NEW: Access Project Viper database
OOC Intro Music (Never you mind that it's from a different game.)
The Spectres. Agents of the Citadel Council’s Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch. The ghostly agents of rightful vengeance and justice, as the asari call them; deathly shades, to the turians; black paladins of imminent retribution, to the salarians. The first and the last line of defense for the Citadel Council and the galactic civilisation over which it rules supreme. Picked from the elite of the elite of the Citadel species, Council members and associates alike; every known Spectre is deadly on the battlefield, and most have many other useful talents as well. Spectres are special agents, soldiers, commandos, spies and detectives all in one. They answer directly to the Council, and their authority cannot be checked by anyone else in Citadel Space – at least in theory. The Citadel Council gives them their targets and overall objectives, but grants them an exceptional amount of operational discretion and overall freedom in how they achieve their goals. Spectres do not fight for freedom, equality, justice, or any religion or ideology in the Galaxy; their sole concern is galactic stability, destroying threats to Citadel Space, often nipping them in the bud long before they could become a serious menace or anyone even knows that they existed. And when a Spectre goes rogue, the only thing to do is to send another Spectre to take him down.
Or so it is believed.
There are tasks to which the Spectres are ill-suited, and places they cannot easily reach. Their authority stems from the Citadel Council, and declines rapidly the further they get away from the Citadel itself and the Council race homeworlds. Spectres had been top secret once, some 1500 years ago, but not anymore; while some of them still remember how to keep a low profile, the criminals, terrorists and conspirators that plot against galactic stability know to watch out for them, and information brokers tend to be aware of their movements even when the news crews aren’t. And though the Council has done its best to keep the public damage to their reputation to a minimum, those who are more savvy know that the Spectres have been tainted by politics and corruption, and worse, made lax and complacent by the centuries of peace.
Although the average galactic citizen is living in an age of economic upsurge and cultural renaissance, comforted by relative political stability after the upsets earlier in this century and excited by the latest cosmographic and technological advancements, mercenaries, soldiers, and other members of the security and intelligence communities know better than to be lured into complacency. They know that organised crime and terrorist activity have both been on the rise, and they are aware of the myriad proxy wars in the Terminus Systems and the rising tensions in the Attican Traverse. Those with better access credentials know about more specific – and disturbing – incidents in Citadel Space. Conspiracy theorists are dime a dozen, but some of them are more right than they fear. Threats on a scale unseen since just before the Krogan Rebellions, when the Spectres were first formed, are moving about in the shadows, circling along the periphery of civilised space, or sometimes lurking under the very noses of galactic authorities. And the Spectres, in their current state, are no longer enough to stop them.
You are not one of the good guys, the heroes with the cheap publicity and galactic acclaim, and a conscience that, if not exactly easy, is soothed by knowledge of having acted for what’s right and with the full and open support of the galactic government. Perhaps you were like that once; perhaps you would like to be. But the Viper Project has not recruited from the same pool as the Spectres. Instead it went to the mercenaries, the criminals and the disgraced members of galactic militaries and intelligence services. It has offered you pardons and a blank slate, as well as a large number of credits, access to the latest in medical, computer and military technology, and – in some cases – vague, tantalising promises of assistance in taking care of any unfinished business you might have. You have also been promised a ship, and weapons – but that much is just tools for your work. What you haven’t been promised is glory and renown, or freedom (while you do have operational discretion, the Project’s Director means to keep a closer eye on your progress), or honour and the ability to sleep at night. They need you to do the sort of work that others would shy away from, they said, and by “others” they meant the Spectres. Dangerous work, secret work done in the dark where Spectres fear to tread, but absolutely necessary and ultimately rewarding.
Those promises are extravagant and their recruiting offer, sent to you personally by private channels and through suspicious-looking intermediaries, could not help but seem shady. And yet, you had some reason to take them up on this offer. Perhaps it was your only chance – to survive, or to atone. Maybe that blank slate is that big a draw. Or maybe you just want money, lots of money. You know that you are skilled, and good at what you do, whatever your eccentricities, abnormalities, past shames and dark secrets. They wouldn’t waste your time on something like this, and they wouldn’t make such promises if they did not believe that they could keep them – and perhaps the fact that they had managed to make contact with you at all is already proof enough of their reach and leverage.
And so it is that you have set out for Omega, to the rendezvous with your employer and your destiny.
Greetings, Agents. This is a game following up on the interest check in my signature. To recap it very briefly, this is a game set in the Mass Effect setting, subtly adjusted and expanded to my own tastes. On the surface, it is more or less the same galaxy as seen in the games, right before the events of the first game. Underneath the surface, however, many of the details may be different, perhaps drastically different, allowing you to explore the setting anew without any spoilers getting in the way. Also, Commander Shepard has never existed, and it is up to a different group to try and save the galaxy from the numerous threats that are threatening to submerge it in darkness and violence.
