TaintedMushroom

Falling Skies

---

Elliot Braide // ROOK

Ensign

---

Shock and awe, the two best words that could come to mind. It was a full time job trying to keep up with the streams of battlefield data coming in and it was clear that no good plan survived an encounter with the seventh. It wasn’t Elliots plan to be left out of the fun this time as his he began formulating a maneuver that’d hopefully make Commie proud. Hex and Rhino had made a chaotic mess out of the Coalies planned frontal assault and Commie was ensuring there’d be no opposing attempts at Hex’s position. Vulture was tying down the flank and ensuring there’d be no surprise visitors from their rear which just left one course of action as far as Elliot was concerned.

It was time for the Venator to make a full frontal assault of it’s own.

The medium MAS crouched low almost like a runner on the starting line, targeting sensors working in overdrive as potential bogies were marked across Elliot’s targeting array. Thoughts of caution were smashed into a box and crammed in the back as Elliot ignited the thrusters and the MAS bit into the concrete beneath it before rocketing down the street like a pinball released upon the board. Elliot lead the charge with the Venator’s left shoulder forward as the M1125 began chewing up soft targets and the cover they thought was capable of protecting them. Elliot spared nothing as the autocannon’s 30mm canisters released their payload of depleted uranium pellets indiscriminately upon all who fell beneath the Venator’s gaze. As the Venator passed buildings in a blur it reduced infantry and light armor to dust either through the sheer force of the MAS itself as it roared down the street or through the roar of death released by the autocannon which was firing in full auto mode. As he approached a corner Elliot fired the boosters again to force a pivot into his trajectory, within seconds he was baring down fast on the flank of two Fenrir’s seeking safety from the guns of the Secutor. They would find none.

Elliot slammed into the two at near full speed, the maul he’d held ready roaring to life as he swung it wide out from behind in a ferocious batter’s swing that had enough force to separate the top half of the MAS from it’s legs as the maul’s swing carried through the wall of the building they’d sought refuge in.

The second Fenrir backpedaled in clear shock at the sudden arrival of the Venator but was far too slow. The maul burst free from the other side of the building as Elliot carried through with the swing and sent the Venator into a mild spin to bring the maul in low and fast for a devastating uppercut that caught the retreating Fenrir low and hard, coring it in one solid blow.

From his new vantage point Elliot could make out a number of AT teams and infantry units attempting to reposition as the 7th deconstructed their front line. The Venator shook the remains of its opponents from the maul before deconstructing the weapon and swapping it out for the DEW-11, all the while the jackknife launcher mounted on his shoulder moved into firing position. Elliot marked a multitude of small targets along the coalies' faltering line before letting loose a few payloads of death upon them with the jackknife. The micro-missiles fired off one after the other like a swarm of angry wasps destined to split apart and rain destruction upon the unaware heads of the Coalies who’d desperately attempted to reposition. With a look of satisfaction firm on his face Elliot and the Venator gripped the DEW-11 tight and began making a slow and steady advance perpendicular to Rhino’s location.

“Rook reporting scratch two as well as a multitude of small targets, beginning a sweep and clear as the ants run from the Rhino, appreciate the overwatch from the rest of the squad.”

Falling Skies

---

Elliot Braide // ROOK

Ensign

---

As Sabine cackled over the comms Elliot’s eyebrow rose a few degrees and he couldn’t help but to think that Sabine might be fuckin nuts. And then, as his MAS turned and mounted the drop plate and the open doors of the hangar bay brought him face to face with mankind's ultimate form of commerce, Elliot couldn’t help but think that perhaps he was the crazy one. Hulking forms loomed out in the black, spitting fire and metal down upon the surface of what once might have been a beautiful planet. Now the surface was marred from countless battles. Even now though, as the UEE did its best to dig out the cockroaches infesting its surface, a glimmer of beauty still prevailed. “Dirty fuckin’ coalies…” he muttered to himself. Soon the 7th would be planetside and he could do his part as far as scraping the scum from their hovels.

Elliot tensed instinctively in anticipation before forcing himself to relax. Launch always felt like a kick in the chest, simulation hours weren’t enough to prepare one for that and his practical hours had yet to attain a level in which he’d consider himself used to it. But the first time he’d launched for real he’d been tense, afterwards his muscles were sore for a week. The body typically handled sudden force better when it was in a relaxed state, so it made sense, just still wasn’t second nature to him yet. Taking a deep breath to ease his nerves Elliot leaned back in his seat.

