Mechanophage: The Nextgen Infection

[mechanimated]

This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Mechanophage: The Nextgen Infection"

You may edit this first post as you see fit.

[A Rubber Chicken]

This sounds like a cool idea, I'm tempted to throw together a character. Do you have a strong idea of the plot, or will it be more focused on characters determining events as they go?

[Byte]

Seconding Rubber Chicken's question.

Also, what form of power would you like the characters to have? Is there anything we wouldn't, or shouldn't be able to do?

[Alittas]

I'm wondering the same thing. I'd really love to be a part of your roleplay and I want to know before I can get started on my character sheet.

[mechanimated]

I will be playing a character but also the NPCs, so to speak, to drive all of us towards a bigger goal. The non-spoiler-y overarching plot is to discover why all of us have gained powers and learning to use them. The answer to these questions lie in the Ruins.

As for powers, think of it this way: If it can be reasonably explained as being technology-sourced, it's probably acceptable. If it can be reasonably explained as being magically-sourced, it's probably acceptable. Naturally, it's harder to draw the line for magic than technology, but use your discretion to limit yourself.

Several examples.

Magic Powers: Elemental-based powers, ability to will magical creatures into your plane, altering physical size, influencing emotions and mental states, shapeshifting.

Naturally, having been recently gifted with the ability to tap into magical energies, these powers would be rough and relatively minor, i.e. making your hands hot enough to burn and blister on contact, but no fireballs. Maybe a small flame. Or summoning a dog-sized drake to come to your aide, but no full-sized towering dragons. Or morphing into a lizard or hawk to get to unreachable places, but no tigers or elephants mauling everyone around you.

Tech Powers: Control of electricity, hardened skin, enhanced stamina, multi-spectrum vision, intuitive technological control.

Just like magical abilities, these tech abilities are limited by your lack of knowledge on how to use them. The ability to control electricity might allow you to shock someone on contact with the power of a taser, but not paralyze or kill them. Enhanced stamina would allow you to go for days without sleep, food, or water with no ill effect, or run for miles, but does not make you immune to the effects of heat-stroke or drowning or bullets. Controlling technology by pure intuition might allow you to open a door by 'jacking' into it, or revive some long-dead engine, but the complexities of a computer system or flying machine would be beyond you.


All these powers can be used in a variety of creative ways. My character (who I will put up shortly) is a male with the ability to channel electricity. It seems like a plain and obvious power, but his gift allows him to sense people within 10 feet of him because of the electrical activity in their brains. Not much, but enough to protect from a close ambush or sneak attack from behind. Get creative - remember, the Phage lives inside you and is also a piece of technology. All of us are biological scourges now, because of the infection, but the virus can be more than just a 'passive effect'.

I hope this helps give you guys an idea of what sort of characters to make!

[MilkHoney]

I'm in. Character thrown together and submitted. Would like to know the answers to A Rubber Chicken and Byte's questions myself. If anything in my character profile needs amending, I am amiable to editing and am very flexible in the beginning stages of character creation. Since this was auto-generated, I'm banking on it that mechanimated won't see this before (s)he sees a character profile waiting approval.

My question is why are the slave drivers taking the caravan through the Ruins? Seems phenomenally stupid to walk yourself and your financial assets into a biohazard death trap populated by cannibalistic Scavengers. Not that I can't imagine this happening: a slaver is going to take shortcuts in order to lessen traveling expenses, and great stories often have someone stupidly taking a shortcut through a known danger zone.

I'll also re-post what I asked on the Roleplayers Wanted thread: Where's your character mechanimated? When I need additional convincing to make a time commitment to a roleplay, the other character profiles are what usually does the convincing.

