S
Snowflake
Guest
Background Noise(Lore)
[spacer]It's been centuries since the first Space-Man looked out of his window and saw the Blue Planet against the black backdrop of space. It's been ages since the worlds were terraformed to support life, since humanity took to the Stars to carve themselves a new, bigger home. To talk about the specific changes that transpired would be a waste of time and energy. There were wars, there were controversies, there was subjugation. Eventually the Earth that was had become nothing but a symbol to which the historians and true believers make pilgrimage to. Terra, Gaia, Sol 3 or whatever odd name it got had become just another monastery in the sea of black. Through countless wars and over-expansion the colonies crafted their own Planetary Governments and before too long Humanity was more divided than ever before.[/spacer]
[spacer]Enter the Republic of Free Worlds or commonly referred just as Republic. A force centralized around the worlds closer to the Core of the Galaxy. Through diplomacy, conquest, expansion and exploitation they united all of the Worlds into one centralized Federal Republic. However, reigning in the entire Galaxy proved to be no small task and so instead of a single Presiding individual a Council was formed to make the job manageable. Even still it was not enough so each Sector got its own Administrator, a sort of a bureaucrat or Overseer that ensures the Federal Law is obeyed and that each World, regardless of their Governing style pays its dues to the Republic. As one might expect with a system like this, the further one went from the Core Worlds the more barbaric and corrupt did the Administrators and Worlds turn. Here at the Rim only adaptable will survive.[/spacer]
[spacer]The Core Worlds at the first glance appear as idyllic utopias where there are no problems, no pollution, no crime. A place where everyone aspires to be in. The ugly truth is that the corruption had sunk its fangs deep into the Megacorps and Nobles around these worlds creating evils to rival those found on the Outer Rim and with Bureaucracy, Law and Religion to hide behind when things go bad.[/spacer]
[spacer]The Rim, separated into two segments Inner and Outer is where life goes from debaucherous to normal to barbaric. There is a certain section of the Inner Rim that has a stable state of being, minimal corruption and expected crime rates. This is the place where an honest man can earn an honest living and not expect to have his entire life torn apart by power crazed maniacs and their sycophants. Beyond that imaginary line things deteriorate into more corrupt and more barbaric states. The Outer Rim is a place where Gangers, Warlords and Slavers are only an uncommon occurrence and in some places are to injected in the governing body that they may as well be the ones running the show.[/spacer]
Space Travel & Navigation
[spacer]Modern SpaceShips are powered by a standard Fusion reactor, utilizing hydrogen extracted from Gas-Giants or particular Solars. Engines however vary from ship to ship. To travel from System to System or Sector to Sector a special FTL Drive must be installed on the ship allowing it to bore into the very dimensional fabric making our Universe work as it is supposed to. This allows the ship to enter a higher meta-dimensional state allowing it to travel faster than light. During these FTL Jumps the Ship is at the mercy of its route. If it happens to drive into a small moon or a neutron star in this state it will be torn to pieces faster than a human mind can comprehend. For that reason the Drives come equipped with numerous safety features that forcefully throw the ship out of FTL were it to crash. Oddly enough smaller object don't seem to phase FTL Jumps.[/spacer]
[spacer]To help with FTL Jump Plotting countless of FTL Transmitters have been deployed across the Galaxy. These unmanned satellites use similar technology as the FTL Drives to transmit signals to all inhabited worlds. They have an added bonus of serving as Lighthouses or Beacons that less skilled navigators can use to safely ride the cosmic waves without fear of burning up inside a Primary Solar. An experienced Navigator can plot Jumps without using Transmitters and thus take back routes lowering the chance of detection by potential pursuers. One final use that FTL Transmitters have is to cast the web known as the Nexus. A massive network of heavily regulated information traffic not too unlike the Internet. It is not without limits, however, and access to each world's own internal network will grant you more information that just the Nexus could. Regardless of that, Nexus can still connect you to your friends and family halfway across the Galaxy and allow conversation with minimal latency.[/spacer]
[spacer]Moving in relation to the Galactic Core is referred to as Coreward or Rimward depending if you're moving towards or away from it, respectably. After all there is no Space-Compass and the Galaxy is always rotating so none of it would make sense. Similarly one can travel Spinbound and Trailbound in relation to the rotation of the Galaxy.[/spacer]
Weaponry
Weaponry can be easily grouped and order by size and type. The distinction is obvious to anyone who had any sort of military training or had otherwise handled weapons in any serious capacity.
By size weapons go in order like so: Light < Heavy < Vehicle < Ship
As one might expect the greater the size of a gun, more power to it. Armour can be similarly categorized so it bears mentioning that having only a single size difference does make harming the opponent much easier. Two size difference is essentially negates any effect that armour could have. E.g. Hitting someone in Light Armour with a Tank Cannon or a Vehicle Mounted Machinegun tends to decimate the target. Heavy Armour on the other head provides a small amount of protection. Mechs and Power Armours are treated as having either Vehicle or Ship class armour.
