Dervish

Mass Effect Andromeda: Frontier

"Each and every one of us has our own reasons for volunteering to go, and those too are legion. Some of us feel a sense of duty. Some of us do indeed fear what the future has in store for the Milky way. We flee our past, we seek a future. We wish to begin anew. We crave the unexplored wonders that no doubt will reshape all that we know. All equally valid, in my estimation- but that’s not important here. What is important as we depart, what I want to be sure you all know is as you prepare to cross this ocean of time and space, is this… none of those reasons matter anymore. Not for us. What matters now, for you and me, is what we do when we arrive. Who we become, and how we carry ourselves in Andromeda.”

Jien Garson, Andromeda Initiative Founder and Benefactor, to the assembled crew of the Nexus the eve of departure of the Milky Way galaxy for Andromeda.

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The year is 2819CE, 634 years after the Andromeda Initiative departed the Milky Way galaxy to be pioneers in a new age of space exploration. Years of preparation and dreaming had led the colonists of the Milky Way on the landmark voyage, making history in such a way that perhaps even the Protheans never accomplished; the Andromeda Initiative took the brave first leap as extra-galactic colonists, leaving behind everything they had ever known and loved to forge a new identity across the stars. Whatever the motivations, each colonist shared the dream of starting new and leaving behind all of the millennia of prejudice and animosity that had come to define galactic civilization. It was to be a clean slate, a new beginning to build a world of their own design.

That world and dream were shattered as soon as the Nexus arrived in the Heleus Cluster when the Nexus encountered the Scourge, the mysterious and unspeakably dangerous energy field that snaked across the entire cluster, rendering all of the impossibly perfect garden worlds that had been discovered prior to the voyage inhospitable, making the plight of the colonists a life or death situation. A significant portion of the Nexus population staged an uprising to remove the Nexus leadership when they had been ordered to go back into cryo sleep due to rationing, the orders coming from people nobody knew after the top leadership of the Nexus had been killed by the Scourge including founder Jien Garson, the single uniting figure of the Initiative. The uprising to force a change in leadership was brutally rushed when Jarun Tann, the new director of the Initiative according to the line of succession, had set the krogan population to end the uprising by force. The remaining mutineers were subsequently exiled, and when the krogan realized they had been lied to about gaining a council seat in exchange for their help in putting down the uprising chose to strike out from the Initative themselves to forge their own destiny, feeling that the dreams of equality between species and starting with clean slates died with Jien Garson. The Initiative was dangerously close to failure.

When the decision was made to attempt colonization on Eos, the radiation scorched wasteland, it truly was a last ditch effort to try and establish a new home in the face of insurmountable odds. Perhaps there would have been some measure of success, but it was at this time that first contact was made, and it was of the most feared scenarios; these aliens were the Kett, and they were hostile. Suffering attacks and raids by the Kett and missing the krogan warriors to secure the Nexus and the fledging settlements on Eos, the decision was made to wake the security forces that would form the Nexus militia. And so, the first of the APEX strike teams were assembled and begun preparations for war with the Kett as well as hostile Angaran factions and the Exiles if need be. Andromeda would never be home if they didn’t take the deeply unpleasant steps to defend it.

However, hope resides; Ark Hyperion with the human Pathfinder Sara Ryder had made contact with the Nexus and with her the discovery that whatever the ancient alien technology is that’s scattered across the Heleus Cluster can terraform worlds. Shortly after departing for Eos to try and salvage the colony prospects of the best shot for the Initiative to have a home, Ryder did the impossible and activated the Remnant Vault and the lethal radiation levels of Eos began to rapidly dissipate, and with it gave the Initiative its first hope in 14 months; the outpost of Padromos was established as a militia-oriented settlement with a small science contingent. It is here that a newly awoken APEX team is being formed for training for the fight ahead to make sure that Andromeda becomes the home they all dreamt of six centuries ago…

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Welcome to Mass Effect Andromeda: Frontier, a roleplay run by DearTrickster, Mortarion, and myself. Something of a spiritual successor to Mass Effect: Borealis, there may be a few returning characters and players, but fret not newcomers; prior knowledge or experience is not required or expected to participate, nor will it put you at a disadvantage past not having years of knowing some charming people.

The premise of this roleplay is simple; your character will be one of the APEX strike team operatives who have been awoken from cryo sleep after the Nexus Uprising and around the time Ark Hyperion reunited with the Nexus. Your character will begin duties as a part of a newly formed team of 10 operatives to begin their training on Eos, which in this continuity has established Padromos as a militia outpost rather than a scientific one. From there, the team will take part in events that run parallel to Ryder’s exploits, facing danger from all corners of the Heleus Cluster and working to establish working relationships with the angaran populace.

Experience with Andromeda and the Mass Effect series in general is highly recommended and the time frame this RP starts is shortly after Nexus first contact with the angara and after Eos is rendered habitable thanks to Ryder reactivating the vault. Typical advanced posting standards apply and regular participation in the OOC is expected as well as expecting a post once every couple of weeks or more.

With that said and done, welcome to the Initiative; it's time to fight for our new home.

I'm just saying, Its called the roleplayer GUILD

I've seen people do something like that before unofficially where to join a game run by them, you had to be an approved member. I don't think it ever took off.

Honestly, the concept is kind of divisive and you're dealing with something that can cause a lot of petty conflicts and newer members feeling ostracised. Imagine being new to the guild and seeing that most RPs are exclusive clubs that you can't join unless you apply, and while you may counter with "but they can just apply to those guilds!", consider that a big reason a lot of people don't play in advanced is because they see it as an elitist club, or think they aren't good enough when they write excellently.

