[OCC] Strange Neighbors
Welcome to Strange Neighbors, a space campaign.
Yes, we are still recruiting! Strange Neighbors will follow humanity's first FTL vessel to leave the solar system, as it embarks on its voyage of discovery. Players in Strange Neighbors do not play only one character: They play two main characters. This is because the commanders of ships shouldn't be part of landing parties, and because scientists usually make terrible soldiers. The characters should be separated in three ways: one is 200 points, the other is 150. one is a leader and decision maker, while the other is on "the front lines". This could simply mean they are the ship's drive actual engineer, and have no time to boss idiots around. they should be in two different departments. Don't be the Military chief and one of the soldiers. additional minor characters may be assumed. the disadvantage cap is functionality on the ship. Thats my call. You need to be reasonably able-bodied and sane. Of course, Scientists and diplomats can push able-bodied, and soldiers can push sane. I am making the following promises: The campaign should have the following:
While I own UltraTech and BioTech, these are not primary sources for the campaign, and not necessary (We'll be using tech with finer detail in one spot). Space is nice, and some characters ought to have spaceships, but all that is really needed is The basic set. Players can be any Character that would be found on the ship. The following are suggestions and character that will exist, PC or not: Chief Navigator Military Chief (they have one separate from the captain, fluff him as you will) Outpost director (leads those who will be establishing a post at alpha centari) Chief of Mining (associated with the outpost) Resident Full Cyborg (essentially no body, can use drones to "act" and can quickly acquire temporary skills. Only a few on board). Head FTL Scientist. List of Characters: samd6: Von Galbiso, Hydroponics Boss samd6: Kendal Ojeda, Pilot Poonbahbah: Dewey C. Howe,Head Mechanic Poonbahbah: Lieutenant Qwendolyn "Qwen" McKay,Space Infantry Dorin Thera: Captain Nathanael Crewey Dorin Thera: Linguist Dr. Abigail Crewey Lamech: Andrew Blackwing, Warp drive engineer momothefiddler: Charles Henry Adair, Outpost directory momothefiddler: Dmitri Khaslik, Ice prospector Lamech has promised me a doctor. |
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Basic Setting: History
In 2098, Robert Wood either invented or stole the engine that the world would come to know as the "Wood Drive". It was essentially a primitive Alcubierre drive. While the technique technically allowed FTL travel, the wood drive was limited to about .01c. Which while not practical to travel the stars, turned the world of humanity on its head. Wood managed to keep the drive secrete for long enough to build an economic empire by "happening" to discover blacked out asteroid after blacked out asteroid. By the time the rest of the world figured out what Wood had, he could sustain himself in space without assistance from earth. When The governments on earth (the big ones today are still around) discovered what Wood had, they declared it state property in the name of national defense. Wood, who was prepared for this, demonstrated his absolute tactical superiority in space and denied the governments of earth the plans to his drive. He seized the orbital stations and their valuable nanofactories (which only work in free fall). And proceeded to blackmail earth into some very one-sided trade agreements. Immigration was one way only, and a very intentional brain drain on earth. By the time earth finally figured out how the drive worked, Wood had built a civilization on the asteroids and comets of Sol. He had programs piloting cybernetics and human genetic engineering. If the nations had come at him with only the drive, they would have failed. Instead, they had a variant on the drive that forced conventional engines to be used, but was much slower itself. They began a bloody war, and in the end Wood was dead, and his empire scattered. Many of the "spacers" had maintained fairly earthly lifestyles, and where welcomed into the fold of humanity. The military machine of Robert Wood had made heavy use of genetically engineered soldiers and cybernetics. They where all hooked up to a network from birth, and could be taken over by the heads of their divisions at any time. As IAH forces uncovered labs where the breakthroughs were achieved, they became more and more convinced their opponents where no longer human. The title of "Humanity" made as a gesture to invite Robert and his followers to join, became a mark of rejection, of what they were not. The others migrated out, gained many of the weapons used against them, and became much more miltary in outlook, surviving to fight the IAH to a stand still. The IAH is no longer as strong as it once was. The enemy has been driven back to areas that were unobservable a hundred years ago. The great nations have been kept from space, unable to expand, as many of the habitats and colonies joined as allies. Earth his crowded, and despite the unlimited energy offered by Hydrogen Fusion, crowded and facing social issues. Their best and brightest are on habitats in space, or at worst, no longer human. |
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The Ship
The Honor of the Earth The Honor of the Earth is the first full size FTL vessel built by humanity. It is over 2,000 feet long, though it is also quite thin in most places. Its SM is +14 There are 15,000 passengers who intend to stake an outpost on the star, a military force of around 1,500 who are sent to protect them, and a crew of around 1,000. You are the Leaders and heroes of this crew. The Honor of the Earth Belongs to the IAH, and is crewed by its agents. Loyalty to your home nationality is expected. Official Languages of the Ship include English, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, and French. Unofficially, everyone but the French speak English. Military Units are attached to specific nations, rather than the IAH, and use their local language. The purpose of The Honor of the Earth's mission is to reestablish space superiority in the eyes of its members, by being the first to explore and establish an outpost on another colony. |
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I'm thinking of making both a linguist/diplomat type and a grizzled military type. However, I'm not sure which of these should be my front-liner. A few questions:
Is the front-liner the 150 point character, while the leader is the 200-point character? Or the other way around? Or do we get to choose? What cinematic advantages are available? Daredevil? Wild Talent? Danger Sense? What does IAH stand for? |
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I've decided I'm interested and have the working of a pretty darn good chief engineer up and running at 150
Could you please give us a better idea of what tech is at what TL, as well as main TL. I assume 9 with 10 in a few areas but would like more description please. Also what kind of gear should frontline troops expect to have? I was kind of hoping to make a battlesuit trooper/space marine. Edit: I'm going to guess it means something like interstellar alliance of humans. |
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Thinking full cyborg so far.
