The Sun and the Moon Interest Check/Sign-up

So this is something I've been kicking around in my head for the past couple days. I have a setting and back story, and the semblance of an overreaching plot. But I thought it would be fun to see if potential players had ideas we could incorporate as well. And then we could throw them all together and make a new RP!

Anywho, here's my idea:

Its the far off future. Humanity has colonized the moon, Mars, even stupidly hot Venus and far off Jovian moons. In the time this has happened, nations have risen and fallen, new technology has changed our lives, unexpected advances have made life in the solar system into something that our ancestors really didn't expect.

Chiefly among these unexpected differences was the rise in cloning. Maybe that's the wrong word. But Mass Produced Synthetic Humans sounds weird. As humanity progressed, they originally developed a new robotic workforce to do certain types of labor for them. But machines had their limits, a finer touch was needed. Production companies began making their androids more human, making them bipeds, covering them with synthetic flesh, and other details. Eventually, full on synthetic humans were created. The advantages of human intuition and a bio-engineered body proved popular and soon enough different models were being mass produced. Laborers, teachers, caretakers, office workers, all these jobs could be handed to clones who had been born and bred for that purpose.

Naturally, not everyone liked these clones. Whether for moral or economic or cultural reasons, they protested against the clone companies and against the clones themselves. Some even grew fed up with this new way of life and left to a new planet or space colony entirely.

In an effort to make their products as appealing as possible, the synthetic humans were genetically engineered to act subservient and obey orders. They wouldn't age but they had a fixed lifespan, and they couldn't breed either, so sooner or later you had to buy a new one. Overall, everything seemed okay. The people who had clone to do work for them were happy since they basically had dogs with a really advanced set of tricks, the clone marketers who could sell, buy, and trade this synthetic stock were happy, the people who left were happy, and the clones were predisposed to be happy. Or so it was thought.

Despite assurances that they were just organic robots, and being biologically programmed before they were finished growing, the synthetic humans did in fact have dreams and thoughts of their own. But being nothing more than property in the eyes of the law, they spent their whole lives going through their assigned duties and nothing else. Forced to suppress their true emotions to keep their owners happy, the clones had become a servant race with pent up frustration.

Then make the day they decided to kill their masters. (Battlestar Galactica rip-off, I know)

A clone rebellion swept the solar system. What the clones lacked in wartime experience and numbers they made up with inside knowledge of national defenses and pure savagery. The terrible war lasted several years until a peace was finally brokered. The rebel clones left Earth and Mars and other worlds en masse and retreated to settle the asteroid belt and moons of the outer planets. The human nations kept the inner worlds.

It was peace, but an uneasy one. Both sides had inflicted atrocities on the other and neither has forgotten. And while they had gotten their liberty, the clones lacked the knowledge of how to fix the genetic tampering in their bodies. They still had stunted lifespans and couldn't reproduce. While the inner worlds have stopped synthetic production altogether, the clones keep cloning themselves as much as their resources allow simply to ensure their new nation's survival. Naturally, this has led to a lot of You All Look Familiar scenarios. Meanwhile the inner worlds have been thrown into turmoil since the war caused the disappearance of their labor force and the economic bubble tied to the market of the clones themselves. And its not like compensation is ever coming.

That was seven years ago. Despite all the bad blood, a joint effort by the outer and inner worlds to build a new space station on the edge of the solar system has been underway.

The players come in here. My idea would be that people from across the solar system, synthetic and humans alike would come here to work and live on the new colony. Relations between the two sides could be funny ("I can't tell you from your five dozen brothers!"), awkward ("Didn't I buy you in a yard sale?"), and even downright hostile ("You killed everyone I knew and loved! I'll never forgive you!").

Meanwhile, certain people definitely don't want this partnership to succeed. And are willing to reignite the conflict if that's what it takes to achieve their goals.

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So, thoughts? Ideas? Come on, people, lets brainstorm stuff! If we get the ball rolling we can get a sign up sheet going.

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

How about giving the clones the capacity to augment themselves via organ replacements and implants?

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

Like what would you have in mind?

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Maybe compensate their short comings by having more efficient bodies

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

I had the same idea. It might even have been part of their original design. Clones designed to work longer or consume less energy would certainly be more appealing to consumers. And the clones themselves would hardly object to these bonuses.

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Maybe even make them able to meld with machines

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

I'm in. Does this play as something like Paranoia? Because if it didn't before... It does now.

edited 20th Sep '12 3:49:10 PM by Fauxlosophe

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

I've never played Paranoia. What it like?

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

I might be poking at something I shouldn't be poking, but wouldn't 'infantry soldier' be one of the first job positions people would fill with disposables? If anything, the clones should have the advantage regarding warfare.

Apart from that, sounds interesting. Reminds me of the Androsynth from Star Control If you need someone to play a standard-issue Nice Guy, I'm in. (it's quite literally the only role I can play. This actually turned out to be a good thing, since everyone comes up with the craziest characters imaginable, and someone has to play the straight man)

edited 21st Sep '12 12:31:27 PM by Kayeka

Long time listener, first time caller.

What if it went the other way, too. What if some "ordinary" humans tried to retrofit themselves with cybernetic parts (maybe to keep up with their synthetic counterparts out of jealousy, or they're simply disabled and want to fit in with the rest of the general population)?

Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

I thought about that and ultimately decided that governments decided that they didn't like the idea of clones being manufactured to kill real people. What if they went rogue or something? Ultimately that happened anyway but if the clones were used as soldiers that probably would have given them an overwhelming advantage when the fighting broke out.

