Earth A Week Or So From Now

Stellar Matters' "A Week Or So From Now.." is a role-playing game campaign launch pad in which players assume the roles of characters in a near future Earth setting. They can be from anywhere in the world. They should start as rather mundane normal individuals; the kind of folk you might run into right here and now in the world we know and take for granted. Players may generate characters identical to their own impressions of themselves, or characters similar to themselves, but it's recommended the player fires up their imagination to generate a realistic fictional character unlike anything they see in the mirror, but someone who could be walking and talking somewhere in the world in which we live right now. Somewhere just beyond your nearest window, around the next corner, across town, or on the other side of the world. Later on we may explore other possibilities of other times and places, but this idea is already rather daunting. We should try to keep it simple for now.   The story takes place essentially "A Week Or So From Now Next Tuesday" give or take a week or two either way. Hence the name. On the surface, it appears the world in which we live hasn't changed much before now and a week or so from now, but somewhere between now and a week or so from now next Tuesday, there's "THE EVENT." This event is either the cause or a harbinger or merely a side effect of whatever causes the fictional world in which your role playing adventures take place diverges from your actual hard cold reality in which you'll have to go back to school or work next Monday and nothing as exciting as "THE EVENT" ever really happens. At first this alternate reality should seem just like the one in which you and your role playing friends are familiar, but the more you explore it, the more you may find it changes. Everything historically is the same at first, but infinities are funny things, and space-time is fluid. The more you explore your fictional version of reality, the more you may find your own past and that of what you take for granted begins to.. well, we're getting ahead of ourselves.   Where the story goes is largely up to you and your friends. Suggestions will be provided here, but anywhere along the way, your GM may opt to use some of what's provided with SMOG and then take a left turn towards Albuquerque fueled by their own muse and marching to the beat of their own drum. It's recommended new players and game masters adhere to what's provided here, but rules were made to be broken. Just don't blame us if after you leave the confines and push the envelope everything falls apart. Heck, that's probably gonna happen even if you do stick with what's presented here. We make no guarantees. New campaigns sometimes have challenges and need new beginnings. It will be up to you and your team to find what works best for you.   Even though this is "The World Outside Your Window" that doesn't mean the world's going to continue to be as boring and predictable as the one you know. Due to this Divergence Event, something about this reality loosens the confines of the laws of physics, and things that seemed impossible or absurd today will suddenly become more possible, and even more inevitable, as time continues to move forward. The very fabric of space-time may be unraveling, or changing, and normal human beings will soon find themselves exposed to energies and abilities that had only been dreams and nightmares until now. Probability and possibility shake hands, and the realms of science and reason find themselves being challenged by the realms of faith and absurdity. Will this change The World We Know And Take For Granted into a more positive and upbeat playful cartoony world or will it become a more horrific and dark disturbing place? Perhaps somewhere in between? Will you and your friends seek to improve life for yourselves and others, or will you take advantage of your gifts and squander them selfishly? How will the other seven billion or so inhabitants of this planet respond to what you do? And what will it mean to the future of Earth when its inhabitants have literally at their fingertips the power to evolve their own kind or cause their own extinction? By the way, did anyone order pizza?