Warwalker: Genesis - Real Robot RP Sign Up Thread

Welcome!

This is a real robot RP set in an alternate 1960's where Tesla and Edison's companies have spent the last 75 years pushing tech forward at an alarming rate, with giant robots being the logical endgame. It's somewhat freeform, and it's somewhat serious, but also willing to poke fun at itself and do things just because they are cool or funny, in a similar vein to Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Players are mercenaries in a PMC that takes jobs from the government, Tesla, and Edison, due to providing them with deniability and anonymity. For all outward appearances, the PMC, "Global Parcel Delivery" claims to be a simple mail service. In actuality, they send their mercs on awesome missions where they pilot "Warwalkers" - the mechs. A bigger*

backstory is here.

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Rules
Many play-by-post games tend to forget that people want to play, so this is going to let you not only roleplay, but also let you experience some strategic gameplay. Combat's going to use a simplified ruleset, which is a blend of freeform and mechanics - I've abstracted the weapons a bit so you don't have to worry about knowing what the rate-of-fire on a plasma thrower is, how many mortar shells are in a mech, or how many seconds it takes a railgun to reload. Basically, there will be "turns" where the players say what stuff their characters do, and the enemies get a turn where they can do stuff too. The only stuff you do have to worry about is knowing how many turns it takes a weapon to reload, how many turns of ammo it has, and what range it's effective at. I tried to aim for something that lets me avoid the headache of laying out specific timelines to let everyone know when their weapons have reloaded or run out, while still letting you guys have the ability to do nearly anything you want.

Also, if you sign up, at least try to give enough of a damn to put this thing on your watchlist and post every now and then. It's not like I'll track you down and beat you with a sock filled with nickels if you don't, but it just ruins everyone else's fun if you only post on the third Saturday of each month.

And, um, normal RP rules apply, so no autohitting or ghosting*

, no controlling other player's characters without their consent, etc. But most importantly, be respectful to each other and try not to go berserk - at the end of the day, it's still just a game.

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The mechs themselves are somewhat streamlined and modular, designed to accept a multitude of mass-produced weaponry and modifications on the arms, shoulders and back. The light mechs look somewhat sleek, are about 15 feet tall and pretty damn fast and agile, and while not capable of literally dancing around the battlefield, are quite graceful. Heavy mechs are 22 feet tall, much slower and less graceful, but can carry more powerful equipment and take more damage. The mechs have some standard equipment, with customizable weaponry, modifications, and appearance. There's no sustained flying, but there are factory-installed jumpjets, which let a mech... jump... by acting like a sort of temporary ten-second jetpack.*

if you've played MechAssault, it's just like that

Pilots sit inside the torso of the mech, looking out via a series of cameras, and control the mech using the vehicle's numerous buttons, sticks, and force-feedback systems, but you can specify that morer signup. Mechs are airtight and waterproof, filter air for the pilot, and hold a few reserve tanks of oxygen.

When it comes to weapons systems, heavy mechs can equip all standard weapons, and also equip heavy weaponry. While light mechs are more limited in weapon selection, some of the weapons are not as useful or practical for heavy mechs, like the cable whip. Energy weapons do not need ammo like conventional ones, as they use excess energy that's been stored in the mech's batteries and capacitors, but they have limitations. A normal gun can shoot at its max rate as long as there's ammo, but an energy weapon can only fire for short (not too short, though) periods of time. Additionally, bullets go right through energy shields, while energy weapons are blocked and reduce the shield's available energy.

Each mech gets 4 slots to fit things into: left arm, right arm, shoulders, back - unless they have perks, see below. Unless otherwise indicated, weapons are usually stored in the arms and modifications on the back or shoulders, with most gun-type weapons capable of being mounted on the shoulders. The list of weapons and mods can be found here.

Each player gets to choose up to two perks*

, but you don't have to. The list of perks is here.

