STATUS:
Two days ago, Noble Arms is indisputably four years old, spread out across three threads, and the third thread is still ongoing and about to reach the endgame...
2 days ago
Current
Two days ago, Noble Arms is indisputably four years old, spread out across three threads, and the third thread is still ongoing and about to reach the endgame...
3
likes
13 days ago
Can't believe that I actually got an RP close to its endgame, btw...
4
likes
1 mo ago
Noble Arms is now either four years old, or three years and eleven months. The third thread had lasted for more than one year.
1
like
2 mos ago
New Interest Check, everybody!
2 mos ago
My Roleplay, Noble Arms: The ASEAN War, will reach its 4th year in June or July. It's been a long journey.
This was approved on Discord by all the GMs, and was my suggestion, and I heavily recommend joining the server if you plan to join.
As a system to improve the survivability of PCs and other Arms Masters, this was come up with.
By virtue of being able to wield magic, NA users benefit from the ability to recover from gunshots and the like more effectively than a human, and notably, their bodies heal up faster. This pulls power from their NA, so if you get hit, you live but your powers weaken. So instead of a regular human taking a few rounds to be downed, 1-3 or the like, it'd take more like 4-8 to sustain for C class NA users before they'd be totally unable to use their powers and would need medical attention, with the more powerful NAs being able to withstand more. While Arms Masters are still under their cap for how much abuse they can take, if a "critical" hit occurs, say a shot through the heart or the skull occurs, they're incapacitated but all resources immediately go to fixing them up. The result of this is they're out for the fight, unconscious, but they're still alive. If they proceed to get shot more and do not receive medical attention or are over their capacity for how much damage they can take and receive a critical hit, they would instead die.
Addenum by Lewascan2 with edits by me:
Note that logically, Defensive/Survival/Healing powers take priority over the survival system. If it's a question of a hit 'counting' or not, the hit to the Arms Master's 'survival stacks' is not expended (or may even be reversed/restored) if their power/an incoming power has some method of negating/delaying/mitigating/repairing the damage. Basically, specific powers can defend against or heal an Arms Master or make them endure stuff. If you don't have specific defensive powers, though... Well, this is a world of tradeoffs.
The City Hall was still intact, due to Feng having dispelled the meteor hovering above it when she fought the others inside Cristina's Mirage Space. Jin Li now had space to plan now that he had the promise of Task Force Obsidian's help. In a way, he was greatful to Qingshe, even as he knew that he was gambling on her not interfering even if she was still alive.
Callie saw through him, but would obey orders. Myron... he was suspicious but would not dare presume this was his jurisdiction. Cristina was utterly committed to what she thought was Qingshe's will. So Jin Li and the New Chinese Democratic Party, formerly the Qing Restoration Society, had everything they needed to secure their moment of... primacy.
This was the time when fate would throw a curveball; Jin Li knew enough about these incidents went and how pride preceeded a fall.
On the sofa of the City Hall's living room, Jin Li turned on the TV, expecting static. But instead, he recieved a news announcement that excited both hope and fear: The United States were finally sending 'volunteers'. Arms Master volunteers. And they had bypassed the New Chinese Democratic Party and directly recognized the rebellion in Shanghai as the 'legitimate expression of the Chinese people's will'.
Callie would be contacted by her CIA employers, either telepathically or through more mundane means, with the news. While Jin Li was still useful, he had far less cards in his hand than he wanted. Also, she would receive extra instructions; take the remaining members of Task Force Obsidian for an early lunch in Benjamin Tacos and Quesadillia and make sure they bond, emotionally. Also to examine Benjamin, their new member, and discreetly gather info on him as a secondary objective. But most importantly, make sure TFO bonds tightly enough to survive what is coming soon...
We expected the fall of the Technocracy to be a victory for Humanity, the destruction of the shackles that bound creation, imagination, and people's capacity for Magick. Instead, we recieved a rude reminder that for all their controlling, stifling tyranny over the Consensus, the Technocratic Union were why billions of people can live lives of mass literacy, easy access to food, water, and medicine, and have a say, no matter how little, in how they are ruled. Now hundreds of millions are dying as the world goes to shit just so Magick can make its big comeback.
Oh, wait, the most powerful Magick is in the hands of the That Guy, the leader of the Nephandi, the biggest, baddest Mages who genuinely belive in bringing down Hell on Earth for everyone else because... Ascension is a lie and Humanity will always choose Darkness, they say?
