I'm expressing interest and will be working toward a character sheet.
I'm thinking of a Selenite (See: The First Men In The Moon) kind of- Science/Engineer kind of character. They're very physically weak (A human can shatter their skulls easily with a punch... on the moon), but- mind over matter as they say.
And I'm just going to ask what someone from a different reality would know/how do the two kind of intersect?
1.5 imperial gallons of tea were consumed during the writing of this postThe two what? The "Rift Technology" is used to open holes in reality, which leads to other universes at best or the Insides of the Reality Wall at worst (trust me, you don't want to go there). The majority of the Roleplay would take place in this universe, and portals can't be held for very long so any universal foreigners won't be going home soon.
The Artium is opposed to Rift Technology, and would focus on destroying examples of that. However they refuse to use it themselves, as a broken reality isn't very useful. Fighting the Artium will be a pretty major part to Restcon, though at times it would be more surviving than fighting. They're also not very fond of the universal foreigners, believing them all to be a blight on their mission.
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."Selenite sounds like that'll go horribly wrong, as you would need an environmental suit of powered armor to simultaneously not die from Earth diseases and actually move around on Earth. But of course, the omniverse is filled with every possibilities and all possibilities must eventually come to pass. So Selenite will still work.
I kind of intend to replay my Mega Man games, as I want to model some of the Artium Commanders similar to Robot Masters and Mavericks. Besides that, I also intend for them to emulate media and intentionally play some tropes in order to get at humanity. Granted, the Artium Commanders legitimately do like humanity and thus aren't committing genocide.
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."Oh, I'm completely aware of the fault in playing a Selenite. I just think that'd make it a bit more challenging/interesting.
Though on the other hand, if the technology was somehow Selenite-make (Which is a stretch considering they only had spears, and crossbows at the most in the original book) it would look far too blingy for my tastes... as gold is the most common element on the moon to them, and their strongest metal.
But, regardless.
I will commence work on the character sheet tomorrow, probably. Since it's late over here.
1.5 imperial gallons of tea were consumed during the writing of this postI believe I'll aim for at least six player characters before making the Discussion. Oh yeah, if you play a robotic character, the Artium won't actually try to recruit you because of that fact. Though they'll generally accept anyone who wants to help their mission, be they machine or organbags.
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."Name: Race: (no Artium) Appearance: (Include stuff like gender and age here as well) Abilities/Skills/Powers: (the native humans don't have any superpowers or magic) Inventory: (do explain any of the odder things in the Bio) Bio: (include such things as how you got to the point you currently are and opinions on things)
- Name: Commander Shepard, first name unknown
- Race: Human
- Appearance: If heroes love redheads, what happens when the hero
is a redhead? Shepard herself is approximately 28.
- Abilities: Shepard is a Vanguard and a biotic - she can, on an extremely limited scale, control gravity. Her skills are restrained to;
- Shields - Shepard can form a biotic barrier around herself when in danger. This barrier acts like an energy shield and blocks kinetic attacks - but only kinetic attacks; lasers (and plasma, to a certain extent) will breach the barrier.
- Gravitic Manipulation - Shepard can Lift, Push, or Pull targets. This really just places a field where their gravity lightly pulls them either up, away from Shepard, or towards Shepard, respectively.
- Force Balls - Shepard can fire balls of gravitic force. Throw is a ball of pure force; Warp is a ball of twisting gravitic energy that, on impact with a target, deposits a field of that energy; the dynamic and strong nature of gravity proceeds to rend armor. If a Throw hits a Warp field, or a Warp hits a recently Thrown enemy, it causes a force explosion that tends to not end well for the poor sap on the other end.
- Charge and Nova - Shepard's signature skills. Shepard lightens herself to near weightlessness and throws herself at an enemy. On impact, she becomes super-heavy, dealing massive amounts of damage approximately equal to being smacked by a tractor trailer moving at highway speeds. Shepard can also choose to perform a Nova immediately after - while this wave of biotic force can finish Charged enemies and stuns others, it also consumes her barrier in the process.
