Alright, I have never run an RP, but I tried to write a book a few years ago. The idea was really good, but I lost interest in it because I tend to write stuff I'd like to read. I already knew how it ended and had the whole thing written in my head, and basically thought to myself "yeah, that was decent" and never actually bothered to finishing committing words to paper.
But! The general concept keeps popping up in my head and I think it might make an interesting RP. This thread will be fleshed out a little more this evening and tomorrow, if there's interest, but here's the general concept.
GENERAL CONCEPT
It's the future, the far, far future. For thousands of years, mankind reached for the stars, using STL sleeper ships. Excitement about the cosmos and what they might hold dominated every aspect of the human culture for a hundred generations as they began to explore the stars. When messages began to trickle back from explorers and new colonies hundreds of years away, it was realized that mankind was alone - while there was plant life to be found throughout the galaxy, and strange beasts here and there, there was no other sentient life anywhere.
This realization struck mankind hard - there was no need for co-operation when there were no outside threats to mankind. There was no need for unity when profit could be made. There was no one else out there, just a universe ripe for the taking. Wars broke out, the global government broke down, and the core regions of human space, namely the solar system, nearly tore itself apart.
Eventually, one faction came to dominate all others, and created the United Terran Authority, claiming control over all of the domains of man. Of course, this in practice was restricted only to the solar system proper, and those colonies who were willing to submit to their control - as FTL travel was not yet obtainable, the UTA had no real way to enforce it's will on the myriad colonies that had sprung up over the course of history. Not only that, but the wars that tore through Terra's solar system also destroyed the records of where most of those colonies might be - mankind has found home on thousands opon thousands of worlds over the march of time, but of these, only hundreds have been located, and even few have been contacted.
Much of this was soon to change. Within eight centuries of humanity's "unification", the UTA announced that they had found a way to move vessels at speeds far exceeding those that anyone had drempt of before. While this technology could be applied to any ship, it was costly to produce, and the knowledge required to do so was so closely guarded and complex that it could almost be considered magic. While fleets of warships, and colony ships, would be equipped with the new warp drives, trade ships, passenger vessels, and other civilian crafts would, for the most part, be left to rely on the warpway network. This network was far simpler to utilize, and consists of large "Gates" that use relatively simple technology to alter the perceptible mass of a vessel and then accelerate it to faster than light speeds. Like a ball launched from a cannon, these ships plow through space until the mass conversion loses hold, then gradually slow to sub light speeds. The UTA has accordingly constructed "corridors" through space with launching stations at regular intervals.
Travelling this way is dangerous - a poor calculation or a malfunction in either the ship or the gate itself can result in ships being launched off course, too slowly, or in some other fashion that leaves them drifting alone in the vast expanse of space, usually with no hope of recovery and no course of action except to make peace with whatever deity the crew follows and wait for the food to run out. It is, however, not quite as dangerous as travelling in a warp capable ship. Besides the chance of becoming terribly lost, warp-ships also run the risk of colliding with previously undetected objects, being subjected to piratical attack, or, as time has proven, simply never re-entering normal space. It takes a bold captain and a brave crew to man these ships.
You are one such person, and you occupy a rare position in within the empire of the UTA - you are a free captain (or one of his trusted advisors). Some how, you or one of your ancestors found yourself in possession of a registered warp ship, not under direct control of the UTA military. Rather than being forced to subject yourself directly to the will of the UTA, you operate under a Warrant of Liberty - your ship and your future is your own, with some conditions attached. This can range from being required to regularly maintain contact with the Fringe Worlds and report happenings there, to supplying new colonies with resources they may require, to participating in military actions or subjugating re-discovered colonies who have not embraced the unity of the UTA. While your situation and possession of the Warrant is not unique, it is not common either, and you could be considered minor nobility if such a thing existed in the UTA.
Your journey starts as such. There is a galaxy to discover, intrigue to pursue, and wealth unimaginable to be found. There are also dangers - rumors of planets outside of the UTA having developed FTL travel abound, and there are many who are not subtle in their jealousy of your station.
Trust no one, and enjoy.
[/hr]
So, that's the basic idea - there's a bunch more lore, but it's not worth writing unless someone is interested. Conceptually, and assuming anyone signs up, you will have free reign to do whatever you want, in as much or as little detail as you want. The violence will be very realistic, the science based in something close to 'reality', and, should you chose to follow it, a set storyline with a good twist ending. You can also just fuck off into the vast unknown and see what it holds.
As I said in the rec room thread, this is mechanically based off a greatly simplified version of Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader (the first ed. rulebook for 40K), but with a different if similarly dark universe. I will supply stats for whatever you guys want, but you can ignore all that and let me track shit instead too.
If you'd like to play, there's a couple firm rules:
1. One person is the captain. If everyone wants to be the captain, or no one wants to, then he will be an NPC (your dad or grandfather or something) who does nothing, leaving that up to you guys as the PCs.
2. Actions will ALWAYS have consequences. You wanna fight the UTA alone, that's fine, but expect to die. Some will not be so obvious. Welcome to an RP where the DM overthinks things alot.
3. Char sheets will be up later. There will be a few hard stats which will be adhered to for my sake (much like what AJ has with SPRAWL), but you're pretty much free to make whoever you want so long as it's somewhat feasible according to whatever science looks like in 500,000 years. Beyond the stats, a bonus to the chance your actions have of succeeding depends alot on how RP-ish you are. Extra credit given for you saying *how* you're convincing the local governor to give you access to his personal army rather than saying "I convince the governor to bend over" or whatever. Besides designing a character, there is also a ship to design if you'd like, or I can do that. Don't matter much to me.
4. The mechanics of the game will be obeyed (I'll detail them further if anyone cares, otherwise you can just trust me that they exist), unless I decided to do something completely different with them mid game. I'm new to this and have no idea how simple or detailed they should be to make this fun.
5. As I mentioned, I will supply a story and some quests and shit for you to follow if you want, but the forward movement of the RP will mostly fall on you as a player. If you don't want to follow the story, then you'll have to come up with some other goals and I'll do my best to make that just as interesting.
Think that covers the basics.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 15, 2016, 05:41:00 pm
Interested. Very interested.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on September 15, 2016, 05:44:12 pm
Sounds cool.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 05:54:29 pm
I'll put that down as three potential interests. :)
As a bit of a 'tip' to potential players: I am very open to any questions regarding anything lore-wise, or "can I do this" wise, or whatever. I didn't put that all here and never will as there is ALOT of it, not counting whatever you guys create during the game. Most of it is also very flexible. Once the game has begun, the only stuff you'll get answers to will be things your PC would already know or be able to find out easily. Other stuff will have to be discovered, sometimes without me giving much direction on how to do so. Also, do not always trust the lore - trust only what your PC knows for themselves to be true.
As a second 'tip': I have enough of a universe created for the failed book attempt that I'm ideally going to try to run this as a "living universe". If you're doing thing A, and want to ignore thing B, it doesn't mean thing B just stops happening or goes away. The universe is big, big enough that this *probably* won't matter often, but if I think a little push is needed, you might get caught up in some events you didn't know much about before. This really depends on how people end up playing, and if it seems like having a totally open world with you guys making up your own quests works better than me giving out some goals or not. I'd like to try to be flexible and just have shit be fun.
Also, if anyone has any input on how they think the mechanics should work, I'm certainly very open to ideas.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 06:58:22 pm
This will actually go in a new thread as it comes up, so that I have an IC way of linking specific bits to you. I just can't easily get on the image server from home, so it gets hung onto here.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 06:59:27 pm
Name: Age: Gender: Role: (Make up a job title for yourself. Remember, only one of you gets to be captain. If multiple people want that job, or no one does, I'll deal with it as above. As also mentioned above, you're all going to spend at least a little while working together, and in the end, only one person will hold the Warrant. Teamwork is rewarded. Being a dick or a sheep is not, though I won't punish either, especially not if it's IC.) Skills: (Make some stuff up that seems appropriate. Some will matter when it comes to rolls, some won't, at my discretion. If they don't jive with your backstory or stats, then no bonuses for you) Backstory: (This might end up being important. Skip it if you want, but I'd suggest cooking something up. Planet of origin, motivation for joining up with the ship, what kind of personality do you have, etc. etc. You guys all know how to do this. If you have some special skills (hacking with robot arms), put them here and explain why you have them.) Equipment: (Whatever you want - very little is out of the reach of a Warranted Captain and his entourage. Weapon-wise, I'm going to assign a damage value. If you want your gun to be badass and powerful, then convince me it is. If you want it small and concealable, expect it not to also be crazy powerful. I'd suggest armour. Most stuff will kill in one hit otherwise.) Other stuff: (You want robot hacker hands, here's where it goes. Be kinda reasonable, but don't worry a ton about having a powerful bauble or two)
Stats:
(I would strongly suggest you read the post on mechanics before assigning this stuff. Good RP = reward, but I do plan on paying attention to your charsheet. Unless I get sick of that, anyway. I'm not gonna bother with perks and shit right now because I'm too new to this and might have trouble tracking that sort of thing.
The stats below apply to a broad range of stuff, not just the examples given - they are a combination of stats and skills in some ways. Pretty sure ya'll can figure that out.)
Melee Skill: 25 (How good you can swing a sword or a chair) Ballistic Skill: 25 (How good you can shoot, or throw things) Strength: 25(How strong you are.) Toughness: 25 (How well you ignore pain, poison, etc. etc. Also slightly affects hitpoints, though I will intentionally not touch on how damage works too much unless you guys insist.) Agility: 25 (How quick you are, as well as how good your reflexes are) Intelligence: 25 (How smart you are, how much random trivia you know, reasoning skills, etc. etc.) Perception: 25 (How well you perceive things around you, like dildos that have been left out, blips on sensors, ambushes) Willpower: 25 (How well you resist mind altering effects, and fear. Space can be a terrifying place, what with all the unknowns and shit) Charm : 25 (How well you get along with other people)
Free points: 100 (The base skill is 25 for everyone, and you also have these 100 points to assign where you see fit. Levels will be relatively far between, so choose your role and your stats wisely).
