Approved players: The Federal Republic of Nacrad
The United Socialist States of The Quarvian Hegemony
The People's Republic of New Curon
3/5 slots are taken. Applications are still open!
RP Gamemaster: The Republic of Cayucas
Gamemaster's Puppet: The Cayucan Puppet
IC Thread
On December 19th, 2020, 3:00 AM PDT, the US Space Force launched a classified six man mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Its mission was a high stakes, highly specialized repair and servicing of a classified satellite network.
But on 3:08 AM, just some eight minutes after launch, all communications in or out from the vessel were abruptly cut off. No radio communications, no livefeeds, nothing.
At first, Space Force determined that the good news was that the crew was still alive. The vessel couldn't have experienced a critical external failure: visual and radar observations confirmed the vessel was still in one piece, albeit transmitting nothing to Vandenberg. It couldn't have been an internal failure either: observations shortly after confirmed that the vessel was changing course for an interception with the ISS, a rendezvous that would take the vessel about a day, give or take several hours. These were maneuvers weren't automated; the astronauts themselves had to set the course.
But at that point, Space Force deduced that was now bad news: the crew was still alive. The vessel was going AWOL. A multimillion dollar vessel with a multibillion dollar, highly classified set of payload and intelligence. How could the US Space Force let such a high stakes vessel go AWOL? What's worse, what was it doing heading for the Space Station?
Whatever the reason was, the US Space Force figured the answer could be summarized quite problematically: they were up to no good.
It is a sensitive position that requires precision and careful strategy. Shooting the vessel out of orbit poses too much risk both for the ISS and the image of the US, but simply letting the vessel dock with the ISS may be even worse to say the least. With its own tier one resources occupied elsewhere in the world, the US has decided to call on an elite team recruited from the world's best. Their objectives, plain and simple: protect the lives of the ISS and stop that ship.
Hi everyone! Been ages since I did an RP around here, definitely going to be my first on this nation. I haven't seen an open RP yet that's piqued my attention. I have a idea for a relatively quick, low investment RP that popped to mind. I think I'm in the mood for something like that to ease back into the flow of things. So I'll do just that.
Aside from the standard issue like "don't play unfair, try not to be a jerk at least on purpose, and OP has final say:"
- This is intended to be a PvE style RP. Aside from your's truly also playing the NPCs on the side, all other participants will play in favor of aiding the US in its hour of need. I don't feel like complicating this RP with player opposition.
- Combat is meant to be limited in this RP to at most ~6 combatant personnel. This number doesn't include support personnel, but the point is to keep it more focused on the characters, the Intrigue, and narrative rather than large scale military action. If it comes to large battle-group scale conflicts, it's considered a Game Over for the RP. Each nation gets a singular tier one level SOF operative as their means for combat.
- To balance this, since each SOF operative is basically each participant's main character, these characters will be given a fair amount of lee-way in their personal capabilities and their survival in the plot. They're the stars of the show, they'll be treated as such.
- This limit in combatants is not a limit in characters for RP. You'll be encouraged at various points to RP out high level politicians, officers, or other important individuals. As an international incident, it should go without saying this has its consequences outside of the ISS itself.
- Substance is generally expected in RP posts. I'm not going to disqualify one-liners since this RP is likely going to involve a fair chunk of back-and-forth dialog and combat actions that don't warrant long prose. But I am going to say that I expect participants to give their posts and their actions some thought before execution.
- This RP assumes Modern Tech levels and is not adjusted for NS Stat scales. I don't expect this to be too much of an issue since combatants are so limited anyway, but it's worth mentioning just in case. There's room for a bit of lee-way to fairly cater to flavor, but this RP is more or less made with real life in mind as the benchmark excuse for a couple of plot device like bits. Please avoid using statistics and/or equipment that would be OP in comparison without asking first (or at the least if you do, limit their actual application in this RP to the realm of practicality.) If you're unsure where your possible tech or stats stand, don't hesitate to ask. Speaking of real life,
- As an Open RP, this RP will reference an NS Earth with a few specific caveat Handwaves for convenience. Explicitly outlined caveats include:
- All participating countries are assumed to be within reasonably close distance to each other. To give a very rough estimate, distances are at most ~1 hour away by flight or ~1 week away by sail. Since this is intended to be a quick oneshot, we'll excuse the logistics and practicalities of how that works and mapping it all out.