The tone and the power levels are similar to the games – especially the second game, since the discussion in the interest check has revealed a certain interest in the Renegade side of the spectrum, and in playing top secret agents rather than actual Spectres. The games themselves are therefore a good guideline for what to expect here. Action is going to be important, of course, but exploration and investigation are going to be a big part of it too, and as a matter of personal preferences there will be a good deal of galactic politics – you yourself may not want any part of them, but some of the things you do will influence the balance of power, and the groups involved may well become interested in you as a result. Things may certainly get rather dark and horrifying (think husks, indoctrination, experiments on sapient beings – and the things you can expect from the scum of the galaxy), but the player characters themselves should be at least somewhat sympathetic – dark and troubled antiheroes, sure, but not outright villains and psychopaths (also, some Paragons to balance out the overall Renegade tendencies would be very welcome – again, think ME2 for the range and sort of characters I want to see here). At the same time, while a bit of lighthearted comedy is accepted and even encouraged, your characters as a whole should not be mere comic relief or too silly to use.
Last but not least, you are a team. In-character rivalries and even hatreds are acceptable, so long as they do not keep you from working together most of the time. You might split up at times during missions, or bicker and vigorously disagree on plans and decisions (that last bit would actually be wholly welcome!), but you are still expected to act as one to achieve your overall tasks, and characters who cannot do this at all would be unsuitable. If you plan to act against the other player characters in some way I will strongly advise you to consult me first by means of a private conversation – there are situations where I would allow it, but it would certainly have serious consequences and should not be done lightly.
I am currently looking for an upwards of six players, that I will pick based both on the quality of their submissions and their character concepts, and on their level of activity. I expect everyone to be able to post thrice a week as a minimum requirement. If for some reason you should be temporarily unable to fulfill this requirement, tell me in advance. If someone goes missing for too long without telling me, I will simply NPC their character and use them as I see fit for the remainder of the current mission, and then seek out a replacement – so even if you don’t get into the game the first time, you may very well have a chance to join later (and there is no cut-off point for character submissions, so you may well join after the game starts if there’s a free spot or if I decide to expand the roster). So long as I have at least two active player characters, this will go on.
I do not want overly long posts. While you are free enough to make them in the intermissions, during missions I prefer brevity, precision, coherence and if possible good spelling and grammar. If you can retain that while adding flavour and style, that is all to the good; but in a pinch I will always prefer quality over word count.
Oh, and we’re using a system, Robin D. Laws’ Heroquest 2nd edition. You don’t really need to know anything about it though; I will explain things as we go. It does involve dice rolls though (d20, roll equal to or under your ability rating to succeed), and for that we are going to use the Invisible Castle. Please remember to link your rolls in your posts; the resolution system is somewhat intricate and requires me to know the exact results of your rolls. This is part of why I think Heroquest may be better-suited for PbP than for real time RP.
And now, on to character requirements.
First of all, I want an appearance and a background. You can use a picture for an appearance if you want, but I would prefer a quick write-up to go with it – a couple of sentences will suffice. A background should be somewhere around three or four paragraphs, give or take. I want to know your character’s origins, career, and the reason he or she ended up working for the Viper Project. By the latter I both mean some specific, life-defining incident from their past that established their reputation (a la Shepard’s psychological profile), and the motivation that has caused them to accept the Director’s summons. Both will, of course, have a considerable influence on the game itself and your personal arcs within it.
And then we need to work on your stats. To start, I need you to pick your two Keywords – Species and Class. Species is self-explanatory: human, volus, turian, asari. Class is based on the PC and NPC character classes in the games, but you can pick others so long as you explain what they mean and I approve of them. I’ve elaborated on what the keywords mean somewhat in the IC thread, but basically, any member of a class gets at least the basic weapons, tools and powers associated with it.
You have ten more Abilities on top of that. Abilities can be anything that is an important part of your character and that you would say helps him or her accomplish their goals in the story. One of the Abilities must be connected to your Reputation that I’ve described above. Others can be personality traits, unique weapons or tools, contacts and connections, or just plain skills and talents. The sky is the limit. I can go on about Abilities for a bit, but I think it may be better if you just make them as you see fit and I then help refine them into something usable if that is needed. I think the Heroquest character creation rules have a way of sounding more complex than they really are.
You also have three Flaws – injuries, personality traits, old enemies and other things that are likely to interfere with you reaching your objectives in some way or another. You don’t have to pick all three of them immediately... but going from my experience I’ll advise you to do so anyway, if you can.
Once you do this we will move on to the next part: assigning ratings and refining your Abilities.
