Discussion: FTL

[Havelock Vetinari]

I presume we space the slavers afterwards.

 

Plan's got my support.

[Krayzikk]

I'm in favor of spacing them afterwards. Saves bullets. Especially since I don't presume they'll be allowed to leave alive anyway.

[Alex Humva]

They're slavers and they attacked a Confederate vessel, plenty grounds for a quick and customary military execution via spacing.

[Silvan Haven]

As soon as Harken gets to a data port most of the atmosphere is leaving the slaver ship.

 

Don't worry. I'll leave the prison section alone.

[avmatoran]

So are Atton and I allowed to post onboard the slave ship right now?

[shadow pridak money gang]

Okay. Did some looking at my schedule, if I cut back on the blood rituals I should be able to stay in.

 

Though if a Great Old One rises and consumes Georgia you can blame this RPG.

 

Blame you? I'd probably thank ya!

 

 

-Tyler

[Constructelf]

... why do I have this feeling that I should have posted in topic by now? Is one of my characters needed anywhere?

[Atton Rand]

So are Atton and I allowed to post onboard the slave ship right now?

 

I think that's the idea.

[Havelock Vetinari]

For reference, these pictures sum up Bastion:

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Fluss_Dja_Somalomo.JPG/800px-Fluss_Dja_Somalomo.JPG

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131219041004/turok/images/thumb/b/b3/Jungle_T-Rex.jpg/640px-Jungle_T-Rex.jpg

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120603023221/turok/images/thumb/a/a5/Suuroundedbybugs_03.jpg/640px-Suuroundedbybugs_03.jpg

 

And add on the Vietnam war. For flavor.

[The Mugbearer]

Name: Andromeda

Gender: Female

Age: 34

Species: Zoltan

Profession: Public Relations/Contacteur

Skills:

=> Diplomatic. Has a particular set of skills to attend diplomatic negotiations and win them.

=> Ionize. Rommie has an ability to ionize any electronics she touches.

=> Being of pure Energy. Andromeda is a Zoltan therefore she does not require food, oxygene and rest. She also moves by hovering above the floor.

Items:

=> Insulating Collar of Sumbission. Such a vulgar name for such a useful device. Especially for Rommie. And everybody around her. So the Collar is a special device that was recently invented by slavers to keep Zoltan captives at bay. It simply absorbs their energy not letting it out, making a Zoltan not better than a regular human with the one difference that Rommie's not all flesh and bone.

Appearance:

Andromeda is a Zoltan - a tall figure of pure energy, but while other Zoltans are green or lime or yellow, she emanates a soothing bright-blue light. When she enters the room, and often by hovering over the floor, everybody could feel the air ionizing as if it's gonna be a rainstorm soon. Aside from typical absence of human gender features Rommie has a womanly proportions of her body - wide hips and narrow shoulders, - and almond-shaped white eyes with electrical discharges forming a blue circle a-la human iris. Also Rommie wears the said collar which looks like a round hunk of metal with some cables attached to a box that is placed on Rommie's back. When the collar is on, Rommie' energy becomes darker and the glow dimmer.

Personality:

Before Rommie turned blue, she was an ambassador-in-training and actually was born on one of the planets occupied by Zoltan. And that's why she's good at diplomacy. However, due to the trauma she's suffered her psyche is unstable and she switches moods pretty quicky from neutral-friendly to chaotically destructive. Especially when her collar is off.

Biography:

As mentioned before, she was born on one of Zoltan worlds. She received her name when she became ambassador-in-training and made her first contacts among other races of Federation. Once she was on a solo mission deep in the enemy territory: she needed to contact an Engi slave colony and get all available info to the High Command, but her Adjudicator-class ship was ambushed in an asteroid field and she was captured by Mantis-Rockmen slavers that ruled the colony. They put a strange collar-like device on her and she felt completely powerless and feeble. After a few days of imprisonment slavers decided to execute Zoltan girl by dissipating her in a room stuffed with ion emitters. She almost died, but suddenly something went wrong. Rommie's color has changed from gentle light green to deep light-blue. Feeling agony and fear of near-death experience, she hovered over the floor and let out numerous ion discharges, frying all the electronics in the room and around it. She quickly became unstable and frighteningly aggressive towards her wardens that she electrocuted Mantis to the point when their flesh boiled out of their carapaces. The Rockmen weren't that foolish to engage and they let Rommie go. Only then she calmed down, frightened and stressed. She took the collar she previously forced to wear, that she grew to hate, to isolate her new-found destructive energy, to be able communicate with others again. After that she freed the Engi colony and were able to make her way back to Federation, where she was able to continue her education as a contacteur, a specialist in contacting allied personalities or organizations behind enemy lines and helping them to reunite with the Federation.

