Airships of Oberon

Description

Game Overview Go on Airship Missions. Capture Anti-Magnetic Artifacts. Become a Flux Master. Play the ultimate Steampunk board game! What are you waiting for? Airships of Oberon is a fun, highly social strategy game in which players compete to capture Artifacts and complete missions. It's great for both casual and experienced gamers. The goal of the game is to complete a series of Missions in which you capture 1 to 4 Flux Artifacts and deliver them to a location on the board. You receive Experience points (XP) for each Artifact you capture and for completing a Mission. When you have earned 36 XP, you become a Flux Master. Then you can complete your final Mission: capture the three keys and go to Oberon City at the center of the board to win the game. Often players will need the same Artifacts and they will have to chase each other around to capture the Artifacts they need. Players also have twelve Anti-Magnetic Effects that they can use during the game to help themselves and slow down other players. Two of the Effects are unique for each player. During your turn you have the freedom to move via trains or airships, use Anti-Magnetic Effects and take other actions in any order. There is a lot of fun drama and reversals of fortune in this game. The end-game is quite exciting when you become a Flux-Master and start your final Mission to capture the three keys. Other players will try to stop you using their Anti-magnetic effects, meanwhile other players are becoming Flux Masters and trying to take your keys from you. Detailed Story Summary The Divergence: In 1895 a disastrous fire raged through the laboratory of the brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla at 35 South Fifth Avenue, NY, destroying most of his important research papers. One of his business consultants, Charles Oberon, managed to salvage Tesla's documents on wireless power generation. He secretly took these documents back to his home in Denver, and with funding from the Oberon Land Company, patented Tesla's inventions and built the first wireless transmission towers. Using wireless power, airships and trains could now travel lighter without the need for an on-board engine or fuel. Over several years Oberon created a network of airship corridors and super-light rocket-rail trains across the Midwest, all using his wireless transmission towers, competing with and rivaling the railroad dynasties. Meanwhile Tesla, nearly bankrupt, turned to another neglected research project - Anti-Magnetism. Tesla soon discovered that Anti-Magnetic Flux had elemental Effects that could be used to manipulate matter and perception. He developed various apparatus to harness these Effects: Ocular Attenuators, Anti-Magnetic Shields, Induction-Ray Guns and Temporal Distortion Devices. But having become disillusioned by the patent system, he instead made his technology freely available to a core group of inventors and enthusiasts who soon formed the Anti-Magnetic League. The most skilled practitioners became known as Flux Masters, who spread the knowledge to others and taught the novices in the craft. Forty years after the Divergence, Oberon City (formerly Denver) had become the most powerful city on the continent and airships traveled across the world. The Anti-Magnetic League, still essentially an underground movement, now had more than a hundred Anti-Magnetic Flux Nodes to power its apparatus. The Flux nodes drew power from Oberon's transmission towers using a "Freedom of the Airwaves" clause in Federal law. When Oberon realized the massive amount of power that was being siphoned off his network, he sought to shut down the Anti-Magnetic League. Using a combination of legal action, lobbying and propaganda campaigns, he had the Flux Masters and their supporters arrested, and the Flux Nodes dismantled. Most importantly, the League's Codex of research was confiscated and locked up in a secure facility in Oberon City, protected by an electric holo-field. This was a crushing blow to The Anti-Magnetic League. However, twelve Flux nodes still remained, having been built as backups and cleverly hidden for just such a crisis. And though the Flux Masters had been arrested, other members of the League were still free. This is where the game begins. The League's Shadow Council believes that only a Flux Master can decode the holo-field and capture the Codex without being detected. So they have set up a competition for all League members: the first member who can become a Flux Master and capture the Codex will be appointed as leader of the League (known as the League Architect) for one year. The players are members of the Anti-Magnetic League who are competing to rescue the Codex. Your goal is to go on a series of important missions for the Anti-Magnetic League, capturing Flux Artifacts from the remaining Flux Nodes to help you complete your missions. This will allow you to develop your skill in manipulating Anti-magnetic Flux power. Once you have earned 36 experience points, you will become a Flux Master. Then you can complete your final mission: to capture the Codex in Oberon City. The first player to capture the Codex wins the game.