The Backstory for My Game "Primum Nocere", Comments Encouraged! - THIS IS NOT A ZOMBIE GAME!

THIS IS NOT A ZOMBIE GAME!!!  I just wanted to emphasize that first off because a lot of posters on RPG Net and The RPG Site read the backstory below and thought it was a zombie game.  While there may be a few creatures that will eat you, they do not look, move, walk, act, talk, think, or smell like zombies because they are not zombies.  Nor do you become a zombie if one of these creatures bites you.  There are no zombies in the game.  Okay, here is my blog entry as originally posted:


I have come up with an idea for a game!  I guess I would call it an alternate history role-playing game with supernatural elements.  The working title is "Primum Nocere: First, Do Harm" and below is the premise for the game.  Note: This is a VERY ROUGH DRAFT and will most certainly change as the project develops. 


PRIMUM NOCERE: FIRST, DO HARM

“As to diseases, make a habit of two things -- to help, or at least to do no harm.”
-Hippocrates in Epidemics.

“When you’re out in the field, staring those bastards in the eyes and knowing you’re about to become their next meal, are you gonna sit down and ask them what’s wrong? Hell no! You’re gonna blast them with whatever ya got and hope to hell they drop: Primum Nocere.”
-General Thomas E. McFarland, commander medicomilitary division, US Army.


It’s 1959 and the world is plagued by a scourge of horrific and dangerous creatures.  While many spots on the globe continue to see little or none of these entities, they have spread in such abundance in other areas that most people in the world are now aware of their presence and very frightened.  Exactly what, if anything, these entities are trying to accomplish is unclear and may vary from creature to creature, but it quickly became apparent that most are not mindless zombies.

The entities first came to light in 1945 when the US Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, began receiving reports of strange disappearances in a small village in Bolivia.  Later, villagers came forward describing grotesque “spirits” roaming the land at night.  Not believing the villagers, yet not wanting to dismiss them completely, the OSS sent cameras to the villagers with instructions in their use.  Weeks later, the agency received a handful of provocative, albeit blurry, images.  Intrigued, they sent a team of specialists to investigate the site.  Of the 9 members who made the trip, only one returned and he was in a terrible state: wild-eyed, trembling, and barely speaking.  From what his interviewers could piece together, his team had been totally decimated by a group of “bloody, pulsating monsters".  Since then, more and more reports of such creatures and others surfaced, until, by 1959, such sightings had become commonplace and a worldwide state of emergency was declared.

Around the time of the first creature sightings, the Nuremberg war criminal trials were taking place.  In preparing for the trial, investigators sifted through thousands of newly uncovered Nazi documents. In doing so, they discovered that the Ahnenerbe, a pet project of Heinrich Himmler seeking to prove the historic superiority of the Aryan race, had sent a team of scientists to Bolivia in 1939 to excavate the site of an ancient city-state called Tiwanaku, located near the banks of Lake Titicaca. What they uncovered is not known: no recordings of the team’s findings have surfaced and the names of the scientists had been redacted from all documents.

The proximity of the 1939 expedition site to the 1945 disappearances and creature sightings led to speculation that the two might be connected.  Initially regarded as preposterous, a theory began to take hold that Himmler’s team had uncovered some strange force that introduced the entities into the world.  Exactly why there was a 6-year lag period is unclear.

The nature of this alleged force is fiercely debated.  Many believe it has a religious basis, while others believe that some natural phenomenon, lying dormant for millions of years, was unearthed. Many who subscribe to the former believe that the entities are messengers from God and are bringing about a foretold and necessary change in the world order.  Such individuals do not believe in combating the entities and may actually take measures they feel will help the entities in their mission.  On the other hand, people who believe that some natural phenomenon is at work, typically feel that the entities should be controlled, contained, studied if possible, or simply killed outright. Whatever the nature of the force, it still appears to be active because the creature population continues to grow.