Following Dorin Thorha's questions, are Wildcard! skills kosher? (I'm fond of using them to avoid ridiculously long skill lists.) |
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This looks really cool, so good job! I think I'm getting in too many games as it is... although one of them might be about to fail so I might throw a character up.
If I do is gadgeteer kosher? (And more generally how would inventing work with the safe tech/split TL?) |
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You can choose which one gets the 200 points and which one gets the 150.
The IAH stands for the International Alliance of Humanity. It claims to represent humanity, mostly by claiming that those outside of its jurisdiction aren't human. (and for the most part, those people are cyborgs, genetically engineered, or both, and are a little fuzzy on this "human rights" concept. and aliens, but you haven't met them yet). The game isn't too cinematic. Wildcard! skills shouldn't be needed because you have your buddy for the odd problem, so no, sorry. Danger sense is fine, and daredevil is tolerable. Gadgeteer (25 point version) is perrmissable, but you need to have the other science skills to back it up. In all honesty, It will mostly be used to reverse engineer alien tech. It could also be used to combine existing tech to create new stuff that is useful for specific missions. Technology: this is a funky situation. First off: battlesuit trooper is the standard infantry of the setting. I am not using UT armor. The battle suits are as follows: name core/limbs ST Flexible (no skill required) 18/6 as user Light 45/15 user+5 Heavy 60/20 25 Full (-1 to all DX) 75/25 30 you can harden the armor by dropping the armor to 2/3,1/2,or 1/3 full DR. forget the cost, your patron covers that. The Suits have actual muscles built into them and electric ATP regenerators. Weapons: You'll be using lasers and conventional bullets, the artillery will include x-ray lasers that are non standard (1/5 laser damage, armor divisor 100). Any TL9 conventional guns are legal. For Lasers.... weapon damage acc range light pistol 1d 3 200/600 heavy pistol 2d 4 400/1200 carbine 3d 6 1400/4200 standard 4d 6 1600/4800 Heavy 5d 6 1800/5400 Massive 6d 6 2000/6000 Emplacement 10d 6 3000/9000 Rcl is 1, ROF is 2, armor divisor is 2 a fast weapon does half damage per shot but shoots 3 times as fast a heavy weapon does double damage, has +2 accuracy, double range, and shoots a third as fast. a Crystal based laser shoots ammo twice as fast for -1 accuracy. its usually used. you can also use traditional firearms with this table, which have half the short range and double the long one, a ROF of 3, recoil and do double damage. I hope that wasn't painful. |
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Might as well post Cybernetics publicly. This is not neccessary for anyone other than cyborg characters, who are divided pretty cleanly into light and full cyborgs. Cyborg Characters should probably take social stigma, especially the light cyborgs.
The following attributes are the common cyborg additions. Anything other than these should be an artificial limb or discussed with me before hand. Code:
all traits have two numbers given, one where electrical is considered a temporary disadvantage, |
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Ok, initial character concepts to check compatibility with the GM and other players: I'm thinking of playing a husband-and-wife team (or maybe brother-sister if the difference in their skillsets strains credibility). One will be an academic with linguistic and diplomatic abilities, ideal for making contact with and learning about new races, and the other will be a military character, who will be more "leader" than "space marine" (he will have combat skills, but more important will be his tactics and leadership abilities). I'm still not sure which of these will be the front line and which will be the decision maker. Both characters could fit both roles quite well with minor tweaking, but right now it's looking like it will be better for the military guy to be the captain as that role is still empty, so I will probably build the other as more of the "run after the artifact and get the away team into trouble" type rather than the lab scientist type.
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Does the spaceship have weapons on its hull? I.E. does the ship need a gunner?
