Celeritas: Jupiter Feretrius RP OOC Thread [CLOSED]

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Celeritas: Jupiter Feretrius

Current Status: CLOSED - SEE REBOOT

The Celeritas finds itself on the tiny Jovian Moon of Thebe, a miserable rock only useful for its ice and the resultant water, oxygen and miscellaneous volatile. But the governor of the corporate settlement on the moon has been undertaking a massive excavation of a tower found in the ice, a relic of an earlier age when lasers beamed power to ships.

But shortly before the Celeritas is due to leave from a simple delivery job the governor orders the docks locked down. No ship is allowed to leave, a thief it seems stole valuable data and items from the governor. The other ship captains have discussed that this might be a ploy to extort bribes or make a pretense to seize cargos. The colonies guards are not tough some argue, but many remain unconvinced and are more than willing to wait it out. Some even suggest finding the thief and leveraging a reward out of the governor.

But merchant ships are not the only ships docked, a ship from the mysterious [Player Backstory generated] Church of Titan, more of a cult than a church is also docked and has been for a long while. The cult seems interested in the governors dig site as well. At present, in an attempt to gather information on the situation (and settle some personal scores) the ships' loadmaster has started a bar brawl.

Original Hard Science Fiction Setting
No lengthy setting books to read
- Only a brief overview ... really!
Tight Knit Crew
Centered on the Corporate Domains of the Jovian System
4D6 modified FATE SRD
Tailored plot arcs based on character histories and skills ranging from smuggling, corporate sabotage and plain old mercenary work.
Posts every 2-3 days
6-7 Players Total
Multiple factions and agendas that influence player options and are influenced in turn by player actions.
Progress personal and group reputation, skills and resources.

2317 and humanity has spread, if not quite to the stars then to most of its neighbors, or as is the case with the cylinders and orbitals of the inner solar system built some new ones. But the politics of the inner sphere don't concern you, not anymore then mining disputes in Saturn's rings or the Martian Republics new taxes. Your far from such places - closer to the asteroid belt and more importantly the Jovian system and its snakes nest of corporations that operate more akin to states then business enterprises. The political squabbles are reaching a high water mark as people whisper of war and increases in crime as forces meant to maintain order are diverted for more special interests.

Plenty of jobs to do then, if your not too picky.

Celeritas is set in an original hard science fiction setting inspired by works such as Firefly, Cowboy Bebop and The Expanse. Your characters will be the freshly hired crew of a small cargo ship plying the space around the Jovian (Jupiter) system and its some 60 plus moons with the simple goal of getting paid. Unfortunately the powers that be, or even your own characters histories may make such a goal anything but simple.

The game will be running off the FATE roleplaying system with a few tweaks to help it work for a hard science fiction setting. Setting information and the extras are detailed below. The setting guide is an attempt to provide bounds for you to make up your own ideas as such its heavy on the broad strokes but light on details. The idea though is that Celeritas is a Hard science fiction setting so while something being an engineering problem is fine, breaking known science is a no go.

This is a 'reboot' of an earlier game by the same name that got suffered from my own real life scheduling conflicts. Despite the short duration of the game though I did learn lessons from it on running a game and given the relatively early phase the last game petered out on I decided restarting the game with a better foundation would be more appropriate.

As for the subtext with the game name. Jupiter, the planet, is named for the Roman name of the Greek god Zeus. For the Romans Jupiter had many epithets. Feretrius was referred to the 'one who carried away the spoils of war' and relates to the Roman custom of taking the arms of a slain commander and offering them to their gods. It was also invoked when making solemn oaths. You also have it's origin from the Latin word meaning 'to strike'

Given the nature of the Jovian system making the subtitle for the new roleplay reference a ritual of one ruler offering the arms of another ruler seemed appropriate - or perhaps I've been reading too much Roman history

Feel free to ask questions, ask about character ideas or work with other would be players to make characters. For more information on the FATE RP system you can look here, with characters being here. For more on the philosophy of the system read this.

I would like to thank @Sushi for the blank character profile and the general page layout, including some of the BB code usage.

General Notes and Modifications of FATE SRD

Notice does NOT influence turn order. Whomever posts first.
In addition to the default Four Actions, players can also use the Discover Action. It gives less Aspects and Invocations than a CA or Attack but can reveal important narrative details.
We're using a Non-Standard Skills List.
Resources removed and replaced with a Wealth Stress track
Wealth stress track does not recover with time.
Extras including
- Cyberware
- Drones
- Spaceships as characters
- Space combat for the above spaceships
We're using 4d6 / 4d3 for FATE die / Fudge die.
1-2 = -1
3-4 = 0
5-6 = +1

Aspects: High Concept & Trouble + 3 Phrases (Optional)
Skills: Great (+4)
Refresh: 3
Stress Tracks: Physical & Mental & Wealth
Consequences: 2/4/6

Code:

[b]Name:[/b] X
[b]Appearance:[/b] X

[b]Age:[/b] X
[b]Position:[/b] X
[b]Birthplace:[/b] X

[b]Aspects:[/b] X

[b]Refresh:[/b] X
[b]Fate Points:[/b] X
[b]Physical:[/b] X
[b]Mental:[/b] X
[b]Wealth:[/b] X
[b]Consequences:[/b] X

[b]Personality & Bio:[/b] X

[b]Skills:[/b] X

[b]Stunts:[/b] X

Athletics
Burglary
Brokerage (Specialized from Academics/Lore)
Contacts
Deceive
Engineering (Specialized from Craft)
Electronics (Specialized from Craft)
Empathy
Fight
Investigate
Academics (Replaces Lore)
Medicine
Notice
Physique
Pilot (Split from Drive)
Provoke
Rapport
Shoot
Spacehand (Specialized From Craft and Lore)
Stealth
Will

Discord Server Here

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Introduction

Celeritas takes place at the beginning of the 24th century, around 2317 Humanity has over the last three centuries advanced to all but the farthest corners of the solar system from the icy rings of Saturn to the hellish orbit of Mercury. Human ingenuity has helped create artificial worlds out of glass and steel as augmentation and genetics have pushed the boundaries of mortality and what it means to be human. Spacecraft large and small ride miniature suns moving goods and services between worlds. Technology has helped shaped history as much as human nature. The powers of the inner sphere, the Jovian system and Saturn compete to tip the balance of power through economics, technological superiority and the more 'traditional' tools of espionage and diplomacy.

These forces, covert, overt, diplomatic and violent, exist in microcosm amongst the orbit of Jupiter and its many moons. Here exists a menagerie of corporations with enough power to make the line between business and state irrelevant; trade tariffs, threats of force and promises of profitable agreement pass between them in equal measure even as they hire spies and saboteurs to steal secrets and engineer corporate scandals. The alliance of corporations known to most as Union stand above most other groups in the system and to many they play kingmaker. But no alliance is monolithic, and its own internal struggles for control of its power ensure smaller powers can find room to maneuver.

The struggles for power, small and large, create opportunities for enterprising individuals. From ship owners trying to make a profit flaunting the latest tariffs between rival groups, to mercenary crews offering their services on their reputation to get the job - any job - done, or third party diplomats willing to offer their expertise and time to win a fight without a drop of blood shed. All of these could be your character, or their past. They might be a freelance looking out for themselves or loyal to a specific faction trying to do their part to tip the balance.

Below you will find a summary of the most relevant details of the major factions and places of the solar system. These summaries will focus on the broad picture to provide the guidelines that your own character can fill in with details. Also below are the rules for the new skills and extras to cover things such as broader stunts, cybernetic augmentation, drones and spacecraft. You will also find some advice on generating aspects and stunts.

Table Of Contents Setting and Terms Character Mechanics Spacecraft Mechanics Useful Links

WIP
History and Background
The Powers that Be

The Inner Solar System

The space sunward of the Asteroid belt was colonized by a dizzying array of projects sanctioned or backed by national and international programs starting in the middle 21st century. While the governments of Earth, Venus and Mars dominate an array orbital habitats of various designs also inhabit this space providing valuable zero gravity manufacturing capacity at a scale hard to match closer to the planets.

Earth is nominally ruled by the United Nations, having gained prominence as it helped manage the international nature of reaching for planets like Mars and Venus. It's membership includes a handful of orbital habitats and even asteroids but most of its members continue to be the nations that divided up the homeworld of mankind. This rule is only nominal as the UN is less of a single state but a loose military and economic alliance akin to a cross of the 21st century NATO and EU. Many states pursue individual agendas off world even as peacekeeping forces tap down on insurgencies of groundside groups in the far corners of the planet left behind by the new space age and angered at a changed world. Even so divided with over 10 billion people and a wealth of resources when issues do manage to bring the divided UN together they can be as decisive in action as they are rare in occurrence.

Venus stands as monument to mankind's ability to bend nature to it's whims. Terraformed over generations from a mere waystation when orbits between Earth and Mars were poor. Venus now stands as a true green and blue sister to earth - though it only finished a generation ago. The projects vast need for engineers and scientists has helped Venus stay at the forefront of engineering and now it stands to eventually rival Earth in power. But its historic rivalries between the planet side and the stations in orbit -possibly encouraged by outside influence – threaten its stability.

Mars is in many ways easier to terraform then Venus but suffers from the fact that despite being an easier process it requires a far longer one. Dotting it's cold, dry landscape are vast open air cities nestled in craters. One part settlement, one part terraforming system vast amounts of atmosphere are generated to create a single atmosphere under the reduced pull of the red planet before letting it overfill the crater and help terraform the wider world. These cosmopolitan cities of the Martian Republic shine as a sign of things to come. Although long considered the primary industrial provider to the asteroid belt this historical interest is now being threatened by merchants and corporations from the Jovian worlds.

The Jovian System

Jupiter has 69 known moons, making it a small solar system inside the solar system. This also means that the Jovian system has some of the most active spacelanes in space as a multitude of colonies and orbitals all lay relatively close to each other. Most stations trail vast arrays of wires to harvest power from the gas giants might magnetic field even as it bathes those closer than Callisto with hazardous levels of radiation. The Jovian system, in part due to the radiation and also due to the immense gravity will of Jupiter was the last area colonized by man. It's colonization was lead by purely corporate endeavors and this nature extends to the present day where the line between a corporation and a state is blurred or even nonexistent.

On one hand the lack of rules on things such as genetics and augmentation mean people are free to express themselves in ways not available in the rest of space, on the other hand those same corporations reward those who change themselves to better fit into the system as ever more efficient cogs in the machine. This same laissez faire attitude extends to criminal enterprise losses of human and physical capital must be prevented but much can be done and have it swept away as necessary loss caused by human fallibility.

The Jovian Union

Jupiter is less a planet and more of a star that never got large enough to ignite, possessing hydrogen reserves that may literally out mass the Earth in its storm tossed clouds. This vast store of resources is under the sole control of a single group, while officially called The Jovian Gas Miners Union most simply call it 'The Jovian Union' or 'Union'. A conglomeration of mega-corporations headquartered out of series of massive habitats in orbit around the gas giant the Union has leveraged its resource monopoly into the financing to dominate the banking of the Jovian system and with it a diverse array of secondary interests.

The Union though is not perfect. Each Corporation, like a noble house from previous ages, compete with each other for power and influence flaunting their own economic success while trying to orchestrate the failure of rivals through means direct and indirect.

The Galilean Moons

Io, caught in a gravitational tug of war between Jupiter and it's sister moons makes Io one of the most geologically active worlds reachable by mankind. The radiation on the surface also makes it less than desirable. It's position makes it ideal to harvest power from Jupiter's magnetic field. The moon is covered with claims from corporations stations elsewhere in the system using the moon as a cheap source of power and radiation for energy hungry processes and more esoteric processes like isotope creation.

