Well she's feasible in my setting, especially as a bleeding edge prototype program. Though the trouble that comes with her nature is... significant from a narrative stand point.
I'll PM you here or in Discord with some thoughts on usage.
Name: Michael "Mike" Waters Appearance: Despite advances in technology his hair has already become peppered with Grey indicating a genetic predisposition or willful choice. His height and lanky nature point toward a history of extensive zero and low gravity exposure growing up. His features almost look... weathered as if he had spent time at sea from constant exposure to the dry air of a EVA suit, and the exposure to sun and ambient radiation from boarding actions around the Jovian system. Age: 35 Position: Captain/Ship Owner Birthplace: Vire, Ceda, Asteroid Belt (Independent Asteroid Colony)
Ceda was formed shortly before the Jovian system was colonized by turning a metallic asteroid into a vast balloon. The large interior space thus created was turned into farmland to provision mining operations. Michael grew up above a café his family ran in one of the small villages that dotted the curving insides of Ceda. Michael's father was a tamp freighter captain and never stayed home for long leaving his raising to his mother and older sisters.
In the end at 18 Michael what he felt was a dead-end life on Ceda and joined in with a passing security contractor, Aegis Security, as way to get away from the colony. Under Aegis he performed a wide variety of jobs from internal security, customs inspections, blockade enforcement and open warfare when the skirmishes between the corporate states grew hot, or some asteroid decided it needed help clearing a pirate den. Michael did well enough to reach the rank of Staff Sergeant, leading squads and assisting in running platoons.
Then came the Advena Avis. Initially Aegis wasn't even involved, the freighter having passed too close to route around Callisto under blockade for a different corporation. The Adevna had been trying to use the moons small gravity well to give an extra allotment of delta V, and thus speed. Instead with its engines shot away it slammed into Callisto's icy surface.
Michael's squad had been tasked with providing security for customs inspections and boarding actions when this all occurred. His squad mate's logic was simple – crashed ship meant salvage rights. Though exactly who owned the wreck at that juncture was in the air. Still the squad, under the nominal job of looking for survivors, headed down to the Adevna. In the mangled wreckage of the ship they found no survivors, but plenty to salvage – including several crates of high end medical nano-machines.
Then though, they had visitors, a crew of self-claimed miners arrived explaining they had hired the ship to move medical cargo they needed to treat assorted lung ailments back in their asteroid colony. This medicine was the entire reason they had ventured to the Jovian system. They even managed to produce paperwork proving that the cargo in question was theirs. But given the already questionable nature of their own claim on any part of the ship Michael's squad had other ideas. In the ensuing argument weapons were drawn and left Michael facing down his own squad to protect the miners.
So, they decided to try to kill him to.
With the help of some of the miners that had brought their own weapons as a precaution against pirates Michael killed off his own squad and, having seen the miners off with their cargo, scuttled the Advena using its own reactor to cover the whole mess up.
Needless to say, Aegis was not pleased, but corporate could see when they had been handed a fait accompli. A more thorough investigation into the matter risked leaking to the media – and all the hassle that entailed. Though not as much as if word that Aegis' own people and actually murdered a group of miners. The entire thing was labeled an accident caused by the wrecked ships engines failing after the crash. Aegis then handed Mike is severance package, whispered a quiet thanks to his ear and kicked him out.
The scars of turning on his own men turned Mike away from security work and so he found himself working aboard the Mortain apprenticing under the ships broker. Thus, he traveled the Jovian system helping a ship find cargos and eventually moved on to general brokerage rather than working for a specific ship.
Until word came his father had died, and now with a ship of his own he looks for a crew.
Skills: Great (+4): Rapport Good (+3): Shoot, Deceive Fair (+2): Athletics, Empathy, Will Average (+1): Pilot, Contacts, Physique, Knowledge
Stunts:
Close Quarters Fighter: Experience in boarding actions and clearing ships grant Mike a bonus when fighting in confined spaces. +2 to Shoot in confined spaces such as narrow corridors and houses .
Steadfast: Add two shifts of effect to a successful Will roll when defending against provocations or persuasion.
Best Foot Forward: Twice per session, you may upgrade a boost you receive with Rapport into a full situation aspect with a free invocation.
