Formatting still stolen inspired by BrovoStatus: Recruiting! I mean it’s an interest check, but still! 0/12 slots filled.
Chapter 1: Introduction and Lore Archive.
“They say that all myths originate from a common source. There is a theme shared by them all, and that this theme is the universal truth. It is the key to understanding who we are, and were we come from.
And we came from the stars.
We all know the story. Sure, there are variations based on your faith and upbringing, but the same story is there. Long ago, there were great kingdoms of the stars. Spread far and wide, further than we’ve ever dreamed of spreading. There were so many kingdoms and they could never unify.
You know why they couldn’t unify? There’s such great theological debate about it, but we can certainly make a good scientific guess. Because space is big, and no one could go faster than the speed of light. Pretty simple, with those limitations running a country across such areas would be difficult. One side to another could take years to communicate.
But the story didn’t end there, just mankind unable to unify. Wouldn’t make so good of a story. No, we did unify. Someone broke that speed barrier. A kingdom of heaven, ruling the very stars. United and whole. We don’t know how this is possible. God is usually the answer, for who else but God could make us move so quickly?
Who else but God could make an interstellar, no, galactic empire endure and survive for eons?
So the Kingdom of Heaven came, and then, as with all good things, it came to an end. Evil, War, Disaster, the lack of God. It fell apart, for whatever reason, and the angels left the stars. That glorious kingdom left us here, to save us, while it died.
We came from the stars, guided by angels who sacrificed themselves so that we would live.
It’s been a long journey, hundreds of thousands of years since that day the angels left us. Physical records, gone, the glory of heaven and all that it held were no longer with us. We were like animals, savage. We had to be. Without the glory we were unable to survive without some savagery. But time passed and we became what we are now. We cultivated new lands, new species. We survived an apocalypse.
The first time we landed a man on our moon, it was a wonder. And the first time we landed a machine on another planet that was another wonder still. But, this is not the end. We are not alone. But five light years away from us, there is a star. Flying around that star is a planet. On that planet, is someone who has sent us a message. Math, a language of its own, intelligent. We have been communicating with them, slowly. Five years to get the message from them, and five years to send it back. A work of generations, but we have made contact, and we have had our first conversation with aliens.
And we have built wonders. Colonizing another planet was amazing, and the thousands living there are a testament of the progress we have made, but this ship. This glorious ship, will do more than that. We will reach out, and meet them. We will walk down among them, and we will know each other.
And when they ask where we came from, we will tell them.
We came from the stars.” -- Speech from the christening of the First Contact, the first interstellar generation ship sent to another planet after so long.
We Came From the Stars is Science Fiction RP based around Space Exploration, Research, and History. It’s set in a far distant future, following an apocalypse of sorts. The great descendants of humanity once again take to the stars as their ancestors had, and seek to find the remnants of a fabled galactic empire, known colloquially as the Kingdom of Heaven.
Lore Archive: Your handy lil stop for information on things, for fluff and character creation purposes.
At some point in the future of modern man, humanity takes to the stars. As it spreads and evolves across star systems, humanity begins to diverge due to the large gulfs of space between groups. With the coming of Homo Sapiens Sidereus, those that followed Homo Sapiens Sapiens, came also the beginning of a galactic empire. The technology that made this empire possible isn’t known, other than it must have included FTL capabilities.
However, the empire came to an apparently sudden end, and fell apart all places at once. People were stranded on planets while escaping, some of them not suited for human life. Others were, but they were far from being simply open to a race used to technology running things, when it all stopped working. An apocalypse happened, and in the distant future, new species of men have evolved. Completely divergent and with oceans of isolation across space, no species evolved alike, although there are enough similarities in phenotype and genes to tell the story of a common ancestor.
A loose confederation of planetary governments from a handful of star systems have begun to put together tasks forces to go into further realms of space, to explore worlds that are either new and are suitable for expansion, or once belonged to the Kingdom of Heaven, and see if anything can be found and learned. The discovery of FTL would be a great boon to uniting the confederation into something more solid. As it stands, the wildly different and self governing entities will remain that way as having a central government ruling over even the few star systems that are known to be space-faring is borderline impossible.