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Dorin, The idea sounds good. It also explains what such a trouble-making scientist is doing on board. I'd go with sister, but thats just me. Make that call for yourself.
Lamech: Yes, the ship has weapons on its hull, Though it mainly relies on fightercraft. However, in FTL combat the main weapon is the drive itself, which can be duplicated and an alternate sent crashing into the opposing ship. This means the Pilot and handler of the biggest gun are the same. The rest of the Guns fire independently though, so yes, we can use a gunner. |
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I'm going to stat them up and characterize them, then decide if they fit better with each other as a couple or as siblings. Either way, it could also present some interesting sources of tension, since as you pointed out there's a little bit of conflict of interest going on (especially as what is good for the ship and crew is likely to often be at odds with what is good for Science).
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0_o -DX? They dont know how to design armor in the future? Or you just think it'll help game balance maybe? Is the armor's listed St flat or additive to what we already have? I'm assuming flat but assuming is often wrong.
By conventional bullets I assume you mean no APHC, APDS, or any of the other fancy ammo types from non-basic books. You may also want to design some gunner based bean weapons. I'm currently planning on using assume cannon and/ heavy chaingun find in UTpg 138 when not concerned about collateral damage, like on board enemy ships, derelict vessels, and planets. Are there any weapons you would recommend for onboard ship use so as to avoid extreme chances of unpleasantness? Or in other words what stands next to no chance of punching a hole in "The Honor of the Earth," or damaging any major ship system. |
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The Strength is additive for the light armor and flat for the other two. In the light armor your native strength makes a difference. In the heavier armors the armor isn't aiding your movements, its taking your instructions. Quote:
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This includes X-ray lasers, which will do 1/5 of the listed damage, cap at HP/2 for the torso or HP/4 for limbs, and have an armor divisor of (100). If the base damage is 10d or more the cap is doubled, and at 20d it goes away. The range is 5 times that of a laser, and cannot be produced with crystals. Of course, This weapon does not avoid collateral damage.... If you are facing off unarmored foes, your best bet to avoid damaging your ship is to use low output weapons, and standard police measures, which you have on board. That said, your hull is pretty tough, and if you have to shoot something, go for that. Though perhaps not with the chain gun. |
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I should have charecters posted by later today. First being a good ship engineer and the second a good space marine with leadership and tactics that I think would do well as an away team combat/security commander, but not the military chief. |
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Okay, I think I got my 150 point character pretty much done. If you guys think it needs some changes, let me know
Apologies of formatting is a bit wonky. Code:
Von Galbiso, Hydroponics Boss |
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As the Captain, am I required to buy Military Rank, Courtesy Rank, or does it come free with the job, and what levels of it should I have? I've got him down as Military Rank 5 right now, as the commander of a very important ship, but probably not someone with broad authority of the IAH military as a whole.
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(Somehow failed to post this. I think. I sure hope I didn't go posting it in some random thread -_-)
I'm going to be gone for a few days. I may have some internet access, but I'll be busy, and will not have access to character files and such. I should be able to get the character together when I get back. |
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Rank will come free with the Job. I hope this hasn't been keeping people from volunteering for higher positions. At the same time, Duty to the ship is assumed and you cant get points for it. Yes, this favors high profile people. You're supposed to be the high profile people. Captain has ship rank 6, which is technically military, but is outside the command structure of the soldiers on board. He has 5 ranks for the crew and 1 more for the civilians. As for overall authority, This is a big ship, and the IAH is mostly about coordinating its member's efforts. You can write the humble commander who stays out of politics and was thus chosen as a good candidate for an extended mission (you won't be missed), Or as a conniving politician who wrangled his way into commanding the first interstellar mission. Von Galbiso is mostly good, except for rank (which is to be expected). If he's going to be in charge of Hydroponics, his rank will be either administration 3 or ship 2. the other guy will be around. This depends on whether he is a military hydroponics man, or part of the outpost. Just edit the post and let me know, you don't have to post him again. also, farming is an IQ skill, not a DX, and it and Gardening default to each other at -3 (which moves your 8 around). Also, could you group your skills under headings: military, academic, spacer, biologist, farmer, background, ect. It makes it much easier for me to read and to see what you can do. also, This doesn't affect cost at all, but I'd like to know where each character came from. Any modern nation is free game, with the small ones you can meddle with the history. You can also claim a space station, the moon, mars, or a moon of Jupiter. |
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Ok, good to know. The Duty and the Rank I had pretty much cancel each other out anyway, so the fact that they don't count for points won't really change anything. I think I actually come out a bit ahead.
