The Void (space scifi, lovecraft, horror) - Accepting only back-up crew for now.

Started by wander, May 21, 2015, 01:25:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

wander

The Void


I will be running a game for people to portray spaceship crewmembers, called The Void. It is a (mostly) hard scifi & Lovecraftian horror game set in the year 2159, where crews of human investigators from a group called The Wardens are sent to look into various weird goings-on throughout the colonies in our solar system. From missing persons on Mars to silencing leaks of sensitive information on Ganymede, the Wardens try and keep the peace of the system, keeping the general public of the colonies quiet to the horrors that are slowly waking up from the shadows...




Spacecraft get about fairly quickly due to the invention of the Transit Drive, at least to today's standards. Although we still haven't broken the Lightspeed barrier or got anywhere near it. Whilst some frontier folk have gone out so far as to make mining colonies out in the Kuiper Belt past Neptune, we are not going to be breaking the Oort Cloud anytime soon.

All places in the inner system from Mercury to Mars can be reached in the space of a fortnight due to how acceleration works, though going out further takes longer... It could take a week or more to wait for a ship available for outer system travel and then it takes near a month for when Jupiter and Saturn are closest to each other, with times getting longer from there. To pass long travel times once onboard and not worry on resources, people enter 'grav-couches' when travelling, being placed in a sustained coma state and kept in gel... This is also so the people onboard do not get crushed from the massive Gs formed from the pulsed thrust of the Transit Drive.

All in all what this means for the Warden characters for the most part is due to sub-light speed messages and travel delays, when it hits the fan, it's going to be weeks before back-up shows and then often times it'll be too late.




The group once put together will portray the crew of a single Warden ship and venture to numerous places in the solar system on set missions. The first stop will be Mars where a colony calls in the Wardens to investigate strange disappearances. This will be a system game, using The Void rpg... Luckily it is available in pay-what-you-want download on pdf from drivethrurpg... Through creative commons it is available for free download, so if interested, grab it for free and see what you think.

The horror of the setting comes in a variety of ways... The game has a feel of a survival horror, think the very first Dead Space game or the first ALIEN film before both franchises turned to action. Characters will not be armed to the teeth and will feel vulnerable for it, not to mention the knowledge that backup will never reach them in time, leaving the characters to sort out whatever mess they're in alone... If you like both of the above, along with the films Event Horizon (of which this setting takes rather large inspiration from) and Pandorum, this game is for you.

The first adventure set on Mars will have a feel of Outland crossed with Ghosts of Mars, later locations if we get that far will have different sorts of feels to them.

If you're a fan of horror scifi and games where you play as a crewmember of a spaceship, this ongoing campaign is suited just for you.




Characters;
There are three general types of character occupation in the Wardens to choose from; Enforcers (the combat specialists), Investigators (PI types and social specialists; Comms, navigation and vehicles), both excel at being pilots, astrogators and ship gunners. Then there are the rarer Researchers (Those with knowledge; medics, engineers and mechanics).

Most all spacecraft crewmember types can fall into these general archetypes and some crossover does happen. Let me know what kind of character you'd like to play. I'd prefer we agree on which of the three occupations players will have their character take up once we have a group formed, so we have a balanced party.

So, if interested in a space horror game, let me know here!

Lustful Bride

*Jumps in* I will join!  XD

I actually kind of liked Ghosts of Mars so I will enjoy blasting people overcome with madness. Id like to be a Medic or an Engie maybe...hmm..i need to think on it more.

wander

Great!

I'm looking for around 3-6 people before kicking off. Make sure if interested to grab a copy of The Void on pdf, it's creative commons so you can choose to freely download the book. Within it talks more on the setting and the system is fairly simple.

As a quick overview, to perform an action which it may be possible to fail, you roll six-sided dice to amount of the attribute and skill (all skills have their own attribute that they're linked to) your character has, successes are counted on any die that comes up as 4+.