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Extra: Bison-M Class Fast Medical Transport “Celeritas”
Extra: Modified Bison-M Class Fast Medical Transport "Celeritas"
Outwardly unchanged from the Standard Bison save for the gun turrets above and below the ship on its centerline the ship resembles in many ways airliner of the 21st century, though far more flowing in its design. The large almost oblong 'wings' which provide a radiator surface and house the main fuel and water tanks flow upward toward the center of the ship where the crew and cargo areas are kept. Working aft the design flows around the ships main and secondary engines.
Concept: Modified Fast Courier
Reputation: Fastest Freighter from Ceda
Aspects:
Rugged by Design
Better Medical Facilities then some colonies
Overclocked Engines
A Father's Legacy
Stunts:
Aftermarket Engines: Whenever you're engaged in any contest where speed is the primary factor (such as a chase or race of some kind) and you tie with your Pilot roll, it's considered a success.
The Bison-M was designed by Rosencrantz Industrial Corporation as a medical variant of its venerable Bison class fast courier. Whereas the Bison was designed to provide a low upkeep choice for freelance captains in the Asteroid belt to move cargo and personal the Bison-M was designed to provide a more secure transport option. Nominally designed to transport medical goods to, and patients out of the asteroid belt the Bison-M also provides extra armament and armor over the standard model providing a viable option for secure transport of any cargo.
Multiple armory locations as well as enhanced blast doors and options to compartmentalize the cargo bay provide ample ability to repel boarders and isolate valuable cargo from theft while a weapons array that includes medium railguns and missile batteries helps keep anyone from getting close enough to try. As a final touch the ships hanger bay was expanded allowing two medium shuttle craft or similar vessels to be carried to provide transport options to higher gravity worlds – and to provide the option of an armed escort to any transport runs.
These features have also made the Bison-M a sought after, if not common due to price, ship for small time mercenary and freelance crew that do a wider variety of jobs than mere transport.
The Celeritas' main upgrades relate to its engines and reactor. Both of which have been replace it seems with systems from similar sized decommissioned Corporate Security corvettes. These upgrades, along with the Bison's already ample fuel loading give it acceleration and travel speed many other civilian vessels fail to match – ensuring that it lives up to the English translation of its name "Swift".
Total Craft Mass (kg) 10,200,000.00
Power plant Mass (kg) 1,000,000.00
Payload Mass (kg) 1,600,000.00
Propulsion system Mass (kg) 500,000.00
Total propellant mass (kg) 6,100,000.00
Structural mass (kg) 1,000,000.00
Dry Mass of craft (kg) 4,100,000.00
Wet Mass of craft (kg) 10,200,000.00
Fuel Ratio 2.487804878
Cruising Thrust (newton) 10,800,000.00
Exhaust Velocity (m/s) 300,000.00
Total Delta V (m/s) 273,420.22
Travel Speed (m/s) 136,710.11
Armament: 2x 76mm medium railguns, 8xVLS launch systems, 6x Laser point Defense turrets
The Ex-CorpSec Cooking Tourist
The Free-spirited Single Mom Catgirl
The Socially Awkward Bot Prodigy
The Ex-Military Knight in Shining Armor
The Repentant Pacifist Brawler
The Little Girl of Mass Destruction
and finally
Captain Angst McGloomy.
Interesting line up. Looking forward to see what else people apply to join this motley crew.
The Ex-CorpSec Cooking Tourist
The Free-spirited Single Mom Catgirl
The Socially Awkward Bot Prodigy
The Ex-Military Knight in Shining Armor
The Repentant Pacifist Brawler
The Little Girl of Mass Destruction
and finally
Captain Angst McGloomy.
Interesting line up. Looking forward to see what else people apply to join this motley crew.
I appreciate the fact that you liked them all so much that you thought they'd all get in but I doubt I'll be allowed to play almost 1/3 of the crew lol
Name: Choe Eun-Sung (崔銀性) Appearance:
Eun-Sung is a formerly hulking brute of a man, tempered and beaten by the ravages of age and experience. Only minimally enhanced by modern medicine, sharp and hawkish angles are present throughout his appearance, from prominent noise, angular brow, short-trimmed beard and thin, permanent scowl.