Several different entities have been captured and analyzed by an international team of scientists.  Rather than being some alien creatures, it appeared that the entities were at least partially human.  This led to speculation that the people reported missing had not been abducted by the entities per se, but were, in fact, the entities themselves.  No one, however, has actually witnessed a transformation to confirm this.  Autopsy and laboratory analysis suggested that all of the entities had some sort of affliction and that these afflictions, in very small ways, resembled known diseases.  It was, therefore, hypothesized that the phenomenon allegedly uncovered in Bolivia may have amplified a preexisting disease state in the host, totally or nearly taking over the host and rendering them unrecognizable as human.  With the obvious structural changes came a host of functional changes as well: enhanced speed, strength, cunning, the ability to become invisible, to name a few.  Most troublesome was the finding that many of the creatures were resistant to standard weapons, even those employed by military forces.

At some point, it was suggested that because the creatures may represent various disease states run horribly out of control, perhaps the most appropriate individuals to deal with them would be medical and surgical physicians.  Special institutions began to spring up around the globe to train a new breed of doctors to fight the atrocities.  Existing medical schools also began offering combat career tracks.  Many in the military resent the intrusion of physicians into an area that they've historically handled, however, a significant proportion welcome their help.

Within the medical community, there is widespread disagreement about whether these entities are all entirely hostile and whether they can be restored to their normal host state, i.e. cured.  Some docs, therefore, favor “treating” the entities, while others shoot first and ask questions later.  This latter group, armed with specially designed medicomilitary weapons, has abandoned their Hippocratic oath and have adopted a new mentality: “Primum Nocere: First Do Harm.”



So, in the game, you'll play a doctor/soldier charged with investigating mysterious situations involving the strange entities.  Please let me know what you think--don't hold back...

Frankly, I think I might like to change the whole Himmler/Nazi expedition as the origin point and make it something more fresh and interesting (anyone who's watched the History Channel or Military Channel has probably heard all about the Nazi occult stuff ad nauseum).  I'm also not sure if I want to set the game in the 1950s or during some other time period.   In terms of alternate history, I plan on filling the backstory with lots of details that have changed since the creatures entered the world (i.e. the US and Russia are strong allies, a trucker/singer by the name of Elvis Presley languishes in obscurity, etc.)

Not Dead Yet and Analysis Paralysis

I'm still here

Yes, it has been a long, long time since my last post.  Not much has been happening at Rusty Scalpel Games as I have been using much of my time to explore other career paths.  I came up with a bunch of cool career ideas, but none have really jumped out as my life's work.  So, with a new burst of inspiration, I decided to jump back into designing a game. 

Analysis Paralysis

In my last blog posts, I was discussing the need for marketing research.  I'm sure that if you want to be commercially successful, that's probably pretty important.  For me though, I found that all the analysis brought my enthusiasm and creative efforts to a standstill.  So screw all this other crap-- for now I'm going to work on the actual game.

So what's the game going to be?

I've decided it will be a role-playing game with strong historical elements, but also with a heavy dose of the supernatural.  I'll announce the premise and setting at a later date...

What you want, what I want

Before you start a journey, you need to figure out where you want to go. Since Rusty Scalpel Games is both a business endeavor and a personal creative outlet, that means I need to figure out what you want and what I want.

So my first step is to do some market research--talk with fellow gamers, read message boards, visit game retailers, etc. What games or related products do gamers want, but not have? or What products are already out that address a need, but do a poor job of it?

As for me, I think I'd like to do a role-playing game or a related product. If I did a game, I know that I'd like it to have a simple, intuitive system, yet offer deep role-playing elements with a real sense of immersion. I would also shoot for a contemporary setting and steer away from elves, wizards, and other fantasy stuff. But I don't want to run with my ideas until I've heard from the gaming community first.

Any games that you'd like to play, but can't, either because they're nonexistent or crappy?

Introduction

Hello, my name is Tony Brown and I am the founder of Rusty Scalpel Games. I used to be a surgeon, but didn't like it, so I dropped it. Then I became a journalist, but didn't like that either, so I dropped it too. Finally, I'm embarking on something I have a true passion for: creating games. I love all types of games, particularly role-playing games, both pen-n-paper and computer.

The purpose of this journal is to tell you what I plan on creating for RSG and then take you on the project's journey from womb to tomb. Along the way, I want to hear from you! If you think it's a dumb idea to begin with, tell me. If there's some design choices you'd do differently, I want to know. My goal is to create products that match the wants and needs of other gamers with my own artistic vision.

I hope you have fun reading this journal and I look forward to your comments. Thank you.