The Dying Demon Star (Free-Form, Sci-Fi) (MALES & soldier characters needed)

[Florence]

To be fair, Xenomorphs aren't that frail, they just seem that way in a lot of stuff cause they're going up against like... big high caliber guns, and predators and stuff. If you were to pull a standard irl gun on one of them, the bullets would pretty much bounce off of its exoskeleton. Alien Isolation actually shows how damn tough a single one can be against a person without heavy duty military hardware.

Also, my character is going to be female, most likely, but she WILL be a soldier 8D

[SneakyGuy]

Can you tell something more about the level of technology, specifically the weaponry? And how the military is organised? I'm thinking of may be playing something along the lines of a squad's anti-armour specialist.

[Florence]

I'm thinking, depending on what other characters we get, my character might either be like sort of just a rifleman...woman... stupid sexist military titles. I'm tempted to have her be a sniper, but given the sort of enemies they'll be fighting, I think someone with an automatic weapon might be more fun to play.

[Capone]

To be fair, Xenomorphs aren't that frail, they just seem that way in a lot of stuff cause they're going up against like... big high caliber guns, and predators and stuff. If you were to pull a standard irl gun on one of them, the bullets would pretty much bounce off of its exoskeleton. Alien Isolation actually shows how damn tough a single one can be against a person without heavy duty military hardware.

Oh certainly they aren't frail, but I feel like most people use Aliens as the go-to reference for the Xenomorph (see: video games industry), and in that film they shatter as soon as a bullet touches them (likely armor-piercing rounds, I'll concede). Meanwhile, the creature as presented in Alien: Isolation is perhaps a little too invulnerable for comparison. ;)

Can you tell something more about the level of technology, specifically the weaponry? And how the military is organised? I'm thinking of may be playing something along the lines of a squad's anti-armour specialist.

Nothing too far into the realm of sci-fantasy. I'm not one for hard scientific details so most of the tech will be "they just work!", and I'm still working some of them out (for example, I'll never try to explain how the Gateways work, just that they provide more expedient travel across the stars). However, nothing will be too far off from what is conceivable in modern society and research. Guns still use standard bullets, no laser weapons or other fancy tech. The power suits are going to be slow, requiring jets to accelerate them to faster speeds. There will be some laser work involved in the mining operations, and advances in artificial limbs and other cybernetic implants has advanced at a decent pace. However, these are restricted to medical cases only in events where a limb has been or needs to be removed, the patient is paralyzed, or there is some other issue keeping them from performing.

As for military structuring, I've mostly been using Google to figure out ranks and age ranges for them. I'm not overly familiar with the military myself, most of my knowledge coming from the oh-so-reliable world of video games and Hollywood. I'd say we don't have to go too much into detail.

I imagine anti-armor would essentially be for enemy tank and power armor units?

I'm thinking, depending on what other characters we get, my character might either be like sort of just a rifleman...woman... stupid sexist military titles. I'm tempted to have her be a sniper, but given the sort of enemies they'll be fighting, I think someone with an automatic weapon might be more fun to play.

I actually wouldn't worry about that. Not all the combat will be within cramped caverns and ancient facilities, and there will certainly be more enemy types introduced later. I'll try to design more encounters with such scenarios in mind as well.

[Florence]

Just a thought, but we could just basically copy/paste the basic rank structure of the US Marine Corp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps_rank_insignia

I would assume most player characters are probably enlisted, given that those are the ones who are generally sent into the field to actually shoot stuff. Obviously, the higher you go in the chain of the command, the more your duties involve sitting at a desk doing paperwork.

Junior enlisted are basically the grunts, NCOs are generally squad leaders and such, and COs are the ones who plan the strategies and give the big orders.

I dunno if you'd want the fancy pants commanders and people giving the orders to be GM controlled NPCs or what, but I'm thinking my character would, if we use Marine ranks, probably be either a Corporal or a Sergeant.

Also, technically, she'd be more correctly a "Designated Marksman" than a "Sniper", the key difference being that DMs act as part of squads and do general infantry stuff, whereas snipers usually work as part of 2-man teams and are more involved with recon work. Snipers are also specialized in the use of sniper rifles and fight from a long distance. DMs, on the other hand, usually use modified battle rifles or assault rifles, and are, in general, more versatile than snipers.

