What’s coming next is a little introduction to the 12 members of the Krysalis project, kept in the Dome for almost two years, before they get out and discover… that the world has changed ! (suspense…) More detailed biographies will be available along with the game. Only the first eight characters will be playable in the first box set of the game ; the last four will probably be available in the first expansion.

The member of the team use codenames in all their communications, in order to maintain secrecy. Thus, the Dome is named « Olympus », the artificial intelligence computer is named « Pandora » (wich is not its original codename, « Charity »), and every team member has a codename, based on greek mythology. The characters used their codenames during two years, so even after they get out of the Dome, they keep using it.

Introduction : Name, Family Name (codename) – age (in february, 2019), nationality – job

The 8 first, available in the first box set :

Oliver Stanford (Zeus) – 46, american – US ARMY (Colonel)

He’s the one in command. Nevertheless, he’s like the other team member, the subject of the experiment (the life-on-Mars simulation – Anne Oakley is the only one not being the subject of the experiment, being the « gamemaster »). Straight and fair, Stanford is also gruff and maybe a little bit autoritharian.

Vittoria D’Angeli (Athena) – 32, american – US Marine Corps (Sergeant Major)

Experimental firearms specialist, she’s also the second in command. From her italian ancestors, she inherited a fire temperament, contained by an exemplary composure. Vittoria is generally the head of out-of-the-Dome missions. If there’s one you should trust, it’s definitely her.

Anne L. Oakley (Hera) – 27, canadian – Engineer, « gamemaster » (supervising the simulation)

As a gamemaster, Anne schedules missions and simulates incidents, watching closely both installations and team members. If Stanford is, technically, his superior, this enigmatic brunette has total control in the Dome, and her talents goes way beyond computers…

Seeley R. Jones (Ares) – 41, australian – Psychologist

Seeley watch over team members’ well-being, and observe their behaviour like a three-years old child would watch an ant-hill. He reports directly to Anne. Seeley is very open, but his dark eyes and his enigmatic smile never betray his emotions ; on the other hand, he reads in you like in an open book.

Samuel T. Anderson (Hephaestus) – 54, american – Astrophysician

Coming from Maine, that old bear has seen it all. He’s famous for thinking in a different way, and his scientific theories are just so amazing that his colleagues treats him like a mad man – or possibly a genius. He’s a dreamer, speaks at least five different languages and always wear the same shirt. As the oldest team member, he’s considered like the grand father of the Dome.

Tahiya Roets (Hestia) – 36, south-african/british – Doctor

Tahiya worked on battlefields, in the dreadful situations ; she’s both maternal and autoritharian.

Antoine Maubriant (Poseidon) – 31, french – Biochemist

Very secretive, Maubriant is a mysterious character ; genetic genius, he’s more comfortable with molecules than with human beings. He can’t stand hierarchy in general, and Stanford in particular.

Musashi Miyamoto (Dionysos) – 30, japanese – Cook, botanist

Eccentric dreamer, a bit romantic, Musashi is a famous chief, specialized in fooding and molecular gastronomy ; creative, he’s constantly searching for new recipes. He also watch the greenhouse, and is as sweet with plants as deadly with a knife. He likes to tell the great deeds of his famous namesake.

The last 4, from the expansion :

Thomas « Tom » Jericho (Hermes) – age not known, american – US Air Force (Captain)

A liar, always trying to pick up girls, that seems to do everything to be both loved and hated by women. He can drive any kind of vehicle or UAV. No one in the Dome really knows who hide behind that smiling face, nor what is his real family name.

Zhiang Li (Artemis) – 37, chinese – Exobiologist

That cold-hearted woman has a dark past : she betrayed her country after her fiancé’s assassination, and sold vital informations to the USA in exchange for her family’s protection. But she’s like a child when it comes to odd lifeforms… and God knows there will be many in the Krysalis world.

Margaret Brunswick (Demeter) – 30, irish – Geologist

She looks like a tomboy, and she’s got a hell of a punch. But deep inside, Margaret is a distinguished irish with a broken voice, romantic, self-assumed lesbian, with a huge sense of humor. Tom and her keep on squabbling with each other.

Abigaelle Montgomery (Aphrodite) – 29, british – Mathematician

That gorgeous brown-haired woman, whose eyes would cause any men to melt instantaneously, is a expert in maths and occult sciences, and frequently blend the two. She’s aslo a pretty good artist, drawing anatomic scketches for Zhiang. She’s always in a good mood, and never stop smiling.

Here we are. Right now, you should have gone through my poor english and already read the forenote, the world of Krysalis and the article about ALTA, the european company collaborating with the US Army.

