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Old 08-19-2013, 11:44 PM   #1
Agemegos
 
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Default [OOC] The Starship 'Fritjof Nansen'

FLAT BLACK

The Voyage of the Starship Fritjof Nansen

Here we come, ready or not!


The Voyage of 'INS Fritjof Nansen' is not open to more players.
  • Premise: Forty years after the end of fifty years of ruinous and exhausting "Formation Wars", the Eichberger Foundation — now called "The Empire" — has recovered and rebuilt enough to start returning to the hinterland beyond 60 light-years from Sol. There are a lot of colonies out there: six hundred, of which fewer than two hundred have been explored at all since the destruction of Earth. The Empire has commercial, naval, and humanitarian interests in the Beyond; obviously the first step is a quick survey to find out what's out there in the way of problems and opportunities.

    A preliminary attempt by the Imperial Navy to conduct such as survey without professional diplomatic skills and expert social and political advisors ended in tears, wars, progroms, and a suicide.

    So now the Navy, the Imperial Office, and the Colonial Office have combined their efforts to produce Survey, an ambitious program in which 24 specially-constructed starships under naval command will explore six hundred worlds in ten years. Each Survey frigate is operated by the Imperial Navy and carries a big stick of sorts, but it also carries a small diplomatic mission from the Imperial Office, a team of multi-disciplinary explorer/scientists mostly recruited from the colonies and commissioned by the Colonial Office, and a few marines in case of emergency. It's not half an administrative headache.

    INS Fritjof Nansen is one of the Survey frigates, heading out into the Black to visit a list of worlds where people have indeed been before, but no-one knows what they have been up to for the last three or four centuries.

  • Genre: Serial rationalised planetary romance with a pinch of rationalised space opera.

  • Setting: FLAT BLACK, a star-spanning dystopia optimised for rationalised planetary romances and a dark and cynical tone.

  • Characters: the four players, each taking several parts, will play the four senior officers who decide policy, the four diplomats, a coterie of four among the explorers, the four key officers in fighting the ship, and the 'action' team of Imperial Marines commandos.

  • Participants:
    • Agemegos (GM)
    • jmurrell
      • Captain Lowell (Mission Commander)
      • ? (Aide to the Ambassador)
      • Dr Joshua Rabin (Social Anthropologist)
      • Pvte Dimitri Feodorevich "Bear" Karapyetchenko (Imperial Marines commando)
    • martinl
      • Lt Leah Bohn (astrogator)
      • Her Excellency Wukitelamy Drolegant (Ambassador-at-large)
      • Dr Kyth Haroldsson (social dynamicist)
      • Pvte ? (Imperial Marines commando)
    • sir_pudding
      • Lt-Cmdr Tomiko Eichberger (Chief Engineer)
      • Specialist Ada Solaris 496 (Spokesman)
      • Lt Kim Strickland (Military Intelligence)
      • Cpl Brent "Bucky" MacAdams (Marines detachment leader)
    • zorg
      • Sblt ? ? ("Astronomer" (gunnery officer))
      • Title ? ?, esq. (Counsellor at Law)
      • Prof. ? ? (Dean of Survey)
      • Pvte ? ? (Imperial Marines commando)
    See page 8 for summaries of the characters.
  • System: GURPS
    • GURPS Spaceships 1, 3, & 5
    • GURPS Low-Tech
    • GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1
    • GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3
    • GURPS High-Tech
    • GURPS Ultra-Tech
    • GURPS Bio-Tech
    • GURPS Social Engineering
    • GURPS Space

  • Schedule: two turns per week, as follows.
    • GM posts: 1400 UTC Monday
    • Deadline for character posts: 1400 UTC Wednesday
    • GM posts: 1400 UTC Thursday
    • Deadline for character posts: 1400 UTC Saturday
__________________

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Last edited by Agemegos; 09-05-2013 at 09:50 PM.
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Old 08-19-2013, 11:45 PM   #2
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Last edited by Agemegos; 09-15-2013 at 02:54 AM.
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Old 08-19-2013, 11:45 PM   #3
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Default Complement of 'INS Fritjof Nansen'

Complement of Imperial Navy Survey frigate INS Fritjof Nansen
Billets are colour-coded for branch of service as follows: Navy, Imperial Office, Colonial Office, Marines. Billets in boldface indicate the members of the Staff Committee with whom the Mission Commander consults on strategic decisions. The forum handles of the players of PCs are indicated in bold red.
Mission Commander, (captain, Imperial Navy) jmurrell
First Lieutenant & 'A' Watch officer, (lieutenant-commander, Imperial Navy)
Astrogator & 'B' Watch officer, (lieutenant, Imperial Navy) martinl

Astronomer (Gunnery officer) & 'C' Watch officer, (sublieutenant, Imperial Navy) zorg
intern & relief watch-keeping officer, (midshipman, Imperial Navy)
Chief engineer, (lieutenant-commander, Imperial Navy) sir_pudding
Second Engineer, (lieutenant, Imperial Navy)

Third Engineer, (sublieutenant, Imperial Navy)
Buffer, (chief petty officer)
Coxswain, #1 shuttle, (petty officer)
Flight mechanic, #1 shuttle, (astronaut (proficient))
Coxswain, #2 shuttle, (petty officer)
Flight mechanic, #2 shuttle, (astronaut (proficient))
Relief coxswain, (petty officer)
Relief flight mechanic, (astronaut (proficient))
'A' Watch foreman & senior electrician, (leading astronaut)
'A' Watch lifesupport technician, (astronaut (proficient))

'A' Watch mechanic, (astronaut)
'B' Watch foreman & senior mechanic, (leading astronaut)
'B' Watch electrician, (astronaut (proficient))

