"Mandy came out of the all-night Vurt-U-Want, clutching a bag of goodies.
Close by was a genuine dog, flesh and blood mix; the kind you don't see much any more. A real collector's item. It was tethered to the post of a street sign. The sign read NO GO. Slumped under the sign was a robo-crusty. He had a thick headful of droidlocks and a dirty handwritten card - 'hungry n homeless. please help.' Mandy, all twitching steps and head-jerks, scurried past him. The crusty raised his sad little message ever so slightly and the thin pet dog whined.
Through the van's window I saw Mandy mouth something at them: 'Fuck off crusties. Get a life.' Something like that."

Welcome to Vurt RPG, a setting for the Window Role-playing Game based on the books of Jeff Noon. Vurt takes place in a strange, remixed Manchester of the future. The world is becoming increasingly fluid. Humans mix their genes with animals, robots, even the dead. New species have been created; dog-men, robo-men, shadowgirls, Zombies.
The cops are in the pay of big business. Crime rates have soared. Illegal raves filled with every kind of person pound out Dogga music till dawn. And above it all, the Vurt casts a very long shadow.
Just what is the Vurt? The Vurt is the dreaming; one big collective dream. The dream can be accessed by Vurt Feathers, or if you're one of those lucky people who have just a teensy bit of Vurt inside them, you can go in any time you like. You can enter a cheap, safe dream like Co-operation Street, and live out a fictional life in a soap set in a Northern town. You can put yourself in Robert De Niro's place in The Deer Hunter. Too safe? No worries man; take the next step, go illegal. Black feathers offer a wilder trip, a better buzz.
Or you can try a Yellow Feather - die in the Vurt when using one of these babies, and you won't be coming back...