Viking Sci-fi Western - OOC

[Nekomancer]

Link to the Interest Check
We are looking for a cast of 3 to 4 players, not including myself as GM. We currently have two confirmed players from the interest check, so there is still room for two PCs remaining.

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Re-posted from the Int-Check for convenience:

So basically I've had this idea for a long time. It's fundamentally science fiction, but the way the setting's inhabitants view the science-fictional elements is ignorant enough that technology basically fills the role of magic in a more classical Fantasy setting. Socially there are frontier, wild west, gold rush sort of elements mixed in with the more classical sword-and-sorcery fair. Even having said this as concisely as I can think to, I don't think I'm really explaining it in it's entirety. To that end I've put together a few paragraphs of flavor text and the important events of the setting's past.

A figure trudged quietly along through the knee deep snow, the ice-cold melt of it seeping through his boots' lace-holes. In the thick forest, the only light came from the gibbous moon as he walked without lamp or torch. Over his shoulders was draped a great fur pelt, clasped at the collar with ebony claws that could cleave a man's bones. Pulled up in a hood from the fur cloak was the beast's head, carefully skinned from it's skull and mounted to the man's helmet. The bear hide marked the man as a Berserker, a peerless warrior whose name was sung in mead-hall tales. At the moment he didn't feel very much like a hero; he felt cold, and irritable, and very much in need of a stiff drink and a fair-skinned whore.

Cresting the ridge that he was climbing up, the hillside below him opened up. A ways down the scree slope space had been cleared, and tracks for a cart had been laid. The metal rails disappeared into a depression in the hillside, a tiny little mine that seemed as though it had been abandoned when it didn't pan out. At the mouth of the craggy hole in the earth crackled a fire, and the silhouette of a huge man squatted in front of it with its back towards the hill. The berserker knew that it was no man, though. The scrap of parchment in his cloak pocket had lead him here, on orders from his Jarl. The thing warming itself by the fire was the reason he was out in the cold at this gods forsaken hour, chill moist clinging to his toes. That bastard's fault...

Feeling his pulse pound in his throat and his breathing become ragged, the berserker hurled himself down the rocky hillside towards his quarry. About half way down the slope a blood-curdling yell bellowed from his lips, which made the creature whip it's head about to see what was making the racket. Just as it did, a thunderous 'crack' ripped through the night's air, a lead slug burrowing itself in the thing's face. It staggered back, catching it's balance just as another slug caught it's jaw. By now the berserker had closed the gap, and was right on it's toes. His shotgun was empty now, but not useless yet. He held it by the barrel, the wooden stock pointed out like an oblong mace. Turning and heaving the butt of the gun into the side of his adversary's head, the tarnished metal braces that surrounded the man's shoulders and arms wailed with a high pitched keening, driving the make-shift club with an unnatural force into the thing's temple.

A wet crunching noise followed the contact, and the beast fell to the ground on its back, twitching. Plain as day, it seemed dead. He knew better though: nothing he'd done so far was enough to kill a Troll. Dropping his now-bent gun in the snow, he crouched by the Troll and lifted one of its massive arms over his shoulder. With an effort that made even his 'gauntlets of strength' struggle, he hoisted the beast up on his back. Dragging it the few feet it had stepped from the firepit, he tossed it onto the licking tongues of flame. The twitching became more violent, and a weak moan of pain creeped from it's lips, but it soon fell still as the campfire whisked away the last of its life. Breathing heavily, sweat covering his brow, the berserker sat himself in the little depression where the Troll had been warming itself until a moment ago. He could at least afford the time to warm himself before making the long trek back home.

These are fundamentally optional notes.
They are so far in the setting's past that they've faded from common knowledge, so unless you roll with an awesome historian as your character you don't really need to read any of this. That being said, it'll probably help you get a handle on how things are in the RP, and more importantly why they are like they are.