'B' Watch lifesupport technician, (astronaut)
'C' Watch foreman & senior lifesupport technician, (leading astronaut)
'C' Watch mechanic, (astronaut (proficient))

'C' Watch electrician, (astronaut)
Ambassador-at-Large, (senior executive 3rd class) martinl
Counsellor, (executive officer 1st class) zorg

Spokesman, (executive officer 2nd class) sir_pudding

Aide, (executive officer 3rd class) jmurrell
Dean of Survey & Chief Economist, (senior researcher 1st class) zorg
Head of Natural Sciences, & Chief Planetologist (senior researcher 2nd class)
Ecologist & Agronomist, (senior researcher 3rd class)

Microbiologist/epidemiologist/medical anthropologist/medical officer, (senior researcher 3rd class)

Physical geographer, (research officer 1st class)

Oceanographer, (research officer 1st class)

Meteorologist, (research officer 1st class)
Head of Social Sciences & Chief Anthropologist, (senior researcher 2nd class) jmurrell
Social dynamist, (senior researcher 3rd class) martinl

Technology analyst & development economist, (senior researcher 3rd class)

Political scientist & semiotician, (research officer 1st class)

Social anthropologist, (research officer 1st class)

Agronomist & human geographer, (research officer 1st class)
Military analyst (lieutenant, Imperial Marines) sir_pudding
Marines section leader & Action team leader, (corporal) sir_pudding
Action team scout, (private (trained)) martinl

Action team gunner, (private (trained)) jmurrell

Action team rifleman, (private (trained)) zorg
Base team leader & EW, (lance-corporal)
Medic, (private (proficient))

Sapper, (private (proficient))

Fitter, (private (proficient))
__________________

Decay is inherent in all composite things.
Nod head. Get treat.

Last edited by Agemegos; 09-15-2013 at 02:44 AM.
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Old 08-19-2013, 11:46 PM   #4
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Default Re: [OOC] Starship 'Fritjof Nansen'

<reserved for ship specifications and fit-out>
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Last edited by Agemegos; 09-15-2013 at 02:43 AM.
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Old 08-19-2013, 11:52 PM   #5
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Default Character assignments

The Voyages of the Starship 'Endeavour' is an unusually complicated campaign, because each player will be writing four or five characters. And that means that we have about eighteen to twenty characters to design, fit to each other, and stat up. I am afraid that that means an usually large amount of work. There is no way to eat an elephant but one bite at a time. So let's get started.

The first task is to work out who is going to play which part in the council-of-war: Captain, Ambassador, Head of Survey, and Military Intelligence Officer. The way I want to do it is this is a bit of work for you lot, but it will save a lot of time on to-and-fro negotiations. Besides, I wear the viking hat! Roar!

I'd like each player to submit a tender in which you give a brief (one paragraph, five or six bullet points) description of each of eight characters:
  1. the captain you would like to play if you got to play or had to play the Captain,
  2. the ambassador you would like to play if you had to play the Ambassador At Large,
  3. the dean you would like to play if you had to play the Dean of Survey,
  4. the military analyst you would like to play if you got stuck playing the Military Intelligence officer,
  5. the Imperial Marines section leader (corporal) you would like to play if you got stuck playing the military intelligence officer (sic),
  6. the XO, chief engineer, gunnery officer, astrogator, or naval intern (midshipman) you would like to play if you don't get the Captain,
  7. the First Secretary (public diplomacy expert), Counsellor (advisor on interstellar law), or aide (Secret Service bodyguard) you would like to play if you don't get the Ambassador, and
  8. the Survey specialist (scientist/explorer) you would like to play if you don't get the Dean.
I'd like you to do this blind, that is, without co-ordinating with the other players. Send your tenders to me by e-mail at <the obvious e-mail address>, do not post them to the boards.

I will assign parts to players on the basis of the tenders. Then you will do actual character design on the forums, discussing details with each other (and my hat) and making any changes that might be necessary to adjust the characters for fit: but only the ones that are going to be played.

I'm aware that dashing off eight character concepts is a lot of work. Blame yourselves for undertaking to play multiple characters! Keep the tenders brief and basic: remember that the characters will be adapted from the concepts you outline, and don't waste skull-sweat on superficialities that I'm only going to ask you to change.

Don't rush yourselves on this. Think about it for a while, then sleep on it at least once, and then think some more. Don't write a thing before Wednesday night, and don't send me anything before midnight Thursday. We'll start character generation on Monday.

Remember that this campaign is set in 532 PDT, which is very early in the history, before several characteristic institutions got to develop. The Empire is not divided into sectors yet, the Capital has not been built, the Senate has only about 76 members and can actually debate. The marines have never yet had every battalion suddenly used as cadre for a whole new regiment. There is no Independent Commission for Justice. Hostilities in the Formation Wars ended only about forty years ago. Elderly people (over about 110) actually remember a time before the Formation Wars began! http://flatblack.wikidot.com/timeline
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Last edited by Agemegos; 08-20-2013 at 05:29 PM.
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Old 08-20-2013, 12:02 AM   #6
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Default Re: [OOC] Starship 'Fritjof Nansen'

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip
Roger. Will archetypes/figures from literature/moving picture thingies suffice?
Provided always that you steal from the best!


— Brett
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Last edited by Agemegos; 08-20-2013 at 05:57 PM.
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Old 08-20-2013, 08:45 AM   #7
martinl
 
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Default Re: Character assignments

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agemegos View Post
The Voyages of the Starship 'Endeavour'
Did someone complain about "Icebird?" I kind of liked it....


On the off chance you have it easily available, are there pointers to more info on any of the colonies you listed? I spot checked Todos Santos on the FB Wiki and hit a blank article. No need to write anything new, but I get the impression you have a lot of this data somewhere.
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