XCOM: The Great Invasion Signup

Hello, recruit. If you are reading this, then you have been chosen to take part in a selective process that will end with you, hopefully, joining our organisation. You have been chosen for your expertise in the battlefield and your ability to handle situations of extreme secrecy. We, at XCOM, the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, are looking for men and women that will be able to fight sentient beings from other worlds. If you are reading this, you are forbidden of revealing any details to friends, family, or anyone that is not part of the XCOM project. If you do so, you will be arrested by your government and judged by a group of people from various nationalities, so we ask that you keep this "under wraps".

Please read the following instructions before filling your registration form:

• This is a roleplay based on XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the most recent installment of the XCOM series. Knowledge of the series is not required, but it helps.
• You will play a soldier that will be part of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. This is a semi-realistic alien invasion, which means we ask that you make your soldier a normal human being, not a god. No overpowered characters.
• No ghosting, auto-hitting, godmodding, or any of that nonsense. Even if you're going against Sectoids or Droids (the weakest aliens in the game).
• The roleplay won't be all about battles: certain sections will deal with choosing what research projects do, what facilities to build, and having the soldiers talk among themselves, preparing for the next mission, things like that.
• Remain polite to your fellow players at all times.
• No meta-gaming allowed. For reference, meta-gaming is having a character act with OOC knowledge (such as a character attacking a disguised villain without this having been made clear IC).
• And, of course, have fun!

And now, please fill this form:

• Name: First Name 'Nickname' Last Name
• Age: (21 - 42)
• Gender: Male or female?
• Nationality: Where was your character born and/or where was he naturalized? (Example: born in Germany, but spent most of his life in the United States, so he's an american citizen)
• Class: These will determine your abilities and weapons. At first, everyone will start as a rookie, but after a battle, they'll be promoted to their class. They are: Support, Assault, Heavy and Sniper.
• Appearance: How does your soldier look like? You may use a picture from the game, or from other sources, or just describe how your soldier looks like?
• Personality: How will he act in and out of the field?
• Background: Personal and military.

Good luck, recruit. We're looking forward to working with you. If you require more information, don't be afraid to ask, or check our secretfiles.

edited 14th Nov '12 12:33:20 AM by Stratofarius

Ok one question, how are we dealing with the class differentiation thing? Its all random?

Class is decided right after the first battle. Or do you guys want to decide it on the sheet?

I added a spot for it, then.

All right, here's my sign-up

• Name: Francisco Martinez
• Age: 25
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: Born in Costa Rica, Naturalized in Argentina
• Class: Assault
• Appearance: A tall, tanned man, with short brown hair, sideburns, green eyes, a well-kept mustache, and a big and proud nose. Mostly seen with a cigarette on his mouth
• Personality: Keeps to himself, but rather chatty once you get the conversation rolling. Out in the field he is some sort of cracked motivator, saying bad jokes and mottos that don’t make sense (or perhaps they do?).
• Background: His parents were originally from Argentina but were on Costa Rica on business; there he spent his early years until his parents were recalled to Argentina, where he passed the rest of his life. He had a rather normal life, the usual problems. Then he began his military service on the Argentinian Army. As part of the jungle brigade, to be precise. He ascended to the rank of lieutenant. And while he was sent to missions, peacekeeping mostly, he felt it wasn’t big enough. The EXCOM project would prove to be his chance at a “big” thing.

edited 17th Nov '12 9:23:56 AM by Sanojutsu

Oooh, I was hoping someone might start an RP based on the new XCOM. (I was almost considering starting one myself, but I've already got an RP to run. Heheh.)

• Name: Ray Ivers
• Age: 25
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: Born and raised American, but his parents are both from Ireland.
• Class: Support
• Appearance: Caucasian Male, average height and good military fitness. Keeps his dark brown hair short, and stays clean shaven. Has blue eyes.
• Personality: Quiet and seemingly cold on the outside, both in and out of battle, though this is mainly a ruse. Genuinely cares about his fellow soldiers, although it may not seem like it to them; usually considers himself responsible whenever they fall in battle.
• Background: Ray's parents were a couple of young love birds whose own parents didn't approve of their relationship. So they ran away together to America once they were both legally adults, and gained American citizenship before having Ray, followed by his younger sister just a few years later. Once he turned 18, Ray joined the army as a field medic, where he's shown above-average ability.

• Other: Not that I think anyone will anyway, but if anyone wants to play Ray's younger sister, I won't object.

Francisco is accepted.

Ray is also accepted.

• Name: Shinato 'Spork' Durant
• Age: 21
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: He was born and raised in America, however, since his mother is Japanese, he is also Half-Japanese. This is actually the reason he's called Spork, because he's like a mixture of a spoon and a fork.
• Class: Support
• Appearance: Think this is what he looks like...◊
• Personality: In the field, he is a joker. He's never one of much seriousness, and he's always the one you would go to if you want a good laugh, even in the face of death. Though there are some things that even he doesn't laugh at. Deep inside, Spork is hurting. He hides his sadness through a smile, and distracts himself from his life-and-death plight by making light of the situation with jokes. Either way, he's just a ball of depression that sooner or later will burst open sooner or later.
• Background: Spork was born from his parents, a war hardened father and a kind hearted mother. His namesake was odd, as he shared both their family names due to how they are ordered, and so has no surname to go under. While his parents were in love, their conflicting viewpoints often served to start arguments, especially when it comes to raising Spork, with his father thinking of sending him to boot camp while his mother wanting him to be rooted into his community. This in turn caused Spork to think that he was the cause to their strife and formed some depression. Eventually, after the death of his mother, Spork was sent to boot camp, where he trained. And trained. and Trained. Being away from home was actually the straw that broke the camels back, and soon, Spork was sent to the medical wing after a suicide attempt gone horribly wrong. While he recovered from his botched attempt at shooting himself (he chickened out at the last minute, pulling the gun off his head just as the bullet exited the barrel and thus hit his arm instead), decisions were being made behind his back, and soon, he was hauled off for special training. He was to be transferred to XCOM when they felt that he is good and ready. If he wanted to die so badly, he will die for his country. And soon, on his 21st birthday, he was taken to XCOM.

