Hidden 2 yrs ago 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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The Frontier

An anthro space western roleplay



Premise


The Frontier is a Sci-Fi roleplay with anthropomorphic animals that follows the exploits of the crew of the cargo ship SS Dauntless as they try to make a living on the fringe of colonized space. The roleplay draws heavy inspiration from franchises such as Firefly/serenity and Cowboy Bebop. In this roleplay the crew will take various jobs to make a living on the frontier of colonized space. The jobs can range from anything legal to doing very illegal stuff. After all, the frontier is a rough place where government control is not as sharp. People do what is necessary to survive.

This roleplay will focus heavily on the crew of the Dauntless as they travel through the known universe on the fringe of colonized space. This roleplay will not have a big overarching plot but will be a series of adventures based upon jobs, our characters backstories and other influences. Players are greatly encouraged to bring in their own stories, ideas and ghosts from their past to shape the universe around them.


The Crew






The rules

  • Keep it Roleplayer Guild friendly. Any content that is not allowed to post on the forum should not be in this roleplay.
  • No godmodding/power-playing/auto-hitting/controlling other players characters and stuff like that.
  • Be friendly, tolerant and tolerable. Treat your fellow players with respect and don’t be afraid to communicate with them or the GM. If you have any problems, concerns or stunning idea’s then reach out to the GM and the rest of the group.
  • The players are greatly encouraged to expand and add existing lore. New colonies, planets and organizations are all fine. Just consult the GM about it first so that we can keep the lore coherent and up to date.
  • If you lose interest, run out of time or have some reason that you are no longer willing or able to participate in the roleplay, then it would be really awesome to write your character out of the story. If there is some reason such as a vacation, funeral, wedding or whatever that makes you unable to post for a while, please communicate about it and we can work things out.
  • The desired post frequency is 2 to 3 posts per week. If that is too fast or too slow for you, then this roleplay is simply not for you. In the case that players go missing without a trace the GM will take over their characters as NPCs.
  • Casual or better writing standards. Write a paragraph or two and use spell check.
  • There will be a maximum of 10 participants in this roleplay. Players will be accepted based upon their character sheet. Once your character is approved you’ll be on the roleplay.




The lore

Terra is the home planet where everything started. Under pressure from overpopulation and pollution, space travel and colonization switched into high gear around 300 years ago. With the invention of the Fusion engine distances within the solar system could be traversed in reasonable time with large payloads. With constant acceleration fusion engines near lightspeed traveling became a possibility, reaching the furthest colonies in matters of months. Terra is governed by the Union of Nation-states, UNS for short. The UNS is a federation of independent Terran states who have unified in order to maintain peace and prosperity on Terra itself. State based space travel is all done under the UNS flag. The Union of Nation-States Space agency is the primary organization that enforces government control throughout the UNS colonies.








Application


The players are the ones with the power to make and break any roleplay. Their part in the roleplay is just as or even more important as a GM. Because in essence, the players are the ones who make the magic happen. My job as a GM is to gather a group of remarkable people that motivate each other by their contributions to the roleplay and avoid having people in the group who take the joy away from others. So how does this application process work? Very simple. Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you desire in roleplays? What kind of storylines, pacing and interaction makes you happy? But also what kind of aspects make you lose interest.

Of course I will be looking over your character sheet too. Your character needs to be interesting and fitting for the theme. An important part of your character sheet is going to be the skill section. Skills might play a major factor in many of the adventures the crew will have. What I would love to see is a cast of characters whose skill sets complement each other. Afterall, roleplaying is a collaborative effort.
Personally I really value that participants bring in the creativity to expand the lore by thinking up new places, people organizations and story lines. I greatly encourage people to come up with their own story lines to follow and explore.


Character creation


Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by EmiliaBaiYue
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I'll get My stuff ready ina bout 7 hours
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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Nice :D

Did you animate that yourself?
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by EternalDragon
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I'm very interested in joining, but I'm currently babysitting my sister's dog in Maryland, and won't be able to create a character until the 29th when I return home.
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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I'm very interested in joining, but I'm currently babysitting my sister's dog in Maryland, and won't be able to create a character until the 29th when I return home.


Hi, that is not a problem. We're just in the starting up phase anyway. I guess it will take a number of days before everyone has created their characters anyway :)
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by EmiliaBaiYue
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Nice :D

Did you animate that yourself?


