[Sci-fi/Fantasy] The Quest - an epic adventure of exploration and intrigue (interest check)

[Caboosethemoose]

Waterfront Disctict, Oneta
--------------------------//-----------------------------------//--------------------------------------------//---------------------------
​

Location: City of Noueva, Carden [Bramford System]
Local Time: 2135hrs

The bright neon lights of Carden’s second most populous city were muted somewhat against the torrential rain that splattered across the windows of the fast moving Skytrain. Officer Matthew Riesel sighed quietly as he leaned back into his seat after watching the familiar skyline disappear abruptly behind cloud and rolling fog. He had spent his entire life within Noueva’s walls and now here he was..embarking on what could possibly be a fool’s errand.

A quick glance around revealed that the transport shuttle was at least three quarters full, mostly businessmen and women along with a handful of off-world tourists travelling up to the Capital city of Oneta; the pride of Carden and the political heart of the Commonwealth. Riesel didn’t count himself as the typical demographic drawn into visiting Oneta but despite his reservations about the giant sprawling megapolis he knew he was chasing an opportunity of a lifetime. So what if the city was crawling with politicians, corporate sharks and various other forms of charlatan? This was an opportunity to meet Augustin Diggs!

The, Augustin Diggs; the most famous explorer the Commonwealth has ever known!

Riesel almost instinctively reached for his holopad and navigated to the most recent messages. A steady stream of blue text began scrolling from the device which he re-read for the umpteenth time:

#Commonwealth Systems - General Public Transmission
#26.15.2396 – 5a
#Received: 0150 ESBT

////////Message Start////////
.
.​

Attention Citizens of the Commonwealth!

Have you ever dreamed of travelling the stars? Is the life of a corporate wage slave leading nowhere fast? Want to see new and exotic worlds? Do you reminisce fondly about the old days of wars and conflict? Do you like the thought of been handsomely rewarded with good old fashioned Credits? If you answered yes to any of these then read on to find out about the opportunity of a lifetime:

The Commonwealth Council has recently drafted and passed the Explorations & Surveys Act (2396) commissioning the renowned explorer Augustin Diggs, who only recently returned to Bramford after establishing the Tortosa-Gaztain Warp Gate, to embark on possibly his most ambitious expedition yet – a journey into the Svala Wormhole! The astronomical anomaly has been baffling scientists, traders and the Commonwealth Navy alike since its sudden appearance in the Sakkara sector over 75 years ago. While remote drone data has been inconsistent the early analysis revealed a stable wormhole seemingly leading to our nearest neighbouring galaxy, Arcturus.

Diggs, a staunch proponent of manned deep space exploration, has been spearheading the campaign to explore and cross through the Wormhole for the better part of last decade. Finally, and after much pressure from various interstellar industries, the Commonwealth has agreed to fund his expedition and now seeks volunteers from all across the Commonwealth Systems to join his ambitious crew.

If you are of sound body and mind and have an adventurous spirit tinged with a flair for danger then do stop by at;

The Cartography Conventions Center (level 16),
0235 Discovery Boulevard,
City of Oneta (Central Business District)
Planet: Carden - Bramford System.

There will be a brief outline of the expedition provided by Augustin Diggs himself and a five minute Q&A session on 40.15.2396, starting at 1300hrs Oneta Local Time (OLT).

No prior experience is required to apply for this expedition. Successful applicants will be remunerated approximately 1 million credits (not including any extras or bonuses accrued over the course of the voyage) upon the successful completion of the mission.

Sig:
Teresa Walker,
Secretary - Augustin Diggs Enterprises

////////Message End////////
.
.​

“That settles it!” Riesel thought as he shut off the holopad again “I’ll be making history…and…and then some…”​

***​

Posters, billboards, holovids and all across Cyberspace…the word has spread; messages about the Expedition have started to propagate among the denizens of the Commonwealth and from all corners of the known sectors—from neighboring Tabuyo and fringe Acastus, from the tourist hubs of Bera and Tortosa, from the mining sector of Baraona and the manufacturing cluster of Gaztain…from everywhere, they come in reply. People are abuzz with excitement!