My characters are just about finished. They will both be from the US. The captain is a veteran officer who distinguished himself in the earlier part of the war when the IAH was struggling to make headway. He's a national hero in America, but he's recognized everywhere as a superb officer and he is an attractive choice due to his lack of political connections or partisanship. Skillwise he has a very broad assortment of soldierly skills which are actually rather lower than his reputation makes it, but he is undeniably a tactical genius and a master at leading people. The other, his sister, is a rising star in the field of xenology. She has an incredible gift for communication, and talked her way into this expedition because she is determined to find and make contact with alien life forms. In the meantime, she will apply her talents to ensuring that the ship's passengers and crew remain sane and content. Mechanically, both are very focused characters, designed to excel in a single role, although they both have a respectable assortment of low-level background skills. Oh, that reminds me: are the average officers in this setting more likely to carry beam weapons or conventional sidearms? |
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Depends on the militarily force. I'd say that the IAH and the larger but poorer earth nations prefer propelled weapons, while the US, European and most Space nations (they're forced to be nations to join the IAH) prefer lasers, the US and Europe because its high tech, the space nations because for them energy is cheaper than metal.
oh, and as a thought, who's older and by how much? do we have a captain who's overprotective of his little sister, a fierce rivalry between the two, or a scientist who tells stories about the captains youthful misdemeanors? or something else. you might want to make note of other siblings (or lack thereof) and parents as well, as it might come up between the two. |
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Okay, hashing the finer details out with ericbsmith, but my other character is going to be one of the scout pilots. He's something of a general pilot, but is best suited for scouting.
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PCs
The Mechanic
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The Marine
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Does the ship have spin gravity?
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[QUOTE=Poonbahbah;1395639]Man portable or ship portable only? If man portable, via St 30 or less, how effective is it at stopping bullets which in my mind are just very small shells. Maybe we should all pack some beam weapons just in case.[QUOTE]
current bullets are intentionally made to avoid the problem. Yes, Its man portable, and you have access to it. Against shells its drops the rate of fire by 80%. vs. metal(not lead) bullets it gives a -1 to hit to the attacker. If you use heat-armored bullets (which are standard at the moment) you can ignore the effects. Quote:
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are you sure weird science is what you want? in this setting it doesn't have much to do with reality. You might want to convert that into warp physics or something like that. Quote:
you're also spending a lot of points on skills: you might want to put some of those into talents or attributes, which will have the same effect for a better price. |
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And Mechanic (High Performance Spacecraft,) since it's definitely not contragravity, covers; controls, hull, motive system, power plant, transmission, and even the paint job. para from B pg 207 I'll put some more points into other tech skill though not that I've got some more freed up. Quote:
Thanks for the feed back. I'll edit them soonish. |
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Ahhh.... There is a huge FTL/STL gap in design. They are separate skills, but I'll let them default at -2 instead of the normal -4. You can specialize in Mechanic or engineer for either version, which will include the structural parts for both of them. The main ship is FTL, with many STL craft.
Ships in this setting rely on a "carrier" model. you have the main ship, with lots of other ships to perform individual tasks. So you have fighters for both FTL and STL, as well as small freighters and landers for STL. Also keep in mind that the ship is quite large. sorry to anyone who hasn't realized the FTL/STL paradigm yet: A ship that is half decent at one isn't good at the other, unless doing both is the only thing the ship does well. Common ships include Massive FTL carriers, Small fighters of both kinds, Mid sized STL freighters, planetary landers, and scout ships (which do both FTL and STL). If you're thinking isn't FTL new? yes, it is, but the technique is over sixty years old. |
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Would anyone who is familiar with the weapon options care to help me design a really tricked-out laser pistol to be my character's sidearm? In the past I've always played melee fighters or non-combat characters so I'm a little lost. Money is no object within any reasonable limits, as I have points available for Sig Gear if needed.
