Play as a scavenger in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting where you salvage relics of pre-collapse civilisation so you can sell them to put food on your plate and roof over your head.
Arcadian Salvage (Post Apoc Sci-Fi Scavenger Quest)
- Thread starter Oshha
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- sci-fi low stakes
- Created
- Status
- Dropped
- Watchers
- 64
- Recent readers
- 0
- Threadmarks
- 3
-
Statistics (2 threadmarks, 1.9k words)
User Total Oshha 2 Threadmarks Reader mode -
Loading…
Character Creation
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Over three centuries ago, civilisation in the Arcadia system collapsed into anarchy. Law and order broke down as widespread revolts spread over the half a dozen colonies in the star system. Wisdom and knowledge of the ancient past was lost to the Arcadian people as society regressed, forcing folk to make do with what scraps they still had and could understand.
Three centuries later, the Arcadia system is a very different place as its people erk out a living. The United Nation Space Command continues to patrol the star system, operating out of the Citadel in the asteroid belt as the military dictatorship turned theocracy attempts to carry out its sacred mission and uphold its holy ideals. The aristocracy of the Primaris Imperium attempts to crush the socalist workers of the Collective Unions in its quest to conquer Arcadia Primus and then the rest of the Arcadia system.
The Royal Kingship of Maria rules the ocean moon of Maria, its royal family having ruled the world for over a century and is content on keeping things that way. The Economic Triumvirate continues to maintain its corporate grip on the arid planet of Arcadia Tertius alongside the winter moon Hiberia and the jungle moon Silvea and now seeks both ancient relics and new markets to improve its profits.
The fate of the Arcadia system is not to be decided by the likes of you. For you are a mere scavenger on the arctic moon of Arcadia Caer, salvaging pre-collapse artefacts from ancient ruins to sell in exchange for food, clothing and a warm place to sleep at night. Let others decide the future of the Arcadian people, your priority is staying alive and fulfilling your basic needs.
Mechanics
The quest is about salvaging relics of the past from pre-collapse ruins in a post-apoc sci-fi setting. You can do this to get cool gear, but most of the time, you will be doing so to make ends meet. Your goals aren't to save the world or anything grand like that, but put some food on your plate and keep a roof over your head at night.
The mechanics work by rolling a 1d100 with relevant modifiers to get the final result. If the final result matches or exceeds the DC, you are successful on the roll, but getting a final result that is lower than the DC, the roll fails.
There are five stats that will be used for this quest.
Physique = Physique represents your physical body, including how fit you are or how tough you are. It is for performing athletic feats, determining how long you can go without exhausting yourself and resisting taking a wound if you get hurt.
Technology = Technology represents your technical knowhow, which means how knowledgeable you are at using technology, but also your ability to salvage the ruins of past society. Improving this skill lets you use more advanced equipment and get better salvage.
Social = Social is used to represent how well you do in social interactions, from intimidating someone to tricking them to haggling to a better price. While not directly impacting your survival chances, it can be the difference between a fight and avoiding one or getting your money's worth on your salvage.
Melee = Melee is self-explanatory and used to represent how capable you are in melee. This can vary from unarmed combat to using a blade or some other kind of melee weapon. While there are guns in the setting, this is a sci-fi and post apoc setting so melee has its place in a fight.
Ranged = Ranged is like melee except for ranged weapons like guns. A fairly important skill and shouldn't need too much of an explanation.
Traits can give bonus to stats and certain rolls in addition to unlocking new options or more rarely, closing off some options. Equipment is similar except it comes from your gear rather than anything innate like with traits. Except to start off with no traits and poor gear, but gaining traits and better equipment over the quest is part of the fun. Equipment also has its inherent limitations that should be fairly obvious. An example of this would be that you cannot wear two helmets at once. Likewise, wearing a helmet only protects you from head wounds and won't do anything if you get hit in the leg or arm.
The quest is about salvage runs where you have to find good stuff and retrieve whilst avoiding dangers from hostile terrain to aggressive wildlife to other people trying to kill you. Then you have to find buyers for your gear so you can get money to spend on food, rent and other stuff. You will need to balance keeping salvage for your own use or selling in addition to balancing buying cool stuff versus making sure you have enough for your basic needs.
There will also be a quality of life mechanic where having a higher quality of life gives bonuses to rolls whilst having a low quality of life gives penalties and makes things harder. This is to incentivise you to spend your currency on personal luxuries rather than going for the bare minimum for personal needs and then spending everything else on shinies.
Use Plan Voting.
[] Name. Pick something reasonable or sensible. Anything too silly or nonsensical will be vetoed.