(Final note: You gotta be a human. As mentioned elsewhere, tech mods are common amongst people of your standing, though their workings are not always understood by those who have them. Mutation is only a bit less common (and much more common in the lower social orders, depending on where you are), since humanity has been spread out for tens of thousands of years and adapted to their surrounds accordingly. Genetic alteration is outlawed, punishable by death. So if you wanna play with that, play gentle.)
APPROVED
SHIPS
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on September 15, 2016, 08:01:59 pm
can i be a hacker man with robotic hands?
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 08:06:41 pm
Yup. Qualifications will pretty much boil down to "human". Tech mods are common amongst notables such as the PCs, even if it's not often well understood by them. Mutations aren't as widespread, but aren't uncommon either. Genetic modification is illegal, so those should be kept subtle. I'll be home in around an hour and will post a sheet template then, as well as a ship template (or just one that's ready to go, if you guys don't wanna design yer own).
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: RedVulnus on September 15, 2016, 08:08:17 pm
A quick question since it pertains to my character idea: Does the UTA have any notable crime organizations in it's territories?
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 08:23:40 pm
Yes and no. The UTA has a pretty iron hold on things in the grand scheme of things, being in control of the Warpway and warpship production and licencing. That said, no giant government is without corruption, and some laws are pretty tough for them to enforce - besides this, dictating day-to-day laws themselves is usually left up to individual planetary or system governors.
Accordingly, it's common for some degree of organized crime to exist in most places, as well as some planets, or sometimes whole systems, being more or less the personal domain of a governor who could be equated with a crimelord. Laws that are mandated by the UTA, and not a governor, are usually taken very seriously (no uncontrolled warp tech, no unlicensed teleportation tech, no unnatural genetic modification, as some examples) and are generally only broken by the foolish, powerful, or insane, since the UTA will quickly take direct control wherever issues with those things pop up and generally follow a very simple "kill everything" penal code. This has prevented any long-lived inter-system, serious crime syndicates from being around.
Most people under a Warrant of Liberty aren't subject to system or planet specific laws (or at least can't have them enforced upon them as they can just run the fuck away when need be), so there's many a Free Captain who is more than just a little criminal, strictly speaking. There is a pretty massive grey area there, and being the good guy isn't always the smart choice.
With all that in mind, I don't have any particularly important cartels built, so you have pretty much free reign there if you want it.
Other thing to mention is that for now, you guys are all going to start on the same ship. This can certainly change - warpships generally can't be bought and are financially out of reach of anyone except VERY powerful governors/corporations, but could be taken, earned, or stolen. There will be some teamwork required here.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: A Blitzkrieg of Butts on September 15, 2016, 08:31:15 pm
I am exited for this, Get those ref sheets up!
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 09:57:30 pm
Charsheet is up. Signups are completely open ATM and I encourage you guys to find ways to link your characters together in order to explain why you're all on the ship. It may or may not really matter, but either way I would have more fun reading it so fuck you. First post will ideally go up tonight (if not, then tomorrow morning - then I'm away at a wedding till sunday, just a heads up), and signups will likely be closed tomorrow night - more people can join if YOU guys can RP them in. I leave that in your hands. The exception is people who have already posted here, since I appreciate the encouragement.
It's maybe worth explaining the mechanics a bit. As mentioned, I'm using a pretty stripped down and heavily modified version of the first edition 40k rulebook. It's what I've got and seems better for this RP than anything open source I can find. I doubt anyone here has one, and I'm not about to type all that shit out, so here's the simplified explanation:
Anything requiring a test will have a d100 and d10 rolled, and added together. It will then be compared to your stat, with any modifiers applied. For example, Wilson wants to hack the shit out of some security thing or something. His intelligence is 60 (base 60), and he has explained in his sheet that he's experienced and specially equipped for this (+20). However, he's also actively being shot at (-20), and thinks he pooped his pants, which is distracting as fuck (-10). He's got to roll a 50 or or LESS to succeed. He rolls a 20! Success, he now has access to UTA turret control.
There is also a degree of success mechanism, which is worth getting into. So, using Wilson again - His base stat is 60, but then +20-20-10, which means his modified stat is 50, right? For each full 10 points by which he beats the roll, he gets a degree of success. So, rolling 20, he succeeds in hacking the alarm system (his original goal), but also scores three more degrees of success, which gives him access to the turrets as well as some macguffin info hidden in the security logs.
This might seem a little complicated, but trust me, that's the simplified version, and you guys won't ever have to worry about it. I'll be doing rolls behind the scenes as I'm not sure how well this system will actually work, and will maybe have to fudge things a bit here and there if it's too hard or too easy. I will never, ever kill anyone with fudging, because that's not fair or cool. If the system turns out to suck and just not work at all, I'll either adjust and let you guys tweak your charsheets, or I'll come up with something else that works with the existing ones.
When making your char, I would suggest not trying to buff a single skill to 100 and ignoring the rest. Unless you guys all compensate for eachother's weaknesses very well and never get seperated, you're likely to run into trouble doing this.
As a final note on stats - some, like ballistic, factor into things they maybe logically shouldn't, like shooting the ship's guns. I will likely change this around to use a combination of stats, since it's kind of a shit way to do it, but I don't really have a better method in mind until we start playing.
Now, question for everyone - I have two pre-designed ships for you guys to use, if you want, or you can design your own. I've set up a point system for this, but I'm not going to write down every possible thing you can stuff into a starship in this universe (it's easier to list what you can't), so there'd maybe be some revisions to whatever you make. You'd all also have to agree on this sort of stuff. I leave it to you all to decide if that's what you want to do, or you want one of my pre-built ones.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 10:10:29 pm
As a final note on characters, if you need more setting info, ask away. Some stuff is set in stone, but most is not. If you picture grim-dark, you're probably close.
And just as a heads up - if you haven't noticed, being in this RP will require a fair bit of reading. I'm wordy, to put it politely. You don't need to be, but be ready for the text-walls.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: RedVulnus on September 15, 2016, 10:47:56 pm
Name: Roland McCall Age: 48 Gender: Male Role: Reverend (also gunman and speaker) ((also kind of assuming there is still religion if not let me know) Skills: Speech, haggling, co-ercing information, and shooting Backstory: Living on Olestria, a planet of large plains and rocky mountains that ended up a spiritual reserve and a tourist trap modeled after times long before. Roland grew up the son of a pastor and a merchant and with a blind right eye. During the week he aided his mother in her shop and spent many an hour listening to her haggle as a youth, and then later on doing the haggling himself as a young adult. On the weekends he worked with his father to aid the flock of the church and to tend to the affairs of the church. He learned to be both a great orator from his father who gave a rousing sermon every sunday and how to obtain information from unwilling lips without the need for violence as he aided his father in church affairs.
At the age of twenty eight he was out with one of the flock of the church when a dispute between two of the local families began. The first shot tore his left ear from his head before landing squarely in the skull of it's unfortunate victim, the matriarch of McDougan family. Roland took the revolver from his shocked friend and unloaded the cylinder at the man who dared not only to shoot at innocents, but to do so in front of the son of the Preacher. His sloppy shooting got the job done as the man fell backwards with two bullet wounds. Upon arriving home he learned that his father had found out what he had done, and many a month was spent attempting to reconcile.
However in those many months he had also taken to practicing with the McDougan's in the use of fire arms and how to utilize them effectively. They did reconcile and Roland was welcomed back into his role as his father's helper. However this would not last.
The family of the man he had killed remembered what he had done, and one night Roland came home late to find his family dead in their home. Taking up his grand father's armor and weapons he went after them, not as himself but as the Angel of Death, the hand with which his god would strike down those who would kill one his servants in cold blood. One by one the members of the family turned up dead, each with a mark burned into their foreheads of the Angel of Death. However as the last of the men lay dying he told Roland that they did not kill his father, and as the man lay there dying Roland knew what he had done and knew that he had committed a most grievous sin.
Seeking redemption he joined the ship in hopes that they would not only do some good, but perhaps he may find a new flock that would at least need someone to lean on, someone to confide in in their darkest hours. At the very least offer comfort to those whom may need it.
Equipment: An old and slightly rusted revolver that had rather beautiful engravings that are marred by the rust and wear of the weapon. He also carries a double barrel shotgun that while of a rather plain appearance packs a mighty punch. On top of that he also carries a set of special made knives in the unfortunate case of a close quarters battle. He also wears a metal chest and back plate with thigh plates that are both concealed by the duster he wears, however anyone who has seen the chest plate would recognize the markings on it. Other stuff: An old worn leather bible that shows many long years of use. A synthetic replacement for his missing ear. Cybernetics in his left eye that restore sight in what had once been his blind eye though it failed to return color to it. A broken laser revolver that appears to be designed with similar engravings to his functioning pistol, though with some engraved words too covered in rust and wear to read.
Stats:
(I would strongly suggest you read the post on mechanics before assigning this stuff. Good RP = reward, but I do plan on paying attention to your charsheet. Unless I get sick of that, anyway. I'm not gonna bother with perks and shit right now because I'm too new to this and might have trouble tracking that sort of thing.
The stats below apply to a broad range of stuff, not just the examples given - they are a combination of stats and skills in some ways. Pretty sure ya'll can figure that out.)
Melee Skill: 30 (How good you can swing a sword or a chair) Ballistic Skill: 40 (How good you can shoot, or throw things) Strength: 30(How strong you are.) Toughness: 35 (How well you ignore pain, poison, etc. etc. Also slightly affects hitpoints, though I will intentionally not touch on how damage works too much unless you guys insist.) Agility: 30 (How quick you are, as well as how good your reflexes are) Intelligence: 35 (How smart you are, how much random trivia you know, reasoning skills, etc. etc.) Perception: 35 (How well you perceive things around you, like dildos that have been left out, blips on sensors, ambushes) Willpower: 40 (How well you resist mind altering effects) Charm : 50 (How well you get along with other people)
hope the sheet is good but if not let me know what I need to change.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 10:59:36 pm
That looks great! A chaplain is, to many, a welcome addition in the lightless voids.
