This is the OOC thread for Empire of Man. Post join requests and character profiles here.

And now the IC thread: The Empire of Man (IC)

Please read through this post, and my other posts in this thread before submitting a character.

First the basic description of the RP that I posted for my Interest Check:

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I've wanted to get people into this setting I've been working on for awhile. Tried to get groups of my friends together a couple times but usually have scheduling issues. I'm kinda stalled in development and I think I need the feedback of players to find the holes and missing pieces of what I have.

I'll run bad-guys and challenges and generally supervise. The Set-Up for my pseudo-campaign needs at least 4 characters. I don't mind if someone wants to run 2 characters to fill out the group if there's less than 4 people interested. I'm going to continue to allow players to join after we start.

I just want to find out if there's interest here. If I get enough players/characters I'll set up an OOC for character submissions and to post up a copy of the setting basics.

The last time I got involved with a free-form RP it took on a life of it's own and left me behind. So for this one I'm gonna set a somewhat loose maximum post rate of something like twice a week. Though if there's a 2 person conversation that won't apply so much. If that's too slow I can try to adjust.

The Set-Up
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The players are a team of mercenaries. They've all worked together for awhile (anywhere from 2 months to forever). The team has a very good reputation for honesty and contract fulfillment (Pretty much just means you don't rip off your customers and you get the job done). I don't mind if there is conflict between characters as long as they can normally set it aside to get work done.

The team has been hired to run an experimental ship through it's paces for an indeterminate time period. The hull of the ship is a standard Heavy Modular design with a special drive installed. The special drives are a new kind of interstellar travel.

The Mercs are supposed to fly a shakedown route, then begin jumping around the Galaxy at will. The contract stipulates that the team is allowed to take other contracts and use the ship to fulfill them, as long as the Corp owning the ship gets a percentage and the scientists studying the new drive survive.

Characters
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You can be just about any species you can dream up. Humans are the most common in the galaxy, though there are lots of new sub-races of human (Pretty much any mammal player race from Dungeons and Dragons, and probably other stuff too). If it doesn't work as a sub-race of human than it should be an alien. It's up to you whether you create a deep culture for your characters species. As long as your racial back story doesn't conflict with the history I've given it should be cool.

This isn't a super-powered RP, if I was using DnD or d20 Modern I'd start the players between levels 7 and 10. Basically nobody with perfect aim, or really strong telepathy, or a weapon that tears through everything.

The characters are supposed to be mercenaries so they will probably be armed, but this setting doesn't do ranged personal combat. Everybody's got shield belts that render guns moot. The available melee weapons can be pretty interesting though (Vibro-weapons, plasma sheathed weapons, weapons that use gravitic manipulation to tweak their inertia...And of course Laser Swords).


The Setting
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History:
Mankind began to leave for the stars in A.D. 2500. They left by the hundreds of thousands in sub-light colony ships, committing themselves to hundreds of years in cold sleep or dozens of generations cooped up with each other. Some left the womb of Sol for science others for adventure and still others were running from their mistakes. Nobody knew what was out there. Many could guess though after all, centuries of science-fiction authors had been doing just that. Some expected the beginning of war, others the end of war. But still nobody knew for sure.

Earth waited, the sleepers slept, the waking crews lived and loved and died, and the ships flew. For two hundred years. Then the first ship reported. They had reached their destination, and it was inhabited. What was even more amazing to the colonists were the Gates and what they meant about the galaxy.

The Gates were links between star-systems, allowing quicker-than-light travel over interstellar distances. This allowed an interstellar economy and community only the most optimistic humans had hoped for. And the Xenos were offering to bring the tools to build and link a Gate to Sol.

More specifically the Gateway Corporation was offering. This wasn't a free ride though, it was a loan against future achievements. Mankind debated with itself, it was being asked to indenture Sol's children for an unknown time. Politicians argued, fanatics rioted. Then one man acted on his own, a technician running the interstellar laser used to communicate with the colony ship. He forged the authorization codes and told the colonists to accept the offer.