Aspects:
High Concept: "Businessman" With "Standards"
Trouble: Trail of Widows, Ex-Wives and Tax Breaks
Trust Only Your Fists
Janitor to Crime Lord, and Back Again
Nothing Beats Uncle Choe's Tteok (except Uncle Choe)
Personality & Bio:
Choe Eun-Sung is another shining example in the solar system of proof that you don't even have to be intelligent to be successful - only incredibly persistent past the point of reason. An entrepreneur above all else, particularly in the freight, entertainment and catering industries, 'Uncle Choe' evokes the image of a bygone era where men of both blunt and subtle violence openly walked civilized streets and made themselves untouchable.
Eun-Sung genuinely believes in strength (whether physical or mental) as the sole indicator of ownership above all things, and trusts very little else. Failure is weakness, and all weaknesses deserve failure in the end - even his own...
A man of polar extremes, Eun-Sung converses with a quiet growl forged by whiskey and tobacco, or roars like he stole his voice from a bear. Besides his belief in 'the natural order of things', he is mostly devoid of morals, with a hedonistic streak spanning the length of his bank accounts. However, Eun-Sung will swear by his successes, and that there was very little he achieved without input by his own two hands, whether illegal or not. He presents to the duty of Load Master with little more than the clothes on his back and the skills he developed as a teenager some thirty years ago, hauling cargo and toting guns for the sake of survival.
Skills:
Great (+4): Provoke
Good (+3): Will, Physique
Fair (+2): Drive, Shoot, Engineering
Average (+1): Fight, Empathy, Contacts, Rapport
Stunts: X
Fearsome Inspiration: Use Provoke in place of Rapport when associating with a member or when in an environment of organized crime.
Alternative Landscaping: Spend a fate point during a Shoot Attack with heavy weapons or explosives to create an environmental situation aspect.
This Old, Familiar Feeling: Once per session, reduce the severity of a moderate consequence (or erase a mild consequence), at the cost of a fate point.
@DB_Explorer, I'd like to make a claim if there's room. Fair warning: I am entirely new to both RPing and the FATE system (though I've wanted to try it out for a long time), so much of might be me figuring things out as I go.
I've got ideas knocking around in my head for a mechanic/engineer with a specialty in cybernetics who has been exiled from a small, insular, and strange community in the asteroid belt. Is this okay with you?
Trouble:Culture Shock - knows little about the world and how it works, beyond what little she gained from (partly fictional) trashy TV shows. The habits of the Solar System at large are also very alien and unsettling to her (why does everyone chew and ingest their food, anyhow)?
The Flesh is Weak
Cybernetics Tinker
Loves the Thrill of Stealing
Augmentations:
Human assembly line (Major Aug): Akadia has a series of extra limbs attached to her torso. These limbs, while not particularly strong, behave as precision machinery and can de/assemble moderately complex machinery (such as drones) with speed and ease. She can also do some light first aid or close a few major arteries, in a pinch (just enough to keep someone alive until they reach a proper hospital). She can also perform mild cyber-surgery such as maintaining/fixing existing augs or perhaps even installing prostheses and/or minor augs (major augs require a good and expensive toolshop).
Enhanced Eyes (2x Minor Aug): Thermal Imaging (helps in quickly noticing what's wrong with machinery), +1 to notice stuff.
Inbuilt computer( Minor Aug): a set of processors enslaved to Akadia's brain which can show visual data in her ocular implants. Good at modelling ballistic trajectories, orbital trajectories, aeronynamics etc. on the fly. Very flexible in utility, in the way that an early 21st century smartphone is flexible. +1 to throwing, projectile weapons, and piloting spacecraft.