" to play a standard-issue Nice Guy"

I read this two ways. You were volunteering to play a regular old nice guy. Or you were volunteering to play a standard model clone who happened to be a nice guy.

So then we'd have regular people, the already genetically modified clones, and the occasional cyborg.

edited 21st Sep '12 12:57:01 PM by Parable

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Either way is fine with me, though I suppose the clone-version would bring a bit more colour to my role. Of course, since my role in the story is usually to provide a nice contrast to all the other over-the-top characters (seriously, it's like no one wants to play anything but cyborg ninjas with a dark past), adding colour might be counter-intuitive.

Anyhow, a rough outline of what I had in mind for a human character: As Placeholder*

was born in a rather wealthy family, he did not have to experience the horrors of the war first-hand. To him, the whole thing is something that happened 'outside'.

Before the war, his parents had bought a private teacher. They had a somewhat enlightened view on the whole 'clone rights' debate, and treated the teacher with a certain modicum of respect, going as far as enabling his Bonsai tree hobby while off the job. My character was especially fond of him.

When the war broke out, and the clone army started to get more and more vicious, the family was forced to 'get rid' of the teacher, as there were riots breaking out all over the city where the homes of human families 'harbouring the abominations' were ransacked by rioters. My character was quite devastated, and to this day does not know how things ended with the teacher, and never completely forgave his parents for abandoning him like that.

Placeholder went on to study Biology, and signed up as the project's Agriculture staff, wishing to improve the clone-human relationship as a way to apologize to his teacher for not being able to protect him.

I'll probably think of a clone character as well, and use whichever would make for a better story.

edited 21st Sep '12 1:33:35 PM by Kayeka

O_o That's a pretty good character right there. If you want to play him and a clone that'd be cool too.

I had imagined that the clones would continue using the existing models that were themselves to produce more clones. Here were my ideas for clone models:

Standard: The oldest model. Appearing about twenty, they are general use clones for anything from office work to gardening. While more specialized models have reduced their role in life, they are still by far the most common clones. This model has a male and female version.

Teachers: The teacher model come preprogrammed with vast knowledge. They appear as older men, about fifty. Their primary duty was to instruct young minds and tutor those who need it. (This one is one of two that actually inspired this idea)

Housekeeper: Appearing as women in their mid thirties, the housekeeper is made for cleaning and running errands. These models are naturally quiet. Seen but not heard.

Laborer: The go-to model for manual labor. Large males designed for strength and durability. Despite the stereotype, they are no less intelligent than any other model.

Friend: Clones designed to care for and play with children. Appearing as thirteen year old girls, they are programmed to be energetic and lively to keep young ones entertained. (This is the other clone that started this idea)

Anyone have ideas of their own, or want to alter the ones I thought up?

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

Maybe some entertainer type designed to be beautiful and charismatic

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

Hmm, the clone-character idea I'm hatching right now was supposed to come from a strain of elementary-school teachers, and would look in his late twenties. So that would break the 'teacher' mould quite a bit.

I think that having such a stiff mould won't do a whole lot of good for character creation. Can't we just say that there are, say, hundreds of possible strains, each with their own characteristics?

We also need a better name for the clones. some Fun with Acronyms would be pretty cool. Or we could steal the name Androsynth from Star Control. Or really, anything but 'clone'. It sounds rather icky in this context.

Speaking of 'icky', there's this bitty thing of The Rule of First Adopters. I'm willing bet a pretty penny that, if we could create artificial humans, 'Dutch Wife' would be second on the list ('infantry soldier' would be first). Are you comfortable with parts of 'your' story going such directions, or would you rather have the players stay clear from such issues? Just asking, just in case.

I was thinking on the "Dutch wife" thing too..., also term for the clones "Synthetics"

edited 21st Sep '12 2:18:06 PM by Sanojutsu

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

As for your 'entertainer' type, wouldn't aesthetics be a natural consequence of creating artificial humans on the first place? If you want people to buy your product, you need to make things look pretty.

Good point... Maybe just the charisma then

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

The Goal of Paranoia is to hunt down Commie Mutant Traitors for friend computer.

Every member of the party is a Trouble Shooter. They Shoot Trouble.

Every memver of the party is also Commie, Mutant and/or Traitor but no one else knows it.

Questioning Friend Computer is a crime punishable by disintegration.

Good luck, Citizen-Clone.

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

If I had just clicked the link I could have saved myself the trouble of looking up "Dutch Wife".

While I wouldn't allow anything explicit shown, partly because that's not what I think we should go for and partly because the site itself doesn't allow it and would come down on me like an anvil, I do think the implications that people used clones for purposes they weren't advertised for would be something we can run with.

As for your teacher idea, Kayeka, you could make him a teacher sub-model, or one built by a different company. One of the things I thought was interesting about the clones and made them different from regular people was that so many of them looked alike. That's also why I asked for suggestions, first so everyone who wanted to make a clone character could get the type they wanted into the game, and then so that there would be a limit so the "Sameness" didn't dwindle to nothing.

As to what we actually call them, I've been thinking "Synthoids" myself actually. But "Synthetics" works fine too.

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

"Synthoid"? like Zeta?

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

Zeta?

"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim

yeah Project Zeta... the batman spinoff?

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.

I remember that show.

Fun times, though technically it was a spin off of a batman spin off.

edited 22nd Sep '12 11:47:23 AM by Fauxlosophe

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

Spinception!

The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.