SLA Industries
Encyclopedia
SLA Industries is a role-playing game
first published in 1993 by Nightfall Games
in Glasgow
, Scotland
. The game is set in a dystopia
n far-flung future in which the majority of the known universe is either owned or indirectly controlled by the eponymous corporation "SLA Industries" and incorporates themes from the cyberpunk, horror and conspiracy genres.
The game combined concepts inspired by a range of aesthetics and ideas with elements like song lyrics from David Bowie
and the Industrial music
scene, cyberpunk
fiction (including Blade Runner
and Max Headroom
), anime / manga (including Akira
, Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis
, and Trigun), and the growing cultural obsession with the media (including 24 hour news services
and the Gladiator TV Show).
Players take the role of freelance employees of SLA Industries, called Operatives, living in Mort City and taking care of odd jobs assigned to them by the corporation. These jobs usually involve keeping the peace -- chasing serial killers, hunting monsters in the sewers, quashing riots, foiling terrorist plots, and silencing dissidents are common themes. Appearance, style and branding are emphasized in the game world as much as combat ability, due to the omnipresence of television; for ambitious Operatives public persona and TV ratings are often as important as professional abilities. A supplement, the Contract Directory, also provides the option for players to play as celebrity gladiators called Contract Killers. As a role-playing experience, the game tends to be predisposed towards splatterpunk
horror, noir, dark satire, and/or gunbunny high action. However, the complexity and Byzantine politics of the setting allow for slower-paced campaigns based around subversion, inter-departmental rivalry, and cut-throat power struggles within the company.
Along with humans, playable races include the drug-addicted mutant humans called "Frothers", the stealthy feline "Wraith Raiders", the formidably violent saurian "Shaktar", and the two 'Ebb' / pseudo-magic using races: the emotionally sensitive and charismatic Ebon, and their more sadistic and violent genetic offshoot, the "Brain Wasters". There are also a variety of biogenetic vat-grown warrior races called Stormers, produced by SLA to fight in their endless wars.
late in 1994, after their success with Magic: The Gathering
. It was later republished by Nightfall Games Ltd
and distributed by Hogshead Publishing, until Hogshead was sold to its current owners, and since 2003 Cubicle 7
Entertainment has been working on producing new material.
required that the contents of the document remain secret.
Following an extended hiatus in production of official SLA Industries material, editor Tim Dedopulos
released the bible to the members of the SLA Industries email discussion list in 1998. The fans' reaction to The Truth was not entirely warm, and the remaining members of Nightfall Games made it clear that further redistribution of the bible was not permitted without their explicit permission.
The writers have since made it clear that the bible was not intended for mass consumption - it had not been edited to the same standard as the published material, as it was an internal document used only to keep the work of disparate authors consistent with the intentions of Nightfall Games. It has also been explained that the process of revealing The Truth was originally to have happened over the course of several publications, each one containing more elements of an increasingly refined version of the backstory.
In 2005 Angus Abranson at Cubicle 7
allowed the re-release of this old Writers Bible, stating that this was no longer the Truth used internally for further development of material. It was posted, in its entirety, to the Team 8 SLA Industries forum.
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
first published in 1993 by Nightfall Games
Nightfall Games
Nightfall Games is a United Kingdom based role-playing game publishing company notable for publishing SLA Industries.-History:Nightfall Games was founded by Dave Allsop, Anne Boylan and Jared Earle in April 1993 in Glasgow, Scotland. In September 1993, Nightfall released their role-playing game SLA...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The game is set in a dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n far-flung future in which the majority of the known universe is either owned or indirectly controlled by the eponymous corporation "SLA Industries" and incorporates themes from the cyberpunk, horror and conspiracy genres.
The game combined concepts inspired by a range of aesthetics and ideas with elements like song lyrics from David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
and the Industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
scene, cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
fiction (including Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
and Max Headroom
Max Headroom (TV series)
Max Headroom is a British-produced American science fiction television series by Chrysalis/Lakeside Productions that aired in the United States on ABC from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4 British TV pilot Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future...
), anime / manga (including Akira
Akira (manga)
is a manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo. Set in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, the work uses conventions of the cyberpunk genre to detail a saga of turmoil. Initially serialized in the pages of Young Magazine from 1982 until 1990, the work was collected in six volumes by Japanese publisher Kodansha...
, Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis
Bubblegum Crisis
is a Japanese cyberpunk direct-to-video animated series. It displays strong influences from Blade Runner, also making occasional references to it.- Setting :...
, and Trigun), and the growing cultural obsession with the media (including 24 hour news services
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and the Gladiator TV Show).