Edited April 29, 2014 by The Mugbearer

[Atton Rand]

Okay, there isn't a whole lot I can do to post at the moment (I'm still stuck in a cell and there's only so many times I can describe slight movements or staring at that locket before people will get sick of it), but I thought I might bring this up as it could come into play later on. I've still been developing some of the details of Nicole's backstory and I've been meaning to ask if there was any particularly infamous battles that happened recently, some horrifying event in which her side suffered a lot of casualties? If there is, I can work it in, but if there isn't, I'll have to make one up.

[Alex Humva]

What I'm curious about is, you said she's been in therapy for two years? Invasion of Terra happened almost a year ago; that means whatever her PTSD is, it couldn't have been from the Mantis attack. Seeing as this was not in your bio, no way for me to have known that before hand and warn you of it.

[Atton Rand]

What I'm curious about is, you said she's been in therapy for two years? Invasion of Terra happened almost a year ago; that means whatever her PTSD is, it couldn't have been from the Mantis attack. Seeing as this was not in your bio, no way for me to have known that before hand and warn you of it.

 

Alright, that was my fault. I started getting the ideas about her PTSD after I'd written the BIO and wasn't completely sure of the timeline. I wanted to make it seem like she wasn't all there but also wanted to put some distance between the incident itself and her being reassigned. I'm still trying to decide exactly when and how I'm going to reveal everything but if you'd like I could send you the basic concept in a PM, we can figure out a solution.

[Alex Humva]

I prefer these things out in the public, unless there's some great secrecy about it. It's why we have dedicated discussion topics, after all.

[Atton Rand]

I prefer these things out in the public, unless there's some great secrecy about it. It's why we have dedicated discussion topics, after all.

 

Well, it's not like it's going to be a super-secret plot twist or anything like that. I was just a little concerned it might lose it's impact if I revealed everything too early.

[Silvan Haven]

Hey guys, do you think you could start posting the OOC only posts in here instead of the roleplay topic?

[avmatoran]

Whoops. sorry. Yeah, will do.

[Atton Rand]

I have been tossing around a few possible ideas for my second character, but before I fill out any forms I just thought I'd clear this idea here first. I've been wondering about creating a ship's counselor. The mission certainly seems like the kind of thing where it might be helpful to have someone the crew can talk to about their feelings, and I don't recall one being present, but I thought I'd propose the idea here in case I turned out there was one I missed.

[Burnmad]

We've got a counselor, and Humva has said he doesn't want any second characters right now. Unless that's changed?

 

-

[Atton Rand]

We've got a counselor, and Humva has said he doesn't want any second characters right now. Unless that's changed?

 

-

 

He didn't want any NPC's among the crew of the ship. I thought if there was space I could have a counselor join the crew once the ship docks at the outpost to drop off all the former slaves and resupply (I was under the impression that was what we intended to do next). The rules said I could have no more than two characters at a time so I'd fill out the form and everything beforehand. At least I think that's how we're doing things at the moment.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Atton Rand

[Havelock Vetinari]

Well, our counselor has only made one, one-line post.

 

I don't think we could go wrong with a second.

[Burnmad]

While I'm not going to ban secondary characters, please be considerate when thinking about making another one. Every new person aboard this ship makes it more difficult for a newcomer, who's just trying to make a new profile, and we have plenty of folks not within the immediate circle that started discussing the game, newcomers are surprisingly common. So, yeah, just be considerate from now on with the secondary characters.

 

...I'd prefer we avoid secondary characters without good reasons for the moment.

 

Also, I suppose that's true, Basilisk. =P

 

-

[Atton Rand]

Well, our counselor has only made one, one-line post.

 

I don't think we could go wrong with a second.

 

Alright then. I was thinking about making this person a guy, if only to avoid seeming to close to Counselor Troi from Star Trek: TNG and provide some distance from Nicole. All I need to do is decide on a good name.

[Alex Humva]

I've been shifting the secondary characters to a merit based system, because we are starting to get a bit cramped. So, yeah, I'm sorry Atton but you just haven't done a lot to impress upon me that you should get another peep.

[Atton Rand]

Alright, well then it's a good thing I got that cleared up.