So, she'd likely be equipped with a modified infantry rifle, with enhanced accuracy and long range capability, semi-automatic. Less powerful than a fully specialized sniper rifle, but with a significantly faster rate of fire and ammo capacity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2etrh02RUk

That's sort of the kind of gun she'd probably have... though more science-fictiony looking I'd imagine xD

(With a scope, of course. xP)

Granted, full disclosure, I'm not military and never have been, I've just done a lot of military roleplay over the years xD

Some important bits from that wiki page for rp purposes:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Marines address all enlisted personnel by rank, and all Commissioned officers with "sir" or "ma'am". Warrant Officers, regardless of rank, are addressed just as commissioned officers, but may also be addressed as "Warrant Officer", or "Gunner", although the latter is sometimes considered improper unless the officer is an Infantry Weapons Officer (MOS 0306). During recruit training, recruits are indoctrinated to address all superiors as "sir" or "ma'am". Addressing a commissioned officer (or any rank) as "Mister" has long been considered a grievous insult towards the individual. The most junior ranks between pay grades E-1 and E-3 (Privates, Privates First Class, and Lance Corporals) are commonly referred to by their last name only, using their rank only in a formal situation. "Marine" is also a common form of address for junior Marines.

Informally, some enlisted ranks have commonly used nicknames, though they are not official and may be improper for use in formal situations. The acceptability of nickname use by juniors is at the discretion of the individual rank holder. A Gunnery Sergeant is typically called "Gunny" and occasionally "Guns", a Master Sergeant is commonly called "Top", and a Master Gunnery Sergeant is "Master Gunny" or "Master Guns". Differing from the Army and Air Force, all ranks containing "Sergeant" are always addressed by their full rank and never shortened to simply "Sergeant" or "Sarge". A Private First Class is usually referred to as a PFC, instead of simply "private"; similarly, Lance Corporal is not shortened to "Corporal". Senior Officers may informally address junior officers by first name. Marines of the same rank may also address each other by first name when among peers only and never in the presence of junior or senior Marines.

Finally, Marines consider it a grievous insult to be called a "soldier" or to be referred to as "troops" as soldiers and troops are army terms; the proper term is always Marine. When writing journalism or scholarly references to the Marine Corps, its elements, and/or individual Marines, the correct attribution is Marine(s).

[Capone]

In regards to players and their characters, if players want to play brass such as generals or politicians, I have no problem as long as they are in constant communication with me to discuss their intent with the character and how the remaining brass and politicians would react. I'm also completely fine with anyone playing a rank from private to Sergeant.

The primary squad that players were going to be assigned to was the 7th. This would make it easier to keep them all in the same combat scenario to interact with each other. I will likely fill it out with NPC's as well, in addition to any other common squads that might join them. Essentially, I plan to have a bit of a rolodex of NPC's across the various professions, making the character thread an index not just for player characters, but NPC's as well.

I'm thinking of coming up with a sort of "mini-sheet" in case folks want to provide details for their own NPC's that are somehow connected to their own characters.

But anyway, point mostly being that it is unlikely there will be need for another Lieutenant, but again, I'm always willing to try and make room for players so they can exercise whatever idea they want and still be involved.

[SneakyGuy]

I imagine anti-armor would essentially be for enemy tank and power armor units?

Currently these are the guys who carry the Javelin missiles in the US infantry and marines. Or RPGs in other armies.

Florence, you know what - in the end we'll be the weirdest fire team ever, where everybody is some specialised guy and no one is a basic rifleman. ;)

[Lustful Bride]

Currently these are the guys who carry the Javelin missiles in the US infantry and marines. Or RPGs in other armies.

Florence, you know what - in the end we'll be the weirdest fire team ever, where everybody is some specialised guy and no one is a basic rifleman. ;)

That could just be answered by your characters being the only survivors of your teams when we all meet up.

[Capone]

Just a reminder/notification that I start a new job today, so my availability will be greatly decreased from the prior week. I should be able to check in at least once a day, if not twice.

[Florence]

Name: Noriko Kurosawa
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Homosexual

Profession: Corporal in the U.D.C.E.I.M.F.