OOC Intro Music (Never you mind that it's from a different game.)
The Spectres. Agents of the Citadel Council’s Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Branch. The ghostly agents of rightful vengeance and justice, as the asari call them; deathly shades, to the turians; black paladins of imminent retribution, to the salarians. The first and the last line of defense for the Citadel Council and the galactic civilisation over which it rules supreme. Picked from the elite of the elite of the Citadel species, Council members and associates alike; every known Spectre is deadly on the battlefield, and most have many other useful talents as well. Spectres are special agents, soldiers, commandos, spies and detectives all in one. They answer directly to the Council, and their authority cannot be checked by anyone else in Citadel Space – at least in theory. The Citadel Council gives them their targets and overall objectives, but grants them an exceptional amount of operational discretion and overall freedom in how they achieve their goals. Spectres do not fight for freedom, equality, justice, or any religion or ideology in the Galaxy; their sole concern is galactic stability, destroying threats to Citadel Space, often nipping them in the bud long before they could become a serious menace or anyone even knows that they existed. And when a Spectre goes rogue, the only thing to do is to send another Spectre to take him down.
Or so it is believed.
There are tasks to which the Spectres are ill-suited, and places they cannot easily reach. Their authority stems from the Citadel Council, and declines rapidly the further they get away from the Citadel itself and the Council race homeworlds. Spectres had been top secret once, some 1500 years ago, but not anymore; while some of them still remember how to keep a low profile, the criminals, terrorists and conspirators that plot against galactic stability know to watch out for them, and information brokers tend to be aware of their movements even when the news crews aren’t. And though the Council has done its best to keep the public damage to their reputation to a minimum, those who are more savvy know that the Spectres have been tainted by politics and corruption, and worse, made lax and complacent by the centuries of peace.
Although the average galactic citizen is living in an age of economic upsurge and cultural renaissance, comforted by relative political stability after the upsets earlier in this century and excited by the latest cosmographic and technological advancements, mercenaries, soldiers, and other members of the security and intelligence communities know better than to be lured into complacency. They know that organised crime and terrorist activity have both been on the rise, and they are aware of the myriad proxy wars in the Terminus Systems and the rising tensions in the Attican Traverse. Those with better access credentials know about more specific – and disturbing – incidents in Citadel Space. Conspiracy theorists are dime a dozen, but some of them are more right than they fear. Threats on a scale unseen since just before the Krogan Rebellions, when the Spectres were first formed, are moving about in the shadows, circling along the periphery of civilised space, or sometimes lurking under the very noses of galactic authorities. And the Spectres, in their current state, are no longer enough to stop them.
You are not one of the good guys, the heroes with the cheap publicity and galactic acclaim, and a conscience that, if not exactly easy, is soothed by knowledge of having acted for what’s right and with the full and open support of the galactic government. Perhaps you were like that once; perhaps you would like to be. But the Viper Project has not recruited from the same pool as the Spectres. Instead it went to the mercenaries, the criminals and the disgraced members of galactic militaries and intelligence services. It has offered you pardons and a blank slate, as well as a large number of credits, access to the latest in medical, computer and military technology, and – in some cases – vague, tantalising promises of assistance in taking care of any unfinished business you might have. You have also been promised a ship, and weapons – but that much is just tools for your work. What you haven’t been promised is glory and renown, or freedom (while you do have operational discretion, the Project’s Director means to keep a closer eye on your progress), or honour and the ability to sleep at night. They need you to do the sort of work that others would shy away from, they said, and by “others” they meant the Spectres. Dangerous work, secret work done in the dark where Spectres fear to tread, but absolutely necessary and ultimately rewarding.
Those promises are extravagant and their recruiting offer, sent to you personally by private channels and through suspicious-looking intermediaries, could not help but seem shady. And yet, you had some reason to take them up on this offer. Perhaps it was your only chance – to survive, or to atone. Maybe that blank slate is that big a draw. Or maybe you just want money, lots of money. You know that you are skilled, and good at what you do, whatever your eccentricities, abnormalities, past shames and dark secrets. They wouldn’t waste your time on something like this, and they wouldn’t make such promises if they did not believe that they could keep them – and perhaps the fact that they had managed to make contact with you at all is already proof enough of their reach and leverage.
And so it is that you have set out for Omega, to the rendezvous with your employer and your destiny.
Greetings, Agents. This is a game following up on the interest check in my signature. To recap it very briefly, this is a game set in the Mass Effect setting, subtly adjusted and expanded to my own tastes. On the surface, it is more or less the same galaxy as seen in the games, right before the events of the first game. Underneath the surface, however, many of the details may be different, perhaps drastically different, allowing you to explore the setting anew without any spoilers getting in the way. Also, Commander Shepard has never existed, and it is up to a different group to try and save the galaxy from the numerous threats that are threatening to submerge it in darkness and violence.
