Psyga315

World of Bloody Revolution (The French Revolution Mecha RP)

Setting and Plot:
In an alternate timeline, France strikes up a rare metal somewhere deep in the Pacific Ocean that was immune to the rusting effects of salt-water. Naming the metal Eaulium, the French mined the metal and used it to construct better ships, ships that would be used to guard and protect the normal made ships from things like pirates or tidal waves. They were called Navirezes.

During the Age of Enlightenment, the Navirezes were refined and recreated by a French inventor lost to the folds of time. A mechanical frame was attached to the Navirezes, which allowed them to fold out their ship-like shell and assume a bipedal robotic form sizing up to around twenty-to-thirty feet. Despite this improvement, these robotic appearances never saw use on the ocean for a long time…

Until the French Revolution happened. Money was low, people were desperate, and they needed hope. Hope came in the form of a man who was able to control fire, for the Clergymen stated that it was the beginning of an ancient blessing uttered by Joan of Arc before she was burned at the stake. Her blessing enabled certain men and women to control and master the elements, so that they may continue the battle in her stead. They believed that, instead of activating during the Hundred Year War, it chose to wait until a more dire time approached, and that the Revolution is said dire time.

Encouraged by the people, this young man, Jacques -François Menou, led an army of angry men to raid the Bastille with his newfound powers in tow. Among the raid, Menou reinvented himself and declared himself the leader of this new group, naming himself simply Jacques. After the destruction of the Bastille, Jacques raided the docks and stole a Navirez from it. With the help of his group, the Jacobins, he forced the Navirez into its robot form and removed the transformation shell, along with chunks of armor to create a new form of Mecha: The Ramirez, after an angel of God who could melt mountains with its lightning.

He had founded other people with elemental control, named them Revolutionaries, and gave them their own Ramirezes to pilot. For a while after, during events like the Women’s March and the Declaration of the Rights of Men, various groups, Jacobins included, vouched together for a stronger, better France. However, things changed when King Louis XVI was caught in Tuileries by the Jacobins and then publicly murdered by Jacques in his Ramirez.

This split France apart into three different ideals. The first were Jacobins, who would stop at nothing to revolutionize France, even if it meant executing everyone associated with anything that went wrong with old France. The second was formed by a Jacobin named Jacques- Pierre Brissot who was horrified by what Jacques did. He vowed for a better France, but not through terrorizing it through executions, and thus made the Girondins to secure this future. The third and final mindset was a group of people who wanted France to keep its Monarchy, for better or for worse. These people included the Clergymen and Nobles who ranked above the social status ladder, though there were several citizens who vouched for it as well.

Because of the Terror enacted by Jacques and his army, the latter two banded together. Clergymen began to find stray Revolutionaries that Jacques had not picked up, Commoners began to create Navirezes for the inevitable clash against the Jacobins, and the Nobles began to draft suitable people to pilot those Navirezes.

The Era of Enlightenment was now over. Only the Reign of Terror remains, and you are one of many who must end it before all of France is destroyed.

The Three Sacred Rules

1. I simply cannot allow arguing if it heavily disrupts the game. Friendly arguments are okay, so long as it doesn’t go so far off the deep end and f-words are dropped. If you have a problem with an argument, PM me and I’ll deal with it.


2. No sexual situations. It’s not a smut RPG, and I don’t think anyone’s interested in doing one. If there’s to be a sex scene, I’ll allow it so long as it fits under the following criteria: it’s consensual, both parties are 18 or over, and it must have a fade to black.


3. No Godmodding or Powerplaying.

The Four Sacred Notes

1. No Character Limit. Play as many as you like.


2. Despite this being a Mecha RP, PCs aren’t going to drop like flies. If you wish to kill off a player character, you must have permission from the character’s player.


3. You’re either someone fighting to save France’s monarchy or a Girondin. I’m not allowing Jacobins to be a playable faction.