[mechanimated]

The caravan is going through the Ruins because, well, the nature of the place is half-legend. People who go there die, but it's always a friend of a friend of a friend of that guy you met at the bar. With the population decimated, there are simply not enough travelers that go there, and even fewer reliable sources who know someone who went missing and can testify that it isn't just a scary story. I will put up a crude MSPaint map of the Wasteland, but the Ruins lie basically smack in the middle of a country now riddled with canyons. The most efficient way to get anywhere is to pass through there, and while most traders go town to town to sell their wares and move in a circuitous route, slave caravans would go directly to the biggest buyers, to the people who could afford such a luxury. In this case, point B lies on the opposite side of point A, necessitating passing through the ruins to shave off upwards of months of travel time (due to otherwise having to weave between a multitude of rifts that distinctly lack bridges).

@ MilkHoney: Also, I just approved your character, and sent you a PM regarding her powers.

[MilkHoney]

I like. Nice rationalization. The bit about other traders sets a standard of normalcy for travel. Love little details that flesh out a world. I already liked that greedy slaver traders would either die from hungry Scavengers or Mechanophage infection. Holy Godiva, there's a thought. What if a slave trader doesn't die but gets powers? Yikes. Their chances are the same as a slave's, after all. Except for the fact that a slave would have motive to bash a slaver's brains in with the nearest rock. Slight additional health hazard.

You've already painted a clearer picture of this landscape, so thank you.

Electricity, huh? That's really going to come in handy to drive the plot. More importantly, PET needs booster cables and one of his appendages. Don't worry. PET will be gentle.

Looking forward to this one.

[Crooked Thoughts]

The roleplay looks great, story and plot wise, I was very intrigued by the world you have created and your talent as a writer. Though, I am a little surprised by the general lack of interest, but I could imagine why the flocks of players are not amassing to join. Either way, I am interested in being part of the adventure.

I do have questions about plot direction. Roleplays that are completely character driven can die out if not sufficiently backed by the GM controlling the world.

I also have an idea for a character that is a scavenger already living among the ruins and has powers. He has very poor social skills, but is an excellent survivor talented in areas of hunting & tracking, and obviously scavenging and forging. The character was literally raised by wolves after being left alone by a traveling caravan attacked by scavengers. He now lives in the ruins surviving day by day, when he sees the group and decides to stalk them, initially planning to attack or steal whatever goods he can. He continues to do this, until a confrontation is finally made and he decides to aid them in their journey. I would imagine a pretty girl would be part of his motivation as well, since he has had little to no human interaction in his life. I also have his powers in mind, which I will describe further if the character premise is acceptable.

[mechanimated]

@ Crooked Thoughts: I like the idea of a character who has been living in the ruins already. Presumably he or would have had more time to get to know his powers, though the lack of social interaction and by proxy access to outside knowledge would have limited more creative applications of whatever ability you have in mind. I will allow such a character, and offer the option to sacrifice sophistication of use for power. You don't have to take me up on this, and can choose to have a similar beginners outlook on you characters abilities, which will weaken them but allow for the sort of thoughtful and clever uses that a life of scavenging and fighting for your life does not usually provide opportunity to develop. Naturally, I will force the interaction sooner rather than later. I wouldn't want you to get lonely!

Also, I have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles today and it is 7 am and augh, but when I return I will post my character for your critical evaluation. Meanwhile, all of you that are interested feel free to submit characters or ask more questions! I will get to it as soon as I can.


Also also, thanks for the kind words. It's nice to know others like my ideas. I'm sure you know the awesome feeling when someone praises your brainchild.

[Crooked Thoughts]

Nice, glad you like the idea. I imagine he would be their guide in through the ruins, as he is probably familiar with the inner workings. And I will take you up on your offer, his powers will of course allow him to survive in the world and have a sort of primal nature to them, effective primarily in CQB or combat in general. I am considering a few abilities from Metal Manipulation to melding with technology (Half Technopath/Half Technomancer), but in keeping with a more simpler ability and making his origin of being raised by wolves plausible, I have another power in mind. Sort of beast mimicry...

[MilkHoney]

@Mechanimated: I hope it went well. Don't know a soul who enjoys spending their morning at a DMV/BMV. Did caffeine come into play? Or anger management skills?
You have no character. How's that for a critical evaluation? Get crackin' on that so I can ooh and aah over it.
It is a good brainchild. Worthy of praise. Feel proud.