- To keep the story focused on itself rather than outside implications, we will ignore a couple of influential and possibly controversial points in modern history. COVID-19 and the Trump presidency will be handwaved aside in this RP. For the sake of quickly attaching a fairly robust fictional alternative, we'll just say the Bartlet Administration's Season 1 cabinet and White House senior staff is serving in the Executive branch for the time being.
- For the sake of getting the ball rolling, we'll excuse conflicts in plot, history, and etc. leading up to the start of the RP. That's not a free ticket to abuse the past and put yourself in an unfair advantage or twist around history for reasons beyond national aesthetic, but it is to say you don't have to worry about the nitty-gritty.
- The major exception to this is that you cannot RP as China, the United States, or any other nation that's contributed to the ISS, either directly or as an analog. The US, and in conjunction other ISS contributors, will play a pivotal role as an NPCs in this RP.
- As an Open, NS Earth RP not focused on territory, we'll excuse RL Earth territory positioning and simply rely on the distance rule mentioned previously. Don't give the implications to this much if any thought. You'll get a headache if you do.
- The passage of time will be dictated by consensus and the OP's discretion. In other words, it's going to be pretty fluid and dictated by what's convenient for long write-ups. To set the scene first thing, time is likely going to go at a snails pace, perhaps like one RL day = one RP hour. Once we're settled in a game plan, there'll likely be time skips to advance to bouts of intrigue and action. We can figure out when time skips will occur by majority consensus, gamemaster's vote doubled to prevent possible ties.
- This RP will be fairly on-the-rails up until arrival to low Earth orbit. If nothing else in this RP, all six of the coalition SOF operatives will make it to space to defend the lives of the ISS. How precisely they'll get up there and what they bring will be up to their consensus (this will be properly elaborated on in character,) but the soldiers will make it up in orbit. After that, all bets are off on how the story unfolds.
- Probability (ie. a whole lot of Dice Rolling and DnD influenced principles) will play a distinct role in the mechanics and outcome of this RP. What this ultimately means is that while player agency remains in the participant's hands, the results of their actions and actions afflicted on them may be—or at least encouraged to be—outside of their control as normally expected in an NS RP.
- To elaborate on that, I understand NS RP's often have a mentality of "Player A dictates the actions against Player B. Player B gets to decide how they're damaged/affected." I will respect this precedence, especially in IC action agency. However, I will be posting in the OOC thread non-prescriptive dice roll results as they apply to participants, their characters, and their actions. These will not describe the IC actions, just the results as the Dice decree. I leave it up to the player to determine how precisely IC they succeed, fail, are damaged, or are otherwise affected by the dice value/result. I maintain expected authority over how NPCs and environmental factors (eg. satellites, piloted ships to a fair degree) are controlled.
Above all else, let's focus on writing a solid story together and have some fun fighting Space Baddies!
- The Federal Republic of Nacrad
Brigadier (OF-7) Simon S. Cheng, Technical and strategic aid
(Application) - The United Socialist States of The Quarvian Hegemony
Wing Commander (OF-5) Karma Laron, Flight Engineer, Payload Specialist
(Application) - The People's Republic of New Curon
Division Commander (OF-4) Lawrence "Vulture" Kassim, Surveillance and Suppression of Hostile Assets
(Application)
- RP Gamemaster: The Republic of Cayucas
Captain (OF-2) Floyd Machado, Fixed wing pilot
(Application below)
The Gamemaster, aka OP or Host, maintains standard authority expected in an RP. The Gamemaster will control the NPCs involved in the RP, both PROFOR and OPFOR. - Gamemaster's Puppet: The Cayucan Puppet (—)
Since the Gamemaster is playing along with the players, the Puppet will be used to post actions and dialog committed by NPCs.
