HeySeuss

First Contact in the Situation Room

I'm interested, although i'm not sure if i'll be able to join, at least for right now.

@thedman

If you can, awesome! We're pretty flexible on roles right now, except President.

First Contact in the Situation Room - Political/Sci-Fi

Incidentally, the OOC is up: roleplayerguild.com/topics/172697-fir…

First Contact in the Situation Room

Currently, the President is an NPC.

Andrew James "AJ" Shepard, an experienced federal prosecutor and senator from Colorado, Republican. Just won the presidency against Joe Biden's VP, who we haven't named yet, because Joe Biden died from the pressure of office at his advanced age. (Sorry Joe, I actually love you bro.)

Your characters joined the campaign at various times...or, unexpectedly, the President-Elect reached out to people as if forming a crisis cabinet, ignoring party lines and conventional thinking and picking people for raw capability. This results in a diverse cabinet, including some democrats, and some holdovers, similar to Robert Gates and others staying on in 2009 during the worst of the financial crisis.

The press is speculating as to why, but has so far not cracked the code.

Of course, during the transition, people are fully briefed and realize what they are dealing with. There is proof out there of alien life in the form of a probe that arrived in the Solar System whose communication was deciphered by scientists, which led to the 'initiation of communications protocol" by the probe, which instructed that Earthly authorities, "Reporting receipt of response. Stand by for followup communication."

The intelligence and science types are doing every sort of analysis possible even while initiating communication through the probe. The secret is burning people's consciousness, and someone is bound to let the cat out of the bag.

Then they were told that followup communication will ensue, standby.

Your characters are thrown into this.

@Byrd Man@Jester@Darth Shadow@CaptainBritton@Romero@Ferrocerium

First Contact in the Situation Room

Instructions

• Post your character sheet here using the template provided below.
• Please do not post anything else here, all questions and comments should go to the OOC thread.

Character Sheet

---

Name:
Position:
Age:
Sex:
Physical Description:

Real brief. Like three sentences.

Brief Bio:

Character's state of origin, education, professional experience. Few sentences, no novels needed unless you want to write one. Notably, please include how this president picked your character for the cabinet, unless of course you are a member of Congress/the Senate.

Issues/Agenda:

Your character's agenda, what is most important. This should include economic beliefs and basics of working style. Religion, the environment, etc. Anything that stands out and drives this character in politics.

First Contact in the Situation Room

TL;DR

---

- Modern-ish setting. Jan-Feb 2021 is the start of the new administration and it is walking into a crisis.
- First contact; alien civilizations are starting to talk to Earth.
- The RP starts around the time that the military, intelligence agencies and NASA are able to feed coherent information and analysis to the White House.
- The characters are the American government - vital roles include the President of the United States, the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Press Secretary, other cabinet members, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, the minorities in both chambers...and others as people make a consistent argument.
- The intent of the plot is how the organs of American government grapple with the facets of the potential crisis. Aliens, multiple types, are communicating with Earth.
- We are keeping this down to the American government, with other governments effectively NPC'ed as a matter of perspective. Characters are the organs of a government, grappling with the immense consequences of first contact with extraterrestrials.
- Inspirations; Arthur C. Clarke, David Brin, the Cuban Missile Crisis and so many others. Ironically, we talked about "West Wing" in the brainstorm between co-GM's, but also referred to "The Best and the Brightest."
- Chat here.

In Character

---

For most people, first contact is something seen on TV, or argued about on the internet. And while society has a huge argument and speculates, there are people who have greater access to information on the inside, but are still fallible, mortal, and capable of making mistakes. Nonetheless, on their shoulders ride the decisions, though not always the consequences.

Multiple alien civilizations have reached out to the governments of Earth, at first, and while a lid is on the information, it's starting to leak out. The clock is ticking, and decisions have to be made. Unilateral negotiation with the ET factions, or consult with allies? Bring in the Russians? The Chinese? Put it to the Security Council? What about the General Assembly? How much information gets released? What are the aliens doing? What are their intentions? Do we brief the press, stonewall or go fully public?

These are only some of the questions. The decisions shape the events, though they do not fully control them. The unexpected happens. Decisions matter, but consequences aren't always apparent. You inhabit the world as it is.

Out of Character

---

Hoo dangy, it's a big RP idea, which is why I brought in two Co-GM's, guys that I brainstormed with. The idea is to create an RP that is more about sweating bullets and trying to get it right, the sort of cabal/factional infighting that can occur within a government and how dicey these pressure situations can get.

When thinking of this RP, we talked about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Desert One, the Manhattan Project and other major decision points that had a huge influence on events to follow. The RP isn't about tanks and bullets, but it is about strategic position, trying to glean out the intention of multiple alien factions and other human ones in the delicate business of figuring out how Humanity enters into the wider interstellar civilization and on what terms.

If you have a yen for playing this sort of situation room/political thriller/sci-fi juxtaposition of an RP, come and get us! We'll be in the Discord for the RP and we're looking for creative partners!

First Contact in the Situation Room - Political/Sci-Fi

This looks really interesting. Are there still any spaces?

@Ferrocerium

Yes, we have not even proceeded to OOC yet and are still in the concept phase here.

