So I woke up today thinking "You know what would be awesome? An RP of Mass Effect that largely ignores the events of the series, and takes place during a war much later, between the Human-Turian alliance and some ripoff aliens, but instead of the characters being grand heroes, their regular soldiers who are extremely badass, comically terrible at being noticed, and just fly around. Set in a small, unimportant ship, the kind that you see in every huge space battle always getting cut in half, but this one actually survives and kicks ass without any heroes ever noticing it's bravado.
This won't be super serious unless people want it to be, I was just thinking it would be a nice, fun RP where the characters would be mostly for funsies. I'd play the captain of our ship, for GMing reasons, but other than that, I'm open to any proposals other people see for this idea.
Good idea? Terribad idea? I should be given the president of the universe award? Murdered? Discuss! And if we get interested players, I'd be happy to run with this. Just wanted to know what the community thought of it.
So I woke up today thinking "You know what would be awesome? An RP of Mass Effect that largely ignores the events of the series, and takes place during a war much later, between the Human-Turian alliance and some ripoff aliens, but instead of the characters being grand heroes, their regular soldiers who are extremely badass, comically terrible at being noticed, and just fly around. Set in a small, unimportant ship, the kind that you see in every huge space battle always getting cut in half, but this one actually survives and kicks ass without any heroes ever noticing it's bravado.
This won't be super serious unless people want it to be, I was just thinking it would be a nice, fun RP where the characters would be mostly for funsies. I'd play the captain of our ship, for GMing reasons, but other than that, I'm open to any proposals other people see for this idea.
Good idea? Terribad idea? I should be given the president of the universe award? Murdered? Discuss! And if we get interested players, I'd be happy to run with this. Just wanted to know what the community thought of it.
Second: Hm... I'm not sure. On the one hand, it offers the perfect excuse of a character idea I had for the mass effect universe who punches people at relativistic velocity. On the other hand, divorcing Mass Effect from the over-arching plot's that made it such an appealing universe and the general flavor of the universe (i.e. there are big scary things attacking and only Commander [insert name] and his/her crew can stop them) could be difficult.
I think the biggest problem you'll face is trying to create a story to engage the players that doesn't get too out of hand with the "comically badass" element - if that makes any sense.
In any event, if you make a suitably interesting plot/premise to draw people in, I'm sure there will be players willing to give it a try.
I think that it is an interesting idea, seeing as how comedy is a bit of a loose-weave topic. I suppose if it had to work it would require some drama but not enough to put the entirety of to comedy down. Plus if it is going to be part of the Mass Effect universe then some of its rules mots apply to the roleplay. I say it sounds like fun, I love mass effect and wouldn't mind a non-serious story from outside the norm. If I can think of anything then I will let ya know. Though how would character sheets work and just set up in general is something to consider too.
Hey Hiei, yeah, I've been rather absorbed into other things. Man, people are HARD. Answers to your questions, it would still work a lot like CO: X, fights monsters, ???, Profit. The only difference is that the crew would be less 'elite jedi princess warrior vampire mage' and more 'random overlooked soldiers overqualified and bored on a frigate nobody cares about'. So instead of going around being all SPECTRE like, they'd make smaller differences and maybe set up some unnamed Shepard level heroes in subtle ways. Such as, the reason that this or that's criminal base comes to the Shepard-hero's attention would be some operation these guys happened to do, which happened to run into it, and they damaged systems during their business enough for the Hero to do hero things.
The idea being, this would be the story of random Council soldiers doing stuff that makes the hero possible, but that the hero never hears about. Unsung heroes. I thought the different scale in the ME universe would be nice.
I always did wonder about how awesome the stories of those marines on Earth probably were, because these were hardened veterans who'd survived Reaper invasion so long. Or the stories of maybe a Human fireteam that was on Palaven for training when the war hit, and are stuck there having to work uneasily with the Turians.
I'd control the Comical Badass element via keeping the scale to the sort of thing where our characters are never really noticed, meaning, we'd never be given enough authority or authorization to do Shepard level stuff. We couldn't get the police to work with us, we would only have standard issue gear, or what we can steal/sneak past the higher ups. And most importantly, we'd always have superiors that would order us around and never respect us. That's where the comical part comes in, we'd always have huge potential, but either be too dysfunctional or just not lucky enough for anything to come of it.