Well, fuck that; we're fighting till the very end. They may say that sacrifice is futile, but we're fighting their darkness till the very end. The Council of Nine Mystic Traditions has been broken, battered, and had to face the skeletons in its closet, namely that the rise of the Technocracy was partly their - No, our - previous generations' fault. After all, we were so foolish as to believe that the promotion of beauty, wonder, and spiritual wholeness required us to rule over the Sleepers/Masses.
Enough regrets; the Nephandi are at the gates and render down our world to blood and ashes. Even if it means fighting beside the remains of the Technocracy, we will push back against the darkness... and maybe find hope.
Mere months ago, if you had told me that the Union would fall and we'd have to make peace with the Reality Deviants just to survive, I'd have had you reconditioned. But now, I see that we were no longer dedicated to the destructon of the maze of 'mortal slavery and supernatural predation' our Order of Reason predecessors opoosed long ago, but rather set up new labyrinths, ones that allowed the Nephandi and their 'Unnamed' leader to burrow into our ranks - And the Trads' own - and rot us from within to the point where many of us were jumping off the deep end thinking that erasing our enemies would lead to a better world, a world of peace, plenty, and where Humanity could solve its own problems by itself; no Gods or Masters.
That belief destroyed us. Now the Technocratic Union - The Technocracy - is a shadow of its former self, forced to find common cause with our most persistent enemies, The Council of Nine Mystic Traditions lest the world be worse than destroyed. This won't be easy; some may even say it is impossibly futile.
Let them. If there is anything us and the Trads have in common, it's that we believe in Humanity; we just have different ways of expressing it. For the Masses/Sleepers, we will fight to make sure that tomorrow is better than today, over and over again, until it becomes true.
TL;DR - This is a Mage the Ascension Roleplay, set in the Old World of Darkness (although I like the New World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness too) and using my own take on the Ascension book, with elements of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition. You are all expected to be either Mages of some experience, but the option to be a newly-Awakened Mage with extra drive and talent is also there. Your job? To save the world now that Evil has finally won and undo that victory.
Reality is not fixed, but rather a set of agreed upon assumptions enforced by the collective will of humanity, the Sleepers. Mages are those people who recognize that reality is not static, and realize that through the application of their will, usually channeled through rituals or other similar "mystical" or "scientific" practices, reality can be changed.
The specifics of their own belief, called a Paradigm, guides them into joining either one of the nine mystical Traditions (an ancient fellowship of mages of varying points of view), one of the five conventions of the Technocracy (an organization founded at the beginning of the age of reason to bring science and truth to humanity), or to strike out on their own as Disparates (unaffiliated mages), Marauders (mages whose paradigm has overwhelmed their sense of reality), or Nephandi (mages seeking to destroy or corrupt the world).
The central theme of Mage is the search for Ascension, not only for the individual but for all of mankind. What Ascension is, and how it is achieved is purposely left undefined.
And by that, Reality is actually what the given majority of people believe in any given time, Mages, including the Technocracy, are people whose willpower allows them to manifest an inner Avatar (Eidolon for Technocrats, who believe that their inner Avatars are just their inner genius) that symbolizes their ability to push against the capital-c Consensus and make their Magick (or for Technocrats, Enlightened Science) work. The Technocracy and the Traditions spent the past few centuries at war as to whether Humanity should ascend through reason and logic and machinery or ritual, spirituality, and emotional belief (and by that, in this setting, Science originally began as an attempt to make Magic legible and usable by the common person, but that wound up causing conflict plus the Technocracy ended up misusung Science).
Sadly, this conflict, with atrocities on both sides, allowed the Nephandi, Mages who served dark beings beyond the universe who want creation itself turned into a living hellscape where they can torment humans forever, to infilitrate both Traditions and the Technocracy and rot both from within and in this universe, almost destroy the latter.
Now the Nephandi under the Unnamed are conquering Earth and slaugthering millions, and reality itself quakes under the strain. They cannot be allowed to attain final victory... which is where you all come in.
III. Magic
There are 9 different types of Magic Power.
