XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come (STC)

RP Overview:
This Roleplay takes place in the XCOM: Enemy Unknown Alternate Universe, following an alien invasion and subsequent two-year war in which Humanity is victorious. If you are unfamiliar with XCOM, don't worry! This all takes place years after, and little to no knowledge of the game itself is required.

Essentially, this RP boils down to a conflict between individuals who are able to access key parts of their brains (and thus perform otherwise impossible feats) — Psychics — and the rest of the world. Out of fear, the very world governments that harnessed their gift to win the war plan to segregate, isolate, and — potentially — exterminate the Psychics, due to the threat they pose to the balance of power. Players will take the role of a Psychic, caught up in the struggle; or, perhaps, as a human (augmented or otherwise) compelled to pick a side and join the global revolution.

Character Sheet:
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Occupation:
Appearance: (Written descriptions are fine, or a picture — no anime)
Nationality:
Trait: (Put either Psychic, Augmented, or Enhanced, followed by the type or ability — see below. If the character is not Gifted or has not taken advantage of the alien technologies in some other way, put None)
Strengths: (Must have the same number of strengths as weaknesses, unless you have no Trait — then you may have an additional strength)
Weaknesses:
Personality:
History: (As much or as little as you'd like. What was their upbringing like? What did they do during the War — did they fight? Hide? How did they pick up the pieces after humanity won? You have creative license on this one.)

Name: Zeke Lambro
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Occupation: N/A
Appearance: Zeke has pale white skin and a tall lean body with a short beard of brown hair. His fore head is pretty tall and blue lighting can be seen underneath the surface of the skin. His eyes are black where it should be white but other then that he has normal blue eyes. His left hand is coloured similarly to a sectoid and is smaller then his right, more human like, hand. When walking he does so with a natural hunched type posture but can walk with a straight back if he puts his mind to it. He usually wears a brown Ushanka along with a puffy fur type coat and baggy jeans to give him a somewhat normal appearance. He also wear aviators when ever he can.
Nationality: Canada (Flip yeah!)
Trait: Enhanced
Strengths:
-Zeke has telepathy and Empathy thanks to his gene mods.
-He has enhanced strength.
-He can release a EMP type wave from his head that has a range of about one or two yards and can harm enemies in a close proximity. This is done via overworking his brain and the resulting neurological energy being discharged.
-He has a second heart.
-He is able to dampen some psi powers inflicted on himself
-Zeke's body can produce a air born chemical that when released will begin to heal any organic substance it come in contact with so long as the wound isn't to serious. (I.E it can heal a stab wound but can't heal a severed arm unless recently detached)

Weaknesses:
-his healing chemical takes a while to be produced and is sprayed from his mouth much like spit so while it heals it could also infect said wound and isn't as good as proper medical care.
-his body is more frail in certain parts of his body
-If his second heart is damaged then he will begin getting scatterbrained as his blood won't be pumping oxygen to his body as quickly.
-When he uses his EMP power he will go blank for about a minute falling to the ground and being able to pass as a dead person which leaves him vulnerable.
-He is visibly different from most so he would be unable to pass as a human from close up.
-Zeke will sometimes have uncontrollable coughing fits due to his human parts trying to reject his alien parts. Sometimes he coughs up blood.
-Sometimes he will loosing all feeling in a part of his body making it a big distraction when doing anything.
Personality: He has a pretty happy attitude where it takes a lot to get him down but a lot has happened to him so he's got a somewhat case of mood swings if something small happens. He has a strong dislike of discrimination which can easily bring him to violence easily.
History: Zeke was 23 when the aliens attacked. Throughout most of the war Zeke hid away trying to survive and hope that no aliens would attack him or his family but when an attack near his home town devastated a squad of XCOM soldiers he decided that he could do a better job of that. Sadly when he applied he was turned away as he possessed quite a few hereditary and environmental disadvantages such as poor eyesight, asthma and missing his index finger. After being denied into the XCOM Zeke continued to survive the ensuring Alien invasion when he was offered an opportunity to have his 'disadvantages' erased or negated via some stolen alien technology. He was offered all this by a man wearing some odd business apparel and a weird tattooed arm. After he was inducted into the modification of his disadvantages he realized that they weren't in this for helping Zeke, these were EXALT operatives testing out new gene modifications on Zeke to see if they would work or not. The next few months were completely voided in Zekes mind but once he started remembering again he was wearing a hospital gown standing over the carnage of some sort of van with multiple people strewn around and worst of all his body was disfigured in a terrifying amalgam of human and alien anatomy. Zeke quickly fled the scene and found his way back home to find out he had lost his home, job and his family was gone without a trace. He also found out that he had new capabilities thanks to his alien anatomy and was even 'gifted' which must have been diagnosed before his gene mods were put in since they now seemed to be developing extremely slowly or not at all. Zeke tried to get a job for a while but began his stay as a homeless person after a few months when he found out people didn't want to hire a alien human hybrid.