I don't think all of that made sense, but I think enough of it did.
As for JudgeDAN, I would certainly work to maintain Mass Effect mechanics as much as possible. The character sheets would be fairly detailed, name, gender, age, rank, military history, psychological information, and the usual biographical and misc. information too. But for right now, I'm just probing for interest while I set that stuff up, so don't worry, that's being worked on.
EDIT; I just want to make it clear, I'm still open to any suggestions people have! I love me some suggestions.
Hey Hiei, yeah, I've been rather absorbed into other things. Man, people are HARD. Answers to your questions, it would still work a lot like CO: X, fights monsters, ???, Profit. The only difference is that the crew would be less 'elite jedi princess warrior vampire mage' and more 'random overlooked soldiers overqualified and bored on a frigate nobody cares about'. So instead of going around being all SPECTRE like, they'd make smaller differences and maybe set up some unnamed Shepard level heroes in subtle ways. Such as, the reason that this or that's criminal base comes to the Shepard-hero's attention would be some operation these guys happened to do, which happened to run into it, and they damaged systems during their business enough for the Hero to do hero things.
The idea being, this would be the story of random Council soldiers doing stuff that makes the hero possible, but that the hero never hears about. Unsung heroes. I thought the different scale in the ME universe would be nice.
I always did wonder about how awesome the stories of those marines on Earth probably were, because these were hardened veterans who'd survived Reaper invasion so long. Or the stories of maybe a Human fireteam that was on Palaven for training when the war hit, and are stuck there having to work uneasily with the Turians.
I'd control the Comical Badass element via keeping the scale to the sort of thing where our characters are never really noticed, meaning, we'd never be given enough authority or authorization to do Shepard level stuff. We couldn't get the police to work with us, we would only have standard issue gear, or what we can steal/sneak past the higher ups. And most importantly, we'd always have superiors that would order us around and never respect us. That's where the comical part comes in, we'd always have huge potential, but either be too dysfunctional or just not lucky enough for anything to come of it.
I don't think all of that made sense, but I think enough of it did.
As for JudgeDAN, I would certainly work to maintain Mass Effect mechanics as much as possible. The character sheets would be fairly detailed, name, gender, age, rank, military history, psychological information, and the usual biographical and misc. information too. But for right now, I'm just probing for interest while I set that stuff up, so don't worry, that's being worked on.
EDIT; I just want to make it clear, I'm still open to any suggestions people have! I love me some suggestions.
Okay, update to interested players, I've got some of the basics worked out. I've decided that I'm going to have the character sheets to me by PM, that way there's a little more room for discovery.
TheDoctor455, kick me a sheet and I'll see what I think! I'm willing to see what you're thinking, at least.
Name:
Gender:
Species:
Age:
Years Of Service: (And in what branch/section)
Level of Education: (Including what the education was IN, down to minors and majors and any particularly horrible or good grades)
Military Rank/Government Role:
Biotic Potential:
Psychological Stability:
Biography:
Notes: (For anything you want said that does not fit into the above distinctions.)
Aside from that, I'm currently envisioning the start involving a deep-space colony with a supply depot commonly by Council Races to resupply their patrols. It would be somewhere in former Batarian space, and the only martial presence there would be frigates that come for resupply before patrolling the area for leftover hostiles from the Reaper War, and to control the criminal elements that have moved in on the former Hegemony. In the same system, will be the three planets controlled by the new Independent Batarian Sovereignty, the children of the survivors from the initial Reaper attacks that are barely holding on with such low population, their entire amassed population equal to 4 million. The cities they lived in are charitably called 'restored' cities that the Reapers hadn't entirely destroyed yet in the war, and more realistically called salvaged structures welded together to protect against the elements.