Hello Crooked Thoughts! That's quite a broad spectrum of powers you are looking at. My impression of Scavengers is that they are feral tech addicts, so Metal Manipulation and Technopath/Technomancer seems to fall nicely under the Scavenger umbrella. Would alienate the tie-in with wolves though, since he'd have more in common with Scavengers. Then again, male wolves tend to leave their pack to find a mate, so he could have been isolated from the pack before the development of metal/tech-oriented powers. Or wolves could have accepted his weirdness and even encouraged it if it made him better at wolfy things. I've seen a house cat train a human in a matter of hours to open doors and turn on faucets, so I don't doubt it could happen. Beast mimicry, on the other hand, seems like it would improve survival in any natural environment, the Ruins included. Ruins have vermin, and where there are rats, there are feral populations of cats and dogs, or their undomesticated equivalents. Wolves go where the hunting is good. Mimicry might also help him socialize. I think his origin is plausible, whichever power path you go with.

Gotta stop procrastinating and get some work done. I expect I'll be back when I run out of sunlight, so about three hours.

[mechanimated]

@ Crooked Thoughts: I agree with MilkHoney about the nature of your characters powers. A focus on technology could be made to work in interesting ways with a 'wild' sort of character. You will have to figure out a way to be consistent though, to marry the seemingly opposing natures in a natural and un-forced sort of way. It sounds like it has a lot of potential, in my opinion, and I'm curious as to how you will make it work.

@ MilkHoney: I PUT UP MY CHARACTER SO THERE, AUGH. GOSH. It's a bit all over the place - I had trouble getting all my thoughts sorted out, and I may edit it later. We shall see! Now, with the three of us already character-ready, I figure I will wait maybe another week tops for more participants and then officially start the RP. If we get more people before that, we'll start earlier. I don't want to begin with less than 4 players total, but I also don't want more than 8. I feel like it might get too cluttered and messy with that many people. Though I doubt that so many folks will be throwing themselves at the chance to join anyway, so it's probably not a concern.

[mechanimated]

Oh, also, I uploaded the MSPaint map I promised. If you click places, and then Wasteland, you'll see it. It's very simplistic but should give a general idea of how the place is laid out. For distance reference, remember that the Ruins are about 16 miles in diameter.

[Crooked Thoughts]

In the end, I decided on Beast Mimicry.

His powers are definitely more advanced than the others, as he is semi-aware of their existence and can use them on command. However, most of them would appear as second nature. He believes them to be gifts bestowed on him by spirits because of his strong and kind soul as a warrior and his kinship with wolves. However, Tyr heritage is derived from a tribal clan with a strong bloodline of Anthromorphs/Shape Shifters and Druid-like Beast Tamers. While not all of them had powers, they all have an affinity with animals and nature; if one them did develop powers it would be similar to those listed.

I'm not sure if I need to tone his powers down, but as of now his powers are pretty basic, enabling him to: communicate with animals, heightened senses, enhanced physical attributes, and the ability to shift into a large wolf (which I have a different name for, but it currently escapes me at the moment). Other than that, Tyr is a survival expert with skills lying heavily in combat, primarily close range but hes also a talented archer with decent precision aim. Compared to the tech that was once available and is currently available, it is primitive, amounting to a Halo like Energy Sword and a bow capable of producing its own ammo. In addition to this, he has a few other basic weapons and equipment. I figure his role in the group, will be their protector and guide.

My character is still not done, I just need to define everything with a decent level of detail and add some additional coding to make it pretty.


Onto a different topic. I have noticed that everyone has a intro post like history. I'm not sure if this is required, but it seems to be a trend. I will be following this as well... but, since we are adding our intros to our character sheet, does this mean we will start right off into thing when the time comes? It isn't a problem, I am actually a fan of skipping those boring intro of establishing your character in the scene then going around meeting all the other characters with stale IC chatter. It just seems too much like the first day of school and it can also cause the roleplay to lag. In my personal opinion, we should start off with the characters traveling together already and maybe they even spent their first night together in Tyrs home. this way characters have met and they get started on their journey, maybe even throw in a battle scene.

