Battleworld - A Crossover RP [Signup Thread]

@Darkside: My chunk brought with it a giant octopus that's basically like the kraken from Pirates of the Carribean, but sillier looking and more actively hostile. Would the mutant killer tuna be able to fend it off?

edited 11th Jun '15 10:13:01 PM by UdtheImp

Gave it a read, it all seems perfectly fine! You're already accepted, so... re-accepted?

Plumbum, do you have an ETA on your sheet?

Woohoo!

They probably could, but I'd anticipate a bloodbath and massive casualties on the part of the killer tuna. For reference, the average size of a mutant killer tuna is about that of a small speedboat.

Tomorrow, if not Sunday. I have most of the day on those days.

Sooo now, lately I've been revising Bioshock Infinite, and upon remembering this RP, a few gears went turny-turn inside my headpan. I notice that signups are currently clos-ed, but would it be possible to book a reservation?

Of course.

Great! Great news! Now, just to check, would it be all right if I put a sign-up here for future reference, and maybe a bit of constructive criticism, or should I just wait until signups reopen?

edited 14th Jun '15 1:01:14 PM by LizardOfAus

That's generally a good idea, in my opinion. It's what I did while I waited.

Well, this took up the best part of a day. I've slaved for hours over a hot computer to bring you all this, and if all my hard work here is for nothing... I will be disappointed, but humbly accept the criticism. Enjoy.

Main Character

• Name: Father Zachary Comstock
• Age: 38, prematurely aged by exposure to Tears in reality
• Appearance: "God forgives everything. But I’m just the Prophet…so I don’t have to. Amen."
• Personality: Comstock is a man of principles, however twisted those principles may be. Above all, the things he values most are God and Country. God has absolved his sins, so everything he does is accepted by the almighty. America was God’s Own Country, given as a blessing to the white men that founded it, and it must be rid of the coloureds and felons that plague it. For that matter, the entire world is filled with sinners, anarchists, fornicators and pacifists, and therefore, it must be cleansed by divine judgement, and who better than him to carry out God’s wrath?
• Backstory: Many tales have been told in Columbia of Father Comstock’s bravery. Little children are taught of his heroism at the Battle of Wounded Knee, and his baptism thereafter that made him a new man. Everyone knows of the vision given to him by an archangel, of a city in the clouds. In 1893, thanks to the discoveries of quantum physicist Rosalind Lutece, that city became a reality, and Comstock forged Columbia as a symbol of America’s rising strength on the world stage. Then, as Lutece secretly found a way to look into alternate timelines, Comstock used this to predict future events, and set himself up as the Prophet of Columbia.
• However, during Columbia’s world tour in the sky, the Boxer Rebellion took place in Peking, China, and Americans were held captive. When Father Comstock got wind of this, he steered Columbia over China to rain bloody hellfire upon the opposing forces there. Aghast, the American government ordered Columbia to stand down, and come home to be de-comissioned. Comstock took this to be a great betrayal. Instead, Columbia seceded from the Union and disappeared into the clouds. In Comstock’s eyes, Columbia is the true spirit of america, liberated from the Sodom below, and he prepares his forces for the day when he can give the rest of the world a taste of a new Great Flood.

Supporting Cast

Chief Ally

• Name: Jeremiah Fink
• Age: Late Forties
• Appearance: "Lions walk with lions. Not hyenas!"
• Personality: At first glance, Fink is a charming and charismatic gentleman of business. But a few seconds of him talking, and you’ll see that he’s the kind of man who’d rob his own grandmother and have her scrubbing floors to keep the money rolling in. Profit comes first, followed by efficiency. Time is money, simplicity is beauty. Fink is the centre of his own little world, and while he doesn’t exactly go in for all this ‘Prophet’ hogwash, as long as Comstock needs someone to get their hands dirty for him, Fink will gladly oblige. In Fink’s mind, there are three kinds of people in the world. There’s the lions, like him and Comstock, who are needed at the top to keep everything running smoothly. There’s the oxes, who ought to be happy and satisfied with their place as the workforce of the world. Then there’s the hyenas, the troublemakers, the meddlers, the flies in the ointment who spread thoughts of rebellion around the livestock and stop Fink from getting his own way.
• Backstory: Upon arrival in Columbia, Fink quickly established himself as a prominent industrialist, and built himself an unparalleled monopoly. But his greatest success didn’t come until the arrival of the mysterious Tears in time and space. Through some of these rifts, Fink’s brother Albert heard strange, futuristic music, and created his own versions for public consumption. It didn’t take long for Fink to see the benefit in these rifts himself, and he began liberally ‘borrowing’ the scientific innovations visible on the other side of the Tears. He strode to the top on the shoulders of giants, not to mention on the backs of his underpaid workforce.

