This is a Weird Worldbuilding game. You're provided with a set of tools to develop a near future world, like five years near, except there's been an Alien Invasion and that's changed things a bit.
If I run this game, it will be inspired by the Yakuza / Like a Dragon videogame series. You are part of or adjacent to organized crime, but both the organized crime and the Alien Invasion are incidental, it's really about the whacky side quests. Also you'll have superpowers because everything is better with superpowers. If you really want this game to be about the Alien Invasion that's fine too, but for me it's a sandbox game.
Below are a series of prompts for the group. We start with Session 0 prompts. After that we have a series of Session X.1 prompts. You can answer them ahead of time and are encouraged to at least read them ahead of time, but breaking them up makes them more manageable. These X.1 Sessions are micro-sessions between other main sessions to build out the world further. Any time a prompt suggests doing "one" thing, assume it means "one or more" unless it specifically says otherwise.
Session 0 Prompts
Reminder that you should read all the prompts even if you only answer the Session 0 prompts. Note what they imply about the game by virtue of when you are asked to address them.
After the Alien Invasion, one previously advantaged group e.g. nation, religion, ethnicity, "race", or "gender" has become disadvantaged, and one disadvantaged group becomes advantaged.
The Alien Invaders are hyper advanced in many ways, but they have introduced one innovation, technology, resource, skill, or practice that has profoundly changed the world.
The Alien Invaders have effectively solved one major world crisis e.g. war, inequality, disease, ecological disaster, and introduced one new major world crisis.
A specific location on Earth has been dramatically altered by the Alien Invasion.
This could be a good starting location for the game.
Communication between humans and the Alien Invaders is limited, and requires a specific method or technology.
Session 3.1 Prompts
Do these before the fourth session (you can do them sooner).
The Alien Invaders have a notable trait e.g. appearance or ability that differentiates them from humans.
The Alien Invaders have a notable behavioral quirk that differentiates them from humans.
The Alien Invaders have a unique artistic expression, and human cultures have to varying degrees adopted or reacted against this mode of expression.
Session 5.1 Prompts
Do these before the sixth session (you can do them sooner).
The Alien Invaders face one major threat.
The Alien Invaders have one good ally, one enemy, and one rival.
Example World
Yakuza: Like an Alien Invasion
Session 0 Prompts
After the Alien Invasion, one previously advantaged group e.g. nation, religion, ethnicity, "race", or "gender" has become disadvantaged, and one disadvantaged group becomes advantaged.
Advantaged -> Disadvantaged: Organized religion has already been tanking in the 21st century, and organized Christianity in particular really takes a hit after the Alien Invasion. Many of the American Megachurches have simply moved camp.
Disadvantaged -> Advantaged: The Alien Invaders seem to prefer working with trans and non-binary folk.
The Alien Invaders are hyper advanced in many ways, but they have introduced one innovation, technology, resource, skill, or practice that has profoundly changed the world.
Through a process humanity is yet to fully understand, after undergoing a trauma (or a steady state of micro-traumas), some humans begin to "ferment". The metamorphosis gives the Fermented Folk superpowers.
The Alien Invaders have effectively solved one major world crisis e.g. war, inequality, disease, ecological disaster, and introduced one new major world crisis.
Solved: Through a solar pipeline, essentially infinite, clean, free energy funnels down to Earth from the sun itself.
Introduced: While <1% of humans are Fermented, the proportion of Fermented Folk appears to be rising exponentially (R0 still under research). However, 3% of Fermented Folk develop Weird Pathologies, and this number appears to be scaling up disproportionately as a function of the proportion of Fermented Folk.
A specific location on Earth has been dramatically altered by the Alien Invasion.
The hub of the Alien Invasion is North Korea. The DMZ is gone and Pyongyang has been the fastest growing city over the last few years.
Communication between humans and the Alien Invaders is limited, and requires a specific method or technology.
Through the Collective Unconscious, 777 Fermented trans and non-binary folk throughout the world have been elected to represent human interests with the Alien Invaders through dreaming.
Session 3.1 Prompts
The Alien Invaders have a notable trait e.g. appearance or ability that differentiates them from humans.
They are bird people.
The Alien Invaders have a notable behavioral quirk that differentiates them from humans.
They usually lay twins, and in nature they allow the stronger of the twins to overpower the weaker, which they then abandon. While this practice has been outlawed in their current era (and perhaps earlier), this conflict defines them as a species perhaps more than anything else.
The Alien Invaders have a unique artistic expression, and human cultures have to varying degrees adopted or reacted against this mode of expression.
The Alien Invaders are vivid lucid dreamers and have developed a robust art of dreamcrafting. On the whole humanity has come to appreciate this new artform. However, there are many who now feel varying degrees of fear or resentment towards dreaming. Rates of sleep disorders have risen, and new psychosocial pathologies have had to be defined to explain the paranoias and delusions some now develop around sleep and dreaming.
Session 5.1 Prompts
The Alien Invaders face one major threat.
An organized crime terrorist faction primarily of The Forgotten, the "weaker twins". They've staked a foothold on Earth and threaten colonization.
The Alien Invaders have one good ally, one enemy, and one rival.
Ally: Quasi-intelligent space dugongs that are not quite pets but not quite intellectual equals either. Like if you could actually talk with your dog.
Enemy: Wyrms, parasites like tiny little dragons. Infected become Wyverns, similar to human vampires or werewolves. The Fermented Folk may also be related to the Wyrms(?)
Rival: Space trolls that look like humanoid clownfish on steroids with maw of a crocodile. Their technology is all stolen from other civilizations and cobbled together. They've made a stake in Russia but otherwise the bird people have a lockdown on Earth.
Rival: Space trolls that look like humanoid clownfish on steroids with maw of a crocodile. Their technology is all stolen from other civilizations and cobbled together. They've made a stake in Russia but otherwise the bird people have a lockdown on Earth.