Name: Basso "Eagle-Eye" Martinelli

Gender: Male

Age: 37

Occupation: Has a job as a firearms instructor, but he's actually a member of The Eye.

Appearance:

(Use this for facial reference)
Basso has a lean, perfectly built body, a side effect of the XCOM project's genetic modification program. His leg muscles appear normal, if not a bit bigger than usual, and they're extremely dense to the touch. On top of this, Basso's striking blue eyes are unnaturally deep, as if they had a few extra layers to them, and instead of being red, the veins around Basso's eyes are orange with the meld substance that flows through them.

Nationality: Italian

Trait: Enhanced with some low-level Psychic

Strengths:
- Basso is an extremely skilled marksman and soldier, having served under the XCOM project as a sniper during the Alien War.
- Due to his enhanced eyes, Basso has depth perception and clarity like no other, and can take shots with his sniper rifle unassisted (that is, without a scope) as good (if not better) than with a scope. Only extreme distances (distances that would push the average high-end sniper rifle's range limits) would require him to use a scope. Not only is this good for sniping, but this also makes him really accurate in general.
- The enhanced muscle density in Basso's legs allow him to jump far higher, run faster, and leap further than any Olympic athlete could ever dream. If allowed a running start, Basso could clear gaps fifty feet wide. With a running start, he can jump up four stories, two stories without one. Basso can sprint at a top speed of forty three miles per hour, and maintain a steady run at thirty four miles per hour.
- Basso possesses the ability to mind-merge with another willing human, joining their consciousnesses with his own and forming a sort of two-person hive mind with them. This bond can only last for a couple minutes at most, however.
- Having fought in the alien war from beginning to end, Basso's utilized all the different kinds of fantastic, reverse engineered alien technology developed by XCOM. He's perfectly comfortable and familiar with these items.

Weaknesses:
- Basso's dense leg muscles and enhanced eyes require a lot of maintenance, and put plenty of strain on his metabolism. He's always feeling peckish, and going for too long (around four hours) without eating something can negatively affect his performance. He can still get eight hours of sleep without any problems, as his body's dormant during that time, but he usually wakes up ravenous from hunger after a long night's sleep.
- Basso's eyes are extremely sensitive to sudden increases in light levels
-Basso is usually left with a performance-lowering headache after mind-merging.
- Basso suffers from a sever case of PTSD, and is prone to mood swings.
- Because of the widely varied nature of the Meld substance running through his veins, Basso needs to take biweekly (that is, twice a week) shots of Meld Stabilizer. These shots are provided to Basso by the government. Missing out on more than one shot can result in his gene mods going haywire on his body, with death being more than possible for him.

Personality: Basso's a quiet, reserved man, and naturally prone to being a loner. However, he does try to be friendly and open when he can.

History: Basso was born in Rome, to Roberto Martinelli, a semi-professional hunter and Reginalda Martinelli, who worked accounting for a small computer company. He was raised in an active and supportive environment, picking up his father's hobby so he could go out on hunting trips with him. When he was nineteen, the first accounts of alien attacks started coming in, and soon after that, the destruction of Rome. In a blaze of plasma, screams, and violence, Basso's entire life came apart at the seams. After the Battle of Rome was over, nothing was left. Most of the city was rubble, and Basso did the only thing he could think of.

