Destroyermen: A WWII-era altered-history/fantasy/adventure/post-disaster-type RP

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Trainbrain16

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Scifi, Modern, size difference (mainly larger females), most things involving dragons and humans
Alright, so I'm thinking about creating a new roleplay based on the Destroyermen book series by Taylor Anderson. Basically it's near the beginning of WWII and the Japanese war machine is sweeping through the southwestern Pacific like Patton would do several years later in Europe. The tiny, outdated Asiatic Fleet is stuck right in the path of the oncoming Jap' fleet and ends up trapped just like the IRL 2nd​ Battle of the Java Sea. However, not everything is as it was. History has been changed in a very subtle but important way. There are three American ships (two Wilkes Little-class destroyers, USS Walker and USS Mahan, and one submarine-tender-slash-emergency-relief-transport, USS Black Hawk) and one Japanese ship (the battlecruiser HIMS Amagi) present that either were not there in our timeline or, in some cases, didn't even exist anymore or yet at that point in time. So the Walker, Mahan and Black Hawk join the HMS Exeter, HMS Encounter, and USS Pope, in their desperate but futile attempt to escape the incoming Japanese fleet. The small, tired, and outnumbered Asiatic Fleet ships find themselves cut-off and boxed-in by the Japanese in the Java sea, but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. A rain squall of massive proportions lies just beyond the newest arrivals to the Japanese armada in the region: a brand new Kagero-class destroyer, and the massive battlecruiser HIMS Amagi. If the few surviving allied ships can get past the Jap' juggernaut and her escort and make it into the squall, they might stand a chance of escaping and living to see another day. Little do they know that this is no ordinary rain squall, and that they would soon find themselves on an alternate earth that's gripped by a massive war just like their own, but not the one they're familiar to. This war is between a massively powerful race of reptilian-like hunters called the 'Grik' and a much more peaceful but hopelessly outmatched race of people called the 'Mi-Anaaka' who resemble a wide variety of different animals familiar to us, but with very human-like bodies and personalities. (Some of us might know them as 'Furries'.)
So who would be interested in joining this if I made it? If you are a fan of the actual Destroyermen book series that this RP is based off of, you might notice I've replaced the Lemurians with just regular Furries, but this is mainly just to add a bit more flexibility to the story and character possibilities, and to potentially appeal to a wider audience.
 
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Hmm... should I maybe add some good flavor text to this thread to see if that piques anyone's interest? You know, give ya'll a bit of a feel for what'll be going down if and when we start off?
 
Hmm... should I maybe add some good flavor text to this thread to see if that piques anyone's interest? You know, give ya'll a bit of a feel for what'll be going down if and when we start off?
That would probably net you a few more replies as well as some spacing in that wall of text in the first post.
 
That would probably net you a few more replies as well as some spacing in that wall of text in the first post.
Cool, I think I'll get on that, thanks for the input! Still, it'd probably be a similarly-sized or larger wall of text since I tend to go a bit overboard (no pun intended) with detail more often than not. What's your opinion of the concept thus far, if you don't mind me asking?
 
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Cool, I think I'll get on that, thanks for the input! Still, it'd probably be a similarly-sized or larger wall of text since I tend to go a bit overboard (no pun intended) with detail more often than not. What's your opinion of the concept thus far, if you don't mind me asking?
Never actually read the books myself but the premise and plot summary I read isn't too bad. Maybe not my preferred cup of tea but I'll give them a deeper look-see later on tonight.
 
Never actually read the books myself but the premise and plot summary I read isn't too bad. Maybe not my preferred cup of tea but I'll give them a deeper look-see later on tonight.
Well I can't recommend them enough. The tenth (and supposedly final :cry:) book in the series was just released today, as a matter of fact. But anyways, I'm glad there's at least some interest out there other than just myself. I'll probably have that extra flavor text up by then as well, I'm eager to see what you'll think of it. :bsmile:
 
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Time for more flavor text!

