Order a Deluxe Edition of Technocracy Reloaded, a supplement for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition
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Hello Agents & Operatives,
Well, you've done it again. We're not quite through our first week of this campaign, and we've already unlocked ELEVEN Stretch Goals.
ACHIEVED! - AT $131,000 in funding - Technocracy Reloaded Player’s Companion: Technomancer's Toybox 20, Q Division Bonus —This PDF supplement will contain even more gadgets, devices, adjustments, and procedures.
We've doubled the size of our Technomancer's Toybox, and will need new brains in Q Division to help develop new devices for our operatives! Look for a new premium reward tier, limited to just 3 slots, to open at 12:00 Noon EDT on May 6 for those looking to join Q Division and throw some ideas at our developers and engineers and get them to turn one of your ideas into a part of the game.
As our Player's Companion continues to grow in size, I'm also looking at being able to add another few slots to our SYMPOSIUM PERSONNEL reward tier, and working to figure out a way to add more spots for the IVORY TOWER SCHOLAR tier as well, so don't despair if you've missed out on a premium opportunity that you really wanted - hopefully more chances coming soon! And, if you are interested in those tiers, keep an eye on them throughout the campaign - there's always churn, especially in the final week, as pledges shift and change, so always new realities opening up.
I don't know about you, but my go-to menu has been gone-to a lot over the past month. Some meal favorites have become a little less favored, and I'm ready to mix it up a bit. Perfect timing to announce our next rewards...
At $135,000 in funding - NEW REWARD: Mage Cookbook PDF — We’ll add the Mage Cookbook PDF to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Technocracy Reloaded PDF.
And then we'll continue expanding our Player's Companion until every section is double-stuffed:
At $139,000 in funding - Technocracy Reloaded Player’s Companion: Unlikely Allies II —A guide to cross-faction play incorporating the Disparate Alliance into a Technocracy Campaign and vice-versa will be added to this PDF supplement.
We've already had HUGE success, achieving a remarkable 11 Stretch Goals with so much more of our campaign stretched out ahead of us! We're hitting the slower middle period, but I think we can still achieve these next two Stretch Goals and take us to a Lucky 13!
So, let's bend reality to our will! Continue to share your excitement and enthusiasm, and let's keep this campaign rolling!
Across the span of cold and empty dark, five hands reach out.
Catch. Hold. Ignite.
Five points, five minds, five essences connect. The Man in Black. The Ecstatic Seer. The Hunting Templar. The Streetbound Jinx. The Master of the Mad.
Five points. A single connection.
One point which is nowhere yet everywhere.
Unity and diversity.
Light in void.
Cold heat.
White fire.
Silence broken by a quiet song.
Five hands reach across time and space.
Form, distance, separation, collapse.
Dis-integrate.
Re-integrate.
Become whole.
Infinite vibrates with a sudden stillness.
The Wheel stops turning.
Freezes in a white eternal instant.
Then, after infinity, begins to turn again.
In a white and blood-caked room, a tall, pale man rises from his table, limbs freed, black suit restored. He checks his surroundings, notes the atomized antagonist, and slides his mirrorshades back into place. He scans the room for signs of life. Nothing. He allows himself a slight, grim smile, strides to the wall, and opens a till-then-invisible door.
In a sunlit, humid temple by a sacred pool, cloaked with sandalwood incense smoke, a woman younger than her years opens her eyes and draws a deep and steady breath. She nods to the gigantic black dog licking blood from his muzzle. The dog nods back with oddly human eloquence. In two worlds, physical and astral, the trap has been sprung and their enemies destroyed.
In a chapel deep beneath the ground, a kneeling black warrior with a fondness for good food whispers a prayer of thanksgiving to his god. Candlelight glimmers on the contours of his armor — not modern but medieval — and the bloodied sword by his knees. The sword has not moved through physical space, nor has it drawn physical blood recently. Still, the blade feels hot to the touch, as if heated by internal flame. The blood steams away as the warrior whispers his prayer to a crucified Savior who is both Lamb and Lion, wanderer and king.
In a graffiti-painted ruin, a young trickster opens her eyes, blows out a heavy sigh, and reaches for a hand-rolled joint. Traffic roars past outside — clattering trucks with loads bound for elsewhere. Seattle speaks in rain and garbage, gleaming glass and crumbled pavement; her trees rumble with slow contentment as the young Jinx flicks her lighter, ignites her cigarette, breathes in the stinging brace of cannabis, and listens to the rain.
In a comfortably appointed living room, the Master opens his eyes, flexes his hands, and watches flames dance in the hearth. Above the fireplace, an impossible creature stretches out its tiny wings, arcs into empty space, and alights precariously on its Master’s shoulder. The Master smiles, tickles the creature’s chin, and offers it a bit of chicken from the plate of food cooling on the table before him. Seated on either side of him, his wife and daughter sip their tea — tea the scent and color of fresh blood.
The darkness lingers. It always will. For now, though, its agents have lost the game.
[/Tomorrow: Conclusion]
“You’re a distraction, Johnny.”
The voice comes from everywhere.
“You’re a pawn.”
Infinity vibrates with the sound of it.
“You’re an idea. Not a man. Not an ‘agent,’ secret or otherwise.”
A distraction, I think.
“Exactly.”
A delusion.
“Yes.”
A diversion from the real objective.
I hear him smile in the darkness. “From the very beginning, yes.”
A trap.
“You know you were.”
Not “were.” Are. Am. Still am.
“Of course.” The voice now seems less certain.
You know, I think back at him, you’re actually very bad at this game.
And that’s when the blackness goes white.
[/Nearing the End. Two more Prelude pieces to go...]
