly. Some were simple animals or plants, some were intelligent, and others were predators of the highest caliber, ferocious and almost unstoppable.

By year two people were reporting strange events; supernatural activity and men and women who were able to do the impossible.

By year three, 10% of the planet had been bombed with nuclear devices to deal with a monster that, like Superman of the 20th century comic books, was immune to everything but total mass destruction.

By year four, the first alien power lord defeated a monster with nothing else but his powers. He taught others his knowledge, and men began to fight back.

One hundred years later, every piece of land is under siege. Travel is extremely dangerous. Monsters pour in with every rip, and humans no longer control the planet. Technology has been replaced with techwizardry as ambient rip energy is able to power everything and cost nothing.

Chronological advancement
2010 - Population 7 billion. Twenty-first century technology improvements make life easier for many.

2021 - Population 10 billion. USA lands on Mars; China lands on the moon.

2032 - Population 15 billion. USA, Europe, China, Japan, and Russia build the first underwater cities around their national borders to deal with population growth.

2043 - Population 22 billion. USA builds the first Mars colony. China follows with a moon colony, while Russia and Europe build two space station colonies.

2054 - Population 33 billion. World War III leads to massive Earth-wide famines, and global pandemics kill 1 in 4 humans. Many fear the end of the world, but the sun does come out the day after.

2063 - Population 36 billion. Man achieves 21st century technology advancements that equal 20th century sci-fi.

2072 - Population 51 billion. Man reaches the moons of Jupiter. Plans start to terraform Mars and expand the moon base and space stations to take more civilians. Water colonies are proving very successful. The American world power, fearing that the Asian world power will reach Saturn's moons first, initiates the RIP program.

2075 - Population at an all-time high of 60 billion. The RIP program is ready to open the first interdimensional rip between two points just 10 meters apart. Success in this experiment will open the door for teleportation and instant travel to other galaxies and other Earths to colonize. A must for a planet that is overpopulated.

2077 - Solar eclipse occurs at the equator during the perihelion. The first rip ever is created. It does not close.

2078 - Hundreds of rips appear worldwide, with dozens of missing people and alien encounters.

2079 - Population 60 billion humans, 1 million aliens. Ten cities have been lost, and planet-wide martial law is imposed.

2080 - Population 59 billion humans, 2 million aliens. Estimates of 5 billion humans missing or dead, and 1 million alien creatures killed in action.

2091 - Population 58 billion humans alive, 20 billion dead; 4 million aliens now call Earth home, with unknown aliens dead.

2102 - Tracking population becomes impossible, as communication is lost with anything farther than 100 kilometers outside guarded city perimeters. Alien population is estimated at 8 million. Some settlements start to appear.

2113 - The first dragon is sighted. Massive global crusades form to exterminate all invaders.

2124 - Communication with all extraterrestrial colonies ends. With no Earth support, they die within 10 years. Dragon population increases, making air travel too risky and no longer possible for civilians.

2135 - Crusades are a failure. Human population is estimated at 50 billion and decreasing despite families having more children (4 - 12). In North America, General Joseph Siembieda makes the first alliance between two alien races that have colonized North America. The creatures known as elves and orcs start construction of the Chisago super city.

2146 - The overlords discover Earth and invade it via rips in Asia and Africa.

2157 - The first dragon kingdom is established in Tolkien. The new coalition state views this new Tolkien Kingdom as a threat. The overlords build a massive interdimensional market in Hong Kong and break a new record of 10 billion humans sold.

2168 - A formian hive is ripped into the Manitoba prairies. Winnipeg scouts inform the authorities, and the cities prepare themselves for some form of invasion.

2179 - The Russian Federation, with the Europian Union, attacks the overlord forces in Asia and Africa. The formian hive expands its territory into Winnipeg and eats its million inhabitants. Chisago Super City is finished and renamed New Chisago, a mountain city with one million citizens on the inside and two million hopefuls on the outside. General Joseph dies and his son Kevin Siembieda is appointed Emperor. The new human empire does not appeal to the forces in Tolkien as they build up for war.

2180 - Enter the player. Many common people now use the RIP calendar, which marks 2077 as year one of the rips. It is now 104 PR (post-rip). The overlord forces destroy the Russian Federation and now bands of warmongers control the countryside. The European Union decimates the overlord forces in Africa, but now nothing but undead walks those nuclear-devastated lands. Emperor Kevin Siembieda marries the elven matriarch Mariam and fathers a set of twins, boy and girl, but in a turn of events, the mother and daughter are kidnapped. The Kingdom of Tolkien is blamed and war is imminent. The formian hive expands into the Winnipeg ruins.

Around the world the story is the same: Communication and transportation are all but non-existent between towns. All cities have 10-meter walls around them and the nearby farm lands to protect them from random predators that may have been ripped into the nearby countryside. Power is limited and a new form of energy is being used for everything. The master builders are called techno-mages, and they use the residual RIP energy to bend the laws of physics to accomplish incredible things that, for lack of another word, is called magic.

There is no air travel due to dragons and elementals destroying anything that enters their domain. Adventurers on land and sea can expect many difficult fights before reaching their destination. Life is hard for everyone, humans and non-humans alike. (Many non-humans are second or third generation and call Earth their home.)

North American kingdoms of note
It is important to note that communities do dot the land every 100-200 km, but most are ruled by a powerful ruler/protector and often do not survive after he or she is defeated by a random monster from a rip.

The biggest kingdom is the Coalition State of New Chisago, made up of humans, elves, orcs, their giant slaves, and were-mutant creations. They control a huge army of skel-droids and skel-bots plus manufacture facilities for power armors, power weapons and robots.

Population:
 * 1 million human citizens
 * 1/2 million dark elves
 * 1.5 million orcs
 * 100,000 were-beasts
 * 50,000 ettins
 * 50,000 half-breeds
 * 10,000 other (unregistered)
 * 2-3 million hopefuls in the surrounding ruins.

The second kingdom by total population is the Formian Hive of Winnipeg.

Population (increases by 1 million per queen per year): Original population in 2168: Population for the Winnipeg siege of 2179:
 * 1 regis queen
 * 6 young queens
 * 100,000 nannies
 * 200,000 workers
 * 300,000 diggers
 * 400,000 scouts
 * 500,000 warriors
 * 1 queen
 * 100,000 workers
 * 100,000 warriors
 * 13,500,000 (One million Winnipegians kill twelve million formians, but in the end they lost and became food, and the city ruins became a new formian stronghold.)

The third kingdom by population is the Kingdom of Tolkien.

Population:
 * 1,000 ancient dragons
 * 10,000 adult dragons
 * 100,000 young dragons
 * 200,000 humans
 * 200,000 halflings
 * 300,000 others.

The fourth kingdom by population is the Vermin Invasion in Mexico.

Population:
 * 500,000 vermin beatles
 * 100,000 giant spiders
 * 100,000 scorpions
 * 50,000 dryads

The fifth kingdom by population is the Republic of Free Quebec.

Population:
 * 200,000 humans
 * 100,000 dwarfs
 * 100,000 gnomes
 * 50,000 others

Progression Notes
September 2009 :: Advertisement Campaign is launch in full with a Launching date of December 21st at 17:51 CST

September 2008 :: Kevin Siembieda the owner of Palladium Books refuse to give official permission and the RIFTS NWN project becomes the RIP project.

September 2007 :: Communication with Palladium Books is started in order to obtain official permission to run a RIFTS NWN Online multiplayer server.

September 2006 :: The Idea of Creating a RIFTS inspired server for NWN creeps up in my mind.