***
||QUICK LINKS||
>>OOC<<
>>World Database<<​

 

[Caboosethemoose]

The Setting
***​

The Quest is a game about adventure, fear and ignorance. Before deciding if you want to play this game, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Am I willing to betray my closest friends for a potential advantage?
2) Am I willing to live a lie for the months that the Expedition will take?
3) Do I enjoy dark humor and epic adventure?
5) Am I a horrible person?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, you might want to reconsider playing in the Quest. If you are intrigued by that short questionnaire, read on:

Mission Pitch
***​

A mysterious wormhole has opened up inside Commonwealth space, much to the perturbation of everyone everywhere. Despite their best efforts to explore it remotely it turned out that the wormhole led somewhere far outside the transmission capabilities of the drones, so everyone did the next best thing – they chose to ignore the wormhole.

After 75 years of avoidance, the famed explorer Augustin Diggs finally decided to end all the speculation and old wives tales by simply going inside and having a look around. This notion was backed vehemently by the local scientists for they believed it would lead to the neighbouring galaxy where bountiful planets and resources could await. The Commonwealth government finally agreed that this was a good idea (mostly to shut everyone up!) and commissioned an expedition to this anomaly.

The players (you lot) will be joining as members of the expedition as they embark on the month (possibly many months) long journey as they traverse the stars towards the wormhole and beyond. In the meantime there are many other factions, shadowy corporations and powerful organisations/individuals who have their own agenda regarding the wormhole and the expedition who thus may (or may not) try to jeopardise/aid/delay/sabotage/bribe the mission. Complicating matters more are the players themselves who all will be assigned a backstory which may (or may not) align themselves behind these different organisations. It is entirely possible that your cabinmate may be the enemy –or- he/she may be exactly who they say they are. Who knows?

Well I do…but that’s not the point of the RP. The game is to see how (and if) you survive long enough to get to cross the wormhole.

World Summary
***​

Just an extremely brief summary of the world you are in. There is a lot more detail to it than this but I will post more on that tomorrow but for now..the basics:

1) This is a world of science fiction & fantasy where robots, cyberpunk/augmented humans, mercenaries wielding plasma bolters, religious Templars, space pirates and Shamans tapping into other dimensional energies can exist.

2) The galaxy you start in is called Ceres. The known civilizations within Ceres (of both human and alien) are unified under a central authority called the Commonwealth, which is run by a council of Corporations.

3) The year is 2396EM (Which means ‘After Merger’, in the old speak, when the large Corporations first banded together to form the Council and overthrew the then dictatorship)

4) There are a total of 13 sectors that collectively make up Commonwealth Space, each housing diverse number of planets, cultures, religions, corporations and intruige. The Core Sector of the Commonwealth is called Bramford.

5) Travel between sectors are done via Warp Gates that facilitate faster-than-light (FTL) travel. Depending on the specification of the Gates (usually power, computation speed and size restrictions) spacecraft travelling to and from the same destination using different Gates may experience different travel times.

6) Spaceships with their own independent FTL drives are a rare sight and are mostly exclusive to the Commonwealth Navy.

7) The currency of the world is called Commonwealth Credits (Symbol: Cr). Much like modern Credit/Debit cards (albeit smaller in size), the people of the Commonwealth carry encrypted cards known colloquially as 'Platinum chips' which allows them to both pay and receive payments at a moments notice.

The game
***​

Now with that bit of the setting out of the way, lets briefly discuss the game.

Every player is an agent. That is to say, every player member of the Expedition was sent by a faction or patron of some kind, with nefarious business in mind. Or are they? You don't know. Maybe one of your companions is exactly as they seem. I wouldn't count on it, if I were you. Those of you who have played Paranoia before know what I'm talking about.

We'll get more into that later, though. You know, when the poisonings and knives in the dark start happening.

This, for now, is the pre-game phase for the Quest where all the housekeeping, lore and other elements get tweaked and introduced slowly. An OOC page will be set up and posted somewhere here so that we can get into detail about the various elements in the RP.

For now, this is all that I can share for today:

During character creation in the Quest, you chose from a list of advantages and disadvantages. You do not know what these advantages and disadvantages do: all you know are their names, which can sometimes be unclear. You might choose something that is totally different than what you expected, with either horrible or wondrous consequences. Consider it your first lesson in what the Quest is like.

I have a large list of advantages and a large list of disadvantages that I'm planning on using, so don’t go inventing your own list. If you do however feel like you have an awesome idea for an advantage/disadvantage do PM me about it and I will try and incorporate it somehow. In the meantime I'll write up and post some world information, probably tomorrow, so you can get a sense of what sort of character you'd like to play.

Tl;dr: Everyone is out to get you, more world information incoming, welcome to the Quest!

 

[Yoda]

So is it kind of like mass effect?

 

[_BB_]

This sounds awesome I am in

 

[Andromeda]

Count me in. I love having to constantly look over my shoulder and betray my friends!

