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Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Just checking in to see if anyone needs anything. Let me know if you have any ideas for downtime moves/tie scenes you want to discuss, or if you just have a question I can answer!

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC

Rory's ears twinged to the wasp-like chorus of the approaching engines. It didn't take him long to realize what bothered him about it; there weren't many reasons a large group of people might approach a settlement from multiple directions, and the likelihood that at least a dozen vehicles would just happen to converge on their location--all at the same time--was about as high as the number of chips in his pocket.

His immediate response was to eat faster. Manners had the time and their place, but in situations like this animal need took priority. A couple of the other patrons nearby gave him looks that mixed confusion with disgust as he bent down with his nose almost in the plate and shoveled food in his mouth. Rory ignored them--and by the time he started licking his plate clean, the dead man laying in front of the little waystation's gate had given them something else to focus on, anyway.

{{ threat analysis: nearby gunfire. acoustic analysis indicates pistol-caliber rounds. length of burst and cyclic rate suggest a submachine gun. }}

Rory dropped the tin plate--now clean of any scrap of edible substance--on the counter and just about fell off his stool, reaching for his backpack. He had removed his battered flak vest when he sat down--the vest was heavy, he had been hot, and Sully's Rest had seemed like a safe enough place for him to dispense with it for the length of a meal.

"Things can never just be nice," he muttered to himself as pulled the vest over his head.

{{ threat analysis: given the distance of the gunfire and the caliber of the weapon, the threat to you is minimal, Lieutenant. }}

Rory had just managed to secure the vest's buckles when the gunfire began in earnest. "~Threat analysis is minimal,~" he said in a mocking singsong, as the bullets whizzed overhead.

He had been in gunfights before. Once or twice. If you counted a few shots fired back and forth before both groups retreated a gunfight.

This was a different thing entirely. There was no one to shoot at, for one thing. Between the sound of the engines surrounding them and the hail of bullets criss-crossing the air it was more like being attacked by a host of angry, deadly insects.

Rory scooted along the ground, dragging his backpack with him as he into an interior corner of the diner and began looking around.

Options. He needed options. A way to escape--if that was still possible--or at least a way to mount an effective resistance if it wasn't. Safety was found in numbers. If he could identify the right people, get them pointed in the right direction...

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@rush99999 yeah, I like that!

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@rush99999 sorry, didn't realize you were waiting on me. yeah, I'll let that last draw stand re: having the goat-bat follow you around; if you want to do anything more tho that's a different story.

Scum and Villainy [Firefly/Cowboy Bebop/Star Wars Inspired, Forged in the Dark]

Oh--the rules are available for purchase online, but if you don't want to drop the dosh, just PM me and I can get you a PDF copy.

Scum and Villainy [Firefly/Cowboy Bebop/Star Wars Inspired, Forged in the Dark]

From the Blurb

Scum and Villainy is a Forged in the Dark game about a spaceship crew trying to make ends meet under the iron-fisted rule of the Galactic Hegemony.

Work with the members of your crew to thrive despite powerful criminal syndicates, warring noble families, dangerous aliens, and strange mystics. Explore the ruins of lost civilizations for fun and profit. Can your motley crew hold it together long enough to strike it big and insure your fame across the sector?

From the Book

The year is 1261 since the founding of the Galactic Hegemonic Alliance. The Hegemony united the warring factions of the galaxy out of the Dark Age that preceded it. Near the center of the galaxy lies the seat of the Hegemon, who rules with the Grand Council—a consortium of powerful families, greedy merchant Guilds that control entire categories of technology, and the heads of powerful state-sanctioned Cults.

The Procyon sector, however, is too many jumps away from the Core to matter to those important players. There are a few well-mapped Hyperspace lanes, four systems, and jumpgates to more and less fortunate parts of known space. This far out, there is less of a Hegemonic presence, and local powers include pirate queens, criminal syndicates, and legitimate corporate interests.

The worlds here are peppered with ruins of the Ur—an ancient civilization officially referred to as the Precursors—and mystics claim the flow of the Galactic Way lines are strong in the sector. Humans and aliens live and work side by side in common interest against both Hegemonic rule and the organized criminals that prey on the weak.

