Welcome to the 25th century, the world you once knew is gone, there are no more countries, no more governments, we all speak a united language and there is so much more that is different. We still call the planet Earth but humans have become docile.
Corporations have taken over the ruling of the planet, they are the ones that where once the 1%. People have been crammed into megacities, these were formed after the third world war. The war almost destroyed the whole planet but from the ashes the corporations began rebuilding the world. These megacities are divided in Districts numbered from one to ten and are color coded, 1 being the extremely poor and 10 the very rich. Most colours have no significance except for Silver and Gold, here live the richest of this planet.
But that is not all, it gets even stranger. Humans are evolving quite fast and there are people who are called “mutants”, they are considered normal as it is quite common. We found out that magic or something similar exists and there are people who can perform extraordinary feats. Have you ever heard of H. P. Lovecraft and the mythos he and his friends have created? You have? Well most of what has been written about this Mythos seems to be true, but don’t tell other people most do not know.
There is so much more I could tell you but I think you need some time to digest all of it.
So, what is District about?
As I wrote above, it is in the future with mega cities and Corporations have basically taken over the role of government.
After the third world war humanity was broken, large parts of the world were not fit to live in any more. Certain groups have retreated to the areas where they could sustain life. So after decades the Mega Cities were born and Corporations took over control over humanity.
The players can decide if they will follow the conform ways of the corporations or that they pursue their own lives with the risk that the corporations will try to keep them in check. A rebellious mind can “infect” others around, and that is a no go for the Corporations, they like it fine as it is.
Why is it called District?
Every city is divided into Districts, From 1 to 10 and every district also has a color designation. So the richest live in District 10 – Gold, While the poorest live in a District 1. Gold and Silver only apply to some Districts from level 8 to 10. People can work their selves up to an other District or those who lose income or power will go to a lower District. It sounds complicated but it is not. Here below a Map of the Mega City Berlin.
Under the mega cities is an other city and they call it the Underground, no surprises there. The Underground is the place where outcasts, criminals, unwanted, misfits and the poorer than District 1 People go to. The underground basically has it’s own “Districts” but they are bigger and mostly or governed by someone who took power there or they are divided in small communities looking out for themselves. The Corporations normally leave the Underground alone because of the sheer amount of Mutants, Criminals and other scum that are residing there. Do keep in mind, even though it is named Underground or the poorest go there does not mean it is a hell hole. There is an own kind of community but not run by the Corporations. And here an example of Underground in Berlin.
Not Cyberpunk
To be clear, this is Cyberpunk without the punk, I think that the future if it would be Dystopian still would be ok and not overly gritty. In district several special groups exist; Magi (Magic Users), Mutants (Innate Abilities), Sidhe-Kin (Human Sidhe Hybrid), Alien Born (Human Alien Hybrid), The Exalted (Genetically Enhanced), The Corrupted (Those corrupted by The outer influences) and more will be added as time goes by.
Every group has its own powers, but the meat on the bone is that everyone can be a Hacker, have Cybertech, be a hustler. There are no restrictions except on your special group and even then it is still very open.
What happens in District?
The setting is extremely open. In the first District campaign we decided what direction we wanted to go with the current campaign and we have some big stories going on involving Corporations and other big bad guys. So the players do things to keep their selves rich and actually help those in need, to an extend, the world of District is a very harsh world, everything is grey.
Aliens exist, Monsters exist, the Cthulhu Mythos exists (up to a certain extend and moulded in our vision), other dimensions exist and so much more.
That is it in a nutshell, there is a lot more in the game but then I would be writing a complete book about it, which I almost have done already.