ctrlsaltdel — Roleplayer Guild

Rearden Keane

Rearden barely has time to interpose her staff between herself and the corpse-cat. She shouldn't have bothered--before the thing can pose a threat, Aurora has already skewered it. She lowers the staff and tries to take a closer look at this animated piece of taxidermy, only to get a face-full of the dust.

"Aaaa-choo! I--achoo! I don' thing--achoo!" Rearden struggles to speak through tear-filled eyes and snot-filled sinuses, though not to great success. "Don' thing she--achoo!--had mugch ti--achoo!--time to react--AACHOO" That last, explosive sneeze is apparently the limit; Rearden pulls a handkerchief out of a pouch and blows her nose with a impressively loud trumpeting sound.

"Ah, sniff, that's better."

Blood Under Moonlight

It is the year 91 of the Age of Exodus. On the planet called Elysium, mankind has taken the next step into space. The discovery of Chrona on its moons in the last century has made possible the construction of extra-terrestrial habitats--and the colonization of the planet's satellites.

We have seen the promise of a new home for mankind. On those bright lights in the sky, people are born and raised.

And die.

Thirteen months ago, the lunar colonies Ephyra and Athens formed the Lunar Alliance and launched a war of conquest against the rest of the Elysium sphere. Their aim was control of both the supply of Chrona and the natural resources of the planet itself. The intensity of the fighting in those first months came as a shock to everyone, and almost a third of the system's population was lost. 

Talks were held, and treaties were signed between the two sides to limit the destructiveness of future battles. Desperate for a new weapon that could turn the tide of the war without reducing the entire Elysium sphere to inhabitability, both the Lunar Alliance and the Elysium Board looked to walkers--humanoid robots made possible using the Chroma Effect, and employed in the harshest conditions for the mining of that valuable resource.

Outfitted for war, these machines have various official designations. The soldiers who ride them into battle call them Myrmidons.  

You are an Elysium Defense Force soldier assigned to Myrmidon Task Force Xyston-02. Your mission is to strike deep behind enemy lines, halt the steady advance of the Lunar Alliance, and give the EDF the time it needs to turn the tide of the war.

Between sorties, you will have for support the armed carrier Phillip and its crew, as well as the cooperation of any EDF forces you might encounter.

In the heat of battle, you will have only each other.


Hello! I made a status saying I didn't think I had the bandwidth to run another game, and then I wrote all this up!

As you may be able to tell from the opening blurb, this is going to be a mecha war story, with a setting based heavily on Gundam's Universal Century. That said, I've left most of the setting very vague; there's plenty of room for things to develop in different directions.

I'm advertising this in the Casual section, but because I'm ttrpg-brained this is going to use an extremely rules-light resolution system, which I've described in more detail below.

The mechanics here have been adapted from both Eidolon: Become Your Best Self 2E and FATE Accelerated.

BASICS

Each character has five stats, rated from 1 to 3.
POWer is brute force, of either arms or will
ELEgance is graceful movement, pinpoint accuracy, and perfectly timed counters
GENius is computer-like analysis, anticipating the enemy's next move
COMradery is inspiring friends, supporting allies, persuading enemies
FLAsh is the gift, the sixth sense, moments of inexplicable insight

When your character does something where success is uncertain and failure would be interesting, I'll pick the stat which is most relevant and draw that number of cards from the play deck. You will pick one card which determines the success of your action; that card will be discarded, and the others will go to the bottom of the deck. When no cards remain in the deck, the discard pile is shuffled and becomes the play deck.

The play deck consists of the 22 Major Arcana of the Rider–Waite Tarot. Each card has been assigned a polarity and a forecast. 

The polarity of your chosen card determines the level of success:Positive means you succeed and things go well.
Neutral means that you can still succeed, but there are complications.
Negative means that things go badly for you--either you fail, or success comes at too high a price.

The forecast of the card helps further determine the nature of the result. Sometimes, this will have a major effect on the outcome; other times, it might not.

The Fool - Neutral - You become who you are needed to be in this moment
The Magician - Positive - You achieve the impossible
The High Priestess - Neutral - Intuition guides your actions
The Empress - Neutral - You create something
The Emperor - Neutral - You break something
The Hierophant - Neutral - You discover something
The Lovers - Neutral - You are faced with two paths
The Chariot - Neutral - You exceed your own limits
Justice - Neutral - The situation becomes more fair
The Hermit - Neutral - Your actions isolate you
The Wheel of Fortune - Neutral - You are at the mercy of the fates
Strength - Positive - You triumph through force
The Hanged Man - Negative - You must make an impossible choice
Death - Neutral - Something ends, and something else begins
Temperance - Neutral - You are met with an equal and opposite reaction
The Devil - Negative - You get what you want at a price you can't afford
The Tower - Negative - Something terrible happens
The Star - Positive - A new path reveals itself
The Moon - Negative - Something unknown or unknowable interferes
The Sun - Positive - You are given cause to celebrate
Judgment - Negative - Your past mistakes catch up to you
The World - Positive - For a single moment, the world bends to your will
Pushes

Pushes are a consumable resource players can earn by accepting negative consequences and spend to avoid them.

Characters start each scenario with three Pushes. You can spend a push to:Discard the entire spread and take the next card in the deck as your result.
Explain how one of your aspects helps you in this moment. Increase the polarity of your chosen card by one step.

Pushes can be generated by:Picking a negative card.
Picking a neutral card when a positive card is available.
Explaining how one of your aspects causes you to fail in this moment, and decreasing the polarity of your chosen card by one step. (Must choose a positive or neutral card for this.)