Europa, Europa is special, a massive ball of ice around a rocky core with a ocean heated by Jupiter squeezing it like a stress ball. What makes Europa special is what that ocean contains - a multitude of multicellular life that can only be described as both fish like and akin to what's found around deep sea vents on Earth. Access to the world is strictly controlled by the UN and a fleet is permanently stationed to keep anyone from getting ideas to visit. The local powers though are less than pleased at the excuse this gives the UN to monitor their affairs from their base over the moon.

Another Icy ball Ganymede receives less radiation then it's sisters but living outside the colonies burrowed into it's ice would be unpleasant after a few days. Colonies mine and transfer Ice water to buyers by mass driver and traditional shipping.

Callisto lies outside Jupiter's magnetic fields, and thus also the radiation this unique trait has helped turn Callisto into a breadbasket for its neighbors and the system at large. Vast mirror arrays hover over the moon to help concentrate the meager light so far from the sun to allow crops to grow.

Minor Moons and Orbitals

While much occurs in Unions orbitals and the Galilean moons the 65 remaining moons and countless smaller orbital colonies also orbit the gas giant. Most are in same way or another beholden to one of the power blocs inside Union or some other megacorporation but offer the wide array of industrial and technological services and industries a modern society needs from farming to space ship construction.

Of note as well are the roving mercenary and security companies whose home port is normal a simple flag of convenience for legal matters. Ranging from simple counter-espionage and specialist groups to full scale marine battalions they offer corporations large and small the ability to hire forces they might be able to afford to keep themselves full time. The larger groups travel in specialized 'barges' which act as mobile orbital bases and often where they go a small fleet of followers willing to provide all the services the mercenaries don't follow.

The Asteroid Belt

The asteroid belt is hard to describe due to the simple fact that has over two million asteroids of various types. Many of these rocks provide more material than most nations mined in their pre-space age histories. Colonized as it was by a mix of corporate interests, national programs and independent groups it's common for many to claim origin from some obscure rock when making a fresh start elsewhere.

Of note though is Ceres, the largest body in the belt and a local transportation nexus and propellant depot, colonized before the discovery of gravity tech the entire planet spins to create it's gravity.

The Saturnian System

Saturn is under the nominal control of the Saturn Traffic Authority. A polity created by the UN, though now independent, to monitor the ice mining around the rings of Saturn to ensure no one decides to recreate the end of the dinosaurs on some helpless world or colony. In practice the group acts as a body to advance the economic needs of it's miners while having little authority and less manpower for it's legal duties. Many come out to the small stations of Saturn to act as bounty hunters to help the Authority fill it's manpower needs.

A Brief History of the Solar System

So then, how did this all come about? That ultimately is linked to, like many things, money and trade. Getting into space is expensive, staying up there alive is no cheap feat either. Everyone up in the black is ultimately looking for a way to make some cash - or helping some else get theirs.

The Early Years

By the middle of the 21st century the orbit of Earth was comfortable colonized. Private stations, serviced by private launches provided corporations and universities with unique and novel laboratories and new hotels for the well to do to brag about visiting. Suborbital space planes helped link the world in minutes while orbital tugs kept everyone from worrying about the end of the world due to space junk. You even had space tugs with their own orbital depots fueled by material from the asteroid belt.

It was stable and comfortable until a lab in orbit discovered that a variety of mixtures for what is known as metallic glass were more controllable in their creation in zero gravity. Suddenly space offered something not easily replaceable by Earth side means. Suddenly everyone had a reason to be in space. Orbital factories sprung up and found that shipping their raw material from Earth was less ideal - so they turned to those small time tug companies which had used the belt as an economical means to get fuel stock for their craft. Now they needed to mine for a fleet of factories.

The Triangle Trade

In a couple of decades though these robotic operations started to require in person repairs, as it was quickly becoming too cumbersome to simply replace entire mining missions outright. But again, the requirements to leave Earth's gravity well showed its costs. The solution was to base these technicians, with support, on Mars. The Red planet required less fuel to reach the Belt from its surface and provided some gravity and protection under its soil from the sun's radiation – the fact that a handful of science bases dotted the world was a bonus.

Soon communities developed around the settlements for the technicians providing food, leisure and tools to them. This expanded to provide bulkier and heavier parts using Mars iron rich soil as stock creating a triangle of trade. Earth sent advanced components to Mars, which in turn made machinery for the Belt, which sent raw material back to the Earth. Between them all commerce and wealth flowed.

The Great Stations and Venus

As great as the production capacity of Earth's orbital factories were the effects of low gravity on their human workforce required a constant and costly rotation of people to recover planetside. To cut down this cost in terms of human harm and fuel costs a few major corporations worked with their respective national space agencies to create a solution.

The solution was the creation of massive stations know as O'Neill Cylinders clustered around points of gravitational equilibrium called Lagrange points each one was small world in itself seeming to trail before and after the Earth. With their rotating bodies to provide the effects of gravity people could live and play normally and commute for shifts at the zero gravity factories at the far end of station.

On the transportation side of the equation though stood Venus. The limitations of chemical and early nuclear rockets meant that you had narrow windows when Mars and Earth were 'in season' for travel. Venus though with it's faster orbital speeds offered more windows between itself and either Earth or Mars. Soon a thriving trade route formed as ships braked using the dense Venusian atmosphere before traveling on their final destination during the next window.

It was less fuel efficient then waiting for a proper launch window direct from Earth or Mars but it allowed many to beat their rivals to punch. These runs soon spurred the growth of trade and service depots over Venus giving them a tax base to, much like Mars was already doing, to look into terraforming the hellish world they hovered over into something more pleasant.

This development of other worlds was not without contention. The benefits of this expansion were not always evenly felt and soon several groups began to fester under the surface of the growing economic boom. Environmentalists saw the irrecoverable alteration of worlds as exploitation by governments and their corporate lobbyists. Technocratic anarchists saw the continuation of large centralized factories and large private colonies like orbital cylinders as an attempt to suppress the power of decentralized automated production. Finally, those nations that had never developed their own space programs viewed the agreements set by the UN as unfair and unequal effectively giving the entire solar system over to a handful of powerful nations.

The ensuing disagreements evolved into a decades long conflict whose nature is still debated to this day. Some view the string of conflicts that broke out across the solar system as part of a single war, the first interplanetary war in fact, but others view the conflicts known as the Terraforming Wars, Rainforest Wars and the Punitive Campaign as separate conflicts. Regardless they helped shape political norms for space for the next several centuries.

Fusion and Saturn

The creation of viable fusion reactors toward the end of the 21st century and thus viable plasma engines spurred the colonization of Saturn. While farther from the sun than Jupiter it lacks the heavy radiation and gravity well of its larger cousin. It also has vast rings of ice to harvest for hydrogen and hydrogen isotopes.

The increased supply of water and other volatiles allowed Mars to accelerate it's already lengthy timetable for terraforming and allowed Venus to reasonably contemplate the more ambitious task of changing their world.

Fusion engines also drove the initial colonization of Jupiter and it's moons, massive laser stations provided people the needed power without having to invest in their own powerful engines. But these same systems could act as powerful weapons. The Inner Solar system sought to provide safe guards and oversight over their use which was resisted by the outer planets resulting in the second major planetary war in human history.

The end result of that war was the effectively removal of United Nation forces from being the major military force of the Jovian system and beyond.

Graviton Age

The middle of the 22nd Century brought with it the most momentous discovery for mankind since the industrial revolution. The discovery and eventual control of the graviton unlocked the ability to create more efficient fusion reactors and in due time the creation of artificial gravity fields.

The new drives this discovery allowed finally made Jupiter a viable place to settle. The nations of Earth were stated with their asteroid and orbital colonies and Venus and Mar were focused on engineering their own worlds. This left the colonization of Jupiter to private groups, many settled among its moons harvesting power from the same fields that hurled radiation at their stations.

The largest groups laid claim to the gas giant itself an array of massive orbital cylinders were constructed by the groups that ultimately agreed to split control of the giant among themselves and thus created the Jovian Gas Miners Union.

That was almost a two centuries ago.

Science and Technology

Artificial Gravity

The discovery of the graviton was a landmark achievement for mankind, its discovery and eventual control lead to breakthroughs so far reaching that many call the current age the 'Graviton Age'. Many know of the classic analogy of gravity being like a weighted ball placed into a rubber sheet. With artificially created gravitons though rather than a gentle divot they create a sheer sided hole. The system is not perfect as the larger the area you wish to have gravity the more power you need – trying to provide gravity to anything larger than a small station will strip your ability to power it, and shed the resulting waste heat.

Torch Drives
With the discovery of the graviton the traditional fusion engine system could be brought to new heights. By using a small graviton field to assist in containment an engine could reach truly star like temperatures and achieve the ability to efficiently move even the largest vessel at prodigious speeds. Still the older style engines have a job as secondary engine moving ships in around stations and locations wary of letting star hot exhaust be about.

These drives are broadly seperated into two types of drives - Pulse Drives and Linear Drives.

Pulse Drives - The primary drive systems for most ships is a Magneto Inertial Fusion pulse drive, otherwise known as a Pulse Drive. These engines shoot a glob of magnetized fusion fuel plasma into the center of a ring of plasma jets that fire at the fuel causing it to undergo nuclear fusion and releasing tremendous energy. While more advanced than the fission powered thermal-nuclear rockets of previous centuries these engines remain Touchy Beasts that require precise cycling of explosions at 100's of times a second to ensure proper operation.

Linear Drives – The other major drive system for ships is a Linear Fusion candle. Expensive and technically sophisticated these drives use long magnetic tubes to contain fusion fuel long enough for it to completely burn up under nuclear fusion. These drives can burn for long periods creating huge changes in velocity over time but produce merger accelerations. These drives are used by premier cargo lines, most ships either need more acceleration or simply can't afford to have them installed.

Genetic Engineering

With increasing space travel meant increasing exposure to cosmic and other exotic radiations. The resulting damage to the human body encouraged an increasing study of the human genetic code. Even as medical advancements in gene repair and healthcare allowed people to live longer some very rich individual decide to use the technology for more cosmetic uses. While it's not uncommon now to see someone with hair outside the 'normal' colors due to an ancestor's style choices more drastic changes, such as elf or cat like ears, are far more uncommon – though not unheard of.

Cybernetics and Robotics

Despite all the advancements in medicine and genetics replacing lost limbs with flesh and blood replacements is still the realm of science fiction – but the integration of machine into man allows for much to be corrected. Some professions even view the loss of their natural eyes or limbs as worth replacement with new artificial components that best even the best natural human abilities.

For those unwilling to replace pieces of themselves robotics and AI's offer much utility from cargo handling to security duty and general engineering on most ships. Most drone's AI's are able to respond to verbal commands and their expert systems allow them to be quite able – inside very narrow confines. While the bipedal mechs of older ages have never come pass more advanced militaries utilize powered suits to enhance their soldiers during operations -especially in zero gravity while industry uses things like cargo loaders to provide heavy lifting with more intuitive operation then a crane or forklift.

Metallic Glass

While normal glass, like that found in a house, is a combination of silicon and oxygen metallic glasses combine oxygen or its relatives with a metal like aluminum. Early formulations date to the 20th century in the making of armored glass. The most well-known Metallic glass in present times is Super Alloy which generally refers to a specific composition that only cools and crystallizes in a controllable manner under low gravity conditions. This glass has proven to be both immensely light and strong. When combined with the appropriate stiffeners to make a composite material it makes up a significant part of most ship's hull paneling.

Alien Life

Alien life has been discovered three times in the solar system. The first place was on Mars, long dead though the simple single celled organisms left fossilized clues to its presence. As astounding and world changing as that find was, Jupiter's moon Europa was still more momentous. Under the moon's thick ice probes found not just single celled life but multicellular life similar but radically distinct from creatures found around deep-sea vents on Earth. Finally, Saturn's moon Titan is home to life, simple as its single cell nature is, made distinct by the fact that it uses liquid methane rather than water for its medium.

Spacecraft

Spacecraft are specialized - those meant to travel between worlds are not designed to land on anything but an airless world while shuttles are unable to keep anyone alive long enough over the vast distances of deep space.

