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Our acclaimed power/ role-playing game

Inferno is UKG's acclaimed mixed-moderated game. We're not taking new players into it any more, but we're going to be running more games with the same basic system when this one is finished, so if you're interested in taking part in the next chapter of a PBM legend, get in touch!

Inferno's setting is best described as 'steampunk' - an alternative19th Century, in which steam-powered dreadnaughts plough the seas for themighty British Empire, great Babbage Engines penetrate the calculus ofsociety, earnest mages ponder their eldritch tomes long into the nightto work mighty magics, generals fling their troops into desperate headlongcharges, adventuresses and confidential agents sway the crowned heads ofEurope, and The Times records all in letters of thunder. Think of the atmosphereas a cross between The Difference Engine, The Prisoner of Zenda,The Man Who Would Be King, and the Illuminatus! trilogy...and loads of other stuff too. Across this realm of romance and wonder strutthe player characters.

Inferno is primarily a power game but has strong role-playingelements. Player characters are members of the Illuminati, the shadowygroup that secretly controls the Earth's nations and institutions. Theymust vie with each other to rise in its ranks, increasing their personalpower and prestige, be they politicians, financiers, sorcerers, spies,scholars, generals, rulers, scientists, entertainers... the possibilitiesare endless.

Inferno works on a simple task-based system. Each turn, eachcharacter can attempt one major and three minor actions, each of whichmust be describable as a task (eg. 'conquer the Ottoman Empire', 'seducePrince Albert', 'invent the velocipede', 'foment rebellion in Florence','launch new newspaper', 'crash Rothschild's Bank' etc.). To each simpletask can be added as much description as you wish about how you want tocarry it out, what you want to use and what you hope to achieve. This isall fed into the program by the GM and the level of success you achievecan be evaluated - also taking into account the actions of other players,who may be seeking to aid or frustrate your intentions, or who may be carryingout tasks elsewhere that have unforeseen effects on your own actions. Theresults of all these actions will be reflected in the London Times (theturnly newsletter), and will feed into a variety of ratings for each character'ssuccess within the game.

Inferno is a closed-ended game: it will finish when certain secretinternal criteria have been satisfied, and winners in a range of categoriesincluding Supreme Conqueror, Arch-Manipulator, Prince (or Princess) ofPanache, Sorcerer Extraordinaire, Technical Genius, and others to be madeup nearer the time (!) will be declared. We anticipate that this will beafter around 25-30 turns. Deadlines are fortnightly, and turns are GBP3.50 each, with a startup weighing in at GBP 12 and including your first threeturns.

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