Battletech: Anabasis

Thunderbolt down. Urbanmech crippled...

Then the PPC bolt from the Panther seared through the air and landed with an audible crackle that scrambled the HUD on his helmet momentarily, disrupting his reaction fire.

"Mattlov, break left," Hart's voice came over the calm. Milliseconds after executing the Captain's orders, the Panther was rocked by a barrage of autocannon and large laser fire, staggering. It took him closer to the Panther, into SRM range. It was a risk to run.

The Panther had firepower and armor, but not speed. The Shadow Hawk, twenty pounds heavier, had superior firepower at any range, an edge in maneuverability...and other advantages.

But that didn't stop a lucky hit from the SRM-4 rack on the smaller rack from digging into his Streak-SRM ammo supply. In the old days, an ammo explosion would cripple a mech, generally fatally, taking an arm off and eating away at the center torso and engines.

The ammo explosion still did damaged, but the armored cells minimized it even as the ammo was ejected with a loud thump, clang and a flare of cooked off missiles. The warning buzzes going off in his ears and the red flashes were entirely unnecessary -- he fucking well knew he had an ammo explosion.

His first priority was to recover from the hits, to stay up. He flared jump jets, adjusted balance, stepped, flared jets again to start the run and kept moving. The mech's balance was lighter with the ammo jettisoned, and he relied on the man-machine interface of the neurohelmet to keep his gait and handle the mech's movement.

He could see the fire continue as the Captain laid down the barrage, but there was a more important warning -- that Thunderbolt was starting to get up.

He placed another shot from the AC-5, even while calling it out, "TDR getting up, concentrate fire" on instinct, even as he lined up his ER large laser, trying to land on the weak points of the enemy's armor, trying to breach the internals and finish that beast off...

First Contact in the Situation Room - Political/Sci-Fi

Tentatively interest

@Darth Shadow

Consider me super interested.

@CaptainBritton

Welcome-welcome. We've got a lot shaken out in the Discord, such as that the president will be an NPC and there will be a system of political capital and influence for his advisors. There's still plenty to hammer out, since we haven't even really gotten to the aliens yet.

First Contact in the Situation Room - Political/Sci-Fi

Update: We have VP and SecState covered (SecState is an acting position, so the role is still open), but always looking for the special sort of player that this RP appeals to. Solid crew, stable posting, and if you love to speculate on a very open-ended future for Earth in an RP, this is definitely a way to go. Please check our Discord. :)

TL;DR

---

- Modern-ish setting. It's the information age, something relatable to us.
- First contact; alien civilizations are starting to talk to Earth.
- The RP starts around the time that the military, intelligence agencies and NASA are able to feed coherent information and analysis to the White House.
- The characters are the American government - vital roles include the President of the United States, the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Press Secretary, other cabinet members, the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader, the minorities in both chambers...and others as people make a consistent argument.
- The intent of the plot is how the organs of American government grapple with the facets of the potential crisis. Aliens, multiple types, are communicating with Earth.
- We are keeping this down to the American government, with other governments effectively NPC'ed as a matter of perspective. Characters are the organs of a government, grappling with the immense consequences of first contact with extraterrestrials.
- Inspirations; Arthur C. Clarke, David Brin, the Cuban Missile Crisis and so many others. Ironically, we talked about "West Wing" in the brainstorm between co-GM's, but also referred to "The Best and the Brightest."
- Chat here.

In Character

---

For most people, first contact is something seen on TV, or argued about on the internet. And while society has a huge argument and speculates, there are people who have greater access to information on the inside, but are still fallible, mortal, and capable of making mistakes. Nonetheless, on their shoulders ride the decisions, though not always the consequences.

Multiple alien civilizations have reached out to the governments of Earth, at first, and while a lid is on the information, it's starting to leak out. The clock is ticking, and decisions have to be made. Unilateral negotiation with the ET factions, or consult with allies? Bring in the Russians? The Chinese? Put it to the Security Council? What about the General Assembly? How much information gets released? What are the aliens doing? What are their intentions? Do we brief the press, stonewall or go fully public?

These are only some of the questions. The decisions shape the events, though they do not fully control them. The unexpected happens. Decisions matter, but consequences aren't always apparent. You inhabit the world as it is.

Out of Character

---

Hoo dangy, it's a big RP idea, which is why I brought in two Co-GM's, guys that I brainstormed with. The idea is to create an RP that is more about sweating bullets and trying to get it right, the sort of cabal/factional infighting that can occur within a government and how dicey these pressure situations can get.

When thinking of this RP, we talked about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Desert One, the Manhattan Project and other major decision points that had a huge influence on events to follow. The RP isn't about tanks and bullets, but it is about strategic position, trying to glean out the intention of multiple alien factions and other human ones in the delicate business of figuring out how Humanity enters into the wider interstellar civilization and on what terms.

If you have a yen for playing this sort of situation room/political thriller/sci-fi juxtaposition of an RP, come and get us! We'll be in the Discord for the RP and we're looking for creative partners!

@Byrd Man@Jester

Nom de Guerre [A Post-WWII Thriller]

Bump.



I am an ideal partner for people with a busy life, as mine is also busy between my professional and personal life. Not sure about pacing, but negotiable.