Character Sheet

Pilot Name

Biography
Age:
Gender:
Physical Description:
Backstory:

Stats
Distribute the following values among your stats: 3, 2, 2, 1, 1
POWer:
ELEgance:
GENius:
COMradery:
FLAsh:


Aspects

High Concept:A short phrase that sums up your character's whole deal.
Strength:Briefly, something important about your character that works in their favor.
Weakness:Reverse of the above; a important factor working against your character's goals, either internal or external.

Myrmidon Name

Description:

Aspects
Strength:Briefly describe the thing your machine is best at/designed for.
Weakness:Reverse of the above--describe a design compromise or other drawback of your mech.


Remy Greene

Biography
Age: 31
Gender: M
Description:
A tall, athletic, square-jawed man with broad shoulders, Remy looks like he stepped out of a recruiting poster for the EDF. His black hair has been cropped short, his rugged face is clean shaven, and he has the posture of someone with a steel rod instead of a spine. Ice-blue eyes move in that face like gun turrets, rarely showing any emotion except dedication to the mission.
Backstory: Remy joined the Elysium Defense Force almost as soon as it was founded; he was among those prescient souls who saw lunar aggression as a when, not an if. When the war did start, his family--parents, husband, and children--were killed in one of the first orbital strikes. His already notable zeal increased as he threw himself into his work, and for his sins, he was quickly elevated from his original non-commissioned rank to become a Lieutenant. With nothing else left in his life, he was almost eager to accept command of Xyston-02. He'll get payback for his family or die trying--and in the moments where he's most honest with himself, he admits that either outcome sounds pretty good.

Stats
POWer: 3
ELEgance: 2
GENius: 1
COMradery: 2
FLAsh: 1


Aspects

High Concept: Unit commander with a death wish
Strength: Utterly dedicated to the cause 
Weakness: Doesn't care if he lives or dies

AW-323 "Pellato Custom"

Description: The Pellato is a short machine, but wide enough that it is nearly square. Originally intended for combat in the confined quarters of a Chroma mine, it is heavily armored from the front, at the expense of its backside armoring, and mounts a pair of extra arms tipped in powerful crushing claws for close-range combat. 

Remy has customized his machine with the addition of two large beam cannons mounted on the sloping shoulder armor. Additionally, a fin has been mounted to the head module; where the head itself sits between the massive shoulders of the Myrmidon, this communication antenna pokes out, almost three times the height of the head.

Aspects
Strength: Frontal assault in confined quarters
Weakness: Weak armor on the back


Misc. Campaign Info
As usual, I'm looking for 3-5 people for this.
This will be pretty episodic--split into missions or "scenarios", followed by a downtime period, then typically by a short timeskip.
I don't have an overarching story already in mind here; the intent is mostly to have fun smashing big robots together, but I also think something will likely reveal itself in-play as an interesting thread to pursue.


Elysium is an Earth-like planet orbited by three natural satellites, each roughly the size of our own moon. 

The three moons are called Sisyphus, Theseus, and Orpheus. Each is home to a large, man-made colony that uses the Chroma Effect to generate artificial gravity and retain a breathable atmosphere.

Inter-orbital travel is common, and travel times between the planet and the colonies are measured in days to weeks, depending on the relative position of each body.Physical Details

The Elysian Board is a transnational government coordinating the efforts of smaller nations on the planet, including the space program, trade policy with the lunar colonies, and the Defense Force.

Argo is the name of the lunar colony on Orpheus. It is a semi-independent member of the Elysian Board which has its own internal self-governance, but which supplies Elysium with Chroma and puts its military under their jurisdiction.

Ephyra is the colony on Sisyphus. It is nominally a democracy, but in practice its government has been captured by a plutocracy and is ruled by a President-for-life.

Athens is the colony on Theseus; it was formed as a constitutional monarchy, with a strong aristocracy.Major Powers

Chroma is a mineral found on all three moons of Elysium; it must be mined from the ground, and the areas where it is present are subject to dangerous, unpredictable gravitational effects. 

Chroma Reactors use small amounts of Chroma to generate large amounts of electrical power.

Chroma Effect is the name for a particle wave given off by Chroma Reactors, which affects local gravity in different ways depending on how the reaction has been tuned. In large installations, such as on Elysium's lunar colonies, this enables practical artificial gravity. The reactors in walkers are tuned to produce a low-level antigravity effect that counteracts their weight and provides a level of protection for the pilot.

Walkers are large machines which were developed for mining Chroma in dangerous and hard-to-access areas. Made possible by the power generation and anti-gravity capabilities of the Chroma Reactor, they are vacuum-capable and generally humanoid in shape.

Myrmidons are walkers which have been adapted for combat, typically utilizing a mix of built-in and hand-held equipment.Technology

AE -42
- Establishment of the Elysian Board, including a unified space program among the various nations of Elysium

AE 0
- Founding of colony on Sisyphus

AE 11
- Founding of colony on Theseus

AE 20 
- Founding of colony on Orpheus

AE 32
- Sisyphus colony declares independence from Elysian Board; new government calls itself Ephyra

AE 35
- Theseus colony declares independence, calling itself Athens

AE 61
- Ephyra and Athens institute higher tariffs on the export of Chroma
- Orpheus colony declares semi-independence, calling itself Argo

AE 83 
- Relations between Elysium, Ephyra, and Athens deteriorate; the latter cut off supply of Chroma to Elysium completely
- Elysium Defense Force, Ephyran and Athenian armies founded

AE 90
- June 15: Ephyra and Athens establish the Lunar Alliance and launch a surprise attack on the Elysian Defense Force's main headquarters
- November 4: Both sides sign the November Treaty, outlawing the use of orbital strikes and munitions above a certain threshold

AE 91 
- July: Present DayAge of Exodus Timeline


About Me
My position on 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.
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.
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.
All of this is to say--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.

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