PlayersGuide/ Last Exit to Babylon

The Track Not Taken

Game Book Entry

The Road runs from before the dawn of civilization out beyond the decadent future. A cursed few find their way to it by power of blood; others are brought there and can sometimes return. Within the span of history we know two great civilizations are aware of the Road – the failing anarchy in what they call the 25th Century and our great City of Babylon.

Setting Info

The road is a passage through time. The main branch of the road represents what you might call "consensus history", but where it goes can change over time. Minor branches exist and if you go far enough away from the well trod routes you could find anything.

On the well-frequented parts it's a nicely maintained asphalt road, going up being a 10-lane freeway in the civilized parts of "up time". Whilst you will see carts and horses (particularly down-time) and the occasional traveller on foot most regular users of the Road find some way to acquire a motorised vehicle from the twentieth century or beyond.

Exits from the road move up time in accordance with subjective experience - if you spend a year away from home then when you get back to the exit you entered the Road on a year will have passed back in your home time. As a result the exits have to be relabelled and maintained from time to time. Motels and Inns exist along the fringes of the Road in nearly all times.

The road tends to attract special people. Once you've visited you can always get back although it might take years of searching for another access to it. You might never get back home though!

The (Second) Babylonian empire runs from 626 BC until 539 BCE. The player characters will start off in the city of Babylon in 580BC not long after the city of Babylon has been rebuilt. The Babylonian Empire is an authoritarian kingdom with unique knowledge of the Road and the Fifth Bureau maintains the kingdom's current control over the road - a combination of espionage, border guard, and troubleshooting force.

Bureau legend has it that the Bureau was founded by members of the Fourth Bureau fleeing the fall of Babylon and that members of the Fifth Bureau will likewise found a Sixth Bureau from the ruins of the Fifth. You won't have enountered members of either organisation but the standing order is that directions from the Sixth Bureau are to be obeyed without question.

The three major road exits near Babylon are indicated with signs of:

  • "The Blue Ziggurat" (currently around 620BCE)
  • "The Hanging Gardens" (580BCE)
  • "The Angry Snake" (530BCE, not long after the fall of Babylon)

These exits are all permanently manned by the Bureau.

There are many minor exits which go to Babylon and other parts of the ancient world and the Bureau tries to keep patrols between approximately the 5th century CE and the third millenium BCE.

After approximately the 5th century CE the high tech travellers take over control (although they rarely venture downstream of about the 10th century) and signage is mostly written in the language of the Road - foretalk. Anyone who's travelled on the Road before can be assumed to speak at least some foretalk.

The three major arms of the state are the Bureaucracy (including the Fifth), the Priesthoods (particularly of Marduk), and the Military.

Character Generation

  • You are either a member of a Bureau special team or have been asked to work with it.
  • Characters are 50 point LoGAS characters, but you should feel encouraged to sell down one or many Attributes. The average Road traveller is Superior or worse in all four Attributes.
  • Up to 5 points of Stuff either way.
  • You must have at least one Power; otherwise the Bureau wouldn't have selected you for this mission.
  • You can spend up to 10 points on Rank, which will determine your position in the local hierarchies and what mundane resources you can draw on; see the table below. In principle the Bureau member with the highest Rank is in charge of the mission; and any Priests or Military in the team are merely advisors...
  • If you have Eidolon then you're an elite member of the Military, if you have Umbra then you're a Priest or Priestess, if you have neither and Warden or Master of the Road then you're an agent of the Bureau. If you have none of the above then you're either a specialist of the Bureau or a private citizen who has been hired or drafted (give me a backstory)
  • You can have any items / creatures that (a) are less than 15 points total. Characters without any innate ability to find road on-ramps might wish to have an item with the "Pass through Door" ability to help them find their way onto the Road (or rely on the others!)
    • The computerized books from Roadmarks are 7 point items
    • You can have a C20th vehicle stashed at the Road for 1 point (Mobility)

Modifications to normal abilities:

  • Warden and Master of the GS are renamed Warden and Master of the Road.
    • Warden works basically the same way as it does for the Stair; except you're dealing with roads rather than doors. Road on-ramps tend to be out of the way or down dead ends or alleyways; although occasionally you'll find them in what appear to everyone else to be uncompleted highway infrastructure. Locking or Unlocking a road is likely to require a construction crew!
    • Master will work approximately the same way it does in LoGAS but there will be a lot more interpretation required - if you're interested in taking this we'll have to have a brief chat about how it works for your character.
  • Eidolon and Umbra can be taken at a 25 point "Initiate" level (and I suggest you do rather than the full version!) - pick one aspect that you're really good at and everything else will work approximately a third as well.
  • Wrighting: Wrights will be given time after the mission briefing to make two icons of other party members, and can have icons for a contact in the Bureau and any allies they have.
  • Invocation: I'm not sure how this might be useful, but I'll listen to your ideas!
  • Cantrips and Sorcery: these both work Really Well on the Road, and less well in the real world the further you get into the technological eras.
  • Sorcerors can have up to 4 simple effects that you can use at whim
    • (e.g. "fireball", about as effective as hitting someone with a sword, "teleport 10m foward" etc)
    • you can come up with arbitrary effects on actually useful timescales (not on the scale of falling, combat, or geology unless they're very simple modifications of one of your known effects; but on the order of 15 minutes or so).
  • You can spend 1 point on "Domain" which will give you a hidey hole off or adjacent to the Road somewhere where people know who you are, but it's secret from everyone who you haven't informed about it.

Rank:

Points Agent Specialist Civilian Military Priesthood
0 Trainee Apprentice Helot Soldier Acolyte
1 Agent Journeyman Freeman Sergeant Deacon
2-3 Lieutenant Journeyman N/A Corporal Underpriest
4-7 Captain Master N/A Lieutenant Priest
8-10 Major Master N/A Captain Bishop

(Yes, a Captain in the Military outranks a Captain in the Bureau)

Allies:

  • 1 point: Contact from the far future or far past - you know someone on the Road or off it who lives a long way from Babylon.
  • 2 points or 4 points: Friend in Babylon. A 2 point friend is someone of about your peer group and you know who they are. A 4 point friend is someone pulling strings higher up in the system, and you have no idea who they are.
  • 6 points: Ally from the far future or far past - you know someone on the Road or off it who lives a long way from Babylon and they either owe you badly or they are otherwise willing to risk their life for you.