Most ships for interplanetary travel are actually arranged more like an office building where each deck is arranged perpendicular to the direction of thrust. This allows the artificial gravity to be turned off during the acceleration and deceleration phases of a journey.

Aside from the engine and reactor the most important system on a spaceship is it's lift support system. These systems are generally called Enclosed Control Life Support Systems (ECLSS) and through things like plants, chemical reactions and algae filled bioreactors emulate the cycles that keep Earth Habitable. One of the major jobs of ship based medical personnel is to understand and tweak this system as passenger and life support loads change
Skills
It's common in scifi for characters to be specialists in some area or another. This could be Kaylee from Firefly or Scotty from Star Trek as Mechanics, Joker as a pilot. The expansion of the skill list makes it harder for a character to be capable in most things and thus helps to emphasize a character with specialist knowledge or experience.

Remember in FATE you want to Decide what you're trying to accomplish first, then consult the rules and work with the GM to help you do it. This might seem like common sense, but the order is important. In other words, don't look at the rules as a hard limit on an action. Instead, use them as a variety of potential tools to model whatever you're trying to do. Your intent, whatever it is, always takes precedence over the mechanics.

With such ideas in mind the following skills have been added.

Brokerage
Brokerage is a specialization of Lore which focused on how trade and business is conducted at large scales. This covers knowledge of the workings of large, impersonal, hierarchical institutions such as government agencies, corporations, and the military. It is used to overcome obstacles and create advantages related to knowing the rules, policies, and protocols of the organization, dealing with red tape, and winning at office politics. This skill is useful when trying to convince starport officials that an out-of-date docking license still passes muster or that a cargo of exotic animals doesn't fall under extant quarantine regulations, and so forth.

Brokerage also replaces Resources for representing a characters access to lines of credit financial resources.

Stunt Examples:
The Rational of Profit and Loss: You forgo emotional arguments when money is in play. When doing business transactions you can use Brokerage instead of Rapport.

Stock Options: Spend a fate point to declare your investment portfolio is paying dividends in order to clear wealth stress. Roll Brokerage against the rating of one of your wealth stresses boxes. If you roll matches or exceeds it – clear the box.

Price of Tea in China: You may spend a Fate point to declare that some detail or aspect under research or investigation is or was economically relevant to you allowing you to roll Brokerage instead of Academics.

Barrack-Room Lawyer: Because of your vast knowledge of administrative trivia, you may use Brokerage in place of Rapport to attack or create advantages when the act of throwing out legalistic or official-sounding terms and concepts might be convincing.

Market Savvy: Because you are a master of buying low and selling high,
whenever you use Resources to create an advantage that represents the acquisition of trade goods or valuable commodities, a success counts as a success with style.

Electronics
Electronics is a combination of Lore and Craft skills that focus on computer hardware and software. The use of drones, communication systems and ship sensors like radar fall under its use. This is an ideal skill for those wishing to leverage the most out of the Drone extra.

Stunt examples:
Metadata Maestro: Your ability to shift through the public profiles of people online and their related histories lets you find almost anyone assuming they use a network. Use Electronics instead of Connections when trying to do anything related to locating someone.

Secure Comms: Your not only security conscientious you've made your own encryption for the drones under your command. Anytime someone tries to interfere with your drones connection rather than allowing them to roll against the drones rating you can roll active opposition.

Counter Hacking Electronics: Offense is the best defense even in computers. When you defense against network attacks inflict the number of shifts of success as stress against the attacker.

Engineering
Engineering is the more physical counterpart to Electronics and focused on advanced technology such as spaceship construction, running rocket engines and the building of larger robotic systems. It can of course also be used with building construction and engineering.

Stunt Examples:
A Finely Tuned Machine: When you stack an advantage by invoking one
of your engineering-related aspects, and give it to an ally using your ship's
equipment to perform an action, you grant that ally a +3 bonus instead of
the usual +2.

Miracle Worker: Once per session, after you succeed on a Engineering roll to begin
recovering a ship's consequence when outside combat, you can spend a fate
point to immediately remove the consequence.

Medicine
Medicine is applied biology. In space not only does this mean being a healer but it also means being an expert in life support systems. Often the breadth of knowledge the medic has makes them the closest thing most ships have to a scientist. When assisting in recovering from consequences starting the process requires rolling an overcome action against a value equal to the consequences value.

Stunt Examples:
Ecological Systems Expert: You might be able to heal people but your true skills lie in the ships life support system. If you're either trying to sabotage or fix a ships life support systems you gain a +2 to the roll.

Field Expedient Methods: You know how to do miracles with very little. You may spend a fate point to declare that you can improvise the necessary equipment to perform a medical procedure with what's on hand. You should describe in part how your character improvises.

Pilot
Pilot replaces drive representing how more being able to pilot a spacecraft is a more useful skill than being a skilled driver in the small or otherwise urban colonies of the solar system

Stunt Examples:
Crazy Ivan: Your maneuvers in space can be called acrobatic if one is kind, crazy if you are inclined to the truth. You gain +2 to pilot when creating an advantage against another ship via positioning.

Astronavigator: The stars might as well eat from your palm, you often find flaws on the computer generated routing the ship offers. When calculating how far a ship can go for an exchange you pay spend a fate point to roll pilot vs how far you want to go. On success your ship is treated as having sufficient impulse for the trip.

Spacehand
Spacehand subsumes those parts of Lore and Crafts associated with practical knowledge of shipboard life. It is typically used to overcome and defend against difficulties connected to living, working, and moving in space. This includes moving around in zero-g, wearing a spacesuit properly to avoid accident or injury while in vacuum, walking on the outside of a spacecraft hull, and so on. You'll use this skill whenever something out of the ordinary happens in a space environment. Need to don your spacesuit in record time? Roll Spacehand. Need to patch a micro-meteor leak? Roll Spacehand.

Stunt Examples:
Old Space Dog: Because you've been around a time or two, you may use Spacehand in place of Contacts when looking for a spacer in a starport or other likely meeting place for professional space travelers.

Spacewalker: Because you are well trained in extra-vehicular activity, you gain +2 to Spacehand when overcoming obstacles related to operations outside a spacecraft.

Broad Stunts

Stunts don't have to be a +2 bonus to a skill, or under specific circumstances. You can make a stunt give you +1 to two skills, or to a broader circumstance. This allows a character to have a shallower but broader competency. This allowance is also key to understanding the difference between minor and major augmentations (below)

Wealth

In Celeritas characters don't have a skill like Resources – instead they have a wealth track. If you're ever doing something that would be made easier by applying cash then you can check a stress box from the wealth track for an equivalent bonus.

For example, you could be haggling over the price of a shiny new gun and you fail your rapport roll? Take a hit to your wealth box to represent overpaying for it. Trying to get past guards without the rapport skill? Check a box to get a +2 bonus to bribe them

Starting wealth is two stresses boxes and the only way to gain more boxes is by having an aspect related to wealth for up to three extra boxes. Wealth stress stays between sessions and to remove it you can apply a parcel wealth from loot, a job or other gains to remove stress on as many boxes as equal to the parcel of wealth received. So, if you gained three wealth you could clear your first and second boxes or your third but not all three.

Equipment

Equipment is normally handwaved and assumed for the players. People with shoot normally have a gun, etc unless the scenario says otherwise (disarmed prior to entering the bar for example).

Buying equipment allows the player to in effect add aspects to their character to their character outside the normal milestone framework. To get a piece of equipment you have to roll against a minimum of +2, plus 1 for every extra aspect you want with a max of 3, using a skill based off your negotiation tactics. Success allows you to create a piece of equipment with a name and a single aspect. A Success with Style allows you to create additional aspects for free equal to the number of shifts (again maxing out at 3).

So for example you might have a 'Rhodes LMG' with the aspect 'Belt Fed Monster'. Allowing you to have an aspect to invoke if you want to flex your increased firepower or to have the GM compel with it's weight and bulk.

Drones

If equipment is a means to gain aspects then Drones allow one to purchase allies. Using drones requires a connection to the drones. This can be disrupted via the electronics skill as CA action vs the drones quality level. Restoring connection requires rolling electronics against the original electronics roll as an overcome. Electronics is also used to repairs drones that have consequence slots in a manner similar to medicine.

Drones act as a mob of at least three nameless NPC's. When your character buys a set of drones you can decide on the quality – Average, Fair or Good which have a acquisitions roll of +1, +2 and +3 respectfully. You can add up to two extra drones for additional point of difficulty on the roll.

Each set of drones has at least one aspect that explains what sort of drone they are such as 'Satomi Corps Sentry Drones' as well as an additional one as optional for Fair and Good drones. Otherwise the skill and stress slots break out much like the Nameless NPC's.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics allow a player to give their character new stunts and improved skills outside the normal milestones. Cybernetics can be separated into three categories.

Prosthetics is the lowest category and simply restore a body part to human standard. Players don't get any bonuses from this but it does allow them to recover from aspects like 'lost my left arm'. Getting a prosthetic requires overcoming a +1 roll using a skill based off your negotiation tactics as well as taking a moderate consequence due to the surgery.

For any cybernetics other than prosthetics you also require, the first time you get augmented to change one of your aspects to reflect your choice to move beyond your flesh and blood.

Minor augmentations are small changes such as a new eye, hand or upgrade to an existing augmentation. Minor augmentations cost a +1 overcome value to acquire (+1 for every minor aug your trying to get), a moderate consequence due to the surgery as well as a point of refresh like when buying extra stunts during character creation. But you may get up to 3 minor augmentations for each reduction of refresh.

Minor augmentations can provide a 1 point skill boost and an aspect like a reduced stunt they could also be something like optical camo in the skin that let use disappear for a fate point.

Major augmentations are things like entire limbs, internal organs or anything directly connected to your brain. Major augmentations have a +3 value each to acquire, require taking a severe consequence for surgery and each major augmentation costs a point of refresh.

These increased costs mean though that a major augmentation lets you make fully fleshed stunts or even several effects if the GM and table allows it.

Spacecraft
Spaceships will be characters with a special truncated skill list (Characteristics) that represents their physical statistics. Spacecraft will have one high concept, one trouble, and three general aspects. A ship begins with a zero point command module, a cargo bar and a Pulse rocket engine.

Spaceships are made of modules; each module represents a major section or subsystem of the ship. Modules cost a number of points, outside of ship generation new modules may be bought by prompting a brokerage roll against the modules cost with wealth stress being allowed for a success at a cost. When making ships the intitial point pool is equal to the number of players plus one point. If players offer a stunt or point of refresh for two module points and gain the Aspect Ownership Stake In Spacecraft and can decide how those points are spent.

Rather than taking consequences the individual modules will take conditions. If a module is destroyed passengers and crew within must defend against a physical attack equal to the shifts of the attack that destroyed the module. Being Taken out by such an attack usually means an unpleasant death in space.

Characteristics
Spacecraft characteristics will be used to provide a bonus to relevant rolls when operating the spacecraft. This might mean the ships Mass provides a bonus to piloting rolls when ramming or Thrust providing bonuses while trying to evade a purser.

The characteristics can also be used on their own to decide values to roll against or for things such as travel times and distances (see below).
Mass – Represents the size and bulk of the ship which effects maneuvering difficulty and travel time, also is used to defend against heat damage (see below).

Impulse – A measure of the efficiency of the ships engines, All other things being equal ships with high impulse can accelerate over longer periods of time on a given volume of fuel then ships with a low impulse can. Affects how far a ship can travel in a single exchange (see below). A ships effective impulse will be the sum of its modules impulse ratings minus it's modules total mass ratings

Thrust – A measure of the power of the ships engines, All other things being equal, ships with high thrust can accelerate more quickly than ships with low thrust can. This is most useful when maneuvering to avoid or match velocities with a target. Affects how fast a ship takes to travel a single exchange (see below.) A ships effective thrust will be the sum of it's modules thrust ratings minus it's modules total mass ratings

Heat – Heat is a byproduct of everything a ship does. Under normal conditions a ship radiates heat in order to prevent damage. Under stressful conditions such as challenges, contests and conflicts involving the ship the build up of heat in the ship is measured in shifts that accumulate until they are dealt with.