Signup sheet

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Character

• Name:
• Callsign (optional):
• Age: 18+
• Sex:
• Appearance:
  • Flightsuit+Helmet:
  • Casualwear:
• Brief Backstory: At the very least explain why your character is in the PMC, as well as why they know enough about piloting to be entrusted with expensive mechs instead of simply being another member of the infantry sent into the meat grinder. Try not to write a Mary Sue.
• Any other information:

Mech

• Name (optional):
• Size: You can pick the light mech, or the heavy mech.
  • Perk: You can choose up to two perks, but it's optional.
• Appearance: Customize away. Pilots are in the torso, so even heads are optional. But give it a pair of standard arms and legs unless you choose one of the perks that change that.
• Left Arm:
• Right Arm:
• Back:
• Shoulder:
• Any other information:

The discussion can be found here.

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Players:
Light Mechs

• Karina Zhukov - "Aleph" - Tiny - Chubert
• Robert Griffin - "Archer" - Wysp
• Bart Carson - "Cold Turkey" - Fry - Firock Finion

Heavy Mechs

• Tefari Zamanuael - "Red Lion" - Soloman - Fauxlosophe
• Shane Miller - "Grindstone" - Stormthorn
• Levi Negev - "Sand Hawk" - Samson - rabbit Rider

edited 21st Jul '12 2:38:00 PM by nman

• Name: Tefari Zamanuael [Alias: Samuel Jones/Berger, depending on location]
• Callsign: Red Lion ["The Lion of Makale"]
• Age: 42
• Sex: Male
• Appearance: An inch or two taller than average, dark skined with a shaved head.
• Flightsuit+Helmet: Whatever is available. Currently uses an old French flight suit that with insignia from Ghana.
• Casualwear: Usually wearing sunglasses and often a heavier formal coat in the colder climes of Europe. Otherwise seen in formal clothing, often carrying a gun.
• Brief Backstory: Joined his homeland in the Ethopian-Italian Wars at the age of 15. The conflict was soon over and he managed to smuggle his way into British African Forces for the remainder of the war, even participating in the invasion of Italy, an irony he rather enjoyed. After the war, he joined various revolutionary nationalist/leftist groups across Africa, typically aiming for the more secular ones. When France and the other European nations began releasing their African colonies peacibly, he found himself invovled in several leftist terrorist groups aiming for further national independance from European finacial dependance. Even participating in the successful revolution against the Ethopian Imperial Regime. As the revolutionies either settled, waned or were established, he found himself steady work as a bodyguard but maintains ties to many groups and to a degree resents his work as a PMC but accepts it as a necessity.
• Any other information: Tefari is employed by Levi as a bodyguard, they have a long standing partnership running guns and weapons for less than legimitate groups using Tefari's connections to the Leftist and African underworld and Levi's connections to businesses with an 'excess of arms'

• Name: 'Soloman'
• Size: Heavy
• Perk:
  • Armless [Redundant Sort of but I can't help but picture it Armless]
  • Weapons Platform
• Appearance: Descriped sometimes as a two legged Frog with the Torso of a Revovler, the Soloman is far from the most anthromorphic Warwalker. It has two heavy hindlegs which bend backwards. Two heavy Oxy-Incinerators are covered by a wide rim of heavy armor over them. The Back is filled to the brim with suplimentry equipment to keep it firing.
  • Left Shoulder: Oxy-Incinerator.
  • Right Shoulder: Oxy-Incinerator.
  • Top Shoulder: Hunker Shield.
  • Left Back: Energy Capacitor [-1 Load Time].
  • Right Back: Energy Capacitor [-1 Load Time].
• Any other information: Based on modified captured German Models from the late War Period, Scientists who fled to the United States undertook many experimental efforts to reutilize the German Rocket Pods to reinforce terror and confusion in enemy units. Ethiopians imported many of the early models, particularly the US 'Kilpatrick', eventually modifying them with parts from the imported British 'Pendragon' Warwalker, in order to create a uniquely Ethopian Model; The Soloman. When the US ceased production as a mainline model, Ethopia was given the rights to produce them wholesale in exchange for supplying them as supplimentary models as long as the US requested them. Presently it is the main Warwalker of the Empire of Ethopia and the only one in domestically produced by them.

Mé féin ag daṁsa faoin ngealaċ seanrince gan ċeol leis ach ceol cuisle. DS FC: 4141-3472-4041, feel free to add me.

