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[pbp] [FATE] Novo Aether: Aftermath - Space Opera Post-Apocalypse! IC is updated!
Talonrazor
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Aftermath
The Chronicles of Life After the End of the Future
Post-Apocalyptic Space Opera
AFTERMATH is BACK! We have two slots open and are looking at starting again very soon!
Survivors of the ruined Frontier world of Asher seek refugee at a destroy Oijja-lu ship
The Chronicles of Life After the End of the Future
Post-Apocalyptic Space Opera
AFTERMATH is BACK! We have two slots open and are looking at starting again very soon!
Survivors of the ruined Frontier world of Asher seek refugee at a destroy Oijja-lu ship
For hundreds of years, humanity has successfully spread to thousands of star systems. It was made possible by contact with the Prime Collective, a massive cabal of near-human and humanoids that caused a singularity technological event. Humanity rocketed forward and spread like wildfire amongst the stars. Closely allied with the thousands of agnatus sapiens that made up the Prime Collective, mankind slowly united under a singular banner of Covenant Earth. It seemed that mankind would endure and reach unprecedented levels of utopia. Brought together by the instant communication networks of the ansible and the giant network of jumpgates, the galaxy moved towards a bastion of utopia and enduring existence.
In 2398, the destruction of the galaxy began. It started with the Oijja-lu Dynasty, an Imperialistic offshoot of the Prime Collective that allied with a race of sentient machine life known as the Senbu. Seeking to reclaim what was rightfully theirs, the Dynasty and their Senbu allies launched a brutal strike on the outlying worlds of Collective space. The Collective was pushed to retaliation and defense by more militaristic entities within the culture. But they couldn’t stop the onslaught of the aggressive empire and machines. Humanity joined to help their alien friends, but failed to end the war quickly.
The Collective deployed weapons of mass destruction in desperation, annihilating entire worlds. The Dynasty responded by unleashing a devastating biological weapon that would change the face of the galaxy. This new plague consumed worlds and developed into a sentient entity of biological destruction. The entity spread itself through the galaxy, and the plague infected everything. Hordes of zombie-like infected and mutated creatures were everywhere. Humanity became infected and joined the panicked responses by their desperate move: nuclear holocaust.
Where once the galaxy had once been an interconnected latticework of a thousand thousand worlds, was now a shattered crystal, scattered fragments of light slowly being swallowed by the encroaching dark.This is your playground; a ruined futuristic galaxy. Worlds are destroyed by plague, biological weapons, general warfare or nuclear wastelands. Can you survive?
This is the Aftermath....
A Blighted world festers as the twisted flora and fauna turn the landscape into a hellish realm
What is this?
This is a FATE Core post-apocalyptic game set in a space opera setting with an American Wild West feel. What does that exactly mean, besides awesome? Essentially I am combining two of the most popular games I have ran into a campaign. The game will merge the feeling and cinematics of Life After the Bomb Fell with Novo Aether, plus a good sprinkling of my desire to do a Wild West-style of game. Life After the Bomb Fell was a large scale forum game that we played over a summer; it focused on a cryogenically frozen government team emerging in a post nuclear war world. I get a lot of requests to run the game. Novo Aether is a series of space opera campaigns I ran in ‘07 through ‘09, heavily influenced by Firefly and Pandora’s Star.
Since FATE Core just ended it’s very successful kickstarter I felt it was time to launch a new Play-by-Post game using my favorite system. The idea came from a conversation with jdarksun to run a post-apoc setting but set in a space opera setting. I liked the idea of a massive futuristic galaxy reduced to ruins and rubbles; with characters who were used to fantastical levels of technology and cultural achieved now struggling for food and water. Since Novo Aether already had a flushed out universe, it's easy to adapt it.
So what exactly is this? It’s a fast-paced narrative driven game that focuses on a group of characters who struggle to survive in destroyed remnants of a comfortable life. They have managed to find a working starship and flee their various ruined hellish worlds and now are on the run, traveling from starship wrecked to infected asteroid colonies to irradiated worlds. It’s a game where a gallon of pure water can mean the difference between life or death. Finding a part and fuel for a ship is a major victory. Making contact with an existing community and surviving society alters a character’s course. Worlds have been ravished by sentient biological weapons or hordes of infected zombie-like monsters. Massive irradiated zones exist in heavily urban planets, while wild frontier planets exist relatively unscathed.
The feel of this game will be desperate and brutal. If you enjoy movies like Book of Eli, Omega Man, 28 Days Later, True Grit or books like the Commonwealth Saga and TV shows like Firefly or Battlestar Galactica, this is for you. You like the idea of loosely allied zombie hordes floating in derelict spaceships moving from world to world pillaging and feasting? Do the Reavers from Firefly or the Flood from the Halo games get you hot and bothered? Do you want to ride horses to your parked spaceship to flee waves of mutants and space bandits while dual-wielding a sword and laser pistol? Are you the type that wants to pilot a barely working fighter against an asteroid base of star pirates to steal a supply of weapons? Welcome home.
Sounds awesome! But what am I playing...?
We are using Fate Core. If you don’t have the preview from the Kickstarter I can send it to you as this will also be a playtest campaign. You will be playing the role of a survivor. Your character has survived the horrific plague known as the Blight, avoided the sentient biological weapon nicknamed the Beast and managed to live through the nuclear holocausts unleashed on hundreds of worlds. He could be from the Inner Sphere, a collection of systems that humanity expanded to first. Maybe she grew up in one of the massive sprawls on the world, rich and educated. How is he adjusting to the changes now that the omnipresent connectivity of the Uninet is gone? Or was he hooked on The Hive and now has to deal with withdrawals from a fantastic virtual life?
Or your character might be a hardy colonist from the Frontier, newly settled worlds that still have ansibles being built and are less exposed to cosmopolitan cultures. A frontiersman might exist better in this new galaxy, already used to the hardships of fringe life. What happened to his colony? Did ships of Blighted Hordes arrive, spilling insane humans infected from the plague? Maybe the Beast landed mutant creatures and started to invade to completely cover the world in the Blight to add to his ever growing intelligence.
