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The setting for Pebkac is Earth, the future. Understanding the setting is fairly important to understanding the game. The time is the future, an exact year has not been specified. Some time, not quite thirty years before the game begins, the dissolution of world governments occurs. This leaves the world to anarchy, chaos and crime. The end of the world, within the context of PEBKAC, has been a slow process. The environment has been so thoroughly destroyed that the monetary unit is based on the value of one litre of useable water. Most of the world is desert, occupied by shanty towns (more tents than buildings) and walled cities. A number of cities fell over the years and their remains have been swallowed up by the sand. Most of the current towns and cities are nameless little communities. Geography is spoken of in terms of what used to be.
The oceans still exist, though no fish can live in them anymore. Most shorelines are hidden by huge, fenced water purification and desalinization plants. The western coast of the former United States of America is slightly different. Totally uninhabitable desert stretches from the ocean to an enormous chasm. That desert was once California, there's no way to build or man water purification plants on the far side of that vast and vicious expanse of sand.
A small percentage of the population is fortunate enough to live within the walls of the cities that still stand. Within those walls, martial law, subject to the whims of the mob, reigns. Outside, natural selection is the way -- survival of the fittest. Guns are very hard to come by, next to no one owns such a thing. More common weapons include knives, clubs or bats, and electrified 'shock sticks' similar to cattle prods.
Medical care has reverted to its most primitive stages. Only a few hospitals still stand, and only inside the walled cities. Finding someone who knows something about disease is likely to cost a lot of money and with no education system, finding someone with the skills and training of a surgeon is impossible. Some people are lucky enough to know (or be acquainted with someone who knows) basic first aid but the life expectancy has plummeted and infant death rates soar. There are no longer any laws governing the sale of drugs. In the final years before the collapse of government and education, huge advances were made in medical research with respect to various chemicals. Now drug trafficking is a larger business than ever before, making rich men richer.
And then there are the problems with reality itself. Rifts in the fabric of space, time and logic exist, making virtually anything possible. What's real isn't, always. Things, mostly animals but also sentient humanoids, tend to wander through these rifts from time to time. Actually, they do it all the damn time, so if you see something, the likes of which has never been seen before, don't panic. Speaking of things the likes of which have never been seen before....
There are "freaks." Mutated animals, mutated humans, mutated things that came from outer space.... Some of these freaks look almost normal. Some of them look completely normal. Some of them...see above paragraph on "things the likes of which...." The situation has given rise to some conflict. Green is the new black. By that, I mean simply that "freak" is a derogatory term used by the non-freaks to describe the mutated humans. And of course, "normal" is a derogatory term used by the mutated humans to describe those who are not blessed with such gifts. Or something like that. Forget ethnic cleansing, think genetic cleansing. There are those, individuals and organizations, devoted to ridding what remains of Earth of those who are different from themselves.
Welcome to the future.