Our characters would start either in orbit, on the space stations the planet relies on for the resupplying of large freighters or cruiser sized ships, or on the surface where the space-docks that supply the frigates and destroyers are. As they mill about for a short time, any characters with military or government access would be informed that half of the Council patrol presence in the region was being sent to the Batarian systems capital. While the other two colonies were on the other side of the system's star, the entire cities appear to have been attacked, and the meager armed presence held at them entirely obliterated. No survivors, only the broken remains of Batarian assets and citizens. Later that night, the local transmissions of various sports (mostly gambling) and propaganda from the Batarian Capital cease entirely, and the small squadron of frigates the Council sent to answer a Batarian request for defensive aid is also unresponsive. Exactly an hour after that, relativistic impactors narrowly miss the planet, hitting one of it's three moons, and causing the shards of the de-orbited small moon to entirely destroy the other side of the world from our characters. With the planet rapidly irradiating, our characters will attempt to flee, as ships that leave the gravity well are vanishing at varying distances from the planet. Eventually, they'll end up on a Human frigate that was marked for retrofitting, and barely runs while escaping the besieged system, and trying to get to the Mass Relay and back to Council Space.
If anybody has better story suggestions, tell me! I'll gladly hear them. I'll even trash that entire plot if you come up with a better way to get the characters sufficiently stuck together.
I suppose it's reasonable to think a freighter captain or crewmember survived the debris clouds in space, so they're still docked with a station in orbit, just marooned on a damaged ship or station. Alternatively, they're one of the civilians that the military characters managed to bring with them to whatever shelter they found for the hostile environment below.
Your characters would obviously be more or less irrelevant in the chain of command, and the military characters would be trying to drop you somewhere ASAP after getting back to safe space. Unless you're former military, your character probably wouldn't be very familiar with the Alliance frigate's systems. So just be aware, that as the Captain, my character would be as a rule against yours staying around unless there's some way you become helpful to the operations of the ship. Cook, doctor, anything. Even then, the other characters would likely have you put through basic training to make sure you don't end up shooting yourself or somebody else on accident.
After all, it's a frigate. Not the largest frigate in the Alliance fleet anyway, the Antietam was the first of it's very short-lived class. It's designed after cheap efficiency, speed, and only has some of it's weapons systems still installed. The characters are not going to start out in a ship with the best elbow room.
mcpop9 said:
long time no see kasten, good to see you alive and kicking.
anyway, would it be possible for a civilian to be mixed up in all of this? i have a few character ideas bouncing around in my head for them.
that's fine. i'm sure i could make my character relevant somehow. i think i already got an idea, but just a quick question, how many years after the war will this be?
It'll be a generation after the war was officially declared over, and the last known Reaper in Council space was destroyed. So roughly 10-15 years. However, that's not much of a significant time period in Mass Effect, as their cybernetics and medical technology is well advanced enough to have people living and being active much longer than modern day. If you wanted them to be a Reaper War vet, that'd be logical.
Although, I should make this clear, for the purposes of this RP, the Crucible was a signal that disrupted the Reaper's Friend-or-Foe recognition, and made them start fracturing, after which the Council races won the war conventionally. I've thought about each of the Mass Effect 3 endings, and I don't see how it's possible to proceed with those assumptions, I would go with Destroy, but that would mean the Mass Relays were destroyed.
It would also mean I couldn't explain why the Alliance is still a galactic power, or why the Synthetic races are still around.
Yes. The Quarian Homeworld is being rebuilt by both the Geth and the Quarians, and is where the Liveships are. Remainders of the Patrol Fleet are clearing out systems near that, and the Heavy Fleet has fortified that system into one of the most protected single places in the galaxy.
Actually, since I'm apparently lazy enough to crowdsource RP Title...
The Party will be starting out on a Systems Alliance Frigate, and they name their Frigates after battles, I've been working off of Antietam as a name for the frigate our team will be stuck with, but I'll take any other suggestions if you guys think there are better choices.
I probably won't use a name that I know of from the established universe, but I'm sure you guys know enough battles that it won't be a problem.
Actually, since I'm apparently lazy enough to crowdsource RP Title...
The Party will be starting out on a Systems Alliance Frigate, and they name their Frigates after battles, I've been working off of Antietam as a name for the frigate our team will be stuck with, but I'll take any other suggestions if you guys think there are better choices.
I probably won't use a name that I know of from the established universe, but I'm sure you guys know enough battles that it won't be a problem.