The Setting

• Mechanics are gearheads and hackers.
• Muscles are dangerous and intimidating fighters.
• Mystics are galactic wanderers in touch with the Way.
• Pilots are ship-handling wizards and danger addicts.
• Scoundrels are scrappy and lucky survivors.
• Speakers are respectable people on the take.
• Stiches are spacefaring healers and scientists.

The Heroes

• Stardancer: Illicit merchants, smugglers, and blockade runners.
• Cerberus: Bounty hunters and extraction specialists.
• Firedrake: Labeled as criminals, these rebels fight the Hegemony

The Crew Types/Ships

From the GM

About the System

Now that I'm settled in and have a better idea of what I can handle in terms of threads, I thought I'd check for interest in another system I want to play. Scum and Villainy (prepare for me to misspell that title several times) is a Forged in the Dark game that takes inspiration from sci-fi stories about small crews in the hostile environment of space, fighting against mounting odds to depose tyrants, make it big, or just to afford their next meal.

Named touchpoints for the setting include Cowboy Bebop, Firefly, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy (MCU), and Outlaw Star; I'd also include the Imperial Radch series, and maybe Becky Chambers's Wayfarers books.

Notable aspects of the system include:

• A three-part play structure. Play starts in free time, where characters go about their daily lives. At some point during free time, the crew will decide on a job to carry out; after preparation is complete, the party attempts to carry out the job. Once the job is over, downtime establishes the consequences of the crew's actions, both good and ill. Wash, rinse, repeat.
• A focus on the crew. Each character has their own progression, but the ship (shared in common between the crew) and the party's reputation are just as important to their success.
• It's hard out here. Your characters are going to have to push themselves beyond their limits in order to fulfill their mission--and even then, they're still going to take some knocks. How do your characters deal with the stress of survival out in the great void?

About Me

• I'm still new to GMing play-by-post, so I may not have the same expectations as someone who's been doing this for a while.
• That said, I'm very open to suggestions and good-faith criticism. If at any point, what I'm doing isn't working for you, I'd much rather you bring it up to me than just stew on it.
  That doesn't just go for negative stuff, either--if something jumps out at you as a cool opportunity or concept that you want to visit, please let me know and we can hash it out together.
• My position on tabletop RPGs is that the most important thing is having fun, and the second most important thing is telling an interesting story.
  Nothing should get in the way of everyone having fun, and nothing besides that should get in the way of telling a good story.
• Regarding posting frequency: As I mentioned, most of my GM experience is with tabletops, and mostly with PbtA-inspired games.
  As such, I'm not a stickler for turn order--I'd prefer everyone post when it makes sense for them to take a turn, and I'll do likewise. That said--if you're not going to be able to post for a week or longer, I'd appreciate a heads up so we know who we're waiting on.
  From the other direction, if someone is behind the action, please don't leave them in the dust--either give them a day or three to take their turn, or confirm with them that they're ok with the action continuing without them.
• On a similar note, if you don't want to be in the campaign any longer--for whatever reason--please just give me a heads up. We're just playing pretend online, so I don't hold ill will towards anyone who want to drop out for any reason, but I'd like to avoid waiting on someone who will never post.
  As a general rule of thumb, I'll reach out to anyone who hasn't posted in a week; if two weeks go by with radio silence, I'll assume you're no longer interested in the thread. (Of course, if you need a month or two off, that's fine--I just ask that you let me know ahead of time instead of disappearing).
• I'm not strict on posting length. If what you want to get across requires five paragraphs, I'm fine with that--but if you only need one to get your point across, then I'm fine with that too.
  What's more important to me is that you're responding to the other PCs and to the world around you, that you're developing your own character, and that you're helping move the story forward by giving me and the other players something to respond to.
  I do have a strong preference for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but that's mostly a readability thing, and I'm not about to criticize anyone for whom English is a second language.
• Please don't let any of the above make me sound strict. I'm a pretty laid-back person, and like I've said above, we're all just playing pretend online, so the stakes could not be lower. If you're following the site rules and generally not being a dick, we'll get along just fine.