Character

• Name: Karina Zhukov

• Callsign: Aleph

• Age: 31

• Sex: Female

• Appearance:
  • Karina's flightsuit is olive-green and loose.

  • Karina usually wears her flightsuit casually as well. She is short, barely over five feet tall, with dirty blonde hair. Her face is narrow and she has a perpetual squint.

• Brief Backstory: Karina's father, her only surviving parent, was killed in WWII when she was seven. It was all very tragic and Karina resolved to take care of her little brother Alexis as best as she could because now she was all he had left before the government decided it cared more about not getting fucked by the Germans who had blitzkrieged their way right outside Moscow and threw her into a war factory. Russian propaganda did a pretty good job of making her really hate the Germans and like the government that was protecting her from the Germans, but as the war ended and the Russian state continued to not give a fuck, Karina, with Alexis, embarked upon an extremely reckless cross-country trip across Eastern Europe. The journey was fueled by thievery, bribery, and morally dubious favors. Along the way, Karina picked up the skills needed to acquire one of the passports allowing transport between East and West Berlin. She crossed safely a bit over a year after WWII had ended. In the American Zone of West Berlin, Karina found work at an American military installation, which actually had the time and resources to give a fuck. There, she learned how to pilot the new Warwalkers, as a primitive version was being used to lift heavy supplies. At age 19. given her experience, the Americans taught Karina how to pilot an actual Warwalker and allowed her to "enlist" in the military. Karina saw no actual combat until she joined the Parcel Delivery service to get a higher paycheck.

• Other Information: Karina has a very strong sense of loyalty and duty. She will shoulder any burden given to her without complaint. She is very stubborn and does not often bend to the wills of her immediate peers. Around anybody who is not her family, Karina puts up an icy, cold exterior. But beneath that icy exterior lie several additional layers of introverted neuroses and anxiety, a product of an innate fear and distaste of extraneous human relationships. In Karina's ideal world, all her relationships outside her family are extremely professional.

Mech

• Name: Tiny

• Size: Light

• Perk: Kinetic

• Appearance: Roughly humanoid, Tiny is painted red and black. Its slender torso has the pilot sitting almost upright. Overlapping plates of armor give it a vaguely reptilian appearance. The head, which is entirely superfluous, sports a perpetual grin.

• Right arm: Vibroblade.

• Left arm: Flamethrower

• Shoulder: Machine Gun

• Back: Stealth System

• Other: Tiny is a standard-issue scouter Warwalker modified for ambush and melee combat. In her first job with the Parcel Delivery, Karina trashed her own Warwalker in combat with a criminal piloting a stolen next-generation (seventh) Warwalker. The other pilot was killed as a result, and his more modern Warwalker was taken as a trophy by Karina.

edited 10th Jul '12 12:53:32 AM by Chubert

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

Character

• Name: Robert Griffin
• Callsign (optional): Archer
• Age: 25
• Sex: Male, of course. It's still the 60s.
• Appearance: 5' 11", physically fit but wiry. Green eyes, brown buzzcut hair. Typically holds himself with confidence. He speaks with a Southern twang.
  • Flightsuit+Helmet: The flightsuit is olive drab, as is normal. His helmet is stylized with an image of an English longbow and the name "ARCHER" across the front. Other than that, it is drab grey. He carries a KA-BAR and M1911 pistol at all times, along with a survival kit (walker pilots are educated at the USAF's SERE school).
  • Casualwear: KA-BAR holstered on leg under loose jeans and M1911 at his hip on a leather belt. He wears a tan t-shirt unless weather demands otherwise.
• Brief Backstory: Raised on his father's stories from the Second World War, Robert was eager to bring back his own stories, and upon turning 18, he quickly enlisted in the U.S. Army and served a term in Vietnam as a "walker," Army slang for a mech pilot. He served in the Military Assistance Advisory Group, and saw action in 1959 at Bien Hoa, a Vietnamese military base attacked by Communist guerrillas. He was rotated home and retired. Unsatisfied with the single taste of battle he'd had, he joined GPD to try and see some more action, although he's in the Army Reserve as well, should his country ever call on him. Taught the important of non-conventional combat by his opponents in Vietnam, he studied tactics and specialized in unconventional warfare, such as ambushes.

