KazMartell
Member
Hello everyone. I would like to see who all is interested in a science fiction game about war and corporate politics! I'll outline the background for the plot, the mechanics, and what I'd expect from the players/what they can expect from me here. Questions are welcome on any of the points listed, and more information can definitely be provided on almost any subject! (Do note this is not a Nation RP though.)
Background: (I'm gonna throw up a short version of this, but if anyone wants a more complete timeline just ask!)
The story of Iron Caskets starts in 2162 AD, with the founding of the MarSol colonization group. MarSol was created to be an independent body formed from many of Earth's governments to create a successful and self sufficient colony on Mars, and eventually the rest of the Sol system. Their goals for Mars are accomplished rapidly, in 2207, but progress is halted at that point.
Seeking to continue working at a decent pace the MarSol group began working more closely with corporate bodies than governments and, due to their unique position of being disconnected from Earth's governments, found a lot of valuable freedom to trade to the corporations for their assistance. MarSol was eventually re-branded as SolCorp as their colonization efforts spread to the rest of our solar system, and eventually beyond.
Almost four hundred years later Terran space has expanded to encompass over eighty planets as fully independent colonies, and a number of others as minor fixtures or mining bases, all under the administration of SolCorp. Finding their position advantageous, it was only a matter of time before the now irrelevant governing bodies of Earth were removed from the equation.
After disbanding formal governing bodies and instilling itself as the ruling body over Humanity, SolCorp quickly splintered into dozens of factions vying for control of the various systems. The SolCorp Civil War, or as it would later be known, the First Corporation War, devastated Terran space and cost countless lives.
When the first war ended and territory lines were drawn, the second war began and after a period of years ended as well. Laws were put in place and treaties signed dictating how combat would occur from that point forward, with an emphasis placed on preventing the total destruction of valuable technology and infrastructure.
Eighty years into the 128-year treaty a new conflict was boiling between superpowers, regarding the construction of the first true FTL tech. A destroyed prototype and brutal espionage sparked the beginning of the Third Corporation War. Mere years into the conflict, as the Corporations began clashing after long jumps to distant systems, the people began to rise up in the outer systems and forming a rebellion.
With Rogue Traders, and in some cases Mercenaries on their side, the rebellions are trying to gain ground as quickly as possible- before the Corporations realize the danger they pose and unite to bring them down.
Mechanics:
Iron Caskets is a hybrid system I set up a while back that uses the dice mechanics and a lot of the rulebooks from some of the Warhammer 40k systems, specifically Dark Heresy 2nd Ed. and Only War. It also uses some of the machinations and combat from the old Battletech system. The reason for this is because I enjoy the Percentile dice system and the Warhammer style of combat, but I very much wanted to put a game in my own setting- and allow for the inclusion of large combat machines.
Whether or not this actually includes any of the dice rolling I will leave up to the players- heavily dependent on how many people are interested, whether this will be forum or chat based, and a few other factors.
My personal preference would be for a small group- two to four players- able to meet semi-regularly and chat, roll dice, etc. If more people are interested I'd be happy to run separate groups of this; and if people are generally turned off by dice then we can nix that altogether.
That said the process of character creation I would like to have a point structure behind it, ala Warhammer's system. Even if the players are doing no dice rolls, having hard stats does make their actual capabilities set in stone (and allow for solid growth over time.)
So the process I'd like to go through is thus;
Characters will have a Homeworld archetype, Background, and Role. These will be pulled directly out of Dark Heresy 2nd Ed. and modified to suit their purposes here. That part is fairly flexible in that nobody but me actually NEEDS to have the books, since they are more guidelines than anything- I'll offer a list and if none strike a fancy we can make something new.
In addition to this there will be Combat Units. The Combat Unit will be built using a combination of Battletech rules, for unit size and support composition, and Only War, for the specifics of what the unit type actually is and all that. This includes;
The Unit's type, homeworld, officer archetype, special training and equipment doctrines, standard kit for each soldier, downsides, and other such things.
Obviously that's a lot of different stats to take into consideration for adding to a character that will be attached to such a unit- and on top of that, there's the distinct possibility that each player may wish to make their own unit!
I'll be here to make all that flow cohesively, basically. If some players don't want to make a unit, that is fine. They can join another player's unit and benefit from the stats of that. If multiple players want to make units, that is also fine- we will have them in a joint unit on whatever campaign we end up on.
