DeletedUser
The Doors of Infinity
The year is 2770. The place is no longer earth. Fear not, earth still exists; it more than exists, actually. Earth continues to be the home planet and center of homo sapien life. However, a new frontier, the new wild, wild west, has been opened.
In 2103, earth scientists unlocked near light-speed travel and hence, the colonization of the Milky Way Galaxy. At first, only scientific and military bases were set up, but within the next one-hundred years, civilians began the journey.
At first, the civilian colonies were sponsored by earth governments and were highly dependent upon them for survival. However, as privately sponsored efforts were started, and green planets discovered, the new space age gained more independence. The invention of stasis life cells in 2259, allowing extremely long space journeys, propelled space colonization like never before. It wasn't long before earth governments began to feel threatened.
Many oppressive earth governments, such as North Korea and Cuba, banned all exo-earth travel for citizens, and prevented any space-travel equipment from reaching their people. However, other nations, such as South Africa, became gateways to space, allowing almost anyone to use its new space ports.
Hundreds of new business opportunities arose, and the new space age boomed. Interplanetary travel, space mining, colonization, and exploration all offered money to those who could exploit them. New green planets also attracted wealthy big-game hunters. It wasn't long before new space age explorers yearned to leave our galaxy.
It was 2422 when scientists on the planet of Cryptanim discovered hyperdrive: faster-than-light travel. Cryptanim was also the first planet to hold a non-earth government. In 2260, a private American expedition landed on Crytanim, a green planet, and founded the city of Neodem. Its original prefuntory American government was discarded in 2295 as soon as the people there installed covertly-obtained, German-built, anti-spaceship guns on all "corners" of the planet. Invasion plans by the U.S. Government were forgotten when military intelligence discovered that Cryptanim citizens had also installed several orbiting military stations.
Even with such advances, only 1% of the Milky Way had been explored by 2770. Colonization had only touched 0.0001%. This truly is infinity.
STORY
Captain Jae Park opened her eyes and blinked as water ran down her eye lashes. Her body felt sluggish as she pulled her hand up to wipe her face. She never felt good coming out of stasis. Once the water drained out of her cell (it really wasn't water, but was a life supporting serum), the chamber opened and she stepped out. The air felt cold against her wet skin and she reached for a towel to dry off. "Kitty," her personal humanoid stepped over.
"Feeling alright, Captain?" it asked as Jea held out her arm.
"Ah," Jae's voice cleared, "I'll be fine in a minute." Kitty injected a small shot of amino acids, enzymes, and caffeine. "That should get me going." Jae stepped over to a bowl of oatmeal which Kitty had prepared, the steam still rose from it. Jae didn't mind oatmeal, it had raisins and maple syrup. "Ship, is the crew up yet?"
"Crew members are coming out of stasis as we speak, Captain," came back the reply.
"Good; location?"
"Three hours until we reach Trogos, Captain. Co-ordinates are on your screen."
"Alright," Jea stepped over to the small console in her quarters and sat down in her seat. She winced at the cold and turned the heater on. She glanced at the message function, but thought better of it.
BACKGROUND
Trogos is an arid green planet upon which several waring factions reside. Mercenaries have flocked to the planet to lend a hand and take a grand. Infantry, pilots, and spacemen all will play their role and so will patriots, diplomats, and business men.
Several Native American Apache tribes, settled on the planet first because of its resemblance to their home-land. Most live a modern version of their ancestors' traditions, with a few who follow them strictly. Their tribal council maintains a sovereign government, and they have warred with all "invaders" of their planet. Population: 17,000.
The second group to colonize the planet were anarchists who added 243 souls to its population. They built a shaky community centered on the town of Grit, north of the Apache. Since then the place has attracted all sorts of shady characters; decent women not among them. The "town" grew to a city and became the center of the space black market. The booming city now boasts 100,000 and a government established by Hugo Diemez, the most powerful mob boss of the city. Since Hugo's accession to power, he has wiped out the other mobs.
A U.S. colony, New Colorado, population 70,000, centered at the city of New Denver, is located on the exact opposite side of the planet as Grit. A long mountain range stretches between the two colonies across the north pole.
