Mutant: Year Zero - Adventures After the Apocalypse - {Recruitment!}

[Ssieth]

Apologies for continued distraction.  RL remains unduly 'interesting'.

Would you prefer Garan to be an independent operator, or part of Marlotte's crew?  The two might change both how much control she has over him, and how inclined she might be to protect him from repercussions.

I'm happy to go whatever way makes for better story in your eyes.  I'm tending towards the notion of him being outside her crew, but happy to reassess that if the alternative makes for better plot or character development opportunities :)

[greypsychman]

I am interested in making a character if you are still taking them.

[c0i9z]

Any suggestion of what to put for connections and dream?

[Outcast]

Still willing to accept character proposals.  ;D



Dreams and connections can be just about anything, so long as they fit the guidelines.  You might want to protect a NPC because you made a promise to their mentor as they died... and even though you think that your protectee is a profoundly annoying twerp, you feel honour-bound to keep them safe.  Or you might have viewed them as a 'bright soul' who makes the world better, for as long as you can remember.  Or they might have sacrificed their freedom to preserve yours, and you're desperately trying to keep them safe and alive long enough to repay the debt.  Or....

Similarly, you might want to outdo and surpass a NPC because you desperately yearn to impress them.  Or you might hate their guts because you blame them for not saving one of your friends who got into trouble.  Or you have them as the first target on a whole list of people you want to bring down, to effect political change in the Ark.  Or....

Connections can also be used to help shape what you want to see in the Ark (subject to my approval).  E.g. if it's really important for your character that there's a notorious kleptomaniac among the People, then there can be!

As for connections to PCs, I'd definitely recommend exploring possibilities with other people... but those will hopefully emerge quite naturally as people see what the other characters are like.

Big Dreams can be huge or rather more attainable.  They should be something you can work towards in a tangible fashion: "achieve global harmony" is a bad choice, since it's hard to see how you make any actual progress when even Stalkers have only travelled a matter of miles from the Ark.  But the topic and type is very open: "find Eden", "discover the origins of the People", "make the Ark self-sustaining," "help the People to have children," and so on could all be big, long-term projects on behalf of the community... but more selfish Big Dreams could be things like "go farther from the Ark than any Stalker ever has before, and return to tell the tale" or "create the most powerful weapon the Ark has ever seen."

The free PDF quick-start I linked to contains some suggestions for connections and Big Dreams.  I can aim to provide some more examples - and can discuss possibilities, if wanted.

One key point worth stressing is that connections and even Big Dreams can change.  You don't have to get it 'perfect' first time, and you're not stuck with things that no longer fit if your characters change over time.



RL is presently keeping me very distracted.  Stress levels are high (to put it mildly), and I have found myself with vastly more on my plate than I had expected when I posted this up.  I'm hoping that things will calm down (and soon!), but for the time being this isn't getting as much attention as I had intended.  I really do apologise for that!

[c0i9z]

'make the Ark self-sustaining' sounds good. Maybe she has someone like a chronicler she thinks of a s a little sister working on the same thing, from the inside? And someone like a farmer, trying to make something edible grow?

[Outcast]

There's a small amount of farming taking place (beets and mushrooms), but the Elder was the only one who knew how it really ought to work - so currently, it's a sort of experiment being run by some of the Chroniclers and Gearheads as they try to figure out more about it.  I could certainly see something like a relationship where you, say, try to bring back Rot-free samples of plant-life to be studied (and perhaps grown).

Bolstering the food supply is the most obvious urgent concern for the People, at the start of the game.  Indeed, that ties into the first 'official' Plot I'll throw at the PCs to kick things off.  ;)

[c0i9z]

Updated.

[greypsychman]

Personal Details
Name:  Falko
Age: 23
Height: 6’1”
Build: 200 lbs
Hair: Brown with a light beard
Eyes: Blue
Description:  Falko has medium length brown hair and a beard. He has a scar on the left side of his face where he was slashed by a knife wielded by the person who later became his first kill. Falko has a muscular build.
Sex and Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Hetero
Notes:

Profession Stalker

Abilities
Strength: 4
Agility:  4
Wits:     3
Empathy:  3

Skills
Endure (Strength)-1
Force-1 (Strength)
Fight-2 (Strength)
Sneak-1 (Agility)
Move-1, (Agility)
Shoot-2 (Agility)
Find the Path-1 (Agility)
Know the Zone-1 (Wits)
Scout-2 (Wits)

Talents Combat Veteran

Mutations Extreme Reflexes

Connections
(NPC)Falko dislikes the Boss, Johammed, because of the way he appears to horde artefacts and uses the people he pimps out. Falko feels Johammed’s people deserve a better life.
(NPC) Falko wants to protect a slave named Scarlet. Johammed is her owner and she must be a whore for him. Falko tries to buy time with her to protect her. They don’t have sex but simply talk.
(PC) TBD

The Big Dream Falko dreams of finding Eden where he believes that slaves will be free to have a life they choose for themselves.