For example; if your character wants to shoot something, you roll the amount of dice they have in their relevant gun skill and their Awareness attribute added up. Awareness 4 and Gun:Pistols 2 means you roll 6 dice and any 4,5 or 6 counts as a success.

Sorrow Singer

Ooo very interested. Ill build a character of the enforcer archetype.

Strangefate

Tentatively interested.  Maybe I can rehash a character I made for another space horror game on E that never quite got off the ground.
A/A/Misc
On/Offs

"Vanitas Vanitatum!  Which of us is happy in this world?  Which of us has his desire?  or, having it, is satisfied?" - George Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

wander

You are both very welcome! :)

Strangefate, you can do that for sure. Quite a lot of the characters have come to The Wardens from other professions, I've been more general with the archetypes above. If there is a specific role you want for your character, I'm very sure there will be a space for them on the ship.

There will be a mix of activities and things to do so everyone will have their little bit to excel at and it'll be fairly freeform going in...

Upon landing on Mars in the first act it will be mainly investigative (of course an Enforcer will be useful in intimidating or seducing information out of the colonists as an Investigator doing digging and Researchers use their knowledge to discover the importance of clues found), getting to the second act to find out just what is making the disappearances in the Outland-styled colony is when the action kicks in.

Fiver214

I'm interested in jumping in as an Investigator. Room for one more?
Well, I'm back after more than a year!

wander

Yup! Very much room for a good few more to still jump aboard! :)

To clarify, I'm ideally wanting 3-6 people in the crew... The more the better due to the usual player turnover rate that group games usually have. I'll be bumping recruitment between Missions too, as new people join the crew after debriefing etc.

As a brief idea of crew formation, if we get three characters I'd ideally like to have one person of each class, which looks like they may occur given on what people want here so far. At a crew of 6, I'd be looking at ideally 3 Enforcers, 2 Investigators and 1 Researcher. On the off chance we can manage a crew of 9 would have a 4:3:2 division, etc.

Okay!
If you have the game rules now, anyone interested (including people who still haven't posted here yet) can now post up character bios and/or their sheets for me and the others to take a look at.

Finally, if anyone happens to have the Characters Unbound player's guide (not compulsory btw), I will be allowing custom lifepath characters built from the rules in there. Though for simplicity sake, it may be better to just use the character creation rules in the corebook for now.

Fiver214

Post them here, or would you like them PM'ed for approval first?
Well, I'm back after more than a year!

wander

In this thread, though if preferred I welcome PMs too. Though I will say I will likely eventually place in this thread anyone I shall approve, or make an approved character thread where everyone can see the other people's stats.

One issue... There'll be combat and so characters will likely be killing monsters or be killing by them... What forum would everyone want this game to be placed in ideally?

Fiver214

Eh. This being lovecraftian, Non-Con Exotic? Other than that, Non-Con Human. If all sex is consensual, the of course the equivalent Consensual form. :)
Well, I'm back after more than a year!

wander

Anything mentioned by myself I believe will be consensual on the whole... This won't be a game where the crew has to run from monsters or get raped by them.

Though running out of ammo for your character's gun and needing to escape from a clawed nasty out for their blood... Thats a different story!  >:)

Frelance

I just picked up the core rules and I will be working up a researcher character.
Evolution is an arms race

wander

Thats great, if you need any help with character generation, let me know. :)

Ghostraven

I just got the core rules too. Let me see what I can think up for a character.

TTYL

Ghostraven

wander

All good! I am still very open for people to come in and make characters up, so far no-one has brought in a character sheet, I'll take a character sheet as proof of interest and intent of playing.

When I have three sheets in, I'll kick on with the OOC thread and give a bit of time for others to come by before I open the IC thread. I'd like to get six in the crew if possible, though we'll see what happens. :)

Doomsday

Stating my tentative interest. Gonna read the core book at work tomorrow and decide then, but this sounds pretty radical.

wander


Amarlo

I'll look into the book and see if I can wrap my brain around it. I'll keep you updated, Wander.

