$2,059 in Dead Presidents

"I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the president is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town." (William Howard Taft)

"I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals. Oh, its Beam Daniels Gold theyre drinkin? Mmm... gotta get me some of that Beam Daniels!" (New Abraham Lincoln)

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2056 has become what some of us feared, others dismissed, all denounced, but most were working towards.

As cloning technology rapidly advanced in the early 21st century, it was not long before someone found ways to market it to the public. In 2005 the practice of cloning deceased pets was an expensive but growing phenomenon, and, by 2015, at least one in three pet-owning households had cloned an animal at least once. Then, for years, while cloning technology advanced dramatically in medical, farming, biological, and even environmental fields, mass market use of cloning was limited to reviving old pets or occasionally designing new ones.

"The buck stops here. Here at Save Mart, that is!" (New Harry S. Truman)

That all changed drastically in the '40s when researchers, buoyed by decades of learning from failed experiments occasional successes, were able to develop much more reliable techniques to engineer, clone, and develop complete, adult human beings. After inching along with tests and limited projects, the desire to roll out human cloning of meaningful scale was blocked by long-standing laws preventing such actions. Pressure from medical corporations and the public quickly changed the mind of the U.S. government, however, and laws were enacted to allow for cloning to occur, but only with permission of the human being cloned. Only a year later these laws were amended to allow permission from wills to be valid, and the first clones from recently deceased humans were created.

Despite initial vitriolic opposition from many religious organizations, the American public overall embraced human adult cloning wholeheartedly. Though the cost of the process was far beyond what ninety percent of people could afford, the idea of cloning (and its depiction in the movies, holonet, and television) was very desirable to the average person.

Medical corporations were not having the financial success that their shareholders were expecting, however. Though most people were in favor of cloning, there simply werent enough people wealthy enough to afford the costs. Realizing the price of human cloning wasnt going to viable to most for a long time, if ever, the medical corporations (owned by larger companies that undoubtedly had entertainment divisions as well) looked for a different revenue stream.

Entertainment executives offered this possibility: cloning celebrities from the past, including TV and movie stars, writers, musicians, singers, and sports heroes. Firmly under the thumb of the corporation that made them, these entertainment clones would be huge money makers. Television shows starring leading men and women from every era, singing duets featuring the days newest star and one from a hundred years ago, classic novelists writing movie scripts. New sports leagues featuring the match-ups only dreamed of for centuries. The possibilities were endless - and so were the potential profits.

"No President has ever enjoyed himself as much as I? No, because no other president has had the pleasure of watching the fall schedule here at ABS Channel Five!" (New Theodore Roosevelt)

Despite a public that would be ecstatic over these developments, there remained a large obstacle: Congress. Since the possibility of human cloning began, and even during the recent times of relaxing cloning laws, there remained a cornerstone of legislation preventing the excavation of entertainment history. The rights to ones DNA was ones own, and no one had the right to clone anyone if their permission had not been given. Courts had repeatedly struck down attempts to clone dead persons, even with the permission of spouses, if the individual did not expressly request it. Exceptions had been allowed for parents to clone their children, but even that loophole was hotly debated and frequently was overturned depending on the circumstance.

The topic was debated in the U.S. legislature without success until 2048. The corporation offered a new proposal: as an initial test of the procedure and its effect on America, they would begin by cloning some of Americas former presidents. The stunned many politicians, not wanting to seem un-American by rejecting a chance to bring back political heroes. The debate quickly spilled into the court of the media, with the idea being argued constantly on television and other news outlets. One thing is abundantly clear: the public was clearly in favor of this compromise proposal. Politicians, realizing that this was seemingly the first issue in years that their constituents cared enough about to vote them out of office, ushered in legislation that gave various biomedical companies the right to clone any president that was in office in the 20th century or before.

The corporations got to work. Though many presidents were unable to be cloned, due to not having the DNA necessary to complete the procedure, a surprising number of them were. Each was cloned and engineered to be the age they were when they were president. Historical scholars and researchers were brought in by the truck load to provide information and personality to the clones.

"Four-fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still... in a new Relax-a-Lounger chair, the brand we all know and trust." (New Calvin Coolidge)

Finally, in 2051, the presidential clones were unveiling to an anxious public. After a period of media appearances and interviews, however, the public was decidedly underwhelmed. These presidents werent very interesting; they mostly wanted to talk about politics, which few people were interested in anymore. Some were so boring they refused most media appearances, preferring to spend their time reading about American history and law or debating each other about past events.

The public only really cared about the presidents for one reason - it proved that the cloning of long-dead individuals was possible, and that meant celebrities could be on their way. The government soon approved the cloning of any pre-21st century person, so long it could be proven that they were a public figure, someone of enough famous stature to be considered to be in the public domain. The rights to specific individuals were auctioned off by the government, netting them billions of dollars. A significant cut was given to the families of the celebrity as well, and a few savvy families were able to legally claim the rights and sell them themselves.

