Entry posted by a goose
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Alright, this is where us staff people can discuss my entry for RPG Contest #24, Fatal Error.
Banner made by Bulik
INTRODUCTION:
The room is cold, and sterile. The walls are blank, apart from a door and a small speaker, and there are lights built into the ceiling.
“Hello! Allow us to introduce New Spherus Magna, the perfect holiday destination! We have it all here. Do you want to hang-glide? To feel the ocean spray on your face? Or maybe you just want to lie back in the sun with a good book? No problem! We have everything you could possibly want, and more!
“If you close your eyes, you will be placed in stasis for the next three months of the six-month journey. After performing certain exercises due to legal requirements, you will be returned to stasis, and the journey will be over in a flash! See you soon!”
- - -
Three months later:
“Greetings! You have been in stasis for NINETY-ONE days. Due to legal requirements, you must now walk around the cubicle twice before you can return to stasis! Thankyou for your co-operation.”
- - -
Another three months later:
“GreeTINGs! yOu HAvE beEn iN staSIS for NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-NINE-ZZZzzz...”
The lights flicker, and go out, the only illumination in the room a small red bulb on the front of the speaker.
“Hello?” The voice now on the speaker is natural, not produced by a computer like its predecessor. “Look, if you’re alive in there, you’re gonna need to get up now. There’s a door on the wall facing you. It was electronically locked, but I’ve had to reroute the power. In a few seconds these speakers will go off too, but-“
The light on the speaker flicks off instantly, and the room is in complete darkness. The door opens easily, and the corridor outside is lit by a dull, flickering light in the ceiling. There’s a small, circular window to the right. Through it, the sky is violet, and the sand black. The plants are dead, and the water seems poisonous. The ship is in a clearing, closed off on all sides by withering trees. There is a small group of people below, and there’s an open door next to the window, and there are steps leading down to where the group is standing. One of the members of the group, a grey Agori, seems to be in charge. As you approach him, he looks over at you, and gestures at you to join the group, before beginning to speak...
- - -
Welcome to New Spherus Magna.
Oh, were you expecting some kind of paradise? Too bad.
What’s that? You want a refund? I don’t think you’ve quite caught on to what’s happening here, mate. You’re on a planet, quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and it’s been devastated at some point or another by an apocalyptic event which the brochure just so happened to forget about. And you’re stuck here.
Oh, and the locals? They like us alright. The same way that one might like a steak, only they can’t be bothered cooking and/or killing us before they start eating. No, I’m not exaggerating. I was on the last ship that came here, and I’m the only one from it who’s still alive. But don’t think that I got out perfectly fine – one of them got my right hand. This one’s here’s a mechanical one I built myself out of scrap from the old ship.
But that’s beside the point. Now, first things first, I’m going to put a few rules in place: if you leave the clearing on your own, it will result in death. If you leave the clearing in a group, it will result in death. If you leave the clearing in a small group led by me, you may only suffer crippling injuries if you’re standing close enough to me, but for everyone else, it will result in death. If you stand too close to the edge of the clearing, it will result in death. If you push someone else out of the clearing, it will result in a dissatisfactory remark on your permanent record, immediately followed by death.
Is the whole death thing cleared up then? Good.
Now would probably be a good time to tell you that, even if you do stay in the clearing, you’re going to die anyway. They’re scared of the ship at the moment, but soon enough they’re going to get brave. We’ll have to get them before they get to us, which will unfortunately mean that most of the party sent out will die. But if we defeat them, we can – no, we will allow the others to survive. But it’s not time for that yet. For now, you can just get used to each-other’s company and build up defences around the clearing.
If you want to know my name, I’m Keuirce. And, as I said before, welcome to New Spherus Magna. I hope you enjoy being here. Because you’re sure as Karz not leaving.
- - -
THE STORY:
You awaken on a strange ship, with only just enough power to keep a few flickering lights on. The ship was made to take you to New Spherus Magna, ‘the perfect holiday destination’.
Only something’s gone wrong, and this isn’t the place you expected to arrive in. Although it is definitely New Spherus Magna, something has gone wrong with it – the sand is black, the water and sky are purple, the soil is grey and the plants are white, withering and dying, just like the planet itself.
Oh, and by the way, for the time being, you’re stuck here.
It’ll be quite a while before another ship arrives, and you have no idea what’s on that planet with you. Unfortunately, one of the survivors from another ship – an Agori named Keuirce – does. And they are not friendly...
The force driving the story here will be the players. Now, this just seems like your ordinary RPG at the moment, but there is a twist. Your characters are in constant and real danger. If you put your character in danger, chances are, they will die. And your characters will almost always be in danger.
There is a general outline for the story, but there are two possible endings depending on your actions as players. To put it simply, there’s a ‘good ending’ and there’s a ‘bad ending’.
Your main goal, as you are told in the introduction, is surviving long enough that another ship can arrive to save you. Of course, there is another objective: there’s a volcano, not too far away from your clearing, which is where Keuirce’s ship crashed. If you can get there, you can take pieces from it in order to repair you own ship, and get away from New Spherus Magna.
Of course, it’s not going to be anywhere near as easy as I’m making it sound here...
- - -
LOCATIONS:
THE CLEARING
This is where your character will start out, and where your ship landed. It's surrounded an all sides by withering trees. The aliens are scared by the ship at the moment, but they should soon build up enough courage to go in.
THE FOREST
A dark forest, filled with dying trees. There is a lake in it, visible from the ship, but the water looks poisonous. Aliens lurk throughout it, so it's very dangerous to go in.
