Mass Effect - A Galaxy Free of Reapers OOC Chat Thread

[Miyr]

For the time being and so we don't spam up the interest thread, I'm starting this thread for discussion/hash out of plot ideas for a Mass Effect Game I've proposed in the Group Roleplay section of the boards. Again, this story will revolve around a new crew (made up of various races) trying to survive in a universe without the existence of a Reaper Threat. The races must/will learn to coexist together and follow the path Commander Shepard has set forward for them. Some races may not follow in these footsteps and that's where our crew comes in.

Original Interest Thread

Recap on plot ideas: (Long I know, SORRY!)

Idea 1

A mix matched group of scientists, technicians and soldiers band together after the Reapers are destroyed. They had been charged with working on the crucible and are currently stranded at the rendezvous point Admiral Hackett commanded the ships to flee too. This group comes together in the aftermath and tries to find their way home or possibly explore potential ways to help heal the universe.

This would take off wherever the rendevoux point was at, or shortly after the destruction of the Reapers.

Idea 2 A

This team assembles in Omega, anywhere from 5-50 years after the Reapers were defeated. The mass effect relays are well under repair, some already completely repaired so hyperspace travel is semi-functional between the various systems. The Citadel (now hovering over Earth) is far along in the repair process and is partially inhabited by various council species.

This crew will either work under Aria’s guidance as a special tactics force of Omega, creating mayhem or peace depending on her current whims. How and why they would work for Aria would be set up during plot development.

This plot could elaborate on the chaos of Omega, potentially even focusing on intergalactic fighting between mercenary groups.

Idea 2 B

Another possibility is that they assemble in Omega, being recruited by advertisements or various newsblasts by the Alliance, The Council, or potentially be agents of The Shadow Broker. The "mission" given to the crew could vary from obtaining Reaper/Prothean tech to further the technology of Omega/The Alliance/The Council, go help repair mass relays, investigate new unknown depths of the universe, or possibly just be out for their own gains.

I'm thinking that the members of the crew are survivors of the war (if of a longer living race) or their descendants. These individuals could hold Spectre status or simply be hired guns. If they are agents of the Shadow Broker, their status would vary depending on race and rank.

Liara would command this force as the new Shadow Broker, similar to the Council's Spectre forces.

Idea 3

It has been 100-300 years since the Reapers were defeated by Shepard. Mass relays are fully repaired and Earth now serves as the capital hub of council space. The Citadel hovers over Earth, completely repaired. Humanity is the dominant race of the galaxy, working closely with the other races of the galaxy to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.

This group could delve further into the origin of the Reapers, potentially investigating more truths about the Protheans, or are focused on rebuilding the galaxy and furthering their respective organization's goals.

Most of the characters would be descendants of the people that fought in the war, primarily having known peaceful times and avoided the chaos of war.

Idea 4:

Prior to the defeat of the Reapers, a group of people band together and lend their assistance to defeating the reapers. This would simulate the various online multiplayer battles. There would be an objective to obtain Reaper/Prothean tech and the team would go in to get it. Who they are working for could vary from The Alliance, The Council, The Shadow Broker, Cerberus, or for the Crucible.

Which ending to play off of?
I personally think that we should focus on the "Destruction Ending" or the "Control" because "Synthesis" doesn't necessarily allow for conflict. With the "Control" ending we are also limited because the Reapers are policing/rebuilding the universe. I think that "Destruction" offers the best option, because we can elect to have all technology destroyed, or we can have the crucible be more "accurate" with how it fired, targeting Reaper specific technology so the Geth/Quarians/all technology is damaged but salvageable.

I did not specify which ending in my plot ideas because I was going to wait until I had a group of people assembled. I wanted to have a poll for which ending we wanted to pursue if we didn't create our own variation (say Destruction but the Geth and EDI remain or are salvageable which makes the Quarians survive).

Applicable to Idea 1 or Idea 2 (Pitched by DigitLNinja):

The idea that there are "Reaper Cultists" is very fascinating in my mind. I know that the Reapers are destroyed in the "Destroy" ending, but who's to say that their minions were? If we alter the "Destruction" ending to where alternative versions of technology were not effected, this could work. And to be frank, the signal that destroys the Reapers could have been altered/fine tuned to only impact them. They have their own communication system through their "hive mind mentality", so it could have been introduced to them through that.

