--- /dev/null
+# The Track Not Taken
+
+## Game Book Entry
+
+The Road runs from before the dawn of civilization out beyond the
+decadent future. A cursed few find their way to it by power of blood;
+others are brought there and can sometimes return. Within the span of
+history we know two great civilizations are aware of the Road – the
+failing anarchy in what they call the 25th Century and our great City
+of Babylon.
+
+
+## Setting Info
+
+The road is a passage through time. The main branch of the road
+represents what you might call "consensus history", but where it goes
+can change over time. Minor branches exist and if you go far enough
+away from the well trod routes you could find anything.
+
+On the well-frequented parts it's a nicely maintained asphalt road,
+going up being a 10-lane freeway in the civilized parts of "up time".
+Whilst you will see carts and horses (particularly down-time) and the
+occasional traveller on foot most regular users of the Road find some
+way to acquire a motorised vehicle from the twentieth century or
+beyond.
+
+Exits from the road move up time in accordance with subjective
+experience - if you spend a year away from home then when you get back
+to the exit you entered the Road on a year will have passed back in
+your home time. As a result the exits have to be relabelled and
+maintained from time to time. Motels and Inns exist along the fringes
+of the Road in nearly all times.
+
+The road tends to attract special people. Once you've visited you can
+always get back although it might take years of searching for another
+access to it. You might never get back home though!
+
+The (Second) Babylonian empire runs from 626 BC until 539 BCE. The
+player characters will start off in the city of Babylon in 580BC not
+long after the city of Babylon has been rebuilt. The Babylonian
+Empire is an authoritarian kingdom with unique knowledge of the Road
+and the Fifth Bureau maintains the kingdom's current control over the
+road - a combination of espionage, border guard, and troubleshooting
+force.
+
+Bureau legend has it that the Bureau was founded by members of the
+Fourth Bureau fleeing the fall of Babylon and that members of the
+Fifth Bureau will likewise found a Sixth Bureau from the ruins of the
+Fifth. You won't have enountered members of either organisation but
+the standing order is that directions from the Sixth Bureau are to be
+obeyed without question.
+
+The three major road exits near Babylon are indicated with signs of:
+
+* "The Blue Ziggurat" (currently around 620BCE)
+* "The Hanging Gardens" (580BCE)
+* "The Angry Snake" (530BCE, not long after the fall of Babylon)
+
+These exits are all permanently manned by the Bureau.
+
+There are many minor exits which go to Babylon and other parts of the
+ancient world and the Bureau tries to keep patrols between
+approximately the 5th century CE and the third millenium BCE.
+
+After approximately the 5th century CE the high tech travellers take
+over control (although they rarely venture downstream of about the
+10th century) and signage is mostly written in the language of the
+Road - foretalk. Anyone who's travelled on the Road before can be
+assumed to speak at least some foretalk.
+
+The three major arms of the state are the Bureaucracy (including the
+Fifth), the Priesthoods (particularly of Marduk), and the Military.
+
+## Character Generation
+
+* You are either a member of a Bureau special team or have been asked
+ to work with it.
+* Characters are 50 point LoGAS characters, but you should feel
+ encouraged to sell down one or many Attributes. The average Road
+ traveller is Superior or worse in all four Attributes.
+* Up to 5 points of Stuff either way.
+* You must have at least one Power; otherwise the Bureau wouldn't have
+ selected you for this mission.
+* You can spend up to 10 points on Rank, which will determine your
+ position in the local hierarchies and what mundane resources you can
+ draw on; see the table below. In principle the Bureau member with
+ the highest Rank is in charge of the mission; and any Priests or
+ Military in the team are merely advisors...
+* If you have Eidolon then you're an elite member of the Military, if
+ you have Umbra then you're a Priest or Priestess, if you have
+ neither and Warden or Master of the Road then you're an agent of the
+ Bureau. If you have none of the above then you're either a
+ specialist of the Bureau or a private citizen who has been hired or
+ drafted (give me a backstory)
+* You can have any items / creatures that (a) are less than 15 points
+ total. Characters without any innate ability to find road on-ramps
+ might wish to have an item with the "Pass through Door" ability to
+ help them find their way onto the Road (or rely on the others!)
+ * The computerized books from _Roadmarks_ are 7 point items
+ * You can have a C20th vehicle stashed at the Road for 1 point
+ (Mobility)
+
+### Modifications to normal abilities:
+
+* Warden and Master of the GS are renamed Warden and Master of the
+ Road.
+ * Warden works basically the same way as it does for the Stair;
+ except you're dealing with roads rather than doors. Road
+ on-ramps tend to be out of the way or down dead ends or
+ alleyways; although occasionally you'll find them in what appear
+ to everyone else to be uncompleted highway infrastructure.
+ Locking or Unlocking a road is likely to require a construction
+ crew!
+ * Master will work approximately the same way it does in LoGAS but
+ there will be a lot more interpretation required - if you're
+ interested in taking this we'll have to have a brief chat about
+ how it works for your character.
+* Eidolon and Umbra can be taken at a 25 point "Initiate" level (and I
+ suggest you do!) - pick one aspect that you're really good at and
+ everything else will work approximately a third as well.
+* Wrighting: Wrights will be given time after the mission briefing to
+ make two icons of other party members, and can have icons for a
+ contact in the Bureau and any allies they have.
+* Invocation: I'm not sure how this might be useful, but I'll listen
+ to your ideas!
+* Cantrips and Sorcery: these both work Really Well on the Road, and
+ less well in the real world the further you get into the
+ technological eras.
+* Sorcerors can have up to 4 simple effects that you can use at whim
+ * (e.g. "fireball", about as effective as hitting someone with a
+ sword, "teleport 10m foward" etc)
+ * you can come up with arbitrary effects on actually useful
+ timescales (not on the scale of falling, combat, or geology
+ unless they're very simple modifications of one of your known
+ effects; but on the order of 15 minutes or so).
+* You can spend 1 point on "Domain" which will give you a hidey hole
+ off or adjacent to the Road somewhere where people know who you are,
+ but it's secret from everyone who you haven't informed about it.
+
+### Rank:
+
+|Points| Agent |Specialist| Civilian | Military | Priesthood |
+|-----:|:--------:|:--------:|:--------:|:--------:|:----------:|
+| 0 | Trainee |Apprentice| Helot | Soldier | Acolyte |
+| 1 | Agent |Journeyman| Freeman | Sergeant | Deacon |
+| 2-3 |Lieutenant|Journeyman| N/A | Corporal | Underpriest|
+| 4-7 | Captain | Master | N/A |Lieutenant| Priest |
+| 8-10 | Major | Master | N/A | Captain | Bishop |
+
+(Yes, a Captain in the Military outranks a Captain in the Bureau)