The players represent one of many joint ventures, coming from many races and planets, on a great expedition into the final frontier. Searching for new life forms, new planets, and signs of the ancients. But all is not well on the frontier.
Think Star Trek mixed with Firefly… mixed with… Mass Effect? I guess the idea of finding ancient FTL devices from a precursor race is a Mass Effect thing, someone else has probably done it but that’s the first to pop into my mind.
About as decentralized as a nation could be, it is more accurately described as just a very close mutually beneficial alliance between different planetary systems, opposed to an actual governing body. Unification is still but a pipe dream due to very different political and economic systems between the member nations, and further due to the disjointed nature of the planets themselves. Not all planets have a one world government unifying them, and have their own internal economic and ideological issues.
Extrastellar colonization has been undergone by governmental and corporate entities from within the Confederation, with and without Confederate Sanction of the process. Typically, planets within an inhabited star system, or from one of the closer habitable star systems are done for this, although sometimes generation ships are sent further away with sorts along the lines of religious pilgrims, or people otherwise seeking an entirely fresh start, away from where most can interfere with them any more.
Descendants of humanity, the races of the Confederacy have all evolved differently due to the planets they evolved on. Further, the cultures of the races are different even within each race. The common line, however, is a link back to Homo Sapiens Sidereus. A race name that will not be common between those of the Confederation because while Latin is a dead language for us, it’s super dead to them as in they would never have even heard of it. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll still use that term if we refer to the humans of that time in a scientific sense. You will be designing, in addition to your crew member, their home planet, their race, and other such things. Information on how to do this will be in the character sheet.
While admittedly very advanced compared to what early 21st century mankind would have, it’s still a far shot away from the Galactic Empire.
--Near Light Speed Travel: Not yet at the speeds they would like, ships are capable of going near light speed through the void of space reliably and safely so long as proper courses are plotted. It takes some time to reach these speeds, however.
--Safe and Easy Cryostasis: An alternative to generation ships is cryostasis, allowing the crew to safely hibernate while the ship is in transit to its location.
--Gravity Generators: You don’t really expect me to say how these work, right? Short of it, they generate internalized directional adjustable gravity wells. Useful in spaceships and the like.
--Virtual and Artificial Intelligence: Virtual Intelligences are very advanced, and there are even the capabilities of producing civilian level intelligence Artificial Intelligences. These can be placed into machines, or implanted as an aid to a host.
--Advanced and Specialized Robotics: Machines have become highly advanced, capable of performing very fine actions with high accuracy and precision. Others have been developed in a more personal fashion. The degree of intelligence they are given varies through the Confederation.
--Bioengineering and Medicine: Medicine has advanced considerably, there are ways of handling many diseases, and injuries. Even those that would be life threatening. Additional, bioengineering has made controlling your own life and those of your offspring possible. There is a lot of debate of the ethics of it, as well as its capacity to clone.
--Interstellar Communication: With huge ping times, there is essentially an interstellar internet that is still the fastest and most reliable way for persons across the Confederation to communicate from one end to the other. Usually used to communicate between offices instead of people. The job is more likely to be there to get the message than the person who had it years ago.
--Laser Weaponry: More expensive to produce and maintain, these weapons are typically used in defensive formations to protect planets, or in very small amounts for mining and other utilities. Some forward ships, such as colonial and research vessels, are equipped with one or two Laser Weapons to give them an upper hand against whomever else they may run into during their adventures.
--Kinetic Weaponry: Much more affordable and widely used are weapons that while not in the same design that we would know, we would be far more familiar with. Weapons that shoot a metal slug of some kind to do its damage, or things that shoot explosives. You know, good old fashioned guns.
--Phase Shields: Usually only equipped on structures of high importance, Phase Shields require a lot of power to run, and are presently the only effective way of cancelling out powerful Laser Weaponry.