The transmission was sent and there was nothing that could be done. The Gatebuilders had departed before a second message could be relayed, and once under way the contract was permanent.

That tech is the hero of all the human races, and the villain of more than one non-human race.

Mankind payed off their debt in record time at least a thousand years sooner than any other species.

Then mankind proceeded to apply that same drive and flexibility to the science and industry in the rest of the Spiral Arm. Human workers gained promotions to top positions, human businesses were incredibly successful, human scientists produced enormous leaps forward, and mankind spread through the Arm.

The Present:
It's roughly 15,000 years since Humanity went to the stars. Mankind is the dominant species in the known galaxy, controlling industry and through that everything else. The known part of the galaxy is the Spiral arm Earth is found in, it is often referred to now as the "Empire" of Man.

There are very few real Governments anymore, most planets and star systems are governed a single corporation or a council of corporate representatives. The few governments are usually just puppet organizations for some powerful corporation.

There is no single governing body or law. The larger corporations have a council and court to settle disputes between them and to facilitate trade, but little else.

The galactic community is immensely varied. There are Xenos in seemingly infinite variation. Humanity is just as varied since science has allowed modification and adaptation for all the special environments to be found off Earth.

When new Xenos are found they are offered a gate. Sometimes a new species will try to fight. They have never won. Human operated military responses are quick and devastating any time someone tries to start an interstellar war. Remarkably only one species has fought on to extinction. Only the most empathic races mourn them.

Technology has settled into a period slow growth characterized by further refinements in existing technique as opposed to leaps forward.

Things are fairly stable in the Empire of Man right now. The Gate network is being slowly expanded by explorers and colony worlds continue to join the galactic economy. Most colonies are financed by a corporation and spend their first several generations indentured to that corporation, or as a division of it.

Though stable there is a great deal of discontent and unrest. Many Xenos are tired of humanity practically leading them by the nose. Colony planets are often frustrated by being practically enslaved to profit hungry corporations. Even the elite of the galaxy are often supremely bored. And of course as in any world with big greedy corporations the Corps don't really get along with each other too well.

Other Things of Note:
Personal protection has been revolutionized by a poorly understood technology. Everyone has easy access to personal shielding devices that render all small scale ranged weapons ineffective. A single shield belt can withstand a shot from the largest possible infantry plasma-gun. (This bit is Apllied Phlebotinum there are no exceptions.) This has created a renaissance of melee combat across the galaxy. It has also created a huge variety of powered close-combat weaponry. (I'll put more details up if there's interest)

Terraformed planets come in two main flavors: Garden Worlds or City Worlds. Garden worlds often seem nearly uninhabited with most of the local population living either in orbit or under ground and most of the surface is teeming with plant and animal life. City Worlds are covered in buildings and machinery often with no visible natural features left (Think of Coruscant from Star Wars, or a Hive World from Warhammer 40K).

Communications through Gates is handled by ships carrying messages. Most captains make decent side money couriering along their route. When a message is too important or urgent to send with a bonded message ship it is sent via "Hyper-Space" message torpedo.

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Now the promised expansion on weapons:

Since shields have made ranged combat obsolete there have been many interesting developments in personal melee weapons. Most of these developments have been ways to make classic weapons more devastating. I'll list a few examples by their military/law enforcement classifications.

There are the classic swords, knives, clubs and such. Then there are versions with mono-molecular edges, coherent light blades, gravitic units that increase effective inertia, plasma sheathed blades, and electrified. There is also room for creativity.

I also forgot to mention that armor is common place, at least among working spacers and mercenaries. Which means it's not too abnormal to walk into a spaceport bar fully armed and armored.

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And now the character template:

Name:

Age: (If your race ages differently than humans note that)

Race: (Including Racial history/origin if desired, and physical description)

Homeworld: (Where you were born and what it was like. Things like whether it was a human colony and how old it is, or maybe it was on a trade station in the home star-system of a Xeno race.)