Other Info

• I'm looking for 3-5 players for this; once I have at least three that agree on a tone for the campaign, I'll write up an OOC and we can go from there.
• If you want to just post a bare statement of interest, that's fine. However, I'll give priority to anyone whose interest check includes a list of the crew types they're interested in playing, ranked 1 (most interested) to 3 (least interested). If a crew type doesn't appeal to you at all, feel free to leave it off your list. (This is so I don't end up with four people who are all wanting to play completely different types of stories.)

I'm almost certainly forgetting something, but this is already a lot of text for what is supposed to just be an interest check, so I'll leave the rest for people to ask about.

How many RPs do you have at the same time?

Also trying to make this calculation now; I'm currently running one and participating in four others. So far that seems manageable, but the more correct answer seems to be that It Depends--on how quickly you write, how much you write, and how often your fellow participants are posting.

So far only the campaign I'm DMing has really even given me an opportunity to post more than once every few days, and I think that's mostly because I'm used to a more rapid-fire, in person style of DMing.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Alright, that's majority positive, so the Phantom Clock gets set back two hours.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Haven't heard any objections to downtime, so let's make this the official thumbs up/down post for the debrief.

If your character has a generally positive impression of the events so far, use the "Thank" react on this post.

If your character has a generally negative impression of the events so far, use the "Laugh" react.

@XxFellsingxX@rush99999@Digmata@Guardian Angel Haruki

Nerves In Carbonox: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Sanro & Nero Marques

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Fortress Ship Solaire - Hangar Bay

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"...not really my department, but I got to talk to some of the people who did work on her. It's wild stuff. Framewerks are on the edge of our scientific knowledge in terms of complexity, power generation, and control systems, but the Solaire--and the other ships in her class--incorporate all that, plus everything we know about materials and construction. Just the scale of the thing is enough to boggle..." Sanro looked up from the backgammon game that sat abandoned between him and his brother and sighed; it didn't seem like they were going to finish this one before landing.

He didn't try to interrupt his brother--that would have been more trouble than it was worth. Instead, he set about packing up the tablet they had been using and cleaning their little section of the shuttlecraft. That didn't take nearly as long as he had hoped; by the time he had shoved everything back into their rucksacks and collected what little trash they had, the shuttle had only started its approach. His brother drawled on as Sanro tapped his foot, waiting for it to finally dock.

After what felt like an eternity to him, they were finally able to deboard and enter the hangar. The first thing he noticed as he walked out of the shuttle's airlock was the sheer size of the hangar; it reminded him of planetside facilities rather than anything he'd seen on a starship before, and he couldn't help but gawk. Nero stepped up alongside and raised his eyebrows at his brother; Sanro shrugged and gave him a slight smile. Yeah, ok. It's kind of cool. Nero returned the smile, and as the crowd coming off the shuttle split apart, the two of them followed the small crowd of people they had identified as the other pilots.

Both brothers were wearing their military-issue working uniforms, which only served to make their physical similarity more pronounced, but as the Lieutenant made her presence known, they were easily distinguishable by their salutes. Nero came to attention almost too crisply; Sanro's salute was... well, "acceptable" might have been a good adjective.

Both dropped to an at-ease posture as their commanding officers gave their welcoming spiels. From a distance, their attention seemed to be on the speakers, but someone watching them closely would have been able to spot them looking over at each other, making subtle gestures of eyebrow and mouth that served as well as talking for two men who were as close as they were.

The LT seems impressive.
The LT seems like a hardass.
You don't approve?.
I didn't say that.

Is this really the guy in charge?

Training already? I wanted to get settled first.
Welcome to the military, egghead.

The LT asked for questions; neither having anything to ask, each brother took the chance to look around.

Sanro's eyes tracked Lorenzo; his gaze was cold as he noted the man's attitude towards Minerva, and he made a mental note to follow up on that.

Nero's gaze swung to the side, landed on Elora, and immediately stopped. She had been at the back of the group with him and his brother, but they must have been both too occupied with keeping up (and gawking at the huge interior of the ship) to notice her until now. Oh no... She looks like a wet puppy in the cold. What's she doing here?

Instead of saying any of that out loud, he bumped her lightly with one elbow; assuming she looked over to see who had nudged her, he glanced over and gave her a silent smile and thumbs-up, held low where the Lieutenant wouldn't see.