Rhona W

Mobile Suit Gundam: Anthem - CLOSED, due to drop outs

MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM:
A N T H E M

Universal Century: 0099

Following the Laplace Box incident and the loss of life it caused, the Earth Federation were concerned by the amount of Zeon remnant forces and the extent of their firepower, resources, and supplies. Fearful of another conflict leading to even greater loss of life after numerous incidents over the last twenty years, and the loss of manpower, materiel and resources of their own, the upper echelons of the Earth Federation Forces were desparate to avoid more incidents.
Investigation and intelligence gathering following the defeat of the Sleeves and associated Zeon forces from the Laplace incident and related actions in UC 0096 lead to the revelation that a number of Zeon remnant forces commanded by a Neo-Zeon rear admiral were at large in the asteroid belt, going under the name of 'Rebirth Zeon', and carrying out attacks on Asteroid Mining colonies and facilities, using overwhelming firepower and an array of mobile weapons.
Determined to cut off this new faction before they could gain enough power to threaten Earth once more with destructive or devastating attacks like those of the previous decades, and with the impending second century of the Universal Era, the Earth Federation Forces formed a new task force named Anthem to carry out Operation Last Gleaming, the hunting down and destruction and or disarmament and surrender of Rebirth Zeon.

Anthem's forces are comprised of experimental, prototype, limited production and high-performance Mobile Suits pulled from storage, mothballs, or otherwise unused roles and places in order to give a heavy dose of firepower to the Task Force, headed for the asteroid belt.
Limited by their ability to re-supply and re-arm, the Task Force aboard the Pegasus-class ship 'Shadowfax' are deployed to the Asteroid belt to hunt down the growing forces of Rebirth Zeon, before they can mount an attack against Earth or its' colonies, or hold the Asteroid belts to ransom.

Game Details:

This is a Mobile Suit Gundam RPG set in the Universal Century Timeline. It follows primarily the anime continuity and events, with minimal inclusion of secondary material from manga, video games, etc. The game is set in Universal Century 0099, and will ignore all other events after that point, allowing it to become an alternate universe/setting. It will also involve alternate events concurrently or leading up to the events of the game, allowing the players and the GM to exhibit freedom with their actions and the plot as it progresses.
Technical details will follow the general basis of the Universal Century and Gundam as a whole; i.e. remaining relatively realistic and within its' own limitations, but not lingering too much on technical details in favour of character drama, plot, story and action.
Canon characters are not allowed as player characters, and they will not be featured to any great extent, most likely restricted only to cameos. The plot will instead follow a group of mobile suit pilots as part of a task force, deployed with experimental or otherwise powerful mobile suits to hunt down Zeon remnant forces in a thrilling and exciting adventure, where they get to be big damn heroes and face down some danger and evil.

Characters:

Player Characters will be members of Task Force Anthem, and pilots of their mobile suit contingent. Well-rounded characters with experience mixed with a smattering of graduate mobile suit pilots with at least a minimum of experience, they are picked for their ability to competent enough to get the job done, and act well enough under the pressures of deep space.
Characters may be Newtypes, but their abilities will be limited and low-level - at least at the beginning of the game - and development of them will be through concert with the GM and the storyline as it develops.
Characters must be of at least 18 years of age, and older is preferred (though not ancient...!).
Also, I would prefer to avoid a group of anti-social loners and borderline sociopaths - there's enough of those boring stereo/archetypes around in roleplaying, and it makes interaction outside of combat deadly boring if all the characters do is sit around sullenly and wait for people to talk about how interesting they are.
Your characters may have former Zeon backgrounds (including Neo Zeon), as former Zeon pilots working for the Federation have been seen in the past.
Specific background details can be discussed with the GM if you want to have secrets in your characters' background.

A blank character sheet can be found in the 'Characters' Tab.

Mobile Suits:

As the idea of Task Force Anthem is to use firepower and technology to defeat the Rebirth Zeon forces, their machines have been drawn from wherever possible, and selected for their versatility, firepower, and sophistication.
As such, Gundam-type units or other prototype or experimental units can be chosen for your character. The caveat being that they must:

• 1. Have had more than one production model, so as to be available for your character to actually use
• 2. Not have been confirmed as completely destroyed or otherwise unavailable (i.e. the GP-01 and its' other Development product suits, the RX-78-2, the Nu Gundam, The RX-0 Unicorn, etc)
• 3. Not a Mobile Armour or otherwise a 'non-mobile suit'.
• 4. Have a page on the Gundam Wiki

Obviously, given as this is a UC timeline and set in 0099, no suits from alternate universes (i.e. OO or the Seed timeline) can be used, or ones from after 0099. Federation suits would be preferred, but potentially some Zeon-manufactured units could be used, as the Federation has used or adapted Zeon mobile suits in the past.

