We found the first witness orbiting Procyon in an unstable orbit; an ashen planet covered in a web of country sized scars that bit deep into the core. The only planet in the entire system, surrounded by a halo of cometary debries bathed in the harsh white light of Procyon. Planetary geologists at the time likened their work to that of a forensics team examining the victim of serial-killing, the joke half whispered as robotic probes descended down dark depths and silent technicians examined grey screens distorted with static. The grooves left on the bedrock had been enormous, a coiling pattern that swirled on and on and on until it reached vast empty caverns near the molten core, as if the innards of the planet had been scooped out, trace elements of exotic radiation barely out of the instrument's error range.
It had been methodical. Relentless. Unnatural. A single thing striding over dead continents before burrowing deep, searching for something. Seeking it with single minded determination. The abstract patterns gave the scientists nightmares, though we wouldn't know the significance of it until centuries later.
The second witness was found almost fifty years later, hidden under a comet in Sirius' Oort cloud. The ship had resembled a stylized arrow, petite and elongated, broken in half sometime during its millennia long vigil. It had been so old that nothing aboard had been preserved, and while the metallurgy experts marveled at the hull's advanced composition, the survey ship's pilot had noted the obvious.
The vessel had been vented. Every single hatch capable of doing so lay opened, a chorus of silent screams pointed at the void.
The signs turned clearer as our understanding grew, like a blind man following a trail of beads. Planets well within the goldilocks zone without a single living bacteria, ample liquid water reserves drifting aimlessly down great waterfalls, their epoch-long passage not enough to erase the grooves carved into the rock. Dead probes carried by the eddies of hyperspace, battered and degraded, carrying eroded pictograms of great columns and conical shapes.
One of them carried a pulsar map engraved on a slab of tungsten, a sort of cosmic address not unlike the one carried by the Voyager-2. The address was partially reconstructed using a custom-built Artificial Intelligence, though the machine self-destructed after compiling the data, short-circuiting itself seconds after relaying the coordinates. The error logs repeated the patterns found in Procyon.
It led to nowhere, an empty point in space near the galactic core. Decades later, long endurance probes found something in that sector. R-289; a rogue planet, a world without a star. We don't know if the arrow-shaped vessel departed from there, but the wrecked remains of its bigger cousins had made a graveyard of the planet's orbit; a fleet of mighty battle-scarred warships surrounding their charge like mother hens looking after their last chick. The cryo-pods buried deep within R-289 held nothing but decomposed biochemical trace elements, their vigil long ago fading into the dark. Whatever they had been waiting out, it had proven more patient than them.
As we searched through the nooks and crannies of the Milky Way, we saw the signs of armed struggle. At least for some, the odds of conventional resistance had seemed better than those of fleeing, or hiding. Rarely, shipwrecks would drift from eccentric orbits around dead systems, speared from end to end, dented and wrecked, not a single living being found within. Fortress worlds made out of bunker networks and mountain-sized electromagnetic accelerators laid cracked open around red dwarfs, silent, grooves carved throughout the torn landscape.
Fossil records showed the pattern of destruction was irregular, unpredictable. In regards to the timing of the threat, we knew little.
Of the severity of it, our only knowledge came from the urgency of the measures taken by those who came before. Deep space embryo-probes, autonomous weapons systems, hidden hologram stars. If any such stratagems succeeded, it was not apparent to us, though to our knowledge there were least three separate megaprojects which were undertaken some time during the Milky Way's history, projects whose likely purpose dealt with the Procyon Pattern.
Of them all, the wreck around Messler 78 had been the farthest along its construction before its builders disappeared. Its final purpose still seems unclear, but the size of the black hole and the reflective properties of the wrecked shell around it suggested the construct had been intended as a black hole bomb. The explosion, had the device achieved its likely thousand-year construction period, would have been potent enough to vaporize a significant portion of the Sagittarius Arm.
There more we learned, the more a silhouette was cast over mankind, the shadow of Procyon hanging around Republican Space like a whispered secret. Though technology had brought an end to the economic question and thus war in most of its incarnations, unleashing a bounty of prosperity undreamt by mankind since times of legend, we started to fear the dark silence of the stars. That silence called, an eerie melody from the void which seemed to afflict people with no rhyme or reason, nightmares and waking visions which sometimes turned into acts of self-sabotage and self-destruction.
We resolved not to fade away quietly into that dark. We seeded both the core and the rim of the galaxy with listening posts, tuned to the slightest trace of Proycian Radiation. We lit up the fires of industry, turning asteroid belts into shipyards which spawned millions of robotic hunter-killers, to stand ever vigilant against the threat. We founded the Republican Navy and fed it the bounty of human resourcefulness and ingenuity, an armed service with but one goal; to face the horror of Procyon and survive.
And how could we but survive? A hundred Republican worlds, billions upon billions of productive citizens harnessing the power of a true post-scarcity economy, swarms of autonomous war systems ready to rain thermonuclear war at the bidding of its masters. And at the center of it all, the pride of humanity; the Republican Navy. Fleets upon fleets of hulls bigger than Old Earth's cities, the greatest technological marvels ever created by man, and manned by the best humanity had to offer. Layers upon layers of preparations. When it came to the survival of our species and our close allies, no less would do.
Behind such a bulwark of force, the Vigil project seems but a gnat at the feet of giants. A contingency for a contingency, its resources correspondingly small. A decentralized network of orbital facilities in uncharted space, built to house thousands of cryopods and a sector battlegroup in dormancy. If any of the emergency codes are activated, this all-volunteer force can revive and man their ships in a matter of days, ready to reinforce hotspots or answer unexpected threat vectors. Of course, even though it's likely this force will never be used in anger before it's eventually decommissioned, it's safety precautions are well designed to assure the safety of all its occupants, and the continued good functioning of the machinery needed to keep it all operational. The Vigil project will be as safe and secure as the rest of Republican Space.