Chief Enemy

• Name: Daisy Fitzroy
• Age: Late Thirties
• Appearance: “The one thing people need to learn, is that fear is the antidote to fear.”
• Personality: Steel of gaze and fiery of spirit, Fitzroy is the perfect firebrand and champion of the downtrodden people. She is fiercely intelligent and resourceful, and has displayed a genius-level intellect (albeit on a test designed with sexist and racist inclinations). Naturally, she caries a great deal of bitterness in her heart over the injustice put upon her and other lower-class sorts, which strengthens her resolve in bringing retribution to the tyrants of Columbia. The question is, how far is she willing to go to ensure her cause is victorious?
• Backstory: Fitzroy was brought to Columbia along with many 'negro convicts' by Fink to serve a cheap labour force. She was hired to be a housekeeper for the home of Father Comstock and his beautiful wife, and for a time was satisfied with her lot in life. But then, one day, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was framed for the murder of Lady Comstock. She fled the authorities, and came to realise what a hell this ‘New Eden’ truly was. In a manner of weeks, she formed the Vox Populi from the oppressed underbelly of society, and they fought for anarchy and liberation from the greed and cruelty of Comstock and his Founders. The Vox have only grown more influential and powerful over the years, and their actions have grown more radicalised. There’s a civil war coming to Columbia, and you can bet that Fitzroy will lead the charge.

Unknown [NOTE: These two characters are isolated to Monument Tower until further notice. They would only come into play if someone intruded on that specific area.]

• Name: The Songbird
• Age: Unknown
• Appearance: The true patriot has nothing to fear from the Songbird.
• Personality: It looks like a man, attacks like an animal, and clicks and whirrs a machine. To its enemies, it brings brutal rage. To one girl, it’s as affectionate as a faithful pet. It’s unclear how much sapience the Songbird actually has. It can possibly understand speech, but responds best to commands given by a certain tune on a certain instrument. Above all else, its reason for being is to keep Elizabeth safe and sound inside the tower, by any means necessary.
• Powers: The Songbird possesses strength, speed and durability that make it a force to be reckoned with. It’s equipped with wings that let it fly at rapid speeds, and sharp talons attached to its knuckles and feet. When in the air, it can tear a zeppelin out of the sky with ease. The upper limits of its armour are unknown, but no hand-held heavy artillery is a match for it. However, for all this, the Songbird has its weaknesses. As mentioned before, it will unquestioningly obey commands given with a certain tune from a certain instrument, in spite of its previous goals. The armour itself has two main flaws. Firstly, the air pipe is vital, and if dislodged can impair the Songbird’s respiration. Secondly, the armour is only designed for low pressure. Submerging the Songbird a few fathoms underwater would kill it.
• Backstory: When young Elizabeth was to be brought to Monument Tower for safekeeping, she needed a custodian and caretaker. The task fell to Fink, who collaborated with an inventor on the other side of a Tear to produce the perfect guardian. After a few experiments with dogs and gorillas, the two created a prototype. But when they were unable to force the beast to imprint on his charge, they left it to rot in the lab. Soon after, the creature escaped, and promptly crashed into the tower, dislodging its air-pipe. A young Elizabeth happened upon the creature and fixed its air flow, and it was this that created the pairbond between the two. From that day forward, the Songbird was completely devoted to Elizabeth. It brought her books, food and drink, and worked tirelessly to ensure she would never leave. To this day, it still guards her home, and lord help anyone who dare disturb it...