Appearance: Physically fit but more lean than muscular, of obvious Japanese heritage. She dresses very practically on duty, but is known to dress more fashionably when she's allowed. 5'2, 101 lbs, clearly takes good care of her skin and hair, and her overall grooming and hygiene.

Bio: Born in G Tokyo, to a family of loving, if somewhat spoiling parents, who could trace their genealogy back to the original Tokyo, Japan on Earth, Noriko always displayed a love for feminine things as a child, dresses, shoes, shopping, and so on. So much so that it was fairly unsurprising for all when, during her teen years, that love of the feminine began to apply to people as well. Her family was fully supportive when she brought her first girlfriend home to meet them. Ultimately, they were just happy for their child to be happy. She was an only child, and so she was ultimately their pride and joy and could practically get away with murder with them. At least until her little brother was born and she suddenly found herself having to share their attention.

What was more surprising to them, ultimately, was the aggressive streak Noriko began to grow into. As feminine and girly as she could be, she found competition thrilling, and seemed to seek it out wherever she could. She'd try to charm the popular girls just for the thrill of 'beating' all the people competing for their attention. She got into first person shooter games, and was a sore winner to say the least. At times, it seemed part of the reason she loved being fashionable and girly was just to out-fashion others. Perhaps it was an attempt to win back the attention she now shared with her sibling, or perhaps it was just who she was, but Noriko strove to be on top of everything she did, though only if she could manage to rub it in the losers' faces.

Suffice it to say, she was a heart-breaker in her teen years, and a somewhat selfishly unrepentant one, at that. She wasn't exactly what one would consider a good person. Shallow and selfish, and sometimes lazy, Noriko found herself to have remarkable natural talent with marksmanship, and like many others, decided to sign up with the military for a nice, easy life. Over time, she's managed to progress to the rank of Corporal, putting in a decent amount of effort, despite her selfish reasons for joining. That isn't to say she took her job seriously, but rather that she simply enjoyed getting promoted over other people. A distinct pattern with Noriko was to only put in effort when it benefited her. If there was nothing in it for her, she'd rather simply slack off and go have fun. Needless to say, she put in a transfer to G York as soon as she was able, with the promise of a 'pleasure dome' where she could spend all her off duty time.

Of course, only time will tell what sort of person Noriko will be by the end of the crucible that is to come.

[Capone]

Hey folks! Sorry for radio silence. I plan to get some extra sketching time in this weekend and then adding to the monsters, and potentially doing some Google image searching so I can plan out the colony in greater detail.

Still waiting on character sheets, and still also on the look-out for a co-GM. Based on how work has been this week, any heavy lifting GM-wise will have to wait until the weekend from me, so I can definitely confirm that this will probably be a slower game. I hope none of you mind that.

[Ollumhammersong]

Just a thought, but we could just basically copy/paste the basic rank structure of the US Marine Corp.

I am interested in possibly joining this, probably as a soldier and probably as more of a generalist infantry type, though maybe one with qualifications for flamethrowers and a second toy or two. I do have something to say about the ranks, personally it feels ( to me at least) that copying the USMC just seems to be the go to way for most military rp's I come across. And while to each there own it gets dull. Copying both their ranks and style as if they are the only possible real life comparison we can draw from. it just gets a little old. And implies America has somehow taken over everyone else's way of doing the military as well as is the only country on earth which seems to have any cultural and military influence in space. which I find questionable.

I don't mean to make it sound like I was slapping down that idea or you as a person Florence. I just find constant American references as if that is the only option to be tiring. And I tend to express my opinions and way what I want to say. So I am not trying to come off as mean or douchy, mearly trying to offer some alternative ideas as listed below.

Also if this is a untied democracy of various colonies would there not be elements from the militaries of various colonies? Like platoons or squads from each of the colonies? Or do all the colonies have one pooled military? which seems like it would be hard to manage if they are all on different planets. To me it seems more likely that each colony would be responsible for the raising of it's own separate militaries under the umbrella of the Interstellar military. Which would create interesting cultural differences as some colonies pour more money than others and focus on different aspects and training than others would. Like a colony on more arid and dry worlds would probably have more room to practice with armour and vehicles than say a heavily jungled or aboreal world which would focus out of necessity more on smaller group light infantry tactics and while a water heavy world would have a lot of training in amphibious and counter amphibious tactics as well as plenty of space for some fancy flying. There would be cross planet training and what not but I imagine the expense and transport time of such a thing would be enough to not make it an everyday occurance.