[Outcast]

Interesting to see someone only just qualifying for their profession: I don't think I've encountered this approach to chargen in M:YZ before!

Not that that is in any way a criticism.  It looks as if he should be a useful contributor to a group, without competing with other people's specialities - while a good all-round warrior is definitely worthwhile.  And having a back-up / assistant Stalker can be extremely useful.

"Our Stalker is badly hurt and can't do anything more without a day or two of rest!"
"But our Stalker is the one who could find somewhere safe to rest up."
"...damn."



With luck, RL will calm down a little in the next couple of days, and I might be able to give this the attention I'd meant to direct its way earlier in the month.  I've not lost interest in this - it's just that my time and brainpower are being eaten by 'fun' in real life at the moment!

[Valerian]

Anyone have any thoughts on connections among the PCs?  :)  The obvious one for Carey is that she helped out one of the PCs or one of their loved ones in some sort of medical emergency, something along those lines.

[c0i9z]

Maybe Jena's people are trying to grow medical herbs for Carey?

[Ssieth]

Is it worth creating a character sheet thread so that we can readily get to them?

[Ssieth]

I'm thinking that Jewel's PC connection might be Jena as the teeny tiny rot dector of the group :)

[Outcast]

Yeah... I want to get a couple of threads up.  Apologies again for the distractions and delays.

Given the violent and horrific elements of the setting - though I don't intend this to be a gore-fest, the Zone can be a very scary place - we're probably looking at one of the more extreme boards as a home...

[Outcast]

Just a quick note to say that I'm inclined to put the game in NC Exotic Small Groups, to cover all the things that might come up in-game.

I'm not intending this to be a smut-fest, and I'm definitely not into the sort of torture porn or gratuitous gore that sometimes come up in connection with post-apocalyptic settings... but the Zone is scary and strange and often deadly-dangerous, so I want to err on the side of caution when it comes to picking the category for the game.

If anyone has any concerns, please do feel free to raise them.

I'm hoping that I can get up threads for characters, setting, and OOC discussion once I've had some sleep.

;D

[Rashol]

I think I might need a bit of help:

This is where I'm at so far. Are there details you would change?

Personal Details
Name:  Rika
Age: 20
Height, Weight, etc: Rarely measured by the People, but might be of some use for OOC descriptions.
Description:  Rika is quite "normal" by the standards of the Ark. Her most obvious feature is her startling purple right eye.Heterochromia. One eyes is hazel, and the other purple.

She has the physique of a grunt. Solid, built over years of labour doing, basically whatever needed muscles and not much brain.  She is a slave, but has a fair amount of freedom in spite of this Scholar Romech bought her. For whatever reason she doesn't know.

Sex and Gender: Female, bi-curious

Str 4
Agility 3
Wits 3
Emp 4

Skills
Shake it off 2
Heal 1
Endure 2
Fight 1
Force 2
Move 1
Sneak 1
Shoot 1
Know the Zone 1

Talent
Rebel (bonus to all shake it off is in theory better than to one specific one)

Hate:
Care: Scholar Romech. He is not onerous in his tasks for a slave master. He encourages her to go into the wastes, expand her horizons and allows her a certain amount of pocket money.
Protect:

[Outcast]

She looks quite all right.  :D

As a note: Rebel provides a bonus to something you do immediately after succeeding in a Shake it Off roll.  It doesn't make you any more resilient, but it means that when you do succeed in shrugging off trauma you get a boost to whatever you do next - so long as you don't delay before undertaking it.  It doesn't let you 'store up' bonuses for later use.

In my opinion, it's one of the more interesting Talents: it'll only ever help you after you've wound up in harm's way, but it can help you time after time... so long as you roll well. ;)

[Rashol]

I misread that. And I have an interesting history with dice rollers

[Outcast]

One of the perks of the GM handling most / all rolls, is that everyone gets equally bad luck with the dice roller. ;)

And if you would like to pick something other than Rebel, feel free.

I'm *still* hoping to get threads and more setting info up 'very soon'.  RL keeps doing its best to stop me....

[Rashol]

I'll keep it.

[Outcast]

I'm really, really sorry for how slow progress has been in the past couple of weeks.  RL has not been cooperative!

But there is now an OOC Thread ready and waiting for your use.   At long last.  :-[

Don't feel that you have to get things like opinions of other PCs and Big Dreams in place before RP starts: we can see how things develop in play.  But there's no harm in putting in something simple now: you can change connections and dreams as the game progresses, so a 'first try' isn't something you have to suffer with if it doesn't work out.