Refresh: 1/3 (-1 for major aug, -1 for 3 minor augs) Fate Points: 2/3 (-1 for mechanical heart) Physical: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3 Mental: [ ]1 [ ]2 [ ]3 Wealth: [ ]1 (Near Impoverished) Consequences:
Severe (6): [ ]
Moderate (4): [ ]
Minor (2): [ ]
Akadia was raised in the asteroid-based community of Anvillus Nine. It was a collection of habitats and mining stations inhabited by heavily modified humans, people with six or eight limbs (and no guarantee of legs), bodies that could survive vacuum, and so on. A few of them had brains so meshed and crosshatched with implants and wiring that some would question whether they were anything but conscious machines with a biological interface. The older a person gets, the more drastically they modified themselves. Each created their own cybernetics and their own software, to boot.
The people of Anvillus Nine prize their isolation and self-sufficiency very dearly. It is a dearly held tenet of their society that, with a few exceptions, one does not ask for anything that is not volunteered. An outsider would find them silent, clannish, and self-contained, but also brusquely generous at unpredictable intervals. Still, limited trade with the outside world occurred, and some people made a living by mining material from the surrounding asteroids and/or by assembling and selling custom-built augs and prosthesis for the outside world.
Akadia was, by the standards of her home community, a maverick, for she took interest in the outside world that most found improper, for it did not gel with their wider ideals of autarky. Though ships visited Anvillus only a few times a year, she was always at the dock to trade materials that she had mined with her collection of spaceborne drones. When the outsiders made it clear that they were interested in drones and aug-work sold for below market vale, she modified herself accordingly, making herself into a human assembly line.
Money was useless within Akadia's hometown, so she instead traded for items from the outside world. Books, magazines, trashy movies and TV shows, some consumer electronics and blueprints...all things that were cheap for the visitors but of immense curiosity for Akadia (who did not have the means or legal right to construct a means of communication with the rest of the Solar System. Such behavior earned the silent dissaproval of her peers, but they were otherwise content to leave her be.
However, Akadia earned the ire of her fellow cyborgs through her ever-increasing renegade behaviour. Drunk on rebellion and egged on by her fleshy business partners, she began to discreetly steal from other cyborgs. To begin with, she stole minor things - the occasional elgantly built arm or scanner. But as time went on, she became increasingy bold, pilfering increasing amounts of hardware and schematics. When her behaviour suddenly and messily came to light, the last straw for the rest of the community was the revelation that she had been directly the source code that several people ran their bodies (and parts of their brains) on. Though she had not done anything malicious beyond mining the code for ideas, it was still regarded as an irredeemable breaching of boundaries.
The subject of how to deal with Akadia was the subject of one the rare gatherings of the residents of Anvillus Nine. Though a vocal few pushed for grisly punishment, cooler heads prevailed. The elected Speaker - a brain in a ten foot mass of nanoweave and metal - announced the collective decision: Akadia's actions and behavior were in gross violation of the spoken and unspoken tenets of the people. Therefore, she was to be given provisions for several weeks, a letter of recommendation for any jobs she might seek in the outside world, and permanent exile.
Being thrust into the wider Solar System was a massive cultural shock for Akadia, in spite of what little she had aborbed though books and TV shows. Many of the System's practices - such as monetary units of exchange - struck her as incredibly crude. The widespread habit of chewing and ingesting food was disgusting to one who had lived on efficient nutrient slurry her entire life. To make matter worse Akadia found that despite her considerable skills in minor augs and drone building, the outside world was not willing to accept her...because, to her bewilderment, she did not carry the appropriate slips of paper permitting her to sell her skills.
Increasingly desperate, and with her food supply running low, Akadia found a job offer in the old and seedy underbellies of Earth. She was to be an operating surgeon in an "under the radar" business that dealt in organs, prostheses, and augs. Where these items came from, it was best not to ask. However, a gruff-yet-helpful shopkeeper informed her that once it became clear that she had some unique augmentations and no social contacts whatsoever, she would very likely end up "harvested" and left in an alley to beg for change.
Panicked, Akadia fled the slums and scoured the online "help wanted" boards. She went for the first offer she saw - open positions on the vessel "Celeritas." An unknown name, but one that offered the hope of work, sanctuary from the overwhelming world, and transport. So she ran for the ship, hoping that she would be accepted there.
Note: much of the "hometown" information is outright plagiarized from Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice. Since I'm not making money from this, I don't think she'll mind.