Dangers lurk in the final frontier.
--Criminal and Raiders: The Confederation may not be the most orderly entity, but even some of their order is considered too much. Those who would seek freer pastures have spread out across the stars Expect hostilities from them.
--Religious Extremists: Migrated from more cultured worlds, these are people who have determined to seek out their God in space. The common thread of the Kingdom of Heaven calling to them. They’re not too kind to those they consider of false prophets who say the Kingdom no longer exists.
--Derelict Ships with AI: Still functioning on some level, these ships represent an important, but dangerous, vault of information for the Confederation. Each one found could possibly hold the key to FTL, if it’s truly a remnant from the Kingdom of Heaven. However, the rogue AIs that keep the ships from being more than scrap are usually incredibly unpredictable, and hostile.
--Dangerous Alien Races: More than humanity was spread across the stars. Where man may have died on a planet, other races may have thrived, and changed.
--‘Primitive’ and Aggressive Planets: Not all the remnants of mankind have reached space travel yet as the planets of the Confederation, mostly due to a longer period before adapting, or a more aggressive culture present on the planet making the Confederation less than willing to get into contact with them. Space war is logistically impossible to do well, but that doesn’t mean some wouldn’t attempt it anyway.
--Hazardous Space Sectors: Space is itself dangerous. There’s a lot that could go wrong in just space itself.
But these dangers are worth braving, due to the wonders of what can be gained by missions likes yours. Finding new safe planets to colonize, or any trace of information from eons past are invaluable.
The CSS (Confederate Star Ship) Undaunted is the ship that the RP will be taking place around. It will be the ship that your character is a crew-member of, and doing their ‘space opera’ adventures on.
--The Bridge: The helm of the ship, protected and core to the functions, it is the deck where the primary officers reside to control and overlook operations of the Undaunted. The Captain, Chief Communications Officer, Chief Navigational Officer, Chief Operational Officer, and more are stationed here.
--Crew Quarters: Quarters for all of the lower ranking officers and standard crew flank the edge of the ship. Higher officers’ quarters are more centralized.
--Cafeterias: There are two main cafeteria chambers responsible for feeding the entire crew. They are suitable for holding each roughly half of the crew at a time at maximum occupancy.
--Lounge Deck: Filled with botanical gardens, simulated environments from the various planets of the member races onboard, and a variety of physical and electronic entertainment.
--Agricultural Deck: Divided into blocks based on origin planet, the Agricultural Deck is responsible for raising and providing food for the ship. Simulated sunlight and controlled environments along with powerful water filtration systems. The Chief Agricultural Officer is stationed here when not on the Bridge.
--Medical Bay: Equipped with services to treat the injuries and illnesses that can plague any of the races on board is the Medical Bay. Headed by the Chief Medical Officer who is stationed here when not on the Bridge.
--Weapons Bay: The CSS Undaunted has one laser weapon, four kinetic weapons, and two missile weapons. The weapon controls and munitions are all kept in the Weapons Bay, and the Chief Weapons Officer is stationed here when not on the Bridge.
--Engineering Block: Contains the engine and reactors. Responsible for getting power to all of the other sectors. The Chief Engineering Officer is stationed here.
--Research Deck: Laboratories, data centres, and more. Wouldn’t be a very good research ship without large amounts of space dedicated to research. The Chief Science Officer is stationed here while not on the Bridge.
--Security Office: Surrounded by the barracks of security personnel, the Chief Security Officer has an office and bedroom of his own. The Chief Security Officer is stationed here while not on the Bridge
--Cryostasis Deck: Located at the far underbelly of the Undaunted are the cryostasis units. They see most of their use during transit between star systems. Interplanetary travel within a star system usually requires personnel being active. The Chief Cryostatic Officer is stationed here while not on the Bridge.
--Shuttle Bay: Located at the lower rear of the ship, various smaller transport shuttles and defence craft are kept in good repair for trips to the surface or other ships, or for defence against such.
Will update as players create home-worlds for the RP.
Will update as players create characters for the RP.