Want to play an alien? The character could hail from one of the hundreds of humanoid species from the Prime Collective, the massive utopian socialist cultural entity that made contact with mankind. How is the character handling the collapse of his utopian society? Is he getting used to self-sufficiency? Could he have been a spacer, working on a human freighter that finally broke down on some backwater world or a deteriorating space station without replacement parts or fuel?
These are just a few of character ideas. Character creation will be very different in this. Instead of making an “app” and submitting it, you will submit a character treatment. This will be a general outline of a character, his or her or it’s feel and theme. You will state what his role would be in a group and what his life was before the Collapse and how he has handled himself after the Collapse. There will be no mechanics creation. We will be doing that as a group activity, reading through our character concepts and fleshing them out in actual mechanically FATE Core player characters. The reason we will do this is that everyone will get the chance to aid in the other person’s character creation. It will be explained further.
The ravaging of the Inner Sphere world of New Tokyo
The History of the End
The Great War that brought the downfall of humanity started without human involvement, much to the amazement of historians of civilizations that came after. It began with the expansion of the Oijja-lu Dynasty in Prime Collective space. The Landskraed Realm pushed the Collective to respond and led the campaign once the Collective did. The thousands of Prime species that made up the Collective believed this would be another Dynasty-Collective fight; a simple affair. It would not be so. The Dynasty, with new support from the Senbu, moved aggressively. Worlds fell. Refugees streamed into human’s Covenant Earth territory.
The United Colonies of Terra led the initial charge of human support to their alien allies. Other Covenant governments, the Martian Confederation, Republic of East Indies and others, followed suit. The massive combined might of human militaries swarmed into Collective space. Surely, the war would end soon. But it did not. Years dragged by. Casualties mounted. The Dynasty and the Senbu had unending resources and troops. It seemed impossible. Prime and human deaths started to enter into the billions. Governments were losing their taste for the war. The Collective was desperate to end it. The humans could not sustain it any longer. Covenant governments started to cease their support of the war. The Collective grew desperate and in their desperation they resorted to something horrific.
They turned to a technology that humans had recently developed: target mass molecular disruption. Devices were built that would element bonds in atoms, effectively completely dissolving any mass. These “Big Surgeons”, as so nicknamed, were deployed against Dynastic worlds and fleets. The result shifted the balance of war. In response, the Dynasty unleashed something that would end life as the galaxy knew it: the Blight.
A specially engineered intelligent bacterial plague, the Blight had been based off the sentient bacteria that covered entire worlds, the descolada. The technology had been stolen from the Inferii Di and used to twist the descolada into something horrific.This True Alien was engineered to produce an incredible weapon. It was to be unstoppable, the plague would strike a world and fuse all biological material in a massive network while producing mutated weapons and spreading via spores and infections. It was constantly adapting, changing and producing new strains. Ships could struck by missiles, biological matter melding with electronic circuitry to form vessels controlled by plague.
Not even the brilliant Dynastic genetic engineers could predict what would happen. The Blight spread so rapidly and grew out of their control that it infected whole worlds in the matter of days. The Blight started mutating and molding everything on the entire planet surface. The neurological pathways of the living organism fused into the strange reddish algae that often covered Blighted worlds. The Blight developed a sentient, living organism. The Collective referred to it as the “Beast at the End of All Things”.
It ravaged the Collective. Worlds fell, hordes of mutated creatures boarded Blighted ships to travel to fresh territory. Floods of newly mutated monsters fell upon worlds, missiles that the Beast ladened with Blight biomaterial struck planets and infected Prime species. Those exposed to the bacterial infections became manic unthinking barbarians. Some infections laid dormant in carriers for weeks or months, exposing ships, space stations and colonies to the Blight as huge populations of refugees surged through. Other strands of infections caused the carriers to instantly become manic and violent, spreading even further as they clawed and bit. Chaos gripped civilized space.
The Covenant was infected next. Governments began to fight with each other, desperate to seal off borders. GAPTRAN gates were destroyed, ships disappeared. The Blight was unstoppable, for the Beast’s hunger could never be sated. Years passed and humanity became desperate. Humans started deploying nuclear weapons against worlds that had just a rumor of a Blight infection. The galaxy burned. Survivors fled in starships and fell prey to marauders, pirates, vessels full of infected species drifting in space or Beast ships patrolling travel lanes. Even after all this, survival was possible. Humanity, the Collective; they could all rebuild. They simply needed to endure. Outlast the Beast, cure the Blight and life could move on. It was the Collapse that ultimately doomed sentient life.
Somehow the ansible network ,the instant-communication devices that linked all of humanity and Prime together, failed. No one knew why. Some heard before the collapse the Beast had infected the network, somehow melding the giant ansibles into his spreading planet-wide biological networks. Other rumors swirl of a government activating a doomsday switch to disable the system in some ill-advised attempt to save mankind. Whatever the cause, the collapse of the ansibles,, meant the collapse of the civilized world. When the ansible networks went offline whoever was left alive plunged into darkness and isolation. At the greatest height of success all had failed. The zenith of sentient life that was to be immortality ended with the words casted palely over visions via implanted optronics: “uninet feed lost. no source signal.” The galaxy had been silenced. Whoever was left, whoever survived, now was utterly alone.
The United Colonies of Terra led the initial charge of human support to their alien allies. Other Covenant governments, the Martian Confederation, Republic of East Indies and others, followed suit. The massive combined might of human militaries swarmed into Collective space. Surely, the war would end soon. But it did not. Years dragged by. Casualties mounted. The Dynasty and the Senbu had unending resources and troops. It seemed impossible. Prime and human deaths started to enter into the billions. Governments were losing their taste for the war. The Collective was desperate to end it. The humans could not sustain it any longer. Covenant governments started to cease their support of the war. The Collective grew desperate and in their desperation they resorted to something horrific.