Mass-production 'Grunt' mobile suits and/or their variants are also fine. I trust people to use their discretion not to take absurdly over-powered mobile suits - although, I will always find a way to counter them...
Units like the production Zeta Gundam variants, ReZel etc are absolutely fine of course. If you're unsure: Ask!

Obviously ground and aquatic/amphibious mobile suits will not be particularly useful, due to the setting being primarily in space and the asteroid belt.

Game Rules

• Follow the Etiquette guidelines for the Guild as a whole
• Also remember to follow the Fundamental Rules of the Guild
• If you are enthusiastic or interested enough to join the game, then I will assume you are interested enough to check for new posts. It is not my job to remind you to post. If you are 'too lazy' to check, I'm 'too lazy' to keep poking you.
• There is no posting order. Just get replies up as soon as you can after a GM post.
• I will try to keep the story updated with on GM post a week to advance the story at a minimum, but might move things faster if posts flow well.
• Swearing and violence are fine, as long as it's not indulgent or excessive, and follows the Guilds' guidelines.
• Sexuality and the discussion of adult themes is OK, but not to explicit levels of detail. If an intimate moment happens, fade to black
• Play in the spirit of the game. This is the Gundam Universe, where Mobile Suits are the main weapon of battle. Immerse yourself in the suspension of disbelief, and enjoy it for what it is. Play up to the drama and action, and enjoy it.
• There will be moments of darkness and danger, but there will equally be moments of levity, lightness and joy. Excitement and action, with some high stakes and drama is what we're aiming for, not grimdark. Being cool heroes kicking ass in giant robots is what I'm aiming for. This is escapism, not self-punishment.
• If I don't know about it, it doesn't exist: if you want to have character back-stories, or include some bit of technology or obscure knowledge: tell me about it first. And as always, the GM's word is final.
• Don't be a power or meta-gaming ass. Be a cool badass hero by all means, but don't be a Mary Sue, or hog the spotlight. Every character should get a chance to do cool stuff, and it's not a competition.
• A sense of humour is not optional (out of character at least), as we're all here to enjoy ourselves.
• Don't be a dick.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Another Universal Century

Hello everyone, just an FYI; I'm currently putting together the details for the actual thread. Just crunching the details to try and make things specific-but-not-too-much. It's taken me a bit longer than I hoped for one reason or another, but it should be up in the next day or so. Just wanted to touch base with people and let you know it's still going ahead, and that I haven't lost interest or buggered off and left you all in the lurch.

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Can always skip some time, tbh I wasn't really planning anything eventful for the flight anyway, so a few hours skipped ahead is fine

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Got a post up, sorry it took so long, haha xD
It was a shortish one with a bit of silliness and messing about, but I wanted to get something in for Python to do and say.

GEARS: Silent Line Redux (Silverwind Blade & KingKonrad)

Silver casually tossed Max a wave of acknowledgement as the lion excused himself. In truth, he could use the same. The flight would be long and boring, with nothing of note for the unit to do, and no way to entertain themselves other than what they had on them. The silver fox had packed a paperback in his backpack and of course, had his pebble and all that gave access to. But for the moment all he felt like doing was resting. He set himself into one of the folding jump-seats lining both sides of the huge jets' bay. The rest of Python had sat along them too, mingling with Viper and their personal kit piled up in seats between or in front of them.

While Max's mind was active and full of introspection, Silverwind's was calm and steady. It wasn't that he didn't have concerns about the mission, or about how it might go wrong, but they were present for any mission, and his experience had taught him that worrying wouldn't solve what could or might happen, nor change it. Python and Viper had been trained and drilled as hard as they could be and to all reasonable expectations. All of them were there because they were good enough to be, and him or Max riding them harder wouldn't make anything less or more likely to happen.
Instead, the Fox let the thoughts drift out of his mind and leaned back in the canvas of the jump seat and closed his eye, letting the vibrations of the aircraft lull him to a restful state.