Gender: (Especially if your race has funky genders, or none at all)

Personality:

Specialty: (What sort of work you do in the Merc Company)

Secondary Skills: (Stuff outside of or periphery to your specialty but still useful to the team)

Time With the Mercs:

Weapon of Choice: (See list above for ideas, should be melee/close combat, can also be a martial art)

Other Stuff: (Things like a more detailed description, stuff about your weapon, family, or anything else that I didn't think to ask for)

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Make sure you read through all this before you submit a character so I don't have to suggest any changes to characters.

Anybody is welcome to join. If it gets to crowded I'll let you all know. So anyway, feel free to just submit your character, but keep it to one per person for the time being.

Thanks.

Interesting idea! I like it!

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to reserve a spot on this, will be writing up a character idea in short order.

Name: maximilian Kane .

Age: 25.

Race: Human .



Gender: Male.

Specialty: Commanding .

Time With the Mercs:2 years .

Weapon of Choice:

MX234 laser rifle .
th242 Pistol .

Other Stuff: http://swg.allakhazam.com/images/Guides ... sArmor.jpg

This looks really well thought out. Also, I might know a couple of other guys that would be interested...

Name: Ryuya Yamato

Age: 22

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Specialty: Pilot

Time With the Mercs: 6 months

Weapon of Choice: Katana

Other Stuff: His katana was made using original, ancient techniques, but modern alloys. Aside from his ace piloting skills, he is also a skilled swordsman and good strategist.

Guys, I think he wants a character idea slightly more... well, more. Than that. Also working on my own character Mengmoshu.

I see what you mean. I guess I'll just have to develop it a little more, then.

It's good to see responses so quickly.

@Hydrostar
I knew I forgot to mention something, there will be very very little need for pilots. The ship you'll all be traveling on is a small capital ship and comes with it's own small bridge crew, including a capital ship pilot. One of the few things I haven't decided on is whether to allow personal fighters, and even if I do they will probably be fairly large and require at least 2 crew. Though piloting would make an excellent secondary skill since the team will probably need someone to pilot landing craft.

@General Kane
I've got two concerns with your character. The first is that you only listed ranged weapons, which in this setting are pretty much exclusively ceremonial. If you read back through the stuff on weapons and the setting in general I'm pretty sure I mentioned it more than once. Your character will need to be able to hold his on in close-combat. The second is that your specialty is Commanding, there's nothing wrong with that, but I was assuming a semi-democratic mercenary team. Just remember that it's really up to the other players to accept your leadership. You might want to clear it with them before we start.

Also, yeah, more character detail would be much appreciated. I just realized that I left a couple things out of the Template because I was in a hurry earlier. So here's an updated template.

Name:

Age: (If your race ages differently than humans note that)

Race: (Including Racial history/origin if desired, and physical description)

Home World: (Where you were born and what it was like. Things like whether it was a human colony and how old it is, or maybe it was on a trade station in the home star-system of a Xeno race.)

Gender: (Especially if your race has funky genders, or none at all)

Personality:

Specialty: (What sort of work you do in the Merc Company)

Secondary Skills: (Stuff outside of or periphery to your specialty but still useful to the team)

Time With the Mercs:

Weapon of Choice: (See list above for ideas, should be melee/close combat, can also be a martial art)

Other Stuff: (Things like a more detailed description, stuff about your weapon, family, or anything else that I didn't think to ask for)

I tried to clarify a couple things, and added Personality, Home World and Secondary Skills. I think this should cover it. Don't be afraid to get really detailed about any part of your character you're interested in. I don't mind long detailed descriptions for things at all. Just look at what I've posted so far. You could even get pretty detailed about your Specialty if you wanted. I'm also pretty sure that presenting more detail with help everyone to engage your character better.

OK, here we go again.

Name: Ryuya Yamato

Age: 22

Race: human

Home World: Arselon, a farming world

Gender: male

Personality: Generally quiet, though also laid back. He couldn't care much less about the galaxy or really anything other than what directly affects him. He also hates positions of responsibility, such as leadership roles.