Following the Constellation project, USA wants to bring man back on the Moon, and then head straight to Mars. We’re in 2019, and ALTA is running many experiences for US Air Force, NASA and US Army ; one of them is the biggest and longest life-on-Mars simulation, entitled « project Krysalis ».  12 people live in a Dome (in fact, a giant structure deployed from two modules), during two years and four months. The project must be kept secret : China is currently financing its own Mars program – the same situation already occured in the 60′s with Russia and the race for the Moon.

In order to keep the Krysalis project secret, it all takes place in Area 51, in Nevada : the team (6 men, 6 women, military and civilians) simulate the trip to Mars during four months (staying in one module), and then deploy the Dome and its greenhouse. The simulation has been designed to serve as a « rehearsal » for the real trip : the whole installation and its equipment can be customized, modified, if the team feels it productivity can be increased.

For example, the artificial intelligence system that runs the Dome, Charity (also know as Pandora), « learn » during the simulation, so it will be fully efficient during the real trip (to give you an idea of the technologic level, Charity is a limited artificial intelligence, like the one you can see in Sunshine, by Danny Boyle).

There is other examples of projects, some of them not having anything to do with space travel. Because of the top secret ranking of the project, ALTA and the US Army decided to give the team work to keep them busy, from surgeon robots to experimental weapons. Each team member is assigned to a project by the gamemaster, the only team member to have regular contacts with the outside world and ALTA.

In order to simulate life on Mars, the Dome is set in the centre of a 30 kilometers desert zone ; beyond are the headquarters, in an old military installation. Communications between the Dome and the headquarters are delayed 20 minutes, in order to simulate Earth-Mars distance. Each month, the gamemaster communicate directly with ALTA, reporting all incidents/results/observations… Until the day no one answer…

GRLC

Before your discover the terrible event that changed the face of the Krysalis world in 2019, there is one last thing that you, future player, should know about : the inevitable mysterious company. Yes, that’s a cliché. And a good one But wait until you see what we are gonna do with it : ALTA is an essential part of Krysalis’ story.

ALTA is a pharmaceutical laboratory created by Anton Walbrook in West Berlin, back in 1949. Few is known about Walbrook himself and the exact circumstances of the creation of ALTA : Germany was an ideological battlefield between West and East ; it seems that ALTA was created in order to help germans – the ones who fought against the Third Reich, and those who were already fleeing from East, before the construction of the Wall.

Concerning Walbrook, the official ALTA website claims that he was a social sciences researcher from Austria, born in 1920 at Leoben ; he then arrived in Germany in 1942, helping the resistance against Nazis.  In 1944, he created a makeshift private hospital with some doctors from the resistance. In 1946, the little hospital began to manufacture medical equipment, before it became an « official » laboratory in 1949.

Therefore, ALTA’s main goal is humanitarian aid. But as soon as it became a company, ALTA started to diversify its production, and gain popularity in West Germany, and then in the Western Bloc.  In 1954, ALTA opens new factories in France, first in Tours, then in Bordeaux, from where it can export its production to USA.

In the 60′s, ALTA became one of the most thriving european company : medicine and medical equipment were now just a part of the production ; ALTA started financing public and private hospital, and in the 70′s, the company invade the electronic and computer market. Some starts to complain about the active collaboration between ALTA and the US Army.

In 1989; Anton Walbrook died in the crash of his private jet, somewhere over the Alps. Richard Steirn, his faithful colleague, then became the new director of ALTA. Steirn came under criticism because of his young age (he was 25), but he quickly showed that he deserved Walbrook’s trust.

By 2010, ALTA has become one of the greatest company of the world. ALTA is basically everywhere, and is technically untouchable. ALTA is not represented by a public figure, Steirn being very discreet and not making many public appearances. But the popularity of the company never failed, and without ALTA, the Krysalis would not be so advanced in genetic and bioengineering today.

President Cuthbert decided, in 2010, to keep the Constellation project alive and boost the space industry. ALTA, of course, was one of the main contractors : new technologies, flight simulations and secret experiences were conducted by the company. One of those many projects, designed to simulate life on Mars, was entirely supervised by ALTA… Its code name : Chrysalis…

GRLC

PS : the (wonderful, isn’t it ) ALTA logo is copyright GTFK 2010

Now that you know how we gonna tell the story of Krysalis, let’s get to the more interesting part : what are we gonna tell ?