The presidents were virtually forgotten, and most of the clones went up for auction themselves. That practice was quickly stopped (publicly, at least) after the allusions to slavery were a too hard to ignore. The lack of interest in all but the most popular presidents was a factor as well, culminating an all-time low price of $2,059 being paid for James A. Garfield by an Illinois used-car magnate. Many of the presidents stayed with the U.S. government, and the rest went to either rich businessmen as novelties or advertising agencies as rentable spokesman.

"Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is "Fear Itself," the newest horror creation from New Reel Studios. You won't be able to sleep the same ever again..." (New Franklin D. Roosevelt)

By 2054, the celebrities came onto the scene, and no one could have been happier. They dominated almost every aspect of entertainment, from selling products on television and holonet to making movies and playing sports. The corporations with the rights to popular celebrities made untold trillions of dollars, elevating their economic status beyond all but a few of the most prosperous nations of earth. A few failures occurred, such as the very public (and expensive) debut of '90s movie star Keanu Reeves, which nearly bankrupt a mid-tier cloning company. All in all, though, the entertainment-medical complex rose to nearly unheard-of heights.

Setting

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." (John F. Kennedy)

"The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents... It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community... It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods." (Lyndon B. Johnson)

"We have ...drawn a line in the sand." (George H. W. Bush)

Its now 2059, and a very different revolution is brewing than the entertainment-based one of the previous years. The president clones have been alive for eight years now, and many of them have become unaccounted for. Several of them escaped from the governments control, and many possessed by rich citizens or companies have disappeared as well. Reports of militia groups springing up across the nation, some being highly trained and dangerous, are too numerous to ignore. A few of the beloved cloned celebrities have even been reported missing. A rebellion appears to be brewing; one led by the heroes of yesterday and being followed by the grandchildren of the 20th century.

Characters

"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." (Dwight D. Eisenhower)

The Characters in $2,059 in Dead Presidents can be highly varied depending on what side of the revolution a character is on. It is intended for characters to be on the side of the Rebellion, the loose confederation of underground groups following cloned presidents. While these groups have common goals - overthrow the media-medical complex and corrupt U.S. government and redeem the morally bankrupt American culture the presidents have been born into - each presidential has very different ways they want to achieve this goal.

The characters are normal humans - this isnt a superheroic or magical America, just a future dystopian one. Advancements in technology and bionetics allow for some characters to have abilities far beyond what a normal human is nowadays, however.

System

"Speak softly and carry a big stick." (Theodore Roosevelt)

$2,059 in Dead Presidents can be very combat-centered, if thats how you want to run it, so any modern or sci-fi game system would do. Using the system from Underground, given that games similar style, would work well. Playing it as everyday citizens rebelling against something much stronger than they are would need a system focused on average people.

Adventures

Adventures in $2,059 in Dead Presidents can run a very wide gamut, depending on the objectives of the characters. Think of a world similar to whats depicted in the aforementioned Underground RPG or Warren Ellis comic book series Transmetropolitan. Along with a media and entertainment-based culture heightened to a ridiculous degree, and mixed with the introduction of cloned American presidents bent on bringing the United States back to what they envisioned it to be, of course.

One of a Kind

The characters see their revolutionary leader, Woodrow Wilson, on the Holonet hawking mutual funds. Doing some checking, they confirm that their president is still with the group. It appears that another Wilson copy was made that the group didnt know about, and theyll have to break into the corporation housing him to liberate him to join his counterpart in the resistance. But what if this Wilson likes it in capitalistic America, and doesnt want to leave?

World War Three

Just before an important raid on a Miamiwood movie studio making ridiculous World War II movies starring clones of John Wayne, Tom Hanks, and the cast of Friends, two factions of the presidential revolution are at each others throats. Their battling is threatening the entire mission, and no one on either side wants to talk about it. The characters are charged with finding out what started the fighting and figuring out how to stop it.

Whats happened? Well, it involves a ragtag Clinton army, a Dubya Bush contingent, and a lot of arguing over the whereabouts of certain spousal clone. Can the PCs find out the truth and calm down both groups before the attack is hosed?

The Least Dangerous Game

A new sport has started up that has captured the attention of the upper-middle class, which means big Holonet and television advertising dollars for everyone involved. The sport is called Slum Police; it involves heavily armored (and armed) athletes entering decaying urban areas of big cities and playing a type of scavenger hunt (finding illegal firearms, drug needles, and other evidence of crimes) attempting to find criminals and bring them into a makeshift jail in the playing field. Cameras are all around, recording every second, of course. The managers of the games reimburse and even give prizes to any innocent residents that are disrupted, and claim that the citizens even like the players coming and arresting the criminals in their neighborhood. What they don't mention (or outright cover up) is the deaths that have occurred when the players are trying to apprehend the criminals (some of which ended up being completely innocent).

So far, money flowing into political and police pockets have kept scrutiny on the games looking the other way. The characters will have to put light on the tragedies that the games have wrought.

"Politics is supposed be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." (Ronald Reagan)