<<Orders from central command: Second wave is to commence drop.>>

And just like that the show began. The Venerator was propelled forward rapidly and Elliot bit back a grunt as he was slammed into the seat. The first few seconds were exhilarating and it took all of his willpower not to let out a holler as if he was on a rollercoaster. Of course no one would notice without him tapping into comms but professionalism was a personal value of his. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy the ride as a wide grin split his face and the MAS began its atmospheric entry. It was a violent, bumpy, and hot ride down and Elliot’s adrenaline peaked. As each second passed he struggled internally with his values and his desire to act foolish. The mission and their reason for being here was lost in the moment as Elliot experienced his first planet drop.

<<Oh fuck!>>

The sudden broadcast caught Elliots attention and interrupted his reverie. As the rookie listened longer his adrenaline slowly faded. By the time the comms finally went quiet Elliot’s blood was chilled. How foolish he felt getting caught up in his emotions and acting like a kid whilst around him comrades were dying, bullets pinging off armored plating, ordnance exploding in the distance, this was a fucking war zone. Elliot practically wanted to smack himself for his foolishness, not that it would do any good. Instead he began focusing on the battle ahead in order to figure out what he was going to do.

His allies took no time in formulating a plan of action. Sabine and Commie both peeled off and began attempting to secure air superiority, meanwhile Rhino and Hex each took out AA installations in a matter of seconds it almost seemed. Elliot had no clue how he was supposed to stack up against those feats. Target acquisition started lighting up enemy hardpoints as he began scanning the environment, bad ideas forming one after the other as Elliot scanned over the screens. The Venerator popped free from it’s drop plate as afterburners roared to life and prepared to jet off into battle.

<< Rhino, Hex, acknowledged. Good work, stack up and start moving to make a push, I've got your backs. Rook, still alive back there? Keep up and don't play hero. You pull that shit you did in space, you're gonna die. >>

<<Still ticking along, sir. Roger that, moving to support advance.>>

The squad leader's words reached Elliot, and thankfully before he could decide to do anything stupid. With those words in mind Elliot instead piloted the Venerator towards Rhino’s location, easily discerned by the crushed AA guns and the smoking piles of wreckage left in his wake.

<<Rhino, this is Rook rallying to you for fire support, I’m on your six and ready to wreak some havoc.>>

ATLA Interest?

<Snipped quote by TaintedMushroom>

By that, do you mean you'd want Players to come up with the plot elements, design antagonist characters, or something else along those lines? If that's the case, you could make a list of things you'd want Player input on, or just ask them the same questions I pointed out before--"What do you want to see in this RP?" basically, but maybe more specific.

Do you have a Character Sheet drafted yet? For a collaborative plot, knowing what kind of characters you'd be looking at would probably help a lot. Like I mentioned before, getting characters to tie their backstories to each other or to other elements of the RP has, in my experienced, helped a lot.

@Zeroth

I was actually thinking more like how two people might go back and forth when developing a 1x1 plot, but with a small group instead. It's been a few years since I've GMed any RPs so I was merely trying to take a looser approach to things is all. I'll likely just work on it like a typical RP instead. I was worried about time commitment but I'll just keep things at a slower pace.

ATLA Interest?

Glad to hear you're doing well!

I think the choice of story/setting will ultimately have to depend on what you as the GM want to accomplish/see through this RP. These questions aren't really something you have to respond to here, but just to consider: What is it about the Avatar world that's got you hyped to run the RP? Are you looking forward to descriptions of bending battles and that distinct Wuxia flavor? Or was there some aspect of the Avatar universe's storytelling or world that you really want to immerse yourself and the players in? For instance, did you find a lot of meaning in the emphasis the series puts on character development (every member of the main cast except arguably Toph changes significantly either in their own perception, or in how we the viewers perceive them, from who they were at their introduction)? Or did you really love exploring the fantastical landscapes within the world---the Earthbending rollercoasters in Omashu, the Three Walls of Ba Sing Se, the icy fortress of the Northern Water Tribe, etc?

Which of those things you want to put in front of the players, and in which proportions, should determine your bare-bones plot structure. If you want world-building, you'll need to implement a "journey" of some kind so that we travel a lot. If you just want high octane action, you might want to give more thought to the enemies we'll be facing, how they're organized, and how to make the Players want to kick their faces in.

Then, the rest of this is just my own personal opinion---feel free to ignore it if it's not conducive to your own GMing style:

Building RP Plot

The meat of the plot itself should be adaptable enough that you can tie it into your character cast and link up their backstories. For instance, if somebody made a character whose parents were killed by Firebenders, then maybe the Firebender who did it needs to be an underling of your Big Bad OR the Players need to HELP a village of innocent, second-generation Fire Nation Colonists against cruel Earthbending Bandits---both scenarios force that Player Character to deal with the trauma of their past in some way.