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weapon Damage Acc Range Wt. RoF Shots St Bulk Rcl NotesQuestion Did I get it all right? Want to post something like this but with non-question marked stats? Can multiple options be taken, like Crystal based Heavy Standard Rifle? @Dorin Thorha Inspired me to do the above, hope it helps. You can also get weapon bond perk for +1 skill with a single weapon individually suited to you, as well as increase firearm quality for 2* or 5* cost with the benifit of +1Acc/Malf and +2Acc, +1Malf respectively. See pg B280. Hope that made sense. |
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you can over fire your laser, which is the only time we use malfunction rules: you start at 18 and each shot over lowers the malf by 2. the round after that goes to 1. the effect is over heating, so ROF 2/3 can fire every turn. It can also fire twice or more in a turn. Rapid fire changes this penalty to -2 per 3 shots. Warning: the malfunction isn't a jam. you cook your weapon, and you cook it badly. This doesn't apply to the crystals. Cystal lasers use ammunition, not power cells. The ammunition is rechargable though. With an adequate power source it takes 15 seconds to charge a single crystal, though they are usually found on belts or in clips and not removed. When the crystals fire they change shape, so you can tell whats been fired. They can be set off with an electric charge outside of a weapon, though that usually means you're trying to do it. Pistols carry 20 shots and take clips that weight 1/5 of the gun weight. The riffles use belts, clips, or drums with 20 shots being 1/10 of gun weight. a standard laser has two settings: the normal and either rapid or heavy. this doesn't apply to the crystals. The guns also have the option to hook up to a standard power source (such as a battle suit) and take their power from that. you can stack fast and heavy on top of each themselves, with just fast and just heavy as the other option for the weapon. the crystals can be applied to single heavy and single fast. No fast heavy weapons please, they're opposites. fast doubles the amount of ammunition, heavy halves it. There is no weight change. As a special note, a heavy crystal weapon has ROF 2. Code:
weapon Damage Acc Range Wt. RoF Shots St Bulk Rcl NotesAs a note, they do make pistol versions of the riffle sized weapons for battle-suit troopers (halve the range though). And I added a second emplacement type weapon for those in heavy Battle suits, as the first one doesn't reliably penetrate the heaviest suits. It relies on a suit or ship power source though. For the captains "tricked out pistol" remember that we're throwing around some nice armor here. What is the pistol for? piercing armor? discipline? impressing subordinates? impressing peers? |
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Updated my PCs As a note Dewey seems more like a chief mechanic over chief engineer. Like a crew boss that can get the job done in an hour and a half where most would get it done in three. Although with his administration and experience he can organize and prioritize maintenance actions, overhauls, and upgrades. Which is more like a production superintendent. Pro Sups have to make all kinds of decisions, none of them particularly glamorous. I'm just not sure if that counts as enough of a Decision Maker. Thoughts? And Qwen, well she's just plan scary when fully tricked out. And I should probably get her some nonlethal grenades. Although I find myself near the character limit for that post. |
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This may seem weird, but can one have a Heavy heavy pistol or Heavy heavy rifle?
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Ok, here's the stat blocks for my two PCs. Both of them are essentially talent monkeys, especially the linguist: alien-related skills obviously aren't available from the start, but her high talent allows her to become an expert on alien psychology, society, etc with a very short period of study. I'm thinking that her role on the ship might actually be that of Psychologist, seeing to the well-being of the crew, but of course her personal ambition is to make First Contact. The captain has insane Spacer, Leadership, and Intelligence Analysis skills, as fitting for a renowned strike fleet leader, as well as excellent Strategy and Shiphandling skills. He won't compete with the dedicated combat specialists, but he has enough skills to lead from the front if needed.
The Captain
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The Linguist
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Basically, I have two extremely socially focused characters, but he's good at managing soldiers and crew, while she's good at managing passengers and aliens, and they each bring a valuable secondary skillset to the table: tactical planning for him, and interracial communication for her. EDIT: Backstory Nathanael and Abigail Crewey are siblings. They grew up in what is left of the rural United States, which is to say not much of any economic significance. Gale, the younger by five years, was always more ambitious than her brother. She went to extreme effort to get herself into the university climb social ladders, and do whatever it took to get herself to somewhere where "things were happening". Nate, on the other hand, loved what was left of his family's hometown, and devoted his efforts to preserving it against the inevitable march of society. When he was 24, the worsening tide of the war prompted him to volunteer as a spacer. His ship was captured almost immediately after it entered the conflict, and he was a prisoner of war for several months. During that time, he succeeded in gathering a huge amount of valuable information, and finally staged a break with some of his fellow prisoners, hijacking one of Wood's cruisers and leading enemy forces on a wild chase across the solar system. This daring escape captured the attention of the nation, and in the years following he rapidly rose through the ranks on a wave of amazing victories, showing an incredible talent for anticipating the moves of his enemy and motivating his own troops to follow him. During all this time, Abigail continued to drudge away at her studies. Fascinated by the possibilities the Wood drive could provide, she devoured all available information on the subject of alien life. She rose to some prominence in academic circles for he work on sociolinguistics, but was continually overshadowed by her intrepid older brother. When the Honor of the Earth expedition was announced, she pulled every string she possibly could to get a berth on the ship. With luck, mankind is soon to make its first steps into a larger world, and it will not do to have them taken by anything less than the best. |
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A couple of notes about player background: Anyone born off of earth was on the loosing side of the recent war. This includes the Moon and the Lagrange stations. They switched sides part way through, but they started off as part of Wood's empire. Also, the small debris of the solar system has been completely rearranged, so there is for instance, quite a few large objects orbiting mars. Just be aware of that.
