NOVA DAWN (working title) Science Fantasy, Cosmic Adventure, Space Pirates

[Dead Cruiser]

Mercenaries, privateers, rogues, freebooters, sellswords, corsairs, guns-for-hire, pirates. You've heard every appellation in the book for what you do. It's something that every man that sails the Void under no banner but his own must become accustomed to. The flouncing politicians of the Arc Luminous might look down their noses at you, and the tyrant-kings of the Crux Tenebre might brand you an outlaw, but when they need something dangerous done off the books, and the price is right, you're the one they'll call for.

The mighty voidship Nova Dawn has known many masters and many crews, but for now you call her home. Many are the races and creeds of the outlaws and mavericks that sail aboard her, but they are united by the common goals of wealth and adventure. Each man his own master, and architect of his own destiny. While the Nova Dawn is a formidable vessel, her true value lies in her ancient star-maps ands aetheric lexicon, a trove of secrets and mysteries dating back to the age of Dreaming Gods, before the destruction of the Astral Gate.

Time-lost treasures and secrets of the void await you. Let the adventure of an aeon begin.

---

Hi hello welcome to this thing that I am doing now yes. Essentially this is a science-fantasy, planet-hopping, treasure-hunting romp across a magical and mysterious universe. I'm drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources, such as Spelljammer, the live-action Thor films, Rogue Trader, the Elder Scrolls, Magic the Gathering, Outlaw Star, and many more.

Your character will be a crewmate on the Nova Dawn, an ancient and legendary voidship, its origins lost to the aeons. Somehow the captain of your privateer band has managed to get his hands upon it, and has recruited you, the dregs of the universe, to join his quest for fame and fortune. Given that this is a vast and infinite universe, the possibilities for your character are virtually endless. Magic and technology are one and the same in this setting, and there are many distant corners of the void forgotten or yet to be discovered. That said, I'm taking a loosey-goosey approach to building this setting. I'll present you guys with some starter ideas and the basic framework of the setting, but you're free to fill in whatever details you like.

I'm gonna leave this relatively open-ended for the Interest Check, but feel free to throw any comments and questions you may have my way.

[Irisity]

Interested

[Polybius]

Yes, please.

[Hylozoist]

I would like to register my interest, as running my own science-fiction-ish game has given me something of a hankering to be a player in one.

[Dead Cruiser]

Appreciate the interest. Any questions or concepts you'd like to put forward while interest waxes?

[Tortoise]

You say magic and technology are one in the same, but that still leaves questions as to what the magic really does.

Is it like the High Fantasy style of magic- where we have a character that is shooting fireballs and summoning demons and generally being wizard-y?

Or is it a more subtle magic, like occasionally blessed items or unexplained happenstances, but none of us are blasting out magic power or possessing enemies on a regular basis?

Or perhaps something more unique that I haven't thought of?

[Hologram Prose]

Interesting IC and interesting questions, space pirates sounds quite fancy, so I'm interested.

[Hylozoist]

Any questions or concepts you'd like to put forward while interest waxes?

@Dead Cruiser

My head is positively swimming with concepts, but hopefully I'll narrow it down as we all work together to fill out the universe and as other folks come up with character concepts.

My big question at the moment would be - what sort of "tone" are you aiming for with this game? While pirates makes me think of a fairly gritty sort of game with hardened space mercenaries chewing tobacco and generally existing as a bad example for others, the whole exploration and treasure hunting could be quite light-hearted. I'd likely be on board with whatever sort of tone you're aiming for, but it'd help inform character concepts. If it's a game of life-and-death struggles in a harsh, unforgiving sort of universe where life is cheap, I'd (probably) make a rather different character than one for a game about swinging off space-chandeliers, buckling swashes and bursting into song at the drop of a hat.

Probably.

[Tortoise]

@Hylozoist's question brings up something I wanted to ask, actually.

What is the morality of our characters? Are we like pirates actually were, murderers and rapists and in it all for the money? Or are we more like "noble" mercenaries, who will fight for hire but have limits when it comes to harming innocents? Afterall, we're guns-for-hire, but we could be guns-for-hire with limits or basically just thugs with a pricetag

Either is good, or anything inbetween, so it's up to you.

[Dead Cruiser]

@Jeyma High-fantasy style magic is acceptable, but so is your alternative. It depends on what the world your character comes from is like, and how magic is practiced there. In general though, I'm more favorable to magic with a sort of sci-fi aesthetic (think 40K or Dune), or sci-fi with a magic aesthetic (Eberron, the Elder Scrolls).