-TDF-
Welcome to The Dark Forest, a preppers worst nightmare a Quest where you control a member of the Vigil project, suddenly awakened from deep dreams to the sound of strange sirens. Something's gone wrong, and the capsule's clock function does not appear to be working.
Updates will be irregular, and Quest mechanics subject to change. Expect a mainly narratively driven experience with a healthy dose of co-construction (what the thread says will likely color the protagonist's thoughts, and just maybe the universe around her), plus small to moderate dice use to add an element of spicy chance to the whole thing.
This is my first time running a proper Quest, though I've been GMing tabletop games for years now. Primary motivation is to have fun and mix it up from my current projects (after writing low fantasy fanfiction for the last three years, I'm in desperate need for some sci-fi straight to the arm, and a Quest seems like a good idea right now). That said, do not expect much number crunching and super hard sci fi. Rule of Cool and lovecraftian undertones will likely be my jam. To be honest I'm kind of just jumping into this whole thing headfirst, not sure where it will lead me, or you.
So, let's find out!
First thing's first though, you need the soul of a good quest: a Main Character. I'll leave the template for the vote after all of this, for easier copy-pasting.
[] Name (try not to soft crossover. Be original!)
Sex:
[] Female.
[] Male.
Optional:
[] Personal description or notable features (no art please).
[] Meh. Leave it all to the GM.
Attributes (Away, numbers!). Arrange these from more important to less important. The higher they are in the hierarchy, the better you'll be at them. The opposite is, of course, also true. I'll arbitrarily pick your original branch of the Republican Navy by the combination of your top 3 attributes.
At the risk of a slight spoiler, it's fair to assume the galactic situation will have changed severely since you went to sleep. Be ready to be flexible and innovative. (We'll vote on specialties later). This vote will likely influence the playstyle and genre of the Quest as well, so bear that in mind.
-[] Diplomacy. Your ability to persuade and convince others. (This determines the general effectiveness of your personal charisma, your ability to negotiate, etc.)
-[] Command: Your tactical and strategic prowess (This affects the way you command your own ship, fleet operations, and generally everything that makes war and is under your command).
-[] Prowess (Can't be your top attribute): Your personal combat prowess. (How deadly you are when fighting personally.)
-[] Intrigue: Your ability to tell lies, conduct covert actions, and manipulate others without them even noticing.
-[] Stewardship: Your ability to administer logistics and resources. (Covers stuff like engineering and building as well.)
-[] Learning: Your ability to conduct research and science, as well as your overall scientific literacy.
-[] Republican Rank (Can't be your top attribute): Your rank within the Republican Navy. (Partly determines your intelligence clearance and access codes, as well how you interact with rescued Republican personnel or Republican remnants (assuming any still draw breath) Republican facilities (assuming any still exist) and Republican gear (assuming any of it has not rusted to scrap). BEWARE: Extremely hard if not impossible to improve after Quest start. Choose wisely.
I'll expand a bit on what each of the attributes will mean, if taken as 'first'.
Your first attribute will be vital. Your main strength, the thing that really makes your character stand out over his/her peers. The Republican Fleet is (was?) an enormous institution, almost a nation into itself, and its needs were correspondingly broad. Ask yourself the question, why were you selected for interment within the Vigil project?
-Diplomacy. Your eloquence, empathy, and general understanding of the finer points of human interaction were all decisive factors in your acceptance. You understand how the needs and emotions of individuals create broader movements which unleash political change, and how those changes affect the individual. The Fleet will always need people like you; those who can thread a needle through political and personal conflict, and through their words marshal the disparate elements of humanity into one cohesive whole which stands together.
-Command. Boiled down to its purest essence, its purest purpose, the Republican Fleet's mission was war. You feel that truth with every fiber of your being, having commanded everything from patrol destroyers to heavy battleships throughout your career, thought it didn't stop there. From overseeing carrier operations to participating in high level staff meetings, you've learned how the flow of the battlefield changes, and how to manipulate its fickle currents to victory, your mind already changing the strategic calculus before the battle at hand is over. When the time comes and the guns roar, it will be your charge which shall break the enemy.
-Intrigue. The essence of the Fleet is war, it is true. But what is war? Subterfuge. Misdirection. Surprise. The ancients knew this maxim as well as you do, but they never imagined the sheer scale at which they would be put to use. Early enough in your carrier, lessons about spoiling attacks and guerrilla operations gradually gave way to more secret topics, but you took no shame in spying and subverting your comrades. Dissention and self-interest were all well and good, until they threatened to overturn the very existence of humanity itself. Even more secret was your war against the Procyon Pattern, the strange madness that could consume a human so thoroughly that he would drive himself to willing sabotage against his brothers and sisters, seeking to turn it all to dark. You were that shield in the dark, and a dagger too.
-Learning. Since time immemorial, knowledge has been mankind's most prized possession. It elevated us from starwatching apes to starfaring scholars, and it will elevate us further still into the next great frontier. From astrophysics to exobiology, your fields of specialization were vast, but above it all was your knowledge of Procyon. You stared deeply into the Procyon Pattern, and when it gazed back you did not go insane, you understood instead. Though there is still much you do not yet kniw, you are confident that the solution to the threat lies in knowledge.
