Origin
A Space Adventure
Welcome to my original Roleplay based on the not-so popular comic strip “Kylion”. Our Story will follow a group of six young adults as they emerge from cryo sleep after their colony ship crash lands on an unknown planet. They had been travelling for fifty years aboard the Origin 85X, one of one hundred long distance exploration vessels sent out by humanity to seek out habitable planets, alien life and possibly settle and spread humanity among the stars. The plot will revolve around how your characters deal with unknown, possibly hostile surroundings, how they interact and grow together and how they engage with (an) alien civilization(s). It's all about making choices; I just present the board and put puzzle pieces and dominoes into view. It is up to you how your characters act and react. Each character will have a specific function aboard the vessel (e.g. captain, medic etc.), more on that further down in the “Crew” Tab. You don’t need to have any knowledge about the comic strip on which this RP is based; in fact, for experiences sake it’s even better if you don’t.
Please enjoy the following introductory text by letting your brain read it out to you in Morpheus’ soothing voice.
Prologue
At the dawn of the 25th century, humanity was united in celebration as it proclaimed its two-hundred-year anniversary following its Exodus from Earth. Leading an era of peace and prosperity that had lasted for nearly two hundred years, humanity had abandoned their dying planet and claimed a freshly terraformed Mars as their asylum and new home.
Now, two hundred years after their exodus, mankind was about to take yet another step to immortalize their existence in the universe. At this very moment, on the threshold to the turn of the 25th century, fifty ships of the ‘Origin’ class are docked on their launch pads, waiting to set off on their lifelong mission and answer one of mankind’s most burning question:
"Are we alone in the universe?"
Fitted with cutting edge technology and containing testaments to human greatness, the vessels are equipped with jump drives that warp the laws of physics and allow the ships to travel farther than humanity has done ever before. At the heart of each ship there are six pods containing the vessel’s most valuable cargo: Six young adults, each one with a their own background, education and experiences, put together from the many thousand applicants at random.
As the clock counting down the time to the New Year reaches 11:45 standardized Martian time, the sound of 12 billion people cheering accompanies the roaring of fifty powerful engines starting up. The very moment the clock hits the 00:00 mark, the ships take off, leaving beams of white steam behind them as they exit orbit and untangle from a group vessels to the single entities they are, each jumping away into a different direction. As they separate and take course on their individual routes, programmed into the brain of each vessel, our eyes follow a single one of these hunks of metal flying off into deep space. All alone in the vast emptiness of space, it sets off on its journey of a lifetime.
This is the story of the Origin 85X.
The Crew
One ship. Six people. Endless possibilities.
Each of the crew members on the Origin 85X has a specific role that fits their profile. Since the onboard AI will supply the crew with knowledge and skills for their specific field during the 50 year long journey through space, they need not have any prior knowledge for their role (narratively, it makes sense if for example a former med student becomes the medic or a sociology major becomes the diplomat, but anything goes really).
Upon waking, the characters don’t know each other yet; They all applied for the colony program individually and were put into cryo sleep before meeting at all. The project leaders original thinking was that being thrust into a foreign world without much prior knowledge about your fellow crew members will cause a stronger bond than if the crews impressions of each other had been tainted by possible prejudice or a meeting in a type of setting on Mars that will never happen again in space. If you want your character to already know another character (e.g. siblings, childhood friends, former enemies etc), feel free to discuss that in the ooc.
By its very nature as a Colony Ship, the ratio of male/female crew members is designed to be (roughly) 3 and 3. Once people start applying, I will update the applications at the top of the page for roles including gender. Let’s try to hit the 3 guys 3 gals goal, but if we end up with 2 and 4 I’m not gonna pull the plug.
The image above is a picture of the original crew in the comic strip, so that you’ll get an idea were I’m coming from.
Remember that your characters will be really good at what they do, thanks to the knowledge given to them by the AI during the flight, but they are still young adults with not that much life experience. Your character is allowed to be emotional, irrational, silly and somewhat unprepared. On the flip side, your character is obviously also allowed to be super professional and ahead of their age. The greater the difference between characters, the more interesting the story, so feel free to go ahead and make it a diverse crew.