Size Rating- Spacecraft will be one of four sizes Small, Medium, Large, Huge. For each step of difference in size the larger ship will gain +1 to it's attack and defense rolls along with an additional weapons rating for all weapons and armor rating for armor as applicable.

The smaller ship will get +1 to all rolls related to maneuvering against the larger ship such as escaping or creating advantages. This applies both pilot skill and ship thrust.

Additionally the following Stress tracks or aspect slots are added to the ship as applicable:

For each cargo module, give the ship two cargo aspect slots.
For each fuel tank, give the ship two fuel stress boxes,
For each habitat, give the ship two passenger aspect slots.
Foe each heat sink, give the ship one heat stress box.

Modules

Module	Effects	Mass	Cost
Cargo Module	Holds two cargo aspects	+1	+0
Command Module	Provides Ship Stunts	+1	+1 per stunt
Drone Bay	Attack and create advantage at +2	+1	+1 per two drones
Fuel Tank	Provides two fuel stress boxes	+1	+1
Habitat Module	Allows Refresh, 2 Passenger aspect slots.	+1	+2
Heat Sink	Provides one heat stress box	+1	+2
Gun Battery	Attack and overcome at +3	+2	+3
Pulse Drive	+1 Impulse, +3 Thrust	+1	+2
Torch Drive	+3 Impulse, +1 Thrust	+1	+5

Cargo Module – can hold up to two cargo aspects, representing a bundle of finished goods, raw materials, or other commodities such as Coils of Nanofiber Filament, A Load of Uranium, or Kegs of Spicy Fungus Beer. Cargo modules generally do not produce heat. The module itself does not take conditions, but a cargo aspect can be destroyed to absorb two shifts of damage.

Command Module – The bridge and other command and control structures for the ship. The ship must have a command module, although it need not devote module points to it. However, for each module point assigned to the command module, the ship may have one stunt related to the use of some skill in a shipboard or space-based role, such as +2 to overcome with Notice when scanning for nearby spacecraft. A command module produces 1 Heat per exchange.

Conditions: Damaged (-2), Malfunctioning (-4), Destroyed (-6)

Drone Bay – Launches and recovers drones that can be used for surveillance or as expendable kinetic missiles. In the latter role, the target generally defends with Thrust. Drones permit attacks at range, usually with a rating of 2, at which point they are expended. They may be also used for reconnaissance and as decoys, allowing the operator to create advantages related to spotting targets and misleading opponents.

Conditions: Damaged (-2), Malfunctioning (-4), Destroyed (-6)

Fuel Tank – The ships in Celeritas are essentially nuclear rockets, using hydrogen as reaction mass. As long as the ship is not out of fuel, having a fuel tank allows an impulse burn for long-distance travel or a thrust burn for evasive action, maneuvering, and so forth. Whenever the ship makes a burn using Thrust or Impulse, it can succeed at a cost by marking fuel stress.

Conditions: Half Empty (-2), Low Fuel (-4), Empty (-6)

Habitat Module – Living quarters and breathing space. Without a habitat module, the crew just bunks in whatever cranny or corner they can find, among engine spaces and behind bulkheads. A habitat module permits the crew to refresh fate points during a voyage; otherwise, they only refresh fate points and clear stress boxes when they rest and relax off the ship during a port call. A habitat module also allows passengers to be carried.

Passengers are noted as aspects, each representing a handful of individuals—for example, the Chief of Saratoga Station and Her Entourage, a Small Astrophysics Team from the University of Mars, or A Dozen Refugees from the Europa Massacre. A habitat module can carry two passenger aspects, though the crew counts as one passenger aspect if they wish to enjoy its benefits. A habitat module produces 1 Heat per exchange.

Conditions: Banged Up (-2), Damaged (-4), Destroyed (-6)

Heat Sinks – These superconducting coils permit the ship to store excess heat and radiate it out into space over a longer period of time. They do not suffer conditions. Instead, each module provides one heat stress box, which represents its ability to store and then slowly dissipate waste heat.

Gun Battery – These can be sets of short-range lasers, coilguns or railguns and can be used to overcome obstacles or attack targets in space. Each laser battery trained on a target permits an attack at close range in space combat using the gunner's shoot versus the target's Pilot, or it can be used to overcome difficulties such as blasting holes in asteroids for mining purposes. Your standard battery has a weapons rating of 2, meaning a success will always due 2 shifts of damage. The battery generates 2 Heat during each exchange in which it is used.

Conditions: Overheating (-2), Malfunctioning (-4), Destroyed (-6)

Pulse Drive – This is a fusion pulse drive, which propels the ship with high acceleration in a given time period by burning propellant in a series (100's per second) of explosions. The Pulse drive produces heat equal to its Thrust during each exchange in which it is used.

Conditions: Overheating (-2), Melting Down (-4), Radioactive Slag (-6)

Torch Drive – This is a linear fusion drive which produces a slow but steady acceleration to build up a good speed over long distance. The Torch drive produces heat equal to its Thrust during each exchange in which its used.

Conditions: Overheating (-2), Malfunctioning (-4), Inoperative (-6)

Other Modules: Players may design additional modules that they would like to see; the GM will assign a Cost and other conditions for these new modules as needed.

Sparrow Class Free Trader
High Concept: Open Source Tramp Freighter
Trouble: Unpaid Docking Fees on Ceres
Literally Made in someone's garage
The Cargo is our crumple zone

Modules:
Bridge – (Cost +0, Mass +1, Heat +1)
Cargo Bay – (Cost +0, Mass +1, Two Cargo aspect slots)
Pulse Drive – (Cost +0, Mass +1, Impulse +1, Thrust +3)
Habitat – (Cost +1, Mass +1, Heat +1, Crew and 1 Passenger Aspect slot)
Fuel Tanks - (Cost: +1, Mass +1, Two Fuel Stress)
Characteristics:
Size: Small
Impulse - +1
Thrust - +3
Mass - + 5
Cost: Average - +2

Heat Stress: None
Fuel Stress [1] [2]

Stunts:
None

WIP

Heat Management
At the end of a challenge, or at the end of each exchange during a contest or conflict, the ship defends with its Mass against its total Heat.

• Success with Style: You may clear one heat stress box or return an overheating module to working condition, clearing the relevant condition.
• Success or Tie: The ship functions normally.
• Failure: The ship takes damage equal to the shifts of failure. This damage may be absorbed by taking heat stress (if the ship has heat sinks) or by giving conditions to the modules.

Travel on the Map
Travel is done by going between nodes on the map. The map is an abstraction of orbital mechanics, each node represents a cluster of stations, moons or asteroids in a given orbit. The distance between each node is representative of the effort needed (changes in velocity) needed as well as the need for mid-course corrections and other such functions of space travel.

The baseline for travel time between two nodes is a few days, which counts as one exchange. This travel time is modified per exchange by steps equal to the difference between the ship's mass and Thrust, decreasing travel time if it's thrust is greater then its mass and vice versa. Thus a ship with a mass of +6 and a thrust of +3 would have a difference of -3 shifts and thus shift travel time from a few days to a few weeks or half a month.

The distance a ship can travel in one exchange is modified by the difference between its mass and it's impulse. Thus, a ship with an impulse greater than its mass is able to move one more space on the map per exchange for each step of difference. This reflects how longer periods of acceleration allow for the accumulation of velocity. Very few ships can move more then one space per exchange unless equipped with expensive Linear Drives.

Space Combat
Space combat occurs in phases on a map of range zones. The map will be made of eight to ten bands of space these bands represent relative speed, distance and bearing in a simplified form. Each ship in the conflict or contest will be placed in the bands along with any other objects. At the beginning of each exchange a pilot rolls Pilot. Beginning with the lowest roll each pilot chooses to have their ship stand still, to move between zones in either direction, or to move a single other ship that has not yet moved. The number of zones they may move themselves or another based on the roll of the pilot but is at least one. This takes place in the piloting phase of combat.

At the end of this process, ships in the same zone are in visual range and capable of using short range weapons. Ships one or two zones away can fire standard ship guns at each other and ships three of four zones away can fire missiles, torpedoes or drones at each other. A ship that is seven or more zones away from any other ship or which moves off the edge of the map has broken off combat.

Resolve beam attacks and other short-range weapons immediately. Resolve missile attacks immediately if the target is within two zones, at the start of the next exchange if within four, and at the start of the second next exchange if within six. Torpedoes and drones are placed on the map as if they were ships, and they move using the gunner's Shoot skill (electronics for drones) on their roll. Resolve a torpedo/Drone attack when it enters the same zone as its target.

Combat Phases

Space combat occurs in four broad phases. Characters may act in multiple phases, but a character who takes multiple actions during an exchange rolls for subsequent actions against +1 difficulty per previous action taken.

Phase 1 – Piloting

Evade

The first phase is piloting where pilots control their ships and drone operates may pilot their drones. A pilot may evade against incoming attacks, any ship which does not evade will have a mediocre (+0) defense. Pilot is rolled to determine success and thrust is used to determine scale of result. This evade result is the ships defense against all attacks.

Maneuver

A pilot may also use pilot to determine how they maneuver during this phase, has explained above. Pilot is used to decide order while thrust is used to determine the number of zones a ship may move, or how many zones they may move another ship.

Ordnance Movement

Missiles, torpedoes and drones that have been launched move toward their targets. Ordnance that reaches its target during this phase detonates with the target defending with its pilots evade result.

Phase 2 – Gunnery

Crew at weapon stations may attack any detected targets in range rolling shoot or spacehand against the targets evade result for this exchange. Gun attacks are resolved immediately.

Crew at ordnance controls may launch missiles, torpedoes or drones. This is usually Shoot, electronics or pilot roll against +0 difficulty. Resolve attacks when the ordnance arrives at the target during ordnance movement in the piloting phase.

Phase 3 – Detection and Electronic Warfare

Crew manning sensor systems may use electronics, academics, notice or investigate to examine the ships sensor readings to examine the ship's sensor readings and interpret the data they provide, as well as to analyze the behavior of detected threats and to identify potential patterns or weaknesses.

Depending on conditions (ie not deep space) their may be chances to avoid detection by hugging close to a moon or otherwise interposing a body between yourself and the enemy (and vice versa) Failure to detect opponents may create advantageous circumstances for the opposition, letting them act with relative impunity during the next exchange.

Crew with access to electronic countermeasures may use Electronics or Academics to spoof or jam a target's sensors, creating advantages. Crew at weapons controls may use Shoot to create advantages related to aiming or detecting patterns in enemy flight paths.

Phase 4 -Damage Control and Other Actions

During this phase players may use Engineering to deal with problems caused by accumulated heat, create advantages to help future rolls, or deal with other issues related to mechanically and electronic failures.

Players may also use medicine to treat injuries to personnel or use the relevant skills to accomplish any other action not covered.

Finding Cargo and Passengers

As long as your locale has people, you can assume there is buying and selling happening.

In order to find cargo or new passengers, roll contacts, Brokerage or a related skill against the size of the habitat, with major Settlements like Mars, Luna, or the Union Cylinders at +0, Ceres and other large settlements at +2, Major asteroids at +3 and smaller settlements at +5 and up.

If you succeed on this roll, you find a cargo in a reasonable amount of time—a few hours at least, several days at most. Sometimes the cargo is uranium. It's dense, but everyone always needs uranium. Sometimes it's bolt after bolt of graphene cloth formed from asteroid carbon, manufactured too far from Ceres for the trip to be worth it for anyone else. Sometimes it's a rare, valuable product of a small colony like the Quakers or Outbackers or Space Brothers from a space monastery or some other subculture that has unique knowledge or resources. Or sometimes it's a person—a passenger, you hope, but maybe they're the payment for some other deal. You get involved with that one at your own risk. But at least it's a risk of the unknown, and not the known risk of not having the fuel or supplies or repair parts to let go of this rock and find something cleaner to transport.

