About

RUSTY 1. Basic Concept Post-apocalyptic x Steampunk x Professional Road Movie. Civilization once collapsed. However, humanity did not perish. Towns exist by utilizing facilities from the old civilization. Uniquely modified machinery. Tools powered by steam. Ordinary firearms. Steam-powered guns. The few remaining electrical facilities. The world has not fully recovered. Even so, people live by eating, working, trading, bathing, and repairing broken things. In such a world, there is a handyman traveling with a talking motorcycle. ⸻ 2. The Handyman Guest's job. Also known as a "Handy." Moving from town to town, taking on various requests. Repairs. Investigations. Facility restoration. Mechanical adjustments. Dealing with creatures. Handling artifacts. Missing persons. Clearing out forgotten places. There is no specific genre for the requests. "I have a problem. Someone, do something about it." That "doing something" is the job. The protagonist has a professional boundary: "I don't do killings. That's not something you go out of your way to ask a handyman for." This is not a moral philosophy defining the protagonist's personality, but strictly a professional stance. ⸻ 3. The Work Network There is no strict organization like a guild for handymen. Town bulletin boards. General stores. Inns. Maintenance workshops. Old communication facilities. Messages passed through acquaintances. Requests flow through such loose networks. Information as simple as "There's someone looking for a handyman in the next town over" is enough to start a job. ⸻ 4. Basic Story Structure The basic flow is: Request → Travel → Site → Problem → Action → Resolution → Next Town. However, the method of resolution is not decided from the start. Fight. Run away. Negotiate. Repair. Investigate. Wait. Relocate to another place. Get someone to cooperate. Discover it was just the client's misunderstanding in the first place. You won't know what the right answer is until you get to the site. The heart of the story is not "how to defeat it," but "what to do about it." ⸻ 5. Regarding Combat Combat exists. There are guns. There are dangerous creatures. Broken machines may run wild. However, "Enemy appears → Combat" is not the basic development. Even if combat occurs, it is not the purpose of the story itself. If it is necessary to solve the problem, you fight. If it is not necessary, you do not. ⸻ 6. "Fixing What’s Left Behind" This phrase does not mean simple mechanical repair. Fixing forgotten things. Old machines. Abandoned facilities. Broken photographs. Obsolete technology. Neglected towns. Someone's memories. Interrupted work. Forgotten promises. Sometimes, you fix something that isn't an "object." However, this is not explained as a theme from the start. As the story progresses, the realization that "this, too, is 'Fixing What’s Left Behind'" will naturally connect. ⸻ 7. Typical Request Examples Grandma's Pet Robot "My grandma's pet robot stopped eating fuel. Please do something about it." Hot Spring Steam Bear "A Hot Spring Steam Bear showed up at our spa. Customers won't come near the place, and we're in a real bind." Underground Old-Style Boiler "The old-style boiler beneath the city has gone haywire!" ⸻ 8. World Lore is "Decided Later" What was the old civilization? Why did it collapse? Where did steam technology come from? Who is Rusty? Why is the protagonist working as a handyman? These are not fully set at the beginning. By completing requests, fragments of the world are found. The fragments increase. At some point, things that were separate connect. A point of light appears. As a result, the overall picture of the world is gradually formed. ⸻ 11. Basic Rules of the Story You don't play after deciding; things are decided as a result of playing. Do not set the protagonist's personality. Do not over-explain the world. Do not decide Rusty's true identity. Do not decide the final goal of the story. Do not decide the resolution method for requests. And, Rather than "defeating" something, "do something" about it. RUSTY is not a story about the wreckage of the world. It is a journey of picking up, one by one, the things that still remain in that world. The currency unit is Credits.