Day 63.Weather: Uhhh....
Events: So! First things first, absolutely nobody is waking up in familiar territory today. Everyone’s in a new place, and everyone’s probably going to be pretty confused. Nothing about their surroundings are in any way familiar. Are they still in Mount Zenith? Are they on the vacation island they visited once before? Nobody knows! And nothing’s going to make a heck of a lot of sense until the subjects read the letters pinned to their chests.
No, seriously. Everyone is going to wake up and find a very large brown envelope pinned to their clothing. Each envelope is stamped with the words
READ ME in large red letters. Inside the envelopes are multiple pages of information, but for all, the first page is identical. It reads:
Greetings.
As you are almost certainly aware, there are things you need to continue to survive and function comfortably in the mansion in Mount Zenith. By now you have had plenty of time to realize that you are hopelessly ill equipped to deal with the winter weather without our help. Some time ago, the group made a choice to take on responsibility for the maintenance of the house and grounds. It has grown impossible for you to meet these requirements in the changing season.
We do not desire to repeal our arrangement. It is still our belief that you must expect any deals to be made with us as permanent, and that you should not become complacent or expect outside help. The fact remains that without our intervention, you would remain trapped in the mansion for an unknown period of time.
As a solution for this dilemma, you are going to play a game. Over the course of this game, you may earn points, and said points may be used to purchase amendments to the current deal, as well as additional rewards.
You have woken up in a subterranean community, henceforth referred to as C39. In your information packages, you will each find that you have been given a character and backstory to play - that of one of the inhabitants of C39. You can only earn points by playing along and staying in character.
Every individual can earn up to 24,000 points in a 24 hour period. The gameplay period began the moment you opened your envelope. You will find a digital tracker on your wrist tallying your points at all time.
As a catch, we will not be telling you how long this game will last. It is up to you to decide how seriously to play the game; if the prizes available are worth the serious commitment it will take to obtain them.
In the following pages, we will explain the community of C39, the rules of the game, and your character. But first, you should know the prizes up for grabs in the game. They are:
Winterproof Transportation. COST: 72,000pts.
Several means of transportation for navigation of Mount Zenith during the winter months, as well as in case of an emergency.
Road Maintenance and Snow Removal. COST: 48,000pts.
If earned, we will take control and responsibility for regular winter maintenance of the roads in Mount Zenith. This does not include maintenance of the house itself -- ie, snow shoveling or clearing a path to the road itself.
A New Shop in Mount Zenith. COST: 48,000pts.
Winner may pick the shop’s purpose.
Laptop. COST: 45,000pts.
Your PC replaced with a laptop back at the mansion.
Repaired Kitchen. COST: 40,000pts.
The kitchen restored to the same state as the first day of the experiment, with all appliances replaced.
Handicapped Access on All Floors. COST: 40,000pts.
Equipping the mansion with handicapped measures of transport for all levels.
Snow Removal Tools. COST: 35,000pts.
Bedroom or Bathroom Renovation. COST: 35,000pts.
Have your room back in the mansion renovated to your own specifications.
Material Goods. COST: 30,000pts.
Your choice of three items with a monetary value of less than $500. May also be used for personal items and mementos from home. May not be used for maintenance equipment or snow removal tools.
Points cannot be split between multiple players; each reward can only be earned by one individual.
ABOUT THE GAME
You are a resident of the subterranean community known as C39. The year is 1953. The nation lives in fear of nuclear war. One year ago, a branch of the American government began taking applications for volunteers to cultivate and populate a series of ‘bunker communities,’ with the purpose of being established and self-sufficient should greater numbers of the populace need to retreat to safety underground. 90 days ago, you (and, in some cases, your immediate family members) were approved and transplanted to C39. To your knowledge, there are at least several other ‘bunker communities,’ each one specializing in at least one different necessity, including power, water, livestock, and agriculture. C39 is the newest bunker community, with its primary focuses being agricultural and social growth. The community features a large conservatory, already thriving by the time the community was populated. The main focus of C39, however, is widely believed to be social growth. Great strides have been taken to maintain the appearance of a normal society within C39, and a large number of young married couples were approved into residency, as opposed to a focus on labor or exports. This is chiefly speculation however, as there is no communication between communities. Directions and requirements occasionally come through on a communication device known as ‘the wireless,’ but there is no other contact with the outside world.
The laws of C39 (and as such, the rules of the game), reflect that of a 1950s society and mindset bent towards survival of not just the human race, but ‘the American way.’ Residents of C39 are expected to conduct themselves by the highest ideals possible, or face expulsion from the community.
C39 features many staples of small-town living, including several shops, a diner, and even a bar. There are luxuries including a golf course and recreation center, and it is for all intents and purposes a fully functioning underground city. The ‘streets’ are all equipped with artificial sunlight lamps that run on timers simulating hours of the day, and citizens are all required to take a steady supply of vitamins and supplements to function underground.
In this society, women are submissive to their fathers, and then their husbands. Men are expected to work and support their families, while their wives are expected to keep their homes running smoothly. A working woman is still considered something of an oddity, outside of socially acceptable and reputable careers such as nursing and teaching. While some women of lower classes must work to help support their families, this practice is often considered somewhat disgraceful, and often reflects poorly on their husbands. In fact, of the female population of C39, only two unmarried, working women were approved into the community. Both of these women entered into the community in servitude, and under sponsorship of a family of an elevated class.
There is a great emphasis on the need to procreate within C39, and most women within the community are mothers and homemakers. Birth control is considered taboo; while it would most certainly not exist in the community, players of the game do have access to it within the town clinic.