With his father's rifle, he joined XCOM. After being part of several successful missions, it was clear that Basso's potential was going unfulfilled. He was signed up for the gene modification program, and his performance only grew from there. About halfway through the war, he met another soldier, a Psychic Frenchwoman named Martinie. Their relationship was a classic case of battlefield love, with many late nights in the barracks. It was through some interesting...practices that Basso developed his own small psychic abilities. They talked about getting married when the war was over, but when it all finally ended, things fell apart yet again.

Basso was allowed to retire with a pension and government support for his gene mods, but Martinie was a different case. When the act was passed to relocate psychics to internment camps, Basso and Martinie were forcefully seperated by the very same people they had sacrificed their very humanity to save. Bitter with hatred, Basso continued with his life, joining up with The Eye to help fight against the ungrateful government that condemns perfectly innocent people.

(placeholder while character is being made)

Rocketrobie: You're accepted. I was hesitant at first because Zeke seemed a bit overpowered, but after reading your weaknesses I think they compensate (especially with the fact that he is noticably different than a normal human and can't blend in well, nice touch). The only thing in there I'd like corrected — and this may have just been my mistake when I was clarifying it to you — was the part about Zeke's psychic abilities. He wouldn't have received them as an effect of his enhancements; rather, he must have been tested as Gifted before/after the enhancements were done, and the chemical modification stunted the development of his psychic abilities (this isn't XCOM canon, but it's really the only way I can prevent an overpowered supersoldier character with mind control abilities from popping up). That's it really, just change the wording on that part and you're in!

Daglobster: Your character is also terrific, and definitely accepted. Just a couple things though: I like how you went with Basso joining The Eye, but I do want to warn you that The Eye isn't the focus of the RP. That is to say, most characters won't be joining them, but rather a separate organization with less.. Hateful, destructive methods. The Eye, although not the antagonists, will often be at odds with the player characters. You're certainly welcome to have Basso remain in their ranks, I just wanted to make you aware of that. Second, and this is literally.. The smallest thing ever, I'm just picky (sorry): Would you mind changing Augmented to Enhanced in your traits? I'm trying to make the distinction between genetic modifications and mechanical ones with that wording change. Augmented would imply that Basso was a MEC.

Name: Odysseus Earl Gray.

Gender: Male

Age: 35

Occupation: Ironically a Mechanical Engineer

Appearance: Fighting a Mectoid. Otherwise was a muscular, tall man and previously into heavy weapons.

Nationality: American

Trait: Augmented---MEC

Strengths: During the war, he learned more of technology within permission and reason. His strength is rather reasonable and is in tuned with technology. The expertise of explosives was also not lost. He was even very willing to collaborate with Dr. Shen, a man he admired during his tenure, thanks to his design creativeness.

Weaknesses: Due to his nature as an ex-MEC trooper, he is rather crude and clunky compared to the gene modded or psionic ex-troops. He often has a hard time with occasional clumsiness. Due to caloric reductions, he does not have much of an appetite and often has to force himself to eat and drink during social situations.

Personality: Reserved on his history, he prefers talking about the present and future. Sunk costs do not slow him down as he feels himself as too smart to fall for that fallacy. Having half the patience of a saint, he believed that good things came to those who wait. He never seriously asked to be a MEC, but eventually took it as punishment for his rash decisions. He plans on meeting with what remained of the XCOM project to make it up and redeem himself in what he calls a second chance.