They turned to a technology that humans had recently developed: target mass molecular disruption. Devices were built that would element bonds in atoms, effectively completely dissolving any mass. These “Big Surgeons”, as so nicknamed, were deployed against Dynastic worlds and fleets. The result shifted the balance of war. In response, the Dynasty unleashed something that would end life as the galaxy knew it: the Blight.
A specially engineered intelligent bacterial plague, the Blight had been based off the sentient bacteria that covered entire worlds, the descolada. The technology had been stolen from the Inferii Di and used to twist the descolada into something horrific.This True Alien was engineered to produce an incredible weapon. It was to be unstoppable, the plague would strike a world and fuse all biological material in a massive network while producing mutated weapons and spreading via spores and infections. It was constantly adapting, changing and producing new strains. Ships could struck by missiles, biological matter melding with electronic circuitry to form vessels controlled by plague.
Not even the brilliant Dynastic genetic engineers could predict what would happen. The Blight spread so rapidly and grew out of their control that it infected whole worlds in the matter of days. The Blight started mutating and molding everything on the entire planet surface. The neurological pathways of the living organism fused into the strange reddish algae that often covered Blighted worlds. The Blight developed a sentient, living organism. The Collective referred to it as the “Beast at the End of All Things”.
It ravaged the Collective. Worlds fell, hordes of mutated creatures boarded Blighted ships to travel to fresh territory. Floods of newly mutated monsters fell upon worlds, missiles that the Beast ladened with Blight biomaterial struck planets and infected Prime species. Those exposed to the bacterial infections became manic unthinking barbarians. Some infections laid dormant in carriers for weeks or months, exposing ships, space stations and colonies to the Blight as huge populations of refugees surged through. Other strands of infections caused the carriers to instantly become manic and violent, spreading even further as they clawed and bit. Chaos gripped civilized space.
The Covenant was infected next. Governments began to fight with each other, desperate to seal off borders. GAPTRAN gates were destroyed, ships disappeared. The Blight was unstoppable, for the Beast’s hunger could never be sated. Years passed and humanity became desperate. Humans started deploying nuclear weapons against worlds that had just a rumor of a Blight infection. The galaxy burned. Survivors fled in starships and fell prey to marauders, pirates, vessels full of infected species drifting in space or Beast ships patrolling travel lanes. Even after all this, survival was possible. Humanity, the Collective; they could all rebuild. They simply needed to endure. Outlast the Beast, cure the Blight and life could move on. It was the Collapse that ultimately doomed sentient life.
Somehow the ansible network ,the instant-communication devices that linked all of humanity and Prime together, failed. No one knew why. Some heard before the collapse the Beast had infected the network, somehow melding the giant ansibles into his spreading planet-wide biological networks. Other rumors swirl of a government activating a doomsday switch to disable the system in some ill-advised attempt to save mankind. Whatever the cause, the collapse of the ansibles,, meant the collapse of the civilized world. When the ansible networks went offline whoever was left alive plunged into darkness and isolation. At the greatest height of success all had failed. The zenith of sentient life that was to be immortality ended with the words casted palely over visions via implanted optronics: “uninet feed lost. no source signal.” The galaxy had been silenced. Whoever was left, whoever survived, now was utterly alone.
The State of the Galaxy
The game itself will be set in the following five years after the events of the Great War and the Collapse. Every planet is in isolation now, almost all forms of governments have collapsed. If there is any surviving sanctuaries out there, it’s virtually impossible to learn about them. The only form of communication built had been the planetary Cypherspheres that linked to the Uninet via the ansibles. With the ansibles collapsed, there is no way to communicate with anything out there. The occasional starship may stop by but most cannot function. Most spare parts were depleted via demands of the Great War and now the automated factories stand still or are destroyed by warfare, nuclear genocide or consumed by the Blight. Even if a ship can function, the GAPTRAN gates that were used for travel between distant star systems are no longer maintained. Many have ceased function. Others are so dangerous to jump through it takes a very skilled and brilliant navigator with a powerful working navigation AI to properly calculate and call up a wormhole via the dilapidated gates. A number of gates were destroyed during the war, by insane Hordes or consumed by the Beast.
The Inner & Outer Sphere as well as most of the Collective and Border Worlds were hit the worst. The Frontier saw a lot of military action during the Great War but was spared most of the nuclear holocaust and initial spread of the Blight. Without connection to the rest of the galaxy or ability to send messages to worlds thousand of light-years away it is unknown what the actual status of most planets are. A number of important GAPTRAN gates are destroyed, severing entire sectors from the rest of the galaxy. The Sol System was one of the largest losses; humanity’s home systems shut down the gates as the Beast sent infection missiles into the wormholes.
Some societies have emerged; the occasional space station spared from pirate attacks or a tiny moon colony overlooked by everyone. For survivors, there is very limited way of reaching these small places of hope. They face either the choice of trying to rebuild something on some planet or cobble together a working a starship and hope they can find a planet with food, water and fuel. Supplies are tough to come by, as years and years of massive intergalactic warfare had already strained resources before the onslaught of the Blight. A few survivors are lucky enough to have a fully-functioning starship with antimatter reactors that has a thousand-year lifespan and matter recycling processors for food and water. Now they just have to avoid the numerous nefarious elements out in the chaos and anarchy....
The Inner & Outer Sphere as well as most of the Collective and Border Worlds were hit the worst. The Frontier saw a lot of military action during the Great War but was spared most of the nuclear holocaust and initial spread of the Blight. Without connection to the rest of the galaxy or ability to send messages to worlds thousand of light-years away it is unknown what the actual status of most planets are. A number of important GAPTRAN gates are destroyed, severing entire sectors from the rest of the galaxy. The Sol System was one of the largest losses; humanity’s home systems shut down the gates as the Beast sent infection missiles into the wormholes.