Specialty: mechanic/engineer

Secondary Skills: piloting, swordsmanship, strategy

Time With the Mercs: 6 months

Weapon of Choice: Katana

Other Stuff: His mother was a historian and his father was a soldier. He learned the art of swordsmanship from an older man who lived near his family. This old man also taught Ryuya some old traditions and played chess with him, though he never cared much for the traditions. When he was 17 he moved to the city world of Androd where he studied engineering. When he finished that at age 21 he went in search of an interesting job. He was hired for and quit 9 jobs before he happened upon the mercenary group 7 months later. His katana was a gift from the old man and was forged using ancient techniques but modern alloys. It's quite simple and not very adorned, but the hilt has a dragon carved out of the bottom of it and the word "Ocean" is inscribed in small letters just above the hand guard.

Name: Varrer Zinradi

Age: 254 Cycles. (Cycles refers to the rotations of the home planet around their star, each is equivelent to two human years.)

Race: Vinridi - A reptilian race and a long lived one at that, speaking with a sibilant voice due to their forked tongue and lack of lips, often within the military division, their cunning minds often position themselves as leaders, adept in close quarter combat from their physical strength, they generally work within the Special Ops divisions, rather than infantry. Within squads though, they can perform well with their task, but their fiery temperment can cause issues. The race is hardened, scales running all across their body, jointed areas such as elbows and knees are slightly smoother and guarded by a more flexible and natural bodily material. Being hairless, they often range in vibrant to dim colouring much like lizards from Earth. Black to white, prismatic to rainbow in colouring.

Their general body mass is very streamlined, females are often snake like in appearance with a slim, flexible and tall body, they lack the prominent ridge scales and tail that the mail side holds, where as the male as said possesses a ridge of scales running down their spinal column from the tip of their head, riveted with small spikes to the tip of their tail. they also have a broad shouldered and barrel chested appearance as their upper torso bulges with inner vitality. Both genders have two hearts on either side of the chest, their digestive system holds a third intensine and an extra kidney aswell, they also sport some organs which the humankind do not possess or seem to not of evolved into. Vinridi's lower body is structured in a manner that reptilians would of during their quadriped stage, in that their legs are digitigrade in formation.

Appearance: Varrer is large, at a good nine foot at human measurement, broad shouldered and armored from toe to neck in a flexible combat armor, comprised of thick plating at the the unmoving areas of the body, such as shins, upper and lower arms, chest and so forth, other areas are covered in a flexible mesh material with incases a semi liquid which hardens when force is applied to it, causing stiffness for a moment, but otherwise stopping somewhat lethal or debilitating blows. This armor is stained a deep black in line with his natural scale colouring, which is also black. With slits for eyes in reptilian fashion, his eyes seem to shimmer in colour from green to red, perhaps betraying his emotional state.

Home World: Vaze, orbited the star Cygnus, constellation, Lyra.

Gender: Male, signified by the thicker scales, stronger jaw line, longer hiss in his sibilant voice and general size.

Personality: Cool, intuitive, inquisitive and quick to action.

Specialty: Close Combat - One could say with every Vinridi that this is their speciality, able to out run a galloping horse in seconds, wrestling with bears and punching through metal, their stamina, endurance and strength is what would be herculean in comparison to humans, as such with the adaptation to melee combat over ranged weaponry of late, has delved the Zinridi as the domniators in the field and ideal for solo missions.

Secondary Skills: Tactician - Ranging from person to person combat, electronic warfare to psychological jabber, Varrer's strong mind and body make him well and able to make judgemental decisions and actions to gain the upper hand in combat, financial settlements, charismatic battles of the word, one could say he is able to look at all facets of conflict in any way shape or form.

Time With the Mercs: Varrer generally being one to keep himself alive, combined with his long life span, has naturally left him with the mercenary company since their founding, he has done numerous missions to count and with this particular squad he has worked a few times.