@poonbahbah Dewey looks great, backstoryWise be aware of the above. Qwen is missing freefall, and most combat will be in under .1 G's. I don't follow Qwen's armament, particualry the part where a chain gun does 15d+15, and I am going to have to say no to the gyroharness. sorry. other than that it looks good. Also, is Qwen with a British Unit assigned to the outpost or doing security for the Honor? Rank is 3, as a lieutenant, unless you want higher. as a side note: being a chief mechanic is probably better. The chief engineer is who you go to when you say: Tell me how we can do what the alien ship did. The chief mechanic is who you go to ask how far into the gravity well you can get, or when you need to know when the thing will be fixed. The chief engineer exists: he keeps on wanting to tinker with your stuff. @Dorin The captain looks good, provided you can tell me the source for "intuitive admiral". I wasn't expecting the "spacer" aspect, but it works. The Linguist is looking up as well. I could really use some names for the characters though, as well as where exactly they are from (the US is a big place). @samd6 Von Galbiso needs a first name, nationality, and a status with either the outpost or the ship. Your pilot is also looking about ready to post, but if you want to wait until we sort it all out, that's fine. yes, you can have very heavy weapons. The Crystal and Chemical propellant versions don't exist, but the Lasers have a fire rate of .5: one round is spent building the laser, and you can't over-fire it. There is no additional accuracy bonus, and the other setting on the weapon is always regular heavy fire. as a note, so far we have: The Hydroponics Boss The Head Mechanic An Infantry lieutenant. The Captain A linguist Characters I have been promised: A pilot. (ok, I technically have that character) There are two players who may jump in later, and two who said they'd get me sheets but I haven't heard back yet. |
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So some sort of social stigma for Dewey? 0 point or -5 point social stigma (2nd class citizen, spacer?) He probably did help in the war effort, he's certainly old enough, as a civilian contractor at a shipyard/drydock type of thing. Also I don't think you've mentioned/stated his rank yet. Right now I'm guesstamating 4 ship as chief mechanic reporting to the Captain. The engineer should be able to answer the gravity question too, at least per spec of the ship.
The engineer's welcome to tinker on extra extra spares, stuff too much trouble to fix, or way down on the priority list. Any thing more then that well need a very convincing arguement and/or the Captains orders. Qwen does have free fall. It is under other because it doesn't strike me as combat/stealth but considering the setting maybe I should move it? Two or three rank is what I was expecting and fine. Edit: just noticed a question... Qwendolyn is security for the honor. Though this does bring up the question, does the IAH have it's own military forces? If it does that's what's she's a part of and not the UKs. APDS gives AD2, +1damage/die, and half again as much range. I could switch it to the cheaper APHC that only gives the AD2 if you like. Most of her gear comes from ultra tech the sensor is in chapter three about pg 60 and the HUD and stuff come from about page 150. Well, at least that shaves of 75 lbs off weight. |
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Intuitive Admiral was originally published in Interstellar Wars, but I got it from here. Names and a few more details on the backstories will follow, I just usually have a hard time settling on a name until I've let the personality simmer a bit.
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Adrian Von Galbiso is a citizen of the US, and has Administrative rank on the ship
The pilot
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@samd6
looks good, although this seems to be the third character with "less sleep". Is the plan for every one to meet off duty in the time they don't sleep? just kidding. I find it a humorous the advantage is that common though. @Dorin. okay. Talent accepted. @Poonbahbah I'm looking everything over... mostly I'm trying to even stuff out with the table given (yes, you've seen the laser version, but it applies to lots of stuff, including conventional weapons and alien weapons will be using it). I think its pretty even with UT at the low end, I just forgot the whole p+/- thing at the high levels. Without that the chain gun is really close to a rapid emplacement II, baring ST. Would you feel cheated if the damage type went down to p-? This is mostly to keep everything on the same page. No social stigma is necessary. The stations that switched sides really helped win the war, and currently have quite of a hold in the IAH. There is something of a culture difference though. The IAH has its own military, though the bulk of its forces belong to individual nations. In an joint operation, the IAH serves as the coordinator for all the other forces. It is also the default force for things like pirate removal. Its funding has weakened with the end of the war, and part of your mission is to provide the IAH with legitimacy in another role. ahh... I see freefall. Yeah, in this setting its just as important to combat as stealth. |
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Note that both of my characters with Less Sleep also have Workaholic and either Insomnia or Light Sleeper. It's not after-hours partying, but long nights at the bridge or in the lab.
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It looks like this is our set of characters. I'd like to open the IC thread on monday. Characters can still be added, as this is a very large ship. I would appreciate having names at that point.
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Names and backstory added for Nathanael and Abigail Crewey. I did some guesswork with ages/dates, since I'm still not 100% sure I understand the timeline of this game, but basically he is fair amunt older and was stealing starships from under Wood's nose while she was trying to get a thesis published. In the time since the war, he has been fairly quiet, while she has been steadily making a name as a rising star in the social sciences.
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names look good.