 

[Caboosethemoose]

So is it kind of like mass effect?

The short answer is: Yes
The long answer is: Yes to some extent..

Yer see, the RP is influenced by a lot of different genres since it was originally envisioned back in 2008 and Mass Effect is definitely one of many recent sci-fi influences. For example, there is a civilization in the lore where a small subset of its population are sensitive to energies from other dimensions/planes and therefore can perform acts of "magic" like...The Force/Biotics.

But there are also other influences not from ME - some from the Cyberpunk genre, borrowing heavily the idea of mega-corporations, info-runners, human augmentation, sleeving human consciousness and shadowy political machinations. Similarly, we borrowed some concepts from basic party/table-top games like Werewolf and Paranoia to add in the whole "hidden roles" aspect of the RP that I am currently tweaking.

 

[Yoda]

Well it sounds amazing, so I am definitely in.

 

[Caboosethemoose]

The Commonwealth and the Locations within​

The world that The Quest takes place in is a pre-existing universe that was first created for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. A few years ago my friends and I re-wrote that setting and launched the story into space all the while refining and tweaking the model. At its current iteration the world has expanded in complexity, size, and detail, so much so that I can't tell you everything about it. Below are some extremely brief and occasionally poetic summaries about various important locations (planets, sectors, cities, stations and wildernesses) to give you some idea of the universe you'll be playing in and where your character might be from. By no means do you have to read all of this: just skim through and read whatever catches your eye.

Locations:
***​

As mentioned before there are a total of 13 sectors that make up the Commonwealth Territories, each housing a different number of habitable planets, ecosystems, cultures and histories. Disclaimer: it is entirely possible that we may never visit all 13 sectors during the course of this RP, let alone all the planets of a sector that we DO visit!​

Below are snippets of a few planets (and their respective sectors) and the cities they contain that are interesting/important/quirky/cutthroat/dangerous/colourful enough to provide a quick snapshot of the Commonwealth. Click on the spoiler buttons to expand!

Spoiler: Carden

Situated within the Bramford Core System, Carden is the System Capital and the seat of the Commonwealth Council. A Class M planet (earth-like) with an abundance of water and a nitrogen and oxygen rich atmosphere, it houses a population of over 12 billion inhabitants (62% of who are human).

Over the vast history of urban development on the planet only four MAJOR cities remain, distributed across two continental landmasses and a large island that sits between both.

The four cities are as follows:

Spoiler: Oneta

The Provost - Commonwealth District
------------​

Oneta is the capital city of Carden and by extension, the capital of the Commonwealth. It is here where the Mega-Corps send their elected representatives to form and hold Council within the Provost, the twin-monolithic glass citadel wherein politics are debated and executed.

Famed for its busy streets, many languages, intrusive security protocols and sprawling complexes that soar into the sky, Oneta is the very picture of a city run and managed by the largest corporations, namely, the Panstellar Sodality – a pioneer in the Astrotech industry.

Crime within the central districts are low, however, the further one travels from the central hub the higher the reported incidences of crime. Visitors are warned to take adequate precautions when travelling alone and at night in such outer districts and slums

Spoiler: Lomar

There is a great stretch of water, half-river, half-bay that passes by Oneta and curves towards the interior of the huge continent on the Eastern hemisphere of Carden. Sitting at the mouth of that bay is Lomar. Lomar thrives as a merchant hub mostly trading with the minor cities and towns dotted across the rest of the continent, exporting goods off-world and bringing in exotic goods from the rest of the Commonwealth with a lower import tax than anywhere else on Carden. The most famed aspect of Lomar, and the reason it is considered a powerful city, is the ‘Wayfarer’s Syndicate’, a professional and deadly guild of assassin established by a trio of Corporations (SunCorp Defence, Sosinski Consolidated and Galfayan Multistellar) each with a strong portfolio in galaxy-wide security.

Spoiler: Buron

The oldest of all the cities on Carden, Buron is also the largest city in terms of land area on the planet. Situated on the smaller continent on the Western hemisphere, Buron’s borders have expanded overtime engulfing other smaller cities to cover almost the entire continent. It’s modest population size of 850 million inhabitants are spoiled for choice in terms of room for urban development resulting in far fewer goliath skyscrapers than one would expect from a city on the System’s Capital.

Thanks to its sheer size, Buron is home to more mega Corporations than anywhere else on the planet with each Corp locked in century long struggle to etch out a monopoly over the other, fighting over resources such as prime real estate, research agreements and rare earth ores. Crime while low, can and has, risen sporadically due to Corporate wars spilling on to the street.

