Frasgird: The Game (start here)

Events culminate in a process often referred to as frašgird, the final transfiguration of the cosmos, when the forces of evil (and hence dualism) will be eliminated. — Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide (Sarah Iles Johnston, 2004, Harvard College)

Several hundred years ago, forewarned of pending disaster, a fragment of humanity scattered from Earth, like spores from a bursting pod, using recently discovered hyperdrive technology. In their wake, the Earth itself vanished during a massive re-merging of quantum realities. Humans found most habitable planets already occupied by other sapient species; with various levels of accommodation, humans established footholds, mostly precarious, on these worlds, and began to find their place in a much wider universe, adapting to their varied environments. Now, though, human numbers are dwindling, and once-thriving settlements sit empty and abandoned. It is unclear itself whether this is the work of other sapients or if reality itself is rejecting the remnants of humanity. What is clear is that if this goes on, humans will vanish from the universe forever.

A small group of humans seeks to reverse that trend. They are establishing a colony, Frasgird, anchored and protected against the reality shifts and damages caused by the periodic merging of multiverses. They need to gather in by trade and mining from neighboring star systems the goods and raw materials needed to build the colony. They also need to seek out the “green ice” pods scattered among the worlds, holding humans and technology from the last great Diaspora, some 13,000 years ago during an earlier uplifted human civilization that subsequently vanished — or was destroyed — in the events surrounding the Lesser Dryas ice age. And they need to gather in from the scattered remaining human colonies both the people needed to build Frasgird and the genetic diversity necessary for humanity to survive.

In the game Frasgird: Defying the Endtimes, you assume the roles of those seeking to establish Frasgird and save humanity. Each game starts with the probability of humanity’s survival at 50% and sinking; as you work through the game, your goal is to stop the decline, and then raise that probability higher and higher.

Your initial and principal role is as Elare, Frasgird’s founder and administrator. With limited resources, you must plan the layout and building order of Frasgird, then use both local contacts and interstellar traders to have the requisite materials brought to the colony site. In so doing, you have to manage resources, relationships, and visibility to the rest of the universe.

Beyond that, you must send out trusted explorers to do two critical tasks. The first is to find any remaining “green ice” pods. These pods not only maintain what is inside in absolute stasis, they protect the contents from the damage done by the occasional ‘quantum jitters’ (or even ‘quantum quakes’) caused by astronomical numbers of multiverses collapsing down to a relative handful. Each pod contains living humans from 13,000 years ago, who not only add to the colony’s genetic diversity, but who also have direct knowledge of advanced technology — and in some cases, working examples, preserved from quantum collapse damage during those elapsed millennia.

The second critical task is to make contact with the human settlements scattered throughout the other star systems, especially those threatening to vanish, and encourage them to start a migration to Frasgird. The information they bring may help trigger technological and social advances when combined with that from other human colonies; the genetic diversity they bring increases the odds of humanity’s survival as a species.

The miners, traders, and explorers you send out will operate under a set of guidelines that you establish, but will still make decisions influenced by their own characteristics. However, the game will give you the option of directly controlling these individuals for a period of time. In other words, you can turn management of the colony over to an ‘automated’ Elare and assume the role of one of these other characters, allowing you to do hands-on control of their actions.

Through this, time will continue to move forward, and the probability of human survival will be constantly updated. When you take a break from the game, you have the option of letting it continue forward in a completely autonomous mode, with triggers to pause the game and/or notify you should certain events occur; or you can pause the game and pick it up where you left off.