Priest
Force and Fury Member
Actually kind of mellow
STATUS: Shilling a good medieval fantasy: roleplayerguild.com/topics/… 2 yrs ago
- Last Seen: 11 hrs ago
- Joined: 7 yrs ago
- Posts: 753 (0.28 / day)
- VMs: 1
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Username history
- Force and Fury 7 yrs ago
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Latest 10 profile visitors:
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Kuro,
Fallenreaper,
Ti,
Jumbus,
Silly,
Echotech71,
Astro,
Chronic,
Lildear18,
pantothenic
Status
Recent Statuses
2 yrs ago
Current
Shilling a good medieval fantasy: roleplayerguild.com/topics/…
3 yrs ago
Don't mind me. Just shilling a thread: roleplayerguild.com/topics/…
3 yrs ago
So worried right now. My brother just got admitted to the hospital after swallowing six toy horses. Doctors say he's in stable condtion.
8
likes
3 yrs ago
Nice to meet you, Bored. I'm interested!
7
likes
3 yrs ago
Ugh. Someone literally stole the wheels off of my car. Gonna have to work tirelessly for justice.
4
likes
Bio
Oh gee! An age and a gender and interests and things. Yeah, I have those. Ain't no way I'm about to trigger an existential crisis by typing them all out, though. You can find out what a nerd I am on discord, okay?
Stay awesome, people.
Stay awesome, people.
Most Recent Posts
"Sienna, what is the current date and time?"
"Hello, Cam! The date is July 19, 2412. It is 3:26 PM in our current location."
"Sienna, what is my current location?"
"That's a good question. You are currently on the McAdam Campus of Invercargill University, in New London, Belgravia. If you'd like to know more about attractions, shopping, and places to eat, don't be afraid -"
"Sienna, where is the planet Humber located?"
"...I'm not sure that I heard you correctly. Did you say 'planet Humber'?"
"Yes, planet Humber."
"I'm sorry, Cam. I can't seem to find a planet with that name. Is it a location from an intellectual property that I don't have access to?"
"...Nevermind, Sienna. Thank you."
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more assistance, Cam. If there's anything else I can help you with, just let me know!"
Three hundred years ago, our species nearly went extinct. The collapse of Earth's biosphere, brought on by human action including climate change, resulted in mass extinctions and cataclysmic natural disasters that drove us from our mother world. Yet, it is when our collective back is against the wall that humanity is often at its best. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all. With the eleventh hour development of cryosleep technology and the ICE (Ionic Corkscrew Electromagnetic) drive, near-lightspeed travel became possible and billions of people were able to leave their dying planet in a Great Escape. Entering cryosleep for the journey, they bypassed the bleak, marginal colony on Mars in colossal interstellar arks and woke up on brave new worlds.
Since then, the human race has blossomed, living among the stars. Dozens of new solar systems have been colonized and thriving civilizations built. With further innovation, we have shattered the cosmic 'speed limit' of lightspeed and, from the precipice of extinction, our population has recently broken the trillion mark.
And yet... this bold interstellar adventure that had once seemed like a science fiction dream is perhaps not so incredible as we'd imagined. Extraterrestrial life turned out to be rarer than expected, and of sentient life we haven't caught so much as a whiff. There are no Jedi, no space pirates, no phasers to be set to stun, and certainly no aliens. People go to work and school. They purchase property. They start families. They do it all under the watchful eye of governments and corporations. If the future is now, it is disappointingly mundane. Perhaps it is little surprise, then, that escapism flourishes in this context.
Enter the Golden World. Utilizing the hypernet and cognitive immersion techniques pioneered for the entertainment of ark crew members during the Great Escape, this vast near-utopian metaverse is indistinguishable from reality in its physics and sensory realism. Yet here, people can live and work free of disease, disability, hunger, and peril. Here, for a nominal price, people can be whatever they want to be and go wherever they want to go. A fireball-flinging wizard, cyberpunk vigilante, or mermaid songstress? A vacation in the world of Star Wars or Harry Potter? A trip through time and space? There is always a company that can make your dreams a reality. Indeed, the early twenty-fifth century is a period of thriving competition. With humanity's expansion into the stars, new corporations have formed and been given space to grow, while old ones have become titans, purchasing entire worlds (both real and simulated) free from the tyranny of government.
