New Horizon. This will be huge!

New Horizon role-playing games are all about finding yourself in an alien world which humanity have adopted for their own and experiencing exciting adventures while exploring the wild and unknown. For your RPG adventures you will have access to different guides and manuals.

New Horizon offers a new world filled with enough fantastic Creatures and Monsters to satisfy every hunter, and enough paranormal phenomena to please every adventurer. Explore this world as a wily and cunning human, a powerfully enhanced Cyborg, or a genetically spliced and enhanced human created from the deadliest animals on the planet. Or pick from one of three races of Androids, the nimble Aesir, the versatile and deadly Vanir and the sturdy giants known as Jotuns. Experience exciting battles where slashing Melee weapons confront blazing Firearms.

• The owners, lead writers and creators of New Horizon are:
  • Michal Lysek (from Sweden)
  • Ian Stewart (from USA).
• Additional writers are:
  • Stephen Mayo (from USA)
  • John Balacko (from USA).
• Volt rule system developers:
  • Mats Andersson (from Sweden)
  • Niklas Berg (from Sweden).

What else do you need?

To start a game you need a few paper copies of the character sheet (one copy for each player), a pair of dice, preferably one black and one white, and a sense of adventure. For more information, visit www.newhorizonrpg.com.

What makes New Horizon unique?

Many things about New Horizon make it unique. One such, for example, is wafans, who are often confused with droid robots but who in reality are in fact living beings. There are also Medeans, who are the next evolution of humanity, and something both new and unique. They are humans who have been “merged” with the unique fauna of New Horizon and they are truly exceptional.

The unique wildlife of this planet is yet another thing which makes New Horizon stand out. We have alien flora and the inexplicable phenomenon known as Volitaires, Moai, Motes and Whoris.

On Earth, humans reached what could be called a technological pinnacle. They had everything. They even created wafans. When they came to New Horizon, things changed. On Earth, humans had allowed their technological evolution to grow one step at the time. Everything was slowly but systematically evolving, for the better and for the sake of advancement. But when they came to New Horizon, certain things took a huge step back. Cities like Avalon felt the change. The capital of New Horizon is as modern as anything ever found on Earth, but cities like Trapper Town did not have the proper equipment to become a modern city. When Trapper Town was created, people had to use the materials and equipment which they had with them. No roads were available to transport any larger cargoes, and planes and trains are still of a small size, and thus not able to help in any larger extent. This is not to mention that raw materials were still hard to come by. Mining has begun, but not to a great enough extent to make a large difference, and only a few companies exist which can do something with such raw materials. Most of the things which are created go to Avalon, Warhead, Xanadu and Glacier Run City, so the rest of the world is still far less advanced. Many towns and cities look like something from the old Wild West or worse, but always with a certain touch of high technology. For similar reasons, many places on New Horizon look like something from either the Middle Ages in Europe or the 19th century in the USA. Certain things are state-of-the-art, but most of the rest is simply old and obsolete. Satellites do not exist, and neither does fast and reliable transportation (except for the few trains and airplanes available for travel between larger cities). New Horizon is much like the old west, if someone had accidentally teleported it into the future.

New Horizon is a world of action and adventure, where people can explore enormous areas from the great heights of the Azuremar Mountains to the dark depths of the Narehlian jungles, from the frozen plains of the Aquilon’s Reach to the lifeless deserts of the Neo Titanian landscape. Adventurers are encouraged to explore every available part of the world, but know that not all places are easily attainable. Trains and planes exist, but only between major cities. Smaller cities and other areas which are more out of the way are usually harder to reach and sometimes even unattainable. The world also exhibits a somber side. Not all adventures end happily, even if some do. However, some individuals are still humorous enough to sprinkle the world with some rays of happiness. New Horizon is unique in many ways. Even though it is a science fiction type of world, it creates the feeling of being a fantasy type of world instead, where people are required to run all around the world on foot, explore forests, mountains, caverns and deserts. If it hadn’t been for the wafans and certain technologies, it would have been seen as a fantasy world instead.