Spoiler: Noueva

'Unasa'Theater District - Noueva
***​

Located prominently on the large island nestled between both eastern and western continents, Noueva is commonly referred to as the ‘Ocean city’ by its neighbours. Surrounded by the warm waters of the Harroway Ocean, Noueva is the most tropical of all cities on the planet with its perennial equatorial climate and torrential monsoon season. Like all other Carden cities, commerce and the manufacturing industry became the prominent businesses which later catalyzed the rise of Corporations such as Freymann Zaibatsu and Kolic Megacorp into governance.

Noueva is mostly famous for its flourishing arts and theater districts and boasts more museums than any other city in the Commonwealth. Noueva is also home to the extremely popular film industry based around the Cenozoic complex in the theater district with patrons and potential actors and actresses flocking to the city to book their next gig or hoping to get recognised as talent by an entertainment Corp agent.

Spoiler: Preston

Carden’s twin both in terms of size and atmospheric composition, Preston is another M-class planet in the Bramford System. However unlike Carden, the landmass of Preston consists of many small fragmented chain of islands and atolls, in fact, the largest landmass is no more than around 65,000 sq Km in area with the single giant ocean covering 92% of the planet. This limitation in landmass has resulted in small, very compact settlements to crop up all across the planet but efforts have been made in the past to both reclaim some land from the sea and establish floating cities.

Preston is also very famous for its geo-political structure, in that it is unique for having no Corporation presence whatsoever on the planet. It is expected that most (if not all) Commonwealth planets, particularly those in the Core sector, have a sizable Corp presence institutionalized within the planetary framework. If not wielding a downright monopoly over the governance/laws of a planet, a Corp is often known to work behind the scenes, covertly or overtly influencing policies and agendas unbeknownst to anyone else. This is however not the case in Preston but not for the lack of trying; in fact eighty-seven years ago a single Corp, the Neogen, did govern the entire planet…..until the CEO, the entire board of directors and their families died under mysterious circumstances. The incident was unprecedented to say the least and Neogen, without its leaders, was sized and swallowed by its hungry competitors. There has not been any public attempt to re-establish a Corp presence on the planet since that fateful day.

Rumors say that there are Corporations out there who have an interest in keeping Preston free from Corp influences while others yet claim that the Corporations are still pulling the strings in Preston, albeit from behind the scenes. Officially however, Preston is a planet governed presently by various city-states, the largest and most influential of these is the state of Merdallan, a sprawling city built on the Ocean; a floating city, which also serves as the planetary Capital.

Spoiler: Merdallan

Southern quadrent of Merdallan
***​

Gently floating on the Cannisian Ocean, Merdallan, is an engineering masterpiece of glass and nano-composites. Larger than two-thirds of the planet’s landmass put together, Merdallan is so enormous that this artificial structure is clearly visible from the planet’s moon – Eo.

With over 120 districts dotting the city (ranging from agriculture, solar & wind power, dockyards and university to name a few) there has been little need for Medallans to ever venture to the mainland islands. Although not 100% self-sufficient, Merdallan is still an active trade participant both locally (with other city-states) and off-world – trading surplus energy for pharmaceuticals and much needed refined ores.

Merdallan used to be the home for the once ruling Neogen Corp but after their mysterious demise a power vacuum was created within the city. Eventually, the citizens in an unprecedented move decided to elect a leader from among their ranks and form the present day city state – at its head, Bilal Willingham, the Steward of Merdallan presides over matters of local governance and represents Preston at the Commonwealth Council.

Spoiler: Illarym

Fu’neer domed city
***​

Illarym is a class K, human adaptable planet, found in the Tabuyo System. With low surface temperatures during the night cycles and extreme temperatures during peak solar exposure, humanity has needed to establish pressurized domed cities in order for their colonies to survive.

Illarym is also home to the Niilans, a race of sentient humanoid aliens who predominantly live in the subterranean cave network within the planet. While some Niilans have migrated to live in human domed cities, such an Fu’neer, they are far more comfortable within walls of stone than those of glass and synthetics.

Demographically Niilans account for 81% of Illarym’s population with humans at 5%. The planet is governed by a Senate consisting of mostly Niilans, elected by their Cao-Summers Corporation and a handful of human ambassadors, who it is strongly suspected are elected via the backing/resources of some Core System Corps.

