For centuries, the people of New Albion have struggled against the Church and the state.

Away, among the stars (or so they say), the true king, Lionheart, fights the great war. Meanwhile his craven brother has usurped the throne. Under him, and in his name, the fiefs are ruled by petty barons and princes who do nothing but grow fat off the land they tax and the people they oppress. The church colludes to mutual benefit offering a religious dogma intended to keep the peasantry in its place, oblivious to the old ways.

Yet there are those, like us, who resist; as we always have. Taking up the proscribed old ways and tapping into the mysteries of the Source. The common folk are taught to fear the ways of technology, the Church teaches that it was the sin of science that set the skies ablaze and brought the wrath of heaven down upon us. But the Source has set us free. With its knowledge comes the new order of Tech-Druids, seeking out the lost knowledge. They ply their arts in secret for fear of the Witchfinder's torch.

Dark forces avail though; the insidious lure of corrupt sciences, machine necromancy coupled with blood sacrifice. To the Church this foul offshoot of the Source's knowledge is the true face of technology. They do not know the subtleties of the old world. Our foes do not just include the corrupt court of the usurper and his aristocracy, but those who practice the dark arts of Techromancy. They who seek to blot out the sun with blood and circuit.

I am called Herne, in the language of the old religion, my name means HEuristic Research NodE. I am a keeper of knowledge and I grant you the sacred logos of my system. Use this trove, fight to free the land and know that I am always with you, Robin of the Hood.


Well that's the fun sales pitch. What does it mean? It's post apocalypse Robin Hood (not literally, despite my namechecking the merriest of men).

Imagine if Robin of Sherwood (with a dash of the BBC's recent and brilliant Merlin) were set in a Horizon Zero Dawn (post apocalypse tribes fighting robot dinosaurs on the ps4) world. it needn't be specifically Britain (despite Albion), and it needn't be specifically Sherwood Forest (perhaps instead an outlaw zone comprised of junk and danger, rather than a literal forest).

Not sure I want it to be 100% tech though. Maybe some magic, somehow?

PS King Richard's off in space fighting an ancient war as part of some ancient covenant. So perhaps there are actual aliens in New Albion, leftover from the old world.

Think of science the way uther thinks of magic in Merlin (the old religion = verboten on pain of death, for the good of the kingdom).

"Recent and brilliant Merlin" says it all.

**veers**

It might just be the different elements I recognise but this idea sounds crazy familiar.

If your fancying magic but also want a tech base maybe psionics? Looks like magic to the primitives but soft sci-fi rooted so as not to go all visionaries.

What kind of rules you looking at?