-Stewardship. In the eyes of the Engineering Corps, the task was simple. Monumental, to be sure, but simple nonetheless. And that was to build. To build and build and build until the power of human industry was like an unassailable edifice, an impenetrable wall, a fiery sword. From your mind and your hands flew ship designs and requisition orders, factory plans and personnel rolls, the lifeblood that sustained the Fleet in peace and in war, healthy and resolute in its purpose. And though your years with a multitool and a can of synthetic grease lay long behind you, replaced with organizational charts and vital administrative minutia, you know that mankind will survive through its ability to build both in the mind and in the ground.
If Republican Rank or Prowess is a first choice in your vote, don't worry, I'll automatically swap it with the attribute right after it. I'm soft capping them both to second place, as RR would be too OP as a first attribute, and in all honestly taking Prowess as a first choice would be pretty suboptimal compared to literally any other option.
Here's the vote in a more cozy format for copy-pasting.
Remember to VOTE BY PLAN! Else we'll have a real mess on our hands.
[] PLAN NAME
-[] NAME
-[] Female. OR -[] Male.
-[] DESCRIPTION (no art please). OR -[] Meh. Leave it all to the GM.
ARRANGE, BETTER TO WORSE.
-[] Diplomacy.
-[] Command.
-[] Prowess.
-[] Intrigue.
-[] Stewardship.
-[] Learning.
-[] Republican Rank.
Remember: VOTE BY PLAN!
I'll be up for a while to answer questions and then I'll go to bed. Vote will likely close tomorrow afternoon (say 12 to 16 hours from now, depends on how this all goes, might be longer if there's little activity). From then on, we'll smooth the character's rough edges with a couple of prologue updates & votes and then go to sleep within the deep embrace of the cryopod. I'm sure it'll all turn out just fine.
Mechanics Added:
Mechanics.
I'll be using the Fate Core system's skeleton, somewhat homebrewed for my purposes and the setting I'm kinda building on the fly.
As a general observation I've had participating in other quests, I feel the need to warn you against the trap of thinking your way through purely by mechanics. Stats and stunts will play an important role in the narrative, but so will motivations and circumstance. Bear in mind what Emma would and could do, how likely such a thing would be to succeed based on your knowledge of the characters and worlds around her, and what consequences such a success (or failure) might bring. Then look at how the numbers and the stats play into it all to make it happen. Sometimes, not even all the stats of a ten-page charsheet can accurately predict how a given action will work out.
So, with that said, let's talk shop.
Fate Core is a pretty lightweight system with a good degree of modularity and flexibility, facts that I'll take full advantage of. If I don't yet need a mechanic for something, I won't explain it yet. Feel free to browse the manual/webpage for more info; much of what I'll write next is also explained there, and probably better too, though keep in mind that The Dark Forest is still technically a homebrew, and as such not all skills and mechanics will show up there, and some things may be a bit different.
The Quest will be divided in segments. A 'scene' is, well, what you might imagine a scene in a movie. A fistfight atop the back of an airvan, a tense negotiation with a terrorist or a ruthless exec, a naval engagement between two vessels, a research montage, etc. A Quest update may have one of these, or it may have many. A 'Scenario' is a series of scenes which all connect narratively or thematically, guided by a pressing story question or theme. When the main story question or problem that guides it is answered in a sufficiently satisfying way (either ending the problem, making the problem impossible to end, or reframing the problem enough that it changes the nature of the question) the scenario ends and long term consequences ensue (Either good, bad, or both). Scenarios can be very closed and adjusted (ex. 'Will I get out of this station alive?') or can be of a more open or long term bent (ex. Am I alone in the Sector?). Occasionally, if the circumstances merit it, this will imply a level up of sorts in the form of a 'Significant Milestone' (more on that when it happens).
Building a 'Major Arc' is much the same but with Scenarios instead of Scenes, and 'Major Milestones' (think super level ups) instead of Significant Milestones. Think of them as season finales, where an event of tremendous importance (which has probably been building up so far) happens and the world or the character is irrevocably changed, often both.
I've seldom seen it applied to a Quest format, so I guess we'll see how it all fits as we go along. Now for the micro:
You've got skills. Whenever you want to do something whose outcome I consider to be in doubt (or if the outcome is variable and that is meaningful to the narrative), I roll four six sided dice. A single dice can come up either negative (-) neutral ( ) or positive (+). Whatever the number is in the end (ranging from -4 to +4) I add it to your skill number. Opposition may be in the form of a fixed DC, or in the case of significant NPC's, rolls and skills of themselves.
When you subtract your final number and the opposition's number, you get 'shifts'. Basically by how much you won or lost the contest. What happens then? I'll let the manual explain it:
Fail If you roll lower than your opposition, you fail.
This means one of several things: you don't get what you want, you get what you want at a serious cost, or you suffer some negative mechanical consequence. Sometimes, it means more than one of those. It's the GM's job to determine an appropriate cost.
Tie If you roll the same as your opposition, you tie.
This means you get what you want, but at a minor cost, or you get a lesser version of what you wanted.
Succeed
If you roll higher than your opposition by 1 or 2 shifts, you succeed.
This means you get what you want at no cost.
Succeed with Style If you roll higher than your opposition by 3 or more shifts, you succeed with style.
This means that you get what you want, but you also get an added benefit on top of that.
For example, Emma was engaging in a bit of Comet Chasing the week before she was transferred to Station V-38. If we wanted to know if she managed to actually catch it, I roll athletics, the DC being +3, or 'Good'.
Emma rolls four dice: a plus, a minus, a blank, and a plus. That's a +1. Then we add Emma's athletics (+2) and get a 3. A tie versus the Comet's DC of 3. In this instance, I'd rule that Emma did indeed catch the comet, but suffered a minor consequence [Sprained Wrist] (more on consequences later). An alternative ruling could have been a lesser version of that; ex. She did catch the comet, but didn't manage to plant her ship's flag on it -as is tradition- before she lost her grip and tumbled away from it.