Mech

• Name (optional): N/A
• Size: Light
• Perk: 1.21 Gigawatts, BFG
• Appearance: Archer's mech is typically covered by a camouflage netting, dirtied up by local flora and debris. However, in its unconcealed state it is quite utilitarian, primarily a box (with angled surfaces, an armoring technique) with arms and legs, carrying a huge railgun and with a flamethrower for close-range combat if necessary. Behind the right arm is a shield which can be deployed (and often is) in preparation for incoming fire, and it has a slot in it for weapons, allowing it to be repurposed as a tripod when necessary. However, the mech is also designed to be able to get out of an area as quickly as it came in, and for that reason there's a machete (graded for trees, not mechs) under one arm, for those occasions when a flamethrower is simply too noticeable. The entire mech is painted in jungle camo.
  • Left Arm: Flamethrower (CR, 0 Reload)
  • Right Arm: Railgun (VLR, 3 Reload)
  • Back: Capacitor Bank (-1 Reload Time)
  • Shoulder: Blast Shield
  • Any other information: The pilot navigates primarily by means of cameras, and long-range targets are provided by standard radar, the same used on airplanes like the F-4 Phantom (fun fact: this, plus the range on his gun, means that Archer can hit an incoming enemy plane). It is also augmented by the presence of new, exclusive-to-the-seventh-generation FLIR technology, which can point out a human being's body heat at significant ranges and adapts to the environment to ensure that a human's body heat will always be discernible by the pilot.

edited 8th Jul '12 11:38:19 PM by Wysp

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Warwalkers are made by Tesla and Edison, so a Russian mech on-par with the others wouldn't work out.*

You could have one from the USA, western Europe, Canada, Africa, or Latin America, and if you 'really wanted, maybe even India, the Middle East, or Australia. And because GPD takes jobs from the two companies and American government, they wouldn't recruit someone right out of the USSR (or China or Japan). So, I dunno, maybe just slightly tweak it, with your character having fled the USSR at some point and become a citizen of one of those European border states, and maybe make the mech Finish or Swesidh or something else? Basically, you have to have a mech that your character can plausibly obtain by asking the requisitions people, and then maintain/repair/modify using things designed for Tesla/Edison tech.

Accepted, if you promise to never use the machete in combat, or have it affect combat in any way.*

Otherwise, to avoid people complaining about your mech having an extra weapon, I'd have to treat you fairly and ask that you replace an arm slot with a vibroblade. Oh, also, all that stuff about radar and systems - that was more-or-less the "default" stuff I had in mind, so you could expect everyone's mech to be able to do that. Or did you want to take the Radar perk instead?

edited 9th Jul '12 7:33:03 AM by nman

(About the USSR deploying mechs on par with Western stuff: They certainly would not, but their engineers aren't stupid (The AK-47 is the only gun ever to make it onto a nation's flag, AFAIK) and they'd be able to work from the blueprints KGB agents brought back. They did have an entire directorate of the KGB dedicated to industrial espionage. They'd be able to design their own mechs).

No, I have no intentions of using the machete in combat—that's why I said it was good for wood, not mechs' armor plating. :P I didn't know that was the default stuff, so i figured I should specify. (Also, FLIR was just barely being developed around this time IRL, which is why I decided to state that it was 7th-gen tech.)

So when can we expect this to start?

edited 9th Jul '12 7:38:00 AM by Wysp

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Shhh, shit man, stop spoiling all the bosses

And it'll start when it's ready. I think at least 8 people, or a few days.

