FortunesFaded

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Archangel89 said
Hmmm...excellent advice, after reading up on some things about XCOM I think I might have my guy be more of the mind implantation kinda guy and messing with peoples heads. Any thoughts?

Sounds like an interesting idea!

Fallen has a point.. But then again, "people" have just decided to lock up all the psychics and throw away the key

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Daglobster said
Well, if you want an official XCOM pointer is that it seems that only the most powerful psychics can manipulate the physical world. Game-wise, only the Volunteer and alien Ethereals (both the most powerful units in the game, psionics wise) can actually cast a power that directly affects the material world. Most psionics is based on fiddling with the mind of your target, whether that's positive or negative. It's actually what psionics is meant to be in the first place. Of course, I'm not saying an elite unit of less than 100 people can encompass the entirety of psionic potential and variants.If you make a psionic that focuses on manipulation of the material world, they could have a deficiency in the more emphatic powers, such as an inaiblity to cast Mindfray or Mind Merge, which are basic powers. I'm not sure how the whole thing would work, the GM could probably give you more details. This is just my personal take on psionics.

This is a good point. I tried to make a sort of "power tree" wherein one could choose either to focus on powers that impact the mind of an enemy, or ones that impact the physical world. However, if people think that it would be unrealistic to include telekinetics as a power I can remove it

Edit: updated the opening post to reflect the violent, racist nature of The Eye.
Also, attempted to fit a character sheet into the "Character Dossiers" section using a hider within a hider, but ran into trouble. For some reason I haven't been able to do hiders within hiders since the new site came online with QQCode. Anyone know how to fix this problem?

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

The Fated Fallen said
I think you need to update 'The World of XCOM' hider. Namely the Factions tab. I was just about to join the Eye as a MEC xD

Aye, my bad — should have made their intentions clearer. I'll get on that.

As for your character, she's accepted. Welcome to the team!

The Fated Fallen said
I also wonder what our ex-XCOM soldiers relations with the volunteer were. It might be worth GM making a character sheet for them, because if you want to go for the most dramatic approach it was the most decorated soldier in XCOM and leader of the squad who sacrificed themselves for Earth. In which our characters may be a bit sad about losing them

I also assume all ex-XCOM were on the last mission

Huh. Truth be told, I didn't give much thought to the Volunteer. However, I will be (already have started) making Character Sheets for many former XCOM soldiers, including Tanaka, Roman (leader of The Eye), and a third non-Gifted character not yet named, who will be a delegate for the Council of Nations.

And yes, I will try to fit it so that all or most ex-XCOM soldiers boarded the Mothership, even if it means enlarging the number of soldiers that actually went on the mission. Although this could be player's choice: That mission brought international fame to every member of the squad. Others may have been part of XCOM but are still relatively unknown to the public because they didn't "end the war". Being able to slip in and out of the public could be a considerable advantage

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Ubermensch said
Done: is my character.

Accepted!

The Fated Fallen said
I'm unsure as to what faction your character currently belongs to. American army? Looking for a faction?

Since he's not a Psychic, his options are restricted to either Government forces, or Tanaka's rebellion (I promise I'll find a name for this group eventually — it'll likely be worked out in-game). The Eye is an extremist faction that, for the most part, despises non-Psychics, and would not let a human without the Gift into their ranks.

Alternatively, I suppose one could simply not choose a faction initially. Since the character isn't Psychic, he wouldn't be taken. There would have to be some connection to the gov't initially though, if he wanted to have the suit

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Daglobster said
I'd like to rescue someone, but I think nobody else is in Italy...Then again, I never really mentioned where Basso stayed the war, so I'll just place myself in America, since that seems to be the "hotspot" of this RP, so to speak.

Basso: Since your character is in The Eye, you can choose to just have evaded the authorities when they came for you. Likely, your cell would have provided assistance in that anyways. So yeah, either start out in a facility and I'll have The Eye get you out, or start as a free man and rescue another Eye operative.

Uber: yeah, that's fine! Get your CS in soon, though, as there's a 2 character limit on XCOM MECs (and Fallen will have one of those spots once he gets his CS in)

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Just waiting on a few more CSs before we get the ball rolling. I was thinking of having all characters (all Psychics, anyways) begin in detention at their respective nationality's psychic detainment center, with their respective affiliation (either Tanaka's organization or The Eye) breaking them out in the first couple of posts. Characters with the same nationality would be sent to the same detainment center, and thus be able to meet and interact in the opening post. Others may be "alone" in their center, but I'll make sure to write that their organization gets them out first so they aren't just sitting around.

Thoughts?

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Daglobster said
Alright, neat. For the advancements that aren't covered specifically, I'm just going to assume cities and stuff in general's more advanced, and if I get something wrong you can just tell me. Since laser weapons are pretty much run of the mill now, and only poor people use ballistics, can Basso's sniper rifle be of the laser variety? He not only has he served in XCOM from beginning to end, he's also a firearms instructor (which I guess should be changed to laserarms instructor), so it's not much of a stretch that he'd have one.

Yeah, that's fine. If he's already a member of The Eye, you could even have him use plasma. It's a well-funded terrorist organization; whatever they haven't stolen, they could probably afford anyway on the black market.

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Daglobster said
Where is this World of Xcom directory, anyways? Is it the hider up in the first OOC post?

Yep!

The Fated Fallen said
Since people are avoiding MEC's I've got to say I am probably going to go ahead and play one. Be nice to roleplay a character who has two sides, strong in armour yet pretty weak out of it

Okay! I should probably mention that in order to actually have the suit of armor one is accustomed to from XCOM, the character must be serving a government or military force in some capacity at the time of the CN Mandate. The suit is government property, and wouldn't be granted to a civilian or retired soldier. However, it's your character's choice either to stay with their respective government — and fight any dissenters to Mandate 113 — or go AWOL and join the revolution.

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Daglobster said
Still, despite all the brilliant work you've done so far as a GM, I still don't have a sense of man's technology level. Are US soldiers toting laser or plasma weapons? What about medicine, transportation, all of those everyday things? I know I sound super nitpicky, but there isn't a real sense of setting yet.

No, it's quite alright! Most of this stuff I come up with in my head but forget to write it down (and ultimately forget it, period), so I'm glad that you're pointing out these things. I'm writing up info on the various fields you mentioned now, to stick in the World of XCOM directory.

XCOM: The Shape of Things to Come

Daglobster said
Yeah. So, as far as I can gather, there's going to be two pro-psychic organizations, and PCs are (for lack of better terms) going to be split between peaceful and more radical methods, but with the same goals. Is that about right?

For the most part, yes. With CN 113 now in play and psychics are being taken from their homes, there is going to be an obvious increase in The Eye's membership. Initially I intended for The Eye to serve as a secondary antagonist — hindering the primary group's efforts to broker peace and such — I'm more inclined to change that and make them more critical to the storyline now that PCs are part of the organization.

The other group will be led, initially, by Colonel Tanaka of XCOM, the highest ranking (living) Psychic XCOM soldier in the world. As mentioned in the prologue (which I finally posted, haha), every other high-profile Psychic soldier was killed off by the Government or is missing.

The way I intend to structure the hierarchy of each organization is that initially, the GM's characters (Tanaka, and the Leader of The Eye) will be in control. This is temporary, and I'm hoping to gradually establish clear leaders amongst the PCs, one of whom per organization will end up leading. By the time this RP has been running for a while, I hope to have each organization completely player-driven with little-to-no intervention from myself.