Important Edit: The way the game works has been refined since it started. As of this edit:
-The game is mission based, so six players will be selected for a mission and then sent on that mission.
-
Up to 6 players can still play during the Main Roll that isn't timed with Mission Rolls. <Edited on 12/24/2014>
-If you wish to join the game, feel free to make a character and post that you are interested. New characters are prioritized for missions.
-Otherwise, mission slots are randomly filled in.
-If for whatever reason you don't want to join any missions, you can swap places with someone of your choosing.
Go out and blow stuff up.
Introduction
Once upon a time, on a pale blue dot far far away, a human said 'Everything that can be invented has been invented.' This was said about eighteen hundred ninety-nine years after the birth of Christ....
Welcome to the Guild Chronicles, a game set in the far reaches of space. As elite mercenaries, your characters will be tasked with completing various missions against corrupt miners guilds, totalitarian governments, mad scientists, and more.
The general setting is as follows:
-FTL travel is done via large structures known as
Worldgates. They require a gravity well in order to maintain, and as such they are usually located on the surfaces of planets. The largest worldgates are built in orbit of astronomical bodies such as neutron stars and white dwarfs. These larger gates can send more stuff through without becoming unstable due to space-time fluctuations.
-Space is really really big. You can pretty much suggest any kind of character you want, human or alien, and are free to design your backstory as much as you want. The only think I don't allow is demigod-type characters, unless there are some sort of controls on that power to balance it out.
-Some societies are incredibly advanced. Others aren't. There isn't really much consideration for scientific accuracy, although my own worldbuilding tends to use real scientific concepts. You are free to do your own worldbuilding as necessary for your character, but there's no requirement. This isn't too formal.
How to Play
All rolls are done with a d6, with the following outcomes:
[1] You fail horribly, worsening the situation.
[2] You fail to accomplish what you intended.
[3] You succeed partly in what you were doing.
[4] Your results mostly fall in line with expectations.
[5] You are extremely successful, exceeding expectations.
[6] You exceed expectations so such a margin that it results in collateral damage of some sort.When you roll a 1 or a 6, a second roll will be used to determine the magnitude of the side-effects. Modifiers are carried over and become negative. So a 6+1 with an exploded value of 2 becomes a [6/2-1]
Some actions have a minimum roll subject to the discretion of the GM. Anything below this roll becomes a [2], unless it's a [1].
Whenever an action or event harms another player, a reaction roll is used to determine how much it affects that person.
For combat, each participant rolls an initiative dice to see who goes first. Afterward, attacks consist of two rolls, one for the attacker and one for the defender. If a person does
not strike first, the attack counts as a 'counterattack' and is subject to bonuses or penalties. If a character does not actually want to participate in the fight, that character dodges.
Revision as of turn 5: Actions directed at a character who manages to dodge will receive a penalty
equal to the value of the target's initiative die.
Revision as of turn 6: Actions directed at a character who manages to dodge will receive a penalty equal to the difference between initiative dice.
The Plot
This will be a fairly flexible game. I don't expect players to stick to the plot at all... so feel free to derail it as much as you want.You are members of an Elite Space Mercenary Organization™ known as the Guild. The Guild generally aligns itself with governments it deems responsible, but she primarily fights for gold. As a self-sufficient military organization, most of the Guild's members are noncombatants. As such, she maintains a Colony Fleet of O'Neal cylinder vessels that carry the bulk of her personnel, including living spaces and manufactories.
The Colony Fleet is currently orbiting planet Askarian, a cool oceania tidally locked to its parent star, von Hapsburg. Even closer to the sun is Ulysses, your prime target for your current mission.
Askarian is a quite temporary base of operations. Its mineral resources are slim, covered in massive and eternally dark ice sheets on one side and a huge raging ocean on the other, stirred by a raging vortex in the center of the warm hemisphere. The planet's atmosphere is currently thin and unbreathable, composed mostly of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. Over time, however, it is believed that the planet will warm and lose its ice sheets, becoming a warm ocean planet with a thick atmosphere, although not thick enough to trigger a runaway greenhouse effect.
The Guild isn't planning to stay for long. The planet's inhabitants are content living in vertical structures built into the edge of the ice sheet, living off of coastal fishing and exporting one of two key resources needed for space travel: Deuterium, filtered from the tides. The world's meager gravity well makes it a prime spot for a worldgate built into the icy plain leading to the more populous von Karling system, from which a spacefaring vessel will occasionally emerge and slingshot out of the atmosphere in a great envelope of plasma. Askarian's meager gravity (3.8 m/s˛ on the surface) makes it relatively inexpensive to ship supplies taken from the planet's surface into orbit.
Ulysses is entirely owned by SpaceInc, a local megacorp that controls trade and monopolizes all helium-3 harvesting in the von Habsburg and von Karling systems. A wealthy family from the desert world of Milan in the von Karling system has asked the Guild to put an end to the SpaceInc monopoly... and what better way to do it than an assault on the orbital megacity around SpaceInc's most valuable asset? The atmosphere of Ulysses frequenly blooms out during increased solar activity, making it a prime site for helium skimmers to do their work. SpaceInc also benefits from the study of the gas giant's unique native lifeforms, swarms of exotic palm-sized floaters that create energy with an as-of-yet unknown process. SpaceInc's orbital defenses are suicidal to attack head-on, but the city welcomes corporate executives and new employees with open arms...
Your mission, therefore, is to enter the orbital megacity posing as civilians looking for a job. Once docked, you have several options. You can pass customs, or you can break in guns blazing. Either way, regulations prevent the Guild from sending more support unless you are able to disable the orbital railguns that guard the city. If you can do that, the Guild can proceed to storm the structure, take most of SpaceInc's executives hostage, and free its workers from the near-slavery conditions they are forced to work in.
You can see the planets here.
Sign-ups
Character sheets are simple. Just copy the code below and fill it in. You honestly don't have to write much, just a sentence or two will suffice for each field. However, more creative characters will probably be funner to play. Go wild.
[b]Character Name: [/b]
[b]Origin: [/b]
[b]Bio: [/b]
[b]Specialties: [/b]
Name: Just your character's name
Origin: What kind of world is your character from? What race is he/she/it? How long did your character exist?
Bio: What stands out about your character? What is their occupation (or lack therof?)
Specialties: What is your character good at? Retrofitting weapons on the fly? Jetpack maneuvers? Deception? Pretty much any trope from space operas will do here.
Remember, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic! Good luck!
Author
Topic: 3008 AD: The Guild Chronicles - Guild Home Base - Theorycrafting! (Read 72164 times)