Combat works in a similar way, but the outcome is determined by the degree of fail or success you got (your 'shifts'). You must buy/eat/tank the amount of shifts you failed to catch.
A few days after Emma's sister died, she decided to take out her frustrations on a roided up sparring bot with it's safety protocols disengaged. End result: Emma +2 vs Bot +4. Emma has to tank the difference (2). This is done with stress boxes and consequence slots. Usually, you always want to tank with stress boxes, as they get wiped after the scene ends. You can imagine it as the strain of combat, or the bruises, cuts, grazes and other stuff that usually preludes a more serious hit. You have a 1 slot and a 2 slot by default, but because Emma has Physique as a Fair (+2) attribute, you also have a 3 slot. Be aware that the slot is either occupied by damage, or it's not. In other words, you can certainly tank one shift with a 3 slot, but that slot is gone until you take a breather (change scenes). You can add them up though (for example, tanking 3 shifts with a 1 slot and a 2 slot). In any case, I'll mostly be handing all of this behind the scenes.
For the example, the number 2 physical stress box can absorb exactly two hits, perfect for the bot's 2 shift victory, so that's what Emma does. The sparring bot punches her full in the belly, and she lands on the training mat with an angry growl, a big bruise soon to come. That 2-stress box won't be wiped clean until she ends the sparring sessions and cools off in the shower.
Consequence slots are more serious; the 'Mild' one can absorb two shifts, and can be wiped back to clean if you treat the wound and let another scene flow by. A moderate consequence (tanks 4) can last longer after you've treated it, a whole session if we were playing face to face (for this Quest, I'll make a judgement call for when sufficient time has passed; it will be linked with the narrative of the wound, and likely take a moderate amount of time to heal after treatment (think days to weeks)). Severe Consequences (tanks 6) can last a whole scenario or longer after you treat it. Consequences can come careening out of the narrative as well, so watch out for that. (Enterprising players can even willingly take consequences to add up to their shifts. The classic example is a PC slamming his fist against a glass table as an intimidation tactic. A nice GM could add a +2 to his Provoke roll (to see if the opponent will be intimidated), in exchange for a Mild Consequence, namely [Glass Shards in my Hand]). In theory there's an Extreme Consequence slot which can tank a whopping 8 shifts, but it has permanent consequences for your character. It's certainly better than death but trust me, avoid it if you can. Eating a consequence also gives a free, one time use invoke that can be used against you by an enemy in the near future. More on invokes later.
There's a separate stress tack for mental damage, and Will serves the same role as Physique in it. As Emma has +2 Will, she gets a 3 slot there as well. Consequences are independent of either track and can tank any sort of damage.
If you're outta stuff to tank, the remaining shift will either kill you or do something marginally less unpleasant to you. Do try to avoid that, even if it means running away with your tail tucked in, or -god forbid- letting go of the shiny.
Alright, but what can you do with a skill?
Anything really. Mechanically, it's divided in 4 types of action, and though not every skill can typically do all 4 unless it's really well justified at the time, it follows a simple sort of logic that is kind of intuitive. You can Overcome, which is basically pitting your skills directly against a problem in an effort to solve it or bypass it. Chasing down the comet would be one. Persuading a generic NPC to give you information could be another. Solving an indiana jones-esque puzzle trap, scaling a tough wall, picking a lock, you get the idea.
You can Attack a target to inflict direct damage on her (through Fight or Shoot -to their physical stress track- or, depending on the circumstance, inflict direct mental stress through Provoke or some other skill or strange weapon.)
Defend is pretty self explanatory, and you use it to defend from attacks. For example, Athletics defends vs Shoot. Other pairings can be Empathy vs Subterfuge (when appropriate), Fight vs Fight, Will vs Provoke, etc.
You can also Create an Advantage (DC of which often defaults to +2, but can obviously go up or down depending on what you're dealing with). This is changing the environment to make a future skill check easier. This is symbolized by adding a 'tag' to the scene, and create a free invoke, in mechanical terms. For example, a machine gunner does a shoot check to try and pin you down (though instead of pitting it against a DC of +2, I'd make an active roll of his shoot vs your athletics, given that you are -presumably- actively resisting such attempt). He gets +3, you +2. He wins; and thus creates and advantage which I'll tag as Suppressing Fire. If an ally then tries to shoot at you, he may receive a +2 to his throw if he wants to. Or perhaps they'll use it against you if you try to move away at speed before they catch you; in that case your athletics check to escape will have a +2 added to it's standard DC. Note that if the machine gunner had merely tried to kill you instead of trying to pin you down, that would have been a straight up Attack. This bonus can be mechanically used only once, and then it's gone. They can also fade away if the situation changes accordingly (a machine gunner can't exactly pin you down if you blew his head).
Finally, there's Aspects and Flaws. They're stuff that describes, in some way, an essence of a character or an item or a ship, etc. You can win more of them (including Flaws, btw) with tears and long term effort, but there can only be one High Aspect: The one that is most important to your person and describes your central axis or core as a being.
High Aspects, Aspects, and Flaws can be 'invoked' -as long as it's justified thematically!- to add a +2 to a single dice throw. For example, you could argue that Emma's Commodore of the Republic aspect can be invoked when she's trying to get someone to recognize her authority as a superior officer. That would add a +2 to the relevant roll (or a re-roll, in case you got something atrocious like a -3 or -4). You can also invoke flaws or aspects that you know your enemy has: to make an advantage, attack, or defense more devastating. Be aware that each invoke (except for free ones created by Create an Advantage or by tanking a Consequence) cost Fate Points. Unlike the Core game, in The Dark Forest these points do not regenerate. If they're used, they're gone. You can win more by finishing scenarios, quests, being awesome in general, and bribing the GM with delicious discussion. Note that as these are a finite resource, I won't be using them automatically unless the winning vote states otherwise. Use them wisely.