Spoiler: Ver Ardana

Contemplation spires in the Hidden Valley
***​

Famed for its radiation spewing gas giants, inhospitable ore ladened rocky planets and mineral & ice-rich asteroids, the mining system of Baraona is not where you would expect to find the Class-M habitable planet of Ver Ardana; wreathed by its equally habitable five moons.

With diverse and vibrant flora and fauna, this terrestrial planet with its flowing rivers and thick jungles must appear as a cool oasis compared to its bleak and desolate celestial brethren. Inhabited exclusively by the Akrav, a humanoid race of aliens colloquially referred to as “painted elves” (owing to the various paint like markings adorning their face and body) this planet peacefully joined the Commonwealth shortly after first contact was made almost three millennia ago. Reclusive and non-confrontational in nature the Akrav and the Commonwealth signed a “non-expansion” pact as part of Ver Ardana’s inclusion into the Commonwealth. The pact states that neither the Commonwealth nor its other inhabitants will settle or build upon the planet and its moons as the lands are considered sacred to its native population.

Var Ardana is also famous for an extraordinary oddity but one that strikes fear into the hearts of those with ill intent upon the planet and its people. Much about this world and its denizens remain shrouded in mystery but a select few stories reach the Core Systems that ultimately turn out to be true. The existence of the Ishtari is one such example.

The Ishtari are the warrior sect of the Akrav. What makes them special however is that they possess the ability to, or are trained to, manipulate the fabric of reality that surrounds them – even so far as to manipulate the laws of physics itself by seeming pulling energy or entities out of nowhere and dissipating them with ease. Science has yet to reconcile with what the Ishtari are capable of but the few people who have been invited to witness the Ishtari claim that the monastic and spiritual nature of the Akrav, combined with the shamanistic teachings and the ritualistic consumption of unknown plant based extracts, all conspire to awaken these abilities in a chosen few.

Ver Ardana is represented at the Commonwealth Council by a small contingent of Akrav Elders who among their other duties negotiate the loan of limited Ishtari strike teams to Corporations or the Commonwealth Navy on a case-by-case basis.

Spoiler: Elsineir

Elsineir is the sole planet - a debris-ringed, human terraformed, habitable planet within the Savarna System. It is completely unremarkable in most regards except that it’s entire population are devout followers of an ancient pantheon of gods.

While religious freedoms are open and free throughout the Commonwealth (despite some systems abandoning religion altogether) the novelty of an entire planet and its ardent belief in the old gods may appear endearing to some, but similarly, disconcerting to others.

The Elsinians usually tend to mind their own when it comes to political affairs of the Commonwealth, preferring to manage their temples and scriptures within their grand cities rather than spread doctrine across the expanse. That said, the competition within Elsineir (and amongst one another) to establish a dominant religion has been an eon long struggle with no particular sect gaining traction over the other. It is also worth mentioning that the Elsinian church does not recognize the gods or pantheons of any other religion other than their own.

One cannot mention the Elsinian church without also bringing up the Templars; the holy warriors of Elsineir. Based out of their respective holy capital cities each branch of the Templar are devout to a different god of the Pantheon. Many have seen the actions and valor of these Templar first hand during the Corporate coup of 2021 as they, few in number, overran the vastly superior enemy in the Siege of Provost – completely obliterating the seemingly impregnable defenses of the Mad Emperor. Perhaps it was blind fervor or perhaps even divine blessings that tempered their mettle…either way the legend of the Templars was solidified in blood and stone that day, for without their aid, there would be no Commonwealth.

Spoiler: Verdan

Coastal research settlement of Maera
***​

Verdan is a human-habitable planet in the Gaztain System. Much of its populated territories are located in semi-tropical climate regions and it is not unusual to find white sand beaches and palm trees in abundance.

Geographically Verdan sports a cluster of many small-medium sized continents with many islands dotted around. Predominantly a human colony, Verdan however is open to migration from other races within the Commonwealth especially if they bring with them a love for science and invention to the burgeoning workforce.

Verdan is of course famous throughout the Commonwealth as it is home to the Cogs of Ascension, an order devoted to the properties of technology and the power of war to improve technology, and is home to their expansive and sprawling academy in Arlas, the capital. These Cogs, who are a collective of engineers, scholars and inventors, are responsible for a large amount of the technological advances since their creation three-hundred-some-odd years ago. Most of the land on their mountains have been built upon or shaped into buildings and laboratories for the Cogs. Near the Inventions district is a large pillar of rock with a flat top thrust up out of the earth, called the Proving Grounds. The top of the rock is scarred from explosions, twisted and melted into strange shapes.