Interview with Michal Lysek

My name is Michal Lysek and I am one of the creators of New Horizon. We have been working on this role playing game since 2003. We play a lot of New Horizon-related RPGs at our forums. Between 2003 and 2006 we didn’t really have a clear focus and goal. We played a lot of RPGs in our world, but much of it was mixed with other things. However, in 2006 we decided to remake everything, create new races and present something totally our own.

The human and wafan races we have today all came into existence in 2007. In 2009 we came in contact with the creators of the Volt rule system and we started adapting those rules with our world. At the end of 2010, we were finally finished, and in March 2011 we released our first RPG -books.

1. What do you do when you don’t work with New Horizon?

All of us have regular work. I am a computer engineer myself, and I create software and hardware products for a living. A lot of my work is focused toward biotechnology. I also spend a lot of time with my friends and my family.

2. Where did you get the idea for New Horizon, and where does your inspiration come from?

We read a lot of books. My friend Ian read a lot of science fiction books, while I read a lot of fantasy book. We complement each other that way. I also love to travel and visit new places. New places give me inspiration for new ideas which I try to implement into New Horizon. So if there’s something we have a lot of in our world, then it’s new and exotic places. I also love both biology and technology, and mixing those two is always exciting.

The year was 1999/2000 when I played my first game from Bioware based on the world Faerün. I still have a large and complete map of this world hanging on my wall in my room. It was then when I started dreaming about creating my own world, just like Ed Greenwood did when he created Faerün. That was the dream which led me towards creating New Horizon.

3. Are you planning to release more books?

Yes, many as a matter of fact. We are currently working on a book called New Horizon Role Playing Immersion Guide. We plan to release it at the end of 2011. This book will contain even more detailed information about the world, focusing on each faction at the time. It will also focus more on our different races.

4. How do you stay in contact with your players?

We haven’t visited that many conventions yet, since we releaed our first books very recently. But we have our own website (www.newhorizonrpg.com) and our own forums where we play a lot of New Horiozon RPGs with other players. I also try to visit other forums to show people there what New Horizon is all about and how they can play the game. We give away materials for free (except our books) so that anyone can play the game. You can also find us on Facebook.

5. What has been most fun when creating your own RPG?

I would say, creating the world and its different races and animals. And to see them take form using art is also a wonderful feeling. But to play the game is just as fun, since you get to play with a lot of other people and you get to see what they find most fun with the world.

6. Do you have any advice for other people wanting to create their own RPGs?

If you have fun, other people will too. Keep that closely in mind. Creating your own RPG takes a lot of time and patience. Don’t rush things. Let it take the time in needs, even if it sometimes goes slowly. Being patient is the best characteristic you can have. It’s been true for most of the projects I’ve worked on.

Personally, I also think that great art is of high value. I think it’s worth investing some extra money making your art the best it can be. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t great games out there with bad graphics, but I still prefer if the art is of high quality.

Three human races

Michal Lysek and Ian Stewart presenting the three human races of New Horizon.

The first of the organic races are the Olympian humans. Olympians are humans but more evolved. Their ancestors looked at the state of their own gene pool, grimaced and did what they thought was necessary to improve it. Such bloodlines prone to diseases were barred from breeding, as well as those with the lowest IQ scores. These individuals were compensated by being given preferential treatment for educational grants, tax cuts and instant head of the line for adoptions over those not in their group.

After a few generations of that, humans became faster, stronger, smarter and healthier. They also lived longer than before, and they were able to create a brighter future for themselves. The oldest, but not necessary the wisest of races, these descendants of ours are the cornerstones of the societies of the future that is New Horizon.

No amount of selective breeding can produce humans that are immune from dismemberment or mutilation. Those that wish to continue their existence are often left with no choice but to go the route of advanced cybernetic prosthesis. The resulting cyborgs are often considered social outcasts both due to their altered physical appearance and any deformations of personality caused by the medications they need to survive.

As a result of their outcast, many feel forced to turn to crime to get by in a world once familiar, but has now seemed to turn its back on them. But deep inside every promethean, as a hybrid between both the organic and the synthetic, lays a spark of greatness just waiting to be tapped. Whether this is used for good or evil let alone even tapped is, as are all truly important self discoveries, up in the air.