March 1st​, 1942; the Java Sea

The war in the Pacific is raging. American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces in the southwestern Pacific region and the nearby island chains are being torn to ribbons by the Japanese forces that vastly outnumber and outgun them. The aging, battle-weary ships of the Asiatic Fleet, stationed in the Java Sea and the regions surrounding Java and Borneo, are in a particularly bad spot. With a huge Japanese task force bearing down on them from the north, the small band of allied ships either scrambled to escape or stood their ground, fought the approaching Japs, and were put on the bottom of the sea. In the port of Surabaya, the famous British York-class heavy cruiser HMS Exeter was recovering from heavy damage she sustained in the 1st​ Battle of the Java Sea, of which she'd been the only allied capital ship to survive through the battle and its aftermath. There waiting for her at Surabaya had been the British E-class destroyer HMS Encounter and three American Wilkes Little-class destroyers, USS Walker (DD-163), USS Mahan (DD-102), and USS Pope (DD-225), along with several other Allied warships. They were all that remained of the once-respectable ABDAFLOAT (American, British, Dutch, and Australian naval forces). These last few vessels soon headed south to the Allied repair facilities at Ceylon so that Exeter could undergo further emergency repairs. There they were joined by the USS Black Hawk (AD-9), a submarine/destroyer-tender doubling as an emergency relief transport. Exeter was repaired somewhat more extensively and the ships all took on as much ammunition, fuel, and other supplies as they could carry, preparing for a desperate push to escape the death trap that had become of the Java sea. The Walker also took on several military personnel from Ceylon hoping to save them from the approaching Japanese armada, including several Marines, an Australian scientist/biologist (the only civilian on any of the ships), two US Army Air Corps P-40 pilots, and six navy nurses. (These were the only females on any of the ships.) However, when the Japanese came bearing down on them, the two British ships, the three American "four-stackers," and their newest tag-along Black Hawk, were forced on the run again. Thus begins the 2nd​ Battle of the Java Sea. They high-tailed it to the west along the northern coast of Java, then spotted a group of Japanese warships out in front of them. They turned north to flee but were then forced to turn back east along the southern coast of Borneo by another Japanese force. Just when it looked like they might be in the clear, the noose was tightened and their fates sealed. With two groups of modern Japanese destroyers and heavy cruisers pursuing them from behind and from their right flank, another, final Japanese battle group charged in from the north to cut off the Allied ships' last escape route. This new group only contained two ships, one of them a brand-new Kagero-class destroyer, but she was almost a laughable threat compared to the other vessel. Steaming along with the DD loomed a massive, lumbering fortress of guns and steel: Battlecruiser Amagi. HIMS Amagi was the first and only remaining ship of her class, and was slower than most of the Allied ships but was armed to the teeth with ten 16" main cannons, sixteen 5.5" secondaries, six 4.7" dual-purpose guns, scores of smaller anti-aircraft batteries, and eight 24" torpedo tubes for the incredibly lethal Type 93 'Long Lance' torpedoes. Just beyond Amagi, however, lay a rain squall of titanic proportions. The goal for the surviving Allied ships was clear: get into that squall whatever it takes. If the ships could reach the storm, they would be able to take a breather and possibly escape because the Japs would be unable to find and shoot at them, and they could make an unnoticed turn and evade them during the night. Little did they know that this was no ordinary rain squall, and that soon they'd find themselves on a world very different from home in an entirely different kind of war…
 
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Interested, though since their are ships does that mean their are marines aboard said ships that are able to be RPed?
 
Interested, though since their are ships does that mean their are marines aboard said ships that are able to be RPed?
Since the ships are so small they wouldn't have a dedicated marine contingent aboard, but the Walker did pick up several marine passengers at Ceylon so yes, she would have a few marines aboard.
 
Since the ships are so small they wouldn't have a dedicated marine contingent aboard, but the Walker did pick up several marine passengers at Ceylon so yes, she would have a few marines aboard.
Well I'm up for this RP then.
 
Well I'm up for this RP then.
Awesome! Ohh, did I mention that since the life on this other earth took a very different path than it did on our earth, there's still dinosaurs and stuff? Not exactly the ones that we're familiar with, but there's still some very prehistoric creatures roaming around like Brontosaurs that are about the size of an Asian elephant and are used as essentially mules by the Mi-Anaaka, and Allosaurs that are more than double the size of the ones we used to have here. :bsmile:
 
Awesome! Ohh, did I mention that since the life on this other earth took a very different path than it did on our earth, there's still dinosaurs and stuff? Not exactly the ones that we're familiar with, but there's still some very prehistoric creatures roaming around like Brontosaurs that are about the size of an Asian elephant and are used as essentially mules by the Mi-Anaaka, and Allosaurs that are more than double the size of the ones we used to have here. :bsmile:
As long as I can still ping i'm fine with Dino mules.
 
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