MOD:WCU:PR3nutshell

NOTE: These are some of the questions the deep plot should answer (pasted from a forum post):

EDIT: Where I think our work needs to go now is figuring out the Deep Plot. What's the Deep Plot? The plot that won't necessarily be apparent: There maybe trouble and factionalization within the Retros. There maybe territorial wars between pirate clans. Retros who don't trust Kroiz; retros who do. Retros who don't trust kats; retros who do. Kats who don't trust Kroiz; kats who do. Kats who don't trust retros; kats who do. What happened with the retro leadership? That retro informant... did he take over? Does he trust Kroiz? Does Kroiz trust him? Is he still in touch with Monte? Was he principled? Was he really a retro, or just playing the part in a long term plan to destroy them from the top down? Was Kroiz in with the informant on the plan to get rid of Menesch/Jones? Lynch, Kroiz, Lang... what's their relationship? Competitive, I'm sure, but they must have *some* deals, or are they openly at war? Are there merchant sub-factions? We know there are Guild merchants and independent merchants. And we know some merchants do cargo runs for mob-controlled mining operations; some presumably don't. That's four potential subfactions of merchants, already... We know there are Confeds that have deals with the mobs. There are secret Black Ops confed forces. There's the Belisarius group. There's Black Lance. But there's at least one more subfaction within Confeds: Masteron's secret society, which is also Monte's. Monte may pose as a Black Ops operative, and may even agree to some of its aims, such as elliminating retro infiltrators in the body politique. But is he 100% Black Ops aligned? I doubt it. Steltek ideology doesn't sound too similar to Tolwyn's... Did Tolwyn found the Black Operations Division? If so, did he lose control of it? Or why does he later found the Black Lance? What about the Belisarius group? Did he found that also? How much does Eisen know about Tolwyn's plans? Who else is in with Tolwyn? Hugh Paulsen, for sure. Anyone else? Who else is in with Eisen? Blair for sure. Anyone else? And what exactly is Tolwyn's religion or ideology. Seems pretty Nazi to me... "clensing the human race" ..., and where ends justify means... Or are the means also ends? Perhaps he *said* he wanted to cause a war for the sake of Confederation readiness in the eventual, future resumption of war with Kilrah; but he actually thought Pilgrims were an abomination that should be erradicated? Perhaps he regretted that the Pilgrim war ended without the anihilation of the Pilgrims? Are Pilgrims really gifted with psychic powers? Or do they simply suffer from abnormally high secretion of endorphins, to the point of having vivid hallucinations accompained by feelings of well-being, easily confused with "revelation"? Should anyone trust their politicians? To what extent is the government of Border Worlds aligned or penetrated by Pilgrim racism or extremism? There must be at least two opposing views on Pilgrim's future within BW politics. Do Eisen and Blair defect to BW for fear of persecution by the Belisarius group? Why BW and not, say, Firekka or Landreich? Neither of them are Pilgrims; both born on Earth, IIRC. If Pilgrims (now BW) are the Spacers, Gemini are the Settlers of Asimov's Foundation. Do Pilgrims feel threatened by the "Settlers"? Do they get psychic revelations about gemini politicians (or mobsters) plotting against the Border Worlds? Could in fact the Belisarius group be getting financing for themselves, Black Ops Div and Black Lance from sales of weapons and ships to retros and pirates through mobsters like Lynch and Kroiz?

Once we get a better idea of what's really going on, we can build a more detailed story upon it. *Then*, we can throw Burrows into this soup and see what happens.

NOTE: The following is not the *whole* story in a nutshell; it's actually from a private message answer to a private message question posed by mkruer about the motivations for Burrows to leave "civilization" for the tri-system. He was suggesting a groupie or girlfriend getting killed, which I'm not opposed to at all; but in this private message I was just letting him know that there are motivations aplenty already... So the text of that message follows:

Essentially, my story behind the story goes like this:

Tolwyn has more in mind than the benefit of the Confederation's war readiness, in plotting a war with BW: His plan is to see the Confederation ripped apart, so that a new empire may be born, possibly with himself as generalissimo. Not only does he control Black Ops and the Black Lance mutants, but he also possibly controls the Mandarins, and had a part in the deal between Menesche and the Kilrathi. Masterson and Monte are members of a secret religion based on ancient Steltec writings, who believe in limiting technology to within the boundaries that will make it a servant of Humanity rather than its master. The Retros are an extremist splinter of that religion. The former oppose the Retros, Menesche, Jones, as well as Tolwyn. Monte could be an ex-Black Ops that knew too much to leave, and therefore is in permanent exile.

Okay, so Burrows enlists with the Confeds and, after the military stint, or during it, gets to meet Blair and fight him --one on one-- on a simulator; followed by a ton of advice.

At the end of the war, Burrows does all the subplots that are Confed-friendly first, like Landreich, Firekka, possibly other subplots in the Vega sector. Each of those plots could include hints or connections to the Tolwyn story.

Then Blair, who has heard of this steltec religion during his retirement in Nephele, (a group of steltec religion followers have a ranch next to his piece of land, though they pass themselves as "Buddhists"), sends for him. Blair knows nothing about Tolwyn's role, yet, but heard that a job needs doing which is necessary, but officially illegal. He's heard about Retro (and Mandarin?) infiltrators in government and Confed ranks, and the need for a purge. He cannot do that, himself, as a military career man; but he has every confidence Burrows could do it. He sends Burrows to meet a man at a Confed base in Sol, who is a steltec faithful, as well as a military man; and the latter puts Burrows to work on "gray ops": elliminating politicians that are Retro or Mandarin operatives. The last of these missions you have to attack the secret base of a political candidate, which is hidden in a gray zone system.

He tells you to meet a ship that will guide you there, as well as escort storm troopers that will destroy some ground targets, capture key people, and gather evidence. When you meet the man on that ship, after the operation, it's Monte. After you get paid for that mission, the military man tells you that Monte wants to meet you at the bar at Oxford. Then comes a talk between Monte, Masterson and Burrows at the bar, where the story of the steltec religion and the Retro splinter is revealed. Now come the dark grey ops: Assassinations of Confed officials involved in the whole Tolwyn, Black Ops, Mandarin, Retro thing, and the sale of decomissioned Confed materiel through the Gemini mobs.

Here's why we go to the Tri-System:

Throughout all of this, Burrows becomes *officially* Public Enemy Number One, both with Confed, Hunter and Militias, and more than just officially enemies with the kats and retros. Your only friends may be the pirates, if any at all. Your radar will be a sea of red most of the time. Additionally, there's Kroiz, who has taken over from Menesche, and has put a hefty price on your head; and he's amassing an entire fleet, with his huge earnings. And has sworn to kill you himself sooner or later. (He has no face, only a prosthetic mask, barely having escaped alive after your fight with him in Rikel.) Additionally, Monte is also Public Enemy Number One with Confeds and Militias, but in any case, he's been given the job, as high ranking member of the steltec religion, to build a big fleet in some secret place, and he requests your help in achieving this goal. The purpose of the fleet is to defeat Kroiz's fleet first, and destroy the Retros second. But the player will be able to then use this large fleet to attack other mafia and pirate bases, if he chooses to do so.

So, that's my idea for how Burrows ends up going far up North. But it does not preclude there being other reasons as well... --I like the idea of a girlfriend or friend getting killed; put some emotion into the story.