Since the 'War of the Powers', the world has been flooded with unchecked energies. Consequently the world is in turmoil. The Burn is a condition that some mortals, susceptible to magical energy, suffer. In such people, the energy manifests to dangerous levels; this will either kill them, often resulting in a great conflagration or it will corrupt them. Corrupted individuals are known by the Institute as 'wild'; somehow they have managed to harmonize the power within them, but at the cost of their sanity. Consequently they are able to call on this energy to manifest incredible power.
The Institute, sponsored largely by the great houses of the mortal empire, exists to deal with not only the Burn, but similar effects that manifest in the land – magical storms and such. They are legally charged with dealing with the threat of wild burn victims as well as the right to control anyone with the potential to manifest this condition (it can be spotted prior to reaching dangerous levels). Such individuals are given the opportunity to work for the Institute as agents (while those who can't are incarcerated in the notorious Asylum facility known as Warlock Island Hospital). As such they are equipped with hardware known as 'burnsuits'. These are outfits that allow Burn victims to harmonise their internal chaotic energies in a manner similar to their 'wild' cousins, however they are much less powerful as a response (they can survive without a suit for about a week, though it is not permitted to do so), these suits are a notorious mark of office and a means of survival.
This idea comes from two sources: an old british rpg called Tales of Garenthir (in particular Kyromancers), and Marvel Comics (The X Men). The concept was intended to be a fantasy superhero universe where these guys were accompanied by other concepts; theinly (and intentionally) based on other established comic book ideas. For instance, the scientifically advanced culture of the lost island of Atlanthe was destroyed by geological disaster. Few survived, but those that did have superhuman power (Kryptonians), and the soldiers of the Greenlight bore a staff bearing an actual green light as the source of their nature-protecting powers (the druids meet the Green Lanterns). However the more I focus on these ideas the more I find myself tending to stray from ideas based on other people's ideas and sticking with just the Institute and those with the Burn. I'm not sure what the best way forward is.
Cool idea, great start to an "orginal" campaign. What game system are you planning to use?
TT.
Either d6 of, if i decide to buy it (unlikely given its lack of availability) Savage Worlds. I have no idea what the licensing requirements are for SW, but i thought if it gets written up it would be cool to release it as a cheap pdf (something I've been wanting to do for a while). Whether or not anyone buys it is another matter. I'm not sure I have the willpower to go through designing my own system, and I don't think I have it in me to design Indie games in the style of products like Don't Rest Your Head, which are an entirely different kind of game I've come to realise
If you want to release it as a PDF, a OL game would be a lot easier to market.
Good luck, it sounds like a intersting idea and it would make a great setting.
TT.
thanks.