Note on narrative and gameplay mechanics: Related to that, I'll be mostly running all of the above in the background, especially during the beginning as you guys get more used to the system. When you feel confident enough though, do not hesitate to throw more fleshed out write-ins laying out detailed plans for advantages, invokes, invoked aspects, consequences, and whatnot.
That's all for now. Any questions feel free to ask or otherwise give the Fate Core SRD page a look. It explains almost everything I said but better, and has loads of examples.
Pretty and vain, you've always taken care of your looks. You share most of the same traits as other Shinano natives; almond eyes, light-olive skin, and long wavy hair, though you are considered a bit short by your fellow homeworlders (1.74 m). Everything else you change on a whim or for the occasion; eye, hair, and nail color, tattoos, etc.
High Aspect:
Softspoken and Ethereal. You are often characterized as 'the bond' that holds your comrades together, enabling them to greater heights through your care and leadership.
Aspects:
Commodore of the Republic: With sweat, blood, and tears, you've made a true career in the Republican Navy. Though you are a veteran naval commander, having served the majority of your youth in Battlefleet, and have even seen ground combat more than once, it was your capacity to connect with others and lead them to greatness that truly earned you your rank, with all the corresponding privileges, duties, intelligence, and access rights that that implies.
Adopted by the Hyuli: The 'Space Whales', mankinds only ally against the horror of Procyon, consider you one of their own. You know their electromagnetic language like a second tongue, and understand their rites, customs, and society like few other humans.
Troubles:
Consular: Your empathy for others can be a double edged blade. You will never let your friends falter, no matter the cost to you... or them.
Faltered Duty: Once, you didn't do what was necessary, your doubts and fears getting in the way of a duty that should have been done. After you saw the consequences of your inaction, you vowed never to leave a duty half finished, or to let your squeamishness get in the way of it.
-
Ranks and Titles:
Commodore [Republican Navy]. Falls-With-Serene-Thrill (Approximate) [Hyuli Collective].
Skills:
Legendary (+8):
Epic (+7):
Fantastic (+6):
Superb (+5):
Great (+4): Rapport. Empathy.
Good (+3): Shoot. Naval Command. Fight.
Fair (+2): Will. Physique. Athletics. Ground Command.
Average (+1): Subterfuge. Engineering. Organization. Notice. Provoke.
-
Mediocre (+0): All other skills (Piloting, Investigate, Medicine, other sciences, etc.)
Stunts:
-Acting Career: Gain +2 to your subterfuge roll if the act you undertake is justified or in character for a previously constructed persona that you are using in that moment.
-Fortress Cognitive Therapy: Add +2 to your Will when defending from Pattern Phenomena or other directly mind-affecting attacks.
-Extreme Sports Pro: Once per scene, add a +1 to either a Physique or Athletics rolls, as long as it's justified by an action related to your long history of dabbling in Extreme Sports.
Stress & Consequences:
Physical Stress:
[1]
[2]
[3 (Fair Physique)]
Mental Stress:
[1]
[2]
[3 (Fair Will)]
Consequences:
[Mild] ()
[Moderate] ()
[Severe] ()
-- Inventory
-Emma's personal belongings. The personal belongings you brought to Station V-38. You wonder if Corelio actually slipped a datapen somewhere in there.
-Republican Naval Arms Pulse Pistol mk. 7 Small service pistol issued to all manner of naval personnel. Often used as a last resort or holdout gun. Fires small, short ranged energy shots. Ineffective against armor.
-Mk 11 Emergency Rebreather. Stashed in cryopods in the extremely rare case of life support failure. Can be used in vacuum.
-'Valkyrie' Marine Power Armor mk.3
Standard issue power armor for the Marine Corps; this suit integrates with the user's cyber-cortex, becoming one with her body and conferring enhanced endurance and situational awareness. Vacuum-rated.
Aspects:
Advanced Power Armor: Confers a +1 to Athletics and Physique checks when appropriate.
Heavy Active Shielding: Can absorb a total of 3 physical stress per scene, as long as the damage has been enacted by kinetic or energy based ranged weapons.
Advanced Sensor Suite: +1 to Notice.
Harbinger: +1 to stress damage when succeeding a fight check. +1 to Provoke checks when intimidating certain opponents.
-Republican Naval Arms 'Lectro' Carbine.
Electromagnetically powered kinetic carbine used by the Marine Corps and the Intelligence Directorate's security forces. Can be switched to 'low' power for use inside ships or stations. Can penetrate a moderate number armor systems.
-Other Weapons and kit: Mono-bayonet, Plasma Pistol, thermo bombs.
Quest Log:
Corelio's Last Gift.
-That capital ship is somewhere in the Scatelli Sector. If I can piece a bit of meaning out of the Admiral's ramblings, and dedicate a good chunk of time to search for it once I'm there, I may very well find myself commanding more tonnage than ever before in my career... Assuming time hasn't torn it to shreds of course. They're hardy beasts though, and Corelio should have put it somewhere safe and stable.
With it, Compact Corvettes and other sorts of human flotsam like pirates or smugglers wouldn't stand a chance. Besides, having a bit of heavy rad shielding around me seems like a good idea considering how high the Benz-Taugri levels are right now.
Objective: Find Corelio's Last Gift.
Location: Somewhere in the Scatelli Sector, corewards (or 'north') of station V-38.
Estimated timeframe: Short-to-medium term.
Am I Alone?
