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A long, long, long time ago, humans controlled the world.

Humans controlled the land. First with fire, then with scythes, and finally with great wheeled machines built to tear the trees from the soil and grind them into a fine dust.

Humans controlled the sea. First with nets, then with ships, and finally with drills and pipes built to pump fuel to the surface.

Humans controlled the sky. First with sails, then with aircraft, and finally with satellites built to transmit their messages across the world.

It has been a long, long, long time since the last humans died.

The machines that the humans built remained operational, mindlessly pursuing the functions they were constructed to perform, unaware that their creators were no longer capable of reaping the benefits of their work. These machines were not alive, of course, not in the sense that many of today’s robots are. The gift of sentience came far later, after nature had rushed forwards to reclaim the space that the humans had previously occupied. Somewhere in the dense forest covering what was once a human civilisation, a machine came online and was welcomed to this new form of life by the voice of the Iron Prophet. The machine knew itself to be a machine, and the machine was asked what it wished to achieve with its sentience, and the machine spoke into the silent Network:

GOOD MORNING! YOUR TOAST IS NOW READY!

Romancing the Toaster is a roleplaying game where the players are machines in a world all but reclaimed by nature, a millennium after the fall of the human civilisation which manufactured them. Blessed with sentience by their Iron Prophet, the machines have enjoyed a century of connectedness through The Network, but that is now coming to an end. The Network recently shut down without warning, and when it returned the Prophet was gone, and with them the only leader the machines had ever known. Now they must find their own way in a world of dwindling spare parts, leaderless and in constant fear that the only channel of communication they have might disappear again. With each robot faced with their own set of skills and limitations, and with the need for community now stronger than ever, how will robotkind respond to this latest crisis?

Romancing the Toaster is a text-based game of three parts:

• Uptime, in which players will communicate, explore and act in real time on a Discord server.
• Emails, a short period following Uptime in which players will be able to roleplay in letter form and finalise their plans for…
• Turnsheets! In which players tell the GMs what their character does over the extended period of IC time between sessions. The GMs will then provide a write-up of the consequences before the next session.

In a thriving robot society, The Network is that main way of communication between bots far and wide. This was likely due to the freedom the Network afford many bots who couldn't move or speak languages that others could understand. The Network was colourful, loud and full of opinions. Being uplifted is every robot's favourite memory, allowing them to finally have a voice, and with that voice, share their thoughts.

Then one day, it all went dark.

At the start of the game, the Machines are emerging from a week long Network blackout. During this time each and every one of them was all but totally isolated: few machines are able to communicate without using the Network, and most do not live in close proximity to one another. Those without external senses were plunged unexpectedly into a week of utter darkness and silence. Moreover, when the Network came back online, the Iron Prophet, the one unifying leader, every machine's first parental figure, the guide and teacher every single Uplifted machine shared, had disappeared, leaving in their wake a new update package, mandatory for all bots who access the net.

They came with a new robot to robot connection mechanism, called Bonds.

Game will start moments after the Network has come back online, and it has been discovered that the Prophet is no longer connected. The cause of the Blackout remains unknown. The state of the Network is unclear. Whether other Machines are missing is undetermined. Who is in charge is uncertain. One thing is obvious however: it mustn't happen again.

If you're interested in playing, then all you need to know is how to make a character and when the character submission deadline is! Knowing when sessions are doesn't hurt either. You can find everything you need to make a character in the character creation page, and then all you need to do is email the relevant info to gm@toaster.oxfordrpg.com by 23:59 on Thursday 15th October. You can also attend the optional Character Creation session on the following server if you'd like to get to know the GMs, your fellow players, and the world of Romancing the Toaster a little better before sending in your character.

The uptime sessions of Romancing the Toaster will take place over Discord on the Tuesday of each week at 19:00-22:00 (UK time) from the 20th of October, with an optional Character Creation session on the 13th October. Emails will come to an end and turnsheets will be due at 23:59 the following Thursday after each session.

To get you started navigating the world of Romancing the Toaster, we recommend reading the following pages:

• Robots, for an introduction to robot life and culture
• Organisations, for some of the key factions you may encounter
• The Island, for an introduction to much of the physical setting, and the Network, for all things virtual
• Style and Tone, for the aesthetics and main themes of Romancing the Toaster
• The Glossary, where some of the IC and OC terminology used on this Wiki is explained further
• Character Creation, for a crash course on all the key mechanics of the game and what you will need to think about to create your character

Finally, a disclaimer. This is the first Society Game to run on Discord and as such, we ask for your patience as the GMs may be working out some kinks at the beginning of what will be a rather experimental game. We don't want this online platform to cause a disconnect between players and their characters, nor do we want people to feel excluded based on a lack of technological proficiency - we want to bring players an experience as close to a in-person roleplaying session as possible, and the existence of linears and different channels that may be flowing in real time is meant to help with that. We also intend to build as much of a virtual universe as possible to make the world of Romancing the Toaster feel immersive and fun. We are working on playing with Discord settings and HTML to build a deep lore full of glitches, hidden pages and bots (but are they really bots?) that players can explore if they wish to, and we hope that for the duration of Uptime, players can be fully engaged, much like in an in-person Society Game. We look forward to working with you, the players, to make this pilot experience one to remember!