Vorwort

MECANISBURGO is the largest Megalopolis of the Western world. It is the capital city of La Union, the Europe of a parallel world where predictions of classic Science Fiction for the twentyfirst century have been successful: Robots, Cyborgs, Humans and Artificial Intelligences live in a world where an extraterrestrial source energy, the Cavorite, has strengthened science and technology during much of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Great aristocratic families, Megacorporations and even nations themselves have merged surprisingly, providing a power struggle in a strange and fascinating universe. The players represent some of these Families / Megacorporations at a time of economic and political crisis: everyone wants to rebuild the future world according to their own interests. As leader of your Megacorporation, you must take your agents, properties and powerful A.I. in the struggle to win the game of power before the celebration of the Millenium Olympic Games. Players must decide which agents from their central office are suitable for each mission, evaluating their negotiation and combat skills and their special abilities, to choose who they will send to the different parts of the megacity. In this way, the various factions will fight each other to get the opportunities and resources that are emerging daily in the largest conurbation in human history. But not everything is easy. Terrorism, interdimensional threats and the social frictions of a complex world can result in the crashing of Megacorporations’ Major Projects. It is even possible that one of the Megacorporations declares war on the world and threatens to establish a corporate dictatorship, sweeping the last vestiges of democracy. This is a time of great achievements and great risks for humanity. Will old rivals collaborate? Or will the most sordid and violent aspects of a more primitive civilization prevail?

The game lasts four turns and whoever has more victory points is declared winner, unless a sudden victory has happened before -- this can happen because of fulfilling alternate victory conditions that change from one game to another, or satisfying some character's victory conditions. A third path to victory is for the last corporation to become a global threat which must be stopped by the rest of the players.