[] Gender. Pick male or female because while I am aware there are other options, I don't feel up to writing them as the player character.
[] Failed Mercenary. You tried your hand as a mercenary, fighting for the managers of the Triumvirate. Things didn't go so well and now you find yourself scavenging the past to make ends meet.
Physique = 3
Technology = 1
Social = 1
Melee = 3
Ranged = 3
[] Family Tradition. You come from a family of scavengers, raised learning how to salvage the relics of the past as your livelihood. Your chosen path in life is what is expected of you and all that you know.
Physique = 2
Technology = 4
Social = 1
Melee = 3
Ranged = 1
[] Exiled Servant. You were once a servant, serving a noble family within the Imperium. After being scapegoated for the mistakes of a noble, you were lucky to escape with your life and now survive by scavenging legacies of grander days.
Physique = 2
Technology = 2
Social = 4
Melee = 1
Ranged = 2
I'm trying something new, a low-stakes quest where you aren't influencing the fate of a civilisation or the whole galaxy, but just trying to get by in life. In this quest, the player character is a scavenger in a post apoc sci-fi setting and they are salvaging relics of the pre-collapse civilisation to sell to put food on the table and a roof over their head.
Magic and fantastical elements will be advanced technology like nanomachines, robots and genetic engineering and while they are technological in nature, they will effectively be magic to the player character and everyone else. Wizards and such would be people who know how to use advanced technology and make more of it. So the local legendary wizard? Some guy who knows how to maintain and repair plasma weapons and has a personal energy shield generator.
Also feel free to vote. I won't be reserving any frontpage posts because I never end up using them.
Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.
Three centuries later, the Arcadia system is a very different place as its people erk out a living. The United Nation Space Command continues to patrol the star system, operating out of the Citadel in the asteroid belt as the military dictatorship turned theocracy attempts to carry out its sacred mission and uphold its holy ideals. The aristocracy of the Primaris Imperium attempts to crush the socalist workers of the Collective Unions in its quest to conquer Arcadia Primus and then the rest of the Arcadia system.
The Royal Kingship of Maria rules the ocean moon of Maria, its royal family having ruled the world for over a century and is content on keeping things that way. The Economic Triumvirate continues to maintain its corporate grip on the arid planet of Arcadia Tertius alongside the winter moon Hiberia and the jungle moon Silvea and now seeks both ancient relics and new markets to improve its profits.
The fate of the Arcadia system is not to be decided by the likes of you. For you are a mere scavenger on the arctic moon of Arcadia Caer, salvaging pre-collapse artefacts from ancient ruins to sell in exchange for food, clothing and a warm place to sleep at night. Let others decide the future of the Arcadian people, your priority is staying alive and fulfilling your basic needs.
***
Mechanics
The quest is about salvaging relics of the past from pre-collapse ruins in a post-apoc sci-fi setting. You can do this to get cool gear, but most of the time, you will be doing so to make ends meet. Your goals aren't to save the world or anything grand like that, but put some food on your plate and keep a roof over your head at night.
The mechanics work by rolling a 1d100 with relevant modifiers to get the final result. If the final result matches or exceeds the DC, you are successful on the roll, but getting a final result that is lower than the DC, the roll fails.
There are five stats that will be used for this quest.
Physique = Physique represents your physical body, including how fit you are or how tough you are. It is for performing athletic feats, determining how long you can go without exhausting yourself and resisting taking a wound if you get hurt.
Technology = Technology represents your technical knowhow, which means how knowledgeable you are at using technology, but also your ability to salvage the ruins of past society. Improving this skill lets you use more advanced equipment and get better salvage.
Social = Social is used to represent how well you do in social interactions, from intimidating someone to tricking them to haggling to a better price. While not directly impacting your survival chances, it can be the difference between a fight and avoiding one or getting your money's worth on your salvage.
Melee = Melee is self-explanatory and used to represent how capable you are in melee. This can vary from unarmed combat to using a blade or some other kind of melee weapon. While there are guns in the setting, this is a sci-fi and post apoc setting so melee has its place in a fight.
Ranged = Ranged is like melee except for ranged weapons like guns. A fairly important skill and shouldn't need too much of an explanation.
Traits can give bonus to stats and certain rolls in addition to unlocking new options or more rarely, closing off some options. Equipment is similar except it comes from your gear rather than anything innate like with traits. Except to start off with no traits and poor gear, but gaining traits and better equipment over the quest is part of the fun. Equipment also has its inherent limitations that should be fairly obvious. An example of this would be that you cannot wear two helmets at once. Likewise, wearing a helmet only protects you from head wounds and won't do anything if you get hit in the leg or arm.