There is still religion, though it's fairly planet to planet as the UTA has no time for it or interest in controlling it. It plays a very important role in some places, and none at all in others.
Only thing I'd maybe mention - ballistic weapons such as you mention are the most common weapons by far, being low-tech and easy to maintain, present pretty much everywhere, and generally unable to pop a hole in your own ship's hull on accident, but there are laser weapons, as well as energy enhanced melee weapons, and other sci-fi conventions too.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: RedVulnus on September 15, 2016, 11:02:42 pm
I figured there would be things like lasers I just thought they would fit the character pretty well. Though I'm thinking of changing the shotgun to a kind of double barrel laser weapon of similar purpose, but I'm not sure at this point.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 15, 2016, 11:14:25 pm
I figured it was an IC thing, and they are still effective against lotsa people. There's fancier armour available too, but good old metal is still decent, and it's maybe more important to just avoid getting shot if you can help it.
Can change whatever you'd like in that regard though.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 16, 2016, 02:34:47 am
Name: Mark Hansen Age: 21 Gender: Male Role: Captain Skills: Navigation, Piloting, Bargaining, Fast-talking (which is different from persuasion since fast-talking is for talking your way out of situations while persuading is convincing people to do stuff). Backstory: (So I'm going to do a list since I know what I want to backstory to be but haven't figured out how to write it out into a story format. Don't worry, I'll actually fix it eventually.)
Inherited ship and title. Earned skills by working alongside previous Captain (father) passed due to sickness. Father used his ship for mostly hauling freight and people across the galaxy. (Aka he was making da dosh as a merchant) Character grew up on the ship as well and his mother was never in his life. He has a hedonistic streak.
Equipment: Plasma pistol he inherited from his father, a pair of thick gloves he wears in case the pistol over heats (though it would appear it's had to do this a couple of times already), a light pair of clothes, an old gold watch. Other stuff: A bracelet that when activated provides a personal shield.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 02:36:26 am
The shield debate shall continue tomorrow. Right now I'm 'Nam-ing it up. Everything else looks 100%.
EDIT: Ok, after thinking and stuff, personal shields, no. The tech is too big. PORTABLE shields, yes. With some caveats, which I'll detail in the ships section tomorrow.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 16, 2016, 06:03:04 am
Name: Hamilton Locke Age: 37 Gender: Male Role: Bionic Juggernaut Skills: Firearms (all types), Melee (all common types), Intimidation, Murder. Backstory: Hamilton Locke was born on Valdosta Station, the first permanent space station established in the frontier system of Septimus Majoris, a large star with several mineral-rich, uncolonized planets orbiting it. Suffice to say, within a few years, team after team of mercenaries, scientists, and less than scrupulous characters looking for an out-of-the-way system were positively swarming the station and the surrounding planets. It wasn't a place for the faint of heart, weak of body, or slow on the draw. Thankfully, Locke turned out to be the exact opposite of all three of these.
He joined his first merc expedition when he was fifteen years old, trekking out with a group of men and women looking to construct an outpost on one of the nearer, smaller worlds before anyone else. It was on this trip that Locke killed his first man, or, first seven or eight, to be exact. The element of surprise and a high rate-of-fire gun sure can fill in a lot for experience, and once he ran out, most everyone on the rival team was dead or dying. He sped along those just dying with liberal application of hands-to-throat, and, if you ask him, that's when he was really born.
Locke participated in countless expeditions after this, making somewhat of a name for himself as a man who doesn't turn his head at less than clean work, a fine soldier when he needed to be and an absolute monster if he was being paid to be one. As the worlds around Septimus Majoris developed a bit more, he used what money he had to 'borg himself up, finding that there was little else to spend his money on. After a few years, he was hardly recognizable, so full of backwater bionics and implants that wires poked out of his skin at the joints, and he could scarcely be called human anymore.
Pretty soon, he was leading expeditions, not joining them, a bionic juggernaut colonizing world after world for shadier and shadier employers, and killing anyone who said otherwise, as long as the price was right. After a while, he found that there weren't anymore worlds to colonize in his home system, and, feeling no particular attachment, and aching for freedom, for more frontier worlds where law and civilization can't confine the beast hiding within every human, he left his home.
And thus, he signed up to the next ship he saw heading out into the cosmos, eager for more plunder and more action in the name of human expansion, as long as the price is right.
Equipment Weapons -A mag-pistol, a bulky, powerful handgun firing magnetically-accelerated flechettes manufactured with integral power supplies, meaning nothing's required to shoot it but the ammo and the gun. It's also near-silent, thanks to its firing mechanism.
-A mag-rifle, the beefed up version of its smaller cousin. It's more accurate, and hits harder, but is obviously more annoying to lug around, and harder to conceal.
-A plasma projector, a cumbersome rifle firing magnetically-shaped charges of superheated plasma. They dissipate at shorter ranges compared to lasers, but they're unaffected by particulate matter and tend to leave far more grievous wounds.
-A "void carbine," a sleek little rifle designed for ease of use and reliability in zero-g environments. It fires specialized gyrojet rounds, essentially mini-rockets, which won't penetrate ordinary ship equipment plating, yet still reliably kill people when reasonably placed.
-A short, three-round-burst-fire combat shotgun, plain old ballistic weaponry. It's inaccurate from the shortened barrel and stock and the nature of the ammo, but after all these years it's still almost unmatched at killing a bunch of people in close quarters.
-Locke's gloves are packed with powdered steel in strong pouches on each knuckle. Thanks to this, and his enormous size, he's pretty good at knocking people the fuck out, should it be required of him.
-A few cases of good old standard shrapnel grenades. They still work well, packing a real punch.
Armor -An enormous duster-style coat, composed of a metaplast overlay on sintered microceramic plates. It absorbs impacts, thermal shocks, and shearing blows very well, while being substantially lighter than most woven body armor.
-A sturdy helmet of strong ballistic material and thermal shock dampener. It's pretty reliable.
-A mouth-covering filter mask, for breathing in toxic atmospheres, or oxygen-low environments, as long as you're not in the middle of space. Also useful in case of poison gas attacks and riot control spray.
-An old-fashioned, wide-brimmed "cowboy" hat, synonymous with the frontier and human expansion, and thus perfect for a man like Locke. He wears it like a badge of office, when he's not using his helmet.
Other stuff -Hydraulic muscle enhancers installed into most major muscles (biceps, calves, thighs, abdominals, etc.), giving Locke quite a bit of force behind his physical escapades.
-An aim-enhancing apparatus installed in Locke's eyes and hands, giving him increased reaction times, steadiness, target identification, and quick draw capabilities.
-A mess of wires and a microphone in the center of a partially-healed mess of scars in Locke's throat. Seemingly, he took a serious hit there, and the device serves as a replacement voice to his damaged vocal cords. It's rather old and dinky, meaning Locke's voice randomly rises and lowers drastically in pitch, sometimes clogs over with static, and, other times, makes it sound like a few people are saying the same thing at once through a shitty AM radio. Suffice to say, it makes him sound scary.
-A large, old-fashioned leather suitcase. Inside, you find your average toolbox's worth of items, with a few extras. Pliers, saws of various sizes, an awl, a few good hammers, a hand drill, and some small knives and scalpels, the like. It's probably not best to wonder what the purpose of this is.
-Another suitcase of a similar type, if a bit smaller. Within it, Locke keeps a large assortment of semi-legal narcotics. New synthetic designer drugs, stuff mimicking earthly narcotics, only made with alien materials and is thus treated differently, things chemically similar yet different enough for there to be no law against it for now, etc., etc. Amphetamines, opiates, LSD-derivatives, dried psychedelic plants, the like. Most of them will be illegal/legal yet taxed by the UTA within a few months, but by then, Locke'll have new ones. Deep space can be boring, and Locke's not the type of guy to handle boredom easily. These probably aren't helping his already-shaky grip on sanity.
Stats:
Melee Skill: 45 (How good you can swing a sword or a chair) Ballistic Skill: 45 (How good you can shoot, or throw things) Strength: 50(How strong you are.) Toughness: 50 (How well you ignore pain, poison, etc. etc. Also slightly affects hitpoints, though I will intentionally not touch on how damage works too much unless you guys insist.) Agility: 25 (How quick you are, as well as how good your reflexes are) Intelligence: 25 (How smart you are, how much random trivia you know, reasoning skills, etc. etc.) Perception: 25 (How well you perceive things around you, like dildos that have been left out, blips on sensors, ambushes) Willpower: 35 (How well you resist mind altering effects, and fear. Space can be a terrifying place, what with all the unknowns and shit) Charm: 25 (How well you get along with other people)
Just so it's known, the aim bionic, in my opinion, would basically increase Locke's Agility and Perception stats a good amount, but only when it comes to drawing weapons, shooting people, and the like.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 06:11:17 am
Looks good.
And yeah, bionics or whatever will be applied situationally. It wouldn't help him dodge a falling rock (or whatever), but would help with the tasks it's specific to. You've got the right idea.
Alright, so, gonna wait a bit more to see if Blitz is still in, and cause it's fucking late. Post on ships will come tomorrow, and that will cover the groundwork. Think most of us have spent some time in the IRC tonight, so hopefully everyone has the basics of the gameplay down. If you don't, all you really need to know is that you shouldn't let Lork do anything because he's a terrible shot, doesn't understand space craft fuels, can't seduce his way out of a paper bag, God hates him, and so does everyone else including dogs. He will probably lead you all to death and destruction with his luck.
If anyone needs to tweak their character sheets, just let me know and feel free to.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 16, 2016, 07:34:41 am
And yeah, bionics or whatever will be applied situationally. It wouldn't help him dodge a falling rock (or whatever), but would help with the tasks it's specific to. You've got the right idea.
