About RIBO

RIBO is a roleplaying game based on the OGL license for the 5th Edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.

The World of RIBO

The World is Cooked
Climate change and the depletion of our natural resources has changed the way the people live. The collapse of agriculture resulted in widespread famine even in first world countries. The melting of the ice caps caused massive destruction to the infrastructure along all coasts. Global average temperatures have increased rendering some areas all but inhospitable. Ecosystems have collapsed. Fish stocks have died out.

Oil and natural gas ran out long before countries and corporations could come up with a sustainable energy solution. The disruption in commerce and everyday life lead to destabilization in economies all over the world. Economic collapse followed. Economic collapse turned into societal upheaval. Borders were redrawn. Regimes collapsed. Skirmishes turned into war.

The resulting destabilization lead to the rise in influence of large corporations. With greater political influence large corporations were able to grow into megacorporations. With nearly unlimited influence and income, megacorporations have been able to form corporatacracies and corporate republics offering the stability that fallen governments can’t for a price you can afford.

Genetics Ascendant
Crop death and the near depletion of livestock spurred corporations to make huge leaps in genetic engineering. Corporations raced to be the first to patent hardier food stocks, new fuels and textiles and other biotechnologies that could improve life in the changing world. Biotechnology grew at an exponential rate, producing new forms of life to fill the Earth’s collapsed ecosystems. Control of bioproducts and their underlying technologies gave corporations the leverage they need to completely wipe out public governance throughout the world. Private interests control much of the usable land on Earth.

The Garden of Good and Evil
Privately held corporations were firmly in control of nearly the entire planet. Released from any kind of moral or legal restrictions, they practiced the most extreme science pushing the limits of genetic engineering hoping to find the next big money product. Mistakes were made, corners cut and with no oversight there was nothing to stop these companies from making taking bigger risks.

Creations released into the wild began to experience genetic drift. Once again, ecosystems began to collapse. Science raced to keep pace, creating more and more varied creatures attempting to balance ecosystems. Earth’s animal and plant life evolved through this process into forms that would be alien compared to their early ancestors.

The Sex Life of the Honeybee
Competition on the open market lead to corporate intrigue and eventually corporate sabotage. Corporate sabotage lead to an all out war of attrition by the largest and most powerful megacorporations. Their weapon of choice a bioengineered pollen carried by the humble honeybee. Swarms of bees could decimate entire food supplies, corrupting the food source at the genetic level, rendering it poisonous or unable to provide nutrition to humans and animals. Corporations began engineering crops resistant to previous strains of biopollen resulting in a war of escalation. For every new strain of resistant crop a new strain of biopollen would be produced. The resulting famines and cost of development of newer strains of food crops eventually brought the wars to a tenuous peace. In the end, millions had starved to death and due to engineering and genetic drift, food crops had become significantly less nutritious.

Transgenesis
Mapping the human genome seems small compared to the discoveries made by corporate scientists. Control over DNA has allowed science to completely remake humanity at the cellular level. Transgenetics had called into question what exactly makes a “human”. Science can make you faster, stronger, smarter, bigger, smaller. It can give you harder skin, sharper teeth, thicker bones. Transgenetics can splice animal DNA into yours giving you the traits of a beast, or add an extra limb to your torso. Hacking the human body has become so simple, it’s practically nouveau.

The darkside of Transgenetics gave birth to the Sub-Humans. Monstrous creations abandoned by science and shunned by humanity. A myriad of terrifying forms, sub-humans scrape out an existence on the fringes of civilization, inhabiting the dark places and areas decimated by years of war and extreme weather. Decades of genetic drift and neglect has completely erased any semblance of humanity they once had, and they burn with hatred for their creators.

A Strange New World
Most who live now walk the line between law and lawlessness ruled over by private corporations who enforce a law that changes at the whim of the CEO. Fossil fuels are non-exsistant and energy is a premium. Food and water are a constant concern, even for those of means. Everyone owes their continued existence to someone else. Loyalties constantly change. No one can be trusted. Hunger and fear are the glue holding humanity together. The bonds are weakening.