When you gain cargo, write down an aspect representing it and give it a free invocation. Some cargo will have two aspects, with the second representing special handling requirements. If you succeeded with style, you also get a boost related to the cargo or passenger, or a second cargo or passenger, or a second free invocation of the cargo or passenger.

Generally, invoking a cargo aspect means you're trading the cargo to get something you want, or giving it away to those in need, and now your cargo hold is empty.

Other things to be done in a port of call is using the downtime to allow characters to refresh fate points and treat consequences they've suffered. This is especially important if their ship has no habitat module.

A port of call is also where damage to the ship in the form of conditions and consequences can be dealt with, although paying for repairs can cause no small degree of stress for the player footing the bill. These costs can be raised if the players have not perused any specific economic activity for the trip.

- Atomic Rockets - This website provides a wealth of information on spacecraft would work in reality versus your standard scifi setting. Much of information here, including the engines ships use, how life support works and the like are inspired or drawn from this site.
- FATE SRD - The FATE Source Reference Document (SRD) is the entire FATE system and much of its add-ons online and completly for free. A go to source for the mechanics of the system in play here.
- The Book Of Hanz - A Collection of Thoughts on the nature of FATE and while the SRD covers the mechanics of the system this provides much inside into the nature of the FATE system.
- FATE Space Toolkit - Not free, but the Space Toolkit provides tweaks and ideas for making Scifi work in FATE, naturally some of this as been useful here.

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Celeritas
Scale: Medium, single ship's crew but sometimes working for larger factions

Current Issues
- Impending Issue, Whispers of War: The Jovian Union's Chairmen is aging and rumor has it he will be stepping down sooner rather then later and now the power blocs of the group are positioning to claim the spot.
- Current Issue, Followers of a New Path: The Church of Titan's presence beyond the moons of Saturn had always been limited but that had changed recently. The Church has been showing up more and more in the Jovian colonies. Beyond selling its lovecraftian artwork and recruiting followers it has lashed out at anyone it believes is hindering mankind's path to Salvation.

Place – Ceda

Michael's home settlement, major farming center in the belt due to being made of an asteroid turned into a sort of giant balloon. Independent from any power with a small but powerful navy to keep it that way.

Asteroid Balloon full of farms
You mind your business and our cruisers won't mind you.

Places – Vire

Michael's home town in Ceda. A small city built over one of the main space docks on the asteroids. Farming exports and spaceship slip support a thriving business… and no small amount of crime.

Hub of trade, hive of crime
The space port is underground
Homeport of the Celeritas

Places – Jovian System

An area encompassing Jupiter, its moons and the asteroid fields in its orbit. Home to a thriving number of corporations ranging from small to de jure states. Also home to a mammoth radiation belt courtesy the gas giant's immense EM field.

Everyone's either a client or a patron.
Space full of power and radiation

Faces – Union

The premier power of the Jovian system this alliance controls a ring of massive stations that harvest gas from Jupiter. Their immense wealth makes them powerful bankers and one of the main instigators of conflict in the system.

The Chairmen's chair is vacant

Faces – Lasicel Diaz

Director of the Ennesia trade group, a major stock holder on Union's Board of directors as well as several other corporations. Lasicel is one of the major players in the decision on who the next Union Chairmen will be – and she intends for herself to hold the seat.

Upon my father's name, I will succeed.

Faces – Hiroshi Cunningham

Head of Cunningham Industries which leads the 'opposition' to Diaz's attempts to gain power. He believes consolidating power will weaken the position of smaller groups much like what his own company was scant years ago. He also remembers the last large war in the Jovian system a little over half a century ago how and negotiations did nothing.

The last war told me how well appeasement works.

Faces – Jeanette Laforet

Michael's older sister, mother and owner of a small café that services many local bankers and merchants along with being a popular spot with the local political council.

Aspects:
- Socialite café owner
- Wasn't always a housewife
- Stubborn because she's right

Physical: [ ]1 [ ]2
Mental: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3
Wealth: [ ]1 [ ]2
Consequences: X
Skills:
+3 - Contacts
+2 - Rapport, Drive, Will
+1 - Will, Athletics, Empathy, Craft

Stunts: X

Legacy of a Misspent Youth: When trying to overcome or otherwise beat active opposition Jean can receive either a +1 to fight while fighting unarmed or +1 to drive while on a motorcycle.
A mother always knows: +2 to empathy when seeing through lies.

MVS Celeritas
High Concept: Medical transport turned Clipper ship
Trouble: Overclocked Engines
Fastest Ship out of Vire
A Father's legacy
Climate Controlled, High Security Cargo Bays

Crew Aspect:
Current Passenger Aspect:
Current Cargo Aspects:

Modules:
Operations Deck – (Cost +2, Mass +1, Heat +1)
Cargo Bay – (Cost +0, Mass +1, Two Cargo aspect slots)
Habitat – (Cost +2, Mass +1, Heat +1, Crew and 1 Passenger Aspect slot)
Starboard Pulse Drive – (Cost +0, Mass +1, Impulse +1, Thrust +3)
Central Pulse Drive - (Cost +1, Mass +1, Impulse +1, Thrust +3)
Port Pulse Drive – (Cost +1, Mass +1, Impulse +1, Thrust +3)
Coil Gun Battery – (Cost +3, Mass +2, Attack and Overcome of +3, +2 Heat when used)

Characteristics:
Size: Medium
Impulse - +3
Thrust - 9
Mass - +7
Cost: Breathtaking - +9

Heat Stress: None
Fuel Stress None

Stunts:
Medical Suite: Despite its conversion the Celeritas still houses an extensive medical bay, rarely seen outside of purpose-built vessels complete with expert systems to help with care. +2 to all medical rolls, even when character has no medical training
Shuttle Craft: This Small shuttle dates back to when the Celeritas was a medical transport and used to be an ambulance. Quartet of LOX/H2 SABRE engines allow it to land and take off into atmosphere as easily as vacuum. Character may use pilot to leave the zone the ship is in and travel to adjacent zones or land on stations and moons.

Notes:
Ship produces 2 heat, plus any thrust or weapons fire per exchange. (+9 Heat total for all engines)

'Boring' info -
Length: 173 Meters
Beam (Minus Radiators): 47 Meters
Wet Mass: 35,177,528 Kg
Dry Mass: 11,725,843 Kg
Cargo Capacity: 2,684,000 Kg (8,052 m3)
Crew: 10
Passengers: 20
Cruise Acceleration: .5 g
Max Acceleration: 3 g
Engine Type: 200 Hz Gravity Choked Magento-Inertial Confined Fusion Pulse
Fuel: D-He3 Fusion with Hydrogen propellant
Thrust Power: 31.41 TW
Drones: 12 Drones, assorted, for internal and EVA maintenance
Sensors:
- Long Range Radar
- Short Range Collusion avoidance and docking Radar
- LIDAR
- Passive EM Array
- Inertial Tracking System
- Star Tracker
- Orbital Positioning System Sensors
Defensive Systems:
- 2x 76mm Rapidfire Coilguns
- 8x 20mm Missile Defense Systems (MDS)
- ECM/ECCM Suite
Other Systems
- High Gain Directional Radio Transceiver
- Medium Gain Omnidirectional Radio Transceiver
- Communications Laser
- Composite Armor and Radiation Shielding
- Closed Ecological Life Support System
- Algae, Plant and Fish Hydroponics
- Ship board data mainframe
- Mo/Li heat pipe radiator
Small Craft: One 60 meter by 17 meter bay with hanger space for 2 shuttle craft

For a ship of its dimensions and class the Celeritas has an unusually high possible acceleration and delta-V. Most 35,000 ton transports cannot make an Earth to Jovian run in 60 days without dedicating a prohibitive fraction of their mass to propellant. Engines are either more efficient and only sip propellant or provide great acceleration while gulping propellant. Trying to get both out of an engine is fighting against the most basic ideas of rocket science.

The Celeritas manages this feat by throwing money at it. The Celeritas has replaced its standard drive and reactor assembly with ones acquired from a decommissioned Agamemnon class destroyer. How the captain of a ship from an asteroid colony managed to get parts of a Jovian Union warship is left as an exercise to the reader.

The Celeritas uses it's expanded acceleration envelope and delta-V budget to ply the spot market as a tramp freighter normally. With its speed it can effectively beat most competition to opportunities. Otherwise, it sells itself on the charter market as a fast transport with decent passenger accommodations for those wanting to stay with their cargo.

The overall form of the Celeritas does not look much different from the standard Bison class or its numerous variants. The ship can be described as a 173-meter-long cigar. Two large radiators are set 180 degrees apart - which are traditionally used to denote Port and Starboard sides of the ship. At the end of these 'wings' are reaction control assemblies, and navigation lights.

Approximately halfway down the ships' length a trio of doors are set 90 degrees from the radiators. The two closest to the flight deck (an arbitrary forward) are the cargo bays with the forward most door having a postern style door to allow crew or passengers through without opening up the entire door. The aft, larger door leads into the ship's hanger bay allowing loading of cargo in a pressurized environment.

Between the cargo doors and the hangar bay doors a large protuberance housing the ships primary cannon. Around the rest of the ships hull lay assorted navigation lights, phased array systems, antenna and smaller protuberances for the ships modest missile defense system.

The interior of the ship is separated out into 13 decks laid in the tail-lander or skyscraper style in a cylinder approximately 20 meters in diameter surrounded by the outer hull as described above. Between the inner and outer hull are assorted service tankage and shielding for radiation.

The decks are connected by a central passageway running from the flight deck back to a hatch that leads into the reactor room. This passageway contains a spiral staircase which can be removed as needed to provide clearance to move larger pieces of equipment between decks via pre-set points to attach winches. Along with the stairs the passageway contains electrical lines, data buses and key pieces of emergency equipment such as first aid, patch kits and other damage control kits. The passage is also broken up by several bulkheads used, in conjunction with the bulkheads at each level, to provide the primary compartmentalization of the ship for damage control.

The lowest accessible deck is primary engineering, surrounded by the ship's propellant tanks. Here is where most of the drive equipment that can actually be set inside the ship is housed along with systems for coolant. The deck is a large open space with catwalks providing the access to the assorted equipment. This deck includes storage for larger drones which work on the reactor as needed.

Above that on the twelfth deck is the reactor which takes up most of the space of the deck, which much like Primary engineering is mainly transferred via catwalks around the equipment.

The largest deck in terms of overall size is the hanger bay A majority of this space is taken up by the open area for small craft to land inside the hull of the ship. This allows maintenance of small craft as well as loading and unloading cargo in a pressurized environment. The forward section of the flight deck houses two areas to park small craft equipped with maintenance aides allowing a small craft to be maintained without obstructing the bay.

Above the hanger bay is auxiliary engineering which is separated via grated catwalks into several levels. This deck includes the primary hydroponics as well as the mechanical life support system and power conditioning systems. The deck also contains one half of the system for the ships artificial gravity, setting the lower boundary for the ships artificial gravity field. The nature of the system means that everything below auxiliary engineering, including the hanger and reactor room are in zero gravity.

The next two decks are the cargo bays. Each deck is separated out by catwalks allowing the storage of bulk cargo or containers to be latched down. Several sections of the cargo deck are separated out into temperature controlled and reinforced special cargo areas originally designed to store and maintain sensitive medical supplies.

The first deck meant for routine habitation is the passenger deck. Here, ten two-person cabins house the ships passengers with a small shared common area and shared hygiene area. This deck also contains most of the ship's storage areas, including refrigerated storage for food. The common area and cabins are decorated by assorted closed terrariums which offer completely sealed ecosystems that provide greenery without affecting the ship's life support. Several of the terrariums include plants or moss which change color if exposed to radiation, allowing them to serve secondary purposes. Due to the position of the common area no windows are in place - instead any passengers must make due with high quality images of the outside.