- In addition, Shepard, being revived from the dead, has an extensive suite of cybernetics. These can restore her from non-life threatening injuries in a day, and keep her fighting with life-threatenng injuries until she receives medical assistance, at which point they can begin healing her.
- Inventory: Shepard wears a full suit of armor and carries three firearms;
- M-77 Paladin. Basically a spacefuture Desert Eagle. Very long ranged, very high damage, very high accuracy, at the expense of high recoil and three shots per magazine.
- N7 Hurricane. Extremely fast firing SMG with high damage per shot, limited in use by its inherent inaccuracy and ridiculous recoil.
- Geth Plasma Shotgun. A unique weapon using supercharged projectiles that flash-convert to plasma on impact, causing massive amounts of kinetic and heat damage. It's a shotgun, so it doesn't fire very fast. Can be charged to absolutely maul anyone that gets hit.
- Bio: Shepard is no less than the savior of the galaxy.
- Shepard grew up on spaceships. Taking after her parents, she joined the Alliance military at 18 and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a Vanguard. She was accepted into the N7 program - human special forces - after her single-handed defence of the human colony of Elysium against alien slavers, an act that earned her the name "Lion of Elysium".
- Shortly after, she became a candidate for the first Citadel Council Spectre - the local intergalactic black operators. On her mission to test her mettle, she found a horrifying secret - a race of omnicidal machines, the Reapers, were about to destroy all life in the universe.
- The next several years were spent fighting the Reapers. Shepard, in the process;
- Killed their brainwashed pawn, and in the process destroyed their vanguard;
- Died for two years;
- Got resurrected by a terrorist organization for trillions of credits to stop abductions from human colonies by Reaper affiliates;
- Blew up an entire solar system, and 600,000 innocents, to buy six months;
- And when the Reapers finally came, she united the entire galaxy and used it and a superweapon to defeat the reapers.
- Shepard is presumed dead after the firing of the Crucible superweapon.
I feel it may be pertinent to explain how Shepard can manipulate gravity, and how her guns work, but only if you ask.
Meanwhile, Character 2!
- Name: SPARTAN-B312, prefers to be called Noble Six
- Race: SPARTAN supersoldier (technically human, but has been augmented past that point)
- Appearance: Negative, sir. I have the gun.
◊ Six is male.
- Abilities: Six has been chemically augmented to become better than regular humans. This includes;
- Natural night vision;
- Reflexes far and beyond what a human is capable of;
- Bones that are nigh unbreakable (you'd need to drop from orbit to break them);
- Significantly increased muscle strength and endurance.
- In addition, Six is a "hyper-lethal vector", and one of the two deadliest SPARTANs in existence - the only one deadlier being the Master Chief.
- Inventory: Six wears MJOLNIR Mk. V[B] powered assault armor. It significantly increases his already formidable strength, and in addition its thought-to-motion circuits make his reaction time effectively instantaneous. The MJOLNIR also provides energy shields.
- Six carries two weapons; a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle, and a Magnum handgun firing high-caliber explosive rounds (though they aren't that explosive). Six also carries four Covenant "plasma grenades" - smart grenades that are capable of sticking to enemies before detonating.
- Bio: Six was conscripted into the SPARTAN-III program at age six, after he was orphaned. Taking to the program like a house to fire, he quickly mastered the basic aspects and at age sixteen was a more formidable soldier than most veterans. Six was eventually assigned to Noble Team and becamse one of the few Threes to don MJOLNIR; he assisted in the defense of Reach, and stayed behind to allow the Pillar of Autumn to escape, inadvertently ensuring humanity's survival. Six was presumed dead after Covenant space forces glassed Reach's major population centers.
They are a bit powerful, but I have a third idea for a more normal character in-universe I can suggest.
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."I have been meaning to play Mass Effect, but otherwise know nothing. Don't really have any plans to play the Halo franchise though. They're acceptable, but after five days nobody else has shown interest. That doesn't bode well, and I actually did have serious plans for this. Besides that, who is this third character you would suggest?
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."Man, you are just not having any luck today.
