More about the game I am brewing

So, next week I will do a game in a page. This week I am using the spare week in my month to write more about that game.

So. I am going to write a game about rebellion. Set in the early modern age, in which the players are rebelling against rich nobles who are trying to use the magical industrial revolution (a bit early) to ascend to become evil gods. Because apparently I cannot write something other than a high concept game.

So, here is my pitch; the mages of the setting managed to work out how to harvest a little bit of the magic power and soul of a person to power spells. They also worked out how to turn enough magic and wealth into making someone a new god. Your pcs have seen people having their life sucked out in order to be ground down into working slaves for the rich and the powerful. They've seen the great empire torn apart by a civil war that has seen generations dying for the pride of their princes. They've seen the princes conquer and enslave the rest of the world and have decided to put a stop to it.

They've got a difficult road ahead of them, however. The princes are in command of a great deal of money and power. Armies answer their call, and mages will work for them in exchange for power and comfort. The law of a land is the prince's will, so no legal authority can be brought against them. They are the kings of the world, and they know it. The rebellion is not enough to challenge them at the moment, and each of them is planning his or her ascension to the heavens, regardless of the costs.

The PCs have several advantages though. The first is that one of the nations that the princes were trying to enslave and colonise had an ancient magic that they traded with the rebellion in exchange for guns and support. They have the Rite of the Champion. This ritual allows someone with a strong enough spirit and friendly mages to gain a strength from the magic they take from the factories and fortresses of the princes.

They also have the benefit that the founder of the magical engineering revolution grew horrified by what was happening with her inventions. She ran from the court of the emperor, and took the last secrets of aetheric engineering with her. She became one of the founders of the rebellion and went underground to study. The fruits of that study is that the rebellion has some of the best equipment in the world. Trusting as they often do in a few elite champions, these agents often have quasi magical equipment far in advance of their enemies. This even extends to magical limbs and enhancements, which can replace the limbs lost to the enemy and enhance the operatives.

So, do you want to raid the power of princes? Burn their palaces and smash their prison factories?  Free the peasants that are enslaved to the will of uncaring masters? Thwart the cruel masters of the world from becoming masters of heaven as well? Will you fight, sabotage, steal and die to free humanity from the coming nightmare? Then welcome champions, to the rebellion. The future is counting on you.