Alright, so, gonna wait a bit more to see if Blitz is still in, and cause it's fucking late. Post on ships will come tomorrow, and that will cover the groundwork. Think most of us have spent some time in the IRC tonight, so hopefully everyone has the basics of the gameplay down. If you don't, all you really need to know is that you shouldn't let Lork do anything because he's a terrible shot, doesn't understand space craft fuels, can't seduce his way out of a paper bag, God hates him, and so does everyone else including dogs. He will probably lead you all to death and destruction with his luck.
If anyone needs to tweak their character sheets, just let me know and feel free to.
I might add some more tomorrow.
And yeah, I would think that's how bionics work. The muscle one, thanks to Locke's huge strength score, basically (to me) would probably mean if it's at all within the confines of metahuman strength, Locke can probably do it with little difficulty.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 01:50:36 pm
Alright, I slept in today and am now at work. Ships and shipbuilding info will accordingly get posted tonight - we're mostly all night owls anyway, so it should be ok.
Little more mechanics info:
Experience - Since everyone is a notable, powerful individual in one way or another, experience will not be rewarded for mundane acts such as killing a dude. Instead, you'll usually get it in two ways:
1. Really good RP, and having original ideas. I like to see people think. There will be small rewards for surprising me or using good logic to achieve a goal. 2. Accomplishing notable goals. As I mentioned in the IRC yesterday, the way this will mostly go is that you guys will say "Ok, we wanna go here and do this". I'll come up with some things that need to be done for "doing this" to be successful, and leave you to figure out how you want to do those things. If you accomplish your goal, there's EXP for everyone! How much you get depends on how lofty and tough I think the goal is (more for settling a new world than for starting a trade route, for example), and on how well you succeeded (similar to the levels of success thing I described earlier, you can just scrape by and set up a tenuous colony, or you can succeed wildly and set up a burgeoning center of wealth).
There aren't really levels per se. After you get a set amount of EXP, you can choose to spend it in one of two ways: On a stat increase (spend, say, 500 EXP to increase from 35 to 45, scaling up), or on a skill. Some skills are easy to learn, others you will have to be taught. You want to learn about mining and rare minerals, you'd better spend some time on a mining colony, or with a geologist. This also applies to new bionics, special skills (which we don't need to worry about just yet), and other fancier stuff.
Your ships' crew will also share in the EXP. They will gain less, but more often. Since there's LOTS of stations to be manned on a ship, and not a ton of PCs to man them, you'll likely be directing your crew around a bit. Crew stats start low, but I think I've got it well set up to increase them.
Wealth - Essentially, wealth is an abstracted number we're gonna use to represent your riches. You have far more resources than many people in the universe can even dream of, but they are not unlimited. Buying a gun will not affect this, though you might have to do some rolling to actually find the gun if it's rare enough. Buying enough guns of top quality to outfit 10,000 men will. As a heads up for when you guys go to put the ship together, the better the ship you have, the lower your starting wealth will be, and vice versa. I will post a bit more on this when we actually get the RP moving.
I will also likely put up a lore thread tonight, with a post in there detailing what you can expect from the armour and weapons you guys have picked. It occurs to me that surprises there aren't really nice. I'm at a wedding rehearsal for most of the evening, and at a wedding tomorrow (I picked a crap weekend to start this), but after that posts will come as frequently as you guys want.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 04:13:45 pm
Ground combat is going to be pretty much abstracted and thematic in terms of representation. Space combat might move a bit slower. I finally have the rules done for it (it's a slow day here), so the question is, how involved do you guys want that to be. I can have graphics of your hologrid, showing ship facings, distances, astronomical features, etc. etc.:
Or we can keep it nice and simple and treat it the same way we're going to do personal combat. Which way you choose will affect how ships are designed when I get that up tonight, so feedback would be appreciated.
Also, do you guys think I have too many mechanics and shit going on here? Would you like me to stop planning stuff and just start playing? I like complexity, but it occurs to me that maybe not everyone else does.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 16, 2016, 04:24:27 pm
I'm pretty okay with everything you've got going so far, and I'm fine with holding things up until we've got everything figured out.
And I do like the sexy space map idea you've got thus far, but if it'd be too much of a hassle to do that every round of space combat, I'd say it'd be fine to just use text. If not, I'd be cool with space combat being slower and more methodical like that.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 04:36:45 pm
From a "how much work is it" point of view, neither method is really any more labour intensive than the other. One takes a few minutes of putting a couple lines on a pre-made map each combat related post, the other takes a few minutes of writing in further detail.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 16, 2016, 05:11:26 pm
Maps are da best.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 05:46:05 pm
Righto, in that case images it is. Let me know if the sizing doesn't fit your screen well, and if you can't roughly figure out what's going on there, and I will tweak accordingly. EDIT: Note that there are a few inconsistencies in this map, but I just wanted to make sure everyone got the idea.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 16, 2016, 05:48:41 pm
Yeah, going with Lork. If it's not too much to ask then, the images do look really badass.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 16, 2016, 05:51:12 pm
If anything, it makes shit easier TBH. Five seconds to make pictures. Five seconds to write, then realize I forgot where a ship was, re-write, realize I forgot movement specs for something, re-write, realized that torpedo should hit by now, re-write. Would have happily done it either way, but this is much better on my brain. That's less important with people for whatever reason.
Also, as with PC stats, you can pay as much or as little attention as you want to ship stats. I've made it easy for myself to track stuff without headaches for anyone else.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: RedVulnus on September 16, 2016, 06:11:22 pm
I'm good with whatever. Also any idea when we're going to start this?
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on September 16, 2016, 07:03:35 pm
Name: Charognard "Charo" O'Riley Age: 23 Gender: Male Role: Scavenger, Makeshifter and amateur engineer. Skills: Scrapping, Makeshift crafting, jury rigging, and basic repairs. Backstory: Charo was raised on an arctic colony on the planet IC-E55, he had a keen eye for scraps in the snow. Wrecks were common on IC-E55. He knows basic repairing skills through the engineer guides he read at the colony, some of it stuck. Equipment: An "Arctic Survival Suit" (http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/deadspace/images/6/6e/Arctic_survival_suit_DS3.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130310215631), it's a hardsuit made to withstand extreme below zero temperatures of IC-E55. It has pouches and a small backpack attached to the back. It has Kevlar plates which protects the torso and lower abdomen. Weapons are a Plasma Cutter that was made to cut through steel and rock, it work good for lobbing off limbs too. An ice axe from home. Underneath the hardsuit is a pair of brown trousers, a pair of fur boots, a white undershirt, and a tan button-up shirt. Other stuff: A RIG, it interfaces with his Hardsuit, it shows his vital signs. He has various baubles from home, not a lot of useful stuff, it includes a scrimshaw femur of a wolf, a bunch of engineering guides, and a wolf's paw. A large, industrial rivet gun along with rivets the size of railway spikes to go with it, he can set the rivet gun to heat the rivets if needed.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: A Blitzkrieg of Butts on September 16, 2016, 11:56:00 pm
Name: Collin Kagoslav Age: 18 Gender: Male Role: The guy that burns things, Brute Skills: Burning things, Psychopath, General smartass, Devilishly handsome Backstory: Collin was born on Uveto IV, an icy planet way in the far reaches of the UTA. He was born into a small fishing village. He was about 8 when he was living a normal life until he was kidnapped at the trading post. His kidnappers tortured him brutally and relentlessly. He had managed to survive the encounter but he had changed. for the next 9 his only contact to anyone was to grab his food from the kitchen. The only thing that kept him company was fire. He liked how it felt and looked. later that year he burned down the trading post, forcing him to steal a ship and leave.
Later he had come across an abandoned space station. Looked like one of those rich luxury ones.He docked and in the storage laid a flamethrower and a suit of armor. He hopped in the suit, grabbed the flamethrower, and decided to be a hired gun. Now he finds himself on a said warp ship, his job to protect it. Equipment: An LPO-50 (look it up) and AV-1A Assault armor (Again, look it up). Normal clothes are long khakis and a red t-shirt. Other stuff: None Melee Skill: 25 Ballistic Skill: 25 Strength: 25 Toughness: 25 Agility: 25 Intelligence: 75 Perception: 75 Willpower: 25 Charm : 25
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 17, 2016, 12:28:14 am
This will start sunday evening.
So, space ship stuff. I'm a hair buzzed right now, so I'll get into the nitty gritty when the time comes. Basically, maneuvering, shooting, boarding, repairs, scanning stuff, etc. etc. etc. will all use a stat, with appropriate skill and conditional modifiers and such applied. I will list up how stats affect things later, since you don't need to worry much about what does what to design a ship, and I'd like to get this up and running.
Designing the ship itself works much like character creation does. There are a couple of key "stats" for a ship:
Speed: How fast a ship can move, not including FTL speed. Manoeuverability: How quickly a ship can change directions, how well it can evade attacks, etc. Scanning: How effective the ship is at detecting things. Shields: Shields are fairly self explanitory. In the FTL universe, they are an extension of the same sorts of technology that powers FTL travel. The basic concept is that they work by altering the mass of an incoming object enough that it cannot harm the ship. Accordingly, some weapons (like a macrocannon) can be stopped by them. Other weapons (such as lasers) cannot, and must be stopped via armour. Armour: Protects a ship from damage. As with shields, some weapons are good vs. armour. Others, not so much. Hull Strength: Act as hit points. They represent the ship's interior design, bulkheads, blast doors, etc. etc. Power: How much power a ship produces. This is essential to keep things such as the bridge, shields, weapons, or other bits of tech operational. Mass Limit: Defines how much stuff you can stick into a ship. As well as having a power requirement, weapons, tech, etc. all have mass. Turrets: An abstract representation of the ship's small defensive turrets. These are used for stopping torpedos, small craft, etc. Weapon Layout: How many weapons a ship can carry and where they need to be located. Points: How many points the hull itself costs. Upgrades, weapons, and tech, also have a point cost.