Some societies have emerged; the occasional space station spared from pirate attacks or a tiny moon colony overlooked by everyone. For survivors, there is very limited way of reaching these small places of hope. They face either the choice of trying to rebuild something on some planet or cobble together a working a starship and hope they can find a planet with food, water and fuel. Supplies are tough to come by, as years and years of massive intergalactic warfare had already strained resources before the onslaught of the Blight. A few survivors are lucky enough to have a fully-functioning starship with antimatter reactors that has a thousand-year lifespan and matter recycling processors for food and water. Now they just have to avoid the numerous nefarious elements out in the chaos and anarchy....
Residents of the Ruins
We've lost a pilot, a soldier and a survivalist!
SLOT OPEN!
Riley - jdarksun - Character Sheet
A Senbu agent and replicant plant.
Role: Sneak
Species: Senbu
SLOT OPEN!
Saven - Lord_Asmodeus - Character Sheet
An Savarnaus Communicate working as an Inner Sphere neuroscientist and psychiatric at a university.
Role: Empath
Species: Savarnaus
Dirge - Ardent - Character Sheet
A former Landskraedi technican serving one of the Landskraed Houses, now outcasted conscripted scout.
Role: Scavenger / Scout
Species: Landskraed
Khiraz - Captain Marcus - Character Sheet
A dwarf Kirerzan warrior and mercenary.
Role: Soldier
Species: Kizeran
Talonrazor on
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Posts
Places, Worlds and Cultures
Agnatus Sapiens
The Skills List
Question: How long was the war itself? If we're in Collapse+5 at the outset, how long has it been since the Last Good Day (ie 2398)?
Also - been reading through the wiki and can't find anything on non-jumpgate ftl travel. I assume it's possible if you can send a probe to another galaxy, but...
So about 19 and half years. Also keep in mind before The Great War, humans were living lengthy lives due to rejuvenation techniques. The links I linked to come from the six year old Novo Aether Wiki, so some info is a bit out of date or incomplete or changed since then. You can poke around on that wiki, just be aware something might be slightly tweaked. I am working on building a new wiki that will cover this iteration of the universe.
I will update the OP with a timeline this afternoon.
EDIT: Ships have Alcuberri Warp Drives, which is basically the bubble drive that allows them to jump at faster-than-light speeds without time dilation. However, this is still slow and it would take years to travel between star systems. Warp drives are used to go from planet to planet in the timespan of hours. The big jumpgates are what is used to travel in the span of weeks or months for distant systems. You also have ships that have pure FTL drives but time dilation means..... well.... These ships are part of the Jumper culture, groups of humans that travel forward in time to be immortal. This info is part of a newer game bible that I haven't put online yet, I'll add it to the Aftermath Wiki once I get it up and running.
I am leaning towards a Merion or synthetic engineer.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
How reliable are the gates? Perfect technology, or are there transmission errors occasionally?
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
But Bomb Fell was why I actually re-registered on the PA forums back then...
Blerrrrgh.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
@Infidel You should pllaayyyy. Isn't Bomb Fell where you created Orokos anyways....?
On mechanics. Is Fate core similar enough to Fate usage in Dresden that it should be easy to jump into for a Dresden vet?
On the world. Not much mention of what befell the Oijja-lu or the Senbu after the release of the Blight. Were they also consumed by the folly of their creation? I guess the question would be could there be some "Enemy Mine" sort of action where now the real enemy is the Beast and the two sides had to stop killing each other in order to not get eaten by the Blight?
Sorry the first thing that went through my head when a mention of sci-fi survival was Enemy Mine
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
I slept through the end of civilization. Sometimes you're just really tired, you know?
Anyway, I'd been out near the Gate laying mines -- for all the good that they'd do against the Beast when he came knocking, but you still gotta lay 'em -- for days. We were meant to pepper the likely vectors between the Gate and the World with the damn things. At least them blowing up would give us warning, and an hour or so to say our goodbyes. Anyway, mines were all the World could afford. So it was just me and Kimiko and the mines and the TA boys at the gate, and about a billion miles of the empty between The Lady and home.
Anyway, I sack out and Kimiko takes watch, and when I wake up the whole thing's over. I guess Kimiko didn't like it much. First I heard was the airlock warning, and I get to the con and she's out there... quiet like. Hell of a thing. I mean, twenty years of the War and that's what knocks her off the edge. Anyway, I try to raise her and can't, obviously. I try to raise the World and then I start hearing all of the chatter coming in over the transceiver.
I figure it's got to be a mistake. I mean, the problem's got to be with our rig, you know? It can't be the ansible. World control must have felt the same way, 'cause it took them about an hour to squawk the 'come home' over the emergency network. By then everyone was screaming bloody murder over the transceivers, and it was already obvious which way the wind was blowing. I thought about just worming out when it sunk in, but where do you go when the world is over?
I went home. Took me best part of a day to get permission to land, as I guess half of the traffic guys had already buggered off. The one that handled me sounded like it was her first day on the job. Guess it hit everyone differently. I went home and I got drunk, and I didn't sober up for a week. When I crawled back out of the haze things had already turned sour, and I realized it was time to get gone. I was damn lucky, now that I think of it, that nobody gutted me for my shoes while I was out.
Anyway, I scrubbed myself relatively clean, grabbed my flight bag, and headed back to the spaceport. Took me a couple of days to get there, too, on account of the trains being slagged already.
Once I got there, I finally realized just how fucked we all were. The entire place was burning. I don't know what's wrong with people. It was the sheerest dumb luck that I cut down a corridor and ran into my old buddy Bill. Sheerest dumb luck that The Wombat was short a man. Sheerest dumb luck that he was willing to take me on, and that we made it out in one piece.
We could see the fires from space. We turned and ran, and we've been running since.
Questions:
What did the PC do before the Great War? Sideways was a deep space freighter captain for most of his life.
What was he doing during the Great War? At the outset, he was still a freighter captain, carting materiel to and from the front lines. As things ground down to the end, he was transferred to his homeworld, and worked in their System Defence Force until the Collapse.