Roles
These are (roughly) the original roles from the comic strip. I added and removed some elements to adjust them to our setting. The roles are meant as guidelines to get an idea of what I’m looking for, but I am very open to interesting suggestions.
I was thinking that 3 roles (Captain, Medic and Engineer) are kind of a must have (at least a variation thereof), and the other three roles (Serviceman, Navigator and Communicator) are up for debate. For example, instead of having one soldier type character (serviceman), every member of the group could be versed in combat to some degree.
The scope of the roles is also not binding. If for example you want to play a medic that is primarily a psychologist that completely ditches the biologist part and delegates much of the physical stuff to the med bay / AI go for it.
If you have an idea for a character with a specific role that differs from the ones below, post it in the ooc or pm me, then I’ll consider it. The only requirement is that the role must make sense/be crucial enough to be taken into consideration for a life long colony/exploration mission, so maybe no "gardeners" or "butlers".
Necessary Roles
1) Captain
The captain is the commander and leader of the group. Their role is to decide the direction of action the crew takes and what decisions to make in the various situations their expeditions will encounter. As they are mainly a decision maker with no professional knowledge in any field, they will frequently consult with members of the crew who are experts in their respective fields, taking their advice into account before deciding the further course of actions.
2) Medic
Doctor, psychiatrist and (xeno)biologist. The medic is responsible for the crew’s mental and physical well-being. As a doctor, they have the right to prescript medications or therapies as they see fit and every member of the crew, including the captain, is required to follow their judgment on medical matters. They are primarily a doctor for physical needs, but they also work as psychiatrist, observing the groups stress levels. They are required to provide regular counseling to keep an eye on each individual crew member, and as such have a deep understanding of each crew members inner workings and the group’s dynamics as a whole. In that capacity, they are an advisor to the captain on the internal workings of the crew. They are also a skilled biologist and responsible for locating, analyzing and caching information about the local flora and fauna.
3) Engineer
Engineer and technical specialist. The engineer oversees all machinery on board the ship. They are the only one allowed to operate heavy machinery and have a profound knowledge on anything running on electricity and mechanical instruments. In case something breaks, they’re the one to fix it. Equipped with profound knowledge on technology and engineering, they can both improvise in times of repair and create templates for new machines if need be. They share their work on advanced weaponry with the serviceman. While the onboard AI is mostly in charge of the software side of things, the Engineer also has extensive programming knowledge in case there ever is a problem, or the AI is unable to reach them.
Optional Roles/Up for change
4) Navigator
Navigator and cartographer. The navigator works closely together with the captain in working out plans, being responsible for the practical part. They map out new terrain and are responsible for providing a constant stream of analysis of the crew’s surroundings, as well as finding safe paths and suitable campsites. As such, they will act as a scout if need be. They have large knowledge on geography and geology and other related fields that help them in reading their surroundings. On a larger scale, the Navigator creates detailed maps of both the planet the crew is on as well as the planet’s location in respect to Mars and the Milky Way.
5) Serviceman
Soldier and strategist. The serviceman is the military backbone of the group. They are in charge of handling and distributing all available weapons on board. Skilled in both martial arts and ranged combat, they are responsible for the safe keeping of the crew in the event of hostile situations. They work together with the engineer on machinery, being restricted to working in the advanced weaponry section. In hostile emergency situations they can be granted acting power over the captain, and are in charge should anything happen to the captain.
6) Communicator
Diplomat and translator. The communicator is the social backbone of the group. Well versed in political and social science, they have a deep understanding of society, culture and humanity’s history, and are optimally equipped to deal with any alien encounter. They have the most say in how to take action when establishing contact with other sentient beings, and act as a direct advisor to the captain in case of contact with alien beings. They are also responsible for keeping up communication with Mars and decoding alien languages in conjuncture with the onboard AI.
What may await our merry crew in this vast universe?
