Starship Crew

[Thinslayer]

Ever play one of those 4X games? eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate? Suppose you've reached the endgame, finished all the technologies, and took over most of the known galaxy. What happens now? Well, buckle up soldier, because you're getting a front row seat.

You are the crew of a Crescent Empire star carrier, the most powerful vessel in the galaxy. You can destroy planets and stars, create life, travel through time, and generally kick ass. Your ship has a complement of Warp Fighters aboard as well. Warp Fighters are manned starfighters able to transform between bipedal mech and high-performance interceptor as the mission demands. Though most of the systems can be and are automated, Imperial military doctrine requires that wars be fought with lives on the line, so no remote drones for you.

The dirty little secret that the Empire isn't telling you is that it's falling apart. All this "perfection" comes at a great price, and your civilization was unprepared to pay it. People are spontaneously transforming into monsters, robots are becoming sentient and rebellious, and mysterious advanced aliens wielding the Empire's own tech have begun advancing on its colonies. Your mission is to restore order and peace to the Empire. You have the whole fleet at your command, and even a member of the ruling Council has joined your crew. Good luck!

Any takers?

[Thinslayer]

I'm sure some folks are interested, but hesitant to voice it because the idea seems undeveloped. Should I add more to it?

[Marquise]

Hearing a little more about what you have planned or would like to develop further would be nice :) .

[Tea]

It sounds like a good concept and exactly the sort of setting I'd be interested in. How would it work, exactly? Would each person have their own crew and ship to RP, or would we all have just the one character on the same ship?

[6slyboy6]

@Thinslayer Pretty vague, but just like what I'd think up. I think if you put a nice ribbon on it, and move it over to casual interest check then you could get some sweet people lovin, if you know what I mean. I'd be happy to help GM it if you need any ;)

[Thinslayer]

Yeah, I couldn't decide between General or Casual interest checks. I guess it's because I'm not quite sure what system would be best here. All of us would be crew aboard one ship, but I also wanted the option to traverse space individually, hence the Warp Fighters. Each role should play out more like Artemis Starship Simulator, with a captain, gunner, helm officer, etc. The ship itself is sentient and *can* be controlled autonomously, but it needs humans to train it and give it a soul. We're training it from scratch - how to move, shoot, repair itself, and such like.

The Empire sees itself as a bastion of goodness, a light on a hill so to speak, but reality is a bit more complicated. At the start of the mission, we will be running various goody-two-shoes jobs like feeding orphans, building shelters for the homeless, rescuing the stranded, and the like. Later on, though, we will be delving into the darker side of the Empire, into its genetic experiments, morally bankrupt population, and corruption at the highest levels of government.

[Thinslayer]

The Empire has a foothold in every single star system, whether it be a core world, colony, conquered group, or military outpost. Only the core worlds produce the best starships and tech; the other worlds are struggling to catch up, or even taking different paths. While the official government is an oligarchy, with 7 Immortals on the Immortal Council, the Empire is so vast that the more remote colonies can get away with operating like sovereign states. One of your missions will be to change that.

[Tea]

That sounds great. I'll definitely join in. So many different roles it would be fun to fill, I can't decide which ^^

[6slyboy6]

Definetly throw a mention my way if you start the RP. Sounds like fun.

[StrangerDanger]

Hmmm. Sounds much like Stellaris in makeup as far as the 4x formula goes. Is that where you drew your immediate inspiration?

[Thinslayer]

There were multiple sources of inspiration. The chiefest of them was Master of Orion 2 (a renowned classic in the 4X genre). The setting is an original universe of mine tailored for science fantasy/fiction with magical facets, kind of like Star Wars in some respects. The universe itself is (loosely) inspired by Spiral Knights, a Zelda-like MMO in which you play a tech-knight who crashlanded from a starship on an alien world.

You know how many space empire 4X games have an extinct Precursor civilization who left behind artifacts that other empires can discover? The Crescents are supposed to be that empire. There were no other races before them, no aliens who evolved parallel to them, no previous empires for them to build upon. They were the first, the original space empire in this galaxy. The other empires only existed because the Crescents allowed them to and nurtured their development. Their time is coming to an end, and we, the players, will be witnesses to it.

[Thinslayer]

The Core worlds are, at once, a bastion of high civilization and a den of evil. The economy is almost totally automated - from production and services to mining, farming, and maintenance. Even science and coding are automated to some degree. The end result is that work and money have become obsolete. Any necessary economic transactions result in bartering.

Sounds like utopia right?

Wrong. Having nothing worthwhile to do with their lives, the people have wholly devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure. Alcohol, drugs, games, and especially sex are popular pastimes, and all manner of historic depravities occur on these worlds. The more conscientious members of society devote themselves to the pursuit of science and the arts. The military used to be an outlet for their energies until the end of the Conquest War.