• Mankind originated on another planet, dozens of lightyears away. The original humans that came from that planet became advanced enough that their empire spanned the galaxy, and consequently they left colonies of people on every planet they managed to make habitable.
• That galaxy spanning empire collapsed eons ago. For all intents and purposes, they were the gods of mythology; they could do anything and everything, and they're beyond the reach of 'mankind'. The humans of Heimr, the world where the RP takes place, refer to these 'original' humans as the Vanir.
• About four thousand years ago the descendants of the original humans who inhabited one of their colonies developed to the point that they could travel between stars again. These people were the Dvergr, who eventually found their way to Heimr roughly a millenia ago.

These events are relatively recent within the setting, and consequently they're a lot more relevant to the RP. I highly recommend you read them.

• Upon arriving on Heimr, the Dvergr were flabbergasted to find other humans already living there. Confusion gave way to greed as the Dvergr realized that the people of Heimr were practically living in a dark age. The natives of Heimr, simply known as Man, were quickly oppressed by the Dvergr and pressed into servitude.
• The Dvergr that settled on Heimr established their rule throughout the habitable lands, heralding themselves as immortal sorcerer-kings and using their technology to crush any uprising.
• Many scientists among the Dvergr found their kind's treatment of Man abhorrent, but their influence among the Dvergr waned more and more after they'd established themselves on Heimr.
• A schism occurred among the Dvergr, and the militant group that had entrenched themselves as the rulers held a purge to root out the dissenters among them.
• This proved a fatal mistake, as along with the dissenters, much of the Dvergr's technological knowledge was lost. As the years wore on, this problem became more and more pronounced. Much of their technology became inoperable without anyone who knew how to repair or maintain it, and their place as the rulers of Heimr fell into peril.
• Six hundred years ago the Dvergr Empire fell. The military force that they could bring to bear against Mankind had decreased enough that rebellion wasn't unthinkable, and much of the devices that remained were simple enough that Men understood how to use them as easily as the Dvergr did. With superior numbers, Man won their fight for independence, and nearly held a genocide against the remaining Dvergr.
• In the current era Dvergr technology is rare, but not unheard of. It is considered magic, each instance of it an irreplaceable and often unique device. The jarls likely have small armories of ancient 'enchanted' weapons, stashed away in preparation for the unthinkable; and the king himself sits atop the old Dvergr throne, kept alive well beyond his natural span by unknown 'magics'. Mankind's technology has moved forward as well, to the point that cap-and-ball firearms and steam engines are the fairly common. The few descendants of the Dvergr that survived the uprising often try to blend in with Mankind, an easy task given generations of interbreeding. Those few whose families tried to keep their blood pure are looked upon with an odd combination of pity, ridicule, and bigotry. At any rate, even those that remain are rarely called Dvergr any longer. That term is reserved to speak of the monstrous tyrants that are now long left in the past, and there descendants are as much Man as any other man.

As far as the creatures that live on Heimr, they're pretty gnarly beasties. The flavor text mentions trolls, which are basically ten foot tall man-eating primates whose wounds shut miraculously, but the other wildlife is just as daunting. Giants, worgs, goblins, draugr (parasites that animate corpses), dragons, and monsters that have never been seen before, which warrant their own names.

Firearms are available, but as you've guessed they're expensive. For the most part weaponry is fairly primitive. A well equipped soldier would have a sword and shield, and ideally a spear along with it. The everyman probably has a sturdy knife on his belt, at the very least; and those more at home in the woods are probably fairly handy with a hatchet. The odd hunter here and there might still know how to use a bow, but it's mostly faded from memory. A hold's militia are usually armed with single-shot muskets. Chainmail is still the favorite method of defense, but obviously it won't help a lick against a shooting iron.

The RP is probably going to start with one of the Jarl's men rounding up a posse to run some trouble makers out of town. It'd probably be easiest to have the PCs as either part of the troublemakers or part of the posse, but alternatives are welcome.

Character Skeleton:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance: (Please provide a written description including their physical appearance and usual attire)
Position in Society: (This might be a job, a title, both, or neither. Use your brain)
Equipment: (If your character owns anything unusual you think is relevant to make me aware of, list it here)
Background: (A short history of your character's life would be appreciated, but is not entirely necessary. If there are elements you want to make important to the story but don't wish to share with the other RPers, PM them to me. No springing plot-derailing surprise BS on your GM)

[ultimateplay91]

This has a lot of potential. I would join if I had the time. You should put nanites somewhere in there. Nanites can explain away everything.