It occures to me that I am too drunk to really explain the rest well, after several attempts. Sorry guys. Math and vodka don't mix so good. I will have the rest of this up on Sunday, as well as the first update. Since it's unlikely you guys will get into space combat right off the hop, we can figure out your specifics before or directly after that update.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 17, 2016, 12:30:39 am
Also, Wilson is good. Blitz, you've got 5 too many points in there, and min skills are 25. Otherwise, that works fine. You guys are tentatively set besides that though I should really read this through agian tomorrow to be sure.
Id' maybe mention that stuff like working tech and engineering is affected mainly by intelligence too, at least at higher levels.
Sign up is now closed - it's up to you guys as the PCs to let other folks join if they want to, though I think most people are in right now anyway. Char sheets can be tweaked up until the first IC DM post on sunday. Just let me know so I can peek at them again.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: A Blitzkrieg of Butts on September 17, 2016, 01:33:09 pm
Fixed it
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 18, 2016, 11:57:28 pm
Ok, after two days of falling on my ass drunk, and one morning of a very long, very needed nap, I'm back up and running. To continue with ships
Speed: How fast a ship can move, not including FTL speed. Manoeuverability: How quickly a ship can change directions, how well it can evade attacks, etc. Scanning: How effective the ship is at detecting things. Shields: Shields are fairly self explanitory. In the FTL universe, they are an extension of the same sorts of technology that powers FTL travel. The basic concept is that they work by altering the mass of an incoming object enough that it cannot harm the ship. Accordingly, some weapons (like a macrocannon) can be stopped by them. Other weapons (such as lasers) cannot, and must be stopped via armour. Mechanically, each "shield" can stop one hit. A ship with a shields rating of 2 will accordingly eat up two hits. Armour: Protects a ship from damage. As with shields, some weapons are good vs. armour. Others, not so much. Mechanically, armour reduces the incoming damage by whatever it's value is. Hull Strength: Act as hit points. They represent the ship's interior design, bulkheads, blast doors, etc. etc. Power: How much power a ship produces. This is essential to keep things such as the bridge, shields, weapons, or other bits of tech operational. Mass Limit: Defines how much stuff you can stick into a ship. As well as having a power requirement, weapons, tech, etc. all have mass. Turrets: An abstract representation of the ship's small defensive turrets. These are used for stopping torpedos, small craft, etc. Weapon Layout: How many weapons a ship can carry and where they need to be located. Points: How many points the hull itself costs. Upgrades, weapons, and tech, also have a point cost.
Beyond those "fixed" ship stats, there are also a few other things to know, number-wise:
Crew Compliment: Warpships are BIG, even smaller ones. Generally, they have a crew compliment that is more on par with the population of a small city rather than a naval ship. The actual number of people on board doesn't matter much from a ship performance perspective, but the percentage of crew who are capable and able to perform their duties does. A rough breakdown of the negative potential effects as your crew population dies or is otherwise incapacitated:
100% - Obviously, this is idea;. No ill effects 80% - The ship's top speeds degrade, in and out of combat. How much depends on the hull class. 60% - Boarding actions, hit-and-runs making repairs, and similar actions (though not maneuvering or firing weapons) face a -5 penalty. 50% - The ship gets a -10 penalty to maneuverability. 40% - The ship suffers a penalty to firing weapons. The seriousness of this depends a great deal on what sort of armament is being used, but typically this will range from -5 to -15. Additionally, any bonuses applied by special components are lost. 20% - In combat, the ship counts as Crippled. 10% - The ship can no longer perform boarding actions or other actions that logically require having free crew. It is now barely functional, and there are not enough people to effectively fight fires, make repairs, etc. There is a -20 penalty to those sorts of actions. 0% - If you somehow are not yet dead, you should be trying very hard to get off the ship. There's no one left to run the atmospheric controls, and you're going to end up suffocating if you don't freeze to death first. The ship has basically bled out at this point, and is not able to be operated unless more crew are brought on board.
Besides Crew, Moral is a fairly important factor. I have a table for the effects of low moral as well, but it is quite a bit more randomized and not worth reproducing here. In short, having low moral is not a good thing, and you will face mutiny if things are bad enough. If a mutiny does happen, you can deal with it however you see fit, but bear in mind that there may be unforseen consequences to your actions.
Ok, so, that's the basics out of the way. As I said the other day, we'll deal with actual combat when the situation arises - there's a lot of potential rules, and I'd like to get a feel for how things will play out before I set any in stone. It might be that a simplified system ends up being the way to go, or it might be very complicated. I will touch a bit on how damage works, just so that picking out weapons makes a little sense. Weapons have a couple different stats:
Strength: The max number of hits a weapon or battery can land on it's target. The degrees of success system applies to ship combat as well - in this case, succeeding will mean a hit. Each individual degree of success will mean another hit, up to the weapon's strength limit. Damage: How much damage a weapon deals. Obviously, this applies only in terms of ships - getting hit with even the weakest of ship-to-ship will kill any character outright. Damage Type: Whether the weapon deals physical, energy, or some other form of damage. Typically, physical weapons such as rail guns and other projectile weapons can have their shots stopped by a shield. Energy weapons generally will not, though they will do lower damage to represent a ship's armour absorbing much of the energy. Critical: How many degrees of success are needed to score a critical hit. Unlike most depictions of space combat, it's pretty rare to actually completely destroy a ship - instead critical hits will typically wreck components, depressurize sections, start fires, etc. etc. Firing Arc: Which direction the weapon may be fired in. As a rough example, here's the arcs for a range-four weapon:
(http://i65.tinypic.com/hrwy8y.jpg)
Range: The effective range of the weapon. Since things set in motion in space will generally stay in motion until they hit something, you can fire at targets beyond the range rating, though at a penalty. For the sake of gameplay, you can only fire a weapon up to twice it's range rating. Mount: Some truely massive weapons require a spinal mount. Others are only effective as broadside weapons. Some will fit and function pretty much anywhere.
This more or less covers the important basics you need to know when designing a ship (assuming you guys still want to). I'm going to provide an example ship, as well as some example weapons and components - as with your personal gear, the universe contains many different devices that do the same thing, so you can call stuff whatever you like. Anyone is free to submit a design - you guys will then figure out what you like best, and I'll likely use the others as NPC ships or something you can find later.
I'm going to take a quick break here to go update in Azmodal, then I will post the examples. I don't think there's anything else to really know about right now, so ideally, I will have a first IC post for you guys up very shortly as well, and we can get this thing started.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 19, 2016, 01:28:33 am
Ok, so, some example components and weapons. You can make up pretty much any kind of weapon or ship part you'd like, but consider these guidelines to that.
Macrocannons
Giant ballistic weapons that fire thousand ton shells at good speeds. There are many different versions - the stats here represent a common, basic type.
Strength: 3 Damage: 1d10+3 Dam. Type: Physical Critical: 4 Firing arc: Based on mount type Range: 6 Mount Type: Any Space: 2 Power: 4 Points: 1
Macrocannon Broadside
Large ships, rather than mounting a dozen cannons, will often mount upwards of 25 in a broadside configuration.
Strength: 6 Damage: 1d10+3 Dam. Type: Physical Critical: 4 Firing arc: Based on mount type Range: 6 Mount Type: Port or Starboard Only, Ship Must Be Light Cruiser Or Larger Space: 5 Power: 4 Points: 1
Laser Battery
While projectiles are typically the mainstay of most UTA combat ships, energy weapons are increasingly common. While burning holes in a ship with intense heat is generally not as damaging as throwing a high explosive chunk of metal the size of a house into it, laser weapons do have the advantage of ignoring shields and having greater range.
Strength: 4 Damage: 1d10+1 Dam. Type: Energy Critical: 6 Firing arc: Based on mount type Range: 9 Mount Type: Any Space: 4 Power: 6 Points: 1
Plasma Launchers
Short ranged, hard to maintain, and rare, plasma weapons are still very popular for those who can find them and afford them, for the simple reason of their undeniable effectiveness. There is very little armour out there that will withstand the heat of a small sun hitting it.
Strength: 4 Damage: 1d10+4 Dam. Type: Physical Critical: 4 Firing arc: Based on mount type Range: 4 Mount Type: Any Space: 4 Power: 7 Points: 2
Mass Drivers
Mass drivers, railguns, and other weapons that rely on accelerating projectiles to absurd speeds are a common thing on larger warships. While having fairly high space and power requirements, they act as a precision weapon capable of punching through most armour and striking deep at systems and areas inside the target.
Strength: 1 Damage: 1d10+5 Dam. Type: Physical Critical: 3 Firing arc: Based on mount type Range: 6 Mount Type: Any Space: 5 Power: 9 Points: 2
Torpedoes Torpedoes are common in the UTA fleets, giving even small craft a very effective way to engage the heaviest of ships. They do have some drawbacks, however - even when stored properly and deactivated, there is always a risk of a solid hit to the torpedo system causing them to detonate. Amongst civilians, Warranted captains, and the like, they are less common - the weapon system is fairly simple, but the torpedoes themselves are hard to come by, and generally tightly controlled by the UTA.
Torpedo Tubes: Required to actually launch torpedoes. Each tube requires:
Power: 1 Space: 1 Points: 1
In addition to that, there are limits to how many tubes a hull can mount:
Tubes MUST be mounted on the prow of the ship. As the explosion risk is very real, torpedo tubes and storage areas are usually very well protected - this gives the ship +1 armour to the front of the vessel only. The weapon's strength is equal to the number of torpedoes fired at once, with the maximum being however many tubes are installed.
Torpedoes themselves come in all shapes and sizes, but a very unique property common to all of them is that they cannot be intercepted by shields - they are simply too big to stop completely, and don't rely on mass or speed to cause damage. They can, however, be intercepted by turrets - the mechanic is pretty simple. For each torpedo fired, a die is rolled for each turret for each torpedo fired. There is roughly a 15% chance of interception, which will change during the game as this is a completely home-brewed system and I'm not too sure how it will work out in combat.
