Faira, unsure how the record hunter worked, borrowed a quill and ink from the guard house at the eastern gate, and while she waited for Faira, set about muffling the metal fastenings on her saddle, using bits of cloth to prevent noise as they rode. She assumed Zatana would utilize a similar trick. When the elf arrived, the two set out silently toward the mountain.
Faira got off her horse as they approached, and practically laid down on the ground to crawl into position to watch. Though she was far from known for her stealth, she moved like a beastman when hunting, and did what she could to lower her large profile.
While watching the scene play out, she pulled the record hunter from a pocket and gave it ink and quill, taking care to open the bottle for the small creature. As the paper familiar went to work, Faira murmured to Zatana.
"Bad. And who's directing this? Goblins aren't this smart. Do you think we should skirt the mountains west? See if others are doing the same?"
This is an RP that uses the Lancer tabletop RPG system, which can be found online for free here. It focuses on a small, rather new mercenary company that does not yet have a name.
Though we will be using this system, the only lore and story from the rulebook that you need to concern yourself with will be the companies that you can acquire equipment license from.
[CHARACTER CREATION] Characters will begin at License Level 0, within the Lancer system. The system in question has a web based app that can help create your character and mech, as well as maintain them and export into a simple text block to show the stats.
If, for whatever reason, you are unable to use this, you may simply fill the sheet out as follows. In either case, please include a short bio(for all intents and purposes, your story starts now, so your backstory does not need to be long), and a picture and/or description of your character.
You may also include a picture of your mecha, and please remember that the rules and options you choose for your mecha do not affect its appearance. Though everyone will be starting with the GMS Everest frame as a base, you need not assume that they all look the same. Where's the fun in that!
[PLAY] As I said, we are playing using the Lancer system, which will necessitate die rolling, as well as reference to a map. The map will be maintained by myself, and updated after every turn. You will need to join my discord server, because this is where I have a bot that will be rolling dice, and it is also where I will have a channel dedicated to the current map.
Play is split between narrative and mech battle. Narrative play is completely free form for the most part. If there is a task that both has stakes, and has a chance of failure, you will be asked to roll for it. Rolls, as stated before, will be done using a bot in discord(for the sake of transparency and fairness). Any given narrative roll simply needs to beat 10 on a d20 roll. If you can argue that one of your triggers is valid in the situation, you may invoke it to gain a bonus. I, as the game master, can also impose bonuses and penalties depending on the situation.
Mech combat will follow the rules as laid out in the Lancer core rulebook. For the most part, this simply dictates how far you can move, how many actions you can take on your turn, and requires rolls for your attacks. There will be a turn order during mech combat. As a whole, the player characters go first each round, and the order of player actions can be decided between the players. If a decision can't be made, or if you prefer, I shall have you roll for it(if we roll, we will add agility as per initiative in DnD). Once the order is set, you shall stick to it unless I decide we need to deviate(for example, if a player is delayed).
The way it shall work is that when your turn comes, you shall announce what you intend to do, and make any applicable rolls. Once movement and attacks are resolved in-rules, you may post the action in the IC thread!
[STORY] The first mission will be titled The MECHnificent Seven.
McDonough's Rest. A small town built into a long abandoned adamantium mine on the far flung frontier world of Actaeon. It's shelter from the native creatures, and any storm that might roll through. When Earth is years of near-light-speed travel away, and no help could conceivably come to their aid, solid shelter is a must for a frontier settlement.
The mine that McDonough's Rest sits in was set up and run by Alvarez Mineral Imports. At the time, they were a small, ambitious operation that set up many such outposts in planets out in one of the star systems that have been colonized from out of the Sol System. AMI’s business tactic at the time revolved around getting in some place cheaply(and with as little regulation to get in their way as possible) and leaving quickly with whatever they could grab. They left behind a network of tunnels, the shallower ones being quite solid and equipped with worker quarters that weren’t completely stripped when AMI left.
This made it an excellent find when Sean McDonough and his ship full of pilgrims arrived on the planet, looking for a place of their own. In the two generations since McDonough’s Rest, as the town came to be called, is alive and thriving, primarily through agriculture. There are other settlements that they can trade with, but they require a long caravan trip to reach, and it’s only worth the effort for things they can’t produce locally, mostly higher tech commodities.
Recently, a representative from AMI arrived and asked, quite politely, that the people leave so that they can continue their mining. When the townsfolk tried to open up some form of negotiations, it became clear that the request was anything but. They were informed(just as politely) that if they did not vacate the premises by the time AMI’s operation fleet arrived, they would be removed by whatever force was necessary.
With no law enforcement to speak of, McDonough's Rest faces death, either at the hands of AMI’s private police force, or the native mega-fauna out in the wild, should they try to flee. The grandchild of the town's namesake, Patrick McDonough, has set out with the town’s only shuttle in desperation to neighboring towns to find anyone, local militia, mercenary, even a rival corporation, that would protect them, or allow them passage to another safe haven.
A handful of pilots and their mecha partners answer the call.