Hope that's good...

edited 18th Nov '12 10:12:32 PM by Psyga315

I realize now that I forgot a nickname for Ray.

... Though now that I think about it, I think I'd prefer he get his nickname in a more natural fashion anyway.

And Shinato is accepted.

All that's left is three more people (or one more) and we can have an actual squad to begin.

Wouldn't a proper starting squad be four, then increased to six later?

Well, yeah, but, yeah.

I'm joking with you man.

My apologies for not posting earlier; I've had a wicked cold for the past few days, and couldn't work up the brainpower for something I could live with until earlier today.

• Name: Vladimir Beria (Like Firock, I'd rather let my fellow players give me a nickname)
• Age: 30
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: Born and raised in Russia, but has proficient English skills as a part of his job.
• Class: Sniper
• Appearance: Did a search for 'Russian', and I liked this pic.
• Personality: Vladimir is surprisingly open to conversation, but tends to focus on the negative and has a jaded view of the world. He's not looking to make friends in the squad, mostly because he'd rather lose a stranger than someone that's close to his heart. In a battle, he tends to stay as far from the action as he can while still contributing to the fight, and is liable to freak out if ambushed at close-range.
• Background: Vladimir Beria was the youngest of three sons, and is the only son still alive, as both older brothers joined the military and came home with badly infected wounds when Vladimir was but a child. Their early deaths has helped desensitize Vladmir to death, though it also led to his current personality and a fear of doctors (due to the bad patch-up jobs his brothers had been given). Prior to his current placement, Vladmir wanted to be like his brothers and protect his country, but took a different path and became a trained member of the KGB (in the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia, as the official KGB dissolved in late 1991). His job was focused around assassination, using data collected from undercover agents in order to determine who the government's greatest threats were (as in actual terrorists, not just bad-mouthers) and to take them out from safe distances. When the U.N. was searching for recruits to join XCOM, Vladimir was nominated due to his skills, his willingness to serve, and the fact that he was one of the few members that wasn't also trained to be a spy that could potentially leak XCOM's secrets. Vladimir is now fascinated by alien biology, almost to an obsessive degree, as the cure to the world's next major plague (and avoiding the fate of his brothers) might now be a mere bullet away...

I'll copy Firock then too, Its more organic that way

I kinda like Psyga's nickname, though. 'Spork'...it's just one of those words that's fun to say.

Accepted. Well, we've got four characters, so we may begin soon. Git ready all you boys und girls.

Can we has discussion thread?

Ask and ye shall receive.

I'm gonna try join when I get time between other RP's and real life.

We have begun.

Aww yeah, XCOM! Still have room for one more?

• Name: Marc Lecointe VJ Claassens
• Age: 31
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: South African
• Class: Heavy (since we don't have any)
• Appearance: This guy.◊
• Personality: Generally a quiet professional, VJ would rather get on with his work than sit around talking about how he's going to get on with it. Generally he expects his colleagues to be switched on but won't call them out in front of everyone if they aren't, preferring to confront them about their shortcomings in private, one on one. VJ is direct and confrontational but will, more often than not, put the interests of the squad before everything else, including his own personal safety. It is a sore point that, in spite of his military experience, he has not yet seen any real combat.
• Background: VJ did not have any family members in the military but was fascinated with the stories of the wars that South Africa had fought throughout history and enlisted in the South African National Defense Force as soon as he turned 18, around the turn of the millennium. From the beginning he planned to be a career soldier and rose to become a Sergeant and Team Leader, but did not realize that the glorious battles he longed for were things of the past. Combat tours were few and far between, and VJ ended up on several peacekeeping operations for the UN during which he did not do anything of much note. Frustrated with the dual bureaucracy of the armed forces and the UN, and seeing that his career was going nowhere fast, VJ considered seeking opportunities in the private sector when he came across an advertisement on post for volunteers for a special mission unit that was sponsored by the South African government. This unit was XCOM, of course, and VJ immediately applied to attend Selection, even with the reduction in rank and somewhat uncertain command structure. Anything to get out of another peacekeeping touur.

edited 18th Nov '12 7:11:33 PM by HouraiRabbit

A heavy!? Finally, now we can have better squad balance... If you get accepted, anyway.

If you're playing XCOM on steam you could use the steam screenshot key, which should be F12 by default, then look for where steam saves its screenshots.

Aw yeah, you're accepted!

Welcome aboard, rookie.

edited 18th Nov '12 7:37:44 PM by HouraiRabbit

I have two questions.

1. Why would the soldiers have a say in what gets built and/or researched?

2. Shouldn't nickname wait until sergeant rank?

Also, XCOM was a great game and R Ping is great, so color me interested.