Long Answer: during the Reaper War, the Alliance was the first Council power that had to fight the reapers, and during the Battle For Earth, The Alliance became the first power to be relieved of the Reaper's invasion. During the subsequent fighting of the War, the Alliance started making ships and operating under extreme wartime conditions. Eventually, they were making more ships than they had trained crew for, and it became universally overlooked when naval and marine officers integrated human and alien survivors or extra personnel into their crews. While the war is over, and each Alliance ship can now start with a full compliment, it's still generally accepted that aliens will be used in emergencies, or just when they're transferred on/useful to the operations of the ship. The Party will be a special case, where the Human crews of the ships nearby are mostly killed, so the Alliance brass will be extremely willing to overlook whatever the Characters have to do to get the information about the attacks, and any useful war material or dangerous intelligence, back to Council Space.
It's not strictly speaking, fully integrated Council forces, but it's not unheard of or forbidden. The other races are slowly adapting to the same policies, the Turian Hierarchy has a tendency to be more accepting of Humans serving with them, and will let a Human crew their ship before a Salarian or Asari, but if there are only Asari around, and they need crew, they'll suck up their preferences. Asari tend to be the most open with crew, they're starting to allow older ship classes to integrate other major Council races into their crews from launch, partly to disguise how weakened their military was during the war, and make diplomatic reparations for the dirty laundry that came out in the war.
Years Of Service: 13 years before dishonorably discharged
Level of Education: enough that he was one of few to be top of the class.
Military Rank/Government Role: Former squad Captain
Biotic Potential: he doesn't have any.
Psychological Stability: John is a bitter, cynical and amoral individual. John sees only three kinds of people: the ignorant but still innocent masses, their corrupt leaders and enterprising individuals who manipulate and exploit both. He laughs at the notion that this can change and at the people ignorant enough to believe this and he has no expectations that this view will change anytime in the future, however, he nevertheless maintains a pleasant and likable disposition to others, and his idealistic self-had not completely died. As a Mercenary, John not only had a well-paying job which allowed him to travel across the world, but left him free to wage his own personal war against "the bad guys," in other words, individuals whom he believes stands against everything he once fought for, and without the restraints of red tape, moral backlash or corrupt seniors to hold him back, he finds a small measure of comfort in his new career, He never seems to become attached to anyone leaving a question of loyalty.
Appearance: same body build and face but with a 5'o clock shadow and a big scar going from his face downwards and he's wearing a little more armor.
Bio: John was born on the citadel to a Military father and mother several years later after attending and graduating from a top notch Military school teachings when he was 18 he went on to join the army where he came top of the class and quickly went up through ranks to Squad Captain, sadly a corrupt politician passed an order to blow up a turian colonial ship in a massive cover up but John and his unit refused and promised to not only stop anyone else that would try it but to also find the politician who gave the order and not just punch him in the face but also denounce him in public as corrupt and hateful and he did just that got himself dishonorably discharged but he didn't care he had done a good deed and it was good enough for him.
some months after he became a mercenary his old unit turned up on his doorstep saying they'd left the army and wanted to go into the mercenary business with him the lads came up with the name "The 13th Legion" as there were about 15 of them
Name: Silas Jorus. But generally referred to as "Max", or "King".
Gender: Male
Species: Turian
Age: 44
Years Of Service: 25/ Turian Hierarchy/Cabal
Level of Education: Experimental Military Training. Classified.
Military Rank: N/A.
Biotic Potential: Significant/Almost non-existent. Basically... half the time he's a Turian Jack... and other half... he has no biotic ability whatsoever. The "King" personality can lift and throw most humanoids with easy (he has trouble with Geth and the Krogan for some reason), but his real talent lies in his warp fields. Unlike what you may have seen before, where the warp only seems to affect a few enemies at once, the "King's" warp field is an actual field... as in, it affects everything that passes through it in a certain area. It isn't an area of effect ability though. Rather, it is a thin, force-field like energy band that can be stretched to a maximum of 20 feet, making it very useful for setting up chokepoints, as well as doing significant damage to anything stupid enough to go through it... to its victims, this "warp field" would feel very similar to being burned alive. The effect only lasts a few seconds, but it leaves severe burns behind. These abilities are taxing however, and eventually, the King will pass out, possibly taking Max with him into a temporary coma. At the very least, extended use of these abilities make for one hell of a hangover a few hours later.