In addition to that, tubes must be reloaded between firings. A simple baseline test must be passed for this (using the highest of several stats, since IIRC no one took any command or ship related "skills"), and if passed, 1d5 tubes are reloaded for the next turn.
While everything from virus torpedoes to armour-weakening nanite torpedoes exist, the most commonly found version is the standard UTA plasma torpedo. It has the following stats:
That covers most of the weapons concepts. You'll notice fighters are missing, but you're welcome to try and design a fighter system. I just can't find a way to do it that doesn't either make them absurdly strong or completely useless.
Example ship and parts to follow. Honestly, I'm pretty tired and very hung over, and underestimated how much writing had to happen to get the ship thing together (in case you hadn't noticed, I've put a bit more complexity into than any other aspect of this), so it's unlikely the IC will happen tonight. I'm off all day tomorrow though, so expect something then.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 19, 2016, 06:56:22 am
Looks amazing, dude. Nice work.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 19, 2016, 09:17:03 am
Oh Lord-In-Coma, I'm 2hype for this. All I need to know now is how many points I get to spend making muh ship and that thing will be typed faster than a jack rabbit on crack.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 19, 2016, 02:15:48 pm
Sorry it's taking a while. I honestly kinda underestimated this, or rather transcribing it from my paper notes. Next time I know to write this all in word first.
Ok, so hulls, components, and an example. I'll list the hulls, and will give component examples in my example ship, but I'm thinking you guys will make up components as you'll all know what sort of things will be beneficial to you.
Hulls
There are thousands of classes of ships, and hundreds of classes of warpships. Most of them can fall loosely into one of the following designations:
Transports
Generally slow, and not designed for a real fight, the transport is a good choice for a Free Captain who is looking to make his fortune the non-violent way. While they do often mount an armament to discourage opportunists, a transport Captain will have to rely on his wits more than his fighting skills. While most warpships are also warships, there has always been a need for warpships capable of hauling supplies or passengers to planets that are not yet part of the Warpway.
Riply-Class Small Transport
A common sight on the fringes of space, the Ripley-class is a small, multipurpose hauler.
Cargo Hauler: This ship was built to haul goods, and no amount of modification will change this. It comes equipped with a Cargo Hold component - this component gives a bonus to trade related tests, and adds to a related goal's potential profits. This part does not take up additional space, but will require 2 power to run itself.
Corvettes
Corvettes are light ships, also known as raiders, that are generally fast and reasonably armed, but fragile. They are popular amongst Free Captains more concerned with getting around quickly and unnoticed than with the military or commerce minded, and have also found use amongst the less-legally inclined.
Zeus-Class Corvette
Zeus class corvettes are common in UTA fleets, acting as scouts and picket ships. They are built to be able to run from anything they can't fight.
Dimensions: 1.5 km long, 0.25 km abeam Mass: 5 megatonnes Crew: 18,000
Designed for long range patrols and second line combat duty, light cruisers are popular amongst Warranted Captain as well - at least those who can find and afford them.
Ares-Class Light Cruiser
Dimensions: 4.5 km long, 0.5 km abeam Mass: 20 megatonnes Crew: 56,000
This gives you a rough guideline yet again. There are, obviously, much bigger ships out there too, but if you're wanting to design a hull, stick with LC or smaller for now.
When building a ship, there's a few parts you MUST have:
A sub-light drive - as a note here, power is provided by the ship's sublight drives. I've stuck the baselines in there, but you can upgrade it for a price. A warp drive Shields arrays A bridge Life support Crew Quarters Scanning arrays
I have quite a few different "essential" components statted out, so if you need help picking something there, let me know and I'll list whatever's pertinent. Generally, unless an essential component adds something, it has no point cost. For example, a basic bridge is free. A fancy combat bridge with holographic displays that gives +5 to shooting the weapons and commanding the crew will take more power and space, as well as add +1 point to the cost.
Besides that, you're limited only by power and space. Vanity rooms (such as a personal, but not ship wide armoury, a chapel, etc. etc.) do not cost power, points, or space - they might, however, have some unintended effects. Grander versions that do have an effect (a chapel that gives a moral boost, an armoury big enough to supply an invasion force or stock macrocannon warheads), will cost power, points, and space.
Sub-Light Drives: Class 3 Plasma Provides 45 power (Space: 10)
Warp Drive: Rastov Mass Drive MK2 Provided sufficient mass modification to allow the ship to move at warp speeds (Space: 10, Power: 10)
Shields arrays: Single Rastov Array Provides a layer of shielding (Power: 5, Space: 1)
Bridge: Advanced Command Bridge A very old, very high-tech command center. Features holographic displays, real time ship status reports, video monitoring, and many other uncommon elements. It adds +5 to all ship-related tests (maneuvering, shooting, directing repairs), as well as +10 to social tests made on the bridge itself - it's just that impressive. (Power: 2, Space:1, Points :2)
Life support: United Industries MK1 Built to be reliable, but not to do much about the often unpleasant smells of ship-life. -1 to Crew Moral (Power: 3, Space: 1)
Crew Quarters: Pressed quarters A holdover from the ship's naval career. They are cramped, unpleasant, but take up a bit less room than standard. -2 Moral (Power: 1, Space: 2)
Scanning arrays: Class 6 Basic Scanners Simple, basic scanners. These are an external part and use no power. (Power: 3)
Grand Library Full of books and dataslates on virtually every subject imaginable, the contents of this library have been passed down in your family for generations. This gives a positive modifier to researching, data collection, and similar tests. (Space: 1, Power: 1, Points: 1)
Internal Maze The interior of this ship is... strange in it's layout. The vast maze that must be passed through to get anywhere is part of life for the crew, but not for any boarders. In addition, the layout is such that most shipwrights would say you've got everything in the wrong spot. This component gives +10 to defending against boarding actions and hit and runs, as well as allowing the ship's owner to select which components are affected by a critical hit, rather than the attacker. (Power: 1 Space: 2, points: 2)
Extended Supply Storage Ships are limited by how much they can bring with them. This vessel has had more room made for these sorts of supplies. This component doubles the length of time it can remain in space before crew or moral is negatively affected, adds a small bonus to repair attempts, and increases moral by 1. (Power: 1, Space: 3, Points: 2)
The whole shebang here cots 50 points.
So, here's the deal point-wise. I'm going to give you 80 points (which is alot) to do WHATEVER you want in terms of designing a ship, within the guidelines I've presented. Whatever is left over will be your group's wealth. Something to bear in mind here is that *fixing* a ship can be expensive. If you blow everything on putting one together in the first place, and something bad happens to it, you might well be fucked. As you can see from the example above, you're more likely to run out of space or power than points anyway.
Make something you all like and can agree on - if more than one design is submitted, I leave it to you guys to figure it out. You will spend lots of time on the ship, to the point that it's somewhat a PC on it's own, and you may not run into many chances to acquire a second one, at least not one of the same calibre.
The final note here is that while I might tweak some point costs and stuff you've made up, but frankly, if you build an overpowered deathship with everything you could ever hope for, it's more likely you're just going to run into people with exactly the same armaments out there. Unlike with your personal gear, which is generally all top-quality and expensive stuff well out of the reach of the majority of the population, anyone you're likely to meet in space probably has just as much wealth and resources as you do.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: RedVulnus on September 19, 2016, 03:18:54 pm
Honestly I'm good with whatever ship wise so I'll leave it to someone else.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 19, 2016, 03:51:00 pm
Lork expressed some interest, so worst comes to worst, that's mostly for him, haha.
I've updated the OP to include armour values and weapon damages. As I said, I've intentionally left that all a bit vague as I have no idea if any of this is remotely balanced, and it's easier for me to tweak the mechanics if I haven't already explained them all.
I'm going to take a bit of a break as I've been at this for pretty much four hours straight now, finalizing shit and shit, and give you guys a chance to submit any changes to your charsheets now that you know what stuff does a little better (at least one of you lacks any kind of armour, and another has no gun, which is just fine but maybe doesn't jive with the stats). After that, there will be the first IC post, and you guys can get a little rundown on where you are, what there is to do, and how to do something else if none of that interests you.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: A Blitzkrieg of Butts on September 19, 2016, 06:00:48 pm
No offense I think that the ship system is unreasonable. For example, The Venator-class Star Destroyer was only about a kilo long, 72 weapon mounts, numerous amount of fighters and stuff; with having less than 8000 crew. It might just be me and my Star Wars self or what, idk.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 19, 2016, 06:41:35 pm
Well, size wise, it's part of the requirement for a warp system to work. Population-wise, it's simply a transcription from the sourcebook I have. I'd actually adjusted that down from there. I can wiggle it to whereever, but really, most starwars ships would be sized on par with system ships in this universe. Starwars is also a little more high-tech than FTL (and startrek is far ahead of either of them in many ways) - there is not a lot of automation in this universe for the simple reason that life is alot cheaper than tech. You want your massive cannon reloaded, you better have a couple hundred guys who can push, pry, and run the equipment. That's not to say there aren't smaller ships, but the warpships we're dealing with are supposed to be enormous and ridiculous.
There's also some gameplay and thematic reasons for this, but they'll either become apparent once things start up, or I've done my job poorly.
If you're saying more weapons, the there's kind of a multi-fold answer:
For one, weapons are definately abstracted. A macro battery might have a dozen guns, each firing a shell the size of a small house. That's just a single battery, mind you.
Two, the Venator has 70 something odd guns, but from a quick google, it looks like only 10 of them are actually built to hurt other ships (not counting the four torpedo tubes) - the rest are smaller weapons designed to keep fighters away. This is represent by a turret rating in FTL - you can assume that even the smallest ship will have a hundred + turrets. This is the other reason for large crews - if your enemy has a hundred turrets, and you want to board them, you'll want at least a hundred shuttles, ideally with more than just a handful of dudes on each one.