History: Before the aliens invaded, he was head of a moderately wealthy family consisting of a nuclear family back in San Francisco, California. Odysseus was also a veteran of the Afghanistan war, which would be interrupted by the invading aliens. An ex-demolitions expert in the United States Army, he was "drafted" to the XCOM project. Rather than complain about being chosen, he chose to roll with it. He did well up until lieutenant when facing a Sectopod. Rather than risk his entire team, he thought that if he's going down, he'd take the robot with him in a suicide bombing attack. Though he was oddly close to the Sectopod, he fired his rocket with both of them in the radius. The Machine was destroyed but he got severely injured after the collateral damage. His reasons for his actions would be to sacrifice himself for the good of humanity. To him, the needs of billions outweighed the needs of one. By chance, he managed to survive the fireworks display with his armor in the factor. Though he was willing to wait at least a week to recover, he now found out about the MEC trooper initiative. Though he though would rub salt in his wounds by making him a MEC when he was weak and sickly rather than being strong and healthy. Though he vocally objected internally and considered it a tactical waste of resources, the complaints fell on deaf ears. Ultimately, he thought that the MEC Trooper augmentations would give him a second chance boost for sure. After the war, he thought the Council of Nations would be making a ruinous decision. Why disband XCOM? What if an alien power vacuum was created? It was typical for humans to do this: Win a war but lose the peace. One of his quotes in support of his comrades was, "At least don't give the brave, hard-working, and enthusiastic XCOM veterans a mug of dog piss and call it beer." Somewhat pacifistic, he objects to extreme ideas and wants his cohorts to win the peace rather than squander it.

FortunesFaded said
Daglobster: Your character is also terrific, and definitely accepted. Just a couple things though: I like how you went with Basso joining The Eye, but I do want to warn you that The Eye isn't the focus of the RP. That is to say, most characters won't be joining them, but rather a separate organization with less.. Hateful, destructive methods. The Eye, although not the antagonists, will often be at odds with the player characters. You're certainly welcome to have Basso remain in their ranks, I just wanted to make you aware of that. Second, and this is literally.. The smallest thing ever, I'm just picky (sorry): Would you mind changing Augmented to Enhanced in your traits? I'm trying to make the distinction between genetic modifications and mechanical ones with that wording change. Augmented would imply that Basso was a MEC.

Oh, I didn't know we'd get the chance to join a pro-psychic organization anyways, I thought The Eye was our only option. Also, consider that tiny edit done.

Daglobster said
Oh, I didn't know we'd get the chance to join a pro-psychic organization anyways, I thought The Eye was our only option. Also, consider that tiny edit done.

Yeah, sorry I should have made that clearer. I alluded to it in the prologue with Tanaka recruiting the kid in Trafalgar Square, but I'll add something in the World of XCOM directory.

Prologue? I'm afraid I don't know where that is. I looked in the initial OOC post, but I couldn't find it. If that was in the interest check, then I skipped over it, since I didn't bother looking for one. I think Basso's going to stick with The Eye, though. It makes more sense for his backstory that'd he'd have more rage against the system than others. The other players might be able to convince him that violence isn't the way, though.

Daglobster said
Prologue? I'm afraid I don't know where that is. I looked in the initial OOC post, but I couldn't find it. If that was in the interest check, then I skipped over it, since I didn't bother looking for one. I think Basso's going to stick with The Eye, though. It makes more sense for his backstory that'd he'd have more rage against the system than others. The other players might be able to convince him that violence isn't the way, though.

Ha, that reminds me — I forgot to move the prologue over from the interest check to the OOC. Thanks mate ;) It's quite fine, I was going to be writing in-part as the leader of The Eye anyway so your character will definitely have ample opportunity to develop.

Yeah. So, as far as I can gather, there's going to be two pro-psychic organizations, and PCs are (for lack of better terms) going to be split between peaceful and more radical methods, but with the same goals. Is that about right?

Daglobster said
Yeah. So, as far as I can gather, there's going to be two pro-psychic organizations, and PCs are (for lack of better terms) going to be split between peaceful and more radical methods, but with the same goals. Is that about right?

For the most part, yes. With CN 113 now in play and psychics are being taken from their homes, there is going to be an obvious increase in The Eye's membership. Initially I intended for The Eye to serve as a secondary antagonist — hindering the primary group's efforts to broker peace and such — I'm more inclined to change that and make them more critical to the storyline now that PCs are part of the organization.