************************
Though she considered herself a rebel, the truth is that Akadia very much carries the ideals of her hometown with her. She still highly prizes self-sufficiency, and wishes to be able to survive alone in space if necessary. She accepts the complex interdependence of the Solar System as a necessary evil that she must game to survive. She is naturally withdrawn, and many basic tenets of the Solar System (eating habits, purchase with currency, forthrightly asking for favors or information) instinctively grate on her. Despite this, she is steadily adapting the universe at large.
Also carrying over from Akadia's previous life is the thrill of theft. Though she lived her heists through remotely operated drones, she still loved the adrenaline rush of getting away with personal gain at the expense of others. Given that she has no love for the established rules and laws of the Solar System at large, smuggling (the undercutting of said system) holds some appeal for Akadia.
Skills: Great (+4): Electronics
Good (+3): Burglary, Engineering
Fair (+2): Stealth, Medicine, __________
Average (+1): Pilot, Will, Shoot, Deceive
Stunts:
Drone control: Akadia can remotely assume direct control of her drones through her brain-linked computer, effectively becoming the drone. This allows for remote control beyond normal effective range. Useful for discreetly stealing things, given that Akadia herself is very conspicuous.
Aug Surgery: Akadia's fascination with transcending the flesh translates into great expertise in designing and installing prosthetics/augmentations. +2 to any actions involving surgery or implants.
So, I had an idea for a blue-collar space miner (with future space black lung) who needs to pay off a loan shark.
I don't know how feasible this is, space neuromuscular diseases being obtained from unsafe mining practices, and whether gene therapy is a cheap, widespread treatment that wouldn't require such extreme measures to pay for.
So, I had an idea for a blue-collar space miner (with future space black lung) who needs to pay off a loan shark.
I don't know how feasible this is, space neuromuscular diseases being obtained from unsafe mining practices, and whether gene therapy is a cheap, widespread treatment that wouldn't require such extreme measures to pay for.
On the discord and occasionally here I get questions on aspects, or the lack of a given skill in the skill list. I also think that given how some quests or RPs work here on SV players might be coming into the game with the wrong frame of mine. This is understandable given the nature of the games people play and how a lot of quests and RPs on SV are ran.
All the differences boil down to how Fate is meant to create a narrative and thus it runs the rules of narrative and fiction rather then reality. What this means exactly depends on the nature of the game, Celeritas for example is a hard sci-fi setting so much may be considered 'gritty' or 'realistic' from a story making standpoint but it can still have its narrative moments. This point effects everything from skills, to how dice rolls are decided.
With regards to dice rolls Fate Core states simply that a roll should only occur if both success and failure are equally interesting. In Fate failure is not something to be scared of, in fact it should be viewed as somewhat inevitable. Failure simply means the story is branching a different direction. Killing a character leads plots hanging by a thread, having the character that's been taken out brought back to OPFOR's hideout thus forcing a rescue mission by the rest of the cast is interesting. Meanwhile in DnD failure can result in a total party kill, or misjudging something in a quest can result in a bad end. Between stress, consequences, fate points and the ability to concede character death, or absolute failure of any sort is hard to achieve. In the end if a character what's something they can most likely achieve it – the question will be how much it costs.
Which actually makes sense, consider how often characters die in stories with small casts (so no, Game of Thrones does not count). We as readers know they will likely live – what ensures drama is that we have no idea of the narrative costs they will incur surviving the situation.
Which brings us to aspects, stunts and skills next. All of these are different but related means to represent how a character can influence the narrative. Skills are in broad categories because they can be likened to approaches rather than finite skills. In Star Wars, how C3P0 and Han Solo can influence a scene are different for example. These skills are then modified by character's generally persuasive traits – Han Solo being quick on the draw, Harry Dresden being good with fire. These things are often mentioned when talking about a character but cannot be considered key traits.
Aspects on the other hand are key traits that are narratively important but not always in play. Harry Dresden having a literal fairy godmother, or Han's debt to Jabba the hot are key to their plots and characterization but they don't influence the plot routinely expect at key moments. Ultimately aspects are how the GM can understand what's important to the character personally and narratively and thus enable stories that engage that character, they are what make that character distinct in the story. Skills and stunts are how, once the story starts, they routinely overcome and meet the challenges they face. This is why you don't need a skill for biology, and physics and chemistry. Does it matter narratively that we have those distinctions? Perhaps if this was a story about scientists trying to defeat aliens or something – but this is a story about the eclectic crew of a spaceship trying to make ends meet. So, the difference between Drive and Pilot is important, or forcing the Engineer and the Electronic experts to be different people (maybe).