[Nekomancer]

Actually, I think I might make the Draugr animated by nanites. The Dvergr's solution to cheap labor in ages long gone. Makes more sense than parasites, at any rate.

[ultimateplay91]

Man eating nanite clouds sound awesome too.

[Azathoth]

I should be making a CS, I already have one but it feels to hastily put together and it is late here so I'm going to work on it tommorow.

[GreenGoat]

I want in. o.o

Once you say ok, imma make a CS

[Barsavis]

Character sheet is mostly done.
Boredbrain and I are thinking of doing relatives.

[Nekomancer]

I want in. o.o

Once you say ok, imma make a CS

Not sure what you mean by once I 'say ok', but go ahead and make up a CS, I'd love to see it. I reserve the right to tell you if it needs fixing though, so me giving you the go ahead doesn't mean that any character will be accepted from the get-go without even looking at them. For what it's worth, you're top of the list for filling the remaining spots since you've expressed interest first in the OOC.

Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on the specific wording, but I had a bad run-in on this forum with someone who insisted that their expression of interest and posting a CS meant that they had a right to play. I don't expect you to be nearly as pig headed, and your character is probably going to fit in perfectly fine, but I just wanted to clarify that I don't 'accept' any character until after I've actually read their sheet.

- - - Updated - - -

Character sheet is mostly done.
Boredbrain and I are thinking of doing relatives.

That's great to hear, I look forward to them.

[GreenGoat]

Character Skeleton:
Name: Davira Whiteblood
Age:22
Gender:Female
Appearance:5'2" tall and about 50kg in weight, she is a bit small, and well below most people's size. Her eyes are strangely green and a noticeable shade of blue in the other, with short red hair usually hiding her ears. Most of the time, she wears a hooded leather shirt made from deer skin, and a large fur cloak made out of wolf skin. Her deerskin gloves are lined with white fur, also from a wolf's, though her boots are made and lined entirely with wolfskins. Will also sport belts and harnesses containing various items such as tinder, flint and steel, I.e essentials.
Position in Society: Hunter, Tanner, Cook, and one of those live alone in the middle of the woods type.
Equipment: A well worn, well maintained and tarnished falling block action rifle. It holds only one bullet, loaded into the breech. Also has a simple skinning knife and an axe for those impromptu campsite makings. And as mentioned before harnesses and belts for those small essentials. And the clips for her weapon.

Background: The house in the woods was there for as long as she could remember. It was there when she was just a child, it was there when she was old enough to wander in the woods, and it was certainly there when she moved into it. Born of the Whiteblood clan, she is an anomaly for being quite smaller than her other clan members, but retains the fighting spirit and attitude. She is called the little wolf in her clan, for having killed her own wolf and making a cloak out of it(and a few others) when she was but 14. Patience is something she did not inherit from her clan, but had learned herself when hunting with her father's old gun.

She had moved into the old house in the woods when she was of age, preferring to stay near to the forest where she feels safest. Occasionally she would set out back into the city to sell meat in the market for gold, but usually she would be seen at her house, or encountered wandering the woods.

There. Short and simple. Opinions?

[Nekomancer]

My only complaint worth making a stink about is the bolt-action rifle with the stripper clips. I mentioned before that firearm technology is at the caplock stage; bolt action rifles using cartridges and magazines would be miles ahead of everything else in setting, with the exception of Dvergr 'magic'. If you really want a multi-shot rifle, there are caplock models that include a revolver mechanism.

Being able to quickly reload is not really possible in this setting because of the need to pack powder, wadding, and ball into the chamber, and then to either ramrod (for single-shot rifles) or lever (for any gun with a revolver mechanism) them into place.

- - - Updated - - -

On second inspection I may be being to strict. Cartridges are fine, I suppose; they were in use during the wild west, so why not. That being said, I still favor lever-action to bolt-action just as far as flavor goes. Cartridge weapons would still be considered really nice guns compared to caplock.