The tone and the power levels are similar to the games – especially the second game, since the discussion in the interest check has revealed a certain interest in the Renegade side of the spectrum, and in playing top secret agents rather than actual Spectres. The games themselves are therefore a good guideline for what to expect here. Action is going to be important, of course, but exploration and investigation are going to be a big part of it too, and as a matter of personal preferences there will be a good deal of galactic politics – you yourself may not want any part of them, but some of the things you do will influence the balance of power, and the groups involved may well become interested in you as a result. Things may certainly get rather dark and horrifying (think husks, indoctrination, experiments on sapient beings – and the things you can expect from the scum of the galaxy), but the player characters themselves should be at least somewhat sympathetic – dark and troubled antiheroes, sure, but not outright villains and psychopaths (also, some Paragons to balance out the overall Renegade tendencies would be very welcome – again, think ME2 for the range and sort of characters I want to see here). At the same time, while a bit of lighthearted comedy is accepted and even encouraged, your characters as a whole should not be mere comic relief or too silly to use.
Last but not least, you are a team. In-character rivalries and even hatreds are acceptable, so long as they do not keep you from working together most of the time. You might split up at times during missions, or bicker and vigorously disagree on plans and decisions (that last bit would actually be wholly welcome!), but you are still expected to act as one to achieve your overall tasks, and characters who cannot do this at all would be unsuitable. If you plan to act against the other player characters in some way I will strongly advise you to consult me first by means of a private conversation – there are situations where I would allow it, but it would certainly have serious consequences and should not be done lightly.
I am currently looking for an upwards of six players, that I will pick based both on the quality of their submissions and their character concepts, and on their level of activity. I expect everyone to be able to post thrice a week as a minimum requirement. If for some reason you should be temporarily unable to fulfill this requirement, tell me in advance. If someone goes missing for too long without telling me, I will simply NPC their character and use them as I see fit for the remainder of the current mission, and then seek out a replacement – so even if you don’t get into the game the first time, you may very well have a chance to join later (and there is no cut-off point for character submissions, so you may well join after the game starts if there’s a free spot or if I decide to expand the roster). So long as I have at least two active player characters, this will go on.
I do not want overly long posts. While you are free enough to make them in the intermissions, during missions I prefer brevity, precision, coherence and if possible good spelling and grammar. If you can retain that while adding flavour and style, that is all to the good; but in a pinch I will always prefer quality over word count.
Oh, and we’re using a system, Robin D. Laws’ Heroquest 2nd edition. You don’t really need to know anything about it though; I will explain things as we go. It does involve dice rolls though (d20, roll equal to or under your ability rating to succeed), and for that we are going to use the Invisible Castle. Please remember to link your rolls in your posts; the resolution system is somewhat intricate and requires me to know the exact results of your rolls. This is part of why I think Heroquest may be better-suited for PbP than for real time RP.
And now, on to character requirements.
First of all, I want an appearance and a background. You can use a picture for an appearance if you want, but I would prefer a quick write-up to go with it – a couple of sentences will suffice. A background should be somewhere around three or four paragraphs, give or take. I want to know your character’s origins, career, and the reason he or she ended up working for the Viper Project. By the latter I both mean some specific, life-defining incident from their past that established their reputation (a la Shepard’s psychological profile), and the motivation that has caused them to accept the Director’s summons. Both will, of course, have a considerable influence on the game itself and your personal arcs within it.
And then we need to work on your stats. To start, I need you to pick your two Keywords – Species and Class. Species is self-explanatory: human, volus, turian, asari. Class is based on the PC and NPC character classes in the games, but you can pick others so long as you explain what they mean and I approve of them. I’ve elaborated on what the keywords mean somewhat in the IC thread, but basically, any member of a class gets at least the basic weapons, tools and powers associated with it.
You have ten more Abilities on top of that. Abilities can be anything that is an important part of your character and that you would say helps him or her accomplish their goals in the story. One of the Abilities must be connected to your Reputation that I’ve described above. Others can be personality traits, unique weapons or tools, contacts and connections, or just plain skills and talents. The sky is the limit. I can go on about Abilities for a bit, but I think it may be better if you just make them as you see fit and I then help refine them into something usable if that is needed. I think the Heroquest character creation rules have a way of sounding more complex than they really are.
You also have three Flaws – injuries, personality traits, old enemies and other things that are likely to interfere with you reaching your objectives in some way or another. You don’t have to pick all three of them immediately... but going from my experience I’ll advise you to do so anyway, if you can.
Once you do this we will move on to the next part: assigning ratings and refining your Abilities.