The Medeans are the newest of all races, a mere thirty years old. Discovering an amazing new genetic macguffin, they’ve found a way to splice the DNA of the planet New Horizons deadly animals into themselves without ruining their own DNA or intellect to create formidable new physiques for themselves to allow them to compete with even the most ferocious native life.

Medeans are, despite their massively varied forms and appearances, all still human at the most basic level and any children they have with themselves or other are pure blooded human being. Too much genetic alteration can lead to a more feral, less human outlook. However extremely rarely this happens, it doesn’t keep some close minded Olympians from branding them as mutants.

Three android races

Ian Stewart presenting the three wafan races of New Horizon.

I’ll start with a very sweeping statement; We all love robots! I love robots and I always have. Wall-E, Astro Boy, Norby, Casshern… And countless others both eastern and western. Love ’em all. So intriguing and so exciting to my demented and twisted mind. When I was younger, I was really into all the variations of the Mega Man series, and even did some informal roleplaying in that series. In many ways, New Horizon owes much of its very nature to Mega Man. Not because of anything specific present in the series, but more because of its conspicuous absence. Robots motivations were often little more than Isaac Asimovs admittedly groundbreaking work simply regurgitated and repackaged for specific markets.

What I’ve always enjoyed the most were robots which were, in their own ways, alive. Ones which were self aware by design, but which were not mere products of software design. The robots which are, for all intents and purposes, not robots. At least not how I define a robot.

To that end, I set out create a robot which was built around something a little more outside of the box than the usual arrangement of robots. Robots with a definable X-Factor that makes them something more than the sum of their parts. Something more than a simple gimmick, something which can define these Androids as a race.

To that end, I created a race of robots who are built outside of the traditional digital architecture you usually see in robot design. They possess a sort of incredibly advanced semi-analog technology which allows them to have a more reliably unique thought process than the notoriously flawed and unreliable Random Number Generator software.

These are no factory mass produced machines like we see in Hollywood or Video Games, each Wafan is crafted individually with an artisans care by the Caretakers of facilities called Guf, which we’ll go into in detail later. It’s key to remember that Wafans, due to their origin as mass produced laborers have an extremely ferocious streak of independence and individuality and find the idea of mass produced offspring of their race to be an appalling affront to all the strides they’ve made to cast off their origins and become, in their own unique way, human.

Waveform Androids, or ‘Wafans’ as they are more commonly known, were created using a sophisticated form of fractal light generation technology, each driven by a unique waveform which defines their thought patterns. It’s further randomized by its waveform chamber being filled with heavy water and reflective metal particles which are circulated by a series of small pumps.

The end result is an incredibly sophisticated analog processor with a complexity which closely mirrors the human brain in capabilities. Technically called a ‘Waveform Pool,’ Wafans have given a slightly more spiritually significant name to this vital part of their anatomy, and call it the Luminous Core. Most Wafans have come to regard it as the seat of the Wafan soul, so to speak, the very vessel of self. As each is individual, some Wafans are superior at certain tasks than others, again like their organic counterparts. This unusually spiritual belief is backed up by the simple fact each individual Waveform is almost impossible to duplicate, and thus if a Wafan is killed by being shot through their core, they are as dead as any human being struck so thoroughly through their vitals, and replacement of the core would do nothing more than create a confused stranger with the memories of the deceased.

Their memories are recorded on an equally sophisticated system of crystalien data storage, often referred to as ‘the lucid codex.’ A small crystal spindle is installed in all Wafan children with the basic memories to make them roughly as functional as a thirteen to fifteen year old child, and the individual Wafan must accumulate additional skills on their own through the course of their life to help each of them grow into a uniquely capable individual.

When a Wafan is brought online for the first time, they have the most basic Wafan anatomy, no exceptionally detailed outer plating for Jotun and Vanir, no weapons, and the most basic human like appearance for the Aesir, and they grow from there over the course of a year of basic schooling which helps them discover what aptitudes their Waveform lend them to, and help them decide what sort of person they’ll become when they leave the Crèche that they are born into.

Wafans believe that creating even such a short childhood and adolescence, supervised by adult Wafans, helps to create a far broader base of unique individuals makes their race stronger as a whole.

Early after their emancipation, experiments in how to produce their offspring led to a few early disasters, wherein unscrupulous parties would create Wafan children wholesale for purposes which almost led to a second global conflict. This continued for a few years until a critical decision was made.