Seduce my mind and my body will follow.
Amarlo's O&Os
Absences and Apologies

Ghostraven

Ok; here is my character for the game. :D
Let me know what needs to be changed.
I have a question about tech; vibro weapons are mentioned as common but the charts only list an Ax and a Boarding pike. I'm assuming that there are sword and knife versions as well.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Name: Miyako Tania Yagami
Call Sign: karasu (Raven)
Age: 21
Ethnicity: Japanese
Homeworld: Earth; Tyoko Arcology
Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.74 m)
Weight: 129.8 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Black
Eyes: Green
Profession: Warden Enforcer
Physical Description: Black Hair, Emerald Eyes, Bewitching
Personality Traits: Cynical, Dark

Attributes:
Awareness 4
Cleverness 2
Demeanor 5
Grace 5
Perseverance 2
Physique 2

Skills:


























Skill:Attribute:Rating/Pool:
Athletics: CoordinationGra2/4
CryptozoologyClv2/4
DeceptionDem2/7
DefenseGra3/8
Pilot: SpacecraftAwr1/5
Environmental SuitAwr1/5
FraternizeDem2/7
FreefallGra1/6
Guns: Assault WeaponsAwr2/6
Guns: HandgunsAwr2/6
Guns: LongarmsAwr2/6
Guns: SpecialAwr1/5
Hand Weapons: BladesGra2/7
Hand Weapons: ImprovisedGra1/6
Unarmed CombatGra3/8
InsightAwr1/5
Intimidation (Dem) 1/6Dem1/6
Language: EnglishClv3/5
NoticeAwr3/7
ReactionAwr3/7
StealthGra3/8
StreetwiseDem3/8
SeductionDem1/6
XXXXXXXXXXX

Qualities:
Nightvision
Rapid Recovery
Enemy: Rival Agent (2)
Dark Secret: L-3 Genetic Upgrade (1)
A/D Stasis Visions (2)
Wanted: Saturn (Tethys) (1)
Tough (2)
Vengeful
Sexy

Quirks:
Juggling
Firearms Knowledge

Talents:
Killer Instinct
Black Heart
Sexual Magnet

Weapons:
ACC-62 Bandit Pistol– 3d6 Damage, Mag. 9
SM-3 Blizzard Hornet SMG – 3d6 Damage, Mag. 30, Auto 2 (15 rounds)
SX-90 ‘Splinter’ Sniper Rifle – 5d6 Damage, Mag. 10
Combat Knife– 1d6 Damage
Katana (Cutlass)- 3d6 Damage

Damage:
01-13: Bruised (-1 to all Actions)
14-22: Battered (-2 to all Actions)
23-31: Hurt (-4 to all Actions, Half Movement)
32-40: Incapacitated (Unconscious)
41+: Dead

Statistics:
Health 9
Speed 14 mph
Walk 11.5 yd/turn
Run 35 yd/turn

Special:
Fate Points1

Armor:
Warden Armor (10/5)

Miyako, 21, was born November 27, 2138 on Earth. She is an Lucent-3 (L-3) genetic upgrade. She has black hair with large bangs, green eyes (her eyes are artificial and she often changes the color)Born on earth, parents were career military in JSDF.
Genetic upgrades were all the rage  30 years ago until banned by the UWC; though clandestine research continues in military and private corporate facilities they are illegal. 
Genetic upgrades are still available assuming you know the right people and have the money. It’ is illegal to produce them, not be one. However being ‘more than Human’ carries a certain stigma.
Miyako is a military L-3 upgrade indoctrinated and trained as a black-ops asset. Hence her skills, training and young age. Her last mission went Dark after the unit encountered… something.
The unit was all but wiped out and the presence of the Black-ops team revealed in the ensuing chaos to the corporate target as well as the civilian press.
The Warden’s were contacted via back channels given the nature of the incident and she was quietly transferred to them.
Her military records were altered to  have her being part of a Signals intelligence (SIGINT) unit rather than an active special forces unit.
Her official Military records are still classified.