Yet, for reasons of fairness, the great simulation of the Golden World falls under the jurisdiction of an independent UN-sanctioned organization known as ICON (Interstellar Council of Neutrals). Not only does this body of programmers, engineers, psychologists, artists, and other experts administer the physical servers on the bleak backwater of Mars, they maintain and manage all in-simulation operations as well. With them in charge, life is pretty good.
That is, except in the case of one young man. Hours ago, graduate student Cam Vickers, hoping to save some money by traveling unlisted (under the table) on a chartered freighter, was on his way to the world of Humber for an in-person symposium. He had friends there who he was looking forward to seeing. That was... until the world disappeared as if it had never even existed. Indeed, when he asked some of the crew members, all that they could do was look at him strangely. "Humber?" they asked. "Never heard of it, but you'd better strap in, kid. We're about to leave hyperspace at Belgravia. That's you. That's where your big university thing is, right?"
T H E R O L E P L A Y____ __ _ _ _ _ _ _
"Sienna, where and when is this set?"
Good question, player! This RPG is a twin of Father Sky and will take place simultaneously and in direct continuity. Characters may not initially move between the two RPGs. However, this will change and be allowed as the RPG progresses.
"Sienna, what will we be doing, exactly?"
I'm glad you asked! The Golden World is a semi-hard sci-fi roleplay with two settings: a sandbox metaverse and a vaguely cyberpunk-esque real world with a slightly less dystopian flavour. Think a bit of Ready Player One with shades of The Matrix. Players will have the ability to opt into a driving central mystery that will unfold and be revealed through the actions of player characters in both RPGs. In general, I am looking for a group of four in each of the two games. Depending on interest, you may or may not be able to run characters in both.
"Sienna, what is expected of me?"
Yes, that's an important one. In terms of commitment, consider this high casual. A minimum of three paragraphs will be expected along with at least one post per week. I understand that English is not everybody's first language, but please try to use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Should you be inactive without notice in the game thread and on discord for more than two weeks, your participation will be considered to have ended. I know that life happens. No worries and no guilt. I understand completely. Please communicate, though.
"Sienna, since this is a metaverse, can I do pretty much whatever I want?"
Well, yes, more or less, but please remember to observe all of the usual rules about metagaming, powerplaying, and conducting yourself with decency. Of course, I wouldn't expect any problems from you, but I have to offer that disclaimer. The main rule here is just to be a good faith actor. If you're not, you will be warned. If it persists, you will be kicked. Inactive player characters may be taken over by myself, by other players, or may be killed off.
"Sienna, how do I actually join?"
Righto, player! That's the most important question of all and it might be a little different than you're used to. For this game, it is important that you submit your Character Sheets through DM only, to myself and my Co-GMs @Medili and @pantothenic. Do not post them in this thread or in the OOC (if/when it opens) until you are approved. I will announce approved CSes one week after the submission deadline, which is currently TBA. At that point, the discord will open as well. For your convenience, a raw code character sheet template can be found below.
D I S C O V E R F A T H E R S K Y____ __ _ _ _ _
A D V E N T U R E A W A I T S__ __ _ _
?QUERY=DATE:
...7-19-2412
?QUERY=LOCATION:
...SEDGEPLAINS-NEW-ARABIA-MARS
?QUERY=SERVER-STATUS:
...SERVER-ERROR
?QUERY=ERROR-REPORT:
...POWER-OUTAGE
The year is 2412 and, after the near complete ecological collapse of Earth, humanity has taken its place among the stars. Left behind when the interstellar arks departed two hundred years ago, our species' colony on Mars - the very first of its kind - has soldiered grimly on, finding new purpose as home to the server complexes that house a vast metaverse known as the Golden World. So important has this great simulation been deemed to the social, cultural, and economic well-being of the human species that Mars has been designated a sanctuary. One would think that would be a good thing...
In practice, it means that Mars is and shall remain nothing more than a colony: its entire purpose to serve the needs of the Golden World. Administered from a massive gated compound by a UN-sanctioned organization known as ICON (Interstellar Council Of Neutrals), the red planet is an island unto itself, with access severely restricted and the populace closely monitored. All high-level server operations are treated with extreme secrecy and the reasons for this are a cause of much speculation.