Correspondence: The magic of Communication and Transportation Entropy: The magic of Fate and Death Forces: The magic of fireballs, lightning strikes, and freeze rays Life: The magic of healing or Biological construct Matter: The magic of matter and manipulating it. Mind: The magic of Enthrallment, Empathy, and Mental Organization Prime: The magic of metamagic; mana, enchantments, and affecting people's magical circuits Spirit: The magic of the Soul, and manipulating the unseen supernatural worlds of ghosts and ethers Time: The magic of Time, and Time Manipulation
Each type has a measured level of power from 1 to 5. Note that from Level 2 onward, every example listed on the list are merely suggestions; if you have the required level for one type of Magic, then you can do every sort of spell equivalent to the examples listed. For example, Level 2 Correspondence allows not just messaging and warding, but also scrying; any Mage that can do one of those things can do all of them and equivalent miracles.
Level 1 is sensory; you can see magic of the type you select, as well as see the hidden secrets of the Universe. Correspondence: You can detect portals, teleporting people, and attempts to spy on you with Magic. You also have a perfect sense of direction. Entropy: You can see Ghosts, magically sense dead bodies and decaying objects even when they are hidden from you, and abnormalities in luck/fate. Forces: You can see outside the range of visible light (infrared, ultraviolet, etc) hear sounds outside the normal hearing range, and see magic spells that affect those things. Life: You can sense living beings and organic matter and instantly diagnose any form of disease. Matter: You can see the composition of inorganic matter, as well as small details in craftsmanship; you can instantly know if a bill is counterfeit. Mind: You can sense the minds of Humans and Animals, and detect Mind Control. Prime: See all Magic, but not know what type a certain spell belongs to. Spirit: See nature spirits and other dimensions (Hyperspace). Time: See people stopping or speeding up time. You also know what time it is even without seeing the sun or having a watch.
Level 2, is where you can do the little power stuff. You can affect things in small ways: Correspondence: Send messages that cannot be intercepted, or cast a mystic ward, stopping incoming teleporters or preventing magical eavesdropping. Entropy: Affect probability in small instances (like dice rolls), Break simple machines, predict future, talk with Ghosts. Forces: Featherfall, Ball Lightning; Control existing Sound, Light (including Radiation), Heat, and Kinetic Energy. Cast holographic illusions (as opposed to mental). Life: Heal yourself (Just yourself, not others), control insects, fungi, and plants. Matter: Make an excellent counterfeit bill, transmute lead to gold. Mind: Give someone a mental compulsion, cast mental illusions (as opposed to holographic ones). Prime: Create Magitech, Set magical patterns, enchant a weapon to do damage unhealable by magic. Spirit: Commune with Nature Spirits. Time: Get a prediction of the future (not perfect), see events in the past (this, however, is unless counteracted with magic).
Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.
Level 3, is more powerful and allows you to push others... Correspondence: Teleportation, SuperSpeed. You can also see multiple places simultaneously. Entropy: Break Complex Machines or Structures, Raise Skeletons Forces: Palpatine Lightning Attacks, Fireballs, Telekinetic Assault, create Light, Sound, Radiation, and Heat, as well as other natural forces. Life: Heal others, enhance your eyesight, grow your fingernails into claws, control Animals. You can also turn lesser forms of life (snails, insects) into other lesser forms of life (turnips, orchids). Matter: Turn lead into fog, solid into liquid, ice into burning plasma. Mind: Mental Command on a conscious level not subconscious or Dreamwalk. Prime: Create complex magitech. Create biological magi-constructs (non-perpetuating), blast people with bolts of silver light whose damage cannot be healed by magic. Spirit: Summon Nature Spirits, Enter Hyperspace by yourself. Time: Slow Time to a crawl for you, loop time for a few seconds (Requires the permission of the majority of players and the GMs).
Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.
Level 4, is super powerful and has to be earned during gameplay. Correspondence: Mass Teleportation or Portals. You can also use this spell in conjunction with Mind and Life to appear in multiple places at once, cloning yourself. Entropy: Destroy Living Things, Create Complex Undead (with Prime). Forces: Summon Storms, Fire Rain. Life: Affect Life in Complex ways. Matter: Create stable forms of matter that have magical properties (Orichalcum, Mithril, Nihilitic Fluids) Mind: Dominate a person or Brainwash. Prime: Merge Magitech into any human form, suck out magical energy from ordinary objects. Spirit:Create Nature Spirits, and stay in Hyperspace for years without needing to eat, sleep, and drink. Time: Set time (Conditional effects that go off on specified conditions, for example; pressing this trigger causes your gun to emit a fireball.). Stop Time.
Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.