The goal here is to make an interesting story. I could just write my own story but instead I have decided it would be more fun to make the work collaborative. I give you, the players, control over the main characters but in exchange we all decide to abide by rules and constraints to ensure we can effectually work together. While I may come up with the stories issues how they are confronted and overcome are decided by you, the players, through your characters. Your aspects let me ensure the story is interesting and relevant to your character while situational aspects, skills and stunts limit and outline what your character can do in the short term and thus give me time to work your actions into the larger narrative. The fun comes from seeing how these actions and reactions work to create a story neither side planned out or expected. With the dice ensuring nothing is every totally sure.
So, embrace failure, be proactive, seize the narrative and contemplate your aspects. Since I'm going to review characters for final selection on
NOTICE THOUGH: I will only accept ONE submission per player. If you have submitted more than one character please Strikethrough the other entries you're not submitting. Failure to do so will result in my disregard of all of the player's submissions.
Also, for more thoughts on the nature of Fate consider looking at the Book of Hanz.
Character Sheet - Dr. Arthur Graves (Unimaginative)
The first thing about Arthur Graves is his size. At 6'4" and 225 pounds, his towering and powerful frame belies the keen mind and steady hands of a surgeon used to operating on the front lines during bombing runs. The next thing noticed is the half a dog growing from his face that seems just on the edge of unruly and groomed. Despite his relative youth, Arthur's black hair is streaked with silver, his body is covered in a labyrinth of scars and tattoos and his eyes is streaked with crows feet from years of grimacing and frowning.
Age: 37 Position: Doctor Birthplace: Cascadia, Oregon, USA
Aspects: High Concept: Ex-Manticore Combat Surgeon Trouble: Apparently a PMC Isn't an Acceptable Residency
Cold as Space, but Not Quite as Empty
I Just Wanted to Help People
Never Took the Hippocratic Oath
Consequences
Minor (2): [ ]
Moderate (4): [ ]
Severe (6): [ ]
Bio:
Arthur Graves was born in 2380 to poor corporate family in the Cascadia megacity in the northwest of the United States. Desperate to escape the suffocating mega city, but too poor to be attend anywhere that would allow him to escape the Megacity Arthur signed on with Manticore, agreeing to become a Trauma surgeon for the PMC in return for the PMC funding his education. Arthur then quickly realized that to Manticore, there were no non-combatants among it's corps and he was quickly roped in and trained among the Manticore Elite. His skills, meant for peace were used to torture prisoners, perform inhumane research, and as justification to send wounded soldiers to their deaths after he barely sewed them back up. A valuable asset, Arthur spent eleven years with Manticore before finally being able to pay back his debts to the organization. All of his money was directed at paying his way out of Manticore's clutches that he quickly had to find a job to sustain himself.
Skills: Great (+4): Medicine Good (+3): Physique, Shoot Fair (+2): Athletics, Fight, Will Average (+1): Notice, Stealth, Knowledge, Investigate
Stunts
Close Quarters Shooting: While you'd prefer having some distance when you shoot your target, sometimes you just have to jam your rifle into your opponent's stomach and hold down the trigger. You may roll Shoot instead of Fight when fighting in melee with a firearm.
Combat Trauma Surgeon: Your prior job has given you more experience with combat wounds than most doctors would see in a life time. Add a +2 to your Medicine roll when performing surgery on combat related wounds, i.e. gunshots, knife stabs, shrapnel wounds
Strong, Silent Type: You were never one to talk much, and now you've harnessed that silence into an impenetrable shield. Once per session, you may make a Will check to concede a Social Conflict without taking consequences.
Short for "Superpower Alliances", these unions are the major political players on Earth. Each superalliance consists a number of economic and political alliances meant to compete with other superalliances Despite nominally being united under the UNSO, the many powers are locked in a series of low intensity conflicts that prevents Earth from turning it's considerable resources and manpower to bear against the rest of the Solar System.