Basically, Mass Effect is the name for the fields produced by a material called element zero. When you run electrical charge through it, it produces a field that raises or lowers the mass of all objects inside the field - a mass effect field. Har har.
There are people in the ME universe termed biotics - they are people who were exposed to dust-form element zero while they were fetuses (which is normally lethal, and even then), and were able to beat the odds in regards to the devastating tumors and mutations that result. Biotics have element zero nodes inside their nervous system, which means that with an amplifier and a significant amount of training, they can learn to harness their ability to manipulate the mass effect for fun, profit, and beating down fools who think they know shit. Shepard is a biotic; hence, she knows mass effect powers.
As for the firearms... guns also use the mass effect. Onboard targeting computers determine the distance and shave a particle generally the size of a grain of sand off of an internal ammunition block. Element zero inside the guns puts a mass effect field on the ammunition, which is then propelled by magnets out of the gun at significant fractions of light-speed. Most of the damage they cause comes from their velocity and the fact they're made to fragment on impact, because otherwise they'd either be completely ineffective or would simply punch through their target and deal very little damage.
While the ammo block allows for millions of shots before needing a reload, this process tends to generate absolutely intense heat, so "thermal clips" are used to store this heat. The thermal clips have a limited heat capacity, and when they run out, the user simply ejects the clip. Either the gun loads a new one through a hopper inside or the user inserts a new one; the series isn't too specific on it.
Alright, here is the character sheet for my more normal in-universe character.
- Name: David Montes
- Race: Human
- Appearance: Freeze, motherfucker! Hands!
◊ Montes is 24 and male.
- Abilities: While Montes is definitely in the top 10% of humankind, he has no abilities beyond that which a normal human would possess.
- Inventory: Standard US Marine auto rifleman kit, which (in this universe) includes a Mk. 46 machine gun
◊ with a scope, a grip, and a bipod. (While this is technically incorrect for a Marine, I imagine tech advanced slightly faster than usual due to the presence of the Artium.)
- Bio: Montes is a relatively normal kid who grew up being bullied. He ended up fighting them off rather successfully, and at the age of 18 joined up with the United States Marines. Surviving the horrors of boot camp, Montes became his squad's automatic rifleman, and is most likely busy engaging the Artium somewhere in Europe. It's not much of a bio, but hey, he's not an intergalactic hero. ...Yet.
- Growing up during a war with machines has, like most others, made Montes distrustful of anything that appears too mechanical. He often wears muscle shirts so his skin shows - primarily so that others know he is human. He harbors an intense distrust of anything too automatic, and in particular hates Artium and does not show them mercy in combat - oftentimes, the only reason Montes does not execute Artium prisoners is because he was directly ordered to leave them alone. This will transfer to multiversal characters - Montes won't "shoot on sight", but will be intensely distrustful of any character that place so much as an inkling of trust into computers or any automated systems. Like, say, the rest of mine.
edited 10th Dec '14 7:16:40 PM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."I would say, in addition to better weapons, humanity probably managed some exo-suits when they still had unrestricted access to the Artium Technology. Though regarding the Artium themselves, the field units commonly come in two types: Infantry (more human-sized in scale, possibly even humanoid as well) and AR Ms (basically things like mini-mecha that focus on causing mass destruction and the occasional human abduction). There aren't many AR Ms, but should one show up to a battle that's typically a "Oh crap" moment. Character is approved by the way, though what are your plans for the three of them?
Yeah I hope it won't either, things really got messed up on my end when nobody went for CACHE. Though upon reflection, Destiny Drive is really more of a solo project for me than a group thing. Besides that, do you intend to join Questor? This really won't go anywhere with just one person, as Defender has yet to actually apply.
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."I'll join when I think of a suitable character. But seriously though, I want to use a character that is a part of the robot army, albeit an extremist that wants to enslave humanity as they are inferior beings that wholly deserve the mercy of the Artium iron boot stamping on their backs for all of time.
edited 7th Dec '14 11:49:31 AM by Questor
Foolish donkey, you would not be able to resist me if I wished your annihilation.Hmm... The reason I said "No Artium" was so nobody would just make "canonical" stuff up about them without my approval. Though this is basically the successor/recreation of an old project where the Players were the advanced robots in question, so... I will allow it, but he can't be an Artium Commander. Prototypical or Experimental Artium Unit I'll potentially allow. Though I'll provide you a PM explaining more about the Artium Structure, so can you have the bio mainly focused on his own actions?