• Name: Elizabeth
• Age: 20
• Appearance: "Trapped in a tower with nothing but books and spare time?You would be surprised what I know how to do."
• Personality: Whimsical, flighty and mischievous, spending her entire life inside a tower has done nothing to stifle Elizabeth’s childlike sense of wonder. She has unending curiosity about the outside world, and dreams of one day going to see Paris. All the same, her humour has a bit of barbed wit to it, and her free spirit can lead to serious tenacity, which in turn can lead to recklessness. Still, that’s not to say she’s completely foolish. Having spent her days with nothing to do but read, Elizabeth is surprisingly knowledgable in subjects like lock-picking, navigation and medical treatment. While she may be naive in most facets of society, it doesn’t take long for her to learn from her mistakes.
• Powers: Because of how she came into the world, Elizabeth has the ability to open Tears between timelines, and take things from one world to another. However, she can only ‘’open’’ Tears, and cannot create her own. [NOTE: For the purposes of this game, the Tears will only lead to objects, locations and possible timelines in Battleworld. No other universe will be accessible, so that stops her from escaping that way.]
• Backstory: As Father Comstock watched the myriad possibilities through the Tears created by Lutece’s machine, he came to realise he would not live to see his retribution on the world below, and his child would have to carry on in his stead. The problem being that continued exposure to the the Tears had started degenerating his body, and rendered him infertile. Therefore, to ensure his bloodline, there was only one rational option: take the baby of an alternate version of him and his wife. He soon found such a baby, and a father willing to part with her. But the father tried to back out at the last minute, and in the ensuing struggle, the baby’s finger was cut off. Because a part of her was left in another universe, reality’s way of coping was to give the baby supernatural powers.
• The resulting infant was named Elizabeth, and Comstock had anyone who wouldn’t keep quiet about her true origins killed. But when her ‘mother’ rejected her and her powers developed, Comstock had Elizabeth kept in Monument Tower, where a tremendous siphon drained her abilities, and stopped her from ever reaching her full potential. Elizabeth grew up in that tower alone, never knowing where she came from or what her ‘destiny’ was to be. She occupied her time with reading, painting, dressmaking and experimenting with Tears, among other things. Her sole companion was her guardian, the Songbird. When she was a child, she saw the beast as her friend, but as she grew up, she saw him as her jailer. In time, she longed to be free of her prison and to see the outside world. To this day, she has yet to find her chance...