Keep the Union in and the AEO Down
Ponderous Bureaucracy
Created following the signing of the Kellerman-Saitou Treaty in 2273, more colloquially known as the Trans-Pacific Agreement, the TPU is a political and economic bloc which consists of North America and a number of countries in the Asian Pacific.
The push for unification was catalyzed indirectly by the Korean Unification War and more directly by the formation of the AEO. The war had encouraged the close integration of member economies to help support rebuilding a war torn Korea while the AEO, also formed after the Unification war, and their agressive space program encourged the TPU memember states to create their own joint program in response.
Despite NATO no longer existing, the TPU and the EU maintain fairly good relations with each other due to common history and the momentum of previous relations. The TPU also maintains a number of colonies in both the Lagrange and the Asteroid belt, however that's mostly in name only due to the TPU being more hands off with its colonies, resulting in less direct economic windfall - despite still bearing the burdens of defense and security for the far flung outposts.
The Uneasy Union of the Bear and the Dragon.
Corruption is the rule, not the exception.
The result of the merging of the Chinese and Russian Economic spheres in 2270, the AEU covers almost the entirety of the Asian continent. As such, it is the single largest polity in terms of population and land mass on the Earth.
The framework for the organization was laid out after the Korean Unification War ended in 2268, the People's Republic of China entered into negotiations with Russia and it's allies for a program of joint exploitation of solar bodies as well as a unified trade system. The alliance of these two spacefaring nations pushed lesser nations to either join them or into forming their own blocs – notably the Trans Pacific Union with regards to several south and far east Asian countries. The singularly most powerful super alliance on Earth, the AEO is nonetheless crippled by the corruption rampant in the two key members of the organization, China and Russia.
Due to the high level of internal corruption, the AEO's extraterrestrial holdings are generally considered far in a worse state than any of the other terrestrial superalliances. They hold the largest minority stake on the moon, as well as a number of O'Neill Cylinders and Asteroid settlements that are almost completely autonomous save for the industrial demands and taxes levied by the AEO to fuel their princiable Earth side economies.
Manticore Defense Services was founded in 2305 shortly, and was at first indistinguishable from almost any other mercenary service in the market. What set them apart, however, was the complete control over the business the military commanders had after they staged an coup against the board of directors in 2343 with the support of a number of different corporations
Now in complete control of the company, MDS saw a sharp turn in operating procedures. Replacing general recruitment of dishonorable discharged soldiers, Manticore began recruiting much younger individuals, primarily desperate eighteen year olds, and offering to pay for their higher education in return for service. This, along with aggressive recruitment and retention of special forces veterans, gave Manticore a solid foundation to become a highly skilled company.
Following a five year hiatus for training the first generation their new soldiers, Manticore re-entered the PMC world offering special forces level soldiers for hire. Following a string of successful contracts, Manticore began receiving money from governments and corporations to both target their opponents or not target themselves.
This philosophy then expanded to the other branches of the corporation, making Manticore an extremely difficult PMC to join. With a focus on black operations and corporate warfare, Manticore has developed a reputation of both extreme professionalism and appalling brutality and ruthlessness.
Cont. in Part 2.
Another aspect that makes Manticore so effective is the amount of experimental technology they receive from the original coup backers, giving the PMC a large technological edge against it's competitors. This also means that Manticore is entirely focused around waging war, with little regard towards security work.
That is not to say that Manticore does not have its thumb in that pie. Two hundred of the sixteen hundred total employees are specifically trained for security work. In reality, the security teams consist of the washouts and failures of their Premium teams as well as the regular rabble that make up other PMCs.
Size: 1,600 total personnel
150 Command Staff
360 Premium Units
250 "Infantry" Units
50 Pilots
30 Engineers
30 Medical Units
350 Standard Units
325 Security Units
25 Pilots
690 Non-Combat Support Units
I took a hypocritical oath.
Scalpel in one hand, assault rifle in the other
Reputation as torturers
A strange, and highly controversial, part of Manticore's military organization is the existence of it's Combat Medical Corps. Due to their policy of raising members through higher education, all members of the CMC are, in fact, all recent medical school graduates who have agreed to serve Manticore in repayment for their education.