The other group will be led, initially, by Colonel Tanaka of XCOM, the highest ranking (living) Psychic XCOM soldier in the world. As mentioned in the prologue (which I finally posted, haha), every other high-profile Psychic soldier was killed off by the Government or is missing.

The way I intend to structure the hierarchy of each organization is that initially, the GM's characters (Tanaka, and the Leader of The Eye) will be in control. This is temporary, and I'm hoping to gradually establish clear leaders amongst the PCs, one of whom per organization will end up leading. By the time this RP has been running for a while, I hope to have each organization completely player-driven with little-to-no intervention from myself.

That's pretty damn cool. You know, when I came across this for the very first time, my first instinct was to create a government aligned character, someone who could play the villain (sort of like that evil doctor lady from Infamous: Second Son), because I love being the villain, but I decided to play Basso, because Basso's an actual soldier from my own XCOM games. Given, I toned him down a bit since he was a bit of an utter badass (120 base aim snapshot sniper, fully gene-modded and kitted out to the point that he can solo entire groups of enemies through clever abuse of the low-profile ability/chameleon skin gene mod and the In The Zone ability), but he's still every bit my favorite guy ever.

Still, despite all the brilliant work you've done so far as a GM, I still don't have a sense of man's technology level. Are US soldiers toting laser or plasma weapons? What about medicine, transportation, all of those everyday things? I know I sound super nitpicky, but there isn't a real sense of setting yet.

Unless if you're already in the process of writing all that stuff down. Then don't listen to me, I'm silly.

Daglobster said
Still, despite all the brilliant work you've done so far as a GM, I still don't have a sense of man's technology level. Are US soldiers toting laser or plasma weapons? What about medicine, transportation, all of those everyday things? I know I sound super nitpicky, but there isn't a real sense of setting yet.

No, it's quite alright! Most of this stuff I come up with in my head but forget to write it down (and ultimately forget it, period), so I'm glad that you're pointing out these things. I'm writing up info on the various fields you mentioned now, to stick in the World of XCOM directory.

Where is this World of Xcom directory, anyways? Is it the hider up in the first OOC post?

it says theirs 2 full body MEC's

Well i really wanted to play one but screw it instead of full body (MEC's always saved my ass in XCOM EW) Ill go with the bionic appendage one's

Off to work :)

Since people are avoiding MEC's I've got to say I am probably going to go ahead and play one. Be nice to roleplay a character who has two sides, strong in armour yet pretty weak out of it

Daglobster said
Where is this World of Xcom directory, anyways? Is it the hider up in the first OOC post?

Yep!

The Fated Fallen said
Since people are avoiding MEC's I've got to say I am probably going to go ahead and play one. Be nice to roleplay a character who has two sides, strong in armour yet pretty weak out of it

Okay! I should probably mention that in order to actually have the suit of armor one is accustomed to from XCOM, the character must be serving a government or military force in some capacity at the time of the CN Mandate. The suit is government property, and wouldn't be granted to a civilian or retired soldier. However, it's your character's choice either to stay with their respective government — and fight any dissenters to Mandate 113 — or go AWOL and join the revolution.

Alright, neat. For the advancements that aren't covered specifically, I'm just going to assume cities and stuff in general's more advanced, and if I get something wrong you can just tell me. Since laser weapons are pretty much run of the mill now, and only poor people use ballistics, can Basso's sniper rifle be of the laser variety? He not only has he served in XCOM from beginning to end, he's also a firearms instructor (which I guess should be changed to laserarms instructor), so it's not much of a stretch that he'd have one.

FortunesFaded said
I should probably mention that in order to actually have the suit of armor one is accustomed to from XCOM, the character must be serving a government or military force in some capacity at the time of the CN Mandate. The suit is government property, and wouldn't be granted to a civilian or retired soldier. However, it's your character's choice either to stay with their respective government — and fight any dissenters to Mandate 113 — or go AWOL and join the revolution.

Roleplaying!