The quest is about salvage runs where you have to find good stuff and retrieve whilst avoiding dangers from hostile terrain to aggressive wildlife to other people trying to kill you. Then you have to find buyers for your gear so you can get money to spend on food, rent and other stuff. You will need to balance keeping salvage for your own use or selling in addition to balancing buying cool stuff versus making sure you have enough for your basic needs.
There will also be a quality of life mechanic where having a higher quality of life gives bonuses to rolls whilst having a low quality of life gives penalties and makes things harder. This is to incentivise you to spend your currency on personal luxuries rather than going for the bare minimum for personal needs and then spending everything else on shinies.
Use Plan Voting.
[] Name. Pick something reasonable or sensible. Anything too silly or nonsensical will be vetoed.
[] Gender. Pick male or female because while I am aware there are other options, I don't feel up to writing them as the player character.
[] Failed Mercenary. You tried your hand as a mercenary, fighting for the managers of the Triumvirate. Things didn't go so well and now you find yourself scavenging the past to make ends meet.
Physique = 3
Technology = 1
Social = 1
Melee = 3
Ranged = 3
[] Family Tradition. You come from a family of scavengers, raised learning how to salvage the relics of the past as your livelihood. Your chosen path in life is what is expected of you and all that you know.
Physique = 2
Technology = 4
Social = 1
Melee = 3
Ranged = 1
[] Exiled Servant. You were once a servant, serving a noble family within the Imperium. After being scapegoated for the mistakes of a noble, you were lucky to escape with your life and now survive by scavenging legacies of grander days.
Physique = 2
Technology = 2
Social = 4
Melee = 1
Ranged = 2
***
I'm trying something new, a low-stakes quest where you aren't influencing the fate of a civilisation or the whole galaxy, but just trying to get by in life. In this quest, the player character is a scavenger in a post apoc sci-fi setting and they are salvaging relics of the pre-collapse civilisation to sell to put food on the table and a roof over their head.
Magic and fantastical elements will be advanced technology like nanomachines, robots and genetic engineering and while they are technological in nature, they will effectively be magic to the player character and everyone else. Wizards and such would be people who know how to use advanced technology and make more of it. So the local legendary wizard? Some guy who knows how to maintain and repair plasma weapons and has a personal energy shield generator.
Also feel free to vote. I won't be reserving any frontpage posts because I never end up using them.
Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.
First Run 1
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Murphy Calls
-[X] Johnny Murphy
-[X] Male
-[X] Family Tradition
You are Johnny Murphy and your family has lived on Arcadia Caer and the frozen world is home to you. Life may be hard and harsh, but it is what you are used to and there is another salvage here that you don't need to worry about it running out in your lifetime. Not to mention that offworlders will always be wanting it so you don't need to worry about buyers either.
And now that you are finally of age, you are striking out on your own. Well, that isn't entirely true. You have Brodie at your side because the young woman is in a similar situation to yourself and it isn't foolish to go out on your own. Anything could happen whilst you are out on a salvage run and having someone to watch your back is useful.
Speaking of Brodie, here she comes, sliding into your shared inn room with the grace of someone who is used to remaining unnoticed. You wonder what she got up to in the Mid Worlds to get that sort of skill. You would ask, but Brodie doesn't like to talk about her past and how she went from being part of the Imperium on Arcadia Primus to being a mere scavenger on Arcadia Caer. You aren't the sort of person to pester someone else about their past like that, not so long as her past doesn't start involving you.
"Here," says Brodie in that odd accent of hers as she holds out some packages, "I got these for you."
You lean out to see what she has gotten before eagerly taking them as you realise that they are field rations. And not just any old field rations, but the good stuff that is actually nice to eat. Expensive, but you can buy the Midworlder purchasing them and if she wants to spend her remaining money on food for you, you won't say no.
You'll owe her though. Let it not be said that Johnny Murphy isn't a man of honour.
"Thanks, Brodie," you tell her as she takes a seat on her bed.
"Is it warm enough to take off my coat?" inquires Brodie.
"Warm enough to not need synthfurs, but I wouldn't go any lower than that," you answer after thinking it over for a moment.
"Greats," says the woman, "Do you have a plan for where we are going?"
"Of course," you reply, "We'll be going to…"
Where do you go on your first independent salvage run?
[] The Crashed Starship. There is a crashed starship nearby. Half-destroyed at the time of its crash landing and the target of more than few salvage runs in the past, there is still plenty left to be claimed for now.