Level 5 is deity-like, and unavailable to players and requires GM permission to even try to do. Correspondence: Warp Space, Teleport to anywhere. Entropy: Destroy Thoughts and ideas, Perfect Prediction of the Future. Forces: Summon Hurricane or equivalent natural disasters. Life: Perfect Transformation to another form. Matter: Make materials that shatter the Laws of Physics. Mind: Mass Mental Control, Permanent Enthrallment. Prime: Make a place of Power of any scale, Siphon Magical Energy from Other Mages. Spirit: Bring Cthulhu-level entities into the material world. Time: Time Travel (Forbidden forever).
Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well...Not.
Before the fall of the Technocracy and the victory of the Nephandi, trying to use Magick or Enlightened Science that went against the Consensus risked Paradox, which in turn was reality itself punishing the Mage for going against people's beliefs, either by directly burning/wounding them, driving them to madness, or banishing them to a pocket dimension or having hostile spirits hound them. Now, that effect has been reduced or even gone, but the Nephandi are the ones who profit the most from it.
IV. Character Sheet
[b]Name:[/b] (Your Name Here.)
[b]Appearance:[/b] (Anime or Realistic Pictures allowed; maybe Photos, but Art is encouraged more.)
[b]Age/Apparent Age:[/b] (Yes, Mages can make themselves look younger than they actually are, but most of the PCs should be adults. That said, yes, you can make a Mage that's 50/18, aka a 50yo who looks like an 18yo, but you are forbidden from making them look any younger for obvious reasons; show common sense.)
[b]Sex:[/b] (Powerful Mages can be any Sex or Gender they want; the Technocrats even have perfect gender reassignment procedures that completely align your body with your PC's gender. The Traditions have gender change spells, too.)
[b]Skills:[/b] (What are you good at?)
[b]Spheres:[/b] (Distribute 12 points among the 9 Spheres; you can have up to Level 3 in any of them:)
1) No Godmodding or Powergaming, aka no controlling other players' actions or having every move you make be 100% effective. 2) Any consenting relationship between people of the same age group is allowed, whether it's Homosexual or Heterosexual. If you cannot stand such things, don't post here in the first place. 3) Be polite to others. 4) Please notify me if you will be gone for more than a week. I will let you know if I will be gone for the same amount of time. 5) The GM reserves the right to control inactive PCs as NPCs to keep the plot moving. 6.) If anything conflicts with a strict reading of the Mage: The Ascension canon, the Sleepers/Masses changed reality to make it so. 7.) If you want to play a Vampire, Werewolf, Demon, or any other Template, you are in charge of writing up what powers your OC has; do not abuse this right to become more powerful than someone with Level 4 or 5 Spheres at character creation. And if you can prove that you know the lore for those Templates, the GM might consult with you from time to time. 8.) We're not using dice or stats (except for Spheres); we use the honor system, narrative necessity, plausibility, and common sense.
Fleeing a devestating civil war that led to ecological collapse, the last remnants of Humanity found themselves in the Rokur Sector, a wide space containing dozens of star systems, many of them contested by intelligent Alien Species. Seeing an opportunity, the Admiralty Council of the Human Exile Fleet hired themselves out as mercenaries, hoping to be rewarded with a new home.
From their clients, the avian See-ree, Humanity receieved the Jungle Planet of Paradiso, a lush but dangerous world brimming with giant beasts; dinosaurs who required the Humans' unique technology, Mechs to guard against, clear out, and eventually control. Added to this was the Desert Planet of Al-Rumi, another harsh world with little water and winds that could scour a man to the bone, requiring large caravans guarded by Mechs to traverse. This was to keep Humanity strong and warlike for future services as 'Clients' of the See-ree species.
It has been 200 years since that day; 250 years since the exile from Earth. You are one of the latest batch of Mech Pilots for the See-ree, equipped with the latest in Mech technology against one of the foe's myriad enemies.
On your mission, however, something happens, something that will shake you all to the bone: A hint that Earth is still out there, still settled, and away from the See-ree's presence... recovered.
Humanity's Homeworld calls you...
TL;DR - You are Mech Pilots. Most of you are Humans descended from a fleet of exiles that fled Earth and became mercenaries/clients of an Avian species called the 'See-ree' who use you as elite shock troops. You are fighting for them when you discover evidence that Earth has recovered, you're not the last of Humanity, and its strong enough to force a... renegotiation of the clientage agreement if you can contact it.
Member
N3v3rM0r3
Bacon
RPM
esqueleto
QJT
PrinceAlexus