Invitation to shared world creation (longish)

March 10, 2010
Without any prior warning, a huge alien spacecraft is detected in
near-earth orbit. It ignores all attempts at communication, and a large
number of apparently robotic probes and units of various kinds begin
appearing all over the face of the earth. While they ignore Mankind at
first, as the governments of the earth step up military responses, the
alien probes begin to defend themselves.

March 15, 1010
A second alien spacecraft, fully as gigantic as the first, flashes
toward the earth, spitting projectile and energy weapons at the first.
The moon settlements and the space habitats are destroyed as a byproduct
of the incredible fury of battle in the first few minutes of battle, and
as the hours pass Man's cities are slagged and even vaporized. The probe
units furiously construct defensive and offensive armaments and
fortifications, and are attacked by similar robotic units from the
second ship. 
Suddenly, some sort of energy field detonates, and all is still. The
probe units fall to the ground, inactive, and the alien spacecraft fall
silent. Some sort of electromagnetic pulse, produced by one of the alien
spacecraft, perhaps as a last-ditch measure to defend itself, has
apparently fried every piece of hardware in the system. And,
unfortunately for Man, every piece of electronics hardware on the face
of the Earth. 

As Mankind struggles to rebuild his civilization, a new threat appears:
a virus that brings death in its wake. While it is suspected it was
created by Man himself for biowarfare, it proves almost unstoppable...
with an 80% initial death rate and an 60% sterility rate, civilization
collapses in the space of a few short weeks, and indeed the human race
may be on its way to join the dinosaur...

March 10, 2085
The dawning of a new age, as new nations prepare themselves for the
challenges of a new world... a world where the superpowers of yesterday
are gone, and where the secrets of alien technology offer a range of new
and exciting possibilities. A world where many of the lessons of the
past have been learned, such as the need for ecologically-sound
industry, but where others have been forgotten: such as the foolishness
of conquest. New societies have come into being, built from the ashes of
total collapse 75 years earlier, and founded on new factors such as the
very real threat of human extinction, and the preciousness of human
fertility. Man is now aware that there are other intelligences in the
Universe, but cannot know when, if ever, they may return... and on what
terms.
=====
We are looking for people to help us develop this background, by writing
up different nations and regions of the world, with detailed
descriptions which can be used to run games. This background will be
used for a number of different games (although it is being primary run
as a shared world background for Mekton), and will be made available
free of charge no the Web.

You don't have to have any knowledge of games, although it certainly
wouldn't hurt. What you need is an overactive imagination, a willingness
to share your ideas with other people and modify them for the sake of a
more balanced gameworld, and above all, have lots of time to invest.
Everything is handled through the Web, of course. 

If you think this is something you might be interested in, please take a
look at a few of the files located at
http://www.egroups.com/docvault/axemzswp/ especially in the Common
Background folder (you may have to register with egroups to get access;
it is simple and free).

I am one of the coordinators of the project, but basically all
contributing members have an equal say in what goes on. And, on the most
part, contribution is the name of the game. 

A number of nations and regions have already been spoken for, but
essentially all of Africa, Europe and the Americas are up for grabs!
There's some choice turf still available, so act fast!

After looking around in egroups, feel free to drop me a line to talk
about it. Or just join egroups and start punching keys. Either way, your
contributions will be welcome. And please distribute this notice here
and there, too. 

Hope to see you soon!
Edward Lipsett
elipsett@intercomltd.com
Coordinator, Axe shared world
(and spokesman for the Emperor of the Zhong-Guo Empire)