Chunk

• Name of the World: Columbia
• Description: Columbia is a city aloft in the heavens. It is comprised of a number of small islands that drift about, and would have to be piloted over and clamped in place if you want transport over the roads. Otherwise, transport is often performed by zeppelin, gondola, or by the sky-rails that ferry supplies like magnetic steel ziplines. The aesthetic draws from romanesque and colonial american influences, reflecting the late 1800’s when it was born.
• Contents:
  • Town Square: This is the first district you would see on entry into Columbia. All new citizens must first pass through the temple that forms the Welcome Centre, and be baptised anew, before making their way into the Garden of New Eden, where the pilgrims will often congregate. From there on, you’ll find yourself in New Eden Plaza, a quaint little collection of shops and eateries, to give a demonstration of life in this new paradise. Not far from here is where they set up the fairground on special occasions, a chance to see new wonders and try the latest vigors.
  • Comstock Centre: Primarily, this is the area for the middle class, and so is laden with residential buildings and small businesses like shops and restaurants. This district is also home to a private lodge, owned by the Fraternal Order of the Raven. The activities of this secretive brotherhood are largely unknown, but they hold the late Lady Comstock and John Wilkes Booth in highest regard, while condemning the sinners of the earth like Abraham Lincoln.
  • Monument Island: The greatest pride of the city is Monument Tower, an impressive statue of a golden angel that serves as a symbol of heaven, and the haven that Columbia is intended to be. It's common knowledge what the tower is for as well: it serves as a home for the Lamb, the child of the Prophet, to keep her safe and sound for the day when she will take up her father’s mantle. What is not common knowledge, however, is the tremendous siphon that sits inside, draining her quantum power, nor the observation areas where scientists sit and scrutinise the development of the Lamb.
  • Soldier’s Field: If you’re looking for a grand day out for all the family, where better than the sights and sounds of Columbia’s number one tourist spot? You can sit back and relax on the artificial beach of Battleship Bay, as the waves roll in thanks to a system of pumps and rain catchers. Drop by the arcade, where your child can learn proper etiquette from the puppet shows of Duke and Dimwit. How about the ferris wheel? Or better yet, the First Lady’s Aerodrome: hop aboard the zeppelin and see Columbia in all its splendour. But no trip to Soldier’s Field is complete without a visit to the Hall of Heroes, where you can learn the incredible tales of Columbia’s great legends battling the foreign hordes.
  • Finkton: The industrial district is the second largest area of the city, and, as the name suggests, is run top to bottom by Fink Manufacturing. The area is dominated by Fink’s great factories, and every man and woman there is a member of the company. On the other side of the induction centre, you’ll find the Plaza of Zeal, home to all manner of different workshops, as well as the Good Time Club for the working man to whet his whistle (never mind the jail and interrogation rooms beneath). Then, when all the day is done, the working force can retire to their homes in Shantytown, an area of crumbling buildings, tired and starving inhabitants, and the Bull Yard police station to keep things in line.
  • Emporia: This district for the rich and famous is the heart and soul of Columbia itself. There’s the Grand Central Depot that ferries from all corners of the city, the upscale Market District, the businesses of the Financial District such as the Band of the Prophet, and the theatres of Harmony Lane to name but a few. If it’s celebrity you’re after, why not visit the Magical Melodies of that great musician Albert Fink, or the machinery of Lutece Labs where the late great scientist once changed the world, but don’t forget to visit Memorial Gardens and pay your respects to the crypt of Lady Comstock. Last, but decidedly not least, is Comstock House, home of the very Prophet that made Columbia the city it is today.
• Specialties: Despite the old-fashioned sensibilities of this town, the scientific advancements of Columbia are centuries ahead of its time. At first glance, it may seem like it’s held up by propellers and hot air balloons tethered around the bottom. But actually, its buoyant nature is thanks to the Lutece Field, a projection of quantum energy that can hold atoms at specific points in space. But this is the least of the innovations that Lutece and Fink have brought into the world.
  • Automatons: Fink Manufacturing has given pushed the creation of mechanical appliances in directions never thought possible. Why drive an automobile, when you can ride a carriage pulled by Automated Stallion? The vending machines and security systems are capable of enough intelligence to recognise and remark upon an individual, if not think critically or carry on conversations. Naturally, this machinery can lead to military applications. Automatons, Mosquitoes and even Security Zeppelins can lock on target and pelt an enemy with rockets or rapid fire rounds. Motorised Patriots can stomp about, wielding crank-action gatling guns (just make sure the enemy doesn’t shoot the gears on the back). But it doesn’t stop there! Now, you can merge man with machine, and the disabled can become the Handyman! Sure, they might live in constant agony for the rest of their lives, and they might have an obvious weak spot over their heart, but they’ll be an agile and mighty brawler, and let out an electrical burst when they do die!
  • Vigors: The wonder tonic! Created with a recipe ‘borrowed’ from a parallel earth, and brewed from a rare form of sea slug, one swig of these incredible drinks will imbue you with a superhuman ability! Now, not many of the armed forces actually use these, and in truth, the public is rather cautious of these unstable concoctions, but they could work for just about anyone, provided you refuel them with Salts, either in pure form or trace amounts in coffee, soda, cigarettes and alcohol.
    • Possession: The newest brand of vigor. With this, you can send a ghostly projection that temporarily subverts a machine to your will. With an enhanced brand, you can temporarily cause human beings to fight and kill for you, then end their own life!
    • Devil’s Kiss: The trademark weapon for the shock troopers known as Firemen. This power lets you fling an extremely combustible projectile at your foes, setting the surrounding area aflame.
    • Murder of Crows: The favoured vigor of high ranking members of the Fraternal Order of the Raven. One dosage lets you send a horde of blackbirds to peck your enemies to death. A stronger dosage lets you make your dead victims into traps for your birds to spring from. The strongest dose, reserved only for true Zealots of the Lady, lets you become a horde of birds yourself, and fly a short distance from one spot to another.
    • Shock Jockey: The primary source of electrical power in the city, this vigor allows you to send bolts of lightning from your fingertips to strike your foes, or charge up machinery.
    • Bucking Bronco: Another new tonic, this one lets you send a shockwave that bounces your opponent into the air, and causes them to levitate there for a few seconds.
    • Charge: One of the rarer samples, this tonic builds a tunnel of strong wind that can yank you forward, allowing you to zip straight to an enemy and land a powerful blow.
    • Undertow: Another rare tonic. With it, you can create a tentacle of water, letting you knock your enemies a great distance, or yank them over and hold them in a vulnerable position in front of you.
    • Return to Sender: The rarest of the rare, this tonic can create a shield that blocks gunfire. Charging it up would let the shield absorb the kinetic energy of gunfire, and then releasing it would let off an explosion proportional to the energy absorbed.
  • Tears: Aside from great innovations, the discovery of new sciences as resulted in some rather surreal blemishes. Thanks to meddling in between alternate realities, slight scars in the air are present in nooks and crannies all around Columbia, through which can be briefly glimpsed sights and sounds of alternate possibilities. Glimpses, however, are all you can get. It would take something more powerful to bring an object through. In rarer circumstances, you could get a rift that can be opened far enough to step through into an alternate timeline! Such an event would have consequences, however. Anyone dead on one timeline and alive in the next would suffer nosebleeds and delusions as they struggled to reconcile their dual selves. [NOTE: Until further notice, Elizabeth is the only one that can open Tears up.]
• Population:
  • Middle Class: The population of Columbia is a reflection of the views of its founder. Many of them are peaceable, white anglo-saxon folk, happy to raise their families, make a living, and enjoy everything this prosperous town has to offer. But scratch the surface, and you’ll find a fierce devotion to God, Prophet and Country, and a gleeful disdain for the so-called undesirables of humanity. These are people whose idea of a great sideshow attraction is stoning a race traitor and his negro wife. Most of them aren’t that dangerous in person mind you, and the average citizen would sooner duck and cover than attack.
  • The Founders: Columbia’s sole political party, formed from the richest and highest elite of Columbia. As such, you’d be hard pressed to find any that disagreed with the ideals and methods of Father Comstock, their leader. At the Founders' beck and call is the Flying Squad, a brutal battalion of soldiers and police that would gladly give their lives for their founding father. These soldiers are unique in sometimes wielding the Hunstman Carbine, unlike the Vox Populi.
  • The Underclass: Father Comstock’s ideals and practices cast a dark shadow, and labouring in that shade are the negroes, asians and irish who were brought into Columbia for the sole purpose of cheap, manual labour. But these people do have hope: the Vox Populi, a militia of anarchists lead by Daisy Fitzroy, who would go to any lengths to tear Comstock’s vision apart at the seams. The Vox may not be as well trained as their opposition, but are armed with specially-designed shotguns, repeaters, and burstguns to deal devastating damage.
  • General Information on Armies: For all the differences between the Flying Squad and the Vox Populi, their forces do share some similarities. For a start, both are surprisingly inclusive of women soldiers. Most of the forces are your run-of-the-mill grunts, armed with batons, pistols, hand cannons, machine guns, shotguns and sniper rifles. There are also more powerful members of each corps. Specialists called Beasts are heavily armoured, and employ heavy artillery like RP Gs and grenade launchers. Beyond that, both armies employ the aforementioned Patriots, Handymen, Patriots and Zealots of the Lady.