Yes Anxi is my creation
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by EmiliaBaiYue
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Yay the Captain is an example sheet
Now I have a better Idea
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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Yay the Captain is an example sheet
Now I have a better Idea


Yeah, it is always nice to have an example :D
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by PerfectThought
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Interested. Looking fascinating. However you mention "near light speed" multipletimes, however under the ship tab, you also say the engine is only capable on 0.085% the speed of light. You also say it's roughly 900 AU from Terra to the nearest system. That means ot would take roughly 14,500 years to travel between them with the Mark II Fusion Engine. But multiple times you say most trips are only a couple months long, and it's advised to only be in hibernation for a year? I'm guessing the engine figure is an error, or is transport between the Core, Border, and Frontier virtually non-existant and done by civilisation-scale ships?
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Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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Then i have made an error somewhere XD
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by EmiliaBaiYue
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Interested. Looking fascinating. However you mention "near light speed" multipletimes, however under the ship tab, you also say the engine is only capable on 0.085% the speed of light. You also say it's roughly 900 AU from Terra to the nearest system. That means ot would take roughly 14,500 years to travel between them with the Mark II Fusion Engine. But multiple times you say most trips are only a couple months long, and it's advised to only be in hibernation for a year? I'm guessing the engine figure is an error, or is transport between the Core, Border, and Frontier virtually non-existant and done by civilisation-scale ships?


Are you an Engineer?
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by EmiliaBaiYue
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I love the Idea of Jump drives as the method to exceed the speed of light
Megatraveler an Traveler's drive basically caged the crew an passengers a minimum of 5 - 7 days in a pocket dimension that tunneled through jump space. No turns, no stopping, you were committed to your exit point once you pressed the big jump button
Think of finding a spy on board only trouble is they say they sent word of your destination jump mail 3 days prior, are they lying or are you all yiffed?

Another great thing about Jump is a miss-jump you could just appear back where you started, 10 times farther than the ship could normally or worst no place at all
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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For me the most important thing is that there is a sense of distance to get to the frontier. That it takes a considerable amount of time and resources to get there and that it is not something that Joe average can decide on a sunday morning to take his family for a nice picnic at the edge of colonized space. People either go there because they work for a corporation that exploits the resources or to find a life of freedom far away from established institutions. It's a bit like crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to America in the 19th century. Certainly possible but not something for everyone :)
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Hidden 2 yrs ago 2 yrs ago Post by EmiliaBaiYue
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Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by PerfectThought
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@Milkman@EmiliaBaiYue Definitely agree with you both. Maybe the best middle ground would be something similar to the Dune approach? Normal ships are fitted with a fusion engine of some sort to travel short-mid distances in "realspace" between individual planets/stars, and then to travel between clusters of stars (a far greater length) you attach/park your ship on massive ships equipped with "jump" drives/engines and be isolated inside your ship, but attached to the carrier for transport. And then you could add a megacorp eith a monopoly over jump tech/jump carriers. And then the possibility for rickshaw and or smuggler jump carriers, which are riskier but cheaper/not tracked (potential for smuggling).

I also have a few questions about the setting:
1) What're the races like? Have alien races been absorbed into the UNS? How alien are we talking? Can we make our own races up for characters? Because I'm aware you talked about players adding onto the lore. I have some cool ideas for races.
2) What company does the Dauntless serve? One of the main megacorps? A small freight company? Freelance? Is it a UNS government vehicle?
3) Can get some more details on roles? What does being the First Officer entail? How about the Navigator?
Hidden 2 yrs ago 2 yrs ago Post by PerfectThought
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Hidden 2 yrs ago 2 yrs ago Post by BigPapaBelial
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Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by Milkman
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@Milkman@EmiliaBaiYue Definitely agree with you both. Maybe the best middle ground would be something similar to the Dune approach? Normal ships are fitted with a fusion engine of some sort to travel short-mid distances in "realspace" between individual planets/stars, and then to travel between clusters of stars (a far greater length) you attach/park your ship on massive ships equipped with "jump" drives/engines and be isolated inside your ship, but attached to the carrier for transport. And then you could add a megacorp eith a monopoly over jump tech/jump carriers. And then the possibility for rickshaw and or smuggler jump carriers, which are riskier but cheaper/not tracked (potential for smuggling).