Alongside him, Alisha peered at the fox, and then looked further down at Max, also seeming to drift off to sleep, and shook her head, the pink-dyed quills rattling slightly as she did so.
"Unbelievable," she said with a wry smile. "Guess all the experience they have counts for something if they can both drift off to sleep with all this," she gestured around the bay at the noise surrounding them.
"Speak for yourself," Catriona replied with a wide yawn, stretching out both arms and fidgeting to try and get comfortable in her seat. Large as she was, it wasnt a great fit, but the bovine would make do. From under the shaggy fringe of red fur that covered her eyes, she looked across at the much shorter woman. "I can sleep anywhere, and if there's one thing I've learned from the chief over the weeks we've been here, it's that if he or Bastion do something, it's best to follow the example". She leaned back in the seat and settled down more comfortably, leaving the others to exchange glances, before Case leaned out and grinned at Alisha.
"Oi, Riser, I'll trade you all the desserts in my field rations if you can get a look under the boss's eyepatch".
Alisha raised an eyebrow and the quills on the back of her head bristled, before she looked over at Silverwind.
Without moving or opening an eye, the fox spoke.
"Don't even think about it, either of ya. I've got my eye on you".
"But, you've got your eyes closed?" Case said in disbelief
"Yeah," the fox replied, before yawning again. "But I still got my eye on ya".

Mobile Suit Gundam: Another Universal Century

@Silverwind Blade Hopefully its not too late for one more person to shout interest.

@ReedeThe23rd

Not at all, my minimum was 3 + me, maximum is six altogether, so still plenty of space.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Another Universal Century

<Snipped quote by Silverwind Blade>

Will it be possible to avert future events/tragedies somehow, like the events of Narrative and Hathaway's Flash?

@Letter Bee

I'm not overly familiar with Hathaway's Flash, although I have seen (and enjoyed) Narrative. However, as I said in the OP and in other posts, the idea is removing the player party from the Earth Sphere so that we don't have to worry too much about continuity and ongoing events as much, and can focus on creating our own story.

Regarding the interest, thanks y'all. Thats the minimum at least, so will work on getting an IC before the weekend.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Another Universal Century

Cool cool, that's you and I so far. I'll keep this open and hope we get a few more people interested as well.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Another Universal Century

Will we all be forced to be piloting Gm's, or Jegans? What exact time are we piloting these things? Zeon Remnants can be anything from the post one year war to Neo Zeon to the Sleeves

@vancexentan

No, you won't be forced to pilot GM's or Jegans. It'll be a selection of various variant versions of those, and some mass-production Gundams and other suits. I haven't nailed down the specifics yet, but there'll be a healthy selection. Part of the units' background will be that they're also operational test/evaluation for previous models of mobile suit and putting them into action, and their mecha were pulled together from the remnants and left-overs from earlier conflicts and special groups that have since disbanded.
As I said in the opening post, I'm not going to be fretting too much over exact continuity, but for the sake of answering your question, post-Char's Counterattack but pre-Unicorn, or even alongside Unicorn, but removed from the Earth Sphere and more out in the asteroid belt/Mars/potentially even the Jovian system, leaving things free to not be too bothered by the same characters, events, etc. I will be deliberately ignoring any manga, side-stories, etc that happen in those places and times to tell my/our own story, and the same for post-CCA/UC100 continuity.
Also it will be a group of Zeon remnants generally smooshed together, consolidating under one group for survival etc and otherwise being a nuisance in the outer Solar System.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Another Universal Century

Will the RP be consistently grim? Or will the grimness be changeable by player actions?

@Letter Bee

I don't tend to go for relentlessly miserable RP's, because I do this for fun, not self-punishment. It'll have sad parts, there'll be a consistent sense of danger, but it won't be a case of 'anyone can die' or just a slog of awful things.
TBH, I don't think it's 'consistently grim' even in the source material; there are moments of levity, hope, and good things happening, and generally speaking there are heroic characters and moments too, and plenty of good and sympathetic people too.
It won't be a comedy, as I have no interest in running such a thing, and it won't be 'light and fluffy' because again, I have no interest in running/playing something like that. It'll be pretty much something where yes, bad things can happen, people can get hurt, and there are evil, nasty, or unscrupulous people around. But there's also moments of fun, moments of relaxation, moments of fun, etc etc.
Feel like I've rambled a bit there, but hopefully got the point across xD