Another example: If someone makes a character who's struggling with the morality of using Bending Arts to kill, then maybe you make a recurring antagonist who's a sadistic assassin despite having no Bending Arts of their own, so that when the Players clash with them it can give the struggling character a means to further their development.

Beyond direct character contrasts between Players and NPCs, though, you should also try to build off what Players give you in their Character Backstories. If one Player makes an Air Bending Thief, for instance, and in their backstory they talk about how they got kicked out of their Air Temple and turned to a life of crime, whereas another Player makes a Non-Bending Bounty Hunter who's a Master Swordsman, then maybe you should DM the two Players and see if they'd be willing to establish a link between their characters that can effect the roleplaying and team dynamics---Maybe the Bounty Hunter once caught the Air Thief, but after being turned in to the authorities the Thief had to take some desperate measures to break out, like breaking the one Air Bending tenet of non-lethality they still valued. Now that death still haunts them. Or maybe the Thief stole a family trinket that was very important to the Bounty Hunter, and ended up selling it, so now the Bounty Hunter can't kill them/take them in until they find out where/to whom the heirloom was sold.

Similar strategies to tie your plot and world building elements to your Players not only keeps them invested in your game, but can give you a jumping off point as a DM. It's so much easier to come up with ideas for how to move a story forward if you have elements you can use as a springboard, versus coming up with new stuff out of the blue whole cloth.

@Zeroth

Great advice, although I was looking to have a more collaborative and less hands on approach for this, but I think I might pivot. It's been years since I've ran an RP so I gotta shake the rust off the chains.

I might be interested in this. I had come up with a character that I was never able to use, so I'd like to use him here, but I want to make sure it's not too out of line.

He is an air nomad who started experimenting with sound as an aspect of air, developing his own form of bending. But he took it too far and was labeled an apostate for violating certain tenets.

@Stern Algorithm

I'd love to hear more about this. Have you read any of the Chronicles of the Avatar books? I haven't myself but I was doing a bit of research on the concept of soundbending after you mentioned it and it's something that apparently avatar Yangchen might have developed well before Aang's era even. My only concern basically is how the whole apostate thing comes about, admittedly I don't know enough on air nomad lore myself.

ATLA Interest?

It's been a rough week. I'm doing better now though, thankfully.

So I am vibing with two ideas in particular thus far, after rereading over things. I was digging what @Zeroth was putting down here,

My recommendation would be to keep it small at least at the start---instead of our characters being part of some rebellion against the Fire Lord, for instance, maybe give us a Seven Samurai-esque scenario where we're trying to set a village free from a relatively low-ranking Fire Nation army-captain who has basically been made a provisional governor or something. Or defend a crumbling temple where a scant few Air Nomads have somehow escaped the Fire Lord's genocide, but their commitment to pacifism makes them a sitting duck to the soldiers hunting them down. Bring down a bandit gang led by a brutal Earthbender, or some Waterbending Pirates harassing a group of refugees on their way to Ba Sing Se via ship. So on and so forth.

@Zeroth

I was also vibing with this idea here as well, from @King Cosmos.

Or possibly something set after the war but before Korra's time, since it might allow people a bit more freedom with what characters they make (i.e. non-evil Fire benders). Something that takes place after a war no one thought was going to end, at least not so suddenly, at a time when things are starting to change drastically; nations reaching out to each other more, the Avatar returning, the beginnings of an industrial revolution and I think the comics talked about more and more spirits abandoning the human world?

@King Cosmos

What do you guys think?

ATLA Interest?

Lots of great ideas so far, unfortunately I've been sleeping twelve hour days between work, recovering from a pulled molar. Funsies.

Hopefully I'll be feeling better over the next few days.

ATLA Interest?

Also potentially interested, based on plot/era. Not too fond of the Korra stuff, personally, but if you wanted you could look up the franchise's TTRPG stuff; they have a lot of good suggestions for campaigns in different eras of the setting.

I've always wanted to make an old, crotchety Earthbender kung-fu-master-archetype; the kind that's gotten old enough he can't do much of the flashy stuff anymore, but makes up for it with precision/ruthlessness. Like, another earthbender is getting ready to do their big stomp so they can throw a boulder at him---the old man kinda pokes his toe in the ground and a nail-shaped spike comes up right underneath where the opponent's foot is going to come down. Cue their reaction. But would a "been everywhere, done all that, killed a lot of people in my day" character be permissible in this RP, or do you think they'd come across as too OP?