Hello Agents & Operatives,
Another small preview today - a taste of what we'll see as part of our Kickstarter Manuscript preview on Tuesday. Today, we'll get a little bit from Chapter - uh, Unit 3 - from the Technocracy Reloaded book. Unit 3: Theaters of Operation examines current Technocratic initiatives on the Front Lines. New initiatives are introduced, old procedures are expanded and clarified, and the Union's global goals are parsed out in localized segments, giving the Storyteller the tools to craft Technocratic tales anywhere in the world.
It’s a mad, mad world, and the Technocratic Union is not the only party of significance within it. They do, however, have a fairly generous reach and so keep their hands on as many centers of potentiality as they can while keeping their eyes on most of the rest. Whether your adventures take you to your nearest metropolitan crossroads or to a dusty little, backwater, forgotten nugget of curiosity, you should have a bit of an idea of what you’re getting yourself into, and that sort of question is what we should review.
The following chapter provides something of a primer to help you get the look and feel of the rest of the globe (note: globe, not some flat planet!) so that you know what to expect. Each entry contains an exceedingly brief overview of the general area, and a snapshot of the operations the Technocracy is concerned with in the area.
It’s an odd time to be a Technocratic operative.
The third decade of the 21st century should be a paradise. Our ancestors could not have possibly envisioned the world three centuries of rapid, unprecedented technological advances has given us. Within slightly over a hundred years, humanity has gone from gaslights and telegraphs to mobile computers that fit in a pocket, interlinked worldwide and capable of watching movies, taking photos, and accessing infinite reams of data in real time all at once. Scientists shoot cameras into the depths of space, revealing wonders that make old-time visions of infinity seem tame. Sublime graces of technology allow people to connect more deeply, more quickly, and across greater distances than ever before.
And yet, the world burns.
What should be a golden age might be the end of humanity. Radical shifts of climate and politics bring daily disasters and the threat of worse to come. Grand experiments of democratic freedoms collapse under shouting hatred and depthless ignorance. The Technocratic dream of a world united by technology is being torn apart by the realities of human behavior. No mathematical model could predict the deranged upheavals of the current age, and so the Technocracy finds itself throwing away outmoded Time Tables and accepting new protocols that address the current situation.
Perhaps the most disconcerting element of this era — for Technocrats, at least — involves the Masses’ gleeful embrace of irrationality. It’s not failures of democratic ideals that bother the Union’s membership; the Technocracy is anti-democratic to begin with, so a global movement toward authoritarianism fits perfectly within the Technocratic plan. It’s the chaos of it that bothers many Technocrats — the willful stupidity of it all. The junking of reason, the spread of disease, the slashing of science programs even as science facilitates every other aspect of this age. Instead of compliance and control, the Technocracy sees selfishness, whim, and ruin. Although a Fallen Technocracy might celebrate such things (and does, if that metaplot’s in play), Technocracy idealists look at this world with despair. Is this the world they’ve worked so hard to achieve? And how can the Union save humanity from itself when humanity seems to crave self-annihilation?
Across the world, even in its strongholds, that’s the challenge faced by this era’s Technocrats: Not the whims of wizards (although superstitionism’s certainly on the rise), the depredations of werebeasts, or the endless thirst of undead monsters, but irrational Masses and a crumbling world order.
The Technocracy is vast, wealthy, and possessed of hypertech that does impossible things. Thousands of Enlightened operatives command millions of associates worldwide. Their combined influence is without precedence in human history. And yet, in the face of nearly eight billion irrational souls, it seems impossible to reach a true Consensus and bring humanity out of its own shadow.
Uplifting humanity from this mess is a task for heroes. But can heroism be enough, even with all the power of the Union at those heroes’ command?
Current projections don’t look good.
But that’s never stopped the Technocracy before…
Over 20 countries and as many dependent territories make up the North American continent. Nearly 600 million people live here, with over half of that population within the United States of America. Heading into the third decade of the 21st century, North America is a land in political turmoil. In the eyes of many Technocrats, North America is a failed experiment in the Union’s goals, the lessons of which can be applied more effectively in other regions.
Current Initiatives
Technocratic initiatives in North America revolve around maintenance and research. Conventions introduce small changes or study the changes happening throughout the continent.
Progenitors (Dr. Sara Reid Memorial Research Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA)
The Reid Memorial Research Center is an R&D construct that focuses on filtering cutting edge Progenitor designs and innovations to the Masses through a number of connections to the public clinics and research centers throughout Minnesota. Proximity to the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota give the Progenitors ample resources for recruiting locally. Much like the GPNA in South Africa, the Reid Center benefits from a Reality Zone that is exceptionally permissive to Progenitor procedures.
The Syndicate (Western Currency Adjustment Initiative, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Obviously, the Syndicate has a number of hotspots of activity scattered across North America, but the current highlight of the Syndicate profile is the WCAI in Vancouver. With the proliferation of online commerce, the Syndicate’s long-term goal of a cashless society is well on its way to fruition, though there are a number of obstacles still in the way. The WCAI is leading the initiative in North America. Placing itself in proximity to leaders in online commerce, this Syndicate operation is concerned with insinuating itself into leading corporations and platforms in the virtual space so that it might manipulate those assets from within.
Void Engineers (Atlantis Station, Key West, Florida, USA)
Atlantis Station is the centralized hub of Void Engineer activity on the Western Hemisphere. The location on Key West allows for easily coordinated communication and deployment of BDC Marines as well as Voidship launches and Aquatic exploration focused on the Atlantic Ocean. Proximity to the Kennedy Space Center allows Void Engineers to keep an eye on emerging technologies and look out for potential recruits.
A tiny taste of global operations. For the full meal (is this analogy even making sense?! Or am I just hungry?), join up and check back Tuesday for our next Backer's Only preview post which will contain the full text of Unit 2 and 3!
Until then, continue to spread the word, share the love, and watch us grow!