4. I have decided to allow fictional characters and non-fictional characters to join the RPG along with original characters, provided they fit in the era of the Revolution. For example, Charles Darnay and Napoleon are examples of characters that’d fit. Jean Valjean and Teddy Roosevelt, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t fit, even with the former being French. Might give a bit of leeway though.

The One Sacred Tone:
Figured I’d address this now. While the title and setting imply that this will be a somewhat serious story, it’s not dark. Sure, you had a guy murder a king by setting him on fire, a power he was blessed with by a woman who was also set on fire, but this is also an RPG where people are struggling to find peace in this chaos and are willing to work together to thwart the Reign of Terror. While it has its dark moments, the overall idea is that it doesn’t get too dark. The heroes have a chance of winning.

If I were to point to mecha related examples to get my point across, this would be more of a Super Robot-style story rather than a Real Robot-style story. Think more Gurren Lagann or Rayearth (Movie or show, take your pick) instead of Gundam or Evangelion… Except for maybe G-Gundam. In that case, include that with the former two as well.

Due to the nature of the Reign of Terror, I’ll allow a certain degree of dark backstories, but nothing that involves rape or makes the whole character’s life pretty bleak. I guess I’ll do a case-by-case basis on this, since it would be hard to describe how dark a backstory can get without it getting too dark. I’ll allow the cliché backstories like the dead parents, again provided they don’t get too dark.

Regarding Backgrounds
Okay, this is to note stuff regarding the setting that you might need to see when writing up a backstory. Basically they’re public knowledge that everyone knows, either through experience or rumors.

• Story takes place a week after the murder of Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette went into hiding after his murder, with rumours going around that she was killed not soon after.


• Revolutionaries are a recently new thing, dating back to a week prior to the Bastille raid. In short, people have known about Revolutionaries for about a year, though common people just know that they have magic. Nobles know that they really control the elements, and Clergymen know that they got their powers from Joan's blessing. For the most part, Revolutionaries were treated with respect from clergymen due to their ties to Joan of Arc, and they still are nice to them despite one of them downright killing their king and gunning for the rest of the nobles and clergymen… with few having the ulterior motive of preventing them from joining the Jacobins out of the idea of “well maybe we were tired of being pushed around”. Civilians tend to also be nice to Revolutionaries’ due them leading the French to a newer, better France, but it’s only recently that they’ve begun to do so out of fear of being killed.

Regarding History
As you might notice, this RPG is going to take broad strokes from the French Revolution. This is mainly because the timeline has shifted heavily, allowing for France to craft mechanical ships that turn into robots during the Age of Enlightenment, not to mention that whole . Historical Events can still happen, but in different manners than their historical counterpart. Because of it, not all of history is set in stone. Napoleon might not be the Emperor by the end of it, Marie might make it out alive, or even France might get to keep their old Monarchy without executing all of the nobles they can behead.

Think of this like the Sengoku Basara of the French Revolution.
Forbidden Powers
This is a banlist of powers in case you decide to be a Revolutionary. The list is small, though, only containing five kinds of powers.

• Space and Time (from an in-universe explanation, they’re God’s domain, and Joan’s blessing doesn’t allow people to usurp God in that regard)


• Metal and Magnetism (Reason is pretty obvious. It’d be like sending Magneto against Wolverine. I’ll probably allow Metal if it isn’t played up like metalbending from Avatar. An example would be like creating swords out of metals or whatever.)


• Any power relating to mental abilities like Mind Control. (In-universe reason: the blessing allows to control the elements, not the human psyche. Out-of-universe reason: broken as hell and violates a few rules)

And now, the moment you all have been waiting for:

The Signup Sheet!

• Name: (Obvious)


• Age: (Obvious)


• Gender: (Obvious)


• Appearance: (Description or picture.)


• What Am I Fighting For?: (You’re fighting to save France, yes, but to what end? To Save Its New Future or To Save Its Old Past? If you want, you can enter other things like 'Because it's fun!' or 'Only in it for the money, kid'.)


• Revolutionary?: (I’m allowing players the option to play either a Revolutionary or a normal human. Select either yes or no.)


• Revolutionary Power: (What element can you create and control? Only applicable if you’re a Revolutionary.)


