[OOC] - Inter-solar Rodeo

[Harry O'Gane]

Roster is officially closed and no further applications are possible. In case you're interested, send me a PM, I'll send you a notification in case someone drops out.

An friend of mine recommended this very forum to me once I asked him if there were any people on the Internet who might be interested in a setting like this.

I've been GM-ing GURPS for a while now, and decided to give it a shot with PbP GM-ing. To cut with the boring introduction of mine, I'll just get straight to the point.

Setting name: Inter-solar Rodeo

Short Synopsis: For those of you who have watched Cowboy Bebop anime series, I guess there is not much to explain. For those of you who haven't, here's some brief info:

In 2022, a terrible accident happened on a testing facility on Moon. The research facility was testing a new prototype of hyperspace stabilizators, which would allow the humanity faster travel around the Inter-Solar system. However, the facility exploded into smithereens, therefore completely destroying Moon and spraying the Earth with asteroid rain of Moon's "leftovers". Those who could manage to leave Earth did so, eventually colonizing the nearest planet - Mars, which later became the main hub of human civilization.

As the years passed, wild technological discoveries started sprouting. Humanity invented fully functional hyperspace gates which allowed them to travel through the Inter-Solar system in a quick, yet inexpensive way. Asteroid belts between Mars and Jupiter were colonized, with Jupiter's satellites, as well.

It is year 2074 now. The Inter-Solar system is abundant with many self-proclaimed governments and colonies all from Venus to Jupiter. ISSP (Inter-Solar System Police) is appointed for the security in the System. The problem is, there is never enough cops to handle all the criminals, which resulted in creation of a "Bounty Hunt" system like in Old West. ISSP puts data of a wanted criminal online, visible to all the bounty hunters with a legal permit to see, and bounty hunters simply take on the job and hunt the marked criminal, preferably alive and breathing. Once they do so, they get rewarded in woolongs (Inter-Solar currency).

Average TL: Regarding transportation, it's on TL10. Fast inter-planar voyage is possible through hyperspace drives built from Venus to Jupiter. Spaceships of all kind cruise around the Solar System, big and small. Most of the ships, however, belong to Bounty Hunters all around the system, who keep on searching for criminals all the time.

Regarding weapons, it's TL 9. Roughly said, you could call this a "cyberpunk western" kind of setting. Transportation is really the most significant technology at the moment. Most people generally use weapons similar to those of the present day, since electrolaser guns are both rare and preposterously expensive.

Regarding power, TL is 9. High-temperature conductors and wireless power transmission is possible, which enabled high-range broadcast of radiowaves all around the System. Solarnet, (version of Internet in the year of 2074) is not available in rare parts of the System. Those who have enough woolongs to get their hands on a Hyperspace Environment Router (HER) may even browse Solarnet while driving through Hyperspace!

Regading biotech and medicine, it's TL9. People who lost their limbs, if they had a good insurance or just a lot of woolongs in their bank accounts, can afford to get their limb back in a more "metallic" manner. Medicine has been skirocketing for a while now. Cryogenic preservation, for example, has been available for 30 years now. AIDS is long since gone, and many diseases can be treated pretty efficiently nowadays.

Aliens? No such thing.
Magic? Nuh-uh.
Psionics? No, sir.

Characters: Characters are 150 pointers, with max of 40 pts of disadvantages and 5 quirks. Quirks are higly optional, you may put them on your sheet, but I really won't mind if you don't. The same goes with disadvantages.

There are couple of conditions when it comes to character creation:

First, almost every supernatural and exotic advantage/disadvantage is out of the question. However, if you could think of a way to... for example, through some technological (read: Cybernetics) devise a way to have a Dark Vision, feel free to elaborate. My word is final, however. The characters that are needed for this don't really need to be supercyborgs. As long as they know how to deal a punch or two, bribe a couple of crooks and are skilful with interrogation, they'll work out just fine.

Second, we deal with every kind of question via private mail when it comes to your character creation, and most important - background story. Before we even start the [IC], you will have a small solo arc, simply an introduction. In order not to spoil anything in advance, all characters will be acquainted with a certain NPC.

Third, don't worry about the combat. Most of my campaigns are based on espionage and puzzle solving. When it comes to combat, we can use Invisible Castle to pop out a couple of combat rolls and do the calculations. As long as your skills are high, you're pretty much safe. Rolls do not play a big part, in short.

Fourth, you will be getting points on either weekly or 2-week basis. Points will vary from 2-6, depending on your roleplaying ability and mission progression. Almost every mission you accept are story arcs of their own. I am not sure how fast paced they will be, but I guess you'll be able to solve them in a week or two. As 150 point characters, you are somewhat expected to be skilled.

Fifth, don't make a completely uncongenial character. Very few bounty hunters operate on their own, meaning lots of them team up on order to fetch bounties. Therefore, congenial and charismatic characters are the way to go.

And finally, sixth, there are a couple of roles your characters should take. The crew of bounty hunters should all be skilled in fighting. However, some specializations are necessary. Since you're travelling by ship, you'll need a good engineer and a pilot. A medic to heal some serious wounds, as well. A hacker to crack secret codes and open doors on abandoned satellites that might hold some important information. A character with a lot of contacts that knows his way around the System could also be very useful to the group. It's all up to you to come up with an idea. A lot of things can be put in 150 points.