Where is everyone? What happened? I need to find answers, and preferably other living humans to explain them to me. Making south for the Daviacci Sector and the rest of Republican Space will be a surefire way of achieving that, though clues should also be scattered around the Expanse here, if I look hard enough.
Objective: Get some answers on what's happened, and the status of Human Space.
Location: Daviacci Sector, rimwards (or 'south' of V-38) (High chance of answers). Viridian Expanse (Low to moderate chances), Scatelli Sector (???).
Estimated timeframe: Short-to-medium term.
A Dark Forest.
Bunker networks under the core worlds should be under expansion. Battlefleet should be concentrating warships in Sector Nodes. The NID should be on extreme Pattern Watch and cracking down on traitors and saboteurs. Science Directorate should be working 24/7 for any scrap of info they can glean without going crazy. Survey Corps should be trawling hyperlanes in search of our foe. The Marines should be manning station batteries and ground-side artillery. Reserves called to active duty. Naval Quota levels set to War Economy.
It seems none of this happening. Am I just crazy? Is it just a dream? A nightmare? Raiders have been spotted over the horizon and the bells are tolling, but the village is quiet. I need to join the war effort as soon as possible and help ready both mankind and Hyuli-form to resist the onslaught in whatever form it takes.
Objective: Procyon wakes. Do not go quietly into the long dark.
Location: The Milky Way Galaxy.
Estimated timeframe: Long to Very Long term.
Latest Information:
--
Received [4 days] ago by [Station V-38 Emergency Low Bandwidth Receiver], from [Galactic Core Listening Post 0003]:
-BENZ-TAUGRI THRESHOLD: 46%-
-WARNING-
-TRACE DIRECT PROCYON PHENOMENA DETECTED. ALL FLEET ELEMENTS STAND TO MAXIMUM READINESS-
Stealth Gunships are a favorite of covert ops and infiltration teams. Their cloaking and EM camouflage systems makes them hard to detect, a fact they often exploit through their speed and attack armament suites, which consist of railguns, missile launchers, and plasma mortars for both air to air and ground attack. They only have a single, moderate sized cargo hold for carrying infiltration teams and the occasional light vehicle or two, and their cloaking systems –by necessity- mean their hulls are weaker than equivalent crafts of their size.
Good (+3): Stealth.
Fair (+2): Speed, Weapons.
Average (+1): Sensors, Cargo, Hull Strength.
Mediocre (+0): Active Defenses.
Upgrades:
-Vehicle Bay: Light Encounter Vehicle is fully armed and operational. Can now be deployed into hot landing zones at a moment's notice.
-Entertainment: Full Dive Pod and other various items deployed on the observation deck.
-Auxiliary Reactor plugged into Stealth subsystems. + 2 to Stealth rolls once per battle.
-Fabrication Bay set up.
*
-Heavy Lectro Chaingun turret below the nose: This tri barreled, rapid firing railgun can obliterate lightly armored targets at close range. (Air-to-Air/Air-to-Ground) (Often attacks VS Speed).
-x2 Plasma Mortars in forward mounted bay doors: These slow-firing mortars launch bolts of superheated gas which detonate explosively on impact, blasting apart exposed targets. (Air-to-Ground, uses hydrogen gas and energy from the main reactor).
-x2 'Bagpipe' Integrated Missile Launchers: Can be loaded with a variety of missiles depending on mission parameters. (Capabilities depend on the type of missile). (Often attacks VS Active Defenses).
Hull Stress
[1]
[2]
[3]
Consequences.
[Mild Consequence]
[Moderate Consequence]
[Severe Consequence]
CARGO HOLD:
Combat and Communications.
x4 Valkyrie suits.
x1 'Longhorn' Compack (Infantry Company communications backpack)
This ground-deployable comms antenna can receive low bandwidth traffic, as well transmit data as long as the destination is clear and power sufficient. Requires an auxiliary reactor, or otherwise power from an exterior supply like the gunship or a LEV.
x1 RLV-05 'Marauder' LEV.
Type: Light Encounter Vehicle.
Quick Specs: Reactor powered, pressurized, antigrav-propelled, light armor, light to medium weaponry, semi-autonomous VI. Can carry 2 crewmembers + 6-8 armored squaddies in a tight fit.
Description: LEV's are multipurpose light tanks designed to operate on a wide array of environments, from asteroid belts to urban landscapes. The single turret boasts moderate firepower in the form of a multipurpose rail-cannon capable of firing a diverse array of shells from HE to AP and Frag, and a co-axial autogun for light suppression duties. They can operate (but not excel) in a wide variety of mission profiles, including scouting, light fire support, medevac ops, cargo hauler, and APC roles. Marauders are capable of semi-independent operations when their crewmembers disembark for various reasons, and are capable of limited flanking maneuvers, covering fire, and medevac operations as long as the unit's Virtual Intelligence is online.
-x3 Rucksack filled with various small arms and ammo.
-Rucksack filled with small arms spare parts and kit.
-Rucksack filled with a heavy weapon and ammo, + small amounts of explosives.
Engineering.
-Cyberdrills and a dozen other repair tools (Good for electronics and medium-bulk item repairs).
-6 multipurpose powerpacks.
-Hull sealants and Macro-Welders.
-x4 Combat Engineer Suit: Power armor worn by the Navy's combat engineers. Vacuum-rated.
-x2 Auxiliary Reactor.
This small but versatile fusion reactor is man-portable by power armored individuals, and can be used to power or give redundancy to a great variety of systems as long as it has fuel.
These autonomous, humanoid bots can carry out a range of simple tasks, much like an uneducated farmhand from Old Earth's ancient history could. Hauling heavy cargo, ordering belongings, keeping watch for obvious threats, etc. They can hold costumized programming or downloads from the open-sourced botwiki. Naval bots come preprogrammed by default with routines designed to build simple firebases taking the environment into account, rearming small craft, and even simple guard duties or small unit tactics as long as the target is explicitly defined, though their lack of creativity and insight means they react poorly to competent enemies.