Forced to forsake the Hippocratic Oath, these doctors are then forced to become soldiers lest be forced to pay off their student debts alone. Technically officers, the doctors of the CMC are far older than the standard recruit when they start training and are isolated by rank and age from the rest of the organization. Thus, the CMC is a highly insular group and it's members often have difficulty developing more then professional relationships with the other soldiers.
The CMC also has the unfortunate reputation of promoting the use of medical torture, though no hard evidence exists as of yet to prove that. This is a story that persists even among Manticore itself, further isolating the CMC from their comrades.
Once a corpsman has paid off their debt, typically a full residency period for a normal doctor, they are offered non-combat roles among the support staff. Many take this option, fewer opt to stay in the CMC, and fewer still choose to leave the bloody business. For the latter, they are often met with derision and mistrust, their credentials rejected and licenses refused by any respectable hospital, forcing those individuals to find work among underdeveloped colonies and private ships.
After some thought on the matter I have decided to include a medicine skill to handle physical healing and well.. medical stuff. This makes the ability to heal consequences more valuable as well as making injuries harder to heal. Narrative wise it also puts more of a focus on the doctor being a doctor much like how Simon Tam in Firefly had being a doctor as a key character point.
Skill: Medicine
Medicine is used to handle anything related to healing from surgery and first aid to administration of drugs. It does not allow skill in dealing with mental issues - which falls under empathy.
Overcome: Most obviously medicine is used to overcome the challenge of being able to fix another persons injuries, it can also be used to diagnose disease - really anything health related. This includes settings for a life support system on a spaceship (where as maintenance is an engineers task)
Create Advantage: Medicine is like knowledge in that while flexible using it to create an advantage takes some time to execute the action. Medicine could be used to find details that a keen medical mind might notice - think House.
Attack: Unless you have a special skill to applying your knowledge of major veins quickly you can't really use Medicine to attack.
Defend: Likewise you can't use medicine to defend.
Drones
Drones are going to play some roll in the setting so an outline of how this will work is needed. Drones are mechanically an Extra that use some of the rules for lower end NPCs.
Permission: Aspect reflecting technical competence or training.
Cost: +2 acquisitions roll as a purchase & skills in Electronics.
Details: A Baseline drone group is treated as a set of 4 average NPCs with 2 average (+1) skills, and one or two aspects and no stress boxes. For every shift of success on the acquisitions roll the player may either increase the size of the drone group by one or upgrade the drones one rank to a maximum of good.
Drones cannot function independently and must stay reasonably close to their user. Players can only bring one group of drones with them at a time. The Electronic skill may be used to create advantages for the drones and those specifically for the drones may be made while also giving the drone an order. The player can not use any of their skills through the drone. Electronics may be used to repair damaged drones or recover lost drones. Recovery is based off the shifts used to take out the drone.
Hmm, idea for the unlikely event that I ever get my character sheet up maybe I could add an element to his character where he prefers drones to people or something along those lines?
Hmm, idea for the unlikely event that I ever get my character sheet up maybe I could add an element to his character where he prefers drones to people or something along those lines?
Can I get a word if your still interested or not, I had a bit of a hiatus due to work, I just want to make sure I'm not looking at profiles of people no longer interested. That and to know if I need to extend the deadline. Also if you have been active and wondering why I tagged you - just making everyone on the record.
I was thinking that since I intend to have a fall from grace as part of my character's backstory I was thinking that he relied on Drones over people in his old security position and during the attack the cost him everything they ended up compromised which lead to suspicions falling on him in the aftermath.
Can I get a word if your still interested or not, I had a bit of a hiatus due to work, I just want to make sure I'm not looking at profiles of people no longer interested. That and to know if I need to extend the deadline. Also if you have been active and wondering why I tagged you - just making everyone on the record.
I was thinking that since I intend to have a fall from grace as part of my character's backstory I was thinking that he relied on Drones over people in his old security position and during the attack the cost him everything they ended up compromised which lead to suspicions falling on him in the aftermath.