It should be very clear that Krysalis is set in an alternate history (not into our reality, but in a parallel world in wich, at some point in the past, History as we know it started to « diverge »). I want it to be very clear for future players : differences are not huge, but they are relevant enough to be part of the story.  We want the player to be perfectly aware that he/she is in a different world, in wich the differences he/she will find may hold clues.

Another problem for us is that the game’s story takes place in 2019 (in 9 years). Better than try to predict what will happen in nine years to make the Krysalis world looks genuine, we decided that the best would be to set the story in an alternate timeline, in wich we can be free to create a 2019 that (maybe) won’t be close to the real one, but will feel authentic, regarding the events depicted throughout the timeline.

The world of Krysalis is very near from our world : slightly, some minor differences start to show up around the 1950′s,  but the real change occures around the 2000′s – 2010′s. So, if you were teleported in the Krysalis world in 2000, you would feel pretty much at home : well, ok, the Fall of the Berlin Wall occured a day earlier (8th november). But that’s nothing compared to the – almost – successfull (and horrible) attack on the White House during 9/11 :  in the Krysalis world, the last plane hit the West Wing of the White House. As you know, « butterfly effect » is what it is, and in 2010, Barack Obama is still senator of the Illinois. Instead, Edward J. Cuthbert  (republican) followed George W. Bush ; Cuthbert has since be reelected, and is still the president of the United States in 2019, in the Krysalis World.

Do you see where I’m going : an alternate reality, so close to our… and also different.

But wait, there’s more : the Krysalis world is also slightly different from our world when it comes to nuclear weapon/energy ; maybe Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a greater moral impact back there, because the Cold War was more about biochemical weapon than nuclear weapon. Less nuclear plants, more clean energies.

And yes, the Krysalis world is a little more advanced in bioengineering, genetic and medecine : it’s not clone’s time, but they are about to find a cure against cancer, and somes genetic diseases that we still carry were almost eradicated back there.

The thing is, in our reality we’re currently arguing about global warming and nuclear bombs, while the Krysalis people are speaking about the legal issues about ongoing genetic progress, and biochemical bombs… The same old story.

A world that is not so different from our world…

From the beginning of the project, it was Matou’s intention to create a familiar world, in order to give the impression that all the terrible events that are going to happen in the Krysalis world could happen here too… sooner than you think…

GRLC

Hi. I’m GRLC, leader of the GTFKrou, the guy who wrote too much. Unfortunately for you, english people, I’m not a great english talker, so that english version will be shorter than the french version, and may be less readable. Please excuse me, and if you speak the delicate language of Molière, fell free to skip to the french version.

I’m in charge of the development of the Krysalis universe and its story. That forenote intends to present the main aspect of the boardgame : the fact that the guy in charge of its story doesn’t really know the boardgame and role-playing universe (apart from videogames). Yes, I plead guilty.

So, when Matou, from Maow Miniatures, introduced us to the Krysalis project, I quickly understood that the main objective of a boardgame « fluffer » is to define a context, a universe, with a more or less complex story for each mission. The problem is, this is not my world : I grew up in literature, movies and most of all, TV series. So I wanted to go beyond the definition of a context, and create a real story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. Just like any story should be.

So Krysalis has been wrote as if it was a TV series : along with a rich and realistic universe, the 12 missions of the first box of the game form a narrative arc, wich is open in the first mission and closed in the last, opening a new arc for the (hopefully) next box. In the meantime, a deep mythology slowly emerge from the dark : so the player is not only a spectator, following the story, but also an actor, investigating and discovering new clue leading to the resolution of the story’s mysteries (our more efficient model is the TV series LOST, the first one to go beyond its original medium (TV) in order to make the spectator part of the investigating process (via the alternative games between each seasons, on the Internet)). We know we’re far from ABC executives for example, but that’s the kind of system we wanted to create for the game.

In fact, we wanted to make a ludic game with a deep story, so you, the player, will be free to choose between three options :

1 – Have fun : quickly understanding simple rules, creating your own missions easily, and being able to play a full mission with your friends without taking at least three hours to do so !

2 – Be more competitive : increasing the difficulty by learning complex moves and strategies out of simples rules, playing the missions in the right order (so you can apply bonus and malus to winners and losers), and being able to « role-play » a deep and complex character, no just a 30mm avatar.

3 – Go Beyond the Game : if you’re the kind of player who always wants to know more, you’ll be able to investigate on our future Krysalis website, and discover clues about what is really going on in the mysterious world of the game.

But, wait, what is exactly that mysterious world, and what is going on in it ? Well, it will be discussed in the next note…

- GRLC -

PS : if I butchered your wonderful language, fell free to tell me so in the comment section. I have a huge sense of humor.