Skills: Average (+1): Shoot, Notice, Athletics, Physique.
-Stunt: Modular Components: Lalibots can be repurposed with the use of a heavy fabricator, diminishing the range of tasks they can carry out but augmenting their capabilities in one defined area.
Fabrication & Fuel.
-Grav Press.
-Foundry.
-Heavy Fabricator.
-Light Fabricator.
-Fabstock: 23 units.
-Gas giant Refueling Tender.
-Spare fuel cells for two weeks.
Medical and Science.
-x8 Rucksacks filled with trauma kits, medical nanobots, first aid kits, and others.
-Cyber-Cortex Implanter
This egg-shaped black pod has all the equipment needed to synthesize and deploy the highly advanced C family of nanobots, which conform the bulk of what is commonly known as a 'cyber-cortex'. The latter is needed to interact with most types of Republican gear, and is a staple of contemporary humanity without which Synching, Personal Communications, Mind-Linking, Full Diving, Pain Control and many other common day functions and activities would be impossible.
-Gene-Therapy Combine.
Though nanotech and augments eventually won the argument over the means to post-humanity, genetic engineering still plays an important role in the Republic. From fixing genetic diseases to imparting useful traits and even whole new organs, gene mods are often less resource intensive than augments, and offer far more flexibility to the creative mind. The Combine works slower than a full blown Gene-Clinic, but it has the same functionality as long as you don't mind the cramped space, and it's an indispensable piece of gear for any plague-control team.
Portable Augmentation Lab.
Augments are commonplace in the Republic. From bionic eyes capable of seeing past the visible spectrum to replacement prosthetics with hold out guns or emergency nanobot injectors or even deployable skis, augments run the whole gamut from the practical to the frivolous, and from the boring to the ominous. The Portable Lab resembles a steel rectangle wrapped in cables from the outside, but within lies a sophisticated robotic surgeon and a high-resolution fabricator which, as long as it has the plans, can fabricate and implant a wide variety of augments on the subject.
Entertainment:
-Martial Arts Sparring Bot
-Misc sporting gear (Basketball, Solar Diving, Zero G Rugball, Zero G Ballet, Comet Chasing, etc.)
-Full Dive pod with a moderate amount of Reels.
-x2 cabinet's worth of digital media and Information (games, books, music, encyclopedias)
-x2 Synch Libraries (OnePeople Corepack v.14.0 (Curated Compilation), and (Best Of Daviacci Festival '68).
-1 month's worth of 'Happy Meals' for 4 people. These trays contain a single meal for a person, and though it's nutrition value is similar to a pill's, the flavor and texture guarantees a much better culinary experience.
Survivors and Food:
-12 months and two week's worth of pill rations for 4 people.
x1 Star Lieutenant Karl Fredrikson in a half-slagged cryopod.
Skimmed info from his file: Small craft ace pilot-- Interceptor shot down over Hayte-III- evaded hostiles-- Won the Naval Interbranch Hacking competition on the side of the Black Hats-
x1 Chief Petty Officer Valia Tass in a medical stasis pod, heavily wounded.
Skimmed Info: Engineering Corps distinguished service ribbon— Worked with Commander Anson's design team for the Heavy Mech Walker mk9 prototype proposal-- Zero-G Boxing silver medal in--
x0.5 Lieutenant Commander Balam Contreras in a medical stasis pod, half dead.
Skimmed Info: Served in the Hospital Ship RNS Dianne—thesis on advanced gene therapy—Hosted Itzanma-IIIc 's fifty-fourth social gathering—
We need to go full intrigue here. Keeping a secret, knowing where and how a secret would be kept, is the most useful thing here. If we are revealed, and we don't even know how we would be revealed, a clock starts ticking. We are dancing through a minefield from moment one.
We need to go full intrigue here. Keeping a secret, knowing where and how a secret would be kept, is the most useful thing here. If we are revealed, and we don't even know how we would be revealed, a clock starts ticking. We are dancing through a minefield from moment one.
[X] Plan Eric the Viking (yes that is their legal name)
-[X] Eric the Viking
-[X] Female
-[X] Meh. Leave it all to the GM.(Eric the Red with boobs)
-[X] Command.
-[X] Prowess.
-[X] Republican Rank
-[X] Diplomacy.
-[X] Stewardship.
-[X] Intrigue.
-[X] Learning.
Yeah that seems about right.
Thought you were Baurus for a minute.
Very interesting premise.
[X] Plan ASWAH
- [X] Name : Emma Reeves
- [X] Female.
- [X] Appearance : pretty and vain. Uses implanted nanomachines to regularly change hair color, eye color, tattoos, and even gradual shifts to facial structure or skin color given a night's sleep. A prized possession is a set of shapeshifting clothes she was allowed to bring on-station.
- [X] Attributes in decreasing order : Republican Rank, then Diplomacy, then Prowess, then Command, then Intrigue, then Stewardship, and finally Learning.
Rank will certainly be important. Having allies and being able to keep important people happy is essential too. This feels like a horror quest, and the ability to defend yourself personally always matters there in the end.
EDIT : Just to be clear, I did NOT pick the name Reeves just because Emma is in fact an immortal Keanu Reeves who has resorted to shapeshifting and volunteering for highly dangerous missions to relieve the pressure of an eternal existence.
No, it's because Reeves means "someone who lives at the edge", which felt appropriate considering the setting.
Similarly, the vagueness of Emma's physical appearance is not a "fuck you" to the GM. It's because post-scarcity high-tech societies probably won't end vanity, but they certainly will enable it quite a lot!
