The year is 2169. Humanity has flung itself into the stars, well beyond the confines of the Solar System. An overpopulated Earth population realized that the only way to sustain its way of life was via cooperation and coexistence. Thus, the United Earth Federation spearheaded the journey beyond its blue and green planet, to colonize sectors of space both known and unknown. At first, colonization of the Solar System was achieved via slower-than-light travel. Generations later, the invention of the spacegate system allowed mankind to send matter from one location to another. Years of travel became weeks, allowing for the seeding of colonies on the very periphery of known space. Scientists, volunteers and entrepreneurs willingly leapt farther and farther on a quest to discover new worlds, stars and lifeforms.

Eventually, the probe UES Pathfinder found some.

---

Sound interesting? Mobile FRAME, or FRAMEs has been my brainchild roleplay for around four years now, spanning multiple chapters, offshoots and iterations. Most of these have come and gone, falling prey to inactivity, but especially my own failure to nurture and maintain the pace of the roleplays. Despite this, I keep coming back to FRAMEs, out of emotional attachment and a desire to see it succeed.

I can't say with certainty I'm ready to launch an entire, self-contained roleplay by myself this moment: what I'm seeking is a dedicated group I can call on to help develop the setting. The above is only a preliminary idea; I want to share this setting with friends passionate both about mecha as a genre and about worldbuilding. I reiterate: I need a strong, tight-knit core of users to call friends, to help set FRAMEs on track again.

If you're unfamiliar with FRAMEs, this series has always been envisioned as a retro-styled sci-fi setting. It draws inspiration from a range of anime, videogame and tabeltop RPG franchises:

• Armored Trooper VOTOMS
• Patlabor
• Macross
• Front Mission
• Heavy Gear
• Mekton
• Battletech
• etc...

It revolves around the exploits of pilots and their FRAMEs (F.ully R.eactive A.rmored M.obile E.ngines). FRAMEs are mechs chiefly inspired by those of VOTOMS and Heavy Gear: small, mobile, humanoid (but not always) vehicles adapted for warfare.

FRAMEs is intended to blend space opera, cyberpunk and pulp sci-fi elements. Themes include political, economical tensions and conflicts of human nature. The format is episodic, with a balance of in-and-out-of-cockpit action. I also welcome opportunities for character development and even romances, friendships and rivalries.

It's an ambitious project for certain; that's why I'm asking for helping hands.

You have my interest and thensome. If this doesn't take off, I will actually cry.

IS IT BACK

@KRAYZIKK ITS BACK

Well I'll be damned.

Count me in again, if we can get this going.

@GarlandDaHeroHi there! I appreciate the support! The short blurb at the top is merely a backstory proposition for an upcoming installment. What I intend to do is gather a core group of members and work together to create a setting and scenarios that we actually want to roleplay. By spreading around the work in this kind of collaboration, I hope to keep interest in the series alive and kicking.

@Plank Sinatra@KrayzikkOh gosh, this made me blush; It really feels great knowing other people are enthusiastic about something you've created. And it's always great to see old faces return.

You can bet your ass it's back. Or it will be, once we all come together and bang out our vision of the setting. But yes, for all intents and purposes, work on FRAMEs is resuming!

We're always keeping watch for mecha based interest checks, and I've been hoping for a while I might see this come back.

Count me in, for sure. To play, to world build, all of the above. Pretty much my idea of fun.

I intend for a good chunk of the work to be done via chat system. Discord has always been a favorite, but not everybody uses it. Chatzy is an accessible option, though I don't like the interface so much, and nothing seems to take off with Piratepad. I'm all ears for suggestions, else we're probably rolling with Discord. The channel function is too handy.

Discord would be my vote. It's not a personal favorite, but it's what pretty much everyone has switched to and I'm loathe to set up another venue for communication.

@Aristo

I'm agreeing with Krayz and saying we should go with Discord. I'm on it every day anyways, so it's really convenient.

@GarlandDaHero@Plank Sinatra@Krayzikk

Sounds fair. I'll PM each of you the link to our channel and direct anyone else that might join up later to it.

I'm interested!

@RubyOwl
Hello! Glad that you're interested, but I'd like to shoot some questions your way. I see that you're brand-new to the Guild; have you done any forum-based roleplaying, worldbuilding or anything of the sort related to either before? I'd like to caution you that this is a large-scale, heartfelt project and I want to ensure that I can trust the standards of everyone involved. As it stands, this isn't an RP ready to fly off the shelves; we're in a developmental phase of worldbuilding and getting a feel for the setting. I honestly don't have an anticipated timeframe for getting the actual roleplaying underway, so this is something to be in for the long haul.

That's all; looking forward to your reply!

@Aristo

I've been roleplaying on and off for the past 8 years. I've done everything from one-liners to multi-paragraph to combat-based RP. However, worldbuilding is something I've only been doing recently. The only experience I've had is trying to help a few friends get off the ground with their own world concepts. However, I'd like to be able to help you guys out even if it's just a tiny amount.

@RubyOwl

Eight years is pretty respectable! And if you're able and willing to help out, who am I to argue? I will reiterate that I don't know when the 'roleplaying stage' will be, but if that's alright with you, I'll take the support.
Are you familiar with mecha to any degree?

Really glad to see you're giving it another go at getting this off the ground, as it's had potential in every form, and has always been a passion project of yours.
I hope you can get it to where you want, and depending on how it turns out I might be interested too. If there's anything you think I can help with, or you'd like another set of eyes, or to make use of my imagination for anything to, you know you can always drop me a line too. PM me if you want my off-site contact details as well, it'd be good to keep up.

@Aristo You have my interest, for certain, and I absolutely love lore-building and world-building, and have a discord that i am regularly on/paying attention too. Plus you named three of my favorite genres of all time in the description...

Throwing a maybe. Must have been the fact you stuck "battletech" in the list...

@ArenaSnow

Most FRAMEs will be humanoid in a VOTOMS-y sort of way, but I imagine some companies produce designs that are a little more in line with Battletech's conventions.

Most will be around 8 meters tall or less.

@pugbutter

😩 Now you can get glad!