RULES OF NATURE - Magitech Cyberpunk Tactical Espionage Action

[Excession]

INTRIGUE. VIOLENCE. CYBERNETICS. POLITICS.
I'm seeking five players to take on the roles of officers in Lightning Security Solutions; professional soldiers fighting for a better future. Characters will be maimed. They might die. Sometimes the price of justice is sacrifice. Sometimes that sacrifice is your humanity.
The system is easy enough to learn, a dice-pool system that's easy to use but has mechanical depth if you want to engage with it.
No prior experience with this game or tabletop games required. All skill levels welcome.
One post a week is ideal, once a month is acceptable.
No set post length - just post what you feel is necessary to move things along.

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In the bad old days, Magi ruled the world; cruel and capricious sorcerer-kings who set themselves above ordinary humankind, wielding arcane might by raw effort of will.
Then Samantha Klein invented the revolver and things got a little more equal.

Two-hundred and seventy years later, the Imerian Federation officially bans Magi from public office. All legal citizens are tracked by use of the Redline - an enchanted chip that contains their personal information. Ostensibly to keep Magi from going rogue and to offer more convenience to the rest of humankind.
But here's the trick: denied thrones, Magi discovered boardrooms can be more powerful. Politicians can be bought. Police can be bribed. The massed poor can't do a thing about legal business.

Corporations rule the world. The government exists purely to maintain the illusions of freedom and choice. Forget Magic - money makes the world go 'round. Corps operate like sovereign nations on their own property, with employees heavily monitored, often paid in company Loyalty rather than real money, free to kill or imprison as they see fit.
Worse off still are the Blacklines. The poor, the downtrodden, the unprofitable. No legal rights, no protections unless they can pay private police companies. Grist for the capitalist mill.

Enter Lightning Security Solutions, LLC. A private military company with a conscience, founded by former police captain Lexi Smoke. They've put their money on a brave new world - the city-state of Fortune plans to implement a socialist democracy, putting fetters on the corporations and power back into the hands of the people. LSS jumped on the contract to assist and protect Fortune's current mayor from corp assassins, the city from espionage, the people from the depredation of vengeful corporate powers.

18 months in the making, today Fortune declares their new constitution and secession from the Imerian Federation. Now is the time the corps will strike, using anonymous PMCs in a show of force to make an example of Fortune.
It's on you, soldiers of LSS, to save the day.

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I need:
SUB-COMMANDER: Commander Smoke's second in command, leader of the initial player group.
MCM SPECIALIST: Magical Counter-Measures; an expert in technical and sorcerous systems, a hacker and anti-mage in one.
STRIKE COMMANDER: The consummate soldier. A front-line combatant who knows the value of teamwork and individual action both.
INFILTRATOR: War is not the ordinary world. Morals and valour are comforting illusions best left at the door. A knife in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn. [please note: this character is preferred to have a history as a child soldier for over-arching plot reasons].
ARMOURED COMMANDER: You are the shield for the men on the ground, employing advanced war-machines and powered exoskeletons to take out enemy artillery and armour.
More information will become available when a quorum of players has been achieved.

This RP will be supported by a dice-based mechanical system, but do not be intimidated - pre-written character sheets will be made available and rolls will be kept to a dramatically necessary minimum. Prior experience useful but by no means required.

This RP would benefit from at least one post per week, ideally up to three. There is no requirement for minimum wordcounts* or arbitrary notions of literacy: if you can communicate clearly, play with the group, and maintain a character, you are welcome.

Please post if you would be interested and ask questions as you like; I am happy to answer them.

[rush99999]

Dibs on the infiltrator.

[CDT0925]

I am interested in joining. Not sure what niche I'd like to fill yet. Currently at work, and I need some time to think about it first. Possibly dumb question, but you have stated the game will be supported with dice; however I don't see any mention of a specific system. Is there a specific system you plan to use?

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your reply @Excession!

[Excession]

I am interested in joining. Not sure what niche I'd like to fill yet. Currently at work, and I need some time to think about it first. Possibly dumb question, but you have stated the game will be supported with dice; however I don't see any mention of a specific system. Is there a specific system you plan to use?

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your reply @Excession!

@CDT0925

A fine question; it's a system of my own creation which probably most closely resembles World of Darkness with some significant differences.
I should have a quick reference sheet here somewhere...

Rule ref

System Primer
Rolls are made using a pool of twelve-sided dice {d12s} equal to the relevant Attribute.
The default Difficulty is 11, which means any die rolling 11 or higher is a Success. If a die rolls a 12, it explodes and can be rolled again.
The default Difficulty is reduced by 1 for each point that a character has in a relevant Skill.
If the player can justify the inclusion of a second Attribute in the roll, half of that Attribute rounded down is added as bonus dice. Further bonuses can be earned with clever solutions, characterful roleplaying, or if the whole group agrees it would be extremely cool.