Daily life for Mars' four million inhabitants is often a mixture of hovering peril and crushing boredom. The atmosphere of this semi-terraformed world is tenuous and only thick enough to be breathable within the Mariner Valley and a handful of other lowlands. Crop growth is difficult in the thin, nutrient-poor soil and, during harsh Martian winters, night temperatures can plummet past one hundred degrees below zero.
The single most important piece of infrastructure for these people, however, is the series of one hundred eighty liquid metal convection engines that provide the world with its artificial magnetic field. These are nearly three centuries old and, through a mixture of neglect, cost-cutting measures, and corporate greed, they have begun to fail. Inhabitants are almost certain that the continued operation of the mostly-robotically run servers will be prioritized over their well-being, and they have tried to make their voices heard. The Green Hand, a citizens' alliance and protest movement, was formed to bring attention to their concerns, only for it to be labeled a terrorist organization by the ICON-appointed government. From within their walled compound, they warned that any harm done to the servers would be considered legal murder and made punishable by death.
Terrorists, Martians were called, for valuing human life over what is ultimately an entertainment platform. Terrorists they became. All across Mars, from the cities of the Mariner Valley to the rice paddies of New Arabia, the Arcadian Highlands, and the remote, windswept shores of the Hellenic Sea, clandestine cells have sprung up. On July 18, 2412, despite suffering heavy casualties at the hands of its automated defenses, members of the Green Hand succeeded in breaching the power supply of one of the server complexes. In an instant, one tenth of the simulated world winked out of existence and the galaxy was given no choice but to listen to them.
T H E R O L E P L A Y____ __ _ _ _ _ _ _
...1=This RPG is a twin of The Golden World and will take place simultaneously and in direct continuity. Characters may not initially move between the two RPGs. However, this will change as the story progresses.
...2= Father Sky is a semi-hard sci-fi roleplay with a driving central conflict and a mystery that will unfold and be revealed through the actions of player characters in both RPGs. Think of The Expanse with some elements of Total Recall. In general, I am looking for a group of four in each of the two games. Depending on interest, you may or may not be able to run characters in both.
...3= In terms of commitment, consider this high casual. A minimum of three paragraphs will be expected along with at least one post per week. I understand that English is not everybody's first language, but please try to use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Should you be inactive without notice in the game thread and on discord for more than two weeks, your participation will be considered to have ended. I understand that life happens. No worries and no guilt. I get it. Please communicate, though.
...4= Please observe all of the usual rules about metagaming, powerplaying, and conducting yourself with decency. You people are pretty chill, but a GM has to cover their ass, right? The main rule here is just to be a good faith actor. If you're not, you will be warned. If it persists, you will be kicked. Inactive player characters may be taken over by myself, by other players, or may be killed off.
...5= It is important that you submit your Character Sheets through DM only, to myself and my Co-GMs @Medili and @pantothenic. Do not post them in this thread or in the OOC, when it opens, until you are approved. I will announce approved CSes one week after the submission deadline, which is currently TBA. At that point, the discord will open as well. For your convenience, a raw code character sheet template can be found below.
E N T E R T H E G O L D E N W O R L D____ __ _ _ _ _
M A R S A W A I T S____ __ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ __The Golden World
Father Sky__ _ _ _ _
The Golden World and Father Sky are a combined realistic sci-fi/metaverse mystery-thriller, blending reality-bending elements evocative of Total Recall and The Matrix with corporate/political intrigue closer to Elysium and Ready Player One. Set a few hundred years in the future, they follow two separate but ultimately interlinked storylines.
In the story of The Golden World, humanity has survived the near-complete collapse of Earth's biosphere by expanding into space following the timely development of the ICE (Ionic Corkscrew Electromagnetic) drive. A couple of centuries on from those primitive interstellar arks and the rushed and fragmented records surrounding the exodus, subsequent innovation has allowed us to break the universal 'speed limit' of lightspeed and push well beyond. Humans now live in dozens of star systems, on dozens of planets, maintaining lines of communication through the spacetime-warping hypernet, which allows near-instantaneous communication over staggering distances. However, the fantastical surroundings of interstellar space have not quite lived up to their billing. There was barely any life to be found among the stars, and certainly none of it was sentient. There are no Jedi, no space pirates, and no aliens. People go to work and school. They purchase property. They start families. They do it all under the watchful eye of governments and corporations. The bold science-fiction future that we had once dared to imagine is surprisingly mundane and, as in the present, escapism flourishes. In particular, many people spend their free time in the 'Golden World': a vast simulation materially indistinguishable from reality in its physics and realism. Some even live and work there near-permanently, hooked up to 'immersion beds' that maintain their bodies in health where their minds roam elsewhere.
