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[Sergius]

Ok, I think we have a winner! Magitek Space Pirates it is!

We'll figure the particulars on the go, so start thinking about your character concepts. Just write down a general idea of what kind of character, we'll go over the actual rules for creation after that. If you've read the Fate creation, I'm going to use a slight variation with decoupling Aspects from the Backstory (instead of forcing you to make one aspect for each "phase", you can just use your phases as reference for your Aspects, but not a straight 1-1 correlation necessarily). More info here: http://ryanmacklin.com/2014/02/decoupling-aspects-phases/

Mechanically it's the same, you end up with 5 Aspects, so we're still in "vanilla" territory.

Oh yeah I'm going to be sleeping in late tomorrow, so I'll catch up after that

[GentlemanRaptor]

Well, who wants to be helmsman-mage? I kinda do, but I want to make sure nobody else's concept matches that.

[Kadzar]

That sounds fine to me.

And I'm not quite sure what role I should pick. I've considered being some sort of magitek engineer or maybe the navigator. If no else wants to, I might even be the captain. Oo, maybe I could be the ship's cook.

And if other people are struggling with ideas for basic concepts, besides what I've mentioned, from the top of my head I think we could also do with a weapons master and a quartermaster. And searching for "pirate roles" I came across this and this.

[Sirus]

I wouldn't mind being the chief gunner or something along those lines

[Xeron]

Quartermaster here

[Kadzar]

Right now I'm thinking I might actually go ahead and be captain, since no one else has claimed it. But I have a very particular idea of what kind of captain I'd be, which I certainly wouldn't blame you guys for rejecting. I don't want to go through with the idea if people aren't on board with it, so, speech time:

As captain, I promise to direct this ship in pursuit of my own petty vices and in hasty retreat from the backlash of said vices. I promise to lead us to almost certain doom from which escape seems nigh impossible. I promise we shall constantly be fighting or fleeing enemies from my past, and I promise I will continue making more new enemies as time goes on. And finally, I promise we shall eventually capture a treasure trove far beyond even our wildest imaginings, only for it to be snatched from our grasp at the last second. This may in fact happen several times.

As much as I can, I will try to be an albatross around this ship's neck. I will pretty much take any compel that seems reasonable. And by this I should be downright swimming in Fate points. Possibly drowning in them. And I will use these Fate points to make you, my crew, more awesome at everything you do and to keep you great harm, if need be. And though we'll never be exactly "rich" or "welcome in most port towns for long", we'll have grand adventures on the high seas space, legendary battles with our hated foes, and, I dunno, friendship, I guess? Yeah, that'll work.

I may not be the best captain possible, but I'll try to be the best captain I can be, by my own special definition of "best". So, if you'll have me, say, "Aye, Captain!" If not, I guess you could say, "Sod off, ye mangy bilge rat!" or something to that effect.


^{Disclaimer: campaign promises should not be confused with real promises, and therefore do not constitute any obligation to be fulfilled in part or in full or even just a little bit.}

[Sirus]

...You know what? Being awesome pirates who are awesome at everything is boring. Let's be constantly on the run, constantly on the edge of poverty, and somehow always getting out of absolute destruction by the skins of our teeth.

Aye aye, captain!

[Sergius]

I've gone ahead and updated the player list with the tentative roles you want. I'll remove those once the actual characters are created.

Start by coming up with your background, like this:

• Come up with the high concept, as a general statement and not as an aspect.
• Come up with the sort of trouble the character must contend with, again just as a general statement.
• Detail some backstory: (only about a paragraph for each is good but do it as long as you need)
  
  • Detail some formative experience that lead to who your character is today.
  • Detail a vivid memory of pride or fear, and how that shapes who your character is.
  • Detail a recent awesome thing, ideally (but not necessarily) something other characters could be involved with.

[Itnetlolor]

I'm already playing a campaign with my brothers and a couple friends, but putting in my $0.02 I think you guys will have fun with this. I enjoyed it. It should be plenty of fun for the GM as well.

You can always use Roll20 to run a game board or something. That's at least what my group is doing.

[Sergius]

Yes, I've considered what helper apps to use. The simplest level would be "GM rolls everything, no online apps needed" but that seems a bit boring and has its downsides. Most online roll apps aren't very useful, except dice logs, but the ones I checked that weren't terrible required registering and/or sharing your email with the other players. So far, Roll20 seems to be the better alternative even if we just use it as a roller. Only thing I wish it had was timestamps, but we could work around that.

I think we can do both, some players may not want to use it, they can ask me to roll in their behalf.

[Kadzar]

Well, lessee.

For High Concept, I can't think of anything else besides Captain Albatross. I guess if I made a statement about the character, I'd say he's a space pirate captain who mostly brings trouble to himself and his crew, while occasionally having some very good luck to make up for it.

For Trouble, he's a gambler, a drinker, and a Casanova, constantly engaging in risky schemes to make money for his habits and lovers. Not sure if maybe that should be split up and some of it should go elsewhere (possibly the High Concept).