Besides that, I should probably list some of the Artium Commanders shouldn't I?
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."Basically;
- Shepard wants to get home. If she has to beat the crap out of the Artium to get home, so be it.
- Six is a blank slate. He has never known freedom like this and may have only a desire to find out whether or not the Covenant were defeated.
- Montes wants to see the Artium destroyed.
Also, sure. Montes gets an exo-suit then. In that case I've got a weapon upgrade idea for him...
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."I have some interest in this but I'm wondering how other universes are supposed to interact here. And that there might be more crossover characters than natives :p.
That is, I know a series from which I can draw a Canon or OC from that could fit in with the story here somewhere. Cosmic Break is the setting. Basically in Cosmic Break you play as customizable robots and robot-girls. Said robots are members of one of three Cosmic Unions which are banded together to fight against the Demon Force, a multidimensional faction known to have conquered multiple dimensions and is invading many more.
Hmm... Well, the story is ultimately focused on the Artium War and humanity trying to exploit other worlds to their advantage. So not too many that the Artium War ends up getting ignored. Technically its any other universe than specifically existing franchises, though the crossover part is actually important for some of my plans. So enough said plans can actually progress.
I've actually played Cosmic Break... for about a hour two/three/four years ago, having completely forgotten what my password was. Pretty much the only things I won't approve of is something that makes the Artium War trivial or unimportant.
Besides that, I would like to know what you're doing for the exo-suit and weapon upgrade Sparty. Oh, and because it really is important to have some idea of the enemies' leaders...
Artium Commanders
"The Abyssal King": Originally a simple Combat Humanoid unit, The Abyssal King was one of the Artium to convince others to turn against humanity. Since then he has upgraded himself through research the Artium have conducted, displaying the ability to levitate and repulse objects. To go with this, he also has small orbs over his body which contain very small amounts of antimatter in sealed vacuums. However, aside from his gimmicky abilities, he is still a Combat unit at his core and can easily handle a human in melee combat.
"Gunner Geneva": Originally part of an experimental line of Artium to further blur the line between humanity and machines, she was finished & re-purposed as a Sniper unit when the project was cancelled. However as a result of the project she started off with fully formed emotions, which contributed to her aiding the Artium Uprising. Since then she's been upgraded with several in-built close-range projectile weapons and super speed.
"Psychic Reaper": Formerly a Telepath/Communications Model Artium, pre-Uprising he was basically nothing special. However, as part of Artium research, he was used to test out a new technology enabling neuron signals to be read from close-range. Once this was proven successful, they began working on a way to influence the signals. The result is the Psychic Reaper, an insane megalomaniac turning captured humans into gibbering wrecks.
"The Earth Render": Pre-Uprising, the Earth Render was a generic Construction & Demolition unit and thus the least humanoid of the Commanders. However, by proving himself to the Abyssal King, the lowly Artium had his base functions greatly upgraded. Now capable of destabilizing buildings by himself and exerting enough strength to lift tons, his presence on the battlefield is nearly always accompanied by ARMs.
"The Lying Cloth": Constructed after the Uprising began, the Lying Cloth is a nanomechanical being able to assume a variety of forms. To that end it frequently invades human settlements using any number of roles, complete with an obscene obsession with feigning affection.
That's only some of them, but opinions of them so far? Oh, and I'll admit what was written there is in-universe human knowledge. So biases, lies, assumed truths and others that make what's really going on uncertain.
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."
The exosuit is basically just a crude combat exoskeleton that increases Montes's strength and endurance by a fair margin. It's not Super-Strength by any means, but there are still things he'll be able to do inside it that he won't be able to do outside it. It doesn't increase his reaction time, nor does it add any extra armor.