Thirdly, weapons in this galaxy are far more dangerous than Starwars weapons. The macrocannon is a relatively small gun - those mass drivers are generally the length of the whole ship. It always struck me as really odd that the empire even bothered building a deathstar. When you have the technology to build a hyperdrive, it would be simpler, cheaper, and easier to just strap it to a big rock and throw it at a planet at the speed of light.
And finally, I've gone for a little more of a "reality" aspect for this. Obviously, there's alot of fake science in there, but the way stuff works in this universe is simply different from most other sci-fi stuff (Warhammer 40k is likely the closest analog, mostly because that's where some of the core rules come from). I actually chopped a bunch of mechanics out of this - there was a heat mechanic and a beam refraction mechanic at one point, but they're no fun to keep track of. Anyway, think more "Age of Sail in Space" than traditional sci-fi.
Anyway, I have no issue changing stuff around, and appreciate the input. I'm gonna wait and see how everyone else feels before worrying too much about this stuff though, majority will rule.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on September 19, 2016, 07:32:51 pm
I like the rapier class frigate, it's quaint.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 19, 2016, 08:09:48 pm
We'll give Lork a go, but if he decides it's not for him, I have three or four designs to choose from.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 20, 2016, 03:53:26 am
"The Iliad"
Ares-Class Light Cruiser
Dimensions: 4.5 km long, 0.5 km abeam Mass: 20 megatonnes Crew: 56,000
[Components] Crew Quarters: A holdover from the ship's exploration career. They offer if only the slightest amount of privacy once could find on a ship this size. (Power: 2, Space: 4)
Scanning arrays: Class 6 Basic Scanners Simple, basic scanners. These are an external part and use no power. (Power: 3)
Captain's Private Study Located in a secluded part of the ship is a moderately sized room that only the captain has access to. This is where the last Captain kept his physical star-charts, trophies, and other interesting items he found while on his travels. Of course this place hasn't been cleaned or searched in such a long time that anything could be in here.
Life support: United Industries MKII Built to be reliable and it even adds a pleasant smell to boot! +1 to Crew Moral (Power: 5, Space: 2)
Sub-Light Drives: Class IIV Plasma Provides 80 power (Space: 10, Points 5)
Warp Drive: Rastov Mass Drive MK2 Provided sufficient mass modification to allow the ship to move at warp speeds (Space: 10, Power: 10)
Shields arrays: Single Rastov Array Provides a layer of shielding (Power: 5, Space: 1)
Large Farm Land Due to the nature of deep-space exploration and travel, the ship may require the ability to become self reliant indefinitely. In the center of the ship is a large, artificial piece of farmland that can do just that. However it takes quite a bit of power and space to maintain. (20 space, 15 power)
Bridge: Advanced Navigation Bridge A very old, very high-tech command center. Features holographic displays, real time ship status reports, video monitoring, and many other uncommon elements. It adds +10 to all Navigation Checks. (Power: 2, Space:1, Points :2)
Weapons: Laser Battery
While projectiles are typically the mainstay of most UTA combat ships, energy weapons are increasingly common. While burning holes in a ship with intense heat is generally not as damaging as throwing a high explosive chunk of metal the size of a house into it, laser weapons do have the advantage of ignoring shields and having greater range.
Strength: 4 Damage: 1d10+1 Dam. Type: Energy Critical: 6 Firing arc: Based on mount type Range: 9 Mount Type: Any Space: 4 Power: 6 Points: 1
Macrocannon Broadside
Large ships, rather than mounting a dozen cannons, will often mount upwards of 25 in a broadside configuration.
Strength: 6 Damage: 1d10+3 Dam. Type: Physical Critical: 4 Firing arc: Left Range: 6 Mount Type: Port Space: 5 Power: 4 Points: 1
Macrocannon Broadside
Large ships, rather than mounting a dozen cannons, will often mount upwards of 25 in a broadside configuration.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 20, 2016, 12:12:44 pm
Right on, that looks good. As I mentioned in the IRC last night though, your forward armament has no chance of hurting things as it can only score one hit. Since you have power left to spare, but are at -3 space, I'd maybe suggest dropping two torpedo tubes in there instead, or seeing if you can make due without a forward armament and adding a second shield.
If everyone else likes it, we're good to go on that. If you want your own special rooms, now's the time to speak up.
Updates will otherwise happen at least once a day, provided at least one person posts.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 20, 2016, 12:34:53 pm
Right right, Papi. I'm about to fix it now.
Also I better post in the IC before I forget.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 20, 2016, 02:19:06 pm
Still over in space, but I'll take it. Space combat will likely end up being a bit brutal so having a little extra firepower won't matter much. I'll wait a bit to see if anyone wants to introduce themselves in the IC, and then we're off.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 20, 2016, 02:55:30 pm
Glad you're not breaking my balls over a single point of space. Anyways I'm posting my introductory post now.
Join me, my fellow space Hedonists!
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 20, 2016, 03:46:28 pm
Glad you're not breaking my balls over a single point of space. Anyways I'm posting my introductory post now.
I did a few practice rolls last night, and concluded a single broadside from a ship like yours has the potential to wreck anything smaller than you instantly with a bit of luck. With that in mind, a few extra lasers on a different arc won't matter much. Depending on how this all goes, the Illiad might be eligable for a mid-game armour upgrade as well.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 20, 2016, 03:50:07 pm
I sure do love armor, Senpai. I keeps all my squishy bits intact.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 20, 2016, 05:52:41 pm
I'm gonna make some edits to Locke's sheet, random flavor stuff and such, then I'll post later tonight. Got band right now.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on September 21, 2016, 12:22:35 am
And did just that. A cowboy hat, a filter mask, and two suitcases of morally ambiguous stuff. Plus spaced the items out to make it more readable.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 21, 2016, 12:40:45 pm
Alright, sorry for the lack of update again. I picked like the worst weekend/week to get this going. Spent most of last night running around after one of my wife's friends who'd had too many ativans and too much to drink. It ended in cops and her and her husband having a pretty interesting yelling match. There's probably an "I need a drink" story in there someplace, but none of it is really my problem, so I just get the fun of watching. It did eat up the night however, so no update!
I will remedy that today, as I have little to do at work and have made it clear I need a night at home. Should have at least one in the afternoon after my lackey goes home, and at least another tonight.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 21, 2016, 08:01:28 pm
Alright, I'm playing around with a galactic map right now. I'm not 100% sure you guys are gonna get one, since it's not really that necessary beyond flavor, but it might be kinda neat to know where you are. Right now, this is the most likely canidate. I think I've given you enough stars to not get bored.
(http://i68.tinypic.com/wj9icw.jpg)
(http://i68.tinypic.com/2dqk2fq.jpg)
I have a second setup too, which has some convenience features for me and about 25,000 less stars (not that you're gonna run out either way), but I dunno. Descriptions of where you are might offer more freedom than this. Hmm hmm hmm.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on September 21, 2016, 08:46:53 pm
I'd rather a military star chart that looks similar to this.
(http://i.imgur.com/eHPTDLD.png)
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: guest48 on September 22, 2016, 11:31:29 am
Name: Camille Viau Age: 38 Gender: Female Role: Chief of Security Skills: Close-Quarters Combat, Marksmanship, Leadership, Paperwork Backstory: Camille was born under the owners of CorpGen Automatics, a weapons manufacturing company, unfortunately bankrupt as of now, set up in a station orbiting Tau Unity XVI. Camille, having grown up operating weaponry, felt like the only job she could do was being a merc. Signing up to Black December at 20, she showed exceptional leadership skills, being promoted to a squad leader at 23.
STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. ALSO REALLY BAD DON'T READ IT.
Equipment: Weaponry - Armatus Arms LSR-30 Laser-based burst fire carbine, 200 shots per battery, heat sink needs to be completely replaced after around three batteries. - 2017 Colt Legend Ballistic style AR, 30 round magazine, modified to have a shorter barrel and stock. - Mattear .44 A reliable classic, a .44 magnum that chambers 7 bullets. More to go over the mantle place than to be used in combat. Customised with engravings and a wooden grip.
Armour - ATX Mk. 260 Ballistic Vest Relatively effective ballistic vest, outfitted with ceramic plates and a interwoven flexisteel coating. (Please note I don't actually know armour stuff please don't kill me) -Mk. 4 'Raptara' Helmet Literally just the generic grunt helmet.
Other stuff: Camille owns a beat-up set of OSH-4 flight-enabled power armour with the logo of the WildWolf pirate group emblazoned on the breast.
Stats:
Melee Skill: 30 (How good you can swing a sword or a chair) Ballistic Skill: 40 (How good you can shoot, or throw things) Strength: 30(How strong you are.) Toughness: 40 (How well you ignore pain, poison, etc. etc. Also slightly affects hitpoints, though I will intentionally not touch on how damage works too much unless you guys insist.) Agility: 35 (How quick you are, as well as how good your reflexes are) Intelligence: 40 (How smart you are, how much random trivia you know, reasoning skills, etc. etc.) Perception: 35 (How well you perceive things around you, like dildos that have been left out, blips on sensors, ambushes) Willpower: 50 (How well you resist mind altering effects, and fear. Space can be a terrifying place, what with all the unknowns and shit) Charm : 25 (How well you get along with other people)
Sorry for the unfinished sheet, just posting it while I still have access to a computer. Probably be finished tomorrow.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on September 22, 2016, 12:40:59 pm
Sign up is now closed - it's up to you guys as the PCs to let other folks join if they want to, though I think most people are in right now anyway.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: guest48 on September 22, 2016, 12:43:44 pm
Asked Lorknis, Forrest and Apathetic in the chat last night and they allsaid I was fine to join.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on September 22, 2016, 12:45:12 pm
Alright.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 22, 2016, 12:59:58 pm
Yeah, I shoulda chimed in here with the OK. Until we leave port, joining is alright, and NoCam came up with a good way to have avoided the original "intro". Afterwards, it becomes pretty hard to introduce a new character. Not that it matters, I think pretty much everyone is present now.