Psychological Stability: Varies wildly. Split-personality disorder. While they do switch dominance on a semi-regular basis, both personalities are aware of, and can interact with each other. "Max" is the psychopathic homicidal, hyper-violent child-like personality. "Max" does not appear to care what others think of it, and has even less regard for anyone's safety. Fortunately, this personality is unable to access any of its body's biotic potential. Imagine the horror that could be wrought if "Max" could use biotics... with its crude humor, violent tendencies, and childish sadism. When not violent, and not currently working on anything, "Max" will wander aimlessly, make fart noises with his armpits, and otherwise make crude, obvious jokes and pranks of... varying danger to himself and those around him. This personality is an expert with just about every object that could be conceivably be used as a weapon. No matter how ridiculously cartoonish. Though flamethrowers and grenades seem to be its preferred weapons... aside from the heavy pistol that "Max" caresses at night.
Then, there's the "King". While not entirely stable himself, he is at least more responsible than "Max," and has demonstrated genuine concern for others... even if the "King" likes to show off with deliberately "cool" stunts involving its substantial biotic capabilities, expertise with omni-chainsaws and "boomsticks" (read: shotguns), and of course, one-liners. He tends to be a bit more serious than "Max" as well, and seldom makes jokes... and instead veers towards sarcasm.
Biography: Much of Silas's past has been classified by the Turian Hierarchy. All that they were willing to share with the Alliance was that he is a member of the Cabal, and is very, very dangerous. And advised us to keep him pointed at the enemy at all times. When he rushes into combat, let him. Despite their stonewalling, the Alliance has uncovered some mentions of him in local news in systems that the Hierarchy either hasn't noticed yet, or has no jurisdiction or influence over. In those areas, every story confirms that wherever Silas goes, a bloody swathe of burning destruction is sure to follow. Since having both personalities take separate aptitude tests, Alliance brass have determined that "Max" has excellent spatial awareness, and easily took to fighter piloting, and starship navigation; while the "King" turned out to be an excellent field medic... especially if his patients are females of any species.
Notes:
One of the other few things that the Turian Hierarchy has told the Alliance are the triggers and keywords that can be used to control/manage both personalities.
For Max:
"You crack me up 'lil buddy" - say when Max makes a joke to make him giggle and to keep his violent suggestions embedded in the joke from becoming a reality.
"I can't use these items/objects together." -say to make Max break something.
"I can't pick it up." -Say ten times, and then whimper to have Max pat you on the back, and stare off in a seemingly random direction, where he thinks the "camera" is, and scold someone that isn't there about 'breaking [insert name here]'s spirit.'
"Come on 'lil buddy." -say to make Max follow you... anywhere.
Point and fire a cap gun at him to have him do an over-the-top death scene.
"Goodnight Max" - say to put "Max" to sleep, and allow the "King" to take over.
The "King":
Hug onto him as if your life depended on it to make him fiercely protective of you. Note, this only works if you are female.
Tap his shoulder and let him punch you in the face, then fall on your ass in a comical manner to have him intimidate a crowd of people with his "boomstick". Note, this is only effective if you are surrounded by more than 10 people.
"Klaatu Berata Nicto!" say to make him panic, and attack anything that he regards as hostile. Careful, this might include you if you get too close.
"Goodnight." -say in a seductive manner to make him horny, and follow you anywhere. Again, this only works if you are female. Careful... he does lose patience after a while, so you may have to keep... 'enticing' him in some way.
"You hungry?" -say if you want him to make everyone a sandwich. Though note that all female crew members will get significantly better ones than male crew will.
"Light's out." -say to put the "King" to sleep, and let "Max" take over.
NEVER try to take his "boomstick" from him without his permission. And if he lends it to you, return it in mint condition when you are done. Though he is somewhat more forgiving towards female crew members that borrow it.
Both personalities have been trained to respect the chain of command when necessary. Both will follow orders as long as both personalities feel that the orders are sensible... or in Max's case... 'fun'. (generally, as long as your orders involve blowing shit up, maiming/disfiguring/torturing/murdering people, Max will happily carry them out; and as long as the orders in some way involve female members of any species -except Krogan-, the "King" will abide. They will show proper decorum when needed, but will be itching for the chance to act casual again, and the longer they are forced to maintain this... the more likely that Max will pull off a prank... and the more likely that the King will flirt with almost everything in a skirt.
So, what do you think?
EDIT:
Made some changes to the biotic potential and notes sections based on Kasten's suggestions.
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