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[h1]Dragons and Battleships[/h1]
[h2]A Steampunk RP[/h2]

Life for Humanity was great. They ruled the world, and nothing but themselves could threaten their existence. They understood fully well the horrors of war, the destruction and death that came with it. Still they fought, determined to conquer one another in the name of their religions, resources, or nothing more than world conquest. But when the Atom Bombs fell they shook the globe, and there are some things that Humanity would have preferred not be disturbed. 

During the war that would become known as [u][b]"The Atomic Awakening"[/b][/u], Humanity discovered a whole new world asleep beneath the surface they knew. Sleeping Giants that had been in hibernation for thousands of years, had become covered over time in the natural spread of dirt and stone. Buried like the ruins of a lost city, there was no trace left of them by time Humans walked above them. But when the bombs dropped, and shook the whole of the world, these creatures, this hidden world, awakened. 

It started small. New types of creatures started appearing all over the world. Many of these creatures were the same beasts from Myth and Legend, such as supposedly Mystical Unicorns. But there were also much worse things that started to appear, including the Dragons. They were large beasts, two wings, four legs, and each was about half the size of a large warship. As they spread, Humanity did what Humanity did best... they overreacted, and dropped more bombs hoping that their new inventions of war could save them from extinction. They instead sealed the doom of the world as they knew it. 

That which one pair of Atomic Bombs was not able to awaken from its slumber, was instead awoken from the many, many detonations all over the planet as Humanity tried to fight back with fire. It wasn't long before creatures so massive that they had entire mountains on their backs, awoke in a rampage. They came from the Mountains, from the Oceans, from the very earth beneath the cities Humans once felt so safe in. It soon became clear... 

This planet belonged to the beasts now. 

It was through sheer genius that one man created the technology required to lift vast amounts of weight high into the air. Entire cities were released from gravity, as they rose into the sky. Massive flying ships stayed behind, roaming the Earth for as long as they could, releasing gases into the air that would change the world forever. Humanity's final act on the surface of their own planet, was to blacken the sky, so that nothing on the ground would ever be able to see the sun. 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/c8CGtQw.jpg[/img]

This of course had another purpose, one that was the only reason they could ascend into the sky and be safe. It created an ocean of clouds, above which the now flying cities could hover, drinking in the sun and being hidden from the beasts below. The monsters could have the surface, but this sky, belonged to Humanity. 

[h1]OOC[/h1]

Humanity now lives in the sky. Their cities float freely above an endless sea of clouds, and while everybody within these cities walks from place to place, travel between cities is done with flying transport ships. To keep these cities afloat, expeditions to the surface must be made to mine out as much coal as possible. This is obviously a very dangerous task, but even the ships that fly from city to city above the clouds are not safe. All manner of winged beast can sometimes simply drift too high, and all it takes is spotting a ship for them to aggressively chase it down, and there is nothing the crew can do about it. 

This is where you come in. For the first time ever, Humanity is putting GUNS on their flying ships. But these ships are very special and difficult to engineer things. They can't simply slap some guns on a transport ship and call it good. They have to engineer a ship specifically designed to carry the weapons that have been created for it, and these weapons are often designed with specific types of Beasts in mind. As such, each Warship is its own dedicated thing, not meant for transporting resources or people, but rather waging war against beasts. 

So here's all you need to know. 


[hider=Technology][url=https://youtu.be/Fc1P-AEaEp8?t=3]TECHNOLOGY[/url]

This is an alternate version of Earth. The Atomic Bombs that awoke the Beasts were created, and used during the equivalent of World War 1. That is where the technology was at the time, save for the Atomic Bombs themselves. So at this time, many of their weapons such as tanks and warships, were re-purposed from other areas. Slap a bunch of Naval Guns on a freighter, bam, Warship.

[u][b]Weapons [/b][/u]

As you can imagine, guns are fairly inaccurate, and unreliable. You typically need an engineer nearby when using a stationary weapon, as it can jam, overheat, or any other number of issues can come up at just about any time. Weapons mounted on a Warship are going to be typically a few machine guns, and some small scale Naval Guns. We're talking maybe two to three 3 Inch 50 caliber guns. This is simply a comparison for the firepower they hold, they aren't literally that.

[u][b]Ships[/b][/u]

Currently, ships are nothing more than a boat hanging from a giant balloon. The technology used to hold up cities is much, much too large to fit onto a ship, and engineers are currently working on making it smaller. But in the meantime, you can imagine the nightmare of trying to fight monsters when the majority of your ship is a giant, fragile balloon. Of course, these balloons have catwalks inside them and access areas for engineers to get in and patch them up.

