(My "Dungeons and Dragons" group has pretty much disbanded, but I don't want to waste the work I put into the campaign setting.)
On the planet Earth, there is a rigid social hierarchy. At the top, the Hymnal Clan, an ethnic group including five aristocratic families which own and govern everything on the planet. Then the Dirge Clans, various clans which have been conquered and enslaved by the Hymnal Clan throughout its history. They serve as police, military, and skilled laborers in dangerous occupations. The Hymnal Clan considers them expendable. At the very bottom of this hierarchy are the original inhabitants of the planet: the humans.
They serve their reptilian overlords as livestock. Humans are worked to death in dangerous conditions, then ground into mincemeat and consumed by Dirge or especially poor Hymnal. There are many humans left on the planet, as human farms are especially lucrative businesses. It has never occurred to any reptilian that there are more humans than Hymnal, until now.
The system is very loosely based on D&D and the D20 system. It is generally focused much more on the story and characters than numbers and rules.
The setting is science fiction with a few fantasy elements. The planet described above is going to be going through a revolution. Whether the party chooses to join the revolution, or escape to another planet after accruing a small fortune, is up to the players.
1.
Player Name:Rolepgeek
Character Name: Kraj Del Uss
Race:Dirge
Background: Back when he worked for the hymnal clans, Kraj was a security specialist. However, he was not the most scrupulous of security specialists...to put in other terms, he was a scammer, a hacker, and a general sleaze. It didn't help that he detested the taste of human meat. Gave him indigestion. Needless to say, when his hacking was discovered, without any friends to really back him up, he was thrown in prison. Only recently has he been released, and now...he has a grudge against the Hymnals, and figures that these humans might be a way to help him. After all, they
Description: ((Can I just let this create itself during play? The stuff that's not in the background, that is.))
Appearance: Rather average or poor looking for a Dirge, greyish-green scales with a below-average frill and poor color patterning means that his red and orange display scales are easily hidden. He also has slightly longer fingers and the tip of his tail is missing.
Skills: Computer Use/Hacking, Perception, Firearm Proficiency, Con Artist(4 general skills that your character would realistically have. Example: Intimidate and Firearm Proficiency for ex-police.)
Stats:
STR: 10
DEX: 14
CON: 8
INT: 18
WIS: 12
CHA: 16
2.
Character:
Player Name: My Name is Immaterial
Character Name: Elijah
Race: Human
Background: Elijah was born into the resistance; his parents were fighters. As a small, quick boy, he acted as a runner, moving messages or packages between resistance cells. As he grew, he started to sneak into high value buildings, stealing equipment, performing sabotage and gathering intelligence. He has always narrowly avoided capture, either through luck, outside intervention or his own personal skill, but he tends to focus on the last part. As such, his narcissism has blocked his potential rise through the ranks. Recently, his skills have been applied to carjacking and even planejacking once.
Description: Somewhat narcissistic, but still impassioned for the cause, because it's fun and it's all he's known. He never knew the world inside the farms, and so doesn't really care about the plight of the masses. He enjoys throwing a wrench into the Dirge machine more than saving his fellow man.
Appearance: A man of average height and skinnier than average build with buzzcut brown hair. While working, he wears a mix of grey and brown clothes, typically without a weapon, and nothing bigger than an SMG when he is packing. Silenced is prefered.
Skills: Stealth, Running/Quick Movement, Breaking and Entering and Vehicle Operation.
Stats:
STR: 10
DEX: 18
CON: 12
INT: 16
WIS: 8
CHA: 14
3.