The IC thread is up! any character should feel free to act, but not required unless they have been given a specific task (no one has yet). You can give character responses to the assignments as you like, and then you will start getting kinks in the mission (because this is an adventure!) this is is also a good time to ask questions about The Honor of the Earth. It is a Pure warp vessel (in this case, pure FTL) that has a speed of about 4c. It is only lightly armored, as any warp vessel, but the drive has been weaponized. It has a central shaft and three long arms, with a larger nob on the front of the shaft. The habitats are in the arms, the hangars closer to the base of the arms, the control room, hydroponics, and cargo are in the forward nob. The stats are as follows: +14 SM ( the ship is 600 yards long and the arms have a wingspan of 300 yards) front: 1: control room 2: hydroponics 3-4: cargo 5: Fixed Mount (uses drives) 6:armor core: CNO reactor (burns any hydrogen) center: 1-3: warp drive 4-6: habitat core: CNO reactor back: 1: warp drive 2: CNO reactor 3-5: Hangar 6: cargo Different areas have different amounts of gravity The habitats have a full earth gravity (g) while the control room, hangars, and hydroponics have .5g, and most everything else has much less. (the warps drives in the center section have 1.5g, though you spend most of your time attached to the outside and trying to hang on. |
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You accidentally called Captain Crewey captain Dewey. I'm gonna blame auto correct on that.
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@Dorin
Captain my captain I think we're waiting on you. @Eric If I'm consulted about this mysterious ship do I have any plausible ideas besides aliens or a secret mesubrain project? Though I don't think I've got any good skills to roll against for that. |
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And I'm wishing now that I insisted on putting the "decision" characters closer to the captain. oh well. |
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Both my caracters seem kind of useless here(that's okay though)
Von Galbiso might see the captain daily, but almost certainly has no usefull skills that someone doesn't posses at a higher level, unless you count making the captain a nice cuppa. Pilot Ojeda could take a support ship out to investigate, but doesn't know about the tailing ship yet. |
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So I'm guessing we're waiting on Captain Crewey? Come on Dorin.
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I am having trouble registering at invisible castle. Are there any other good verifiable die rollers?
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Is this dead, do we need to do something, or what? I don't want this to be dead yet.
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This is a combination of Dorin Thora needs to respond, and me being the middle of reunion season (yes, its a season). I suppose we could give out a couple of temp PC's and have the conversation. (when I say temp, I mean name, rank, and social interaction skills at basic levels).
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Is there something more I need to do? I assumed we'd hear the results of the support ship's scans first: I won't know how to proceed with hailing them until after I get a more positive ID of the ship.
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Oh, I feel like an idiot. I've looked at the page several times without seeing the captain's plan. my bad. lets proceed. I'm very sorry about the oversight.
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No worries. Just if your waiting on something... Tell us! I am not a mind readers no matter how often I might pretend to be one.
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Is there any particular reason why Crewey shouldn't tell them this? I've been assuming that the mission was pretty well-publicized (since it's largely a propaganda effort) but I don't want to mess things up by assuming.
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You've been given permission to decide which star to visit and the director of the outpost will decide where the outpost goes. Your orders are actually to visit both, but the order was not specified.
The issue is that that while the main system is a more prestigious location, Proxima Centari is closer, and If you go to the main system the others could beat you to Proxima, or vice versa. Assuming they want to get their first, which is pretty likely. The publicity was intentionally started after you cleared known mesubrain space. |
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And could you clarify what the political situation between the IAH and the Mesubrains is? Obviously we are rivals, are we talking quasi-war like the French and US in 1798, "hinder as much as possible without shooting" like cold war soviet-american, or just rivalry like the modern US and China?
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Quasi-war. You could describe it as the state of affairs between the two koreas, or between China and Taiwan. You won a 50 year cold war that turned hot for 10. Both sides are sick of fighting, the mesubrains are essentially hiding in fairly deep space, and neither side recognizes the other. You're not talking to a foreign power, you're talking to a war criminal with a private army. He's one of the more pleasant war criminals out there, but he is still a war criminal.
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Are you still recruiting? What skills does a second in command need exactly? Also what skills does a navigator need other than navigation?
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You'll want to be good at navigation both in and out of space, astronomy is also going to be important, as is a decent understanding of how warpfeilds work (that's a physics specialty). You're job will not only be guiding the ship but dealing with unusual warp phenomenon. The Character also needs a military background
The second in command needs decent skills in space strategy, as well as skills reflecting what he was before he joined the ship. Administration skills are also important. I hope this helps. You are also free to suggest another character, particularly a "front-line" character. |
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A doctor is not a bad idea though. |
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I hope you aren't waiting on me to post, I think we determined I'm the head mechanic. I'm a good mechanic but I'd probably need skill 21+ in warp drive engineering in order to make any useful modifications to the ships drive, and maybe gadgeetering too. At least that's what I think after taking a quick look at the new invention rules in campaigns. So the head engineer is going to have to be an npc until someone wants to make them.