@Hylozoist If I had to describe the tone at a glance, it would be "high adventure." We'll probably run the gamut between light-hearted fun, and dark revelations, so I would more advise making a well-rounded character that can adapt to varying moods.

@Jeyma The morality of individual characters will obviously vary, but I'd say on average our crew ought to edge toward a lighter shade of grey. Not nice people, not even good people, but not monsters.

Great questions, all.

[Hylozoist]

40K

@Dead Cruiser

Yes!

Dune

@Dead Cruiser

Yes!

Eberron.

@Dead Cruiser

Yes!

If I had to describe the tone at a glance, it would be "high adventure."

@Dead Cruiser

I feel, at this point, there is a real risk you have broken into my home and read from my Big Book of Games I Want To Play.

[Hologram Prose]

I feel, at this point, there is a real risk you have broken into my home and read from my Big Book of Games I Want To Play.

@Hylozoist

It's a bit scary. D:

Dune and Eberron are two of my favorite fictional settings.

[Irisity]

@Dead Cruiser so...what do you think about space prostitutes?

[Dead Cruiser]

@Irisity Personally? I had a bad experience with the last one I hired. More on topic, they exist, sure, but probably don't fall into the schema of adventuring space pirates as a PC concept.

[Hologram Prose]

Just look at what happened to Firefly...

There's a direct correlation between Space prostitutes/consorts and FOX canceling your show RP (statistics is basically magic, so this is definitely a correct analysis).

[Tortoise]

Space Prostitutes give you Space Aids, and then you end up in Rick and Morty's basement.

[Dead Cruiser]

So I think we have a good bit of interest now, I'll start working on the OOC. For your characters, I recommend agreeing among yourselves on what crew roles (navigator, helmsman, armsman, etc) to take, so we can avoid a first-come first-served issue.

On the subject of settings, please be aware that you can have your character originate from basically any sort of fantastic setting that you can think of. Even if you come from a world that has not yet invented Void travel, perhaps you were abducted by some means and became something of a sole representative pf your race in that way. This goes along as well with any sort of stellar alliance that you may come up with. The two I presented for examples, the Arc Luminous and the Crux Tenebre, are fairly generic examples of your standard Star Trek esque Federation and an oppressive interstellar empire, respectively.

[Hologram Prose]

Sounds good.

I'm not greatly knowledgeable about ships (or space travel, sadly), but it seems like reasonable roles depends quite a bit on the size of the ship/crew, so what are we looking at in regards to those characteristics?

[Hylozoist]

For your characters, I recommend agreeing among yourselves on what crew roles (navigator, helmsman, armsman, etc) to take, so we can avoid a first-come first-served issue.

@Dead Cruiser

Well, to get the negotiations started on that front, I'll throw my hat into the ring and say that I'd like to take the prestigious role of Ship's Cook, but if anyone else would like to take on such an important task, I'd be more than happy to take on the role of "Assistant to the Ship's Cook" and be the best damned culinary sidekick you've ever had the misfortune to encounter.

[Hologram Prose]

I would like to suggest that any competitors for the vital and prestigious role of Ship's Cook must of course settle the matter through a trial of arms (knives as befitting of this illustrious profession).

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Some potential roles (I can make random lists!):

First Officer: doesn't necessarily need the title/rank, but the Captain's right hand man/woman/thing
Engineer: fixes stuff, keeps stuff working, there could be a chief and assistant engineer (one more experienced/older, the other more of an "in-training" person)
Navigator: navigates, hopefully accurately
Quartermaster: keeps the supplies in order,
Merchant: sells/buys the swag, knows their way around the Blackmarket
Helmsman/Pilot: steers the ship, ideally while sober
Armsman (Master-at-Arms): responsible for security on the ship and the suicidal illustrious boarding party
Ordnance Master: in charge of ship weapons and ammunition (keeps peeps fighting), sort of like a more weapon oriented engineer
Ship's Surgeon/Doctor: fixes people, dispenses Vitamin C as needed
Master of Communications: deals with communications, master of duck-tape
Spy/Agent: someone who can figure out what is going on, has connections, knows some bad people and how to stop those bad people from murdering the ship
Boarding Party: captures swag, shoots fools, sing pirate shanties, short life-span
Ship's Steward: most important person on the ship, feeds the crew with hopefully delicious food
Researcher: could be an sort of archaeologist looking for alien artifacts, some sort of xenobiologist, or really any sort of scientist, researchers stuff (obviously)