edited 9th Jul '12 7:39:44 AM by nman

SHAGOHOOOOD

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Character

• Name: Shane Miller
• Callsign (optional): Grindstone at the time of his retirement. Was Buckwheat previously.
• Age: 44
• Sex: Male
• Appearance: A tall older (he looks a bit older than he is) white male with permastubble, graying hair, and sharp gray eyes.
  • Flightsuit+Helmet: Outdated Warwalker combat suit for U.S. military. Heavily patched with a number of small X’s stitched onto it.
  • Casualwear: Fatigues
• Brief Backstory: SFC Miller retired with honors four years ago after a long and valiant career as a Warwalker pilot for the U.S. army. Following his brief disastrous stint as a civilian he sold most all of his belonging, bought an old mecha, and showed up on the doorstep of the PMC.
• Any other information: Gruff, fatherly to juniors, and utterly dedicated to his mission and squad (although not his PMC). Got an upgrade from Buckwheat (a tease on his last name) to the much more badass Grindstone (also his last name) after a combat mission where he walked his mech backwards out of the combat zone fending off waves of light armor during a retreat. His CO observed that he was "grinding those SO Bs to dust" and a new callsign was born.

Mech

• Name (optional): The Bitch
• Size: Heavy.
• Perk: Weapon Platform; Kinetic
• Appearance: A massive and chunky outdated U.S. model with randomly applied updated parts. The entire machine is a dented and unpainted gunmetal gray
• Left Arm: Chainsaw
• Right Arm: Shrapnel Gun
• Back: Ammo Pod
• Shoulder: (two slots) Gatling Gun and Gatling Gun

edited 13th Jul '12 9:53:17 PM by Stormthorn

While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.

Made changes to the background part of my character. Does it still tingle the worldbuilding consistency senses?

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

I'd buy it. Sounds like a lot of other people who made the same trip.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Forgot to mention it, all four characters are good to go. *

I don't know if he'd be able to own one as a civilian - or even as an officer - or where he'd be allowed to use it if he bought one.*

But for being able to afford one, considering the setting, it wouldn't be surprising for there to be thousands of those outdated mechs sitting in a warehouse or bunker somewhere, gathering dust. So if Shane tells the PMC he wants to use an older mech, I imagine the response would be something like "you want a cheap old mech instead of a shiny new multimillion dollar one? Sure. Hell, you can have it. Have two. I got dozens," which would make it possible to own one without being obscenely rich.

I still don't know how to explain what he'd be able to do with it, though, so we might have to just make it a bit ambiguous about what he actually does with it.

edited 10th Jul '12 5:37:43 PM by nman

• Name: Bart Carson
• Callsign: Cold Turkey
• Age: 21
• Sex: Male
• Appearance: Bart is caucasian, skinny, and tall, with short, messy black hair and brown eyes; he also has a light stubble of a beard and mustache. Looks younger than he actually is, constantly giving off the "kid who works the night shift at a gas station and gets high while nobody is there" vibe.
  • Flightsuit+Helmet: A plain blue-grey jumpsuit, combat boots, and a helicopter style flight helmet◊ which he totally didn't steal from some asshole chopper pilot who nobody liked anyway. Totally.
  • Casualwear: Whatever T-shirt and pair of jeans from his collection he didn't deem too dirty for even his tastes. Plus a pair of slip-on boots.
• Brief Backstory: For reasons he prefers not to disclose, Bart decided a year back or so that he really, really needed to become a military man. He dropped out of college and tried to sign up for the Army, then the Marines, then the National Guard. He didn't pass any of their standards. He then decided to try joining the GPD as a foot soldier. He still didn't pass. But when he was about to leave, an instructor mistook him for another recruit and dragged him off to a training session that he was 'late' for. Said session involved Bart being plopped into a mech, which he proved to be a bit of a natural at, excelling at being able to handle so much information coming in at once. After the mix up was resolved, Bart was put into the mech pilot training course. He passed, though just barely. Because of the unconventional nature of his passing, Bart was given a mech most of the other pilots consider shameful. A budget mech.
• Additional info: Bart does not in fact, as many seem to like to believe, like to get high. He does however enjoy the occasional cigarette.

Mech

• Name: Fry
• Size: Light
  • Perks: Armless, Hot blooded
• Appearance: Shaped like a land-based bird missing a neck,◊ Fry currently still has the default, flat blue-grey color scheme.
• Left shoulder: Ion machine gun
• Middle shoulder: Railgun
• Right shoulder: Shockwave generator
• Back: Capacitor bank
• Additional info: Fry is a "budget mech", built to still be effective, but also cheap, hence the lack of arms and less armor. Compared to models that didn't skimp their budget, Fry's model is typically considered a joke.