A frontline doctor would probably be more like an EMT then a "proper" doctor. They would still be very handy to have though I'm sure, however you want to make them. For your stay on ship charecter I'd recommend either of the two that have already been mentioned or a proper engineer who can invent things. |
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As for invention rules: they are non-cinematic unless you are reverse engineering something you've been able to see closely. Tweaking will be a bit different, and a lot easier to do, but with much less spectacular results. |
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Also with the right build a skilled doctor would be able to be quite helpful on the physical side of learning about new species, just like my psychologist can do on the social side. Having a high enough IQ+talent to pull off default rolls for alien Physiology specialties could save our skins someday.
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Also how broad are the specialties, and how big is the default specialty technique. |
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Specialties will be along the lines of systems or specific problems: cardiovascular system, cancers, microbes, reproduction, general (if its in your abdomen), and so forth. The penalties will be assigned as they come, but you can get up to a +4 in any of these fields or something like it for 1 point per bonus. Your first field is free. sorry if this seems complicated, my family is infested with doctors, and I can't bring myself to say "Its all one specialty". Most issues shouldn't require specialties, and there should always be someone with the right specialty. I If you want hints, you'll be running into aliens, which should suggest either an injury focus or a microbe focus. Dealing with toxins might also be a good idea. |
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Anyway alright then assuming no objections, the characters will be a second in command/inventor, and the ships doctor/front-line medic. How much rank is the second in command? |
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second in command is 5, but rank is free and duty is not counted in point totals. with the doctor make sure to pick his place in the command chain, whether low or high (and remember rank is free, but so is duty).
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The second in command. Its not done, but it somehow adds to 200 points (I thought for sure stuff would have needed to be cut out). If understand correctly the second in command doesn't need to be military right? So the rough outline would be a warp designer, top tier, and therefore close to the people working on this project. Her/his expertise and intelligence in other areas end up allowing her/him to move up in the ranks, and eventually is high enough in rank, and qualified enough to be chosen as second in command. As the story gets done disadvantages and other "flavor" skills needed for the character will be added, and other things may be dialed back if points are needed. Right now its just the bare bones second in command/former engineer/still capable of invention, it will be changed. Oh and the second character would be the doctor. I was think world class doctor in his/her field, and dating the second in command. Gets a strong recommendation, plus is more than qualified and gets a spot on the ship. No rank other than what comes with being the ships doctor. |
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It appears that all humans in the future have been selectively bred for low sleep requirements, haha.
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My only complaint is that the second in command is just as good a biologist as my hydroponics boss, which means that Von Galbiso would be even less likely to called to do something beyond routine work.
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this guy needs to be able to get into the military. he is it, even if he is in a chushy branch. a couple of points in guns, soldier, military saviore faire, and the like are in order. I'd also look long and hard at his physical status. As built, he's the head engineer who can take over in emergencies. If thats what you want, thats good and fine, but he's not the second in command. Also, I usually don't have problems with disads, but You've bought Four levels of IQ! and thats bugging me.
also, where is the character from? its actually kind of important around here. Quote:
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So I just got off a stargate universe binge, and I'm reeeaaaly tempted to start taking insperation from Rush.
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Anyway the idea was more of a second-in-command who can also improve systems and understand alien tech when its called for. Less sleep provides the time for that. Although if you think a head engineer who can step in under emergencies makes more sense that works too. (I actually think that might make a good bit of sense if Poonbah won't mind.) Quote:
Alright then while not fleshed out character backstory skeleton, to make sure I don't conflict with any of the assumptions in the setting. Start with a normalish smart kid. He goes into the military to get a good education. Goes to school practices a bunch of areas (smart remember). When that is done he continues with the military (or he went to school while a member of the military) gets a position on a space ship. Continues with the promotions eventually reaching the second in command of the ship. Most Recent iteration of the character sheet
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Rough outline of the doctor: the 150 pointer.
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The other skills will be dependent on her background, as well as some additions I'll throw a few things together so she can operate on the front line). Basic idea a kid from a reasonably well off family. Got into a decent school studying for medicine. She did wonderfully. While at school she met my first character and they started up a relationship, which has continued up until this point. She did well in medical school quickly graduting and making waves as a expert surgeon. The first character used his connections to get her a spot as a civilian doctor aboard the ship, with a position as a "special contractor" so they can take her off the ship if they need a particularly good medic, or more likely in the grand scheme of things, analyzing alien physiology. Yes, I suck at names. And the more that I think of it, the more making my first character an inventor/tinkerer/person who takes charge in an emergency the better it sounds... |
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