For some, the Golden World serves a role in facilitating telepresence and exchange over long distances without time-consuming space travel. It enjoys an integrated economy where corporate interests flourish, and environs where people can live free of disease, disability, hunger, and peril. For others, however, it is a place of wonder. For the right price or commitment, you can be who and what you want in the Golden World: a fireball-flinging wizard, cyberpunk vigilante, or mermaid songstress? Some company active on its servers is sure to have you covered. Indeed, the late twenty-third century is a period of thriving competition. With the expansion into the stars, new companies have formed and been given space to grow, while old ones have become titans, purchasing entire worlds (both real and simulated) as private property.
Against this backdrop, it was agreed, when the Golden World was first established, that it would indefinitely remain an officially neutral ground. Though private companies operate within its servers and individual services are often subcontracted out, overall operations are overseen by a body known as ICON (Interstellar Council Of Neutrals). This is an impartial UN-style non-profit organization of programmers, experts, and advisors carefully chosen to manage the Golden World's in-sim operations as well as its massive server complexes, located on the desolate backwater of Mars.
This great system has worked like clockwork, more or less, for centuries before something changes. One day, while trying to save some money by traveling to an in-person symposium as a non-chartered (under the table) passenger on a small freighter, graduate student Cam Vickers witnesses the unthinkable: the planet Humber (where it was supposed to have taken place) simply disappears as if it were not even there. When he asks the crew if they'd noticed as well, they look at him strangely. There is no planet named Humber. They're headed to Belgravia, of course, where his meeting thing is. Right?
- - - - - Break - - - - -
The storyline of Father Sky is set on a semi-terraformed Mars, which seems to exist as an island unto itself, entirely irrelevant to the rest of the universe but for the massive server complexes that dominate its surface. After the twenty-second century ecological collapse that nearly wiped out humanity, Earth is gradually being terraformed back into working order, but that is a centuries-long project, carried out almost exclusively by robots. The rest of the Sol System hasn't fared much better. Venus is home to a failed cloud colony that was thought to be abandoned until recently, when the descendants of humans who had not evacuated two hundred years earlier were discovered living in primitive conditions. Ceres, a frigid dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, is a place declared strictly off-limits for reasons unknown. Titan is little more than a supply depot and signal waypoint.
Mars itself was humanity's very first colony and was once key to the species' survival. The great server complexes that stretch across its arid plains and the hundreds of liquid metal convection engines buried its crust to generate an artificial magnetic field are testament tot hat. It was once our species' plan for survival, and then the backup plan. However, it is now very much a forgotten place, left behind by the great arks as interstellar expansion proceeded. With a population of only some four million, it remains substantially colonized mainly due to the stubbornness of its residents, who have lived there for centuries, and because moving the servers established there centuries ago would be massively costly and require agreement between hundreds of often-feuding government and corporate entities.
To the 'Redlanders' who stick it out on Mars, it often feels very much like they are a 'colony' in a different sense. ICON 'administers' the entire planet from an imposing gated complex and opportunities on-world are few. There is little hope of escape either for this captive population. Due to the importance of maintaining the Golden World's servers, arrivals to and departures from outside of the Sol System are strictly regulated and only allowed within the complex. Applications for travel are a long and arduous process and very few are the people who bother with them. Besides, few Martians have much interest in physically visiting the worlds beyond their world. There is ample work to be done just maintaining the servers, which employ over fifty percent of them, not to mention the planet's vital infrastructure and rather lean food supply. If they really get curious, Mars is home to the Golden World's servers, after all, so citizens can always just visit virtually. It is something of an irony and a mark of how much of an afterthought its people are, however, that Mars is only linked to the Golden World via land lines and ironically has among the slowest connections in settled space.
