Setting

The year is 2019; the world, much like our own. But there've been some big changes in the last ten years; the secession of Quebec in 2014, the UK's exit from the European Union in 2015, the unification of Europe in 2017. But the sound of the politicians, the smell of money and the taste of paranoia in the air is no different than ten years previously. China is growing much as expected, and the UK is getting an inferiority complex. Still, the international arena is somewhat more peaceful, and that's something to be thankful for.

But hand-in-hand with the lessening of external tension, internal security becomes more and more intense. In Russia the FSB is crushing dissent with an iron fist - the call of 'terrorist' is still enough to keep most citizens quiet and afraid. The U.S. puts on a face of liberty, but behind closed doors the NSA is watching the people more closely than ever. And in Great Britain, wiretaps and internet monitoring are commonplace.

The ever-present spectre of International Terrorism, which looked to be fading away, returned with a vengeance in the form of the 2012 bombings which left London without power for two days. Britain recovered surprisingly quickly, and are still climbing the charts for percentage of GDP spent on internal security.

But something feels very wrong in the world..

You play a concerned citizen - someone who has realised that something is not right in the world, that everything is not as it seems. Shadowy figures manipulate the world from behind the scenes, and you want to find out what's really going in. Characters in Classified are everyday people from around the world - office workers, parking attendants, journalists, cleaners and more. The difference is, they have a way in. They know about #CLASSIFIED#, a secure virtual meeting place for conspiracy theorists and associates, people who want to know what's really going on.

The world is similar to our own; however, there are also some large differences. Quebec is independent, the UK has left the EU which has since formed into the European Federation. However, the way the world works is much the same as today - despite the political upheavals, daily life is mostly the same for your average citizen. However surveillance is on the rise and dissent is tolerated less and less.

Players may come from any of the main seven power blocs.

Classified is inspired by conspiracy theories and literature about them - in particular The X-Files, The Illuminatus! trilogy and the computer game Deus Ex. The aim is for a somewhat dystopian near-future setting where the players hunt down conspiracies and try to discover what is real, what is misdirection and what is just plain lies, whilst trying to avoid being betrayed by those you trust or dealt with by shadowy agents.