All the major specifics of all this stuff, and how it'll come together, I'll explain in greater detail in the OOC if I haven't scared people off yet. =p That said, if people generally think this all sounds incredibly tedious and would rather avoid it altogether, we can talk about another way of playing things.
I'd like to note here that this is NOT a Nation-RP, or anything of the sort. The player characters will, ideally, be somewhere in the midranks or lower ranks, not in a position to command the entire unit. This will allow me as GM to keep things moving towards whatever goal is in mind, and also prevent the players from being overwhelmed by the minutiae of running whatever unit it is.
The players can choose what faction they'd like to be part of; Corporate, Rebel, or Mercenary. Each faction has some subfactions, or varying sizes, but it's not expressly necessary to be a member of them- we can make something up if none of those present appeal! The one stipulation of this is I would prefer if we did not have players choosing direct opposition; that is to say, no Corporate player and Rebel player. I CAN make it work, but I'd rather not have the story start like that! Mercenaries can be on either side, but at this stage a corporation is not likely to work with a rebel, and vice versa.
Multiple characters will be fine if the players want to have more than one, but I will be NPCing the vast majority of whatever unit(s) ends up being made.
And also, the unit does not necessarily have to be an immense affair of its own; the player body as a whole could be as small as a Company of mechs, being 12 pilots and a few support assets, or even a squad of solders... but we'll get into all that later!
Expectations:
I would like to have any interested players be able to be around at least a couple times a week. Everyone has lives they need to attend and I understand that, but it's quite a bummer when a story dies on account of one or two people being out of the action for several weeks.
That said the nature of this story, and by individual allowance, means I can keep things moving even if a specific player is not controlling the actions of their character; i.e in mid-battle an AFK player's character will still be shooting and calling targets or what have you, assuming said player allows me (or another player) to call the actions of the character while they are away.
Basically I'd like to communicate with everybody to make sure the story is entertaining for everybody and doesn't get slogged down.
Anyways, I think I've rambled enough! If this isn't all too tedious to read and it appeals to you, let me know and we can discuss just how it'll all go down! And if it is too much to grind through but you like the concept or the world, also please let me know so we can work something out to be mutually enjoyable.
I really want to get a story rolling in this universe with some good writers, so I'm willing to make a few compromises in exactly how I want to tell the story if it will be more fun for everyone involved!
Background: (I'm gonna throw up a short version of this, but if anyone wants a more complete timeline just ask!)
The story of Iron Caskets starts in 2162 AD, with the founding of the MarSol colonization group. MarSol was created to be an independent body formed from many of Earth's governments to create a successful and self sufficient colony on Mars, and eventually the rest of the Sol system. Their goals for Mars are accomplished rapidly, in 2207, but progress is halted at that point.
Seeking to continue working at a decent pace the MarSol group began working more closely with corporate bodies than governments and, due to their unique position of being disconnected from Earth's governments, found a lot of valuable freedom to trade to the corporations for their assistance. MarSol was eventually re-branded as SolCorp as their colonization efforts spread to the rest of our solar system, and eventually beyond.
Almost four hundred years later Terran space has expanded to encompass over eighty planets as fully independent colonies, and a number of others as minor fixtures or mining bases, all under the administration of SolCorp. Finding their position advantageous, it was only a matter of time before the now irrelevant governing bodies of Earth were removed from the equation.
After disbanding formal governing bodies and instilling itself as the ruling body over Humanity, SolCorp quickly splintered into dozens of factions vying for control of the various systems. The SolCorp Civil War, or as it would later be known, the First Corporation War, devastated Terran space and cost countless lives.
When the first war ended and territory lines were drawn, the second war began and after a period of years ended as well. Laws were put in place and treaties signed dictating how combat would occur from that point forward, with an emphasis placed on preventing the total destruction of valuable technology and infrastructure.
Eighty years into the 128-year treaty a new conflict was boiling between superpowers, regarding the construction of the first true FTL tech. A destroyed prototype and brutal espionage sparked the beginning of the Third Corporation War. Mere years into the conflict, as the Corporations began clashing after long jumps to distant systems, the people began to rise up in the outer systems and forming a rebellion.
With Rogue Traders, and in some cases Mercenaries on their side, the rebellions are trying to gain ground as quickly as possible- before the Corporations realize the danger they pose and unite to bring them down.