I also have a few questions about the setting:
1) What're the races like? Have alien races been absorbed into the UNS? How alien are we talking? Can we make our own races up for characters? Because I'm aware you talked about players adding onto the lore. I have some cool ideas for races.
2) What company does the Dauntless serve? One of the main megacorps? A small freight company? Freelance? Is it a UNS government vehicle?
3) Can get some more details on roles? What does being the First Officer entail? How about the Navigator?


lets answer your questions first. Generaly speaking the races are Antropomorphic animals. They originate from the planet Terra and have been colonizing the planets that they could reach for hundreds of years now. Planets with breathable atmospheres have all been terraformed. No traces of alien civilizations have been found.

On the topic of Aliens, offcially no alien lifeforms or traces of them have ever been found. Ofcourse there are stories, rumors, myths, legends and conspiracy theories around aliens. Their existence is theoretically possible but currently not scientificly proven. If aliens will ever come around, it won't be in a Star Trek like fashion of a civilization to trade with. It will be more likely to be a strange, unexplainable phenomenon that could be alien but also something else.

The Dauntless is an independently owned ship. Officially owned by its captain but he has financed the purchase by taking a lone from the Triads crime syndicate. There is always this urgeancy of making some buck.

The first officer serves as second in command. He's basicly in charge of the ships operations when the captain is absent. He's responsible for much of the organisational stuff. Such as aquiring the provisions, spareparts and managing crew tasks. Basicly a sort of manager.

As far as the navigator goes his responsibilities are calculating the course in space and in orbit and servers a bit as a co-pilot.
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Hidden 2 yrs ago 2 yrs ago Post by Expendable
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In Cowboy Bebop, they had developed hyperspace gates that allowed ships to travel between the terraformed planets and moons in the solar system in a matter of hours. Gates are a frequently used method of travel, which helped in system defense. It may be necessary to use a gate to get to a system, but you don't necessarily come out of the gate, just somewhere along the edge and spend the next week or so transiting in-system.

For Firefly, basically they terraformed many of the planets of a binary star system. You get the impression that the core worlds are those intermost to their primaries, while the frontier were the outer worlds. Thus a trip between neighboring planets took days, not centuries.

I like Traveller's jump drives. C.J. Cherryh had something similar, but ship crews and passengers would not be conscious during their jumps. They'd hang saline bags for IVs and make sure water and ration bars were nearby for when they regained consciousness days later. Their biggest surprise was to find out one of the races, the Kif, did not become unconscious during a ship jump. Cargo was also packed in drums and loaded into a sort of giant rack in the hold.

Alternately, you could have some sort of unique warp drive. I read one where the warp field is generated by cables that retract into the hull following a jump to protect them.

For one of my games, I came up with an Exotic Matter drive - basically dark matter is like an iceberg - we see 10% of it at the normal space level, but 90% of the mass is "submerged" in a form of subspace. Exotic matter drives work by taking a fragment of dark matter at the heart of the drive and using fields to push the dark matter further into subspace, dragging the rest of the ship with it, partially submerging the ship into subspace in a sort of interface layer, so you're able to move at greater than light speeds while still able to see normal space.

But you have to watch out for gravity shoals, the wells created by the stars and even the dimples of planets. As you move towards a gravity shoal, the dark matter starts getting pushed back into normal space. The last thing you want to do is have a drive failure where the field collapses and the dark matter rebounds, swelling within the drive casing until it bursts through, splitting the ship apart. And then it returns to subspace, dragging nearby fragments back into subspace with it.

I also developed a type 2 drive where additional coils allow the entire ship to be submerged in subspace and you navigate by detecting quasars as they pulse in both normal space and subspace. By finding the relative positions between two such quasars, you can navigate near enough to an edge of a planetary system, then spend the next two weeks going insystem to a planet, or if they have a way station, you travel to one of those to do your trades where someone takes your cargo to tran-ship to the planet, while you make arrangements to take on cargo shipment

However, not many have a type 2 drive.

Interstellar ansibles use the exotic matter drive to open a small portal into subspace so they can then transmit & receive, so you have near instant communications between systems. You could decide it still takes a week or more for the messages to be received. Also, ansibles are basically small space stations. Military ships can configure themselves to become ansibles, but they basically can't do much else while transmitting and waiting for a response.


So no alien races yet. Are furries here basically chimaera? A mixing of human and animal dna?
Hidden 2 yrs ago Post by BigPapaBelial
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*whispers*

Nerds...

Hehehe sorry couldn't resist.

Skimmed all that, wanna know more of what's going on will read when not barely awake...
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