Statwise, sheet looks fine NoCam. If you can get some backstory and gear up, that would be good, otherwise we can get launched and started without it.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 22, 2016, 04:25:09 pm
For my knowledge when I update in a bit - is one of the PC's navigating there, or are you leaving it up to the crew?
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: guest48 on September 22, 2016, 04:30:37 pm
I can get a basic version of te equipment up, but I've not gotten the backstory 100% done yet.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 22, 2016, 04:39:11 pm
There's not a huge rush on that part. Are you able to post today, or are you computer free till tomorrow? I ask because Vulnus and Snow are on the way to the sickbay and all. Wanna know if we should put that off a bit.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: guest48 on September 22, 2016, 05:46:07 pm
I can post today, yeah. Just probably won't be a long post.
Also sooper sneeky edit: Sheet kinda updated.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 22, 2016, 05:57:38 pm
Looks good. I'm gonna assume your power armour has some trouble fitting into the tighter spots of the ship, thus the more mobile other armour (which is fine and not killable). Also, you have 5 extra points left if you want them.
I should really go back and re-add up everyone else's points too.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: guest48 on September 22, 2016, 06:19:52 pm
The power armour was supposed to be for either the unlikely case of zero-g combat, or planet side exploration, but that works too.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 22, 2016, 06:33:10 pm
The power armour was supposed to be for either the unlikely case of zero-g combat, or planet side exploration, but that works too.
Sorry, that's kinda what I was implying - with the jump pack (or similar), it would be uncomfortably awkward on the ship. Kinda figured it would be for the likely case of zero-g combat or other places where there's a little more room. Should have been more clear.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: A Blitzkrieg of Butts on September 22, 2016, 07:41:18 pm
Looks good. I'm gonna assume your power armour has some trouble fitting into the tighter spots of the ship, thus the more mobile other armour (which is fine and not killable). Also, you have 5 extra points left if you want them.
Yeah he isn't wearing it 24/7, only before and in combat. He wears normal clothes :/
EDIT: I allocated the points! DOUBLE EDIT: I'm an utter git
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: guest48 on September 22, 2016, 07:47:27 pm
Blitz I'm like 96% sure Apathetic was talking about Camille's power armour. And also the points thing.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: A Blitzkrieg of Butts on September 22, 2016, 08:07:36 pm
Oh derp, I cant read :D
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 22, 2016, 08:33:44 pm
All good. I assumed yours was a lighter version. They have the first and second highest armour values in the game, accordingly. We're all on the same page, I'm just a bit confusing.
Fake Edit: Or will. I haven't quite gotten there yet.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 25, 2016, 11:42:44 pm
OK. So. Combat. Generally, there's only a couple things to really know:
1. Combat uses the obvious skills: melee skill, and ballistic skill. Some weapons also get a bonus from other attributes.
2. There are range mechanics and stuff, but I haven't bothered to implement them yet.
3. Combat itself is roughly turn based, with turns going according to the situation or, all other things being equal, a dice roll. This is gonna be split between "PC Turn" and "NPC turn", simply because I don't want people getting help up waiting for someone who isn't online at the moment. When the majority of the PCs have posted, or when a bit of time has passed, the turn ends. Some combat will be done more "cinimatically", where everything sort of happens all at once, depending on the fight.
4. You can take two actions each turn. This can be finding cover and attacking, attacking twice, reloading and throwing a grenade, etc. If you peek at the weapon stats, you'll notice how reloads are set up - 2 full means it takes both actions, full means it takes one (so you can reload then shoot), 5 full means it takes two complete turns and an action. Most fights will likely end VERY quickly, so this shouldn't matter too much.
5. There are also free actions, which is little shit like telling someone to get fucked or whatever while you beat them into the dirt. They do not take up one of the "action actions".
This will be the hardest thing for me to run - there are not a very strict set of rules like space combat, nor is there a "well, write it well and it happens" type rule. Expect this system to be tweaked a bunch.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on September 30, 2016, 04:19:34 pm
"Charo
Flicking on your plasma cutter fills the room with a eerie blue-green glow that quickly overpowers the flickering orange cast off by the dwindling flames. You don't know if the man in front of you recognizes the tool or not, but either way, his eyes grow wide with terror, and his mouth opens as if to scream as you swing it towards him. You aim is a little higher than intended. He raises one arm in front of his face, and attempts to bring the shockstick up, as if to parry your slash, but it's a futile gesture - the arcing plasma slices through it with no effort, continuing through his arm behind it. The stick explodes in a shower of sparks, and the arm hits the deck with a wet thud, followed shortly by the man as he attempts to stem his bloodloss with his remaining hand."
Ok, so, in retrospect, that plasma cutter is the single most shit your pants terrifying weapon in the game. Since part of this is testing out my combat mechanics, I had this guy roll to block. Wilson rolled actually pretty terribly, just enough for a glancing hit (and bearing in mind these guys have negative modifiers still from the warp jump), and had I made the mook dodge, he would have just missed.
But no, I had to make him block. He succeeded in that too, but it turns out that unless you have a full suit of power armour like NoCam's, AND a ship bulkhead between you and this thing, it's gonna just go through.
I'm suddenly glad Charo has a fairly low WS - this thing, with some decent luck, can even knock out the smaller armoured vehicles I have written up.
As another note, because of this, I'm going to consider this thing much heavier than we discussed in the IRC. It's now a twohanded affair kinda like a zipcut, and the unbalanced property with give a negative modifier to using it twice in a turn, as well giving a negative modifier to any dodge or block attempt made in the same turn.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on October 05, 2016, 01:23:06 pm
Update coming tonight. Since the combat's kinda been left alone by some of you, I'll just wrap it up quick once NoCam and forrest are done fucking up their guys. It's given me enough info on how I should tweak the system that there's no reason to keep you guys pounding on these poor mooks.
Expect most future combats to be quite a bit more dangerous to you.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Siege-Loli on October 06, 2016, 12:13:33 am
One day we'll make it to the first Nav-Point. High adventure awaits!
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on October 06, 2016, 01:38:41 pm
That should come pretty shortly. There's a few things I need to do first, which should be done when you and Vulnus are done chatting and everyone is finished beating the shit out of the ratings.
I'll state it here - if no one objects, we're going to timeskip most of the jump once the current events are all played here. If you have other stuff you wanna do on the ship, make it known.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on October 07, 2016, 05:07:24 pm
Alright, so. NoCam helpfully linked me to the sourcebook for Rogue Trader, which is very, very close to the 40K rulebook I've been using, but far more in depth.
I'm at a bit of a crossroads here as to how to proceed with FTL.
Really, the big question here is this - do you guys wanna continue with FTL as it sits, add mechanics, or drop it and run actual Rogue Trader in the 40K universe (which we're all more acquainted with as FTL pretty much exists in my head)?
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: RedVulnus on October 07, 2016, 06:19:20 pm
I'd prefer to continue running it as is but if everyone wants to do something different then I'm good with that.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on October 08, 2016, 01:12:15 am
I'd continue running as is.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Forrest on October 08, 2016, 01:34:14 am
As is.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on October 08, 2016, 04:19:25 pm
Alright, well, there's some votes and some statements. Not counting NoCam, who completely regrets this and has informed me I've ruined his life, seems like everyone wants to incorporate some mechanics and keep the universe going. So, I'm going to keep going.
I spent last night reading through the RT book. It's (thankfully) very, very similar to the system in place. If everyone wants to read 400 odd pages, we'll put the full system in place and I'll have you pick skills. Honestly though, the homebrew system I have in place now seems sufficient to make things work - if we were sitting around a table top, the RT system would be better, but it's a little complicated via forum as I'm rolling for everyone. So, I'll go with majority rule on that one, but I'm personally going to suggest we leave most of that alone.
As this is going to get more involved now that we're past the giant rat dungeon, any actions you may want to perform that require a test (that isn't just trivial or combat related) will have the required skills made known before I roll for them - some of you suck in some areas and are strong in others, so it will help you guys not fail due to confusion.
I would, however, suggest you look at the combat actions if you want - they're on page 238, and work just fine with the existing system.
Secondly, my ship system came from the old old old RT 1st ed, suggestions from a friend who played Battlefleet Gothic, and from some googling as to how RT new ed. does it. It actually seems to line up pretty much exactly, which is unsurprising as it's much less home-brewed. So, if you're planning to take part in ship combat, take a look at that, or at least the movement and combat section. It starts on page 193.
You can ignore virtually everything else in the book, since it works pretty differently than how my pre-designed mechanics are - they're simpler, which, once again, I think is easier given the forum medium. I will detail those as they come up - wealth is due for an indepth explanation, for example, because right now you guys really have no incentive to actually try to make money or any real idea of how much you already have.
And just as a heads up, as I'm very new at this sort of thing, if you guys find the setting and adventure of FTL isn't quite what you hoped, I'm not against revisiting playing RT or something similar instead. I have some tricks up my sleeve to make this a pretty fun thing, but am new enough that I might not work them in well, or might do so in a way you guys don't consider to check out, since I'm pretty much the only one who knows how the whole universe works. It's very easy to keep things interesting in a universe people besides myself are familiar with.
Here's a link to the sourcebook. Thank NoCam for that.
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on October 09, 2016, 08:15:09 pm
Update on the way soon. Turns out it's apparently thanksgiving, so that tied me up thus far. Also had a few scenarios to run to see how some other stuff would work out. All done now, so expect something this evening.
Anyone read the sourcebook, or should I summarize?
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: Wheel-Son on October 09, 2016, 08:38:24 pm
it's OCTOBER
Title: Re: Faster Than Light (Interest, Lore, and Sign Up Thread)
Post by: ApatheticExcuse on October 09, 2016, 09:06:47 pm
Yup. We picked a different month for our meaningless, randomly assigned holiday than you guys. There's some good historical reasons for it that I won't get in to.