You are reading this.

As far as I know, the Marines at this time (I dunno about now) didn't have education standards—they'd accept anyone who could pass a physical (hence the nickname jarheads"). So I'm not sure how he didn't get into the Marines unless he was really scrawny, in which case he wouldn't be able to pilot a mech. There are reasons tankers and pilots are as fit as everyone else.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Well the idea with him owning one was selling everything and spending all his money to get one, under the assumption that the PMC will notice the dedication and single mindedness and not care that hes old or not a big fan of them.

See, I was realizing that if an upper-middle class person lived at the basest level possible decades and then sold there entire life, they would have a lot of casd.

To go more in depth, he left the military moderatly rich, found that he couldnt handle civilian life, spent all his money on the only thing he could think to buy, and took it to the people who would actually let him use it.

While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.

I dunno about the 60s but from what I've heard the modern-day rule of thumb is that you can't get American armor but British surplus is possible. I suspect there's a similar situation in play.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

@Wysp: Scrawny was the general idea I was going for. And I'll point out that our characters are working for a PMC, not a traditional military. They might not have the same standards for pilots.

You are reading this.

Hey, if he can pilot a mech and keep a few secrets, they won't care if he can't do a push-up.

Yeah, yeah, here ya go.

Pilot:

• Name: Levi Negev
• Callsign: Sand Hawk
• Age: 26
• Sex: Male
• Appearance:Fairly average height, with tousled dirty blond hair and stubble. He has brown eyes and a light tan. He is fairly skinny.
  • Flightsuit+Helmet: Levi uses an old Israeli dark blue flightsuit with a white helmet that he managed to buy off a drunk pilot, in order to fit in at Global Parcel Delivery.
  • Casualwear: Levi tends to wear very civilian clothes, generally ordinary shirts and jeans.
• Brief Backstory: Formerly a member of the Israeli military, Levi has extensive experience in the armed forces... as a desk clerk and accountant. However, he faked his paperwork to list his record as that of an ace Warwalker pilot, in order to earn a higher paycheck. This backfired when he received a lucrative offer from a PMC called "Global Parcel Delivery". Hesitant to pass up such a good offer, even if he was completely unqualified, he contacted an outside source: Samuel Jones, and made an agreement with him. Samuel would serve as a bodyguard and business partner in order to help them exploit the lucrative opportunity presented by the job offered.
• Any other information: Levi, while not necessarily a bad pilot, has far less experience than any of the true aces hired by the PMC. He works extensively with his partner, Jones, in combat and the two often fight to cover each others' weakness.

Mech:

• Name: Samson
• Size: heavy
• Perks:
  • BFG: Left shoulder Railgun.
  • Weapons platform.
• Appearance: Levi's Samson is clearly an old and oft-used machine of war. The exterior is a dull metallic gray, spotted with flecks of paint from former color schemes, small dents, and patched-up war wounds. The massive, squat frame bristles with large, long range guns and thick armor.
• Weapons and equipment:
  • Left Arm: Railgun artillery.
  • Right Arm: Railgun artillery.
  • Back: Drone.
  • Shoulders: Left: Railgun (BFG). Right: Gatling gun.
• Any other information: The Samson is the workhorse heavy mech of the Israeli military, capable of customization for close quarters, sniping, artillery, support, and more. Levi's version is primarily an artillery Warwalker, and works best with protection. It should be kept at maximum distance whenever possible.

edited 11th Jul '12 10:54:32 PM by rabbitRider

Your legacy shall drift away, blown into eternity, like the sands of the desert.

Sheesh, such an attitude....

And yeah, if anyone else wants to make a character, the RP is starting in twelve hours or less, and the first mission starts within the next couple of days, so keep that in mind.

But people can join whenever. The only time someone can't just jump right into the story is when everyone's on a mission.

edited 12th Jul '12 7:09:46 AM by nman

Mission's starting real soon, so if you've been waiting till the last minute before posting*

, you've got barely any time left before you'll have to wait until after the mission to join up.