Weapon of Choice: Vibration Claws, designed with the Zinridi strength, agility and body structure in mind, these claws mount easily onto most Zinridi armor suits at the wrists, layered compartments designed to hide folding blade when unextended. When extended they are a good foot in length, humming violently as their entire lengths vibrate at speeds designed to allow to cut through inches of metal with the resistance a hot knife would have through butter.

Name: Credo

Age: 24, though in human years, he is forty-eight, for the Felidus age at half the normal speed of humans, their average age being 236.

Race: Felidus. The Felidus are a race of bipedal felines, akin to the lion more than anything else, though other subdivisions in the race resemble other cats, such as the panther, the tiger, and the cheetah. Yet another and rarer subdivision is the Felidus Gigant, the albino cat giants. There are no non-albino Felidus Gigants and there have been none for over five hundred and eighty seven years. All of the ruling family of the Felidus is made up of Felidus Gigant and their families. Credo is one such Gigant. His race is known for their strength, the Gigants being the strongest, physically, on the face of Jazeera.

Appearance: As a Felidus Gigant, Credo is enormous by human or even Felidus standards. Whilst the average Felidus stands at a respectable six feet tall, the average Gigant can stand eight, nine, even ten feet tall, legs as thick as tree trunks. Credo himself stands an impressive nine feet and five inches tall, his white fur shaggy, the coat somewhat regal, a purebred Gigant, with both mother and father being Gigants themselves. His eyes are large and pink, his mane thick but always braided and falling around his head. Unlike most bipedal, humanoid cats, most Felidus have plantigrade feet, though some of the subdivisions do possess digitigrade legs. Credo possesses the former. With his large size and muscular frame, Credo cuts an impressive figure anywhere he goes.

Home World: Jazeera, a jungle world far from earth. If asked, Credo could not pinpoint its location, for he wasn’t aware of its location when he was sent away.

Gender: Male

Personality: Quiet, respectful of his peers if respected himself, controlled and not impulsive.

Specialty: Close combat and heavy lifting. Though his large body does make him somewhat slow, he can be deceptively quick in close combat. His running speed would not put anyone to shame, but with the speed he can swing a blade, the giant could slice out a foe’s intestines before his foe had time to put up an adequate defense. Also as a result of his size, he is well suited to what could be called grunt work, shifting heavy loads that would take up to four humans, not even needing a forklift for heavier loads, though it does take some time for him to move things that he can’t fully lift.

Secondary Skills: Though not truly a skill, it can be said that Credo could quite possibly be a figurehead in battle. While not exceptionally quick, if one were to consider his size, strength, and tenacious fighting spirit, it would be easy to see how he could inspire others, especially when teamed with other powerful mercs.

Time With the Mercs: 3 months

Weapon of Choice: Credo’s weapon of choice is one that the people of Jazeera use quite often, though he does not know that, picking it instead on instinct. The kukhri-blade sword only serves to extend Credo’s already impressive reach even further, holding a monomolecular edge and a vibration cell that, when combined with Credo’s monstrous strength, can slice through all but the thickest of armor.

Other Stuff: Due to a revolt staged by Credo’s corrupt uncle, Credo was sent away from Jazeera by his father to keep him out of harm’s way. Though Credo is unaware, his father was slaughtered by his uncle, the evil bastard using his pelt to adorn his throne. Credo, however, is unaware of most everything back home, for he was sent away young, packed away on a freighter headed to who knew where, the albino covered with soot to cover the fact that he was of the royal family until he was well away. His size gave him away eventually when a trade ship, whose captain was familiar with the Felidus, docked with the freighter to trade. From there, he was taken aboard, being ship-hopped for almost two decades before ending up with the mercenary company. On a side note, Credo is not his true name, the Gigant having never been named on his homeworld. Most Felidus are named in a ceremony on their twentieth birthday and Credo was sent away whilst still technically a teen.