As for backstory, as a young man my character was press-ganged into the Royal Space Navy, serving aboard the H.M.S. Arcturus under Captain Jodrick. There he frequently suffered cruel and unwarranted punishment from the Captain's sadistic Lieutenant, Mr. Riggs. Seeking relief from his endless torment, (oh, crap, I think I need a name for my character. Let's go with Jonathan Wade) Jonathan stabbed the lieutenant in the back when he thought no one was looking. As it turned out, someone was looking, and the next morning he faced summary execution. However, by some great stroke of luck, the execution was interrupted by space whale, and, in the ensuing confusion, Jonathon was able to jump aboard it's back and thereby escape certain death.

After that, he spent many days drifting on the back of the space whale before he was rescued by a gentleman by the name of Sir Vincent J. Kenwigs. By this time the young man was starving, thirsty, and a bit space mad, so the old man took him into his home to recover. Afterwards, he let Jonathan stay with him and tutored him in such gentlemanly subjects as literature and history, the romancing of ladies, and, especially, the art of swordplay. However, one night, while Jonathan was out on business for his master, Sir Kenwigs was attacked by the Blue House Mafia, whom he had been some conflict in the past. Jonathan managed to return to his master just as he was near death, and with his dying breath he told him who had killed him and bequeathed to Jonathan his most prize sword. On that day Jonathan Wade made an oath on his master's sword to take down the Blue House Mafia.

And I'll continue with the last part when more characters are posted so I can integrate them into mine's story. Meanwhile, if anyone is in need of random name generators, I can recommend springhole in general and this one makes some interesting organization names.

[Sergius]

That's an awesome backstory, Kadzar.

You won't be the one to add other characters tho, we'll pick which ones and then they'll "write themselves" into your story (any of the 3 parts, BTW. the third is just the one that's more "ripe" for integration), so it would be a good thing if all 3 parts are written before we reach that point. For example, some player may have helped you in the escape, as long as you agree with that. Or maybe he was just there. Maybe even doing something completely unrelated to you, just in the same ship. Heck, you could even have never met... until later then they were like "oh you were that guy that jumped in the whale back then eh?"

Definitely the High Concept should reflect the profession of each one (so the Captain part covers it), plus some big defining trait (albatross for good omens for sailors, I think?)

I agree that I would probably split the "vices" part of the trouble with the risky scheming part. In fact the scheming is maybe a cooler "trouble" while the womanizing/drinking can be a separate aspect. Depends on which one you think you want to have more of the spotlight.

[Sergius]

Well, who wants to be helmsman-mage? I kinda do, but I want to make sure nobody else's concept matches that.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts I was having about magic and spellcasting.

I think the best way to handle magic is to use the normal skills. So, someone with a HC or aspect that says he's a mage should be able to use Shoot to fire "Magick Missles" (going all ole British on my spelling there ), Lore for divination, Burglary for opening locks with his mind, I dunno. Unless you want to roleplay a "low wizarding" setting and stick to guns/arrows and lockpicks and use magic for less flashy stuff.

You guys want pirates with pistols and cannons or (cross)bow & sword & ballistas?

If we went with guns I probably would declare they run on magic gunpowder. Also any character that doesn't explicitly say in an aspect they are an archer or mage or ninja we can safely assume they can use pistol by default (or vice versa). Basically, any "signature weapon" would be part of the character profession. Agree?

[Sirus]

Guns, duh. We wouldn't have any use for a Master Gunner otherwise :I
Speaking of...

High Concept: Well, he's a gunner. A Master Gunner, you could say. The best damn gunner on the ship in fact, but he mostly just directs the gun crews and tells them when to fire.
Trouble: He's a walking example of why you don't play with magic powder. Half of his face is covered in scales, the eye on that half is reptilian-looking, a leg has been replaced with a shoddy prosthetic from the knee down, and he has a third arm growing out of his midsection. He is Magically Disfigured, and he cannot afford the hideously expensive treatments required to set him right.
Backstory: Gethron was a top graduate from the Royal School of Gunnery, serving on the H.M.S. Arcturus alongside Johnathan Wade. He was but a simple gunner then, though shortly after Wade's trial he began to rise in the ranks for helping to drive off the same space whale that Wade escaped on. A long and bright career was within his reach.
Unfortunately, Gethron could never resist showing off to the newbies, and one day he decided to juggle balloons filled with magic powder during a severe solar storm. The stray cosmic radiation ignited the powder in one of the balloons, killing two swabbies in the blast and giving Gethron his trademark features. A swift court-martial later, Gethron found himself unable to find employment on any tenth-way reputable ship...which is why he now serves with Jonathan Wade.

Saving the third part of the background for when more people post characters

[Sergius]

That's a very good character, Sirus, but you're jumping ahead a bit. Crossing Paths is something we'll do after all the backstories are submitted.
We can keep that part where you served in the same ship for later, but focus on your personal story more. The accident part is good, maybe expand the Academy part a bit. The third part is ALSO yours as the star. None of the three parts are you just joining up on the other story.

Basically I took the «Phase 1» and split it in 3 chapters if you will: Early life, later years and latest event. «phase 2» and 3 come later.

I mean, it's ok if you want to wait a bit for the others, but don't do it if you just want to turn that part into a big «guest starring» event.