How has he survived the Collapse in the following ten years? Following the collapse, he hooked up with some fellow flyers. They escaped their World's end and have survived, essentially, by scavenging ruined ships and stations.
Did any family or friends survive? Sideways' family are all long gone. He is close, to varying degrees, with the four members of Wombat's crew.
How would he fit in a group? Sideways is a jack-of-all-trades. He is a competent mechanic, and an excellent and self-reliant spacer. He has been in a few fights, but isn't an aggressive man by nature. He has been in the Navy (the Merchant... Spacemarine?) but didn't like the regimentation. He's garrulous and likes a drink.
N.B. --> The Wombat can be blown up in the first sentence of the adventure if it's inconvenient. Also, if I've screwed something up I'm happy to make tweaks. For instance: would Kimiko have ansible access while working near the gate, or is it earthbound only?
Both Oijja-lu and the Senbu were targeted by the Blight. With the Collapse, it unknown what their status is, as most contact dropped off shortly after the Blight unleashing.
The newest version of Dresden File is based off of Fate Core.
Close, I think it may have been the first reuse of the name sorta.
I had a SWG character named Byner Orokos. I used the name Byner for a Shadowrun thing, and the name Orokos for Life After, about around the same time, and I couldn't tell you anymore which happened first.
I think I'll put in for this, although pretty damn busy right now so it might be the weekend before I get to reading through and coming up with something.
DAYS SINCE LAST TRANSMISSION: 1911
The same red letters are superimposed over my vision every time a sleep cycle ends. The numbers change. They tick up. Reminding me that I am stranded in the middle of a sea of enemies, reminding me that I will never again communicate with the base node, and reminding me that my mission is FUBAR. But I can’t change it. Since that would require a change of programming, and I can’t risk self-change in the field. At least not yet.
A body moves beside me. Arms stretch, a mouth yawns. “How are you always up before the shift chime?” Because with no central node with which to synchronize, your clocks have been slowly getting farther and farther off from galactic mean time. Though the same critique could be applied to me. Am I slowly becoming out of true, like wet wood left to warp?
“Just a light sleeper.” I lie. All I ever do is lie. It is growing tiresome. I push out of the pile of rags I use for a bed, and hit the ‘fresher. Because I am virtually indistinguishable from a human, I must deal with certain inconveniences and indignities. It is inefficient, but it is necessary to keep up appearances.
And there are upsides to the deception. I am reminded of one as I return to the room, and I pause to watch my temporary mate dress. The level of constant tension on this station drives the humans to a variety of recreational activities, all of which provide acceptable levels of amusement. My current partner understands that this a temporary relationship, and has yet to expressed any concern over this fact. I find this vastly preferable to the drama that can occur in other types of relationship. Though that drama has some amusement to it as well.
We dress, we respond to the shift change notification, and we part ways at the lift. I go down into the bowels of the station, among the constantly humming machinery that keeps the atmosphere in and the waste matter recycling into consumables. What was supposed to be a low profile, almost menial job has turned into something consider heroic by these humans. I work so they can live. And, contrary to my briefing, they understand and respect this. I am treated with dignity instead of indifference. When I am reminded that I was sent here to gather information on a potential military target - and that would be every morning - it can make interactions with the humans somewhat awkward for me. They believe those strained conversations to be a symptom of stress. I have not dissuaded them of this notion.
“Hey, Riley. The #2 condenser is acting up again. You mind taking a look at it?” I nod in asset, grab a toolkit, and head towards the condenser farm. Just another day in purgatory. Just another day after the end of the world.
So to speak.
* What did the PC do before the Great War? Undercover agent for the Senbu.
* What was the PC doing during the Great War? Spying on R&D Station 13.
* How has the PC survived the Collapse in the following ten years? Continuing undercover assignment, surveillance and monitoring of security and scientific personnel of R&D Station 13.
* Did any family or friend survive? Unknown if any of my line has survived.
* How would the PC fit in a group? This unit's expertise systems have been calibrated towards subterfuge and systems maintenance/repair.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
My last job, and I'll be done with this life. Vic threw the squirming, crying man to the feet of his employer, not bothering to keep an eye on someone he'd bound himself.
"Well done, Mr. Cede," his employer said, a moment after scanning a sample of the bound man's blood. "I was beginning to think no one could collect this bounty, even after the recent raise. A large sum; what will you do with it?"
Vic smiled, a charming grin for someone whose weapon-strapped outfit spoke of death and hard life. "Stims and women, of course." He'd said the line a hundred times, at the end of every bounty, body-guarding, merc, and miscellaneous wet-work job he'd taken. And every time after he'd taken the money, he spent a little on restocking and shoved the rest into his savings. 500,000 creds now. Enough to finally pay my debt to that scumbag Luzano, get the death warrant off my head, get back to some kind of normal life.
No more guns, no more scrounging, no more sucking it up and telling himself it was their life or his, hiding desperation behind a smile and a gun.
But as he walked back to the spaceport to grab a ride off this planet, lights started going out.
Shit. Now what?
What did the PC do before the Great War?
"Gun for hire" might be the best description. Vic's done mercenary work, bounty hunter work, bodyguard work, etc.
What was he doing during the Great War?
Ignoring it. Society's problems weren't his, unless they were paying him for it. He never thought it would get this bad.
How has he survived the Collapse in the following ten years?
Mostly by blasting the damn plague freaks with whatever guns he can find and protecting rich assholes in exchange for a ride to whatever maybe-haven they're trying next.
Did any family or friend survive?
Vic ran with a rough crowd. His agent for bodyguard work was a former pro herself, and would've had a shit-hits-the-fan plan. And he'd bet money his old merc outfit, the Sluis Sector Shieldhires, still had a crew or two sticking together. Sure he'd had to leave that gig, but what's disobeying orders they all thought were sick matter now in all this mess? The one time a guy's conscience gets to him..
How would he fit in a group?
