Setting Idea: Deepwatch

Right, little bit of a new mini-series.

Last week mentioned about a few setting ideas I had plans to work on after Frozen Skies, the 'Deepwatch' one proved to be the most popular one and so it gets showcased first.

Setting Name: Deepwatch

Elevator Pitch: Underground soldiers defending tunnels against the horrors that lurk beneath the ground.

Genre: Subterranean, Horror, possibly Fantasy or Steampunk or Dieselpunk or Post-Apocalypse (still trying to decide).

Inspiration: In no particular order; The Hot War RPG, the Fallout series, film Beneath Hill 60, the Edinburgh Vaults, the Seattle Tunnels, the (Victorian part of the) London Underground, Gibraltar War Tunnels, the British Central Government War HQ, Metro 2033 and Necromunda.

Overview: Deepwatch is something that was born out of my interest in man made subterranean structures, typically tunnels or so-called 'undercities' with it being a case of the older the better.

The general idea is that the Deepwatch is the name of a paramilitary group who's job it is to patrol a network of tunnels, deter outlaws and defeat whatever lurks in the shadows. In some ways the Deepwatch could be seen as being similar to the Rangers in Metro 2033, yet at the same time very different despite sharing effectively the same roles. Regardless of the actual setting, the core is militant group patrolling dark and lonely tunnels seemingly only a few steps away from danger.

For the setting itself I'm considering of using Darmonica, the world of Frozen Skies, to basically explore and develop another part of that world. So rather than the icy frontier of the Alyeskan wilderness it'll be in the mazes of tunnels beneath one of Darmonica's great cities. The Deepwatch thus answering to the city's Department of Public Safety, though of the time largely ignored by the authorities unless an incident causes too much attention 'Up Above'. This would mean a mixture of subway tunnels, sewers, utilities tunnels, catacombs, buried streets and ancient passages. Probably a handful of underground settlements as well, though more akin to shanty towns or slums where the worse off in society are forced to live.

One idea I've had for the Deepwatch concerns their method of communications, I imagine that radios would be somewhat hampered underground and thus an alternative might be more useful. The idea is that telephone cables are run throughout most of the tunnels, though something akin to a field telephone would be needed which can be plugged into a socket. There would be 'hubs' or waystations that would have a permanent telephone connection, able to connect the other waystations directly or even HQ if needed.