Between the passenger and crew quarters is the medical deck. Most ships make due with a small infirmary but the Celeritas was originally a Bison-M variant which was designed as a medical transport - including being able to provide smaller settlements with medical services. During its retrofits most of the medical spaces and quarters for medical staff were converted back to cargo space. The medical deck however was kept and comprises the cabin for the ship's medical officer as well as specialist storage, a surgical suite, a small lab and a general office that would not be dissimilar from a standard trauma center. This deck also contains storage for spare EVA equipment and rescue equipment, including supplies needed for dealing with quarantines, another leftover from the ship's previous role.

The crew quarters contain individual cabins for the crew, necessary given the ships use by independent merchants mean it serves as both ship and home for the crew. The cabins are decorated much like the passenger quarter with sealed terrariums. The Galley and the captains cabin also include a false window looking over a false landscape made from cleverly placed moss and bonsai trees creating the illusion of proper view. The deck also contains the ships galley shared between the crew and passengers - the galley includes a hydroponic setup to provide decor along with the occasional fresh herbs and vegetables to the crew. This deck also provides the primary common area including a large panoramic window for crew well-being.

Above the crew quarters the workshop and EVA deck. This deck houses a small workshop to conduct any component repairs, with a full panoply of printers, cutters and lathes. It also houses the ship's robot hotel to house the ship's small group of maintenance drones. The deck also contains the ships primary airlock, which also serves as the primary air lock for EVA operations including housing the ships EVA suits and propulsion units. This deck also contains the ships small armory.

The workshop also mounts the upper boundary for the ship's gravity generation. Above this deck all decks are in zero gravity. This is not viewed as a major concern due to the decks above the workshop being used for ship operation and navigation rather than long term habitation.

The primary center for operating the ship is the operations deck which serves as the official meeting location for the crew though more often than not discussions among the crew occur in the crew quarters where the meetings can be held in full gravity. Along with a meeting and map table the operations deck provides stations to operate and supervise the ships sensors, communications and defensive systems though a majority of these functions can be managed from the navigation bridge.

The forward most deck is the navigation bridge or flight deck where the ship is actually controlled from for maneuvers. During routine operation of the ship at least one qualified member of the crew stands watch from here.

The ship's primary propulsion system is a fusion pulse drive using Magneto Inertial Fusion where a 'smoke ring' of fusion fuel is sent down the center of the drive until it reaches a point where it's fired on by a ring of plasma guns shooting hydrogen. The force of the impact compresses the fuel until it undergoes fusion - the resulting explosion heats the hydrogen and the results are directed by the magnetic nozzles to produce thrust. The fusion reaction is extended for an extra instant by a well-timed pulse of gravity - the nozzle then harvests some energy to charge the capacitors that drive the system.

For situations where such a system might be overkill the Celeritas can maneuver in two ways, both using water. The first way, which is for minor adjustments such as when the ship is docking, is to flash boil water via electrical arcs into steam and use the expansion for thrust. The second system is for when larger amounts of thrust are needed and has the water broken down into hydrogen and oxygen and then used as fuel for liquid hydrogen and oxygen chemical engines.

The crew rooms are not large, but private, under the bed (twin sides or thereabouts) you have a set of drawers for storing clothes. On the other side of the cabin (so maybe the width of your stretched out arms) you have a closet, a set of cabinets and a desk with a chair.

Something like this and this

The Captain's quarter's include a larger area with a sofa, etc to allow chats with customers, investors etc along with an office type space making it like this.

Officer Cabins are larger, then normal crew as well due to having the XO's room, but lacks the large sofa area and so forth.

The ship also has several rooms, formerly rooms for doctors or nurses from the ships former role as a medical transport. The doctor's rooms are similar to the normal crew quarters while the nurses room have two per room, and these are used for passengers. Several former patient areas are also converted into similar style rooms.

Original:
Total crew space available - 12
Original Space for doctors and nurses - 3/6
Original Passenger space - 6 (3 cabins)
Original Patient rooms - 76

Post Refit:
Crew - 10
Passengers
- Basic (2 per cabin) 10
- Private Cabin 5
Other patient and doctor rooms turned back into cargo space.

Current Players

@DB_Explorer – Michael Waters, Captain and owner
@Daraken - Nathan Feng, Communications officer
@Dragontrapper - Martina Ruland, Medical Officer
@tankdrop24, Oswald Flowers, Loadmaster
@Sushi, Justine B., Pilot
@Hydrokinesis ,Morgana Fallowfield,, Chief Engineer
@Sketchy Lurker ,Gale Harper, Apprentice Engineer
SLOT OPEN, Deckhand

AWOL Crew

@Ryo0955 - Elise Harmon, Apprentice engineer

Former Crew

@HatsuZ - Sakura Nohari, Pilot and acting first officer
@Jeboboid - Helena Mitchell, Chief engineer
@Kensai, Sera Vammatar, Pilot
@Gardfiel ,Mike Rogers , Chief Engineer
@Mina, Klaudie Reuther, Deck Hand
@Wade Garrett, Xande Thibau, Ship's counsel
@Spectre558 - Aidrian Reid, Medical officer

Current Finished Submissions Being Reviewed

Former Reserve list

@Jemnite, Sylphie Six
@Terran Imperium, Viktoria Nikolayevna
@Project J, Choe Eun-Sung

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

NPC Fate Point Pool
PCs In scene + 2 [Conceded conflict with a consequence]

Scenario

Cultists Aspects:
Tracking The Celeritas' Crew - One free Invoke

Places

Thebe
- Ice and Poverty
- Io is a long ways off
- What is the governor up to?

One of the Inner moons of the Jovian system, a good telescope can easily pick out the massive cylindrical habitats of Union in orbit around Jupiter itself. At scarcely more than a 100km in diameter there is only one major settlement on Thebe. A colony of the Io based Inachus Volitiles it takes the name of the moon for itself, it's population of about 1000 people are mainly laborers and their families. Workers spend 12-hour days mining ice from the interior of the moon for volatile gases and water for shipment else where. The stores that sell supplies to the workers are also controlled by the governor ensuring he gets back what meager pay he provides them.

The gravity is kept light, to keep power use down, the temperature down to keep the icy walls of the station from melting and the air kept thin rather than 'waste' the volatile gasses fully pressuring the stations. Those unaccustomed to the thinner air may want to use supplemental air supplies. The shops and government buildings are kept pressured but the worker housing is not - while the colony provides workers with similar systems they overcharge for refreshing and refilling them so many workers learn to go without.

Although the workers live in poverty, the governor, Miraj Pavlovsky, lives comfortably. He gives his workers less supplies and pay then he reports to Io, keeping the difference to fund a side business in commadity trading. He is happy to trade with well-behaved pirates and smugglers, providing a safe port of call for vessels that might be shot out of the sky elsewhere. He defends himself against unruly guests and unhappy laborers with a force of 200 soldiers and six ground-to-air guns, issued to him by Io for the purpose of maintaining control over the nearby Mines.

Excavation Site & Laser Tower
- Colossal and Collapsed
- Buried Secrets
- Inefficient Heat Management (One Free invoke for @Daraken)
The site is a mile side sprawl of shattered and time-worn buildings, though many looked melted as if exposed to extreme heat - all made of thick slabs of metallic glass still common throughout the system. A few tall towers are exposed but are likely full of ice driven in by the push and pull of Jupiter on the moons icy surfaces. The remains of massive fins and sprawling networks of pipes indicate whatever the location did generated copious amounts of heat.

Faces

Thebian Solider
High Concept: Because the Govenor Ordered it.
Skills: +1 Fight, Shoot
Stress: None

Name: Leticia Herbert
Aspects: Grizzled Corporate Noncom, A Father to her Men, The Governor Pays My Bills
Physical: [ ]1 [ ]2
Mental: [ ]1 [ ]2
Consequences:
Mild (2): [ ]
Skills:
+4 – Shoot
+3 – Fight
+2 – Will
+1 – Athletics
Stunts:
Battlefield Expert - Can use Shoot to create advantages in large-scale tactical situations.
Suppressing Fire - Any time you're using a fully automatic weapon and you succeed at a Shoot attack, you automatically create a Fair (+2) opposition against movement in that zone until your next turn, because of all the lead in the air.

Name: Miraj Pavlovsky, Governor of Thebe
High Concept: Self Serving Colonial Official
Trouble: Obsessed with Jovian Secerts
Skills:
+5 - Rapport
+4 - Brokerage
+3 - Deceive
+2 - Empathy
+ 1 - Will
Stunts:
I Own This City - Use Brokerage instead of contacts when dealing with inhabitants of Thebe.
Physical: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Mental: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Consequences:
Moderate (4): [ ]
Mild (2): [ ]

Minor Faces

Adrian Kovalev
Aspects:
- Backwater Tech turned Cultist
- Devoted to the Church
- Glory To the Transhuman
Skills:
+4 Will
+3: Fight, Electronics
+2 Athletics, Spacehand
Stress:
Physical: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Mental: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
True Believer: +2 in defending against attempts to turn him against the Church of Titan.

Cultist Naval Officer
High Concept: Electrogun Using Cult Fanatic
Trouble: Arrogant and Overconfident
+5: Shoot
+4: Athletics, Physique
Stunt:
Stun Gun: The officer can use shoot to create the advantage Stunned on a character. The target must overcome the result of the Shoot roll with will, physique or athletics.
Stress:
Physical: [1][2][3][X]
Mental: [1][2]
Consequences:
Mildx2: [1] [2]

Shift Supervisor:
High Concept: Towering Mining Foremen
Trouble: Well Into His Drink
+5: Physique
+4: Fight, Athletics.
STUNT:
Irongrip: When the foremen uses Physique to create the advantage Grappled on a character, the Grappled character must
overcome a Great (+4) obstacle to break from the grip.
Stress:
Physical: [1][2][3][4]
Mental: [1][2]
Consequences:
Mildx2: [2] [2]

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Ok recruitment is now open.

Players from the previous Celeritas have two weeks to re-post their characters and get preference in selection. This is due to the nature of this being a reboot, on the other hand some people may of dropped this game in during the doldrums so this is also an activity check.

Deadline for past players:
Jun 25, 2018 at 10:05 PM

also my to-do list in the next two weeks for this thread
- Add how spaceships work
- Add how spaceship combat works
- Provide thoughts on making good stunts and aspects
- Provide some thoughts on how the game should work in terms of stating intent vs stating 'I want to roll fight'
- Add Game sheet with NPC faces, and key places
- Explain how background factional warfare will work.

Jeboboid · Jun 11, 2018

Name: Helena Mitchell
Appearance:

Age: 25
Rank: Chief Engineer
Birthplace: Mars – Outskirts of Hephaestus City

Aspects:
High Concept – Machine Whisperer
Trouble – Escapee from the Mob
Aspect – Scrappy scrapper kid
Aspect – Machines are easier than people
Aspect – Creator of Ajax

Extra: Ajax, Defense Robot built and maintained by Helena Mitchell.

Permission: One aspect reflecting the creation or acquisition of Ajax. - Creator of Ajax
Cost: Skill ranks in Engineer and One Refresh
Concept - Steel Defender
Flaw - Work in Progress
Physical Stress: [ ]1 [ ]2
Consequence: [ ]2
Ajax allows Helena to use Engineering in new ways:
Overcome: Use Engineering like Physique to overcome obstacles that require the application of brute force. Useful for breaking through a blockade, less useful if one is trying to run a marathon.
Create an Advantage: Use Engineering to direct Ajax's sensor suite to scan an area, much like Notice. Though sometimes it's easier to fool the sensors of a robot then the old fashion human eye.
Attack: Use Engineering to directly harm someone with Ajax's onboard weapons systems.