[Burnmad]

Well, while we're on the subject, what about me? =P

 

-

[Alex Humva]

Depends, who do you want to bring aboard?

[Burnmad]

I was still looking to make a drone engineer, though if you don't want drones, I did want to make a Rockman, too.

 

-

[Alex Humva]

Hmm. How will we pick him up? I don't plan on having another fateful encounter for a while.

[Atton Rand]

Blimey, this is tougher than I expected. I'm stuck in a situation where I can't post anything because I'm waiting for a response and there's no sign of the person posting at the moment. In any other RPG I might have been able to shift focus to an NPC but here, I guess I just have to be patient. Is that right?

[Havelock Vetinari]

I can send someone your way.

 

Though why a Vendarian secret policewoman would be heading down there....

 

I'm taking ideas.

 

The person who comes up with the best idea gets to live when I rise to power.

[Alex Humva]

Well, the new doc is in medbay sooo idunno Ameli needs meds, Ameli is recovering from the Mantis attack, Ameli is bored and wandered that direction?

[Burnmad]

Was the station we stopped at the last one on our trip, or...?

 

-

[Atton Rand]

I can send someone your way.

 

Though why a Vendarian secret policewoman would be heading down there....

 

I'm taking ideas.

 

The person who comes up with the best idea gets to live when I rise to power.

 

I suppose you could if you could find a good reason. I guess this comes with the difficulty of playing in an RPG where you have a finite number of characters. Before this one the closest I was in was Dino Attack RPG, which was team-based but usually had a much more wide open environment that allowed new characters to be introduced from time to time. To be honest I think this might be the longest I've lasted in an RPG centered around a finite cast. I remember a few I tried before with smaller groups and I usually ended up leaving them quickly because I had trouble keeping up.

 

Well, the new doc is in medbay sooo idunno Ameli needs meds, Ameli is recovering from the Mantis attack, Ameli is bored and wandered that direction?

 

Okay. I don't remember seeing anyone by that name but I can take a look through the last few posts. That'll at least give me a chance to finally do some doctor stuff.

 

Actually, I feel like I should ask, does anyone feel like my character of Nicole has been useless? The idea for her dynamic seemed like a good one at the time and I might still be able to run with it, but she hasn't exactly done a lot that's been helpful to the plot just yet.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Right.

 

Since I don't expect you to read through the massive profile I wrote up for the Vendarians-they always wear gasmasks. Like, almost always.

 

And to my knowledge, Ameli doesn't need meds or attention in that regard...

 

But I can work with this. I'll say the explosion jogged something loose in her office. Breathed in some fumes and was thrown out of the office by mantinence while they repaired it, didn't have time to grab her mask-they don't sleep in their gasmasks, not always at least.

 

Though after this, Ameli is certainly going to start. A Vendarian going without their gasmask is like running around in one's underwear in their culture.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Basilisk

[Atton Rand]

I did look through the profile, but moreso to check her species and get a visual aid.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Still more then what most people did.

 

Quicknotes on Vendarians:

 

Genetically modified-long story. Not public knowledge.

Basically a military-controlled dictatorship, though the situation is more complex then that. But these are quicknotes.

Xenophobic.

Society has a very cynical view of the universe.

Nearly all of em are tan and red-eyed.

Wear gasmasks nearly all the time.

Hate slavers more then they hate aliens. Which is saying something.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Basilisk

[Alex Humva]

Atton bro, you've been here for like a week, no need to feel bad about not doing much yet. A ton of people have just barely clocked in their hours.

[Atton Rand]

Atton bro, you've been here for like a week, no need to feel bad about not doing much yet. A ton of people have just barely clocked in their hours.

 

Okay, fair enough. I just don't want Nicole to end up being the person who people get fed up with because she spends all her time getting upset about everything and not taking the initiative. I remember back in Dino Attack RPG I had that problem with one of my characters of Kate Bishop (so much so that PeabodySam, the host, even turned her crying into a drinking game) who started off as a complex character to add some gender diversity to my cast but ended up spending most of her time getting freaked out about everything (granted, she did have to deal with a lot in a relatively short time, but I can't deny I was a bit excessive), which was also a bit embarassing since her mother was running around wielding shotguns and flamethrowers and doing all kinds of damage to the enemies.

[Havelock Vetinari]

...Heh.

 

You don't need to worry about that. The Vendarians are angry about the fact there are aliens on the ship. Half the crew are angry about the same thing, but without the refreshing aroma of an ideology encouraging xenophobia and violence to support said xenophiba.

 

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

The ship's a mess.