I don't know, I'm just broadcasting my experiences as a GM and roleplayer... I would just hate to see such a good RP with promise fail because of lack of interest and a false start.

[mechanimated]

@ Crooked Thoughts: I will allow either the energy sword OR the bow, and limit the amount of arrows produced and the duration the sword can be active because of charge drain. It's far too OP to allow two powerful weapons AND the ability to shift into a dangerous animal. The limit on the weapons will depend on battery life, so to speak. This is a decimated ruin - there aren't exactly many outlets to plug your appliances into, if you understand my meaning. Everyone is going to be fighting against the odds, and having Tyr so well armed is unfair and would take the bite out of the roleplay, not to mention force everyone into a dependent role.

The sword can have two hours of constant activation per charge, and the bow can produce 40 plasmatic arrows per charge. Both can puncture metal, the arrows burning through for up to a foot. Cutting through metal will shorten how long the sword can be active, with every minute spent cutting equivalent to about 10 minutes being simply active. Cutting through steel would be a slow process, so say, cutting out the area around a lock on a typical door would cut active time down by half an hour. The bow could be used to puncture through the area around the lock by firing multiple shots. It would take 10 shots to burn through the area around the lock. - This is just to give you an idea of the limitations on the uses of such weapons.

The shifting power I will allow but also limit time wise, with Tyr capable of maintaining the full wolf form for 4 hours, and each tier down can last for that once over. So, 4, 8, 16, and 20 hours respectively. Once that time has elapsed, Tyr will be too exhausted to keep up the shift and will have to rest for 8 hours or sleep for 6 before he can shift again, effectively forcing a halt on any travelling. The ability to communicate with animals will be limited to only canines, and I will allow as a passive ability. Anything else you consider a Tier 1 ability will be time-constrained. The 'danger-sense' will only be effective with effort, limited to the general area, and useful only for things like ambushes and other largely reflex-related dangers. He would not, for example, be able to detect a mechanical trap, but he might be able to leap out of the way. He would not be able to sense that a building is unstable, but he might be able to detect Scavengers hiding in the shadows. This is an intuitive sense and not always 100% effective. If Tyr DOES sense something before anyone else does, I will let you know via PM. It would, again, be far too OP to have a character who can automatically detect every danger one might encounter at all times.


As for how the characters meet, the initial scene will be the escape and fight for their lives. The Ruins, after all, are a dangerous place, and having so many delicious bags of meat and screaming walking around in chains is sure to draw Scavengers. What follows from there will depend on whether the characters are willing to follow a perfect stranger (who lives in the Ruins, mind) into his home. This is, after all, a very high-stress situation. Everyone is suddenly stronger, faster, and keener of sense than they normally are in spite of being starved, dehydrated, and exhausted. On top of that, they are displaying weird powers and fighting off creatures that want nothing more than to eat them with a small side salad. There's no guarantee they will want to follow Tyr. At least being caught by the slavers, they all have some sort of vague kinship. Tyr, on the other hand, not only lives in the very Ruins that are the source of childrens horror stories, but is well armed and clearly bestial to some degree in his behaviour.

Whether or not you do an introduction is up to you. Like I said in the rules, you can write as much or as little as you want. Personally, I write background because I like establishing who my character is and why he behaves a certain way without having to recount his life story IC. Also, I just...I dunno, I like to write about my characters for my own sake. It kind of sets in stone who he really is, and the act of writing things out makes it easier to see where I might be slipping into Sue-dom or where his backstory is nonsensical or vague.

[Crooked Thoughts]

You know, originally both of my weapons were basic weapons. The sword still resembled the Halo Energy Sword, but was metal and resided in a sheath most of the time. And the bow was a home made Composite Bow made of bones. But, I remembered that this was futuristic so I switched them over, though I still wasn't sure of what level of tech would be made available. Either way, I figured living in the ruins of the fallen city would make someone privy to better swag than others who think the land cursed and probably have not picked it clean just yet.