{Respectfully submitting my Felidus Gigant Credo for review and approval. I find the idea interesting and thought it a good place to try and insert him. Whether I'm accepted or not, any criticism is welcomed...though please keep it constructive.}

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. If he were to be measured in human years, he is forty-eight years old. Jazeera, though, takes two human years to make one revolution of their sun, thus being a year for the Felidus. In their culture, he would only be 24. As to digitigrade and plantigrade, I'll include a pic. And thank you for the opportunity. Here at the end is the image showing the difference between digitigrade and plantigrade legs.

Now that this is looking like it's going somewhere...

While I'm going to run the bridge crew there is room for other non-combat crew. A medical officer for instance. There is also some room in ship maintenance. If nobody wants to fill in these gaps I'll just work up a head engineer and attach a small crew of assistants to him.

Besides running the bridge crew as NPCs there will also be a contingent of engineers and researchers aboard the ship. These guys will mostly just be a faceless crowd represented by their head researcher, the guy who invented the new interstellar drive.

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Some more about the ship:

The ship is a Frigate class modular spacecraft. A modular spacecraft is essentially a spine that various modules are attached to. All modules are 12 meters deep and vary in width by 4 meter increments. Module thickness is measured in decks, one deck is approximately 4 meters. Modules are usually purpose built for a particular task, say hangar/cargo space, or passenger space.

This particular Frigate hull is very uncommon as it is more expensive than similarly sized modular hulls. There is a justification for this though, the side armor on these hulls is not linked removable armor as it is on the cheaper hulls. Instead it is an integrated part of the hull structure. This makes the ship quite a bit tougher than it's brethren earning it the nickname baby-dreadnought. The design also has 2 more reactors than are usually found on ships this size, giving it a total of 5 reactors.

Unfortunately nobody mass produces baby-dreadnoughts anymore. Luckily the same philosophy behind modular ships in general means that all replaceable parts are standard and readily available.

The company developing the new drive chose this vessel as a test bed because it is sturdy, has extra power plants, is readily adaptable, and the previous owner had kept it up-to-date technologically. So despite the hull being several decades old the ship is quite capable of outfighting most dedicated naval vessels in it's class.

Stats:
Length: 96 meters (Before drive cones)
Width: 40 meters (Including side armor)
Height: 12 meters (Without dorsal and belly armor)

Module Decks: 3
Module Spaces: 16 (Not including the 2 spaces used by the new drives)

Reactors: 5

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That's your ship. I'll work out which modules are installed when you take command, but there will be opportunity fairly early on to swap out stuff you don't need.

Some other bits related to the ship:

The computer systems have effectively infinite bandwidth links, and if truly amazing processing/storage capacity is desired there are modules dedicated to computing available.

There is an 8 meter wide corridor running down the center of the ship that is open to all three decks allowing easy access to any module.

Ships in this setting don't get truly enormous because they have to fit through the gates, but the largest class (the real dreadnoughts) are twice as thick and five times as long. Dreadnoughts can also carry railguns big enough to launch cars.

And last: The ship is a plain looking bastard. It looks like someone squashed a hot dog flat and stuck some really big engines on the back. But anybody who knows warships will have a very healthy respect for this ship. Generally speaking all modular ships are plain to look at though.

Any questions?

Mhm, thats quite some thought you've put into this, kudos to you for all the thought!

For some reason though, with all the talk of modules, crew, spaces and such it reminds me suddenly of the X-Com game series if you or anyone else has touched it.

I think considering the input on leg formation and body type, I'm going to do a quick edit of my character, I was wanting the digitrade type of legs but lacked the correct wording for representing it, Thanky for the input on the subject Wiz.

Do the ships in this RP have artificial gravity, or are we going to be awesome and live in zero-g?

Zero-G or low-G ships would be amusing, but the main reason artificial gravity is created is for stability amongst the crew, I can assume certain areas might have weaker gravitational fields deployed in them for the sake of mobility.

Also Mengmoshu: Click here for X-Com UFO reference

Its one of the original X-Com games back from years ago, so it doesn't look amazing xD