Fractured communities is not a great idea.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

<Snipped quote by Sierra>

I don't even bother checking out any int check that has romance as one of the tags anymore.

@Poi

I usually toss it into group RPs because while it's definitely not the focus, I'm not opposed to characters in the group developing romantic feelings as the game goes on. Of course, if that's someone's overt intention rather than, y'know, focusing on the plot, I'll definitely step in and steer them the right way.

Big reason I don't really do 1x1s much is there's a big emphasis on pre-ordained relationships that for me feel really unnatural a lot of times to me.

In a role play where every guy except me is 5'11 or taller... We are supposed to all be 15 lol

@World Traveler

I try to keep realistic heights in mind, especially in a historical setting. I think I usually have my male characters around 5'06" - 5'08" if they're human?

The Elder Scrolls: Vengeance of the Deep

Just a random roleplayer here looking at the RP, kind of happy that it's continuing again. Unfortunately this RP is pretty much full. I've been looking around, but there's not a lot of TES RPs around here, which is kind of a shame.

@Stale Pizza

Thanks for checking us out! I'll change the status to accepting if we have dropouts or if we GMs decide we can expand, so check the first post every now and then!

Right now, I know there's a TES RP that's starting up in Casual, Tamriel in Turmoil. Might be worth looking into!

Balroth would be a reclusive, giant, hairy German car mechanic that lives in a cute cottage in the Black Forest.

@James

I'm just imagining a giant wrinkly Orc in Leiderhosen who has a hard time fitting in his dinky sports car.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

You can learn anywhere. Even small things can help you to improve somthing, adapt. Evolve.

The best ideas do not come out of a book :)

@PrinceAlexus

I was more making a joke out of the hivemind comment than anything haha.

But seriously, I'm always striving to improve, even though I'm pretty successful as a GM (almost all of my games have pretty long runs, although of course I have had a few duds under my belt). I tend to do Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect RPs for what I'm running because I'm comfortable and knowledgeable about the lore, as are a significant chunk of players on RPG. It's very easy to focus on just running a game when everyone innately understands the setting and the lore of the universe, and given how expansive both properties are, there's plenty of original stories you can tell that have nothing to do with the games.

I do intend to run more original games down the road, but the difficulty I have is balancing in-depth world building vs. information overload for potential players. Info dumps scare away players, but not adequately providing enough information leads to a lot of confusion and disenfranchisement. I also have the "problem" where my games have pretty long lifespans and I don't like trying to run more than 2 games at a time, so the windows of inspiration for some ideas come and go before I put them into practice.

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

I've been like this before. Talked myself out of making it tho.

@Grim

I think most of us got excited about a few ideas and occasionally go off half-cocked. Usually what bites me in the ass is lack of prep work; I'll have something go off to a strong start but I never really thought past that and I end up trying to play catch up while people are waiting for me to think of ideas.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

The hive mind here is quite handy. Thanks.

<Snipped quote by GeekFactor>

Aye, that seems a good answer. Least salvage somthing no matter what happens.

@PrinceAlexus

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

I've been RPing one character for about a year and a half now, and another for over a year. People in general are rarely reliable over the long term, so it's important to figure out a way to keep your story and character going without relying on others.

@GeekFactor

I've found as a GM you can't wait up for people who are slow posting; just keep the game moving because stagnation leads to death.

I've not had a lot of luck for 1x1s, save for the few times I've written with people I had good chemistry with in group settings. It just helps to gravitate towards people you know you click with and have reliable posting habits, me thinks.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

When the RP you're in involves materials the GM him/herself are not familiar with and due to you not wanting a Co-GM position the RP is unable to function, leading to it being closed due to a lack of a Co-GM with necessary experience.

*facedesk*

Why make an RP if you can't run it?

@Raddum

<Snipped quote by Grim>

Silly smart phone...

Basically. Why make a RP if you Don, t know the ground work.

If more advanced and you mostly know the basic lore and the systems etc, just say you need say a few a hours to Google up a wiki, crack open a book or or double check etc.

Do not need to know every last detail, but Google is your best freind when complex lore issues crop up.

@PrinceAlexus

Honestly, a good chunk of fandom RPs are made by spur of the moment decisions by people who just want an RP in the setting of something they recently watched/ played. Just steer clear of anything that seems really sparse or indecisive and you'll be fine.

The Elder Scrolls: Vengeance of the Deep

@Leidenschaft STOP RIGHT THERE

@Lemons

I imagine Vasora's the kind of person who would be Dan Browning her way around the world, only to be selling off priceless cultural artifacts on the black market and going through like a super car every six months while bribing the ever loving hell out of border control agents.

Alternatively, I can see her being quite a successful traveler that she'd be doing one of those TV documentary series for BBC or somewhere that isn't present day Discovery, because she's genuine and not from Alaska.

The Elder Scrolls: Vengeance of the Deep

Alright gang, sorry about the lack of Brynja parts; Foxey's been gone all week and doesn't sound like she'll be back until Sunday so I decided to wrap this up and keep the game moving along.

There's no real structure for this one, it's basically a free-form survival bit where you can decide if your character's running into Falmer or not, or if the searching light comes anywhere close to your character. It's about building some tension and just getting a bit more action scene practice in! Just bear in mind that the visibility is extremely poor here; you might stumble right on top of a Falmer if you aren't careful.

Alright, here's a silly little activity; what do you think your character would do for a living and how would they live if they lived in modern, contemporary times? Would they scrape their way to work in retail with a Toyota Corolla that's older than them, be an ultra rich CEO that throws half-empty coffee cups at the window at the hourly peasants, or a school teacher who sells drugs to their students for kicks?