[] The City Ruins. The city ruins are a reliable place to find salvage and despite dozens of scavengers going there daily, the abandoned settlement is large enough that it won't run dry for centuries.
[] The Ancient Inn. While it was once far more grand than the inn you are currently staying in, the pre-collapse inn is an interesting set of ruins. With the structure mostly intact, you should be able to find some valuable items to sell.
Not the longest update, but we are just getting started. As some of you might have noticed, I have based your partner on the runner up vote. Anyway, not much has happened yet so I haven't got too much to say here.
Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.
-[X] Johnny Murphy
-[X] Male
-[X] Family Tradition
You are Johnny Murphy and your family has lived on Arcadia Caer and the frozen world is home to you. Life may be hard and harsh, but it is what you are used to and there is another salvage here that you don't need to worry about it running out in your lifetime. Not to mention that offworlders will always be wanting it so you don't need to worry about buyers either.
And now that you are finally of age, you are striking out on your own. Well, that isn't entirely true. You have Brodie at your side because the young woman is in a similar situation to yourself and it isn't foolish to go out on your own. Anything could happen whilst you are out on a salvage run and having someone to watch your back is useful.
Speaking of Brodie, here she comes, sliding into your shared inn room with the grace of someone who is used to remaining unnoticed. You wonder what she got up to in the Mid Worlds to get that sort of skill. You would ask, but Brodie doesn't like to talk about her past and how she went from being part of the Imperium on Arcadia Primus to being a mere scavenger on Arcadia Caer. You aren't the sort of person to pester someone else about their past like that, not so long as her past doesn't start involving you.
"Here," says Brodie in that odd accent of hers as she holds out some packages, "I got these for you."
You lean out to see what she has gotten before eagerly taking them as you realise that they are field rations. And not just any old field rations, but the good stuff that is actually nice to eat. Expensive, but you can buy the Midworlder purchasing them and if she wants to spend her remaining money on food for you, you won't say no.
You'll owe her though. Let it not be said that Johnny Murphy isn't a man of honour.
"Thanks, Brodie," you tell her as she takes a seat on her bed.
"Is it warm enough to take off my coat?" inquires Brodie.
"Warm enough to not need synthfurs, but I wouldn't go any lower than that," you answer after thinking it over for a moment.
"Greats," says the woman, "Do you have a plan for where we are going?"
"Of course," you reply, "We'll be going to…"
Where do you go on your first independent salvage run?
[] The Crashed Starship. There is a crashed starship nearby. Half-destroyed at the time of its crash landing and the target of more than few salvage runs in the past, there is still plenty left to be claimed for now.
[] The City Ruins. The city ruins are a reliable place to find salvage and despite dozens of scavengers going there daily, the abandoned settlement is large enough that it won't run dry for centuries.
[] The Ancient Inn. While it was once far more grand than the inn you are currently staying in, the pre-collapse inn is an interesting set of ruins. With the structure mostly intact, you should be able to find some valuable items to sell.
Name: Johnny Murphy
Male: Male
Stats
Physique = 5
Technology = 10
Social = 5
Melee = 7+3
Ranged = 2
Quality of Living = +0
Traits
None
Equipment
Steel Sword = +3 to Melee, Requires 5 Melee to use.
Synthfur Coat = +1 to available job time.
6 Quality Field Ration = One day's worth of food, +1 to Quality of Living,
Money
6 Interstellar Credits (UNSC)
2 Stars (PI)
2 Waves (RKM)
3 Labour Voucher-Two (CU)
5 Loyalty Scrip (ET)
Male: Male
Stats
Physique = 5
Technology = 10
Social = 5
Melee = 7+3
Ranged = 2
Quality of Living = +0
Traits
None
Equipment
Steel Sword = +3 to Melee, Requires 5 Melee to use.
Synthfur Coat = +1 to available job time.
6 Quality Field Ration = One day's worth of food, +1 to Quality of Living,
Money
6 Interstellar Credits (UNSC)
2 Stars (PI)
2 Waves (RKM)
3 Labour Voucher-Two (CU)
5 Loyalty Scrip (ET)
***
Not the longest update, but we are just getting started. As some of you might have noticed, I have based your partner on the runner up vote. Anyway, not much has happened yet so I haven't got too much to say here.
Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to.
Dead Quest
- Location
- Southampton, Great Britain
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I have tried to get back into this, but my initial enthusiasm is gone and it hasn't gone on long enough for me to get any commitment or investment to it. I didn't want this to happen, but between the double whammie of getting a bad cold/flu combined with the hecticness of Christmas meant that I wasn't able to write the quest like I wanted. So apologies about that, but RL killed this quest before it could get going.