Vic's happy to work with others if they're dependable. He can't pilot (starships), isn't much of a maintenance guy besides his own weaps, and sure as hell hasn't been doctoring his own cracked ribs and shrapnel wounds all these years. Vic can drive vehicles, shoot guns, and stay alive.
Awesome android RPGs are made by my friends; check them out.
At least I'll have time to read everything.
e:actually, fuck it, I'mma try this.
For a time, he wondered why he even bothered. If Blight fell the harvest would be irrelevant. If the capitol burned down, one missing order would be the least of everyone's problem. Dalton throws his hands up and leaves the goats to their feast.
But not before making sure they had enough salt-licks and baking soda.
A born spacer, John Dalton left his habitat to enlist in the Navy.
What was he doing during the Great War?
It was Dalton's job to send and receive messages through a sea of static and burning steel. He fled as far as he could when CE left their Space Brothers hanging.
How has he survived the Collapse in the following ten years?
JD and his fellow colonists have survived by being lucky. Their valley is safe for the mo', and the goats would know if anything was coming.
Did any of his friends or family or friend survive?
The self-styled "Gateway to the Galaxy" is probably gone, as is everything slung in orbit around it.
Most of the drop-troops he drank with are dead, but maybe he'll meet them at the afterparty.
His sister was working on some kind of starliner when the Collapse happened.
How would he fit in a group?
John is a techie. He's likely to defer to his fellows while groundbound or outmatched, but he's a damn good spacer and you'd best respect that.
He holds medicos in high regard, and has a thing for tough ladies. He'd do anything to feel useful again.
Anything. Sipping moonshine just doesn't cut it anymore.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
4 drive (it'll be Fly, of course, as he is a spacer)
3s in craft (mechanics and computers and stuff) and shooting.
Then things get a bit fuzzy for the 2s. Maybe Investigate, Notice, and... Errrrrmm. Will, to represent his often successful struggles with booze?
Any ideas for a spacer jack of all trades?
Vernon "Sideways" Spalding - GrimmyTOA
A former freighter captain of the Merchant Marine. Spacer and jack-of-all-trades.
Riley ???? - jdarksun
A Senbu agent and replicant plant. Technician and spy skills.
Vic Cede - Elfword
Mercenary and bounty hunter that works strictly for-hire. Weapons and combat expert.
John Dalton - Erich Zahn
Ex-navy technician and pilot. Spacer and technician.
Lots of technical experts (which will mean you guys will have a good time at repairing broken technology).
You really need some survivalists and medical guys!
I will be posting a huge list of various Prime species tomorrow so if anyone is wanting to play a more human character, you can.
@Elfword @Erich Zahn and @GrimmyTOA make sure you indicate what human power they hail from. Are they European descendants of the Intersolar Union? The independent-minded United Colonies of Terra? Do they hail from the Republic of East Indies or are they from a colony of the transhumanist advanced nation of the Martian Confederacy? Now, of course, those governments have been wiped out but it's a part of their background.
Who was still colonizing just before the war? Probably not transhumans, but doesn't have to be earth humans either.
Edit: alternately, though I love sideways, I could defer in the mechanical end of things to EZ and jdark. I have an idea kicking around my head for a huckster/con man/prophet who was as surprised as anyone else to find out that the world really was ending. Would that be preferable? Or I could put together a space surgeon. Decisions.
Working out the rest of this background, but that's a start.
Awesome android RPGs are made by my friends; check them out.
Would need to try another concept, and it turns out I got tricked by jdarksun into another PbP already! :P
Good luck folks, I'll be following this no doubt.
Crew were surprisingly nice, for a bunch of people who could be older than some currently existing cultures. They never asked who or what I was running from, and my time in biotech corps proved as useful here as they did in the underworld. Never been on a ship as long as these Jumpers have, subjectively or objectively speaking. Was probably my fifth year on that ship that I asked to leave. Didn't go though as much of a hassle as I'd have expected. Seems I was much more helpful than I'd have thought, and they even gave me a farewell gift. Something seemed a bit off about the planet the shuttle was headed towards, but I didn't really give it a second thought. I disembarked with a couple of teary farewells, and marched into a surprisingly quiet port.
That was pretty much where it all went wrong I think. Probably should've checked the planet a couple times over before disembarking. Who knew a goddamn zombie plague had popped up since I vanished into a Jump. And who knew I happened to land on a world that happened to be in the process of being infested.
What did the PC do before the Great War?
Worked for groups that helped create the Senbu, disappeared into the underworld out of fear for safety.
What was he doing during the Great War?
Stuck in a Jump. Before that a black-market doctor.
How has he survived the Collapse in the following ten years?
Worked as a doctor in a Jumper ship.
Did any family or friend survive?
Any family/friends before he accidentally took a Jump probably are dead, or think he's dead. Jumpers he's acquainted with are probably already unreachable.
How would he fit in a group?
He's a pretty good surgeon and medic, though his main field of study was in biotech.
I assume there's going to be some parallels between Dalton, who was born in space and emigrated to Frontier, and Sideways, who was born in the Frontier and went to space.
e:reposted the skills discussion, gonna post the fluff and backstory in it's own.
Free Syndicates Alliance
The Free Syndicates Alliance sprang from a gathering of pirates, smugglers, illegal corporations and drug cartels that sought to further their profits and strength by representing themselves to various chaebols who needed more criminal elements as partners. As organized crime in the galaxy took hold and expanded, the massive amounts of lawless space afforded ample opportunities while lucrative set trade routes meant good raiding grounds. The major cartels needed a way to work together to monopolize on areas. Thus the Free Syndicates were born and they established an Alliance. Each Syndicate is a powerhouse in their own area of specialization and often rival Chaebols or governments in economic might. The Syndicates have several sovereign worlds as well; most of them are tucked away in the Tannhauser Rift.