Miyako was apparently trained for nasty dirty black ops wet-work, she prefers to close distance as quickly as possible and strike at point blank range. If needed she will use either her pistol and/or SMG until she reaches melee range then she will change to her vibro blades to shred armor and flesh. She fights efficiently and with speed and grace in an acrobatic dance of death. She always strikes with lethal intent unless instructed otherwise even when unarmed she fights to disable and then kill.
She will shift targets as necessary when working with others otherwise she will seek to eliminate the most dangerous threat.

wander

In answering about tech;
Until the gear-book comes out (if it does), then assume that vibro-weapons are essentially a descriptor and any melee weapon within reason can have them. It won't change anything though.




Okay!

Skills;
You seem to be missing Computers 1 from taking Earth as your homeworld.

If you're using the Enforcer character generation on p.87 of the pdf, it'd make it easier for me to check it over if you could total your skill points and list your secondary specialties, though I can see you took Pilot and Social Butterfly by checking what skills you have. You should have at the end 53 skill points in total,

Qualities and Talent;
Qualities are confusing to look at, though I totalled 7 Positive and 7 Negative. You actually get 5 points to spend on Qualities and you can boost that by picking up negative ones, so you can have for example, 6 Positive if you take 1 Negative. Don't sell yourself short! ^__^

On the same kind of point, you can only take 1 Talent, please pick from one of the three you listed. :)

Gear;
You can't have all that, sorry.
This is a survival horror and characters only start with 2 Personal Wealth and 1 Warden-assigned Wealth. Note the gear listings all have a Wealth Code (what wealth you need for it) and Impact (How much wealth is removed from your character through it's purchase).
Heavy Armours will be on the ship, you may choose one for free. Otherwise all items need to be cleared through Wealth.

Generally this means you'll have a light armour and a few weapons. You can forgo armour to have more weapons. Though if you need to do a Purchase test to gain the item, it may be best to wait for everyone else's characters first. Also Unlicenced Items will be available to you from the get-go. Anything higher will be available if you purchase it going into the Mars Mission for when you get back for the second Mission. :)

Ghostraven

#21
Ok; I removed the sniper rifle and Pistol, I went by what the pre-generated characters had for gear, one of them has a flamethrower. :P
I looked at the points again an was under points on skills and I put in the point totals for the Qualities and Disadvantages.

Looking at the two listed vibro weapons the Ax and Pike both ignore armor, 3 pts. and 5 pts. respectively.
The Ax does the same damage as a cutlass so I'd assume that it becomes semantics as to what your calling the weapon at that point so if that makes sense and is ok I'll use the ax stats for a vibro katana.



Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Name: Miyako Tania Yagami
Call Sign: karasu (Raven)
Age: 21
Ethnicity: Japanese
Homeworld: Earth; Tyoko Arcology
Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.74 m)
Weight: 129.8 lbs (59 kg)
Hair: Black
Eyes: Green
Profession: Warden Enforcer
Physical Description: Black Hair, Emerald Eyes, Bewitching
Personality Traits: Cynical, Dark

Attributes:(20)
Awareness 4
Cleverness 2
Demeanor 5
Grace 5
Perseverance 2
Physique 2

Skills:(53)



























Skill:Attribute:Rating/Pool:
Athletics: CoordinationGra2/7
ComputersClv2/4
CryptozoologyClv2/4
DeceptionDem2/7
DefenseGra3/8
Drive: MilitaryGra1/6
Environmental SuitAwr1/5
FraternizeDem2/7
FreefallGra1/6
Guns: Assault WeaponsAwr2/6
Guns: HandgunsAwr2/6
Guns: LongarmsAwr2/6
Guns: SpecialAwr1/5
Hand Weapons: BladesGra4/9
InsightAwr1/5
IntimidationDem1/6
Language: EnglishClv3/5
NoticeAwr3/7
Pilot: SpacecraftAwr1/5
ReactionAwr3/7
SeductionDem1/6
StealthGra3/8
StreetwiseDem3/8
Thrown Weapons:Gra1/6
Unarmed CombatGra3/8

Qualities:(10)