Chapter 2: Home-world, Race, and Character Sheets.
Note: There will be an easy to use, pre-formatted version placed in a Google Doc later, saving you time. Not doing it yet, because this is just an interest check.
Home-worldName: What is the name of your home-world?
Environment: What is your home-world like, what environments and climates does it have?
Animals: What animals, other than the Race you will describe below, live on your planet that are noteworthy? If they are descended from a familiar earth animal, note that!
Interesting Facts: Are there any other interesting facts about your home-world that you feel should be noted? If so, do so here.
RaceName: What is the name of your race?
Appearance: What does your race look like, how do they differ from humans?
Strengths: Descending from humanity, but ascending through mutations, your race has evolved ways to help them cope with their new planet over a very long period of time. Describe three new strengths they’ve gained that help them to survive and thrive as they have.
--
--
--
Weaknesses: Descending from humanity, they are also not without their flaws from their planet and evolutionary lines. Describe two ways that they are weaker than their ancestor humans as well, or worse off, or whatever.
--
--
Nations: What nations have your race developed into great powers? Have they unified into a one world government? Describe their more important nations that would be within the Confederacy of Planets in at least brief detail.
Cultures: What cultures and religions have your race propagated? Keep in mind the origin myth of something along the lines of a Kingdom of Heaven, but otherwise feel free to take that and run with it!
Interesting Facts: Are there any other interesting facts that aren’t powers or the like, that you feel should be noted about your race or their history?
CharacterName: What is the name that your character goes by within the Confederacy. If they have another name they are known by elsewhere, note it too.
Age: In comparable Earth Years, how old is your character?
Sex: What is the physical sex of your character? Typically male or female, but some races don’t require that.
Appearance: What does your character look like? How do they dress? Any piercings or things of the sort?
Occupation: From the list of Occupations, pick the one you would like the most. It would also be nice if you ordered any others you would be happy to play in inevitable case that multiple people end up wanting the same occupation and there’s confusion on who completed the character sheet first and whatever.
History: At least a couple of paragraphs, please.
Inventory: These are the items that you have when you go on Away Missions ( missions that take place Off Ship. Think
Star Trek ), or located in your room.
--Standard Confederation Side Arm: A semi-automatic kinetic slug pistol. Fires 16 shots before needing to be reloaded.
--Standard Confederation Stunner: A short range electrical stun device, used to non-lethally detain people. Essentially a taser.
--Standard Civilian Clothing: What you would be wearing if you were just a civilian back on your home-world, or abroad.
--Confederation Officer Clothing: Stark colours, predominantly black ordained with another two colours that designate your occupation. Further decorated with insignias of your higher rank.
--Standard Confederation Light Armour: Similar in design to your officer clothing, but lined with light and flexible interior armour meant to protect you from some harm.
--Communication Device: More than just a communication device, it also holds music, and other little recreational things.
--Standard Confederation Multitool: Bulkier than the communication device, the Multitool is worn on your wrist, and contains a variety of electronic and physical interfaces for which the tool to do the various tasks it’s capable of doing. Many people combine their communicator and Multitool directly, but this is not necessary. The Multitool is also home to the primary database and processing of your Personal Virtual Intelligence.
--Personal Virtual Intelligence: Is a pseudo-intelligent program that functions as an electronic secretary. It helps research things for you, keep tabs on your projects, and a variety of other services. Its stored within your Multitool, although it can sync up to your communicator as well with limited functionality on the communicator.
--General Assistant (x1): Kind of a fleshy version of your Personal Virtual Intelligence. More physical form, more able to do things that a program can’t. Further, unlike your PVI, they’re capable of abstract thought and learning. Because they’re a person.
--Security Personnel (x2): Essentially bodyguards. They’re armed in Light Armour and have the Standard Side Arm just as you do. Their job is to protect you.
Denote any miscellaneous possessions that you have on your person or in your room. Be reasonable.
Signature: Place your username here to agree that ultimately the GM decides if a character lives or dies, and that you will follow the rules, and all that jazz.