A new Chinese colony (the twelfth in the Milky Way) is located at the south pole; population: 40,000. The entire planet is arid thanks to a molten moon which orbits the planet around its poles. The Chinese colony has a large scientific base. Most space technology is invented and kept in
"space," thus the Chinese had a slower start in the new space race. However, several generations later, many Chinese scientists have specialized in space fields.
RULES
(I am using Alawa's very good words.)
No god mode, no meta-gaming, no killing player characters without previous approval by the character's owner, no more than one character per player (except for OP, for continuation of the story dynamic and direction with an indication that the character is a non-player character). This story is OP driven, meaning I'm going to be watching the threads to ensure continuity and staying within rule perimeters. If there's is something questionable, I will notify you politely what I find questionable via IM, and hopefully we can come to a mutually accepted edit to the thread.
The Character:
Rule 1: The character must be available to our known modern world.
Rule 2: The equipment must be realistic to the character's station in life.
There is going to be a requirement of a posted character sheet. This sheet will lock you in as a character, and prevent you from later on suddenly knowing how to fly a helicoptor (if the opportunity should come up of course) because it's suddenly convenient to the story. Stories are a combination of the achievable and the moment that requires either ingenuity or taking a different path.
The character sheet is broken into attributes and abilities. Attributes are further broken down, and are your core make-up. Abilities are also broken into three categories, and are meant to support your attributes to reflect the uniqueness that is your character.
Attributes are broken into Physical, Social, and Mental.
PHYSICAL: The core movement abilities of your character
Strength: Brute physical power
Dexterity: Familiarity with your bodies capabilities in motion
Stamina: The combination of physical and mental fortitude
SOCIAL: How well you character interacts and is perceived by others
Charisma: How well you present yourself to others
Manipulation: How well you can garner response through deceipt and trickery
Appearance: How attractive you are to others
MENTAL: Your mental capabilities
Perception: Conscious and intuitive capabilities to notice details
Intelligence: How smart you are (duh)
Wits: Mental reaction to given situations
Abilities are broken down into talents, skills, knowledges.
TALENTS: A listing of talents, most are self-explanatory
Alertness: Recognizing specific details
Athletics: Running, climbing, jumping, swimming
Brawl: Hand to hand fighting
Dodge: Not getting hit by stuff
Empathy: The understanding of others' emotions
Expression: The ability to convey meaning through written word or oratory
Intimidation: The ability to gain information or action through threat
Intuition: Gut feelings
Leadership: The ability to motivate through force of personality
Streetwise: Understanding the vernacular of the underbelly of society
Subterfuge: Lying
SKILLS: A listing of skills, most are self-explanatory
Animal Ken: Understanding animal behavior
Crafts: The ability to construct or repair
Demolitions: Blowing things up other than yourself
Drive: Operation of vehicles
Etiquette: The understanding of behavior in social settings
Firearms: Shooting
Melee: Fighting with stuff in your hands
Performance: Ability to entertain audiences
Security: The understanding of securing areas or people, and how to bypass security
Stealth: Sneaking and hiding
Survival: The knowledge required to adapt enough to continue breathing
Technology: The understanding and operation of gadgets, gizmos, and doohickies
KNOWLEDGES: List of knowledges, most are self-explanatory
Academics: Formal schooling (High school 1, University 2, Masters 3, Doctorate 4, Scholar 5)
Bureaucracy: Knowledge and application of political procedure
Enigmas: Ability to solve puzzles
Finance: How to spend money to make more
Investigation: Combination of formal investigative procedure and common sense
Law: Knowledge of application of law
Linguistics: Languages known other than native tongue (1 extra, 2 extra, 4 extra, 8 extra, 16 extra (must be listed))
Medicine: Healing
Occult: Knowledge of supernatural, legends, and myth
Politics: You govern the political process
Research: How to find a sought answer
Science: The application of science (Higher levels indicate mastery of specific field)
That is the list of attributes (which cannot be altered) and Abilities (which can be altered within reason, I know I couldn't list them all).
We will indicate our characters' attributes and abilities with numbers. Attributes and abilities are ranked 1 through 5. Generally, the numbers can be described as such: 1 poor, 2 average, 3 good, 4 exceptional, 5 outstanding.