The ranks could then fall largely dependant on what colony your particular character hails from. If they are from a colony of largely one ethnic group or even a colony completely sponsored by a particular government from the old earth it's 'defense forces' would probably have ranks/political positions/cultural references similar to the sponsor nation in question. Like a colony sponsored by the British would probably be run by a prime minister instead of a president. And carry many British cultural references within it's society. Maybe one colony even set itself up as a constitutional Monarchy. or a princedom/Duchy within one that has ties to some of the few remaining monarchies from back on Earth like the Thai.

Or maybe they created a universal umbrella rank system like the one used by NATO and the UN. which regardless of the name of the rank they all have their equivalents. If you would like help making a ranking system I can do that. It can be remarkably simple to make a rank system. You can have as many or as few ranks as needed.

Also I remember reading something about old climate Earth. Am I to take it earth is unlivable? and humanity spread out to other planets partly out of necessity just for somewhere to live?


Now I realize that's a lot of post from someone who isn't really sure if he even wants to join and as the GM you don't have to listen to anything I just wrote down but I felt like saying it anyway.

[Capone]

It's no problem and you raise a lot of good questions. However, for the most part I'll be keeping a lot of those details simple.

At this stage, while there might be ways to trace back to old Earth nations and history, the current colonies are definitely their own entity or evolution of those ideas. The United Democratic Colonies of Earth are very much influenced by my own reflection of America in its current state and how it'd be like in a sci-fi setting. A nice sounding name with nice seeming intentions, but if you'll notice there are minor details that the colonies are not all in harmony. In addition, corporations have a heavy influence on these colonies and how they get funded. There's also an element of conformity or consistency, where each colony is sort of a carbon copy of one another, similar to how each suburban development has houses that are all designed the same and look the same.

There are other governments as well, but the borders are no longer clearly defined. Fights and outbreaks occur frequently out in space, typically on the fringes of each government's reach. What counts as the "inner colonies" will vary between the different groups.

Personally, I just use American military ranks as a guideline. If the government is influenced by old America, then that would certainly make sense. I'm sorry if that hurts some of the setting's potential to you.

For the purposes of this game, I don't really plan on putting much more detail into how things operate outside of the Gehenna III colony. While there will be some soldiers from other colonies on Gehenna, most transfers will be closer to where there's combat rather than a seemingly peaceful planet where plenty of folks are joining up for an easy job.

[Ollumhammersong]

I can see what you are trying to do for the sake of simplicity its just playing an RP set in "Space America" and as Members of the "Space USMC" for the umpteenth time got old a while ago for me. It seems like that is the only source people pull inspiration from at times and it gets tiring doing that same theme over and over.

Regardless I will still think about joining the rp and a plausible character or two. But don't hold things up waiting for my CS  to come in or anything.

[Capone]

I understand that. I'm basically pulling from basic knowledge gleaned from pop culture, and my exposure there is either film, television, or anime. Any foreign military is typically handled in a more historical context as opposed to modern.

That said, I'm not certain how most other militaries differ. Simultaneously, you could also play a sort of secret agent of an opposing military if you wish, or some sort of spy sent in that happens to be on the wrong colony at the wrong time, which would allow you more freedom to customize your own character's military history.

[Capone]

Two of the hostiles are now viewable in the spoilerific section of the original post, as well as basic details of the enemy behavior. I will have sample posts up tomorrow, possibly.

[Florence]

Just a heads up, my availability the next few days is uncertain at best, as my area is being hit with a big stupid storm :C

[Aced]

Still need soldiers? I was looking at joining my first group game here on E and this looks like it may be a good option for me.

[Capone]

Sorry to say, but unforeseen circumstances have caused me to withdraw from Elliquiy for the foreseeable future. I'm sorry for those of you that were interested in playing, as I was really looking forward to this game. However, I will be unable to be on E at all, let alone run a game.

My deepest apologies.