[TheRedFear]

I still vote for Destruction ending, and I don't think we need to change it at all. The ExtendedCut endings amend all endings to be less destructive, so that even in Destruction endings the Relays are still repairable. If we assume Shep united the Geth and Quarians then there's no reason in the world the Quarians can't rebuild the Geth. I bet that nutty Quarian scientist lady who was obsessed with retaking control of the Geth would LOVE to take on that challenge.

As for EDI....alas poor Edi, we knew thee well. I love EDI as much as anybody, but one lovable AI is a small price to pay for the destruction of the Reapers. And a poignant price to boot, that adds a personal touch of bittersweet triumph to the demise of the Reapers.

[Cold Heritage]

I don't think she could replicate the Reaper code upgrades - which is probably what made them susceptible to the Crucible in the first place - or whatever self-improvements the Geth made during the Quarian exodus that I only vaguely recall allusion to. It wouldn't be the Geth as we know them, and that bitch is crazy so anything she make would be Pet Semetary Geth at best. Which I don't especially have a problem with. I'm not particularly attached to EDI, and Joker can suck it. I only really care about Legion's messianic sacrifice being for nothing, but if we're going to go with an ending that proves synthetics and organics can't get along I'm okay with all synthetics biting the bullet.

If changes are on the table, we maybe could do is go Control, only Shep-Catalyst just takes the Reapers back off into dark space to watch in case they're actually needed and stepping aside to let all the races have the self-determinated future Shepard fought and once again became a ham-fisted messianic figure for instead of becoming Big Blue Brother. There's still the punch to the balls about victory. Mordin and Legion still don't get to see it.

[TheRedFear]

Actually since the Geth only had those upgrades for all of a few hours game time(maybe...a few weeks, in-universe time) before the final assault on the Catalyst, it WOULD be the Geth as we know them. And with all the Reaper salvage floating around in the universe after the Reaper's destruction it's perfectly feasible that if they really want to, the new Geth can reaquire those upgrades. Doing so could even be the main quest for any Geth PCs who join the game.

[Cold Heritage]

Did the Geth achieve sentience right after being turned on? It didn't come off that way to me, and it seemed a lot like the Geth continued to develop during their period of isolation following the Morning War and getting the Reaper upgrades.

[TheRedFear]

It's not clear how fast they acheived their initial sentience, but they seemed plenty sentient enough to me by the time we encounter them in the game. Then in the thrid game, Legion's virtual memories of the beginning stages of the morning war show clear signs sentience already, including one Geth unit's borderline-greif over the death of his Quarian owner who died defending him. Legion says the geth have made a point of keeping alive the memories of the few Quarians who stuck up for them during the Morning War. That kind of senimtentality makes them seem plenty "alive" and "sentient" to me. And that was hundreds of years before the first game, so we can safely assume they're far more sentient by the time we first meet Saren's "heretic" Geth. Especially by the time we meet Legion himself. The so-called "Reaper Upgrade" seemed pretty superfluous to me. I assumed it just made them smarter and gave them a sense of individual identities more than anything else.

[Cold Heritage]

Maybe I exaggerated it in my head - I though they had like four hundred or so years of development independent of their Quarian creators that would be lost if "disregard escape pods, acquire Reaper tech" Quarian admiral just coded more up.

[TheRedFear]

THAT much is indeed true. These new Geth would be brand new "people" insofar as Geth can be considered people. But if we're assuming Shephard united the Quarians and Geth I can see a faction of the Quarians(likely headed up by the popular Civilian Admiral who's name I forget) "rebirthing" them as an act of Amends. And he'd get support from that nutty female scientist admiral simply because she'd enjoy taking on the scientific challenge of recreating the Geth. Considering everything she already knew about them, and adding in whatever advances are made possible by reaper salvage she gets her hands on, she could surely recreate Geth that are at least as developed as the Geth we all know and love. 