The weapon upgrade is basically going to be "he snatches an MG3 machine gun from some Germans". It fires bigger bullets, much faster than his old weapon.
edited 10th Dec '14 11:12:33 AM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."- Name: Alector the Furious
- Race: Artium
- Appearance: A Fighting machine.
◊
- Abilities: Fast and agile enough to literally dance past bullets, can deliver 11.2 tons of force for every punch thrown and nearly twice that for his kicks, limited flight up to mach 0.9 with the use of Jump Jets on his back and legs, clad in extremely tough yet lightweight composite armor plating that is equal in protection to 60mm of steel plate and has an experimental sensor package that combines radar, infrared, motion, ultrasonic and quantum sensors to ensure that precious few can hide from him.
- Inventory:
- Plasma Bunkers: Plasma flash capacitors mounted on the wrists that gives Alector's already potent punches even more power by firing a brief, ultra-short ranged but very intense blast of plasma that melts through most materials with ease and also does some very nasty things to electronics due to the Electromagnetic interference left behind by each blast.
- Plasma Field generators: Built into the legs, these devices basically turn Alector's legs into Power weapons
that can hew through steel, concrete and shielding of both the mundane and magical kind with ease or deliver literally explosive kicks.
- Punisher Laser Blasters
◊: Carried as a matched pair on his waist, Alector uses these extremely accurate laser weapons to suppress enemies and to weaken targets from range as they lack the same killing power that his arms and legs have.
- Bio: One of the first purpose-built Artium models designed to fight off the various superhuman and magical outworlders the humans have been pulling from the multiverse into their war effort, Alector earned his name and epithet due to his hotheaded personality, terrifying battle-rage and by seemingly being unstoppable; no matter how many blows he takes or how severe the damage to his body gets, He. Will. Not. Stop. Until his target is nothing but a bloody smear on the ground. So far, there has yet to be anyone or anything that the humans brought out that has managed to defeat or escape Alector. Despite his success as a weapon, the Artium leadership is growing increasingly concerned about him as he is too good of a weapon, killing all humans he encounters, whether they are hostiles or noncombatants; destroying both with equal fury and gutso as well as being extremely confrontational, prone to disobeying direct orders and making comments and threats to his superiors that borders on treason. What further sets him apart from his brethren is the contempt and apathy he holds towards the entirety of the Human race, believing them to be weak, worthless creatures whose only lot in life is to either serve under the iron boot of their betters: The Artium or to be annihilated, whichever comes first.
edited 10th Dec '14 12:16:22 PM by Questor
Foolish donkey, you would not be able to resist me if I wished your annihilation.Exactly how tall is he supposed to be anyways? I'm assuming he's supposed to be mecha sized since you didn't specify in the application. Besides that, what are some of your plans for him? Oh, and to everyone I actually would encourage your characters being at the very least aware of media products (so no need to pretend regarding Alector). Having the natives actually understand some of these universal foreigners are "fictional" characters is gonna be important. Real important, heh heh heh...
Could you provide more for his bio Sparty, such as how growing up during the Artium War has affected him?
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."@Kkut: Did the bio you asked for. It's fairly in-depth and it's basically the usual thoughts of a soldier in a war with machines.
@Questor: I am slightly worried that your character was designed solely so it could effortlessly kill any other character it meets. This being said I am not the GM, but it is still a concern I have and feel like voicing.
Regardless of what happens I'll be with this for the long run.
edited 10th Dec '14 7:18:33 PM by SpartyMcFly
"Seven is here too, dressed like the concept of choosing clothes that look nice together was an arcane secret far beyond their grasp."

The above stands for Robotic Entities Severing Total Control Over Negligence
"The dust had just begun to settle around the world when the storm picked up yet again.
September 8th, 1945. It had been barely one month since the horror of the Second World War had ended when the world became due for another reckoning. Strange radio signals were picked up across the world, on everything from classified military networks to civilian ham radio, originating from multiple points. The international community didn't even bother trying to hide it - all of them, in fact, investigated the signals. Though the motivations that drove their curiosity ranged from scientific interest to paranoia and fear of the unknown, in the end curiosity banded the world together as they sought the signals. The transmissions ended before anyone had reached the sites, but by then their locations had been triangulated - and what they found would change the world forever.