Unless specifically designed for it, a weapon of lower class with have trouble piercing an armour of higher class.
By type they are grouped as follows: Slug/Gunpowder - Plasma - Mag - in order of price to develop and make.
The Silver Standard in getting folks shot, Gunpowder(or other substance) based cartridges with a projectile on the other end. Cheap, easy to make and easy to handle these ancient killing tools are often loud and crude looking compared to their younger siblings. On top of that archaic disposition they require air to fire and simply won't work in space as there is no combustion without air.
To make matters just a bit more colourful, weapons manufacturers had been peddling all sorts of new ammunition. Used to be a time all you needed was a lead projectile, now they come coated with god knows what in order to let them burn through solid steel and disable electronics.
But make no mistake, when that roar of a combustion shot resounds, you can bet your top credit someone is about to bite the dust.
Plasma, an elegant weapon, far from civilized but one that kills cleanly. Plasma weaponry is flashy, unfit for stealth; after all it glows quite literally. With minimal recoil plasma weapons hurl projectiles made of pure plasma melting their targets. Unlike the more crude projectile weaponry, plasma tends to singe and cauterize the wounds it creates so those struck by it rarely start bleeding profusely. More often they pass out from pain or shock, but that's on them.
Mag weaponry is a catch-all term used to refer to all sorts of Railguns and Coilguns that utilize electromagnetic forces to propel projectiles. These weapons are more silent, characterized by severe penetrating capabilities and are expensive as hell. They are extremely powerful when built atop Ships and used in Space Combat. They are the token weapons of Republic Black Ops teams and assassins and often flaunted around by men of rank as status symbols.
Ship Defenses and Subsystems
A Ship's main form of defense is its Hull; The thicker it is the harder it cracks. However when faced with Plasma it melts like butter after merely a few hits. To counteract this every ship is equipped with a basic shielding Module that uses up a fraction of the Ship's Power to create and Energy Shell around itself that disrupts the force-field giving plasma its projectile shape. Shields do however have one fatal flaw, they don't block solid matter. This means that the best armoured ships are those with a balanced Hull and Shield Module ratio. Oh and tonne of countermeasure systems like Chaff Deployers and anti missile lasers.
The reactor might be the heart of the Ship but to the Crew the most important one is the Life Support System which not only circulates air, filters water and generates heat, but also creates artificial gravity. Any ship considered space-worthy needs to also have a working FTL Drive, a Nav-Sys, Nexus Point Terminal, Working and Stocked Medbay and a Comms System. Most of them do exactly what their name might suggest and require no explanation.
Trans-humanism and You, Shinny new Chrome
The act of chopping off ones healthy flesh and replacing it with fancy new Cyberware is nothing too unusual in this day and age. Most people who do it tend to go for the big and expensive upgrades that feature hidden compartments, integrated weapons and tools, enhanced performance and the like. There is a small catch, the flesh despises metal and wants to reject it. Those who make heavy changes to themselves need to take a special cocktail of immune-suppressants for at least a month, maybe even two before their body is used to its new form. This leaves them in a vulnerable state as they can catch diseases easily and experience minor glitches with their new hardware. After all the brain needs to get used to these new synthetic pathways you forced upon it.
But why do it? So you can see in the dark? Why not just buy a set of much cheaper NV-Goggles? Why not just hide a knife in your sleeve instead of in your chromed out forearm? Most of the effects you get from Cyberware can be matched by a much cheaper, albeit less subtler version. Be sure that the new shinny metal arm is just for you, because you might be paying it off for quite a while.
CS Template
Name:
Aliases:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance: (Picture or relatively detailed description)
Personality: (Not too shot, but also not too verbose.)
Bio: (Can be as long or as short as you see fit, as long as it covers all of the information you intend to convey about the characters past.)
Role: (The role you intend to play as in the the ship's crew. Examples would be engineer, gunner, pilot, captain, etc.)
Skill-set: (What is your character proficient in?)
Equipment: (What are the things your character never leaves the home/ship without.)
Goals: (These will help your GM figure out what to throw your way, and there might be some bonuses later down the line)
- Short Term: (Imminent goals that the Characters aims to fulfill. Get to know another Crew-mate. Help with the mission in some way. Hunt down a dangerous Alien Creature Etc.)
- Mid Term: (Something not easy to accomplish and requiring at least some amount of preparation. Plan and execute a mission. Find out a Crew-mate's secret and confront them about it. Uncover Alien/Ancient Tech Etc.)
- Long Term: (The main reason your Character joined The Crew, the reason they resorted to illicit activities. Reveal X or Y conspiracy. Exact Revenge on X or Y faction or person. Etc.)
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