On the opposite side of Arlas from the academy is the city of Ara, a small city of technomancers, hackers and practitioners of archaic alchemy that formed because of the presence of the Cogs. The city usually has a festive and optimistic atmosphere, creating and/or stealing technologies for rivals and revelry. Naturally, this greatly annoys the Cogs.

 

[Caboosethemoose]

I've been busy with working on the mission script that I haven't had time to completely edit the Locations list :/
So hopefully I should have that done and uploaded tomorrow, along with a quick blurb about the notable races in the RP. Following that I'll put up the Advantages and Disadvantages list and the character sheet and we should be 90% done.

 

[Gattletowne]

I'm for sure interested

 

[Crazyhorse]

I figured i'd find this here Can I join this pls?

 

[Caboosethemoose]

I figured i'd find this here Can I join this pls?

Welcome friend! Don't mind me i'm just trying to set up an OOC page

And yes, of course you can join. The more the merrier!

 

[Caboosethemoose]

The OOC page has been setup for the RP and can be found here ---> http://www.storytellerscircle.com/threads/the-quest-lounge-ooc-discussion.1098/

The World Database can be found here ---> http://www.storytellerscircle.com/threads/the-quest-databases.1110/

 

[Crazyhorse]

Quick question, how and when do we make our character sheets?
Disregard. Posted in OOC

 

[Caboosethemoose]

Advantages and Disadvantages​

Now we are starting to get to the meat of the game.

Advantages are some aspect of your character that gives you an edge over everyone else. Disadvantages are aspects of your character that give everyone else an edge over you.

You don't know what the advantages and disadvantages are. You have to choose them before you know what they do, which turns character creation into an entertaining guessing game. When you know what you want, you PM me with them--don't post your choices in the thread, because that would mean secret things are no longer secret. Once I have your choices I will PM back with what they do. At this point you can choose to change one item. Only one. And you can't undo the change. Think long and hard before doing this.

You choose one advantage that you get for free. This is your natural advantage: if you have nothing else, you have this. After your natural advantage all advantages must be balanced out by a disadvantage. At the end of the day you should have one more advantage than you have disadvantages.

Spoiler: Advantages

Secret Weapon ^
Shaman Mage
Weapon Mastery ^
Augmented flesh
Cryosleep
Divine Favour
Scrappy little nobody
Improvising Fighter
Trained marksman
Danger Sense
Deep Contacts
Tri-hat Hacker
Cloak and daggers
Hard to Kill
Ascended Cog
Chrome toaster
Medic
Reactive conditioning
Sneaky Hands
Money Talks
Ritual-Psychic
Custom tailored
Cloned subject*
Last Laugh
Covert Agent
Learned Linguist
Datarunner
Physically conditioned
Grand Bluff
People Person
Alibi
Guarded mind
Sleeper Agent*
Corporate Spy
Heavy firepower
Techno-alchemy
Neurostimulant
Digital eyes
Powerful Friends
Bugsniffer
Many-Pocketed Spatial Anomaly

Spoiler: Disadvantage

Blood disorder
Blind
Deaf
Debtor
Completely Irrational Fear *
Known Agent ^
Sociopathic Greed *
Exposed mind
Narcolepsy
Cannibal*
Terminally Ill
Maimed
Wanted: Dead
Honour Before Reason *
Criminal past*
Blood Contract*
Sounds Cultish *
Addiction *
Weak source
Pacifism *
Death Wish *
Zeroing error
Possessed*
Severe allergies
Stylist *
Unable to Lie *
Weak Constitution
Famed Agent
Underequipped
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder *
Technologically inept
Stranger in a Strange Land *
Deathly Allergic to Air
Celebrity
Shiny! *
Primal Smell
Unfunded
Sworn Enemy ^
Cursed
Real Men Don't Use Weapons
Xenophobic *

Restriction: You cannot take custom tailored as an advantage and then stylist as a disadvantage. You also cannot take known agent AND famed agent together as disadvantages.

* Starred items are roleplaying advantages and disadvantages. Confirm you want these choices only if you are absolutely sure that you will be able to roleplay them well. If you are not roleplaying an RP disadvantage when you are given obvious opportunities to do so, you will be forcibly assigned another disadvantage. Trust me when I say that you do not want that to happen.

^ Advantages or disadvantages with this mark may be taken multiple times, though I would deem it inadvisable to do so with the disadvantages.