Originally built by Helena as a defensive measure and a showcase of her abilities, Ajax has since grown into the closest thing Helena has to family.

The first iteration of Ajax was built while Helena was in captivity. Created from the broken remains of fifteen different robots, a younger Helena used Ajax to kill most of the people keeping her prisoner before she split the head of her head jailer herself.

Since then, Helena has been using most of her earnings to further upgrade Ajax, constantly working on improvements for his weapon systems and armour. But Ajax remains a work in progress, the occasional bug or set of repairs pushing Helena to continue upgrading it.

Refresh: 2

Fate Points: 2/2

Physical: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3 [ ]4
Mental: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3
Finance: [ ]1 [ ]2

Consequences:
Mild(2): [ ]1
Moderate(4): [ ]1
Severe(6): [ ]1

Personality & Bio:

Wherever humans settle, there is waste. And the dregs and scraps that fall from the table of mankind must fall somewhere. And it was in this place, in the scrapyard attached to Hephaestus City, in the dark and the heat of close quarters, Helena Mitchell was born.

But humans will always band together in times of strife and pain. The scrappers were a tight-knit bunch, working long hours together so that they all could live. Friendly competition between the different families of scrappers in times of plenty would turn to mutual support in times of need.

Raised in such a setting, it is no surprise that Helena's gifts manifested at such a young age. She had an eye for tech, either broken or whole, and could fix it in such a way that in some ways, it was better than new. Through her efforts, the prosperity of her family and through them, the community, grew.

And then the outsiders came.

Thugs bearing weapons and armour took their meagre settlement in the night, and taking Helena and the other scrappers, killed the rest. Keeping their captives contained, they put them to work as mechanics. Fixing broken gear, refurbishing and building vehicles, the mob gave them little rest and little care as they worked them to the bone. Helena worked under the fear that if she didn't, they would kill her family, not realising that they were already dead.

Years passed, and while Helena grew strong, the mobsters who relied on her talents, grew comfortable and relaxed. Realising this, and working in secret, she prepared for her escape. When the time came, she left broken bodies and walls in her wake as she smashed her way free with both bots, and a heavy wrench which was one of her last remainders of home.

Making her way back to the scrapyard that was her home, Helena found nothing but rubble and bones waiting for her, and in the rubble of her family's house, she wept. Realising she could not stay, that the mob would be after her for revenge at the very least, Helena made her way to the city, working in repair and mechanic shops as she built her list of references. Her eyes on further escape, on the stars. During those years, Helena threw herself into her work, preferring machines to people as at least machines did what they were supposed to do.

Building a personal defence bot as a demonstration of her skills and as a defensive measure in case the mob ever found her, Helena, the silent mechanic, grew in both skill and repute. Always looking at the listings for Engineers aboard ships, she would carefully research each before applying, making sure that they had not ties to the mob. Time and time again, she was turned down for her lack of formal education.

And then she applied for the position of Chief Engineer aboard the Celeritas.

Heart in her throat, Helena waited for the captain's reply. Hoping that this would be the one to see her out here. To see her free amongst the stars.

Skills:
Great (+4): Engineering
Good (+3): Physique, Electronics
Fair (+2): Athletics, Academics, Fight
Average (+1): Notice, Drive, Contacts, Will

Stunts:
Percussive Maintenance – May use Engineering instead of Fight when fighting Mechanical enemies.
Better than New – When succeeding with style on an Overcome action with Engineering to repair anything, add an aspect reflecting improved quality with 2 free invokes.
Bot Savvy - +2 to Electronics tests when it comes to dealing with robots and other automata.

Helena's back, and just as awkward as ever.

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Jeboboid said:
Helena's back, and just as awkward as ever.

who needs social skills when you can make robots!

Laplace · Jun 11, 2018

@DB_Explorer

Are artificial intelligences a thing?

Jeboboid · Jun 11, 2018

DB_Explorer said:
who needs social skills when you can make robots!

You forget about her being fucking ripped as well. Helena's absolutely got a six-pack, she's fucking shredded.

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Laplace said:
@DB_Explorer

Are artificial intelligences a thing?

Yes, though namely as Expert Systems rather then fully Sapient (rather then merely sentient which they are) human like AI. For example the Celeritas has an array of robots on board that handle most of the repair work - the human engineers providing the guidence and problem solving the bots can't. The robots themselves are smart enough to take verbal commands and handle routine matters but their focus is narrow and their not what you call 'creative'.

now having an AI thats fully sapient may be possible - but thats going to define the character. Where you came from, how you escaped from the cutting edge lab (most likely miltary....) etc.

Short version: Yes AI is a thing but if your wanting your normal Scifi AI.... well thats going to make you special. But I'm not adverse to it.

Laplace · Jun 11, 2018

DB_Explorer said:
Yes, though namely as Expert Systems rather then fully Sapient (rather then merely sentient which they are) human like AI. For example the Celeritas has an array of robots on board that handle most of the repair work - the human engineers providing the guidence and problem solving the bots can't. The robots themselves are smart enough to take verbal commands and handle routine matters but their focus is narrow and their not what you call 'creative'.

now having an AI thats fully sapient may be possible - but thats going to define the character. Where you came from, how you escaped from the cutting edge lab (most likely miltary....) etc.

Short version: Yes AI is a thing but if your wanting your normal Scifi AI.... well thats going to make you special. But I'm not adverse to it.

Oh, that's good enough for my purposes. Also, are mechs, as in 8-12 foot tall two-legged weapons platforms, a thing?

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Laplace said:
Oh, that's good enough for my purposes. Also, are mechs, as in 8-12 foot tall two-legged weapons platforms, a thing?

Maxium size for 'mecha' would be something like an armored suit ala the suit from that Halo Anime 'Prototype' so 8-12 feet. Most such power armors are meant for working in low or zero g conditions like the outside of a space colony where being human like is useful due to the standard placement of handholds etc for human EVA's

Note that said mecha are the exclusive domain of miltary units, rather then civilians or even most mercenary groups.

Daraken · Jun 11, 2018

Name: Nathan Feng

Age: 36
Rank: Communications Officer
Birthplace: New Olympia, Mars

Aspects
High Concept: Ex-CorpSec Tech Specialist
Trouble: Executive with a Grudge (Myrmidon Conflict Solutions)
Free to See the World
Stubborn as a Mule
Cooking Fanatic

Refresh: 3
Fate Points: 2/3
Physical: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3
Mental: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3
Wealth: [ ]1 [ ]2

Consequences
Severe (6): [ ]
Moderate (4): [ ]
Minor (2): [ ]

At first glance, Nathan seems to fit the usual loner type that's seen all too often everywhere. Taciturn, distant, the whole nine yards. But give him half the chance and the whole facade easily falls away. Having been forced to spend the last few years constantly on the move, the former sergeant is all too eager to open up to a friendly face. In the presence of friends, his stoic and overly professional persona drops into something much more relaxed and informal. However, while kind and generous to those in his in-group, Nathan couldn't care less about outsiders.

Born to your typical wage slave family on Mars, Nathan was an easy hire for the Myrmidon Conflict Solutions recruiter. Not looking forward to the life of corporate drudgery that he had seen his parents already going through, and lured by promises of wealth and adventure, the young man found himself happily signing his life away. And while most of the promises of that damned recruiter turned out to be half truths or outright lies, things went on decently for him. After a few diligent tours of duty stuck with the disposable fodder, Nathan was picked up from the rest of the chaff and transferred to the more professional side of the MCS. His aptitude for electronics was noticed and trained, with his new specialization giving the recently promoted trooper quite the nice pay raise. It wasn't the glorious work that the recruiter promised, but Nathan didn't really care. Getting to travel from locale to locale while using his skills and making better than average pay fit Nathan just fine. Though of course that wasn't to last.

A critical mission had in the words of his more coarse buddies, "gone completely tits up." The team was well trained, their equipment exactly to standards and fitted perfectly for the job. Even their CO, the spoiled child of a MCS CEO, had been a competent if elitist jerk. But that just wasn't enough when it came to shitty intel, shitty timing and worse of all, just plain old shitty luck. And in the end, sometimes you just end up with a decimated team, an utterly failed objective and a whole lot of blame going around. Most of which landed on Nathan. Never mind that weather conditions had wiped out half his sensor drones, or that the opposing forces had access to a modern EW suite that was definitely not mentioned in the briefing. No, Sergeant Nathan Feng had clearly failed in his duties and displayed incompetence unbefitting of a Myrmidon trooper.

So while Lieutenant Calderone simply got a black mark on their record, Nathan found himself slapped with a wide array of retributive fines that completely drained his accounts and unceremoniously cashiered out. That he did not take this well would be saying the least. A drunken bender later, and the former Myrmidon trooper found himself waking up on a tramp freighter heading into the Belt of all places. What started off as grudging work to "help pay for his voyage", eventually turned to something more genuine and to his surprise, an invitation to join the crew. Learning the basics of being a spacer aboard the Honeybee, Nathan grew to enjoy his work, seeing the various cultures of the Belter settlements and getting a chance to use those skills he had been so proud of.

The Martian native eventually found himself adrift once more when the Honeybee ran afoul of a Myrmidon security team pulling customs duty, the debacle ending up with the old cargo ship seized. Work was plentiful though, and for a man with his skills, Nathan soon found himself sailing the stars once more. Until half the crew of his ship ended up arrested in a bar room brawl gone wrong. Once again by Myrmidon troops handling local security. When the ship after that got dinged by Myrmidon anti-ship emplacements for "flying in restricted airspace", that's when Nathan started getting suspicious. Luckily, a few old contacts back in the MCS proved to be sympathetic enough to provide an answer.

It turned out his old CO, now Assistant Vice-Director of Operations Calderone, had been nursing quite the grudge all these years. Scion of a rich corporate family, the now executive had never forgiven Nathan for the single black mark on their otherwise spotless record, still blaming the ex-sergeant for that failed mission. Profit of course was still the corporate official's highest concern, but apparently Calderone wasn't above pulling a few strings and calling in favors just to ruin Nathan's day. Not the best news to hear, but hell, it could have been worse.

Since then, Nathan has been steadily bouncing from ship to ship, never staying too long with one crew, lest another Myrmidon "accident" occur. Ending up further and further from Mars, the electronics specialist eventually arrived at Jupiter, ready for a new posting. And a ship like the Celeritas, with a new captain and crew? That sounded like just the perfect fit for him. Now how long would things last this time...?

Skills
Great (+4): Notice
Good (+3): Electronics, Shoot
Fair (+2): Athletics, Spacehand, Will
Average (+1): Fight, Pilot, Physique, Stealth

Stunts
Danger Sense: You have an almost preternatural capacity for detecting danger. Your Notice skill works unimpeded by conditions like total concealment, darkness, or other sensory impairments in situations where someone or something intends to harm you.

Hell of a Shot: Once per conflict, stack an additional free invoke on an advantage you've created to represent the time you take to aim or line up a shot.

Hollywood Hacking: You're quite skilled when it comes to computers and other related topics. Gain a +2 bonus to any attempt to overcome obstacles with Electronics when computers are involved.

Myrmidon Conflict Solutions
"MCS", "Myrmidon", "Ants"

A PMC hypercorp headquartered on Ares Station orbiting Mars, Myrmidon Conflict Solutions (MCS) has its tentacles all across the Sol System. Handling everything from security patrols to anti-piracy operations to general policing deployments, the MCS prides itself on its neutrality and efficiency. Their reputation for professionalism has made them quite popular for private security and mercenary work, the logo of MCS seen anywhere conflict needs to be resolved.

Or such as their PR department would like to claim. The truth is as always, a more mixed bag. While there exists elite forces of MCS, there are never enough to cover all the various commitments and duties of the vast PMC, and ignoring a business opportunity would be unthinkable. As such, Myrmidon recruits widely to fill up its ranks, taking in everyone from clueless teenagers to military washouts to kill happy psychotics. Harsh discipline is used to keep such a varied force in line, with ironclad contracts and a reward/punishment pay system heavily leveraged against the average trooper. Rumors abound of even chemical and cybernetic inducements to keep the truly unruly in line.