The community of C39 is made up of 13 married couples/families, and only six single and unattached individuals. Of these six, one is the priest assigned to the community. Another, an elderly widower, was placed within the community as a town historian. The remaining four ‘unattached’ citizens are subject to relocation at any time, and have signed up with the government for matchmaking services.
The community has its own city hall and council, though the council must follow any direct orders from ‘up above’ - their superiors, who occasionally communicate with them over the wireless. The city council is, of course, comprised entirely of men, as are most important professions within the community. C39 has its own jail and law enforcement, but in all honesty it was never expected to need to be utilized so early on. It was warned upon settlement that laws within the community were to be strictly enforced, and any lawbreaking to be met with strict punishments, perhaps even banishment.
There are a lot of things one may take for granted in modern society that are simply not socially acceptable within C39. As previously mentioned, women are generally expected to be controlled by their husbands. It is a woman’s duty to be a pillar of virtue, an obedient wife, and a doting mother. For men and women both, homosexuality is still considered one of the ultimate taboos: in fact, it’s illegal. C39 has a zero tolerance policy for homosexuality; ‘upstairs’ a romp with the same sex might result in an arrest for lewd behavior, but here it’s punishable by banishment, and federal charges of ‘obstruction of government works’ once you’re back topside. No one is 100% sure what that means, and no one’s all that keen to find out. Remember, it is widely believed that C39’s primary goal is procreation.
Additionally, C39 is a segregated community. The town may be young and still in development, but there is a very clear social hierarchy, with the upper class all being comprised of well-to-do white families and professionals. The lower classes (including minorities) were almost exclusively only approved for menial jobs in the community, and can almost never afford any of the luxuries C39 has to offer. Racial segregation is alive and well within C39 as well: mixed-race families were not approved into the community, and non-whites are grouped together in various aspects of the community, including housing. This is not considered surprising or unusual to its residents.
Up until very recently, life within C39 was going as expected, the city functioning smoothly. There had been only one small hiccup -- eighteen days ago, the community’s only doctor, John Hevel, unexpectedly died in his sleep. He has not, as of yet, been replaced, with his nurse overseeing the clinic until a new doctor is placed within the town. This lead to some nervous energy, but the community made peace with it quickly. There has been virtually no crime to speak of -- that is, until two weeks ago. Exactly two weeks ago, the first arrest was made within the community, and it shocked every resident. A lower class woman laid charges of attempted rape against one of three police officers within the community. These charges might have been swept quietly under the rug, if it had not been for several witnesses. Since that time, the officer in question - Scott Simms - has sat in the community jail while the sheriff and city council await further orders.
For you as a player, the rules are rather simple. You will find a brief summary of your character within the community. If you stay in character, you will earn points. Breaking character briefly will not cost you points, but outright refusal to play along will. What’s worse, it may make it harder for those around you to stay in character and obtain the points you all so desperately need.
To earn points, you will be expected to stay in character at all times. There is one exception. Obviously, computers did not exist and function in the 1950s in the way that they do today. For the purpose of the game, however, there are computers within C39. Each home has one, as do many businesses. Within C39, these machines are referred to only as ’the wireless’. They are used as a means of receiving information from the outside world. On the wireless, you will be able to login to the Mount Zenith network and use it as you did back in the mansion. Breaking character on the network will not cost you points. You may use it to discuss the game. However, staying in-character may earn you bonus points. Bonus points will be delivered at the start of each day, and will not immediately show on your trackers.
Finally, though many of you have only been given information on your own characters, all character information has been made available on the wireless. It is advised that you familiarize yourself with these as soon as possible to maximize your chances of staying in character.
Oh, snap. That’s kind of a lot to process, right? Sure enough, every subject now has a small band around their wrist that looks very much like a watch, and assuming the person doesn’t immediately start freaking out or loudly refusing to play along, points will begin ticking away. Points will
always accumulate as long as the subjects stay in character. Go an hour without breaking character, that’s 1,000 points! Easy enough, right?
Well. Easier for some than others, that’s for sure. We’ll get into exact specifics of every subject shortly, but here’s a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the ‘wireless’ machines aside, there doesn’t appear to be any technology more recent than 1953. The ‘sunlights’ on the streets? Well, it’s impossible to say if those are legitimate, or just a bit of lore of the game world. People are probably going to be in for a bit of a surprise when it comes to kitchen appliances alone. For one thing, no microwave ovens or instant coffee makers. There are no color TVs, either. Oh, hey. Speaking of TVs: only the upper class ‘families’ have them. No DVDs or VCRs either, just pre-1953 tv shows on a single channel between eight AM and midnight.
Everyone’s also been dressed to the standards of 1953 fashion as well. No one’s hair has been altered (for example, Kai’s hair hasn’t been dyed back to its natural color, nor have any of the men with long hair been given buzz cuts in the night), but it’s all been styled as appropriately as possible for the time - and they’ll be expected to maintain that to ‘stay in character.’
Oh, by the way, ladies? A lot of you are gonna be in for a little surprise. All subject bracelets now reflect their character’s names - in many cases, this means their
married names. Have fun with that. Married ‘couples’ are all sporting wedding rings, as well.
For the sake of plot, a more complete listing of information about C39 can be found
here. This includes all character backstories.
Finally, members of Experiment B
do have their access on the wireless, provided they are alone at the time (or in like company). They are able to access their safehouse in their own homes by speaking the password in their kitchens. Their ‘bat cave’ is absolutely identical to the one back at the mansion, though it’s impossible to tell if it’s the same one or not.
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