Occupations: The following is a list of Occupations (character classes) that you may pick to start with. You may only start with one Occupation.
You are responsible for all the food, livestock, plants, and even a portion of the air on the ship. Without you, everyone would have to dig into the rations to survive, and those aren’t meant to last a ship this size for very long. You are far more than a glorified farmer, knowing how to carefully take care of multiple planets’ worth of crops and livestock, and do veterinary work and more.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Flora Analyzation Multitool Upgrade: Adds on plant based life form scanning capabilities to your Multitool, giving you rapid updates on how the plant functions, what other plants its similar to, whether it’s poisonous or not, and more.
--Fauna Analyzation Multitool Upgrade: Adds on animal based life form scanning capabilities to your Multitool, giving you rapid updates on how the animal functions, close approximations on genetic cousins, and the like.
Language is a tricky business. No planet really has a single language to it, but instead employs many. Sure, the trade language of the world may be the most commonly used, but it won’t be used by everyone. Now, take that notion, and multiply it across the entire Confederacy. Your brain is filled with so many languages and the roots of them that it’s uncanny. Further, you know about their cultures, and how to socialize without offending them as well.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Cultural Database Multitool Upgrade: While your brain is a library, this is a vault. It contains information, summaries, and full digital copies of great works of art and history from every presently accounted for culture. Written works and music done natively and translated into a variety of languages as well.
--Formal Civilian Clothing: Sometimes you need to look nicer, when you’re talking with someone who has an air of importance about them, even if the air is entirely in their mind. Very useful in formal social and diplomatic gatherings.
Your job doesn’t require you to be on active duty too often, and you do spend most of the time working with the Chief Engineering Officer when not on call for any sort of interstellar cryostasis. This doesn’t mean, by any stretch, that your job isn’t important. Suspended animation and cryogenics are vital to long distance travel of the crew, and it’d take a rather slow person to forget that.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Cryostatic Modulator Stunner Upgrade: Technically this upgrade is intended to remedy any cryostasis errors until the main unit can be fixed, quickly freezing the target again to cryostatic standards. It can also be used as a far more powerful stunning device. Frozen stasis instead of electrical stun.
--Engineering Suite Multitool Upgrade: More than the small repairs a normal Multitool is capable of, yours has a variety of heavy machinery repair procedures that work for helping patch up the ship, or other vehicles and structures you encounter.
Normal ships are mightily complicated, but anything with the CSS stamped on it? Those are even more so. You are in charge of maintaining this great ship, fixing the damage that befalls it during standard and extraordinary use. Without the ship, everyone is dead in the water, so to speak.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Engineering Suite Multitool Upgrade: More than the small repairs a normal Multitool is capable of, yours has a variety of heavy machinery repair procedures that work for helping patch up the ship, or other vehicles and structures you encounter.
--Engineering Assistant (x2): At your beck and call are more engineers, each with their own Multitool with Engineering Suite Upgrades. Useful for putting something back together in the field faster than otherwise.
Space is filled with dangers. Every planet risks new infections and diseases spreading to those on the ship. You are in charge of maintaining environmental cleanliness, and figuring out how to fix the problems when shit hits the fan and someone either breaks protocol, or something gets into the system anyway. Lives are at stake, and you’re a doctor.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Surgical Suite Multitool Upgrade: Multitools have basic first aid as one of their functions, but in your adventures in space you are going to need something a bit more restorative in the field if you want someone to live long enough to make it back to the Medical Bay.
--Medical Assistant (x2): Doctors in their own right, they come with similar Surgical Suites on their Multitools to help patch up multiple people at once.
Space may be big and mostly empty, but it’s not completely empty. Moving at high speeds through space means plotting a safe course, a course you are in charge of. And moving through more tight areas also comes down to your skill and plotting of courses. Heaven forbid the bridge doesn’t have you on board when you are unfortunate enough to enter combat!