@Zeroth

Also what were your qualms with Korra? Character focused or world focused? NGL I like that one too but feel like all the characters were way weaker in depth than the ATLA, but I really enjoyed the ideas behind the world-building and some of the places they took things.

ATLA Interest?

Also potentially interested, based on plot/era. Not too fond of the Korra stuff, personally, but if you wanted you could look up the franchise's TTRPG stuff; they have a lot of good suggestions for campaigns in different eras of the setting.

I've always wanted to make an old, crotchety Earthbender kung-fu-master-archetype; the kind that's gotten old enough he can't do much of the flashy stuff anymore, but makes up for it with precision/ruthlessness. Like, another earthbender is getting ready to do their big stomp so they can throw a boulder at him---the old man kinda pokes his toe in the ground and a nail-shaped spike comes up right underneath where the opponent's foot is going to come down. Cue their reaction. But would a "been everywhere, done all that, killed a lot of people in my day" character be permissible in this RP, or do you think they'd come across as too OP?

@Zeroth

Not at all my guy, I'd love for everyone to be on a level that we can explore more serious themes and characters like that without worrying that someone's gonna go crazy and do far too much. I would also really like this to be a collaborative effort rather than me writing a plot and telling you guys where we're going. Not that I don't want to do the work, I very much do, I just like the idea of us all being on the same page with what we're looking for.

I had a few ideas as far as era, didn't look at the TTRPG stuff buuuut that's a good idea.

I was thinking of two ideas, one being that the fire nation wins perhaps? Maybe a rebellion story?
OOOrrrr maybe they win but lose? Devastate the Earth Kingdom with Sozin's comet and awaken a sleeping beast as the Earth Kingdom as a whole pivots and becomes a brutal force to be reckoned with, even going as far as to completely flip the script and become the would be conquerors.

I'm not married to any of these ideas in particular, just spit-balling so far.

Which brings me to ask,

Potentially interested, depending on what the plot is

@Crimson Flame

Got any potential ideas?

ATLA Interest?

Yo.

Thanks for taking a peek, I've got the Avatar bug again. This time I'd actually like to see if I can find some likeminded writers that would be down to collaborate on a fun RP.

I don't have anything yet, except hope and a prayer.

But I'm willing to do the time and work to get something going of course, but I'd like to preferably find some individuals interested beforehand. Perhaps we could collaborate on the overall idea as well as I'm torn on what era to explore and what themes to approach.

I know for sure I'm not really trying to do an actual THE AVATAR type story unless there's a high degree of collaboration and investment and that's what all involved would like. So open to discussion I suppose.

I put this in casual because I overall would like to be flexible on the expected post length but I'm really looking for some individuals with a very solid grasp on their writing skills that can create well rounded and complex characters.

I'm not sure on size, I'm not really trying to get a massive party going but a good handful of people would be lit.

Definitely seeking to use discord for OOC and discussion purposes, I'm on mobile a lot.

Hope to find a few peeps who wanna sling some rocks and fire!

Falling Skies

---

Elliot Braide // ROOK

Ensign

---

For the most part Elliot had been quiet after the briefing. Part of it was nerves, yeah definitely nerves. First planetfall drop, and on top of that this was technically a spec ops style operation in a sense and therefore carried an entirely different ruleset than what Elliot had anticipated. For starters he’d been a bit taken aback when ordered to ignore friendlies over their primary objective. Elliot of course wouldn’t argue or question his commands but it did register in his brain as unusual. Then again when given the opportunity to join a standard squad he’d opted to find himself in something a little more prestigious and thus different rules came with the territory. It likely would just take some time for Elliot to find his groove as far as this kind of stuff was concerned.

For now he remained quiet as he listened to the rest of the squad banter of their shared mission history. To be honest Elliot couldn’t help but feel a little outside the group, but that likely was just the way things were in this line of work. Elliot was in the big leagues and that came with its own set of rules, something he’d have to get accustomed to.

The Venator was the last MAS to approach and secure itself to the drop plate like the rest of the squad. As he went through the pre-flight checks the rest of the squad shared a few tidbits about an operation on Targovo, a MAS drop with no drop plates with what sounded like an objective to secure a VIP. Talk about intense, hopefully Elliot wouldn’t have to do something that crazy any time soon.

“Rook ready.” He stated simply as his pre-flight checks all came back green.