Interest Check AfterShock [RECRUITMENT CLOSED]

[ryanmcallister80]

Aftershock: Interest Check

World Overview and Brief History

The year is 2052 and Mankind stands at the threshold of another landmark event in its history: the colonisation of Mars.

A permanent base was established on the moon 26 years ago and the first in a new generation of space craft has left the space dock above the United Nation's Lunar One base and is headed to Mars.

The Mars Pathfinder mission is the culmination of a huge multinational project and has seen unprecedented cooperation between the participating
nations, each of them providing the finest scientific, engineering and logistic experts not to mention spending billions of dollars to construct the technology that will make the mission possible. America, England, Japan and Germany are the largest contributors but all of the United Nations members have contributed in some way to the largest global collaboration the word has seen since WWII.

The initial colonisation is a one way mission for the astronauts of Pathfinder. They have the task of making a habitable colony for the 200
'sleepers' aboard the Pathfinder. Advances in technology have allowed the colonists, 200 of the finest scientists, engineers and other
professionals who have volunteered and trained for the last five years, to be placed in a stasis like sleep while the advance team of Mars
Pathfinders prepare their living and working environment on the harsh surface of the red planet. A second team of astronauts is on standby on
Lunar One should anything happen to the first Pathfinder team so as to ensure the sleepers will be able to make planet fall and not be allowed
to perish in orbit.

The Mars mission takes place amid a backdrop of increased global instability and the UN hopes that when the rest of the world sees the success of the mission it will prove that no obstacles are insurmountable in the face of openness and cooperation between nations.

Running parallel to the Pathfinder mission is an Earth bound UN scientific mission to catalogue and investigate a large number of meteor strikes across the globe. Over the last six months the number of recorded meteor strikes has increased ten fold and the number of objects classified as large (anything over 1 meter in diameter) has risen
exponentially. The majority of these objects have been tracked to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The UN publicly makes no connection between the Mars mission and the increase in large scale meteor impacts on Earth, but internally feels the coincidence is something worth investigating.

A (very) Brief History....

Travel to the moon, while still not cheap is a lot safer and space tourism is a growing business with the major airlines co-operating with private space travel corporations to produce space liners that circle the planet following precise routes that pass over the great landmarks of the world. Grav-trains provide fast travel between most major cities of the western world, Europe is more or less the 'Euro-zone' less the likes of Greece that went bankrupt. Middle East is still a dangerous,
volatile area with civil unrest common, Iran and Syria continue to be blockaded by the UN after it finally grew teeth and now enforces trade
sanctions. Afghanistan and Iraq have their own governments, but UN peace keepers are stationed there after US and UK troops pulled out in the late 2010's and civil war threatened to endanger the supply of oil and other natural resources to the west.

Japan and to an extent China lead the way in new technologies, India and Pakistan's emerging economies stalled after their relations with the USA
soured following terrorist activities through the 2020's being linked back to their corrupt governments. While the UK is a shadow of its
former glories of a century ago and its economy is weak, it is growing and its military strong despite its small size. Following the death of the heir to the throne during the devastating Food Riots of 2031 major political and civilian parties pulled together and after a short period of uncertainty Great Britain began to pull itself out of a potentially devastating period of civil unrest. With it's US and Japanese business partners it has once again become a major world power and a leading member of the United Nations, lending economic and military resources to most of the major UN peace keeping operations of the last two decades.

Russia has in the space of 25 years re-formed the USSR and then fragmented in a devastating civil war as old school communism once again
tightened its iron grip on the area and then reached meltdown as the various states once again realised that what works in principle, can only fail when faced with the realities of human nature. As a result, the one time super power has fallen to its knees and relies on the likes of China to finance much of its government, construction and security.

North Korea has continually courted international condemnation and controversy. They continued with their nuclear program, missile testing
and sporadic attacks on South Korea and made threats against the rest of the world should they intervene. Needless to say the UN continually
imposed trade embargos and sanctions which were continually flouted by other nations and North Korea itself, despite this, however, no serious
military action has been taken as the threat of nuclear retaliation by North Korea is thought to be a very real danger.

Advances in military technology have been helped by new research and manufacturing bases on the moon and 'Skylab' a large successor to the international space station. With new zero and low gravity manufacturing techniques the prototypes of a new generation of space craft, military vehicles, weapons and armour were possible. These new technologies allowed for the manufacture of lighter, stronger body armour and the first generation of small STARS (Swift Tactical Armoured Response Suits) and large armoured tactical suits, universally referred to as HARD suits (Heavy Armour Rapid Deployment). Civilian versions of these such as loaders or striders are common on large construction sites and oil rigs etc.

25 years ago NASA's space program was all but dead through lack of funding as the recession bit hard at the west's banks and governments.
Then there was a 'scientific discovery' in the northern polar region. Security was as tight as anyone can remember, with no press or outside agencies being allowed near, all other arctic research projects were cancelled without notice or explanation. The CIA and FBI arrested anyone trying to get into the area, even trying to impound computers of people trying to use commercial satellites to look at the area. The scientists that made the discovery were thoroughly debriefed and given new identities and eventually relocated to different parts of the world.