The problem would be she'd want to control them, and the civilian admiral guy would want to free them. And let's not forget the countless Quarians who still harbor centuries-old hatred for the Geth despite the peace and open aid the Geth were providing before the Battle of the Crucible, who wouldn't be remotely thrilled to learn two of their leaders(Three if we Assume Tali is in on it. And why shouldn't she be? If we assume Shep united them, then the last thing Legion heard was Tali finally acknowledging him as a person, and as her friend. So I could easily see her being with the civilian admiral guy on this) are recreating the race that almost wiped them out. They could rationalize it by reminding people that the Geth were helping the Quarians  re-adapt their physiology to the environment of the homeworld, and rebuild infrastructure at such an incredible speed that they would be able to live without their suits in a handful of years, instead of the multiple generations it would take without the Geth. So then you'd end up with even more conflict as the general Quarian population became torn on the issue. And conflict is always the source of good story telling.

Surely these new Geth would undoubtedly be interested in understanding their "forefathers". I don't think it would take long at all for them to become indistinguishable from the old Geth.

[Miyr]

From http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Geth

The geth were created by the quarians as a labor force. They were designed as VIs, as advanced as possible while remaining non-sentient. They were also designed to operate more efficiently when networked together. Unfortunately, this feature was the quarians’ undoing. Geth programs were indeed non-sentient individually, but slowly gained sentience through the massive geth network. Eventually, they started asking the quarians questions only sentient beings would think to ask; in one notable instance, a domestic geth unit asked its owner if it had a soul. Alarmed at this, the quarians decided it would be best to shut down all geth before they conceived of revolt. The attempt failed, and a war began between the geth and the quarians, which geth afterwards referred to as the Morning War.

At first, the geth did not respond to the termination order with violence; it was only after panicked quarians fired upon them that the geth thought to pick up weapons and defend themselves. Even after this, some geth remained loyal to their creators and put themselves in harm's way to protect geth sympathizers from persecution; likewise, there were quarians who did not feel the geth deserved to die. However, as time went on, the geth sympathizers were outnumbered, and the war continued, eventually seeing the geth gain the upper hand. The war ended when the surviving quarians evacuated their home world and colonies in the Perseus Veil. Unknown to the quarians themselves, the geth actually allowed them to leave; unsure of the repercussions of eradicating an entire species-namely their own creators- and having decided that the quarians were now too weak to be a threat, the geth decided to draw back their forces so that the surviving quarians could flee. The fleet of quarian ships that escaped the Veil became known as the Migrant Fleet, and has been roaming the galaxy ever since.

Little is known about the geth in the time between the Morning War and the present. The geth did not repopulate the now barren quarian worlds, instead choosing to exist in the computer hubs aboard massive space stations and extract needed resources from asteroids. They adopted an extremely isolationist attitude - any ships that ventured into geth space were immediately attacked and destroyed. While they prevented any contact by other races with themselves, the geth monitored communications and the extranet. The geth continued development of new technology and variations of mobile platforms, separating their technology base from the rest of the galaxy. They obtained an ultimate goal in this time period - to create a Dyson Sphere-like object, which could house every single geth program.

Admiral Xen is obsessed with the Geth for their technology. I can't remember who the other General is, but I think it would add an interesting element if Geth were a new type of "people". I personally think it would be interesting to play as one, thus why I mentioned some being spared. The Geth were uploading themselves into Quarian suits, which would have to survive the blast. They are software after all. If the Geth are destroyed, then wouldn't all software that exists? Thus why I think in some ways they could be spared, but perhaps the physical bodies are broken. In a couple of years the Quarians could easily build them new bodies via salvage or just pure ingenuity.

[Cold Heritage]

I don't think enough is really explained about why the Geth and EDI are subject to the Crucible to really hash it out.

Best we can do is suck it up and go with NuGeth (which, I think, would make it necessary to set the game in a timeframe very long after the defeat of the Reapers, well after rebuilding), or wave our hands and say there's no last minute genocide clause to destruction. I'd like the latter better. I know I'd like a Geth buddy.

[DigitLninja]

and now I have the greatest idea for two character I can play.