The Ship – The Origin 85X
Overview & Equipment
The Origin 85X is a state-of-the-art colony ship of the Origin generation and is equipped with a wide array of supplies, materials and machinery. Even though the Origin class ships are designed to host an original crew of only six people, they are comparatively big, reaching the length of roughly one-and-a-half Boeing airbuses and the height of a six story building. A lot of the empty space is in the form of storage and serves as spare room in case it is ever needed for refuge, transport, treasure or for taking alien fauna or flora. The ships are built to sustain life on board during space travel and doubles as a livable home, containing several rooms, some with distinct functions, some with yet undefined purpose. The living quarters, common room, kitchen and bathrooms are similar to how they would be found in a normal house of the late 24th century. There are several important pieces of machinery onboard to aid the crew in their travels, including a 3D printer, a 4 person rover and a 1 seater dirt bike for exploration and a 2 person hovercraft for trips over bodies of water. (It is up for discussion if you guys want more/less equipment for more/less drama/survival or more/less narrative convenience.)
Onboard AI
The brain of Origin 85X is an AI that is both steersman of the ship as well as the one responsible for the physical and mental development of the crew during the flight. It stimulates the children’s muscles, eyes, ears and other sensory organs to avoid them being weak or disorientated after waking. Additionally, it feeds the six crew members in their pods a stream of information and knowledge through nerve implants in their muscles and brains. Apart from general information about what is happening on their journey through space, the AI is tailoring each individual information stream to the role the crew member will fulfill in the future, supplying them with more knowledge and skill in their respective field. Over the time it takes them to reach a promising destination, each individual will have absorbed several years worth of study and be exceptionally skilled at their job.
While they are not truly awake inside their tanks, the AI gives the crew members a sense of self-awareness to soften the shock of waking on a different planet. The self-awareness they experience is akin to a dream that they are guided through by another, greater consciousness, namely the AI of Origin 85. The young adult’s consciousnesses are linked to a degree, so they will have certain recognition of their fellow crew members by the time they wake. This doesn’t go much farther than “I recognize this person, they are my crew member in this or that role” though and still leaves a lot of potential for character development and relationship building.
Ship in depth
So here is a rundown of the compartments inside the ship that I was thinking make sense to have. The list is non-exhaustive though, and the compartments I mention are mostly up for debate. If you have an idea for
I was thinking the ship has three levels. On the lowest level are storage space, the engineering deck (engineer you can either chose to have your worstation here or on the upper level, same for serviceman), hangar and exploration bay, on the middle deck are the living quarters, kitchen and common quarters, and on the upper level are the individual work stations (including med bay). The bridge is inside that elevated part at the back of the ship, like the steering wheel used to be on a sailing ship.
Bridge (technically 4th Deck)
This is the command center of the ship, and the domain of the captain. It is located on a fourth, slightly elevated level and looks out over the upper hull of the ship. Since the onboard AI is (mostly) in charge of navigating the ship, the seats and panels are meant for keeping an eye on the ships status and communicating the direction and give orders to the AI. However, this can also be done from any part of the ship since the AI is omnipresent onboard, so the bridge is mostly a glorified viewing deck these days.
3rd Deck / Upper Deck
Individual Workstations / Specialized Quarters
Each crew member has their own, specialized work space. They are obvious things like the med bay for the medic, a workshop for the engineer, and a map room for the cartographer. I leave it up to each of you to design and detail your workspace and decide where they are located (same goes for the living quarters by the way).
2nd Deck / Middle Deck
Crew Quarters
Each crew member has their own quarters for sleep and leisure. Not much more to say than that. I was thinking they are located on the middle level.
Common Quarters
The common quarters are both a leisure zone as well as the true command center, providing an opportunity to sit down, discuss and hash out plans on how to proceed. There are entertainment options for periods of extended space travel or while there is nothing to do, including a video entertainment system, card and board games, books and movies from Earth and Mars' rich history.
Kitchen
(Ignore the stewardess type woman and the first class travel vibe in the image above. While I do want the ship to be a comfortable zone, that part is a bit over the top. Still a nice kitchen though.)