The outer worlds, however, are a rather different animal. More on that later.
__________

The outer worlds are more or less postmodern, which is to say, considerably less advanced. Most of them can't even get a craft in orbit, let alone out of their solar system. And unfortunately, those that *used* to have spacefaring abilities were bombed back to the stone age duing the Conquest War. Over the last few years, some have regained some degree interstellar travel, but they're nowhere near as advanced as their conquerors. Our game will start with one of their emmisaries returning a batch of starship crew to their post around Crescent Prime.

[Thinslayer]

@Marquise
@Tea
@6slyboy6
@Rain
I'm about to start. I like to have pictures of the characters, and if one is provided, it must have a face. If a verbal description is provided, it must be adequate and engaging to read. The full character sheet is as follows:

* Given name & Family name:
* Description/Image:
* Worldview & Motivations:
* Personality Traits:
* Quirks/Hobbies:
* Background Info:
* Job Description/Role:
* Properties & Possessions:
* Other Notes:

Is there anything else we should go over before we begin?

[6slyboy6]

Thats a pretty vague CS but meh

[Thinslayer]

@6slyboy6
I could use the feedback. What sorts of things should I add to the CS?

[6slyboy6]

@Thinslayer TBH description is a very vague name for the most important subject. It should be background, personality/description, and possibly something about behaviour or hobbies. On the other hand items, relations and other are pretty unimportant as they could easely be part of the description section.

[Thinslayer]

@6slyboy6 Updated the CS. Thoughts?

[6slyboy6]

@Thinslayer Yeah, its cool. You're probably gonna come across the bog standard format we mostly use here on the RPG sooner or later, so you'll gain a ton of experience by playing the game of a more experienced GM (I'd say 1000+ posts usually yield a fairly good member in the casual section).

I'll make a CS sooner or later

[Thinslayer]

* Given name & Family name: Vera Valentine

Image

* Worldview & Motivations: Vera believes that every human life is precious and purposeful, and that even the most villainous of them deserves a chance at redemption. Her goal in this mission, indeed in her whole life, is to bring hope to a humanity devoid of any. Those close to her have noted, correctly, that this does not necessarily translate to loyalty toward the Empire, and her fellow Immortals have maintained an eye on her ever since they realized this about her.

* Personality Traits: Saucy, playful, and indefinitely starstruck, she looks at every encounter with another human being as something to be celebrated. The human mind, to her, is an infinite wellspring of mystery, and causing a person to express their own deepest thoughts is one of her life's greatest joys. But there is also a quieter, more contemplative side of her that one may find if enough time is spent with her, one that seems almost hopeless. In her capacity as diplomat, she has seen the full range of human expression, and she is not as naive as she looks - she does not hold much hope in humanity's future. So how can she bring hope to others when she herself has none? "When all hope is lost," she would say, "call out to her, and she shall return to you."

* Quirks/Hobbies: Vera is something of a novice poet. Her verse is technically sound, but rather uninspiring sometimes. She is also the idyllic gamer girl - sexy, competitive, and talented. Unfortunately for prospective gaming partners, she has more important things to do with her life, like saving the galaxy, for instance. Vera has an intuitive engineering sense that makes her more useful than your average politician when things break down, thanks to her early interest in vehicle design. On a side note, her father wasn't too happy when she tore apart his teleporter, but that's neither here nor there.

* Faults: Putting excessive value on human life, combined with her internal hopelessness, leads her to avoid confrontations when possible. She would rather make people feel happy than tell them the truth, if she were forced to choose between the two. She wouldn't lie, but she wouldn't say what needed to be said, either. Deception isn't entirely out of the question for her, though, and in fact it is often the only way for her to avoid confrontation that doesn't involve outright lying. Additionally, for all her preaching about the value of human life, she has surprisingly little to say when others have to do the dirty work of actually killing people who threaten the greater good. The hypocrisy is not lost on her, and has been a thorn in her side ever since it first occurred to her.

* Background Info: Vera Valentine was raised on Crescent Prime, the innermost core world of the empire and by far the most populous. With the capital being the center of culture and technology, she initially absorbed most of the traits common to her peers. She went to virtual school classes since she was only two years old, played with her friends in the streets (devoid of cars for several decades with the advent of cheap teleportation), and fell into a depressed stupor along with millions of others by her thirteenth year of age, vanishing into the (artificial) forest in a sort of "coming of age" ritual. At this point, most people made a decision, whether to continue striving for meaning in life or to end the struggle once and for all. Evidently, she must have found some meaning in her life, because she returned to the public sphere a year later bent on joining the military. She proved to be a talented warrior, but what really sold her to the higher-ups was her unwavering optimism and ability to inspire everyone around her. Thanks to her budding political acumen and a few well-placed bribes, she weaved her way up the ladder. How she became one of the seven Immortals, however, is classified, and not a few attempts were made to uncover this well-kept secret of hers.

* Job Description/Role: Immortal, Diplomat
* Properties & Possessions: shear-hardening hazard coat, dimensional containment unit, semidenim leg piece, microfiber top piece, bicast polymer foot guards, wrist-mounted chronometer, A.I. implant, multi-frequency mineral scanner, bioscanner, handheld particle blaster, S.E.E.D. launcher

[SushiJaguar]

So you'll be playing alongside the players, UK?