Once you have picked your advantages and disadvantages (make sure you have one more advantage than disadvanatges) PM me that selection and I will reveal what they are to you. Keep this information secret!

Once you know what your advantages and disadvantages do, write up a description of your character and send it to me. Once I have your description, I will decide which faction you belong to (you don't know all the factions, you see). Don't automatically assume that each planet/system is a single faction. If you would like to be from a faction from a specific area, mention it.

This is where the fun really starts, gentlemen. Start guessing!

 

[Caboosethemoose]

--RULES AND GUIDELINES--​

While I await to collect all the PMs (thanks to those who have already done so) here are some rules and guidelines that are fairly important for the RP.

Rules:
These are some rules of the game that you need to know. There are very few of them. Most of the rules in the Quest are purposely kept secret from the players, for several reasons: to prevent min/maxing, to make the players spend time performing outrageous deeds of courage and betrayal rather than figuring out how to do something according to the rules, to allow changes to be made without disrupting the flow of the game, and finally because I find it amusing.

The rules you need to know are as follows:

Secret Actions:
Secret actions are any action you take that (you hope) the other players don't know about. To prevent me from going insane, secret actions are done in a more organized manner than regular roleplaying. There are a few key concepts you need to know before I go into details:

Secret actions are secret. Send them to me by PM.
Secret actions are done in the background of regular roleplaying. Only the results of a secret action will affect the flow of the game, unless something goes wrong and you get caught out murdering someone in their sleep or something like that.
Secret actions take place in rounds.

At the beginning of the game the first round of secret actions will start. It will be filled by everyone receiving information and orders from their factions--don't try to do anything in the first round. After that round I will set a deadline for the next round. Once the deadline occurs I will collect all of the secret actions that were sent to me that round and either write a narrative of them all happening at once or play them out over the course of the next round, depending on circumstances and whichever option would be more interesting. It will be done this way because I'd like to keep my sanity intact--with this system I only have to worry about secret actions happening at a pace I can manage rather than all the time.

Don't worry about your secret actions being delayed until the opportune moment is past--during intense, highly-detailed action sequences, rounds will go faster than when the Expedition is just moving through the expanse.

You may only perform one secret action per round. This is important. Some advantages or disadvantages might change this, but unless stated otherwise you can only do one. Choose carefully.

CONTACTING YOUR FACTION
Contacting your faction while off-world requires you to use your secret action. They're on a different planet/location from you--whatever method you have of contacting them (and you do have one, right?) probably takes some effort to use, and you have to keep it hidden from everyone else. However, there are times when it needs to be done.

You may contact your faction to perform the following actions:

Gather intelligence. You can ask your faction if they'll do some legwork back on their home planet to get you some information. You can gather intelligence on a specific player, faction, rumor, or whatever else springs to mind. Each player has an Intelligence score and a Counterintelligence stat for this purpose. You will not be informed of what your stats are, but you can make educated guesses from your advantages/disadvantages. When you make a gather intelligence action, I will roll some dice. Depending on the results of the roll you might get the information you sought: or you might receive either misleading or incorrect information, or none at all.

Report mission success/failure. You will be congratulated/berated, and either rewarded or punished. You may choose not to do this, but if you fail to report a mission success or failure and your faction hears of it, there might be unpleasant consequences. If you succeeded at an important mission, you may receive a reward as well, which can be anything from gold to a resupply to a promise of greater assistance later on.

Discuss the weather. ("It's raining plasma! Get me out of here!")

Please note that it does not take a secret action for your faction to contact you, only for you to contact them.

COMBAT
There are three types of combat in The Quest: Minor, Major, and PvP. Minor and Major are players vs the environment, while PvP is player vs player. You don't actually have to remember any of the distinctions, but for those of you who are into classifications, here you go.

Minor combat is when there isn't any chance that the players could lose the combat. For example, if the Expedition comes across a band of bandits armed with tire-irons who immediately attack, there is no way the Expedition could lose that. The bandits would get cut down by bullets, plasma and god knows what else. You can narrate this type of combat without any input from the GM, except for things like "The remaining enemies flee in terror." The players expend very minor amounts of resources (ammunition, healing, etc) and then pat themselves on the back before moving on. Most combat will be of this type.

Major combat is another beast altogether. Major combat is any combat where the players have a high chance of being defeated. A large and coordinated pirate attack, a horde of charging natives, cosmic beasts or assaults by gods are examples of major combat. In major combat, all players involved PM me their actions (Example: "I try to sprint for the end of the collapsing bridge and shoot the pirate at the same time"). I then roll dice and determine how well that works for you. When I know whether you live or die, I tell you (Example: "You reach the end of the bridge before it collapses, and your wild shot puts a hole in the pirate's head"). Then you narrate your epic struggle in the thread for everyone else to see. Play continues like that until combat ends.