After two years the US announced a joint venture with the UK and Japan to send men to Mars and establish a small community there for scientific
research and the exploration of our solar system. Within five years new space suits (based on the STARS suits) were unveiled to protect the Mars
Pioneers from the extreme cold and to help in constructing the habitation units. The three nations also soon after began trials of new HARD suits for their elite military units along with new vehicles for transporting the large exo-armour suits. The United Nations took overall responsibility and also by default, control, over this mission a year later.

Advances in medical sciences, specifically genetics, have led to a massive reduction in hereditary illnesses. Other diseases such as cancers and mental conditions like dementia have been all but eradicated.  As always however, the level of care received in the leading economic nations far outstrips that in third world countries and even in deprived areas of the more developed nations, cancers and other treatable conditions are still claiming countless lives.

Five years ago the first human clone was unveiled to the public to a mixed reaction. The male clone named Adam, had been genetically engineered to be the peak of physical fitness, resistant to diseases and also to be mentally superior. Religious organisations and public groups were unhappy at the moral implications of such an individual and what the concept of cloning represented and world wide protests were (and still are) widespread. Attacks against research facilities and workers associated with Project Eden are still common. Recently rumours suggesting Adam is not one person, but a number of clones have surfaced due to erratic behaviour in public appearances and pressure is growing on the director of the project to make public the full facts of the matter. Rumours also run wild that the Mars Pathfinder mission is manned entirely by a secret army of clones, rumours which are strenuously denied by the UN and all participating nations.

The Game

I'm looking for players to fill the roles of two separate groups of characters, one for the Mars mission and one for the Earth's UN Scientific team investigating the meteor sites around the globe. While the Mars group will consist of a number of characters with very specific skill sets (pilot, engineer, communications, security etc) the Earth bound group will have the potential to be a lot more diverse, the UN employs people from all walks of life and diverse civilian careers, though we would need at least one character who specialises in some field capable of cataloguing and assessing space borne objects (i.e. meteors/meteorites) characters could be anything from translators, construction workers, engineering consultants through to security advisors, soldiers, pilots and the like.

The Mars mission group will consist of 5 characters (with some NPCs) and the Earth group will be of a similar number, but is possibly open to cameos and late entrants due to the flexibility of the Earth bound plot development.

Once we have the minimum number of characters: players can take a character in each group if they desire (and to be honest I've not GM'd
an online RPG for quite a while so I'm hoping that this is what will happen as I don't fancy my chances of handling 10+ individual players)
and the two groups will have separate IC and OOC threads. Character generation will be finalised in the OOC thread and I'd like to discuss the possibility of characters having a very basic character sheet with 'skills' and 'abilities' but we can discuss this once sufficient interest has been confirmed.

As I've said, this is my first group game in a while so please be prepared for the odd delay in posting as I figure things out such as posting order etc, I'm hoping those with more experience of this can give me some pointers along the way. The world will evolve depending on the actions of the two groups and I am hoping to add some colour to the experience by adding cut scenes in the form of news bulletins from around the globe.

P.S Adult content will be Light/Bondage, though the exact nature of any sexual activity should be discussed with individual players or myself and should be entirely consenting (between players that is). Any issues will be dealt with by myself and anyone stepping out of bounds will be removed from the game.

PPS I know the formatting is all over but I'm doing this on my phone so please forgive me. 

[Blobbe]

Interested and in, looking at character ideas and options already

I'm like that.

[Napanee]

Kayla pointed me to this. I love mars. I've read everything - but I promise not to be a bore about it !

Count me in for sure.

N

[Blobbe]

Well, I am a big Mars fan too...

[Isobel]

I'd be interested, definitely.  I think cloning and GE is fascinating.  I can play multiple characters.

[arkhos]

Interested!

And happy to play a character on the Mars team (mmmm, lots of Pilot ideas running through my head) and one on the Earth team.

Will keep an eye out here. :)

[Jason]

I'm in 100%!!! Never have been in a Sci Fi Group RP before, but should be fun!

[AribethAmkiir]

I'm interested.  I'd be happy to play a character on each team.  Possibly a doctor on the Mars team and a security person on Earth?

[Frelance]

I am definitely interested in making a character for the mars team and maybe the Earth team.

[SilverTonguedSeducer]

I'm in gorgeous! Lets go to Mars!!!! {Grins}

[ryanmcallister80]

Thanks for the interest so far guys and girls. I'll post early next week with confirmation of who's going to be playing.

[ryanmcallister80]

Ok, so I know its a little early, but here are the players I've chosen to take part in the group game:

Arkhos, Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, Isobel, KaylaM, napanee and SilverTonguedSeducer.

Apologies to those interested but not included, but this being my first group game I felt I needed to limit the numbers of players.

@Isobel; remind me what you're character preferences were again?

[ryanmcallister80]

Looking for 2 more characters for Mars, 1 more for Earth team.

[Celede]

Still recruiting?  If you are, I'm obviously interested. :)