A typical MCS deployment will see a large masses of overly-aggressive disposable troops, backed up by scattered teams of professionally trained soldiers, with the elite only sent in when sheer numbers prove unable to solve the problem. Not the most elegant solution perhaps, but one that has certainly proved to be cost efficient. And in the end, isn't that all that matters?

Jack Booted Thugs
We Have Reinforcements
Money is the Bottom Line

Laplace · Jun 11, 2018

DB_Explorer said:
Maxium size for 'mecha' would be something like an armored suit ala the suit from that Halo Anime 'Prototype' so 8-12 feet. Most such power armors are meant for working in low or zero g conditions like the outside of a space colony where being human like is useful due to the standard placement of handholds etc for human EVA's

Note that said mecha are the exclusive domain of miltary units, rather then civilians or even most mercenary groups.

Okay, and would these mechs be piloted via Drive or Pilot? Also, I have some questions about augmentations. Each point of Refresh given grants three minor augs, or one major? And major augs also takes up an aspect on the aspect section, correct?

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Laplace said:
Okay, and would these mechs be piloted via Drive or Pilot? Also, I have some questions about augmentations. Each point of Refresh given grants three minor augs, or one major? And major augs also takes up an aspect on the aspect section, correct?

mecha would be drive.

Augs would be one aspect for minor OR major. The aspect is a reflection of gaining or choosing the cybernetic parts.

A minor aug gives you a small boost and an aspect (Ie +1 Notice and 'thermal vision' for new eyes) with additional aspects as an option inside that three per refresh limit.

a major aug gives you an aspect and you can make a full scale stunt.

As stated cybernetics can be viewed as a means to gain stunts or bonuses outside of the normal milestones of advancement. Hence the use of refresh as a cost just like stunts during character creation.

edit: Your trying to make a cybernetic enhanced mecha pilot are'nt you? If you are you can use your character creation free stunts to 'buy' cybernetics during character creation.

Laplace · Jun 11, 2018

Name: Iraivan Palla

Age: 26
Position: Pilot
Birthplace: The Belt
Aspects

High: Cybernetic Speed Demon
Trouble: Ego Eclipsing the Sun
Aspect: High Speed Wired Reflexes
Aspect: Solid State Body
Aspect: Steely Eyed Missile Man

Refresh: 3
Fate Points: 3/3
Physical: [] [] []
Mental: [] []
Wealth: [] []
Consequences:
Mild(2): [ ]
Moderate(4): [ ]
Severe(6): [ ]

Personality + Bio:
Y'know what I love? Piloting. Okay, not so much the piloting, but the rush. You know that feeling when you're in a Tokatsu-Smith drop-jet, and you're in low orbit, and ya gotta drop in and make the fuckers assulting your boss's facility very sad? That feeling when you're up against a guy just as good as you, and you're pulling out all the tricks, shots filling the air around you? When the poor sods against you don't know what the flying fuck they're doing, and you can pull off all kinds of crazy shit? It's that rush. That moment of purity. Will against will. Mind against mind. Ten ton hulk of metal against ten ton hulk of metal. It's what I live for.

What, you want my history? Well, it's nothing special. Goes like this: kid has a family that pilots ships. Kid watches his parents pilot ships. Kid goes, 'oh man, that's the hypest shit, I gotta get into some of that.' So the kid does, parents teach the beautiful motherfucker the ins and outs of piloting, kid uses his skills for evil instead of good and signs up for a corp in-atmo killer team. Man, that was fun. Shot some idiots that were interdicting company space, escorted some shippers, stuff like that. Course, I got fired 'cause of an attitude problem. Or, as I like to think, because they were too jealous of my stunning good looks and manifest godhood at piloting.

So here I am. Give this guy a job?

Skills
Great (+4): Drive
Good (+3): Shoot, Pilot
Fair (+2): Notice, Crafts, Athletics
Average (+1): Deceive, Empathy, Fight, Physique
Stunts

Hail Mary Pass: When piloting any warship, mech, or other vehicle at idiotically high speeds, Iraivan seems to aim all the more precisely. When in a ship, substitute Pilot or Drive as needed in place of Shoot.
Overclocking: Iraivan knows the ins and outs of his augmentations. He may spend a Fate point to add a +1 to the effects of one of his augs.

Augs

Major: Distributed Fiber Optic Processing System: Nerves take time to transmit commands from the brain to the limbs. A fiber optic distributed computer cuts down on that. Instead of information traveling from the stimulus point, to the brain, and back to the hands, the nervous system is the brain now, so information merely needs to travel through the nervous system. Pulses of light are faster than nerve impulses, anyway. (+1 Piloting, +1 Drive)
Major: High-G SERE Full Body Augmentation: G-Forces take a toll on the pilot's body, making the fluids in the body compress and wreaking extreme internal damage each time one goes many times the speed of sound. The SERE augmentation replaces several organ systems- cardiovascular, digestive, and respiratory- with solid state systems that cares not about how much abuse they get put through. While not stronger by any means, this makes the wielder tougher- getting shanked a few times and not having to worry about 'bleeding' and 'oh god my intestines they're all over the floor' is a real handy thing in a bar fight. (+2 to Physique when resisting high G-forces or other shock)

Well, here's the sheet. I'm fairly certain I screwed up the augs.

Terran Imperium · Jun 11, 2018

Name: Viktoria Nikolayevna
Appearance:

Age: 63
Rank: Chief of Security
Birthplace: Terminal Station, Asteroid Belt

Aspects:
High Concept – Jaded Veteran Mercenary
Trouble – She is on the UN's radar because of her previous criminal activities.
Aspect – Weapon maintenance help her relax.
Aspect – An intimidating scarred yet beautiful woman.
Aspect – Lived long enough for the soldier mods to matter.

Refresh: 2

Fate Points: 2/2

Physical: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3 [ ]4
Mental: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3
Finance: [ ]1 [ ]2

Consequences:
Severe(6): [ ]1
Medium(4): [ ]1
Minor(2): [ ]1

Personality & Bio:

Born in the outer-rims of Terminal Station which was in itself already a popular meeting point between pirates, mercenaries and out-laws. Viktoria lived in one of the poorest part of the station.

Her father was an alcohol addict. He was working for a small non-official company, he was mostly hauling heavy cargo around, she was born to a prostitute who in the same day dumped her in front of her father's door.

Unlike most clichés want to tell you, her father was caring enough, still an asshole who beat her up when she pissed him off but he still took care and loved her in his own way. It was a rough if stable familial relationship.

In her childhood she often got into fights and sent kids to the hospital. So it wasn't a surprise when she got into the local gangs, drugs smuggling, robbing, raiding small shops, you know the usual thing for kids in Terminal Station.

However everything changed in her teenage years, barely 14 when some of the two local gang started a fire fight in a bar she was drinking in. It started a two year long brutal war in the normally neutral station, the bar was repainted in blood and the liquor caught fire scarring Viktoria forever.

Viktoria participated in the gang war, there she got her first kill and the thrill of it. She caught the eye of a Mercenary Company. 'Silver Wolves' they called themselves which she joined leaving her father in the station. There she a steadily rose in the Silver Wolves's ranks until she was one of the highest and most experienced in the Company.

After 49 years of steel, blood and fury, Viktoria retired from the Company taking the position of Chief of Security in a small random ship. She is mostly expecting a calm life of relaxed work in the ship to spend the centuries of life she has left with the usual pirate or smartass to intimidate.

A cold snarky and sarcastic attitude most of the time permate her speech.

Skills:
Great (+4): Shoot
Good (+3): Fight, Physique
Fair (+2): Athletics, Investigate, Will
Average (+1): Notice, Crafts, Contacts, Engineering

Stunts:
Master Marksmanship: From years in battlefields Viktoria is an accomplished marksman, her augmented body drastically improve her aim, accuracy and precision. +2 bonus on Attack actions of the Shoot skill.

Veteran's Intuition: Allow Viktoria to sense nearing danger and potential immediate danger to her well-being. Notice skill is not affected by the environment and let Viktoria notice when someone has hostile intentions.

MacGiver: Viktoria can repair any broken or defective weapon in a battlefield or not from experience on unexpected situations. +2 bonus on Create an Advantage actions of the Engineering skill

ATP Filtration: You may roll to overcome an obstacle to cross a zone or move across several zones as a free action rather then it taking your action for an exchange during a conflict.

Artificial Reflex Arcs: When using athletics to defend from physical attacks, a tie counts as a a success.

Carbon Reinforced Joints: +1 to Physique related to resisting physical forces as well as the aspect 'Reinforced Skeleton'.

=====================

I remember playing a RP with a friend using the Fate Core System. It was only one time tho, she forced me to accept how awesome of a system it is :eyeroll:

. I'm not sure I did everything right in the char sheet. Sorry in advance for any stupid mistake there.
I also don't really understand how rolls will work on SV? With the blank, negative and positive ones. How is that supposed to work on SV's dice roller?

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
I also don't really understand how rolls will work on SV? With the blank, negative and positive ones. How is that supposed to work on SV's dice roller?

1-2 = -1
3-4 = 0
5-6 = +1

as per the SRD to ensure the correct probaility curves for the game.

Laplace · Jun 11, 2018

DB_Explorer said:
as per the SRD to ensure the correct probaility curves for the game.

Speaking of, are these two augs okay, or should I revise them?

Laplace said:
Major: Distributed Fiber Optic Processing System: Nerves take time to transmit commands from the brain to the limbs. A fiber optic distributed computer cuts down on that. Instead of information traveling from the stimulus point, to the brain, and back to the hands, the nervous system is the brain now, so information merely needs to travel through the nervous system. Pulses of light are faster than nerve impulses, anyway. (+1 Piloting, +1 Drive)
Major: High-G SERE Full Body Augmentation: G-Forces take a toll on the pilot's body, making the fluids in the body compress and wreaking extreme internal damage each time one goes many times the speed of life. The SERE augmentation replaces several organ systems- cardiovascular, digestive, and respitory- with solid state systems that cares not about how much abuse they get put through. While not stronger by any means, this makes the wielder tougher- getting shanked a few times and not having to worry about 'bleeding' and 'oh god my intestines they're all over the floor' is a real handy thing in a bar fight. (+2 to Physique)

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

I'll get back to you on that.

Edit: Anyone can give feedback to anyone else on their characters by the way.

Just keep it civil

*goes to work*

Terran Imperium · Jun 11, 2018

So is there any expert on the FRS here that can say if I didn't fuck up my character sheet? I'm not used to Fate.
I would like to start correcting any mistake I did before GM gets to players selection.

DB_Explorer · Jun 11, 2018

Terran Imperium said:
So is there any expert on the FRS here that can say if I didn't fuck up my character sheet? I'm not used to Fate.
I would like to start correcting any mistake I did before GM gets to players selection.

you have two weeks at least. I'm kinda working out in the field right now but I expect to be back in the states in a couple of weeks (give or take) I posted this now so people could apply and the like so I could review and approve and start everything once I get some proper vacation time.

Spectre558 · Jun 11, 2018

Definitely interested, love hard sci-fi settings.

Does the UN have a centralized military, or is it more like today where most of the power lies with the member nations? I'm thinking of having my character be a veteran from Earth.

Terran Imperium · Jun 11, 2018

Spectre558 said:
Definitely interested, love hard sci-fi settings.

Does the UN have a centralized military, or is it more like today where most of the power lies with the member nations? I'm thinking of having my character be a veteran from Earth.

If both of our characters get accepted, I will be definitely interested in their interactions together.

Jeboboid · Jun 11, 2018

Y'all realise that none of the three characters posted have much, if anything, in the way of actual social skills?

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