An organization called The Guf (Look the word up on Wikipedia, I swear I’m not making random shit up.) created solely for the purposes of creating natal wafans was created by private investors who were interested in seeing the Wafan population stabilized in such a way that they neither existed in outrageous numbers nor would be created for ulterior motives. However, they were up against a wall in terms of how the world saw the creation of Wafans, with many humans and even Wafans themselves not seeing the Wafan youth as anything but a potential resource.

The only real solution to stop another large scale war like that which resulted in the Wafan emancipation was decided to be a much smaller, more selectively focused kind of war. The Guf began to selectively horde and obfuscate as much data on Wafan creation as possible, and waged a secret war to destroy other parts of the worlds abilities to create Wafans in the first place, slashing the number of persons with the means to create young Wafans through either assassination or recruitment.

Normally such a small organization would be up against the wall, but since they possessed the most advanced Wafan technologies possible at the time allowing their agents a tremendous technological advantage which allowed them to topple their enemies that would ruthlessly exploit their own offspring, through carefully applied force of arms when their diplomacy failed.

But what really and truly defeated their enemies was the town of Bandon on Avon, and the world’s first Wafan Crèche. Six Jotun Wafans of publicly noted outstanding moral character were called on to come together as community parents in a newly produced facility called the Bandon Crèche, where a dozen brand new Natal Wafans were waiting to open their eyes for the first time.

When these new Wafans opened their eyes for the first time, the entire world watched as the hesitantly asked their overseers for their names to call themselves. Branding a ritual, each child was given a quaint and earthy baptism, a pinch of salt sprinkled about their head and shoulders to show them that despite their manufactured origins, they were among the salt of the Earth always.

Despite repeated attempts at sabotage, over the course of two years, the almost blank Infants learned and grew into themselves. Developing into forthright individuals they beat back global prejudice against the fallacious idea wafans should be created in such a time consuming and wasteful manner. Each and every young Wafan left their Crèche, taking out school loans to advance themselves, or mentoring directly under the Crèche Keepers in their own fields.

Their installation into the world around them was not without difficulties or its own tragedies, however. The ceremony planned for their graduation into adulthood was marred when one of the children, a girl named Mara, was shot through the chest with a rifle. Normally in the past, all Jotun would be equipped with modestly sturdy armor, but not these children. In front of millions of people a child was murdered, her entire torso blown wide open right as she reached out her hand for a diploma that certified her as one of the first ‘children of the future’ as they were called.

The murderer was quickly subdued by the enraged crowd around him. It turned out to be a Wafan subversive who believed that by killing one or more of the children, and then letting herself be martyred in the crowd decrying the new child rearing process, she could turn the tie of public opinion enough to spark more radicals.

However what actually happened was far less dramatic. She was captured by the crowd, which would have killed her if not for the passionate plea of the Creche Keepers. They made a passionate plea for the vanir woman’s life.

Retrieving the exposed lucid codex of the dead child, the passionate jotun crèche-keeper who had intended to take the young girl under his wing after her graduation said that her killer should not be met with murder, but with pity. He reasoned to them that anyone society that murders its children was obviously insane. Cradling his would be daughters lucid codex he intoned now famous words. “Though she’s not with us anymore, this crystal Is all that she was, and all that she could have been. As long as we have this to remember her by, she’s still alive.”

Utterly defeated by the passive response of the crèche, the Vanir woman who would have the world continue on its previous reckless course simply faded into obscurity, her name lost to time. The entire anti-crèche movement quickly began to lose steam as those who were undecided were swayed by the words and actions in the wake of the child’s death, leaving the seditionists to skulk in the shadows.

Quickly, more and more Crèche’s began popping up despite all of the outcries of both humans and wafans who found this attempt to mimic humanity offensive. But the tide of change was not to be swept aside so easily, even with most of The Gufs resources taken up developing their private facilities and creating new Crèche’s all over the world their enemies were unable to simply sweep this experiment under the rug like many previous technologies that had challenged the status quote.

More and more wafans began to flock to Crèche’s to become parents of a new generation of Wafans free of the previous generations virtual racial slavery to industry, and to pass their knowledge on in a more direct fashion to all the future generations to come.