Miscellaneous Feel free to ask questions. We're not starting until everything is clear to you. The setting like this might be very new to you, so I expect you have a lot of questions. How do people live? Where do they live? What's the situation with politics? General questions like that should be discussed here. Personal related questions - private mail.

I will put the roster down here. I am looking for a minimum of 3 players, and I guess the maximum of 6 players will be fine.

Roster

ErhnamDJ as Luka Garrett
kabbalist_ninja as Daniel Walker
Magdeburg as Blade
Galedeep
Michael Thayne
1iOneeyed

[ErhnamDJ]

Howdy.

I'm very interested in this game.

How are you handling the spaceships? And the ship combat? Will one of us need to put points into getting a ship?

Also, is Japanese the main language of the system (like it seemed to be in the show)?

Edit: Also, what sort of Legal Enforcement do we need to purchase to be a bounty hunter? Is it just a perk?

[Harry O'Gane]

Spaceship combat will be handled via couple of rolls. Piloting skill rolls, to be more precise. There is a high possibility something like this might occur, so spaceship combat will be pretty delicate and precise. If you're familiar with Cowboy Bebop series, you should've noticed that some of the characters own their own battleships they use in chases.

Piloting skills, therefore, should be specified to (Battleship - enter name here) in order to pull out various maneuvers in space with those. Main ship you will be boarding shouldn't concern you that much, since you'll all board the one the main NPC owns personally. Therefore, you might only put in points if you want a battleship of your own. The price of ships varies from 50.000$ for the lowest quality one. A battleship similar to the one Spike Spiegel uses costs about 400.000$. It includes a high-precision electro-laser beam, minigun turrets, escape pod, oxygen control unit and is capable of pulling many space environment aerobatics maneuvers.

Oh, yeah, starting wealth is 50.000$, now that you mention it. Treat the currency ratio of 1 woolong to be 1 $, for simplicity's sake.

Language depends on the area. Take English as the default language. Japanese is wide-spread, as well, so it's not a bad idea to put some point in there, too.

[EDIT] Forgot to answer the Legal Enforcement question. It's a perk, yes. You're not obliged to take it, all of the characters will get it free of charge. It's on the house :) However, you might already be a bounty hunter before even doing your solo story arc. If that's the case, Bounty Hunter perk costs exactly 1 point.

[ErhnamDJ]

Would you rather us post some general ideas about our characters here, so we can kind of tailor the group to fill certain roles (medic, pilot, etc), or would you rather do all of that through private messages with you?

[Harry O'Gane]

Since we're playing in GURPS system, I tend not to place particular "classes" for my players. However, if you wish, I'll post some guidelines here.

Gunslinger - a classic, Old West "shoot-em-up" character with excellent combat skills. This kind of character can take on pretty much every opponent on his/her own, fighting with either firearms or close-combat. A character like this could be useful when you're in a lot of fuss and fighting a lot of irrelevant thugs, so you have him/her to knock 'em all out.

Techie - an engineer that knows a lot about technology, spaceships to be precise. He/she could be skilled in any area regarding mechanics, electronics or computer operation. Modification of ships, gadgeteering etc. could all prove useful in long-terms. He/she maybe even has some gizmos on his own for combat efficiency.

Charlatan - a character with high social skills, which can get a lot of information quick, in any sort of way, be it seduction, interrogation or simply trickery. Characters liek this should have a lot of area knowledge skills, knowing their way around the System. Streetwise is one of the skills these characters should excel in, in order to find the criminals in a more... "shady" way.

Pilot - a character that could be a professional pilot, working as a freelancer. He should own a personalized battleship. This way, the crew could use him for missions where a lot of space-chase is required. He should also be skilled in navigation, know a bit about astronomy and have the overall knowledge of the Solar System in general.

Medic - a doctor, or simply a combat medic that offers his services to bounty hunters. A character like this may not necessarily be a fighter, but surely he/she could brew a tranquilizing poison of sort to more easily capture a criminal without harming him.

There, I was just throwing random ideas out of my mind. I hope you can get an idea or two on what kind of character you would like to play. You should not necessarily stick only to these I just wrote, because these were just MY ideas. It all comes down to roleplaying, after all :)

[Hannes665]

Sounds interesting, I would like to create a PC for this game. So if you like I´m in.

Btw for a pilot how would I "buy" the ship?

[Harry O'Gane]

Well you could either spend a couple of points in Signature Gear, or you could simply take a Wealth advantage.

If your question is more like: "How much is it gonna cost me if I have ship with 2 missile launchers, an oxygen control system, wireless wide-range communication device...?" etc... well, then ask me via private mail. I still haven't written down on paper how much does each and every part of a ship cost, but I have something in mind.

Think about what kind of battleship you would like, and send me a PM.

I hope my reply covered it up.

[Harry O'Gane]

I think something is bugged with my private mail sending system. ErhnamDJ, could you please tell me whether you received anything via private mail from me? Because it doesn't store any sent messages for me.

[Captain-Captain]

Before you send, there is a check list of options for you. By default the save message option is supposed to come checked, but it's possible yours was altered.

[ErhnamDJ]

I got your two messages. I just sent you a response.