Turn 1
Your group stops at the crest of a craggy rise, the wheels of your trucks grinding into the cracked earth. Only about three hundred meters off lays a town; or what used to be one. The walls of sheet metal and old airship paneling are cracked and broken in several places, and where you guess the gate would be is now just a giant gaping hole, with the wreckage strewn across the ground like rusted and bloody snow. Black smoke billows upward in pillars from behind the walls, carrying with it the stink of burning metal and rubber. It's mostly quiet out here, eerily so given the circumstances. Whoever was here seems to be gone.
Around you stretches the piles of junk and scrap that mark Bannon's Luck, some reaching over a hundred feet high. Some of it appears to have been dumped down a deep rocky defile a short walk away from where your vehicles are parked, which cascades all the way down to the same dirty road by which you came up this way. A wrecked and overturned vehicle lies crumpled against a copse of metal girders jutting out of the avalanche about halfway down, with a thin trail of smoke trailing upward.
The sun is high in the noon sky, though with a decent handful of clouds to help keep the heat down. Sunlight glints off old glass, pieces of galvanized piping, and corrugated metal piled on the junk heaps. It's all familiar to you by now. What's also familiar is the cluster of buildings before you: Bouldertown, a Junkers' haven slapped together just last year. You can just make out a double-beamed wood-and-metal signpost jammed into the flat ground just down the slope in front of you, which seems to have been shot full of holes, and splattered with a single rotten egg, stinking to high heaven.
What's your next move?
Time/Environment: It is a bright and early afternoon, and only partly cloudy.
Character Status:Location: In the driver's seat of one of the pickup trucks, with Covilard Dell riding in the truck bed.
Skills: Explosives (Grants the ability to recognize explosive compounds and devices, salvage explosive materials, and create explosives.)
Vehicles (Can salvage vehicular parts and materials, and repair and build vehicles. May also give you ideas on how to enhance vehicles, like, say, with nitrous oxide hooked to the fuel injector.)
Throwing (Expert at creating and using throwable weapons, ranging from harpoons to knives to rocks. Can combo well with Explosives to create throwable explosives and grenades.)
Weapons/Equipment: 2x Blasthole spear (lying at feet). Steel hunting knife (strapped to chest). 2x Kerosene hand lighter (in pockets).
Location: In the truck bed of a pickup truck, with Sculla driving from the cab.
Skills: Armorcrafting (Good at creating armor and shields out of basic materials, from metal to kevlar.)
Melee Weapon Crafting, Lv. 1 (Can salvage parts from and craft basic melee weapons, such as blades and axes.)
Melee Weapon Crafting, Lv. 2 (Can use Core Engines to make powered melee weapons, such as energy blades. Can also salvage and modify these in the field.)
Weapons/Equipment: Torsion blade (right hand). Salvaged buckler. Set of studded Helgak leather armor.
Location: Riding in the passenger seat of a pickup truck, with Sculla driving and Covilard Dell in the truck bed.
Skills: Jury-rigging (Expert in modifying weapons and devices to overclock their output, or using parts from other machinery to fix or enhance others.)
Machine repair (Good at working with large and complex equipment or pieces of salvage, from car engines to conveyor belts to hydraulic presses.)
Technomancy Lv. 1 (Use of small Core Engine(s) embedded in gear or equipment -- such as gloves on the hands -- to manipulate or disrupt electronics on the fly, create your own light source, or possibly arc lightning at will. Advanced forms may allow you to manipulate gravity or other natural forces as well.)
Weapons/Equipment: Technomancer's gauntlet (Lightning) (Light). Scrap wakizashi (sheathed).
Location: Riding in the truck bed of the truck Jean (Caellath) is driving.
Skills: Biotechnologist (You have garnered a basic understanding of how to use Core Energy and base materials to heal wounds, literally grow items like bullets made of bone, and salvage usable materials and compounds from people -- dead or otherwise.)
Chemical expertise (Can recognize and salvage chemical compounds, and use them in items ranging from stim packs to tranquilizer darts.)
Cybernetics (You have a solid grasp of the common field of cyborg units and enhancements, and are able to identify and salvage relevant parts, and even potentially use them yourself.)
Weapons/Equipment: Cybernetic arm, left. Crowbar (left hand). Medical IV drip rig (2x Stimpack). Belt-worn case of 3x Neo-saline vial.
Location: In the driver's seat of a pickup truck, with Cyrus in the truck bed and Drahknil in the passenger seat next to you.
Skills: Mechanical Expertise (Good at working with large and complex equipment or pieces of salvage, from car engines to conveyor belts to hydraulic presses. Also trains. ^^)
Vehicle Expertise (Can salvage vehicular parts and materials, and repair and build vehicles. May also give you ideas on how to enhance vehicles, like, say, with nitrous oxide hooked to the fuel injector.)
Automatic Assembly (You have grasped the ins and outs of getting robots and machines to automate many processes that would otherwise have to be done by hand. You can salvage useful parts from robotic arms, computer chipsets and more, and use them to build your own automated machinery.)
Weapons/Equipment: Shrike 32 9mm pistol (Ammo: 12/12 [HP]). Leather ammo belt w/ 4x Shrike 32 9mm pistol magazines [2x HP, 2x FMJ]. Rail spike caster.
Location: In the passenger seat of a pickup truck, with Jean driving and Cyrus riding in the truck bed.
Skills: Melee Weapon Expertise Lv. 1 (Can make and use melee weapons with some efficiency.)
Tool Expertise Lv. 1 (Can use most tools found on Shell 2, as well as make his own on the fly.)
Artist (Can make most anything into art to sell for some pocket change.)
Weapons/Equipment: Shoulder- and belt-strapped Helgak leather toolbelt w/ pipe wrench, handheld oxyacetylene welding torch, pneumatic nailgun, duct tape, and crowbar. Lead pipe (right hand).
Vehicles:An old, cobbled-together Junkers' truck with a sheet metal bed. Currently driven by Sculla (GiglameshDespair), with Xander Nash (S34N1C) in the passenger seat and Dell (Dwarmin) riding in the bed.
A busted old piece of junk that still runs and can carry a decent load. Currently driven by Jean (Caellath), with Drahknil (Sosoku234) in the passenger seat and Cyrus (Kassire) in the truck bed.
Locations:Bouldertown: A recently-built Junkers' haven located amidst one of the deeper junk heaps on Shell 2. It hasn't gotten much attention so far due to being mostly off the beaten path from the other towns, which is as good a reason as any for many Junkers to move here and work with the plentiful scrapyards in relative peace and quiet.
Bannon's Luck: The colloquial name for the particular heaping hills of scrap and trash in which Bouldertown is located. It is so named for a famed old Junker named Bannon White, who continually insisted on traveling to this region to look for valuable salvage, despite it being one of the lower-grade, less accessible dumps, and everyone knew it. He came back one day hauling a
Core Engine fit to power a small airship, and -- according to wagging tongues -- fought off hordes of bandits, scavengers and jealous Junkers who coveted the piece, all while working day and night to fit it into a frame so he could fly off-Shell into parts unknown. The legend of Bannon White is a popular tale, one that inspires many resourceful Junkers from Shell 2 to continue searching for their fortune, no matter how daunting it seems.
GM Notes: And we're off! I wanted to get this out quick so you guys could get an idea of your characters and start picking stuff to do. I'll be updating this game with more detailed rules later, especially for things like combat and salvaging. Expect
Turn 2 within the next week, assuming I get everyone's turns in just fine.
Author
Topic: Septerra - Rise of the Junkers (On hiatus) (Read 15296 times)