[X] Social Genius
-[X] Sylar Skillington
-[X] Male.
-[X] Cool Cyborg implants! Leave the rest to the GM.
-[X] Diplomacy.
-[X] Republican Rank.
-[X] Intrigue.
-[X] Command.
-[X] Stewardship.
-[X] Learning.
-[X] Prowess.
(I hope @Plausitivity is okay with me stealing his character name. I just like how it rolls off the tongue)
So, I expect something akin to what happened with Dylan Hunt or Javik: the Republic is no more and people around treat it as the Golden Age long-gone or even just an archeological curiosity. And unlike Hunt or Javik we have no idea how and why it happened.
In such a case the first thing we need is to make friends (Diplomacy), take control over every Republican asset still existing (Republican Rank) and don't let any new friends to betray us (Intrigue).
What I consider is not important is Prowess (I expect we'll soon find some suitable meatshields to befriend/order around) and Learning (again, we can find someone else to do it for us, and, well, if the Republic's superscience didn't save them its reinvention seems to me less important).
Other possible variant is there is no people around, everybody dead except us and other Vigil's survivors. In that case Diplomacy is important too so no depression and defeatism could stop the process of rebuilding of civilization.
I'll expand a bit on what each of the attributes will mean, if taken as 'first'.
Your first attribute will be vital. Your main strength, the thing that really makes your character stand out over his/her peers. The Republican Fleet is (was?) an enormous institution, almost a nation into itself, and its needs were correspondingly broad. Ask yourself the question, why were you selected for interment within the Vigil project?
-Diplomacy. Your eloquence, empathy, and general understanding of the finer points of human interaction were all decisive factors in your acceptance. You understand how the needs and emotions of individuals create broader movements which unleash political change, and how those changes affect the individual. The Fleet will always need people like you; those who can thread a needle through political and personal conflict, and through their words marshal the disparate elements of humanity into one cohesive whole which stands together.
-Command. Boiled down to its purest essence, its purest purpose, the Republican Fleet's mission was war. You feel that truth with every fiber of your being, having commanded everything from patrol destroyers to heavy battleships throughout your career, thought it didn't stop there. From overseeing carrier operations to participating in high level staff meetings, you've learned how the flow of the battlefield changes, and how to manipulate its fickle currents to victory, your mind already changing the strategic calculus before the battle at hand is over. When the time comes and the guns roar, it will be your charge which shall break the enemy.
-Intrigue. The essence of the Fleet is war, it is true. But what is war? Subterfuge. Misdirection. Surprise. The ancients knew this maxim as well as you do, but they never imagined the sheer scale at which they would be put to use. Early enough in your carrier, lessons about spoiling attacks and guerrilla operations gradually gave way to more secret topics, but you took no shame in spying and subverting your comrades. Dissention and self-interest were all well and good, until they threatened to overturn the very existence of humanity itself. Even more secret was your war against the Procyon Pattern, the strange madness that could consume a human so thoroughly that he would drive himself to willing sabotage against his brothers and sisters, seeking to turn it all to dark. You were that shield in the dark, and a dagger too.
-Learning. Since time immemorial, knowledge has been mankind's most prized possession. It elevated us from starwatching apes to starfaring scholars, and it will elevate us further still into the next great frontier. From astrophysics to exobiology, your fields of specialization were vast, but above it all was your knowledge of Procyon. You stared deeply into the Procyon Pattern, and when it gazed back you did not go insane, you understood instead. Though there is still much you do not yet know, you are confident that the solution to the threat lies in knowledge.
-Stewardship. In the eyes of the Engineering Corps, the task was simple. Monumental, to be sure, but simple nonetheless. And that was to build. To build and build and build until the power of human industry was like an unassailable edifice, an impenetrable wall, a fiery sword. From your mind and your hands flew ship designs and requisition orders, factory plans and personnel rolls, the lifeblood that sustained the Fleet in peace and in war, healthy and resolute in its purpose. And though your years with a multitool and a can of synthetic grease lay long behind you, replaced with organizational charts and vital administrative minutia, you know that mankind will survive through its ability to build.
If Republican Rank or Prowess is a first choice in your vote, don't worry, I'll automatically swap it with the attribute right after it. I'm soft capping them both to second place, as RR would be too OP as a first attribute, and in all honestly taking Prowess as a first choice would be pretty suboptimal compared to literally any other option.
Edit: Vote closed. Emma Reeves will be your MC, her main attribute being Diplomacy (swapped with RR, which went to second-highest priority).
Adhoc vote count started by bigbow on Jun 19, 2019 at 4:51 PM, finished with 23 posts and 11 votes.
[X] Plan ASWAH
- [X] Name : Emma Reeves
- [X] Female.
- [X] Appearance : pretty and vain. Uses implanted nanomachines to regularly change hair color, eye color, tattoos, and even gradual shifts to facial structure or skin color given a night's sleep. A prized possession is a set of shapeshifting clothes she was allowed to bring on-station.
- [X] Attributes in decreasing order : Republican Rank, then Diplomacy, then Prowess, then Command, then Intrigue, then Stewardship, and finally Learning.
[X] Plan Eric the Viking (yes that is their legal name)
-[X] Eric the Viking
-[X] Female
-[X] Meh. Leave it all to the GM.(Eric the Red with boobs)
-[X] Command.
-[X] Prowess.
-[X] Republican Rank.
-[X] Diplomacy.
-[X] Stewardship.
-[X] Intrigue.
-[X] Learning.
Love the idea of seeking some allies and trying to navigate the tumultuous political environment (if any), thought it seems it will be an arduous task due to the vibe of the setting.