edited 15th Jun '15 3:15:32 PM by LizardOfAus

Oh WOW, either that chunk's gonna be Battleworld's main punching bag or it'll end up tearing itself apart as the different sides team up with different chunks.

Whatever the result, you can bet your boots it'll be entertaining!

I'm tempted to let you right into Battleworld, considering Plumbum has been taking a while with his sheet (he first said he was putting it up on the 5th).

Plus, it's always been more of a 'first come first serve' thing anyhow.

Big MT would love to get their metaphorical hands on that sweet reality-rifting technology... and then graft it into some poor bastard's kidneys or something.

(I've only played partway through BSI, so I'm kinda-sorta familiar with the source material.)

Likewise, I'm sure Mister Fink would be all to happy to appropriate the scientific feats of those down below.

Which is precisely why I spoiler-marked a whole chunk. Some twist-on-a-twists are worth preserving.

Plumbum seems to be gone, so, I'm going to give the chunk to you, Liz.◊

Like I said, it's really a first come first serve thing here.

edited 16th Jun '15 4:57:37 AM by Stratofarius

Might wanna edit that Strat. His chunk is Columbia, not Rapture.

Thank you very much, Strat. I shall endeavour to make the most of it.

Columbia is surrounded by three areas that are automatically hostile, and the other two are going to be hostile to it when they inevitably screw up any possible peace negotiations.

Alone against the world, then. Just how Comstock likes it.

iii'll fix it when i get baaaaack

Perhaps Columbia and Morkadar and Big MT could form some kind of alliance, since they're all fairly antagonistic and located pretty close to one another.

Gosh, that sounds pretty ominous. Guess the Western continent ironically filled with Eastern chunks better get started on forming the Confederation of Neo-Japan sooner rather than later.

edited 16th Jun '15 6:17:55 AM by darksidevoid

That would be pretty ironic, Mr holier-than-thou prophet man siding with literal demons from hell. Sounds like fun!

Amoral religious zealots teamed up with evil demons from hell teamed up with demented scientists who vehemently deny both of their existences.

Someone make a sitcom out of this.

I just love that Lego and Transformers are right next to each other. Just like my toyboxes.

Also, Autobots are en route to Illyria Castle from what is now Columbia. Which puts them right above Big MT.