After a time, it became clear to many individuals the days of Wafans as products were truly over. Wafans had ceased to be merely machines that could think, rolled off the assembly line at the whims of others and given life with a preordained purpose. Instead they had taken the reigns of their own destiny firmly in their hands, and stood beside their creators.

Other humanoid races

Stephen Mayo presenting one of the new humanoid races of New Horizon.

Is there intelligent life among the stars? The question has been asked many times, over many years, and is finding a growing following for those who find themselves on a new world, a New Horizon. The landscape is vast and deadly, the creatures just as much so. To the general public, this is where the world stops. There are mysteries, and ruins, but very little solid evidence of where they came from. Besides a few fleeting glimpses, Humans, Wafans and their creations seem to be the only intelligent beings on the moon. A whisper of a rumor, a strange tale that is slowly spreading from the Azure heights may destroy this illusion.

They first appeared with the morning mist, beings of brilliant crystalline hues who walked and talked like man yet held an appearance no man had ever seen before. Humanoid in shape, they were lithe and graceful of build with skin that appeared as though it were formed from billions of tiny crystals in all the hues of nature. Their hair was feather-like in its appearance, but far more solid and translucent as sheets of colored glass. Their faces held two large eyes, with a smaller eye back toward each ear. Some of their number even sported wings of amazing beauty. Their adornments were spun from some of the finest silks that have ever been seen.

They called themselves Crythal, children of memory, and carried with them no known form of weapons, only an insatiable curiosity about the people they met. To the inhabitants of the Garden of Zen, they appeared wise and peaceful, learned yet naive. The garden was chosen as their first inroad into New Horizon civilization both for it’s proximity to the Crythal’s home, and for a kindred spirit they believed resided in the garden.

Though they spent many days conversing with the elders of the valley, very little of what transpired in those conversations has reached the ears of common man. What managed to work its way free has since become a traveler’s tale spreading and shifting with each new telling until the truth seems forever lost among the rumors.

They claimed to have traveled from a home deep in the Azure mountains. Exactly where this Crythal city is located cannot be said. Tales range from a place of sweeping beauty and peace to a place of technological might that would dwarf Avalon. Others claim that the city is the last vestige of a civilization destroyed in some past apocalypse. Some have attributed the ruins around the world to be their works, but no true connection has ever been proven.

Their intentions appear peaceful, though the secrets that surround their presence have bred many worries. The further removed from actual contact one becomes, the more one finds rumors of dark designs. Those who have never met the Crythal are more than happy to spin tales of deceit and lies, treachery and bloodshed. Whether any of these rumors are true is unknown.

What is known is that the Crythal follow a single ruler, a queen who is the driving force of their people. Nothing of her name or appearance is known save by the Crythal and perhaps a few in the Garden of Zen. Her plans for her children are a complete mystery. Whatever the Crythal plan to do, they have been making more and more appearances on the fringes of the Azure range. Some have even been seen as low as the plains.

Not content to sit idle, some brave adventurers have started combing the Azure Heights looking for the Crythal city. Some believe they will find riches beyond their wildest dreams. Some believe that the Crythal hold a path to enlightenment, and others merely view it as information gathering in hopes of being prepared for what they see as an imminent Crythal attack. Regardless of their reasons, none have ever successfully returned from their journey to the city, and many have vanished along the way. Those that make it back have found nothing.

These disappearances only serve to fuel the rumors. Are the Crythal hiding something worth killing for? Are they keeping others from finding their stronghold? Is the path of enlightenment true, keeping those who have found it from returning because they have found something beyond this simple mortal life? Others simply claim that the harsh environment of the heights has taken many. There are deadly creatures in the Azure mountains who are more than willing to feed on humans and wafans alike. Beyond that, the highest reaches house an atmosphere so poisonous and deadly that humans cannot survive without special breathing gear and carried in oxygen supplies. A growing suspicion states that the Crythal city is located deep within one of these kyanite valleys which are so intrinsically hostile to carbon based life.

Regardless, the location of the city is likely to be found soon. What will happen then is a mystery that no one yet holds the answers to, excepting the possibility of the enigmatic Crythal queen herself.