Player Name:Dwarmin
Character Name: Joan
Race: Human
Background: Among the Third Class, life is cheap. Many Human women have only one obvious role-continuing the species. It is a pitiless life, one Joan was destined for-much as her mother before, she was born into a farm and spend her formative years in labor pool, growing her body, but dulling the mind...at least in most regards. Humans can still dream, and hope-and while Joa was never educated (one does not teach cattle to read, goes the Hymnal saying) her mind expanded in other ways, taking on a sense of color and wonder that kept her alive in dark times. Something unexpected happened on her 18th year, when she was to begin 'work'...by law, she was bound for the breeding pens-the only man who stood up her, Joan's first and only lover, earned a quick and painful death while she watched. She might have then given into despair and accepted her hideous fate...but, all was altered by a chance business deal.
Unknown to Joan for her entire life was her innate, powerful PSI capability-the ability to read thoughts. She had always had canny insight into people, but never had consciously known she was doing it. As it turns out, Hymnal enjoy breeding and feasting on humans with high PSI potential...not only for the 'exotic flavor' of such a meal, but to carefully control, and eventually eliminate human psi-dominant genetic traits, which could become very dangerous if their owners ever put them to use. As much as in the Old World wealthy men would only eat the finest of cattle, raised especially for quality, prizing the perfection of form to be consumed-so too did Joan find herself being prepared in the same way, kept as a fit and strong servant until ripe for slaughter.
It was a slower road to the same end...but, she would not go quietly. The training they gave her, a seemingly simple minded woman, allowed her time to prepare herself. To watch, and learn. How to move among them without causing alarm-how to influence even those who had all the power to do what she desired. Ironically, she learned about her powers as her Masters attempted to suppress them-the act of trying to control this force allowed her for the first time to harness it...she vanished on the night of her final performance-faking her death by plasma leak to hide the fact she was long gone...and bound for the resistance.
Description: Joan says little, and keeps to herself-mostly because she is afraid that others look down upon her-she is ashamed of her lack of intelligence, but knows how to hide her emotions well. She thinks slowly, but clearly, and prefers well planned actions to spur of the moment decisions. She is in many ways a dreamer, with a vivid imagination and a strong heart-she is quite capable of deception in this way, and even enjoys acting out roles and putting on new faces. Her PSI potential allows her to see many people's true hearts and feelings-this is more instinct for her, than practiced art. Ironically, she does not hate the Reptilians, though she does want to kill them all-she understands perfectly why they are what they are, and that they must be stopped. She remember her first mate, Maver, and still mourns for him deep down, though she has told no one of this old pain. Despite all of this, she has little hope for the future, or any sort of victory-truly believing she need only fight as long as she can until she can be reunited with him, at long last.
Appearance: Joan is tall, muscled and willowy, her body cleared hardened by her years in the farm. She has short, pale blonde hair, and dark blue eyes.
Skills: Perception, Minor Telepathy, Subterfuge, Athletics
Stats:
STR: 12
DEX: 16
CON: 10
INT: 8
WIS: 18
CHA: 14
4.
Player name:Harry Baldman
Character Name: Zhur Makken
Race: Dirge
Background: it is a certain kind of Dirge that would be found rebelling against their own regime, and Zhur Makken, a very affluent Dirge by birth, became one through a frankly legendary series of terrible decisions that happened to accrue him such a debt, it managed to upset several banks to the point where they collectively decided that the simplest, most adequate solution was to make poor Zhur very dead very soon. He's been on the run ever since, utilizing his rather meager skills obtained from a highborn education (and some things he's picked up on the way).
Description: Zhur hasn't had a very clear idea on what to do for quite some time now apart from try and survive whatever the world happens to pass his way. His long-term planning is not at all helped by the fact that he's a little thick. He does, however, seem generally personable and not at all averse to the company of humans. He's even helped his share of them in his quest to not die thus far!
Appearance: considerably thicker in build than he is mentally, and that's not a thing you'd say lightly. Wider than the average Dirge as well as a full head taller, you'd be able to pick him out of a crowd anywhere.
Skills: Melee Proficiency, Etiquette, Intimidation, Athletics
Stats:
STR: 18
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 8
CHA: 12
Author
Topic: The Third Class: D&D-esque Science Fiction (4/4 Players) (Read 5943 times)