tl;dr: This is an interest check for a kind of survival-orientated voting RP where all the players cooperate to control a single protagonist/person try and survive (for as long as possible) through a deeply dangerous political-drama/thriller sci-fi setting, car bombs, assassins and so on. Think non-anime "Long Live The Queen" combined with House of Cards but in space.
While the vast majority of the galaxies’ worlds remain unsettled, humanity reaches from from one end of the galaxy to the other. Trillions of humans, hundreds of thousands of worlds, nearly all have been blessed with centuries of peace and prosperity. From the cradle of mankind, Earth’s parliamentarians rule the greatest democracy in the galaxy, the sole recognised nation of man - the United Nations Orion Mandate. Encompassing approximately a fifth of the galaxy, it rules over ninety percent of the human race. All other nations are but mere pretenders.
It is within this great nation that resides you. A single human, perhaps a stately minister of the Parliamentary Assembly, or a stern officer of the Peacekeeping Navy, or even a secretive agent of the ORISEC Paramilitary Division. You have lived your life in service of this great nation… and watched as the last years of its golden age dimmed.
The year is 2891, and with the final decade of the 29th century, the peaceful days of the past are coming to an end. In a galaxy beset with economic woes, separatism, technological disruption and drastic cultural and ideological rifts, you can see the storm clouds coming. As the Assembly on Earth spirals into public brawls and deadlock, pirates peck at the borders, and terrorists crawl out of the woodwork, you look on to the treacherously bright and clean cities of the future, the utilitarian white of the space-decks and the soft faces of men and women who have never seen war.
Will any of it survive?
Will you?
What is a Quest?
A Quest is a type of specialised CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) popular on websites like Space Battles and Sufficient Velocity. Essentially, the GM leads the story and crafts the events/setting/npcs, while the majority of players either vote from a list of given actions or different players create plans (actions) for their controlled character to and then vote on which plan to use. There is a degree of statistics, usually in the form of attributes, some modifiers and dice rolls. This is mostly to allow a degree and randomness and chance - an important element of this Quest, since it deals with chaos in a period of conflict and the uncertainty of survival. Players work cooperatively (or in competing voting blocs) in the control of a single protagonist.
Do we actually RP or not?
While not a conventional play-by-post RP, there are still elements of RPing involved here. This particular Quest will be using the PLAYER-CREATED PLAN method, so you guys will get to decide what the protagonist does (Though certain events will have hardcoded choices, usually events that give you statistical boons or rewards). When you craft plans to vote on, you may add paragraphs or phrases to be added to the actual ‘lore/IC post’ that I post. Beyond this, players may also write their own ‘omake’ posts, additional side-story material (As per Quest-tradition, good omakes will provide bonus’ to rolls success chances). Players will be playing as preset characters, however they will have leeway to modify the protagonist's personality and opinions, and major opportunities will be provided to enable players to shift the character towards what they want (Within reason).
What are the writing standards of this RP?
I set myself to a high standard of writing, so I would say ‘advanced’. That said, players can provide plans casually or even just vote and otherwise have little involvement if they so wish. Omakes should meet advanced standards though.
So, what kind of Quest is this then?
What is the statistical system that this Quest/CYOA uses?
This Quest will use a relatively simple system, based on the CK2 Attributes (Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, Learning). Each character have values in these attributes, and the attributes determine the probability of success and failure in rolls for actions associated with these attributes, usually against another character’s attributes (E.g: How easy it is to convince someone of something with use your diplomacy attribute and a dice roll, and put it against the other person’s diplomacy attribute and roll). There will also be certain skills, traits and special abilities that will act as modifiers for this system, so not all rolls will be simple attribute vs attribute matters. Throughout the Quest, it is possible to alter your attributes/traits/skills, so they are not hardcoded.
Per Aspera Ad Astra.
The motto of the United Nations Orion Mandate is one of great and perhaps twisted irony, for beyond the troubled early centuries of the third millennium, humanity has thrived unhindered towards the stars. Propelled forward by the inventions of artificially and uniquely genius minds, singulatarian advances in technology and an enormous reservoir of cosmic luck, humanity found a galaxy both bountiful with life yet totally absent of alien intelligence… let alone competing spacefarers. Besides the niches of obsessed alien enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists and the ravings of fringe intelligentsia, mankind has blissfully taken the Milky Way by default, for wherever it reached out, it took unopposed. While the vast majority of the galaxies’ worlds remain unsettled, humanity reaches from from one end of the galaxy to the other. Trillions of humans, hundreds of thousands of worlds, nearly all have been blessed with centuries of peace and prosperity. From the cradle of mankind, Earth’s parliamentarians rule the greatest democracy in the galaxy, the sole recognised nation of man - the United Nations Orion Mandate. Encompassing approximately a fifth of the galaxy, it rules over ninety percent of the human race. All other nations are but mere pretenders.