Player vs Player combat is when players are fighting each other. Since none of the players knows the tricks that any of the others have up their sleeves, PvP can't work like major combat does, with each player writing their perspective of the battle. There are some similarities--every player involved sends me a PM with what they want to do, and I then roll dice to determine the outcome, but there the similarities end. With player vs player combat the action is narrated by the GM.

Major and PvP combat actions are both very distinct from Minor combat actions. In minor combat, you can do whatever you like and be absolutely sure it will succeed. In Major combat, on the other hand, you will tell me what you want to do and I will roll dice to determine to what level you succeed. You might complete half of the action you wanted to, or less, or not at all.

In PvP combat, both sides are trying to complete an action at once. In most cases, this is not possible (the usual scenario is both parties say, "I stab him and block him if he stabs me"). The key is to remember that both actions happen at once: no "taking turns" here. I will roll dice to determine not only to what level your action succeeds but how much your opponent manages to do as well. So what you say you want to do is not necessarily what you will do, because your opponent is trying to kill you as well.

In all versions of combat it pays to be clever or awesome. In minor combat, if you do something incredibly stupid, you'll get hurt. In major or PvP combat, doing something stupid will get you killed, and doing clever things will get you bonuses (i.e if you can stack the odds in your favor, it will help).

Treasures and Relics
The Quest is a game of exploration. During your adventures, you will delve into forgotten ruins, encounter ancient alien cultures, and introduce all and sundry to the marvels of exploration. Along the way, you will acquire all sorts of valuables. Whether it's long lost knowledge, a relic of a by-gone era or the magical heart of an entire empire, your faction wants you to claim as much of the wealth from across the void as you can, in their name. And at the end of the day, who's going to notice a few small items skimmed off the top? Man's gotta eat, you know.

When there is a treasure hunt occurring--that is, when multiple players are competing for the same treasure--the rule is simple: whoever returns to the Resolute (your ship) wins. At that point it is assumed that you have a secure hiding place of some kind to store your ill-gotten loot. This rule holds true unless you are being actively watched/pursued by someone, in which case you have to shake them before you can claim the treasure.

Death
Character death is something that is going to happen. It will happen, so be careful. There are only two rules for death: First, be aware that it may not be permanent. Certain advantages allow characters to return from near-death or actual-death experiences. Second, your character's secrets die with them. No telling living players who killed you, no telling anyone your faction or your mission or where you hid your secret weapon or which cup was poisoned or anything that might be of any conceivable use to a living player.

Unless, you know, they can talk to the dead. In which case, chat away.

GUIDELINES
These are general guidelines for playing in The Quest. Read through them so you'll know what to expect and what is expected of you.

POSTING
Whenever you post in the thread, please post at least a short paragraph. Single-line posts are unacceptable: two-line posts might be accepted, but those two lines had better be able to make Shakespeare weep and Genghis Khan shit himself. I will need documented proof of said weeping and shitting.

In other words, please put some effort into your posts.

SECRETS
Your character sheet--bio, advantages and disadvantages, faction, the whole lot of it--is secret. The other players will only know details about you if they're obvious (your race, for instance), if you tell them, or if they receive information on you from their faction. Information from your character sheets will be used to create rumors for the other players to worry over, but other than that everything is a secret. You will have to figure out who your fellow players are while at the same time trying to defend yourself from the hazards of the Expedition into the Wormhole and what lies beyond while trying to complete your faction missions

THE WORLD
If you have any questions about specific details of a world, please ask me. The universe The Quest is taking place in is a very detailed one that has been worked on for over a year. Because of that, the world is very, very detailed, and occasionally confusing. If something needs clarifying, ask.

THE QUEST
This game is not so much about what you know as what you don't know. Information given to you might not be complete, or might be utterly false. The only things you can trust are those you've experienced with your own senses, and not even then if there's a psychic skilled at illusion around. You will have to act stealthily, cautiously, and subtly, always worried about what you don't know, always trying to figure out events so they make some kind of sense.

Over the course of the game two unknowns will make themselves known to you. One is the obvious one: the Wormhole, a beacon of unexplored territory calling adventurers to it from across the sea.

The other unknown is your fellow players, and that is the most dangerous one of all.