Attributes
All categories begin with a base of 1. You are given the following breakdown of points to allocate between the three main attributes (Physical, Social, Mental): 7/5/3. That is, you can put 7 points into one main attribute, and then 5 in the second most important to you, and finally 3 in the least important.
As an example, If one has a soldier: I believe physical, mental, and lastly social to be how I rank importance. I spend 7 points in physical. I have 1 in each category already. I spend 2 in strength, 3 in dexterity, and 2 in stamina so my final categories would be Strength 3, Dexterity 4, and Stamina 3. Then I would spend 5 points in mental, and lastly 3 in social.
Abilities
All three categories start with nothing in any of the ranks. You can spend the following 13/9/5. Just like attributes, take a moment to look at all the available abilities and rank your categories in order of importance. Your most important should have 13 points spent in it, then your second 9, and finally 5 in the least important. There are several abilities that do not require any specialized knowledge to use, Athletics being the first I saw. I can run, but have never been formally trained in real nuance, so I'd have just base dexterity to fall back on. There are others that you have to have at least one rank to perform. Medicine seems to be a good one to use as an example. If you have no training in first aid . . . you can leave my dangling broken arm alone until somebody who does know what to do comes along, thank you very much.
Two last things. First, you can only have one rank of 5 on your entire sheet. I don't care if it's attribute or ability. You may have two ranks of 4 anywhere on your sheet. All other ranks must be 3 or less. Second, you get 11 free points to spend wherever you want on your sheet. Attributes cost 5 points each rank. Abilities cost 2 points each rank.
Extra points will be awarded by the OP to players based on the merit of their posts. Points may be spent at any time.
After initial creation, the costs for growth are as follows:
Attribute
10x the cost of the next rank. So, if you have Dexterity at 1 and suddenly find moving is important after all, it will cost you 20 XP to buy a new rank
Ability
3x the cost of the next rank.
Finally, you need a name, a gender, languages spoken, an occupation, what you own, appearance, and a bio (the more descriptive the better; OP may even award XP merely for the sheet itself).
__________________________________________________________________________
Name: Captain Jea Lee
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Occupation: Space Pilot, Captain, Second Class (Passenger and Cargo)
Langauges Spoken: English
Appearance: Beautiful Korean woman, average hight, medium-length hair (straight, black), hazelnut eyes. When dressed, wears short, white spaceman dress tunic and boots. Always boots. Also, always carries Plasma 22 with two energy clips on belt with holster.
Equipment: Captain's quarters is equipped with several plasma rifles, stun guns, and weaponry. The ships cargo bay carries her dune buggy and dirt bike.
Biography: From South Korea, Jea's parents immigrated to the United States where she went to the Boing Space Institute. Because of her high grades, she was immediately hired after graduation as a ship Captain by Zircog Space Transport Incorporated. Graduation required atmospheric flight training, of course, so Jea is capable of any kind of flight.
On her second transport journey, her ship was attacked by space pirates. The pirate craft was a Orion-class stealth cruiser, and had come within attack range well before it was detected. The pirates boarded Jea's craft, thinking her an easy target. Jea proved them wrong; she and her crew fought and killed the pirate crew. However, her craft was badly damaged and had to be abandoned. She took over the pirate craft, and set her transport to self destruct.
She and her crew decided to allow Zircog Space Transport Inc. and the world to think them dead.
_______________________
CHARACTER SHEET
Attributes:
PHYSICAL: Strength: 1 Dexterity: 2 Stamina: 3
SOCIAL: Charisma: 3 Manipulation: 2 Appearance: 4
MENTAL: Perception: 3 Intelligence: 4 Wits: 3
Abilities:
TALENTS: Alertness: 2 Athletics: 2 Dodge: 1 Intuition: 1 Expression: 1 Subterfuge: 2 Leadership: 2 Streetwise: 2
SKILLS: Crafts: 2 Drive: 1 Firearms: 1 Technology: 2 Performance: 1 Etiquette: 1 Survival: 1
KNOWLEDGES: Academics: 3 Enigmas: 1 Medicine: 1 Research: 1 Science: 2
Current XP (11/03/11): 0 XP
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