Setting
SLA Industries itself is a fictional corporation run by a mysterious and seemingly immortal creature called "Mr. Slayer", whose upper management team includes two other creatures like himself, "Intruder" and "Senti". The corporation is headquartered in "Mort City", a densely populated city-sprawl larger than Eurasia and surrounded by the urban ruins of the "Cannibal Sectors", all located on a vast planet (also called "Mort") that had been stripped of its natural resources to the point that the ecology had been utterly destroyed. SLA Industries controlled an undefined but vast number of planets, collectively referred to as the World of Progress, and governed them in accordance with Mr. Slayer's Big Picture. The setting is bleak and surreal, with much left deliberately ill-defined in the source material.Players take the role of freelance employees of SLA Industries, called Operatives, living in Mort City and taking care of odd jobs assigned to them by the corporation. These jobs usually involve keeping the peace -- chasing serial killers, hunting monsters in the sewers, quashing riots, foiling terrorist plots, and silencing dissidents are common themes. Appearance, style and branding are emphasized in the game world as much as combat ability, due to the omnipresence of television; for ambitious Operatives public persona and TV ratings are often as important as professional abilities. A supplement, the Contract Directory, also provides the option for players to play as celebrity gladiators called Contract Killers. As a role-playing experience, the game tends to be predisposed towards splatterpunk
Splatterpunk
Splatterpunk—a term coined in 1986 by David J. Schow at the Twelfth World Fantasy Convention in Providence, Rhode Island—refers to a movement within horror fiction distinguished by its graphic, often gory, depiction of violence and "hyperintensive horror with no limits." It is regarded as a revolt...
horror, noir, dark satire, and/or gunbunny high action. However, the complexity and Byzantine politics of the setting allow for slower-paced campaigns based around subversion, inter-departmental rivalry, and cut-throat power struggles within the company.
Along with humans, playable races include the drug-addicted mutant humans called "Frothers", the stealthy feline "Wraith Raiders", the formidably violent saurian "Shaktar", and the two 'Ebb' / pseudo-magic using races: the emotionally sensitive and charismatic Ebon, and their more sadistic and violent genetic offshoot, the "Brain Wasters". There are also a variety of biogenetic vat-grown warrior races called Stormers, produced by SLA to fight in their endless wars.
Publication
SLA Industries was first published independently in 1993. The game was later bought by Wizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
late in 1994, after their success with Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
. It was later republished by Nightfall Games Ltd
and distributed by Hogshead Publishing, until Hogshead was sold to its current owners, and since 2003 Cubicle 7
Cubicle 7
Cubicle 7 Entertainment is a UK based company primarily concerned with the gaming and media markets.They publish a variety of games based on both original and licensed backgrounds...
Entertainment has been working on producing new material.
The Writers' Bible
Nightfall Games produced the SLA Industries Writers Bible, sometimes simply referred to as The Bible or The Truth, to allow freelance writers to grasp the complicated background of the game. The terms of the associated non-disclosure agreementNon-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement , also known as a confidentiality agreement , confidential disclosure agreement , proprietary information agreement , or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties...
required that the contents of the document remain secret.
Following an extended hiatus in production of official SLA Industries material, editor Tim Dedopulos
Tim Dedopulos
Tim Dedopulos is a British-born writer, game designer and editor of mixed English and Greek heritage. His published material covers a wide range of areas—novels, short-stories, game supplements/strategy guides, direct mail self-help booklets, light popular culture books, and more serious...
released the bible to the members of the SLA Industries email discussion list in 1998. The fans' reaction to The Truth was not entirely warm, and the remaining members of Nightfall Games made it clear that further redistribution of the bible was not permitted without their explicit permission.
The writers have since made it clear that the bible was not intended for mass consumption - it had not been edited to the same standard as the published material, as it was an internal document used only to keep the work of disparate authors consistent with the intentions of Nightfall Games. It has also been explained that the process of revealing The Truth was originally to have happened over the course of several publications, each one containing more elements of an increasingly refined version of the backstory.
In 2005 Angus Abranson at Cubicle 7
Cubicle 7
Cubicle 7 Entertainment is a UK based company primarily concerned with the gaming and media markets.They publish a variety of games based on both original and licensed backgrounds...
allowed the re-release of this old Writers Bible, stating that this was no longer the Truth used internally for further development of material. It was posted, in its entirety, to the Team 8 SLA Industries forum.
Product line
- SLA Industries Main Rulebook (ISBN 1 899749 23 3)
- Karma Sourcebook (ISBN 1 880992 56 6)
- GM Screen
- Mort Sourcebook (ISBN 0 9522176 6 X)
- The Key of Delhyread Scenario (ISBN 978 1 8997492 4 1)
- The Contract Directory Sourcebook (ISBN 978 1 8997492 9 2)
- Cannibal Sector One Sourcebook (ISBN 978 0 9555423 0 5)
- Hunter Sheets Issue 1 Supplement (ISBN 978 0 9555423 1 2)
External links
- Cubicle 7, the current print publishers of the game.
- SLA Industries Forum, the official SLA Industries forum.
- Nightfall Games, creators of SLA Industries.