Nonsanc (short for nonsanctioned circuit, referring to a sporting league) is an RPG setting taking place on a future Earth, in which self-replicating artificially-intelligent machines perform almost all the work to sustain industrial civilization. Human population has declined greatly, with the 90 million shareholders of the monopolistic transnational Great Corporations now constituting about half the remaining human population. Freed of the need to work or compete in order to secure material prosperity for themselves, their principle cultural preoccupation is mon battlesport, in which teams of synthetic persons (in a great variety of physical forms) fight as slave gladiators in the arena.

This setting was designed for a browser-based computer RPG that is a deconstruction of Pokémon and related works. It is also a satire on economic rent seeking and the proliferation of Digital Rights Management. The setting explores the ethics and consequences of general artificial intelligence, the reaction of (a substantial part of) humanity to an AI-driven near-post-scarcity / post-employment economy, and the question of to what extent conflict and competition are actually psychologically necessary for humans.

Nonsanc Hub

Geography

• The Bay Region, where the game takes place.

• Map of the Bay Region and then corresponding gazetteer.

History

• A historical sketch of the NSC universe, from the 21st century AD to the present.

• History of mons in the NSC universe.