As the guidelines imply, this RP has a maximum of six participants including the gamemaster, making for a total of five open slots. Since this is the first RP I'll be participating in on this nation, I think it's fair for me to say I can't be too much of a beggar here if/when applications come in. Application approval will be prioritized by a first come, first served basis. I'll be understanding if your written stats, country's documentation, or RP experience is minimal or lacking. That said, I reserve the right to explicitly deny a country's application if a notable amount of RP without substance is found in the country's post history, among other reasons.
The following form is required from all prospective participants. It should be enough information to get the ball rolling.
- Code: Select all
[box][size=150][b]Nation Overview[/b][/size]
[b]Nation's full formal name:[/b]
[b]Nation's shorthand name:[/b]
[b]Nation's capital:[/b]
[b]Head of government:[/b]
[size=150][b]Tier one SOF[/b][/size]
[b]Name of SOF unit:[/b]
[b]Branch of military the unit is in, if applicable:[/b]
[b]Operative name:[/b]
[b]Operative native rank:[/b]
[b]Operative rank, NATO equivalent:[/b]
[b]General role of the operative:[/b]
[b]Operative gender:[/b]
[b]Operative height:[/b]
[b]Operative age:[/b]
[b]Describe the general physical, mental, and emotional characteristics of the operative:[/b][/box]
The following form is optional, but can possibly help in nuanced circumstances or in probability rolls.
- Code: Select all
[box][size=150][b]Tier one SOF[/b][/size]
Probability rolls will be based on a DnD 5E style gameplay. For simplicity' sake, we'll only focus on the primary six Ability Scores. Try not to read too much into it or research the more involved mechanics, because admittedly I'm fairly rusty with the more advanced mechanics myself. This is intended to be a fairly basic RP, so I'm streamlining things to make it simpler and accessible for everyone involved.
You are granted [b]84 points total (ie. 14 per ability)[/b] to disperse across the six abilities. You cannot exceed 20 in any one ability. You're generally not advised to have an ability under 8 points. If you choose not to specify your Ability Scores yourself, the Gamemaster may consult with or prescribe you a default and fair set based between the 14-per average and your operative's general role.
[b]Strength:[/b]
[b]Dexterity:[/b]
[b]Constitution:[/b]
[b]Intelligence:[/b]
[b]Wisdom:[/b]
[b]Charisma:[/b]
From the list below, highlight one Ability Saving Throw and two skills for your operative to be proficient in. Note that the Gamemaster will assign you either one free proficient skill or a nonlisted proficiency (eg. proficiency in a certain class of firearms) based on your operative's background. If you choose not to select either a saving throw, proficiencies, or both, the Gamemaster may consult with or prescribe you a set based around your character's background:
[b]SAVING THROWS[/b]
Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
[b]SKILLS[/b]
Acrobatics
Mechanics
Computers
Athletics
Deception
History
Insight
Intimidation
Investigation
Medicine
Nature
Perception
Performance
Persuasion
Piloting
Sleight of Hand
Stealth
Survival
[b]Describe the operative's backstory. Consider writing about topics like their upbringing, their experience in the military, noteworthy strengths and weaknesses, their personal life, etc.:[/b][/box]
Since this seems to be fairly uncharted territory as applied to an NS RP, I should probably emphasize that I'm open to any questions to clarify the mechanics behind decisions made in the application. Once your application is approved, feel free to consult with me to potentially make any changes in your app's statistics.
I'll fill out an application in full as an example of what I generally expect:
Day 1 Roadmap
Because I'm a bit of a busy bee at the moment with Finals, there's a few things I haven't quite worked on yet that I plan to have ironed out by next week. This includes:
- Tactical maps of the ISS and utilized launch vehicles.
- Iconography of involved NPC factions.
- The Tech MacGuffins and balancing them.
Other than that, I'm looking forward to applications and hearing your thoughts!