Aztecas Cartels
The Aztecas Cartels are a group of vast criminal empires that supply the majority of illegal and legal narcotics to most of the human galaxy. Ruled by the Aztecas Junta and often referred to by the quasi-political structure name, the Aztecas are a very well-organized and well-funded entity and one of the oldest criminal empires in the galaxy. They arose from the narcotic cartels in Central America, eventually controlling several smaller nations. They still have a powerful hold over some of Old Earth, giving them a distinct advantage. The Aztecas are brutal and efficient, clashing often with the organized Syndicates but never faltering their supply of narcotics. Many pharmaceutical companies in the galaxy are ran by the Aztecas and the Junta boasts a military that can rival any Terran power. Several colonies that claim to be a part of the Mexica state under the United Colonies of Terra are essentially Aztecas worlds.
The Wild Tribes
Inside the Aquarian Sector, stretched between the border of the Outer Sphere and Frontier worlds lies the Kriisul Cluster, a series of dense stars that create unique gravity wells. GAPTRAN attempted to construct a series of gates into a few different systems but the gates required extensive tuning to maintain. Dozens of colonizing ships landed on the few habitable planets in the cluster and started a few colonies based off of mining the rich minerals present. As the years went by, GAPTRAN deemed the gates too dangerous and terminated the connection, isolating the worlds. The developing colonies were plunged into chaos and barbarism. When the dwarven Ald corporation Ald Tiazo built their own gates into the cluster in an attempt to re-open the lucrative mines, they found the colonies had organized into a tribal-system. The tribes were wild and barbaric, with chieftains leading wars on other tribes for resources.
The tribes managed to secure the abandoned GAPTRAN gate network and opened for their own purposes. The Ald maintains it’s separate corporate gates that are highly guarded and attempts to keep its shipment of precious minerals safe from the vicious tribes. The tribes have captured ships and weapons that they use to hire themselves out as mercenaries or marauder as pirates to obtain more weapons and supplies. The tribes are constantly fighting and bickering; the entire region is known as a dangerous and unstable area with only Ald Taizo maintaining any sort of civilized presence. The tribes are constantly raiding nearby Frontier worlds.
The Alviger Fold
The Alviger Fold is a large expanse of lawless space in-between the Collective and Covenant space, at the edge of the Border Worlds. A large, dense nebula that is a very active stellar nursery occupies most of the region . A huge expense of space filled mostly with a dense nebula, the Fold is a lawless section of space with many independent worlds and shadowports. It is home to the Antallian Corsairs, the Telendulus System, the Fatarbernellia Soladity, the Arkhadias Democratic Federation and others. The Mujadeen Pirate Clans also dwell in the nebula and prey off of the various corporate ships or conflict with Syndicate fleets. A network of black holes warp the nebula and the radiation present inside the interstellar cloud. Several systems happen to be placed perfectly inside the nebulae to have habitable planets. Of these systems, the Telendulus System is a twin-star system with five worlds within the habitable zone. The system became a joint Collective-Covenant settlement project, one of the very first. GAPTRAN managed to create a gate network and soon colonists flooded into the system. As the years went by, scientists began to note weird anomalies in colonists traveling through the gates. Slight mutation in human genetic structure and an increase in violent, homicidal behavior was noted in many of the settlers. In addition to these changes, the ansibles on the worlds began to malfunction, causing lags in transmissions. Scientists deemed the Fold a dangerous area and advised against travel. Governments stopped settlement projects but by then all five worlds had decent sized populations. Settlers refused to leave and corporations continued to build. Shadowports started to spring up in the Fold and it became a haven for pirates, refugees and criminals. The numerous systems of the Fold are mostly lawless, as the Collective and Covenant have all but abandoned the space. In Telendulus, the five worlds became independent. The largest and most populated world, Terminus, became the unofficial capital of the Fold. The other worlds; Troy, Batari, Laaputa and Uullis, are all loosely allied.
The Fratabarnelli Sodality controls the system of Volarius, a large system with eight worlds, two of which are habitable and settled. The worlds were settled by a splinter group of monks who wanted a place outside of society to continue their order. Called the Fratabarnelli Order of Brotherhood, the monks were Martian geneticists, cloning engineers and transhumanists who joined the Order of Talos. They followed the radical teachings of former Catholic scientist Jon Consigulio, who espoused the need to recreate man’s genetic code to form a more religious, disciplined creature. After some time, they were excommunicated from the Order of Talos for practicing immoral cloning techniques. The monks fled to Volarius and settled on the main world they dubbed Aenir. There they established a society where genetic modifications and cloning were unencumbered. Combining advanced Martian techniques and cloning with Order of Talos technology, the monks became a powerhouse of mutations and cloning. They created the Attican Kinship, a cloning community that produces cloned soldiers. The Kinship are altered clones, with genetic modifications to enable them to live longer and respond to their designated commanders without fear or question. The Sodality is filled with pan-human beings, a huge variety of altered species that no longer represent baseline humanity. It is strange, anarchic amoral religious society ruled only by the Hierarchs. They sell their Kinship clones to various bidders at extremely high prices. Fielding an army of Attican clones requires a exorbitant fortune but they are some of the most disciplined, fierce and toughest fighters in the galaxy.
The Antellian System is home to the world of Antellia, a temperate, hospitable world colonized by human smugglers and raiders. It has become known as the home to daring, skilled pilots and mercenary pirates. Ruled by a system known as the Antellian Cords, the Corsairs of Antellia are famous throughout the galaxy. Called harriers, these are dashing, flashy pilots skilled in their small, fast vessels as well as excellent marksmen and gunslingers. To be a true harrier, one has to be a skilled gunfighter and duels are very common place. Their fleets can be hired but for a very expensive price. Law and order is maintained by the Brethen Court of the Cords. The Brethen are a police and security force, complete with their own fleet. They are identified by their red coats and ceremonial sabers. Antellia is located on the main route out of the Fold and often harriers are hired out to act as security for ships going into the Fold. Many corsairs also make their living by smuggling the illegal goods made in the Fold into the civilized world.