[TheRedFear]

Considering the sheer power of the crucible, and that it was specificly designed to target and destroy Synthetic life(with special emphasis on Reaper technology, which all the geth had at that point thanks to their Reaper program upgrades) I don't see many, if any surviving. Maybe geth who had not yet been upgraded for some reason, but even then I got the impression that the Crucible doesn't really discriminate when it comes to synthetic life forms.

It's not completely improbable though, so i'm fine with it either way. I just think that the Crucible can't be that big a deal if all it takes to dodge it is downloading an AI into different hardware

[Miyr]

There is interest in playing Geth characters, so I am going to say that we are going to do "New Geth" that were rebuilt after the destruction of the Reapers. Quarians were smart enough to build them once so they can do it again. This will also allow us to move forward with technological improvements for the Quarians and other races.

To help speed this theory along, I am moving that we have the story take place at least 5-10 years after the end of ME3 (if we don't go with Plot #3).

I've gotten character ideas from DigitLNinja. If anyone else has an idea for a character ready to go, feel free to shoot it my way or post in the thread. As for which plot, I remember there being interest in Plot #3. Anyone want to express interest in other ideas? I'd like to get the ball rolling forward.

[Cold Heritage]

What kinds of characters would be involved in Plot 3? Is it mercenaries and independents wandering around or representatives of the Council or . . . ?

[Miyr]

I'm actually willing to discuss that or have a combination of both groups interacting with each other. I'm also willing to have humanity not be the dominant race if we want to add elements of human resentment toward the alien races.

As I mentioned in the above post, the crew would be comprised of descendants of those who fought in the war against the reapers. There could be people still around that did fight (say Asari or Krogan) that still remembered the true horrors that they faced. We have the potential to play as Council races, a new group of Specters, potential residents of Omega, or even possibly members of a new revamped version of Cerberus. I am fine with the characters having various and diverse backgrounds because it'll add more elements to the plot line when the crew is assembled for whatever task we end up tackling.

[Cold Heritage]

Okay. If we aren't faction restricted, I would play a Systems Alliance soldier. Probably a battering ram type, wearing some sort of super-heavy armour, carrying some kind of machine gun, and probably some variation of sergeant. Maybe Master Sergeant. It sounds pretty neat. I'm guessing that there would probably be pirates 100 years in the future of the Mass Effect galaxy, so he's probably seen some action against them, and against otherwise lawless types from the Terminus systems. Had family on the Alliance and Cerberus side. Maybe even non-Indoctrinated on the Cerberus side, who ended up getting put to trial for war crimes.

[TheRedFear]

Personally I aint a fan of the Plot 3. Any scenario set a hundred-plus years in the future that doesn't have wildly different technology(especially with Reaper tech to reverse develope) wouldn't be beleivable, and wildly changing the tech won't make it feel like mass effect anymore. Just look at how far we are compared to people a hundred years ago.

[Cold Heritage]

The social and political landscape of 100 years in the future ought to be pretty different, too.

Idea 4 does cover a lot of bases. It's set in a time frame where people who want anti-human bigotry and humans to still be scrappy 'dude, where's my respect?' underdogs can have that, people who want to play Geth can play Geth without having to be NuGeth, none of the questions or implications that come up from the endings need to be dealt with, and it can still feel like Mass Effect since it's during the time the games cover.

That said, if it's really that popular to be after the end, why not 10 years? It's long enough for the lion's share of resources to have gone into reconstruction rather than innovation, and for Admiral Crazy to make some NuGeth deliberately designed to achieve sentience (which raises its own issues because the Geth becoming AI was an accident and the illegality of creating AI is probably something that would still be on the books even if there isn't much in the way of resources to enforce it, and even if people could be reasoned with to admit that the Geth deserve it for their hand in helping beat the Reapers, it's resources that could've gone into something else, no matter how beneficial NuGeth slave labour would be).

[TheRedFear]

Cuz in ten years Jack, Ash, and Traynor will be a bunch of old hags pushing forty(oh the humanity!) or so, and I don't have a geriatric fetish :)

[Cold Heritage]

Sure, but everyone lives to be like 150 in the glorious space future of Mass Effect. Even Chakwas has a bangin' bod.