In the 25th century, there is no need for cooks, since the onboard AI is capable of essentially 3D printing most foods using a carbon based substrate as building blocks. However there are cooking stations for those crew members who wish to get creative.
1st Deck / Lower Deck ("Cellar")
Exploration bay / Hangar
This is the storage unit for land and sea vehicles for exploration. It is located on the lowest deck, and is equipped with an exit ramp through the bottom of the ship.
Storage
Located on the lowest deck, there are several storage units of differing sizes. They can be used to haul anything from local fauna and flora, to treasure, to individuals.
AI Central Processor/ Mainframe
This is the brain of the ship. It is located on the lower level and contains all the hardware to house the true AI that is in charge of the ship.
Hallway
Self explanatory and honestly a bit unnecessary to post here. Nice glory shot though!
Travelers, there is no path. Paths are made by walking.
– Antonio Machado
– Antonio Machado
CS
Name: Who you gonna call? Turbulent times during the exodus to Mars, borders between races have been blurred. Your character can be any race and thus have any name.
Gender: Male or female?
Age (physical): Not that important since they all entered cryo sleep at roughly the same age; Must be between 18-22
Role: Which role do you want to fill? Any ideas for an original role?
Appearance: Post a picture or describe your characters physical appearance. Remember, any race goes and they’re all young adults at the start of the story.
Background: What was their life like on Mars? Where they born in a prominent family, the middle class did they grow up poor? What was their education, what memorable experiences did they have? Maybe they had turbulent teenage years or an important mentor that shaped their thinking? Be creative, your characters background shapes the reason for their application to the Origin program and how they will act/interact after emerging from cryo sleep. The background should stop with your character going into cryo sleep.
Clarification for narrative consistency: You go to cryo sleep at a major hospital, where the medical procedures for the Origin program takes place, you lie down in the tank, tank closes and you are put under. We can discuss that bit in the ooc so that everyone is more or less on the same page.
Personality: What’s your character like? Keep it brief, the background should already tell us a fair deal about what your character is like. This RP is for a large part based on how the characters develop in the unique situation they’re in.
Before creating your CS please inform me first which gender and role you have in mind. I will update on top of the page which roles are already taken and what the gender ratio looks like so you know what you should look out for. If two people really, REALLY want the same role or gender once the gender ratio is hit (I’m willing to go 4/2, but that’s the extent of it), you’ll either have to duke it out in the ooc/your pms or just both apply for the role with a CS each and I chose the (subjectively to me) better/better suited one. In any case, let’s try be civil 😊
Lore / IC Information
Resources
One specific Element I had in mind was Resources. The machinery on the Origin 85X is very advanced and (largely) autonomous, but it will still require resources to run. So I thought up three resource categories, the state of which I will continuously update on each post/at the top of the IC page (in percentages %, e.g. “Fuel 50%”, “Biomass 22%” etc.), so that we know how good/bad we are doing in terms of survival. There will be times when all is well and resources are plenty, but there will also be times when tensions are high, resources are low and danger is lurking.
I'm not going to roll dice or be super restrictive and strict with these resources. When I want to rack up tension I'll have you lose resources more quickly, but when when the focus of the story is somewhere else I won't annoy you with every single digit percentage update on every resource. Let's see how this goes, if it's not fun we can still ditch it.
The three categories are:
1. Fuel
Fuel is pretty straightforward. Your ship requires it to takeoff, fly, land and jump to hyperspace. But any vehicles you have (or acquire) will also require the use of fuel. I was considering if having the ship stationary but using its facilities would also require fuel (e.g. using the med bay), but I’m thinking that will unnecessarily complicated things, so we’ll just consider these things “negligible on fuel requirements”. Your ship obviously requires much more fuel than your vehicles. I was thinking taking off, landing and hyperspace take up around 10% of fuel, so a whole planet to planet trip eats up about 30% of your fuel. Flying for a bit also requires fuel, say 5% for a trip on a planet.