Mechanics:
Iron Caskets is a hybrid system I set up a while back that uses the dice mechanics and a lot of the rulebooks from some of the Warhammer 40k systems, specifically Dark Heresy 2nd Ed. and Only War. It also uses some of the machinations and combat from the old Battletech system. The reason for this is because I enjoy the Percentile dice system and the Warhammer style of combat, but I very much wanted to put a game in my own setting- and allow for the inclusion of large combat machines.
Whether or not this actually includes any of the dice rolling I will leave up to the players- heavily dependent on how many people are interested, whether this will be forum or chat based, and a few other factors.
My personal preference would be for a small group- two to four players- able to meet semi-regularly and chat, roll dice, etc. If more people are interested I'd be happy to run separate groups of this; and if people are generally turned off by dice then we can nix that altogether.
That said the process of character creation I would like to have a point structure behind it, ala Warhammer's system. Even if the players are doing no dice rolls, having hard stats does make their actual capabilities set in stone (and allow for solid growth over time.)
So the process I'd like to go through is thus;
Characters will have a Homeworld archetype, Background, and Role. These will be pulled directly out of Dark Heresy 2nd Ed. and modified to suit their purposes here. That part is fairly flexible in that nobody but me actually NEEDS to have the books, since they are more guidelines than anything- I'll offer a list and if none strike a fancy we can make something new.
In addition to this there will be Combat Units. The Combat Unit will be built using a combination of Battletech rules, for unit size and support composition, and Only War, for the specifics of what the unit type actually is and all that. This includes;
The Unit's type, homeworld, officer archetype, special training and equipment doctrines, standard kit for each soldier, downsides, and other such things.
Obviously that's a lot of different stats to take into consideration for adding to a character that will be attached to such a unit- and on top of that, there's the distinct possibility that each player may wish to make their own unit!
I'll be here to make all that flow cohesively, basically. If some players don't want to make a unit, that is fine. They can join another player's unit and benefit from the stats of that. If multiple players want to make units, that is also fine- we will have them in a joint unit on whatever campaign we end up on.
All the major specifics of all this stuff, and how it'll come together, I'll explain in greater detail in the OOC if I haven't scared people off yet. =p That said, if people generally think this all sounds incredibly tedious and would rather avoid it altogether, we can talk about another way of playing things.
I'd like to note here that this is NOT a Nation-RP, or anything of the sort. The player characters will, ideally, be somewhere in the midranks or lower ranks, not in a position to command the entire unit. This will allow me as GM to keep things moving towards whatever goal is in mind, and also prevent the players from being overwhelmed by the minutiae of running whatever unit it is.
The players can choose what faction they'd like to be part of; Corporate, Rebel, or Mercenary. Each faction has some subfactions, or varying sizes, but it's not expressly necessary to be a member of them- we can make something up if none of those present appeal! The one stipulation of this is I would prefer if we did not have players choosing direct opposition; that is to say, no Corporate player and Rebel player. I CAN make it work, but I'd rather not have the story start like that! Mercenaries can be on either side, but at this stage a corporation is not likely to work with a rebel, and vice versa.
Multiple characters will be fine if the players want to have more than one, but I will be NPCing the vast majority of whatever unit(s) ends up being made.
And also, the unit does not necessarily have to be an immense affair of its own; the player body as a whole could be as small as a Company of mechs, being 12 pilots and a few support assets, or even a squad of solders... but we'll get into all that later!
Expectations:
I would like to have any interested players be able to be around at least a couple times a week. Everyone has lives they need to attend and I understand that, but it's quite a bummer when a story dies on account of one or two people being out of the action for several weeks.
That said the nature of this story, and by individual allowance, means I can keep things moving even if a specific player is not controlling the actions of their character; i.e in mid-battle an AFK player's character will still be shooting and calling targets or what have you, assuming said player allows me (or another player) to call the actions of the character while they are away.
Basically I'd like to communicate with everybody to make sure the story is entertaining for everybody and doesn't get slogged down.
Anyways, I think I've rambled enough! If this isn't all too tedious to read and it appeals to you, let me know and we can discuss just how it'll all go down! And if it is too much to grind through but you like the concept or the world, also please let me know so we can work something out to be mutually enjoyable.
I really want to get a story rolling in this universe with some good writers, so I'm willing to make a few compromises in exactly how I want to tell the story if it will be more fun for everyone involved!