A pile of alien machinery.
The world confiscated these machines and returned them to top secret areas in places like the Nevada Desert and Siberia. Scientists of all types picked apart the machines, disassembling them, cataloging the parts and reassembling them. They learned. And they created, assembling new machines. But with the horrors of the Second World War - and, in particular, the American nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - fresh in the minds of humankind, man grew fearful of what his fellow man could do, and tensions ran high as the new technologies shifted towards weapons development. In the end, man played God and created life; the Artium, thinking, living beings built to be perfect weapons.
The Artium began life as ersatz black operatives. They were always sent on top secret missions of total deniability, though their efficiency and unorthodox solutions combined with mankind's desire to adapt what they know led to the broadening of the Artium into everything from regular soldiers to artillery guns. But the Artium held no existential crisis. They were created as war machines to fight for the interest of their human builders - and they eventually decided they'd had enough.
On November 11th, the Artium launched attacks worldwide, and nearly crippled human governments, with almost every notable head of state worldwide being assassinated. Unfortunately, the Artium never were able to finish the job, and continuation of government protocols allowed humankind to stand back up from the reeling blow as the Artium began enslaving and killing humans everywhere - officially, for their own good.
The Artium haven't yet gained momentum. They are relatively few in number, but each one of them is a well-oiled machine that never needs breaks and will never know fear. One Artium equals five well-trained men. Given enough time they will win - so the world, united under the banner of the United Nations, decided they needed to know more about where these machines came from. Poring over recordings of the September signals and running endless tests of all types on their locations, they ended up pioneering a new technology; the ability to tear holes in spacetime, and travel to other worlds.
They also, regrettably, found out something else; spacetime really doesn't like being messed with. And as more and more holes are torn apart, reality seems to be bursting at the seams..."
The above was refined by Sparty Mc Fly from a thing I provided. Besides that, some quick information: The Artium rebelled in the year 2000, and managed to assassinate the heads of state because they were being used as the security detail by that point. For the next fifteen years the Artium have been focused on conquering weaker territories and ascertaining their rule over controlled area, in addition to performing occasional strikes & operations on human society worldwide to cripple them.
Most digital and automated technology has been abandoned due to the Artium being able to corrupt & interfere with them, meaning no public internet and all factories being purely human operated. What examples there are of those technologies are privatized and militarized, used only for important matters like immediate communication with other governments. Thus in addition to that, robotics is generally demonized to such a point robots stopped showing up in any heroic role in fiction for starters. That also means pretty much every job is performed by humans.
In addition to that, humanity is generally split into one of three mindsets: Work on improving their "Rift Technology" to evacuate to a new world, acquire and learn from other realities to develop a means of fighting off the Artium, or request aid from people who can only manage the Artium themselves.
Thus your PC can either be a native of this world (no Artium) or someone from another reality (such as an OC or a specific work). If you choose to use someone from another reality, please don't do anything that could easily end the Artium conflict. Speaking of, the Artium come in all kinds of varieties from humanoid robots to sentient mecha. They all work together to conquer humanity however, and prioritize capturing humans (though will kill). So that should be enough of an introduction then...
Note: a lot of resources are focused on protecting humanity, but there's also a good focus on generally keeping humanity happy & entertained. So there's still movies/video games/music/etc, though having any technology that the Artium could corrupt is completely illegal for civilians. Regarding Artium, most of their field troops are less humanoid than their commanders (who were increasingly more ridiculously human as humanity flooded them everywhere) though they do employ spies and undercover agents (which sometime use certain personality or character tropes to trick/manipulate humans). Basically, they are an inevitability that this world's humanity could never hope to beat on their own.
I would of went into a heck of a lot more detail regarding Artium and Human society, but most of it isn't immediately important. I will state as "Rift Tech" is used more often, there'll be repercussions over the course of the roleplay. Such as random people falling through portals into and out of this reality for example.
edited 27th Dec '14 2:20:48 PM by Kkutwar
"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."