• Mecha?: (Does your character pilot a mecha? And if so, what kind is it, the heavier Navirez that is able to transform into a ship and has powerful weaponry or the lighter Ramirez that can allow Revolutionaries to use their full power and even create weapons based off their element?)


• Name of Mecha: (Usually it’ll be a French word for something that relates to the Mecha in question, or a portmanteau of two words. It's possible to have two French words for the name.)


• Mecha’s Appearance: (Use whatever, description or picture. Good rule of thumb regarding the robot's height: Navirezes are usually around 20-30 feet, while the Ramirezes are around 10-20 feet)


• Weapons: (What weapons would the Mecha have that make it a force to be reckon with? Most Navirezes come with some form of cannon located either on their arm or in their chest and at least one melee weapon, while Ramirezes have a cannon that can fire the Revolutionary’s chosen element and sometimes a weapon made from their element.)


• Personality: (What does your character act like and how it lines up to what they fight for.)


• Backstory: (Basically how your character came to be and what motivates them to what they fight for.)

Cast List
So far none.

Regarding Tone In RPGs

I've noticed a few times that tone has come up a lot in RPGs. Like a GM pointing out on a repeated basis that their RPG is meant to be light and not dark, or how someone is complaining about angst in a character's back story. It's led me to think of how people feel about how dark or light an RPG should be. Is it of any concern to people or something that's easily ignored?

French Revolution Mecha RP?

Napoleon said
why must you ruin everything i love

Because Internet. Everything you love, everything all of you love, will be ruined for you, no exceptions.

Speaking of, I have the signup complete and ready to go, but due to circumstances, I am unable to post it until Monday the earliest where I'll have a good chance of responding to the sheets, as I will be busy on the weekend.

Character Crossover Crisis City

Then again, Nobuo probably doesn't give two craps about power levels since he's from a genre where you can justify someone kicking a super-powered master of so many damn fruit-themed weapons and an archer who got his bow upside down's ass by saying "he's gone insane!".

Character Crossover Crisis City

{sees what has been born in the thread}

Character Crossover Crisis City

There's a point where people on 4chan just pretty much post an image of Accelerator and just go "Can anyone beat him?".

Character Crossover Crisis City

As the more ideal voice walked away from the group, Takatora paid attention to Sorin waxing philosophy. He hoped that he'd learn from each of them. Ba'al seemed faithful that humanity would triumph. That's when an adventurer came to him and gave a more direct answer to his question. He seemed to be from another world, as he spoke of wizards and priests, something his world never had the luxury of... Except that one time, but that was as much as he'll humor out of that.

The adventurer spoke of someone who struck a resemblance to Santa Claus. His anecdote ended with him suggesting to find the best solution out, and try to look hard enough. He was offered a piece of meat. At first, he seemed hesitant, but a few seconds later, he grabbed the meat, inspected it, and nibbled on it. The salt was almost unbearable. Perhaps he was too adjusted to using the Himawari Lockseeds as nourishment.

"Gah..." Takatora said. He still held the seal meat. "I appreciate the offer, I doubt I'm used to foods with high salt levels." That's when a hand grabbed the meat from Takatora's hand.

"Don't mind if I do!" Nobuo bit into the meat like it was a hamburger and ripped a huge chunk out. He chewed the meat and swallowed it. Takatora almost jumped back. Nobuo nodded. "Mmmmm~!" Takatora then heard the King's advice. It, along with Evahld's advice, sounded roughly the same: save as many as he can. But that's where Saber's advice takes a new turn. 'I would remain behind with those who were unable to board it, and do whatever I am able to save them as well.' The way she said it sounded confident. Not like a kid's declarations of what is right. 'To abandon them to death is not the action of a knight.' Takatora was silent. Not just because of how it impacted him, but because to some extent, it was that very doubt that rung in his head.

'Save as many as I could' was what he answered to Ryoma's litmus test. He never thought of the people who he couldn't save when asked. If he could, he would try his best to save the people he couldn't save... But the plan he and Ryoma came up with wouldn't allow for that. In fact, it'd do worse than just abandon people to their death.