However, in keeping with my character being primitive, I wasn't sure he would even understand how to use such advanced weaponry. Once again, that refers to what the land considers basic and advanced. For now, I will revert them both back to basic weapons. Unless I decide I want him to have more of ranged or melee advantage.

I was thinking his shifting powers would be an ability that must be conditioned over time in order to increase the effects. I wasn't sure if I wanted him to shift into a humanoid wolf or a beast-like wolf, either way I figured the advantage of taking such a form would be bonuses to his physical attributes and I was thinking of having a couple of his other abilities only be offered in his wolf form, offering further balance.

As far as his time constraint went, I was thinking 1 hour to 2 hours max and this would be at mastery level. In trade for a such short duration, the transformation is near instant, taking only a few seconds to happen as it magic based form. I also considered his transformation being more of curse, forcing itself on him during full moons or at night period. The latter sounded really interesting to me.

His animal empathy, would be as you said, but I had constrained it to wolves only. I was going to research just how he goes about doing this. Whether it is some sort of sixth sense that allow the two beings to understand one another or if he would be howling and barking at them.... Communicating with anymore animals than wolves would break his initial limit of imprinting on one creature.

Hehe, your version of his danger sense is actually a lot stronger than I ever intended for it to be.

I was going to base it on the D&D Feat: Sense Motive, most likely... Because I didn't want to constrain myself by constantly checking with you as the GM about what will happen next as to make the ability consistent, the power would have be second nature and only discern small things that I as the reader can pick up on by using foreshadowing. Plus, the ability is called Danger Sense, not Danger Foresight. I didn't want him completely foreseeing any type of danger, just not be caught off guard when something does happens; anything more would be crossing the line into Future Sight. The ability is really passive, there to give my character foundation when he says "I think something bad is going to happen" or "I don't have a good feeling about this guy". In roleplays, characters often have that moment and have no basis for it, other than their gut intuition. Sensing and reacting is two different things, so just because my character THINKS he knows something will happen, doesn't mean he will have the ability to avoid it.

Besides, I got the idea from how animals can usually sense when something bad will happen.



My suggestion was made in the assumption that everyone would trust the stranger who is used to such dangerous situations. He would probably have earned their trust in some pseudo act of generosity in addition to saving their lives. The only humans Tyr has ever known were his family who are now dead and gone. Since then, the only people he has trusted are animals. So for someone who lives only for his own survival and the protection of his animal companions, is taking a great leap by offering his hand. I assumed he would have been stalking them since their arrival and take pitty on them while also being curious as to who and what they are.

But, I was just taking a stab at the story. I enjoy planning what will happen just as much as I do when writing what happened/is happening.

[MilkHoney]

I wake up to 1.5 characters. Really good start to the day.

Earlier, looking at Cammara's bio I felt uneasy because I'd begun narrating. Did not do that on purpose (which shows because I jump in and out of descriptive language like it was a game of Hopscotch). Typically that's summarization territory for me. Was considering rewriting it to take it down to the bones of her background. Now I want to rewrite it for consistency in style and story. Wouldn't have gone that direction before seeing Milo's bio (which is beautiful, by the way).

Crooked Thoughts, if you want to, if it helps you, go for it. I've written up character profiles in the style of medical records, inventories, fairy tales, religious text, 1890s Oscar Wilde, etc. Sometimes I mimic a format being used by a group, keep it minimalistic, or expand on a given skeleton profile to get myself comfortable with a complex character or one I have trouble relating to. What do you usually do?

What I've noticed thus far: Tyr has a surprisingly evolved fashion sense. Milo needs chapstick. Out of the three, Cammara is the most socialized, which is really really sad. She lived with paranoid isolationist geriatrics. And a combination of things Crooked Thoughts has said is giving me a visual that has me laughing and tsk-tsking myself for a lack of maturity. If it happens IC without me mentioning it OOC, I'll be even more amused.