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Remote Helmsman Suite Multitool Upgrade: A very valuable upgrade, it permits your Multitool to sync up with the navigational controls of the CSS Undaunted and gives you limited functionality as a pilot from outside of it. Limited range.
--Remote Shuttle Suite Multitool Upgrade: Similar to the Remote Helmsman Suite, this upgrade permits your Multitool to pilot nearby synced Shuttles while you are not in them as well. Limited range and functionality.
The Chief Engineering Officer makes sure that the ship is physically in working order, and the Chief Medical Officer makes sure the crew are physically in working order, but it’s your job to make sure that the crew and ship work in unison. That everyone gets where they need to go. You are the closest thing to a Captain this ship has (that isn’t actually the Captain, that glory stealer).
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Administrative Assistant (x2): Efficient and almost ruthless even, these Administrative Assistants cut through red tape with machetes, and make sure that things run smoothly, and that the logistics are taken care of.
--Administrative Weak Artificial Intelligence: Within your Multitool is, instead of the normal Virtual Intelligence, a full fledged, although weak, Artificial Intelligence. It has limits on what it is able to learn, and is instead only able to gain new information on how to help your duties as Chief Operational Officer, and learn based around you. Replaces Personal Virtual Intelligence.
The primary purpose of this vessel, is to explore, catalogue, and research. Research is your division. This makes you the most important officer on board, maybe even including the Captain. You’re probably the smartest on board if nothing else. Not that you’d ever let that go to your head, of course.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Anomalous Analyzation Suite Multitool Upgrade: For all the times you want to ask, “What the fuck is that?”. The Anomalous Analyzation Suite Multitool Upgrade is a specific set of all purpose scanners of high intensity, that are the fastest at deciphering what is going on when you run into something that is strange.
--Research Assistant (x2): Gathering and testing samples and pushing out theories of their own, are your two Research Assistants. They have a much weaker version of your Multitool Upgrade, able to scan with almost equal accuracy, but slower results.
Landing parties and boarding parties are your primary concern. Going ashore a planet is a risky business, and you’re in charge of making sure that few if anyone dies because of it. When you encounter hostile vessels in space that attempt to get in, you’re again in charge of expelling them from the ship. For someone so focused around parties, your job doesn’t seem that fun.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Standard Confederation Medium Armour: Where Light Armour may protect you from blunt objects and small blades, Medium Armour is able to protect you from low force kinetic slugs as well, such as from side arms. Replaces Standard Confederation Light Armour.
--Standard Confederation Security Rifle: In addition to your side arm, you have a semi-automatic, high-powered, kinetic slug, short rifle. It is able to punch through even Standard Confederation Medium Armour. Fires 32 shots before needing to be reloaded.
You may not get to see as much action as people on defensive and police ships that scour the frontiers for dangerous rebels and criminals, but you are still on the frontier, and there are still dangers here, which means you still get to load the guns and blast them out of the sky. Hell, you can blast them off the ground too, while on the ground yourself. You just have to remember to not accidentally blow yourself up in the process.
In addition to standard gear, you start with:
--Standard Confederation Medium Armour: Where Light Armour may protect you from blunt objects and small blades, Medium Armour is able to protect you from low force kinetic slugs as well, such as from side arms. Replaces Standard Confederation Light Armour.
--Remote Weapons Suite Multitool Upgrade: As the true master of the CSS Undaunted’s weapons, your Multitool has been upgraded to be given remote access to these systems, so that you may have control of them even when not present on the ship. Away missions are a bit more safe with some orbital bombardment on your side. Mind the ‘danger close’ and reduced accuracy, however. Limited range and functionality.
Chapter 3: Rules and Extras.
- The GM's word is law.
- Nobody is exempt from death. Not a plot NPC, antagonist, or player character. That's right; even you can die! Very quickly I might add, if you’re so unlucky.
- I can and will add more rules in the future as they are needed, and reserve the right to do so without warning... Though I will try to at least make an OOC post mentioning it.
- Do not type “Ivan has Tuna” somewhere in your sheet to verify that you read the rules.
... Get it? Space humour? 