Fuel is made by converting a rare crystal that is (for the sake of narrative convenience) often found in caves/underground on many planets (but not all… sometimes you’ll have to get creative)
2. Biomass
Basically food. More specifically what your ships food converter uses to create meals. It uses biomass fairly quickly (I was thinking between 20% per day, in order for all crew members to be well fed, at roughly 3 meals a day per person), so you’ll have to replenish biomass regularly (roughly once a week).
Biomass is basically anything alive; Animals, plants etc, so it is abundant on planets with vegetation and/or animal life.
3. Minerals
“Minerals” is a massive oversimplification for the building blocks the on-board 3D printers uses to create anything from tools, to weapons, to replacement ship parts. While not necessary for survival or the ship to run, the printers can greatly improve quality of life or help out on missions.
The "minerals" for the 3D printer consist of two materials found in two distinctive types of rock. One of them is generally found in riverbeds and at the bottom of lakes or oceans, the other one is found in glacial regions like high mountains, ice fields and glaciers (to give some variation on the caves and plants themes).
Since minerals are optional and a "nice-to-have" kind of thing I thought I'd make it a little more difficult to find.
Ideas?
Do you have any ideas for another type of resource we could add? In my opinion three are enough and give another interesting layer without making it overly complicated, but if you have an awesome idea, feel free to tell us.
Themes
I want his RP to be fun and light on the stomach. The cast are all young adults stepping out into a world of grand adventure, so at least in the beginning I’d like to keep things more on the light side. Sure, there will be drama, danger and the occasional desperate situation; a space adventure would be really boring otherwise. But I’d like the general tone of the story to be kept non-mature at least for the first half of the story. Gore is allowed to occasionally take place.
While the crew as a whole is designed to be more of a science/exploration team rather than a military order, the captain does possess authority similar to the one a ranking officer on a ship would hold. His decisions can only be overridden if the ship doctor judges his rational judgment to be clouded, or in hostile situations where the serviceman may be granted temporary acting power if the captain is wounded or unconscious. This may sound very technical, but remember, the cast are young and just stepped out into an unknown world; They are allowed to be emotional, irrational and maybe just a little bit unready for what they’re facing, so the whole chain of command thing is only that on paper. If the characters follow it is up to you.
Posting Schedule, Rules & FAQ
Posting Schedule
I was thinking posting around once a week would be a good pace for me and therefor this RP. If you have a good thing going with your characters, for example if there is an interesting conversation between your characters that doesn't require me as GM to post anything, feel free to keep it up. But in general I was thinking that I post once a week on a specific weekday (not sure yet which one; I'll keep you updated) to move along the plot/act or react to your characters actions or introduce a new plot element.
Rules
There aren’t too many rules I want to set up. The usual things; no godmodding, no powerplaying, no personal attacks in the OOC. As long as we're all civil with each other we'll get along splendidly. I reserve the right as GM to make final calls as far as the IC goes if there is a dispute that goes overboard, but I'm hoping I won't have to call in that chit.
FAQ
Q: Since this is sci-fi, how over to top can I go with technology as an engineer? Like, are teleportation or time travel a possibility?
A: I was originally planning on this to be along the lines of hard sci-fi, so mostly technology that we can conceive off today i.e. heavily advanced 3D printing technology, smart devices and high speed transportation, plus a true AI and an unrealistically fast jump drive for the sake of narrative convenience. But we are going to alien planets with many unknowns, so who knows what we are going to encounter…
Q: Will romancing an alien be possible?
A: Woah, hold your space horses there son. We haven’t even gotten to romancing your fellow crew members yet. Let’s see how the story develops first before thinking about bedding foxy alien chicks.
Q: Can my character die in this?
A: I wasn’t planning on characters dying. Don’t do anything too stupid though, at some point my role as a game master to navigate you out of trouble is overtaken by my artistic integrity.
Q: What does the “X” in “Origin 85X” stand for?
A: What do you want it to stand for?
Here is to an epic space odyssey!