The truth is that Mars is dying from greed and neglect. The atmosphere is still too thin to breathe at higher altitudes, despite repeated promises to speed up the centuries-old terraforming process. The northern seas remain shallow and briny. Most alarmingly, the vast machines that generate its tenuous and artificial magnetic field are in danger of failing, and a handful already have. The hardy people living there know that priority will be given to rescuing the servers before them, and they resent it. When offworlders arrive, it is never for long and they always seem strangely out of sorts. They poke around, heavily escorted, give some orders, and ensure that the robots that oversee and directly maintain the server facilities are in working order. Then, they disappear through guarded spaceport doors and are gone.
Martians have been told that the servers offer such a great service to humanity that any damage to them would be tantamount to murder and punishable by death. Indeed, the facility's guardian droids are given special dispensation to break Asimov's three laws and use deadly force, as a handful of drunks, foolhardy teenagers, and would-be rebels have found out. While that combination of moral impetus and threat that has been enough to hold the proud Redlanders back in the past, discontent has now reached a fever pitch. A Mars-First organization known as the Green Hand has exploded in popularity across the local Marsnet, despite the government's attempts to stamp it out. Clandestine cells have sprung up everywhere, from the cities of the Mariner Valley to the farms of New Arabia, the Arcadian Highlands, and the remote, windswept shores of the Hellenic Sea. Declared a terrorist organization by ICON and with no legal means of instigating change, the Green Hand has struck at the servers themselves in a daring attack, detonating a bomb which temporarily cut power to nearly ten percent of the vast complex. The ICON-appointed government has vowed swift retribution upon these criminals and murderers.
Character Sheets
Forceful Ideas and Furious Scribbling
As a general rule, I have too many world and story ideas and not nearly enough time to do all of them justice. While some may very well be turned into novels, novellas, and short stories, there are many that I think would work better as RPGs or at least work in that format. Regardless of their status, they'll be listed here in rough form, without all of the fancy formatting that I usually like to include. I'll save that for my Interest Checks. The purpose of this thread is essentially to be a compendium where they can all be collected for later potential use.
Note that I'm quite a big fan of twists, mysteries, conspiracies (no, not the tinfoil hat kind), and psychological thrillers. What's posted here, however, are the spoiler-free or spoiler-lite versions of these stories, since they may be run at a later date. If anyone has questions, feedback, constructive critique, or just wants to help me massage the ol' ego, feel free to chime in below. If you think you'd be interested in participating in an RPG based on one of these concepts, give it a like so I know!
Contents
Father Sky & The Golden World
Overview
Father Sky Preview
The Golden World Preview
Unbound
Seasong
Gods of Our Own
Seventeen Queens
No Heroes
Behemoth
ᎥᏁᏖᏋᏒᏋᏕᏖ
It has been a very long time since I've done anything beyond Gloomhaven with dice or a stat system, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to being intrigued. If this moves beyond 'invite only', you could certainly colour me interested.
Jerk
Camping
Banned for not just letting it go, dude.
So named because they all take the same Kotoden bus home and use those ubiquitous cards, these four third-year students at Kōkyo have gotten to know each other fairly well, despite their very different personalities and backgrounds. They comprise the character ideas that I had for this RPG and I hope that you like them! Since I can't truly play all four, I'll try to pick one based on the needs of the group and what'll be interesting to play. You're welcome to make the others into NPCs. Also, if anyone else is struggling with character ideas or likes one of these, feel free to adopt one!
Changes:
1) Mio: Changed the completeness of Mio's Zombie Apocalypse Guide. It is now partially complete. Her band also now has a name: Snorkel Bomb. Horrible Engrish lyrics, activate!
2) Yuito: Added some more on Yuito's motivation to spend time with his friends. He is headed to the very prestigious Kyoto University in September and is probably not coming back to Takamatsu except to visit.
3) Akari: Mentioned Akari's Saturdays in Osaka training with the national team. Also included a video from another amp soccer player showing how fast she could be expected to run. Start at 2:20 if you want to see more than just running.
4) Sota: Altered the description of Sota's dyslexia to reflect how little awareness there is in Japan. Also made it clearer that his bad boy behaviour is not nature and is mostly a front for his insecurities.
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