The Almanac Effect (GotM April 2017)

RPGfix · May 1, 2017

Congratulations to The Almanac Effect who have won Game of the Month for April 2017!

They won with a grand total of 81 votes and 126 vote points!

When asked to summarize the site, members say:

"An amazing site about living on a new planet where everything secretly wants to kill you."

"The only RP site where your character can literally fry like an egg on the sun..."

Premise:

They told us everything would be fine...

Actually, they promised. But I guess that's neither here nor there.

Sorry, I got a little carried away. Who said what doesn't matter anymore. Who did what doesn't matter, either. Really all that makes one bit of difference is that, well, we can't go back.

I know you want to. I wanted to, too, before I really thought about what that entailed. Earth, by every definition, is a wasteland. Petra Exterior (the rock you're standing on as you read this) is now home. It's not much, but as more of us touch down, we'll try to make it as close to that third rock from the sun as we can. Minus the extinction part, hopefully.

There's a lot we don't know, but the parts we do seem pretty promising:

- We only had a few years to study PE before we had to hightail it out here, but we gathered enough information to know it's habitable. That means there's oxygen for us to breathe and the climate isn't one that's going to immediately kill us. That's how you're standing outside the S.S. 2394 or whatever number they're on now and not gasping for air.

- Time seems to move a little differently here. As we figure it out, I'll keep you in the loop. Just know that a "day" here is like.. 72 hours.

- In case you missed the memo before boarding your shuttle (or forgot - a lot of us do), you are no longer anywhere close to what used to be "home". No other planet in our galaxy - let alone our solar system - was anything akin to being livable, so we had to go ask our figurative neighbor for help. You're now in the Andromeda galaxy. Yes, that's really frickin' far away from Earth.

- A new galaxy means a new solar system... means a new sun. Because simply calling it "the sun" would have been far too confusing, we've decided to call it Sol. Yes, that is just "sun" in a different language. We're very original. Anyway, Sol is a white dwarf star, which burns hotter than the sun we're used to. As far as we can tell, the only thing this means for us is that we shouldn't stay out in the sun as long as we used to on Earth. - WE WERE SO WRONG. Read Addendum 1!

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You're getting this letter because you're not the first one here. Be thankful you weren't - it took a lot of brainpower to figure out how to start civilization from scratch. They've fashioned nails out of the old ships in order to piece together homes, formed other scraps into saws and shovels, and found a seemingly endless supply of vine that can be used for rope. Don't laugh - these were major breakthroughs.

Oh! One final note:
Considering a monetary system would have taken too long to establish when we're starting from scratch, they decided to nix the whole thing. Not like we have the real money to back up paper bills, anyway. Your currency is now your trade. You do something, and you do it well. In exchange for this, you will receive goods from your community.

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I think those are the basics. Once you've thawed off, grab that one measly bag they let you bring with you and head out. There's no point in waiting for the rest of your stuff to arrive; those unmanned spacecrafts have been a little spotty in showing up. But don't worry, they all get here eventually.

Alright, that's all I've got for you for now. Go forth and prosper.
~ The Canary

**Addendum 1**
We were wrong... So wrong. Sol burns hotter than the sun we're used to, yes, but we weren't prepared for PE to get so close to it. If you're just touching down now, stay in your ship until nightfall, and pray it doesn't melt around you in the meantime. The things seem to last a couple of days before they turn to puddles, so you should be okay to wait it out. We're calling it the Scorch because... it burns everything. Nothing can withstand this heat. Don't go out in the sun unless you have a death wish - it'll cook you in three minutes flat. Darkness is your friend - use it to get your ass to the mountains. I know they look far away, but I promise you can make it on foot in 14 hours or less. Night only lasts 24 hours now, so don't dally too much.

Good luck.
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The Almanac Effect (GotM April 2017)

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