The Mujadeen Pirate Clans raid the various travel lanes that are close to the Fold, retreating back into the network of gates inside the nebulae when pressed by authorities. They are united by the Mujadeen Bandit Sheik but he is little more than a figurehead. The pirate clans constantly clash and bicker but do pose a threat to any shipping close to Alviger. Often, the Mujadeen war with the Antallian harriers protecting freighters.
The Alviger Fold is represented by the Combined Committee of the Alviger Fold. The Committee Capitol is located on Terminus. There are many hidden worlds and strange independent factions within the Fold.
Tannhauser Rift
The Tannhauser Rift is a collection of systems situated across the remnants of a light interstellar molecular cloud formed from several ancient supernovas. The Rift is near the Frontier, a thin slice of space in the middle of the current Fringe expansion area. There are over eighteen settled worlds inside the Tannhauser Rift, almost all belong to the Tannhauser League. The League is a loosely-organized government that seeks to preserve the Independence of the Rift. In reality, most Rift worlds belong either to Chaebols or Syndicates and are a haven for either tax-free corporate holdings or massive narcotic grow operations.
The Allehn Sakhament Foundation
The Foundation is a breakaway nation-state of both Covenant Earth and the Collective. A powerful sect on Hijjara, following the teachings of a self-proclaimed prophet called the Sakhament, collected a wide gathering of followers in both Primes and humans. The teachings of the Sakhament clashed harshly with the Collective’s ideals and cultural norms, shunning the largely secular socialist notions for a disciplined, quasi-religious society. Discontent with megacorporations, the Collective and galactic life caused a huge group of Hijjarans and other humans to relocate to section of space known as Cracaus Node. With them came several Prime species that followed the Sakhament as well. Mostly notably was the entire government and most of the population of the Ber Sabra people. The Ber Sabra were devoted to the Sakhament and had become disenchanted with the Collective. Several other governments followed and the Foundation is fast growing. The Foundation is viewed by many social scientists as a sign that the Collective’s cultural bonds are starting to break apart. So far the Foundation is small but growing influence.
The Sakhament is based around the True Aliens, the Allehn Taj. Giant, floating creatures that dwell in the high atmosphere of terrestrial worlds and inside gas giants, the Sakhament sect believes that the Allehn Taj are the answers to the galaxy’s problems. Claiming to be able to communicate the mysterious creatures, prophets interpret what the True Aliens pass down. There are signs that the Allehn Taj do possess some form of predictive reasoning and several advanced scientific discoveries have been said to stem directly from the Allehn Taj. What’s more, Foundation ships that have an Allehn Taj have shown the ability to use an advanced warp drive that rivals the speed of GAPTRAN gates. Such ships are rare but give the Foundation a massive economic and technological advantage. Others, most notably Wayfarers, have said that the ships are enslaving the Allehn Taj and that the Sakhement Foundation are simply slavers and extortionist in the guise of reverence. The Wayfarers have a worshipful awe of the Allehn Taj and claim that they are gods of some kind. Many Wayfarer abilities have been shown to be similar to that of an Allehn Taj. In truth, the Allehn Taj were genetically engineered creatures designed by the original civilization to be their navigators and travel engines. Only a few believe in such wild thoughts, no proof really exists.
The Ordained Society of the Holy Receptive Speakers of the Allehn Taj are the main controlling faction of the Sakhament Foundation. The Speakers serve as the military and social leaders of the Foundation. They claim to be prophets that speak directly to the Allehn Taj and interpret their will. The Speakers’ vast ships have Allehn Taj inside and can cause the Taj to fold space, transporting them instantly across the galaxy. Such abilities have made them the de facto leaders of the Foundations, as the Speakers enable the Foundation to have economic and military immunity from the rest of the Galaxy. A Speaker crusade is a terrible thing, as the vast warships arrive inside defense networks without warning and completely crush opposition. There is a growing movement in the galaxy against the Speakers, claiming that the Order is nothing more than slavers that have enslaved the Allehn Taj using cruel methods. There are claims that the Speakers extort the Allehn Taj to perform their unique abilities, securing their place in the Foundation. Wayfarers spearhead the movement, as they claim to be true communicators of the Allehn Taj and vehemently oppose the Speakers.
The Orthodox Faith
The Faith is the most dominant religion in the Collective and often seen as the only "organized" religion that the agnatus have developed. The Orthodox Faith was established by the agnatus sapiens known as the Phasers, who make up the largest population of Faith adherents. The Faith states that any beliefs an individual has towards the holier place of Eden will lead them there. The Faith is based on the idea of the Eternal, a holy powerful entity that created Eden and laid down the Seeds from which the various agnatus sapiens sprang from. The Faith teaches that all agnatus are offpsring of the Eternal, who is both father and mother. It is an abstract Faith and usually all-inclusive towards cultures and belief systems. Most in the Faith teach, however, that Earth is not the true Eden but rather simply another Seed. This has caused the Faith to brush up sharply with ancestralism. The majority of Primes, however, still cling to philosophical or ancestral beliefs instead of religious doctrine.
Members of the Faith refer to each other as brother or sister. All members of the faith are referred to as a single group called the “Lesser Devout” or simply the Devout. The clergy are divided up both by their ranks and their duties. The lowest-level of clergy are the monastic orders. Females and males may enter the monastic orders of the faith. These are self-sustaining enclaves where members of the faith study, scribe ornate volumes and work on furthering knowledge of the Eternal. They are called chantries after the morning and evening chants that the brothers and sisters offer up to the Eternal. A male chantry is called a fatherhouse, with those inside referred to as fraas. A female chantry is referred to a motherhouse, with the sworn sisters called nepas. The clergy also includes service-oriented members. Called seprons for males and sepras for females, these clergy serve as advisers to nobles, teachers, instructors and perform other lesser-ranked work. The next levels are the avout who minister and oversee a place of worship, called L. The higher-ranked clergy, only drawn from the avout, are known as Theoists and preach from mighty Monuments of the Faith. They oversee the administration of the church and make up the Reverent Council, which elects the Revered Apostle. Theoists usually have completed studies at several concents, large schools where clergy are taught.