It's a frontier colony world, our town happens to be an old mine, but there's other settlements, they're just scattered. We can get up to 99.9% the speed of light, but there's no warp or hyperdrive yet, so we still can't break that limit. Earth is some ten lightyears away from it's closest neighbor, so pretty much anything that goes out to colonize space is going out there to stay. There are worlds closer to Sol than Actaeon, and more densely populated. Though it's been about sixty years or so since Actaeon was first colonized, it's still very much in its infancy as a populated world(Though, I am considering if we want there to be a primitive culture of native sentients). Some groups did come here for business, like AMI, but just like any frontier a lot of people come out just to find a place of their own. Some even come specifically to get away from bigger government influence on more populated worlds. The people of McDonough's Rest are among this second group.
Slathe: Big enough to wrestle a mecha, and still only a mid sized creature on Actaeon. They are, however, the largest animal that has natural predators as an adult. A slathe has wooly hair, in various browns and reds that naturally locks up into a thick coat over their thicker skin. They have flat, simple faces and broad dull teeth in powerful jaws. The upper two of their four limbs are almost twice as long as the lower, and are similarly thicker as well.
They’re tree climbers, and though otherwise non-aggressive, extremely territorial of their arboreal homes. Slathes form a symbiotic triangle with the razorleaf trees and yurgs. Their thick, matted coat allows them to hide in the branches of the enormous red razorleaf trees without getting cut, but since they can’t eat the leaves, they still have to brave the forest floor for food, making them prey for yurgs. When a yurg chases a slathe, if I they don’t get them, they’ll throw themselves against the tree, cutting themselves on the leaves. Their blood nourishes the razorleaf, giving it its color and providing it with the iron it needs to keep its leaves sharp and hard.
Yurg: Fast, mean, and dumb, yurgs are hairless, six legged predators. Their shoulders come up to just above the average man’s head. Their primary survival mechanism is to breed quickly, and throw as many of themselves at their prey as possible. Before humans came along, their primary prey were the slathes in Actaeon’s great red forests, but humans are a good deal easier to kill, even if their meat won’t go as far. They stalk human settlements, but a simple electric fence is usually enough of a deterrent, as it takes more zaps than you’d expect for one to realize that lunging at the wires won’t do it any good. As soon as they get up to full running speed, their front arms come off the ground and they grasp at their prey with sharp claws.
Mathorn: A tall creature on six spindly legs. They are lithe and thin, and have disproportionately large horns on top of their head. Two protrusions that grow in nearly perfect fractal “snowflake” patterns, side by side so that they fan out. Their fractal horns never stop growing, but are actually living bone and scales, able to heal if damaged. A mathorn, though able to walk for short distances, moves primarily in large, flea-like bounds. The next jump in any series is notoriously hard to predict, helping to elude predators. A common Actaeon figure of speech is to say that a pointless or difficult task is “like chasing mathorn.”
Quillodon: An enormous omnivore with a mouth to match its appetite. A quillodon is covered every inch in sharp, thick spines about two meters long. Though willing to forage if necessary, it usually gets its food by picking off plants(and smaller animals) that have gotten caught on its spines as it rolls, curled into a ball, over the land. A quillodon is easily one of the worst of Actaeon’s native creatures to encroach on a human settlement. Not because they are aggressive, but because they are so large they invariably cause damage just by passing through. Fully grown, they have no natural predators, and killing one is difficult even for humans with their sophisticated weaponry. It takes force that, on any other animal, would be extreme overkill to take one down for good. It’s usually more cost effective to steer them away from settlements. It’s not like they’re hard to see coming.
Hey all, on this subject, please add a short bio and description and/or picture to your character. I don't require much for this, just to get an idea.
Also do remember that you are by no means bound to the pictures in the book for your mechs. Their appearance is totally up to you, despite everyone using the same frame to begin with.
So I have a character. I will be playing them much like a player, however, you may treat her like an NPC in regards to making rolls to charm deceive or whatever else. Hell, try to kill her and mutiny if you want, just beware consequences from other players.
Okay, it sounds like we're mostly settled on LL0, so I'll stick there.
Our first mission will probably end up being just one battle anyway, so we'll move up a level quickly.
So, the game actually also has a fun(I think) way of randomizing relationships between characters. Basically you go around the "table" and for each other player there's a d20 table that you can roll on with stuff like "they tried to kill me once" or "they saved my life" or "I'm in love with them."
When I first did this story, it was like in the Magnificent Seven where it was a group of randos that got pulled together, but I've come to believe that have a predetermined connection between all the players can be helpful. If you want to roll on that chart for each other, feel free.
@vietmyke They don't, but this is the first mission.
By the rules in the game, anyway, getting a new mech is as easy as deciding you want one between missions. I believe, and I shall double check, that by level 3 you should have access to a new frame(depending on where you put your license points).
Now, my intention was to start at level 0 for simplicity, but I'll let you all chime in. It would be a little more complicated, but if we start at 3 you would have a lot more options for your mechs, and we wouldn't all be bound by the starter frame. What do folks prefer?
"You be careful, Acrius' 'teaching' has been known to leave men with broken bones," Faira actually didn't know if this was true, but it tallied with her experience of the young man.
She looked the girl over, sizing her up before stepping very close and speaking to Acrius in an undertone.
"Zatana and I have work outside the walls tonight. The Guard will be two short, so be extra vigilant. But don't spread that about."
She clicked her tongue at Steak and made her way toward the Eastern gate.
The cannon that had been moved here was quiet for the time being, but Faira was pleased to see that the guard here was as alert as ever, despite the lateness. She saw at least two who were tousled haired and had clearly gotten out of bed recently.
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