Thunder Run - to Hell and Back
The year is 2023. Over the last decade, civilisation has been slowly but surely slipping down the tubes. A few wars, a nasty retrovirus plague and an overall oil shortage all contributed toward a pronounced lack of confidence in government.
The USA went first, with Texas seceding in 2015, with others falling away like autumn leaves as it became clear that the Federal government couldn't muster the will or the force to bring them back into the fold.
Other nations around the world may have attempted to take advantage of this, but they had their own problems, especially with fuel riots happening almost daily (followed by food riots).
Australia wasn't immune to the growing problem. It had its own oil reserves, but these went by the wayside when Tasmania seceded in 2020 and seized the Bass Strait drilling rigs as being in the territorial waters of the new Tasmanian Free State.
Around about this time, scientists managed to perfect a type of biodiesel distilled from the juice of the sugar cane (generally called "juice" or "the sweet stuff"). This did not save Australia from fragmenting, but the city-states that formed around the major cities managed to work out amicable rules for trading.
Unfortunately, there were, and still are, some people who just aren't willing to play within the rules. These people live outside of the city-states, preying on those who seek to travel from one place to another. On the major highways they tend to be relatively safe, especially along the east coast and in groups, as the towns aren't that far apart and the city-states occasionally send out armed peacekeepers to make sure of it.
However, in the less populated areas, it gets more hazardous. And the city-state of Perth finds itself living under virtual siege, as the major land routes from the east are plagued by outlaw gangs. Attempts have been made to open shipping routes, but travelling around by the north coast makes them vulnerable to pirate attacks (apparently from Timor) and going around by the south apparently violates Tasmanian territorial waters, even when you don't run into one of the storms that apparently brew in the Bight.
So by road it is. And here you are."Breaker-breaker one-nine. This is Suicide Dan, yer front door for this trip. Buckle up, ladies - we're headin' into Thunder Run. We got us twelve hundred kays of desert, outlaws an' general bad stuff between here an' th' next town. You don't slow down, you don't stop, an' you sure as hell don't turn around. Anyone feels like backin' out now, let's hear it."
"Black Dog here, Dan. Hell no - let's go git 'em!"
"I hear ya, Dog. Outriders on th' wings, scouts out ahead, keep yer eyes open, and let's put th' hammer down."
"Ten-four."
This is, blatantly, and unashamedly, a trucking game. The action will centre around a convoy of armed trucks (with armed outrider cars, as well as motorcycle scouts). It's a fairly linear 'quest' game; the characters have to get their convoy from the city-state of Sydney-Woollongong-Newcastle to the city-state of Perth, by way of the Eyre Highway - now renamed Thunder Run.
This highway runs along the southern Australian coastline (the Great Australian Bight, to be exact) for much of its length; even now there are no actual towns between Ceduna (South Australia) and Norseman (Western Australia). What few people live along that highway are no longer in residence by the time of game start ...