It is within this great nation that resides you. A single human, perhaps a stately minister of the Parliamentary Assembly, or a stern officer of the Peacekeeping Navy, or even a secretive agent of the ORISEC Paramilitary Division. You have lived your life in service of this great nation… and watched as the last years of its golden age dimmed.
The year is 2891, and with the final decade of the 29th century, the peaceful days of the past are coming to an end. In a galaxy beset with economic woes, separatism, technological disruption and drastic cultural and ideological rifts, you can see the storm clouds coming. As the Assembly on Earth spirals into public brawls and deadlock, pirates peck at the borders, and terrorists crawl out of the woodwork, you look on to the treacherously bright and clean cities of the future, the utilitarian white of the space-decks and the soft faces of men and women who have never seen war.
Will any of it survive?
Will you?
Quest Information:
What is a Quest?
A Quest is a type of specialised CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) popular on websites like Space Battles and Sufficient Velocity. Essentially, the GM leads the story and crafts the events/setting/npcs, while the majority of players either vote from a list of given actions or different players create plans (actions) for their controlled character to and then vote on which plan to use. There is a degree of statistics, usually in the form of attributes, some modifiers and dice rolls. This is mostly to allow a degree and randomness and chance - an important element of this Quest, since it deals with chaos in a period of conflict and the uncertainty of survival. Players work cooperatively (or in competing voting blocs) in the control of a single protagonist.
Do we actually RP or not?
While not a conventional play-by-post RP, there are still elements of RPing involved here. This particular Quest will be using the PLAYER-CREATED PLAN method, so you guys will get to decide what the protagonist does (Though certain events will have hardcoded choices, usually events that give you statistical boons or rewards). When you craft plans to vote on, you may add paragraphs or phrases to be added to the actual ‘lore/IC post’ that I post. Beyond this, players may also write their own ‘omake’ posts, additional side-story material (As per Quest-tradition, good omakes will provide bonus’ to rolls success chances). Players will be playing as preset characters, however they will have leeway to modify the protagonist's personality and opinions, and major opportunities will be provided to enable players to shift the character towards what they want (Within reason).
What are the writing standards of this RP?
I set myself to a high standard of writing, so I would say ‘advanced’. That said, players can provide plans casually or even just vote and otherwise have little involvement if they so wish. Omakes should meet advanced standards though.
So, what kind of Quest is this then?
- Political-drama/thriller hybrid. Think House of Cards (Particularly the Politician path) in Space with elements of Spy Fiction (Particularly the Agent path), Cyberpunk and Military Science Fiction (Particularly the Captain path).
- The aesthetics of this setting is bright, clean and utilitarian. Think Mass Effect or Halo rather than Warhammer 40k - that said, it is also a grim setting in terms of spirit, more like the latter franchise.
- There are three pre-set characters to choose from to be your collective ‘protagonist’. They are ‘The Politician’, ‘The Captain’ and ‘The Agent’. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages and peculiarities, so choose wisely (And hope the others do too). Your very first vote will be choosing which of them to pick, and will be provided character sheets for each to look over.
- Your primary objective is to survive as long as possible. That doesn’t seem difficult at first, however a little important note: This is going to be a setting where everything is trying to kill you. You live in a deceptively deadly galaxy and there is a genuine chance you will die horribly. The Quest is separated into ‘Chapters’ and after the completion of each chapter, players are rewarded for surviving that long. In the event of death, the players may switch to one of the other pre-set characters. If all three die, you lose the Quest and I laugh at myself and you guys for failing.
- Besides surviving, players are rewarded for various side-objectives, some known and others hidden. Players overall can pursue their own goals as well, be that having a family, winning battles/elections/whatever or taking over the galaxy (good luck) or what have you.
- The Front page of the OOC will have a summarised overview of basic information on the setting, however most of the information about the setting will come in ‘infodumps’ (that will be posted in the character sheet tab) following actions/completed plans by the players. These infodumps will be targetted towards what the players are doing (e.g: The Politician will likely get an infodump on political parties while The Captain would get one on naval ship-classes)
What is the statistical system that this Quest/CYOA uses?
This Quest will use a relatively simple system, based on the CK2 Attributes (Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, Learning). Each character have values in these attributes, and the attributes determine the probability of success and failure in rolls for actions associated with these attributes, usually against another character’s attributes (E.g: How easy it is to convince someone of something with use your diplomacy attribute and a dice roll, and put it against the other person’s diplomacy attribute and roll). There will also be certain skills, traits and special abilities that will act as modifiers for this system, so not all rolls will be simple attribute vs attribute matters. Throughout the Quest, it is possible to alter your attributes/traits/skills, so they are not hardcoded.