THE VOLCANO
The aliens' base of operations, and the site of Keuirce's ship. The place is swarming with aliens, so going in would be suicide.
- - -
CHARACTER CREATION:
Alright, here’s the interesting part: creating your character!
You can choose from Glatorian, Agori, Skakdi, Vortixx, Toa and Matoran. The allowed masks are pretty much any mask except the Mask of Creation, the Ignika, the Vahi, the Olmak, the Olisi, the Krahkann, or the Avohkii. You can have custom species or masks, but they have to be approved. No canon characters, please. All characters must be posted in the Profiles topic, and approved by staff, before you can play as them. Here is a basic profile layout:
Name: Your character’s name.
Species: Your character’s species.
Gender: Your character’s gender, male or female.
Personality: What is your character’s personality like?
Powers: Your character’s elemental powers (if applicable).
Kanohi: Your character’s Kanohi (if applicable).
Appearance: Here’s where you describe what your character looks like.
Equipment: Weapons, armour, shields... you name it, it goes here.
Biography: Your character’s history.
Weakness(es): Yes, your character has a weakness. All characters have weaknesses, including staff characters.
Feel free to add more detail if you wish.
STAFF PROFILES:
Using Less Vorex:
Name: Keuirce
Species: Agori
Gender: Male
Personality: Keuirce is pessimistic, but brave and intelligent. He does not, however, subscribe to the opinion that everyone is going to get out alive.
Powers: N/A
Appearance: A grey Agori of reasonable height, with blue eyes.
Equipment: A silver helmet, and a small metal knife. He doesn’t think he needs anything more.
Biography: Keuirce was on the last ship to arrive in New Spherus Magna, and is the only survivor out of all its passengers. He was attacked by the planet’s inhabitants and lost his right hand, but used parts from the old ship to build himself a mechanical replacement.
Weakness(es): As an Agori, he has no elemental or Kanohi powers.
Kal Grochi:
Name: Kal
Species: Toa
Gender: Male
Personality: Grim and foreboding.
Powers: Toa of Plasma
Kanohi: Mask of Time Dilation-makes time appear faster or slower to the wearer.
Appearance: Green armour instead of orange, sort of a thin, pastel green underarmour/skin.
Equipment: Special curved hilt with a button on it-emits a blade of plasma, a smaller version of mentioned weapon with a straight hilt, knuckle-plate knives which extend from the knuckle plates on his armour when he forms his hands into fists.
Weakness: Easily annoyed/thrown into rage, paranoid.
Biography: He doesn't tell.
Doctor Wotz:
Name: Trakuda Caliduran "The Diplomat" Roma
Species: Ko-Toa
Gender: Male
Personality: Forever an outgoing, light-hearted Toa, Trakuda has never been like his fellow ice beings. In fact, he's never acted very much like anyone on Spherus Magna. It is a common misconception that Trakuda takes nothing seriously, but this fallacy is overwritten by his determination and sincerity in battle. His loyalty rivals even that of Toa Pohatu, and although multiple experiences in his rarely-mentioned past have taught him to be cautious of the world's perils, he retains his love for exploration and adventure. He loves company and attention, often acting silly and unpredictable to put on a show for his companions. When he does feel negative emotions, however, they get to his head, causing him to act antsy and brash, occasionally causing him to rush into situations far out of his league. In his travels he has discovered a deeper and more philosophical side of his personality.
Powers: None
Kanohi: Great Aki, the Mask of Valor (Shielding, Speed and Strength)
Appearance: Essentially this, but with navy blue in place of red, and bone white (like Thok's) instead of grey.
Equipment: A jetpack/wing attachment/flight-thingy device that looks like this (minus the giant robot it's attached to, and the huge guns), a Gatling gun that is concealed by a pair of armour plates on his forearm, a deployable wrist blade on his other arm, and an axe. Yes, that's a lot of stuff, but he has an Aki so shh.
Biography: Trakuda's history is a nightmare. Documents of his existence date back to the birth of the MU, but he insists he was born on Metru-Nui. Only one Matoran was ever courageous enough to step up to the challenge of documenting it, and was later found dead, with his own palm impaled in his face. No one bothered to try after that point, and Trakuda became famous for being an anomaly in history. Many nicknames have been attached to him throughout his travels, but the most famous is "The Diplomat", which was born from his astonishing ability to talk. A lot.
Weakness(es): Unlike most Toa, he lacks any elemental powers. As mentioned previously, he has a tendency to charge into situations beyond his control.
RULES:
All the normal BZPower and RPG Forum rules apply. Check them in the topic if you don’t know them already.
The rules will be enforced by the staff, who are listed below:
Using Less Vorex: The evil overlord. He is in charge of all the other staff, and therefore is the only one able to smite and/or kill staff characters. Pretty awesome, right? He also has a tendency to kill PCs who put themselves in danger, but only when the situation calls for it.
Kal Grochi: The insane guy. Vorex hired Kal because he felt like it, and because Kal would increase the awesomeness of his RPG, with lightsabers, and other really cool ideas. Also, unlike Vorex, Kal can only kill PCs if he gets permission from Vorex.
Doctor Wotz: The guy without a title. He has the same powers as Kal, except he was hired due to the comedy aspects of his writing. Vorex decided that they needed someone who could write funny stuff, other than him, on the staff, because it’d mean that there would be Vorex smitings, Kal smitings, and Wotz smitings, even if they didn’t happen all that often because everyone was too scared of them.
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