[u][b]Cities[/b][/u]

Cities are at current very simple. It's pretty clear they are 'whatever people could throw together'. It's nothing super impressive, but it works. The biggest parts of these cities are the large outer walls, and most recently, a massive increase in shipyards and airdocks. These are considered a symbol of progression, as Humanity seeks to fight back against the cards they have been dealt. 

[u][b]General[/b][/u]

While this is all Steampunk, many things are still in a starting stage. The main source of weaponry is still Gunpowder, and propulsion is large propellers and sails, despite having engines running on Steam. The style and aesthetic is very much Steampunk, but the actual Technology Level is very much World War 1. Don't worry though, as technology progresses naturally through the RP, based on the successes of the ship and its crew, things will get much more crazy and... Steampunky. The aesthetic is still there from the start however.[/hider] 


[hider=Warhip Types]
Currently there is only 1 type of Warship, the Frigate. However, feel free to let your imagination run wild on what can be in store for the future of Warships. The below classes of ships are listed from smallest to biggest. 

Frigate
Destroyer
Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Battleship
Carrier
Dreadnought
Super Carrier
Super Dreadnought 
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[hider=About the RP]
You are a single crewmember of a ship. I, the GM of the RP, will be playing the Captain of this ship. If at any point we get a Co-GM then that person will, within the RP, become the First Mate. This just makes it easier as it means the people with power and control over the RP itself, have the same power and control in the RP which means the people giving orders are played by the people with the knowledge of what can and should be done. That just makes sense to me but it's not something I think anyone should worry about too much. 

This is a long-term RP campaign where the goal is to ultimately take back the planet for Humanity. Assuming the success of the RP, if there come a time when the greatest threats to Humanity are defeated, the RP will be considered 'won' and 'over'. At this point, the RP may reset if there's any interest in it, but there is an end goal in mind for all this. 

Preferably, I'd like to see people who are dedicated to the RP, and willing to see it through. I am looking for people who can post regularly, and can keep up their interest without dropping shortly into the RP, or before it even gets going. I'd rather this be a RP where everyone is in it for the long haul, rather than just a "Sure let's see what happens I guess". I want people to want to post in this and keep it going.

This RP doesn't follow any specific kind of Steampunk. If you're an elitist and the kind of person to go "That's not how that works, THIS is how that works!" then please don't bother. I'm not the kind of person who like, owns Steampunk novels and follows any sort of proposed science behind it all or anything like that. This is for fun, and many things will be made up as we go along. So don't expect that kind of thing.
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[hider=Character Sheet]
Name:

Age:

Background:

Personality:

Crew Position: 

Aspirations:

Appearance: (An Image is preferred. Both a Description AND Image is acceptable as well.)

[hider=Character Sheet Information]
[u][b]Background:[/b][/u] For this section it's important to know that it has been somewhere around fifty years since Humanity took to the sky. This means it's incredibly unlikely that your character would be fit for Military Service aboard a Naval Ship AND have been alive during the War of Atomic Awakening. 

Likewise, for location references like city names, many flying cities are named after either the cities they were made from, or simply cities that were left behind. For example, the capitol city that our characters will be living in is called Baltimore. So names for cities can be things like Cleveland, Denver, Austin and so on. And while these are all United States names, of course city names from other countries are perfectly acceptable. Just understand that names that come from other countries will be much further away from the main city... it's no different than if your character was born in Japan but now crews an American Vessel. 

There also are no Nations. The United States does not exist, Japan, Germany, Russia, so on and so forth. There is now simply Humanity, and the cities named after the old world. 

[u][b]Crew Position:[/b][/u] The positions available within the Crew are Helmsman (There is only one), Gunner, and Engineer. While the first two are obvious, an Engineer can have many different jobs. An Engineer typically does a little of everything, and takes care of whatever problem they are closest to, but to give you a general view of what they do... an Engineer repairs and unjams weaponry, repairs and operates the engine, and repairs the balloon keeping the ship afloat (Without which the ship drops like a rock). While the job of the Helmsman and the Gunners stays relatively the same no matter how big the ship gets, as technology progresses the Engineer is expected to know more systems. For example, Radios aren't a thing right from the start, but not too far into the future they'll be expected to know how to operate and repair them. 

Also, while ships are currently limited to Frigates, in the future "Pilot" will become an available Crew Position for anyone to switch to if they desire. This will likely become a position when humanity develops Cruisers. 

[u][b]Aspirations:[/b][/u] Simply put, this is any desires your character has. Is there a giant flying white whale that was the cause of the death of your family, and you seek to avenge them by one day slaying the beast? Or perhaps its your general aspiration to see Humanity returned to the surface, and to see the beasts that arose from the Earth annihilated. Or, maybe you're a simple person... maybe all you want is to someday pilot a fighter, and soar through the skies like the dragons you face. Free, unchained, and fearing for your life every single second because this thing was put together by monkeys and there's a dragon on your ass. 
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