ADVENTURE: CHAPTER 5: CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 2:

APPENDIX: TAKING THE THE WORLD, THE RULE OF LAW - TECH BRIEFING: EQUIPMENT LIFT SELECTION: CHAPTER 1:
THE LAZARI STONE DIVIDED GAMEMASTERING LAZARUS AND TECHNOLOGY CHARACTER OPTIONS X+65 INTRODUCTION

A GRIM, MODERN WORLD

A Modern AGE game can be played in one of three modes: gritty, pulpy, or cinematic, depending on how serious you want the action to be.
While you can run your game in any of the three modes, a gritty tone is most appropriate for the post-collapse world of the Families.
Life is harsh, brutal, and most often short—barring the extraordinary, life-lengthening privileges enjoyed by the upper classes. Pulpy
mode can easily support more action-driven stories, especially if the characters are valued Serfs with certain augmentations or access
to cutting-edge medical care, allowing them to take greater risks. Characters facing or fighting together with a Lazarus will witness
amazing feats of strength, agility, and skill more appropriate in a pulpy tone. Cinematic mode is possible, but the atmosphere of paranoia
and uncertainty that dominates the setting generally contradicts over-the-top action and heroic feats.

8. Goals and Ties: Who and what they are creates different
challenges for each character in achieving their short- and
long-term goals. Chapters 2 and 3 are full of inspiration for
what your character can set their mind to achieve in the
World of Lazarus.
9. Name and Description: Choose your character’s name and
appearance based on where your character comes from.
Games set in the Carlyle Territories and Domains would
have the same diversity found in North America today, but
the Domains of other Families might be more homogenous.
BACKGROUNDS
Where a character comes from is as important in the World of
Lazarus as it is in any other Modern AGE game, for it determines
the character’s place in the new world’s rigid social hierarchies
and volatile social status.
Based on the campaign model your group decides to play, roll or
choose a social class from the following table. You can choose an
odd combination such as Lower Class but still part of a Family
to represent a “disgraced noble” concept, but discuss unusual
concepts with your GM first. Some of the Backgrounds already
found in Modern AGE are more appropriate for certain World
of Lazarus social classes as described below, while new Back-
grounds exclusive to the World of Lazarus note the regular and
post-Macau class statuses to which they belong.
EXISTING BACKGROUNDS
The Backgrounds from Modern AGE exist in the World of Lazarus
mostly unchanged. While some of them straddle more than one
status, most fall neatly into either Waste, Serf, or Family.
OUTSIDER BACKGROUNDS
The Outcast is a perfect example of a Waste character who has
learned to use neighbors and companions as both protection
and leverage. The Exile represents a Serf or, in extreme cases, a
Lesser House now demoted to a Waste. A while a Bohemian is
always striving to go the opposite way, starting either as Waste
who hopes to get lifted on artistic merit, or a Serf who struggles
to keep their art popular to avoid demotion. New Backgrounds in
this book are the Herd Worker and the Insurgent.
LOWER CLASS BACKGROUNDS
A QUESTION OF CASTE
When the Families divided the world among themselves, society
regressed to a kind of neo-feudalism, giving birth to three
new social classes: Family, Serf, and Waste. These new classes
replaced the concepts of lower, middle, and upper classes, but for
the purpose of Modern AGE backgrounds and professions, the
original social classes remain, and the new hierarchical tiers are
referred to as “class status.”
Note also that the terms “Serf” and “Waste” are mostly
used in Carlyle territory. Members of these classes may have
different names in other Domains, such as “Citizen” and “Non-
Person,” respectively, under Hock’s regime.
FAMILY
As the name says, Family members are the new royalty.
However, unlike in classic aristocratic models, Families must
work to maintain their Domains, to remain in the top echelons
of government and industry, and to enjoy every privilege avail-
able. Family includes direct family members as well as rela-
tives and spouses, but no one holds as much power as the core
Family. Family characters are all strictly upper class.
SERFS
Those whom the Family consider worthy of joining their world
become Serfs, though they will never reach the top tier
reserved to Family. All Serfs have something to offer to their
Domain, whether their skills, knowledge, or just their bodies
as cannon fodder. In exchange for such service, the Families
grant Serfs certain privileges according to their station, which
makes Serf status surprisingly fluid within its boundaries. Serf
characters can be considered lower (Rank 1), middle (Rank 2),
or upper (Rank 3) class, depending on what they have to offer
the Family.
WASTE
Left to their own devices by the Families, Waste form the
bulk of humanity in the era after the Macau Accords, strug-
gling to survive in a world that is falling apart around them.
Without support for infrastructure or even basic utilities,
Waste inch closer and closer to a new Dark Age. The Carlyle
Family makes small gestures to manage their Waste popula-
tion and regularly elevates some of them to Serf status to
refresh their talent pool, but in other Domains, like Hock’s
or Morray’s, Waste are mostly on their own. Waste charac-
ters can be outsiders or lower class, though some warlords
and criminal masterminds such as Novaya Bratva and Bloody
Railroad leaders can carve out a middle-class existence, as
unstable as it may be.

A Military character is almost always a Serf, or occasionally a

member of a Lesser House. The Laborer and Urban are two sides