In combat, players declare their actions from the Lowest Initiative to the Highest, which means characters with higher Initiative can interrupt slower characters.
Characters have a Combat Pool of dice that can be used on combat actions. Special manoeuvres such as spell-casting reduce this pool by 2. Attacking or defending uses an amount chosen by the player, but if they have no dice left, they can do neither.
A character can attack as many times as they have points in Dexterity. They can defend as long as they have dice left.
If a character has no dice to defend themselves, a successful attack against them receives a free Success.
Difficulty is determined by the difference between the attacker and defender’s Offence and Defence - both start at 9. If there’s a Difference of more than 2 between these values, the higher value character’s Difficulty decreases to 8, and the lower increases to 9.
Damage is reduced by Soak. It is equal to Weapon Damage + Strength + Successes over the enemy’s Successes to defend - Soak. One third, rounded up, of all Damage to Condition is also applied to Health.
At 10 Condition and/or 5 Health a character must roll Willpower not to collapse unconscious or badly wounded.

The full system is a bit more complex but this is what I use for conventions.

[CDT0925]

<Snipped quote by CDT0925>

A fine question; it's a system of my own creation which probably most closely resembles World of Darkness with some significant differences.
I should have a quick reference sheet here somewhere...

Rule ref

System Primer
Rolls are made using a pool of twelve-sided dice {d12s} equal to the relevant Attribute.
The default Difficulty is 11, which means any die rolling 11 or higher is a Success. If a die rolls a 12, it explodes and can be rolled again.
The default Difficulty is reduced by 1 for each point that a character has in a relevant Skill.
If the player can justify the inclusion of a second Attribute in the roll, half of that Attribute rounded down is added as bonus dice. Further bonuses can be earned with clever solutions, characterful roleplaying, or if the whole group agrees it would be extremely cool.

In combat, players declare their actions from the Lowest Initiative to the Highest, which means characters with higher Initiative can interrupt slower characters.
Characters have a Combat Pool of dice that can be used on combat actions. Special manoeuvres such as spell-casting reduce this pool by 2. Attacking or defending uses an amount chosen by the player, but if they have no dice left, they can do neither.
A character can attack as many times as they have points in Dexterity. They can defend as long as they have dice left.
If a character has no dice to defend themselves, a successful attack against them receives a free Success.
Difficulty is determined by the difference between the attacker and defender’s Offence and Defence - both start at 9. If there’s a Difference of more than 2 between these values, the higher value character’s Difficulty decreases to 8, and the lower increases to 9.
Damage is reduced by Soak. It is equal to Weapon Damage + Strength + Successes over the enemy’s Successes to defend - Soak. One third, rounded up, of all Damage to Condition is also applied to Health.
At 10 Condition and/or 5 Health a character must roll Willpower not to collapse unconscious or badly wounded.

The full system is a bit more complex but this is what I use for conventions.

@Excession

Awesome! The rules seem pretty neat! After some thinking, I believe I am interested in the Armoured Commander role. You mention pre-written character sheets. With that in mind, I'm curious how much power we'll have over our characters' backgrounds and presence. For example, if I were to take on the role of the Armoured Commander, would I be able to "design" my character or choose from different heavy archetypes or something?

[Excession]

<Snipped quote by Excession>

Awesome! The rules seem pretty neat! After some thinking, I believe I am interested in the Armoured Commander role. You mention pre-written character sheets. With that in mind, I'm curious how much power we'll have over our characters' backgrounds and presence. For example, if I were to take on the role of the Armoured Commander, would I be able to "design" my character or choose from different heavy archetypes or something?

@CDT0925

The pre-gen sheets are mostly to serve as examples so you can create a character all your own, or so anyone who is very new to using any system has an easy onramp. As long as your character fits the strategic niche of armour command and fits the ethos of LSS I encourage you to go nuts. Rush has volunteered for the only character role where I ask to strongly influence the backstory.
I'll post the examples in the OOC if we get three more players, but for what it's worth the example AC is the team newbie fresh from a private academy.

[CDT0925]

Not much for me to add at this point. Just responding to let you know I'm still interested and am awaiting more players. If I come up with a character concept (likely based around example AC) I'll drop it here.

Mechanically speaking, I am interested in being a juggernaut type character with lots of forward momentum and frontal shields to lead the charge, but I'm not sure how that would work with your system or the established lore and whatnot. Simply put, imagine Reinhardt from Overwatch (at least mechanically).

[Excession]

Not much for me to add at this point. Just responding to let you know I'm still interested and am awaiting more players. If I come up with a character concept (likely based around example AC) I'll drop it here.

Mechanically speaking, I am interested in being a juggernaut type character with lots of forward momentum and frontal shields to lead the charge, but I'm not sure how that would work with your system or the established lore and whatnot. Simply put, imagine Reinhardt from Overwatch (at least mechanically).

@CDT0925

I'll draft you up a nice suit of power armour for just that. It's very similar to a thing a friend of mine had in another game I ran; a suit of enchanted armour that allowed the character to 'vent' the kinetic energy of a fall into a shockwave. They used it for boarding actions from low orbit.

[CDT0925]

<Snipped quote by CDT0925>

I'll draft you up a nice suit of power armour for just that. It's very similar to a thing a friend of mine had in another game I ran; a suit of enchanted armour that allowed the character to 'vent' the kinetic energy of a fall into a shockwave. They used it for boarding actions from low orbit.

@Excession

@Excession

SHWEET! Sounds pretty rad!

[CDT0925]

Still excited, giving a quick post so maybe others will see and express their interest. Also, I had another idea for my character, but I need to refine it some before I present it.

[Excession]

Giving this another bump just in case.