I scoff the idea we lack outlets. There's Milo. Sure, his life energy would be drained away as someone callously took the last dregs of electricity in him to fuel a weapon, and his life isn't a renewable resource. But really, priorities, People. Need to juice the plasma sword.

Starting from the slave caravan before it entered the Ruins would be a fatal stall, no argument there. Starting from the slave caravan after it has entered the Ruins would be the first instance all characters currently in creation would be near each other, but interaction would be very limited with two out of three in chains. Starting when all hell breaks loose sounds like fun. I agree it would be best to have more people before we start but that we shouldn't hold our breath waiting. I'm going to bump the Roleplayers Wanted ad. Have Alittas, A Rubber Chicken or Byte been contacted to see if they are still interested?

[Crooked Thoughts]

Since I usually play the role of GM in my RPs, I have a pretty standard character application that I use in all of them. With a few modifications, it can be tailor made to fit different genres and that specific roleplay; it is actually used by a number of other players and GMs on this site. So this is what I am using now. From there, I add coding and pictures to make it that much more interesting, plus it makes for an easier read.

But, I don't know what your talking about... Tyr is the life of every wolf social event. >_>

[mechanimated]

@ Crooked Thoughts: I wanted to make sure to impose some sort of limitations, especially on the powers, because from the very basic outline you have in your intro it wasn't clear where you drew the line. It's good to see self-imposed limits - it makes me more at ease about Tyr not turning out to be some unassailable badass who laughs in the face of death. The reason I'm putting such a strict limit on weapons is that while a lot of the tech in the Ruins is powerful and still functional, the majority of it is buried in rubble or has been taken by the Scavengers that have lived there since the collapse. I noticed that I failed to give a more distinct time frame other than "hundreds of years" since the earthquake decimated Luxia, but more precisely it's been close to 700 years, give or take a decade. Calendars are rather a thing of the past outside of self-made agricultural ones designed by those who farm for their livelihood. The Scavengers would have been picking the Ruins clean since day one, especially since it would have been early on that the tech would have been hardest to live without. Having 'energy' weapons is perfectly reasonable, and even more outlandish things are possible, but the point of the Ruins is that no one could ever live there as a typical alpha creature. Stealth and smarts go a much longer way than brute strength, because while the Scavengers rarely purposefully work together, they WILL all pursue the same goal simultaneously, meaning that though they are unlikely to formulate plans and share the spoils, drawing attention to yourself would result in fighting off god knows how many of them simultaneously. If you do choose to have plain old regular weapons, I will still allow only one of the two. A ranged weapon AND a melee weapon is still pretty OP considering this is a sort of surviving-by-the-skin-of-your-teeth scenario. No one else is going to be armed, or hell, even particularly well clothed. Plus, the more in-depth knowledge of the Ruins is a weapon in itself.

@ MilkHoney: I'm glad you approve - personally I felt it seemed rather schizophrenic, but I guess I can't help but be more critical of my own writing. We all have plenty of time to rework our bios for the moment, so tweak until you are satisfied. Personally, I thought Cammara had a pretty damn fine background goin' for her. Very much suited to the way I envisioned the Wasteland and how people lived there.

As for Alittars, ARC, and Byte, none of them have further contacted me. Fingers crossed and all, but I think they may have split for good. I bumped the thread too just earlier today in the hopes of attracting a few more folks. I really wanna see this work with a decent sized group.



Also, kind of a general note for everyone, I've mentioned the Ruins being 16 miles in diameter. To give you all a better idea of how that translates to real life, Manhattan is 13 miles long tip to tip, and about 3.5 miles wide. Average human walking speed over smooth terrain is about 4 miles an hour, so as the crow flies it would take about 4 hours to cross the Ruins edge to edge in any direction. In practice, because of the rubble and the ravine that cuts through part of the decimated city, it would take the better part of two days to cross safely. The slave caravan enters the Ruins near the southern edge of the Ravine.