Quality:Cost:
Ambidextrous1
Fast2
Nightvision2
Rapid Recovery2
Sexy1
Tough [2]2

Disadvantages:(5)






Disadvantage:Value:
Dark Secret: L-3 Genetic Upgrade1
Enemy: Rival Agent2
Vengeful1
Wanted: Saturn (Tethys)1

Quirks:
Juggling
Firearms Knowledge

Talent:
Black Heart


Weapons:
SM-3 Blizzard Hornet SMG – 3d6 Damage, Mag. 30, Auto 2 (15 rounds)
Kunai x 4 (Throwing Knife) – 1d6 Damage
Tantō (Combat Knife) – 1d6 Damage
Katana (Cutlass) - 3d6 Damage

Damage:
01-13: Bruised (-1 to all Actions)
14-22: Battered (-2 to all Actions)
23-31: Hurt (-4 to all Actions, Half Movement)
32-40: Incapacitated (Unconscious)
41+: Dead

Statistics:
Health 9
Speed 16 mph/26 kmh
Walk 13 yd/turn
Run 40 yd/turn

Special:
Fate Points: 1

Armor:
Warden Armor (10/5)

Miyako, 21, was born November 27, 2138 on Earth. She is an Lucent-3 (L-3) genetic upgrade. She has black hair with large bangs, green eyes (her eyes are artificial and she often changes the color)Born on earth, parents were career military in JSDF.
Genetic upgrades were all the rage  30 years ago until banned by the UWC; though clandestine research continues in military and private corporate facilities they are illegal. 
Genetic upgrades are still available assuming you know the right people and have the money. It’ is illegal to produce them, not be one. However being ‘more than Human’ carries a certain stigma.
Miyako is a military L-3 upgrade indoctrinated and trained as a black-ops asset. Hence her skills, training and young age. Her last mission went Dark after the unit encountered… something.
The unit was all but wiped out and the presence of the Black-ops team revealed in the ensuing chaos to the corporate target as well as the civilian press.
The Warden’s were contacted via back channels given the nature of the incident and she was quietly transferred to them.
Her military records were altered to  have her being part of a Signals intelligence (SIGINT) unit rather than an active special forces unit.
Her official Military records are still classified.

Miyako was apparently trained for nasty dirty black ops wet-work, she prefers to close distance as quickly as possible and strike at point blank range. If needed she will use either her pistol and/or SMG until she reaches melee range then she will change to her vibro blades to shred armor and flesh. She fights efficiently and with speed and grace in an acrobatic dance of death. She always strikes with lethal intent unless instructed otherwise even when unarmed she fights to disable and then kill.
She will shift targets as necessary when working with others otherwise she will seek to eliminate the most dangerous threat.

wander

We'll talk more on Gear when things move on. The issue is whilst you will be playing capable characters, you are in a survival horror so weapons and ammo are gonna be a thing. The Wealth rules have been added in to combat just blowing away what comes at you. I'll talk more about that in OOC though.

Anyway, sorry for the kerfuffle... You are approved!  ;D

Now we need a few more people to join in! ^^

wander

Quote from: Amarlo on May 26, 2015, 06:33:41 PM
I'll look into the book and see if I can wrap my brain around it. I'll keep you updated, Wander.

Missed your comment, thanks for looking in. :)

To anyone a bit intimidated about character creation, I totally welcome PMs my way asking questions and whatever other comments you may have, so don't be afraid to send one my way if you want to talk about something. :)

Ghostraven

Quote from: wander on May 27, 2015, 12:41:49 AM
We'll talk more on Gear when things move on. The issue is whilst you will be playing capable characters, you are in a survival horror so weapons and ammo are gonna be a thing. The Wealth rules have been added in to combat just blowing away what comes at you. I'll talk more about that in OOC though.

Anyway, sorry for the kerfuffle... You are approved!  ;D

Now we need a few more people to join in! ^^

Ok; No worries. :-)

Here is the image for Karasu as well.



Hopefully with one character on display more will come out to play.  ;D

TTYL

Ghostraven