Before he could dwell further on it, a little girl came up... and cussed. Takatora was taken aback by that comment that he forgot about the ethics of his project. Nobuo patted Takatora on the back.

"Relax," he said. "I say the more team mates, the merrier!" He said. The hobo seemed to speak up and ask for directions out of this place.

"... Yes, I think I'm done with this dream too." Takatora said. He pinched himself... and felt pain. "... Where the hell am I?"

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

Also, some people have to account for being dead.

French Revolution Mecha RP?

Zero Hex said
Indeed, but those characters don't necessarily have to be controlled by players and, usually, it's best if they're not from a GM perspective. Otherwise you get shit like, I dunno, a submissive shotacon Napoleon or some other Nasuverse-style complete character mishandling, to the point where it's the character in name only. And then there's the issues in giving established and important characters to something as unpredictable as a player.

Trust me, if I go with the middle route and have the Historical Characters be NPCs, they wouldn't get the Nasu treatment, or at least nothing as crazy as that. Not sure for the first route of Historical Characters be PCs.

Zero Hex said Anyway, for the mecha, you might want to look a bit into Escaflowne. The show itself is a fairly boring slog through a teenage girl's love triangle with two pretty men more often than not, but the very underused mecha are pretty damn great. They're these weighty titans, capable of swift or precise motions but overall heavy-feeling ground stompers controlled by strapping the pilot to a clockwork contraption inside a cramped cockpit with little vision from which they have to coordinate the machine's motions, which they control by straining their own bodies to boot. is a pretty good look at how the machines function and their overall style sans any manner of spoilers, I think it should fit what you're looking for.

Upon watching the video, yeah, I would say something like that would work for the Navirezes.

Zero Hex said No offense but your proposed idea for the powers and mechs makes the two things kind of unwieldy and oddly incompatible, since you need to stop and very openly expose yourself to use your abilities in spite of rather than because of your mech, not to mention it'd be something that has no relation to the Navirez, which I gather are something of a central aspect of this whole thing. Not to pat myself in the back or anything like that but I feel custom-made Navirezes designed so the Revolutionary can use or even amplify his powers via (insert fantastical mechanism related to the nature of Joan's curse here) would be a nice way to further link pilots to their units and make them more than just regular warmachines.

Yeah, I think you're right about that with the flaw of the Navirez working with the Revolutionary. Fortunately, I thought about your idea of custom mechs and began to work an idea to them, complete with some fluff.

The Jacobins, when they took the Navirezes, heavily dismantled some of them. While sacrificing the parts that allow transformation from Navirez to ship and the heavy armor, it allows the Revolutionaries to use the Navirez to its full potential with their own powers, like channeling fire through the mecha's hand. Joan's curse could allow them to have pseudo-motion control, since part of the dismantling meant taking chunks of the cockpit out to make room for the Revolutionaries. These new mechs are given the name Ramirezes, after an angel of God named Ramiel, who could melt mountains into nothing with a well placed thunder beam. It'd make sense for the Jacobins to draw from Christian elements given the whole Joan of Arc angle that Jacques gave them.

In short: Ramirezes are lighter and allow for Revolutionaries to use their powers without even leaving the cockpit, but they're unable to transform and aren't able to take a lot of hits like the Navirezes.

French Revolution Mecha RP?

Zero Hex said
Yeah, sure, why not, mecha are always good. Stepping away from the standard real robot "gundams with a lot of guns" approach to a mecha RP is even better.

From how I image it, it'd probably be Real Robot with swords and melee weapons (gunpowder is hard and expensive to make for giant ship-transforming robots), with the Super element coming in the form of the Revolutionaries.

Zero Hex said -For factions, I suggest having all the players be part of the same group, while inter-PC conflict can be fun I find that having to keep track of and managing two groups each with their own plots, stories, etc can complicate matters for the GM and players alike. Which group, I dunno. Maybe hold a player vote?

Yeah, I think you're right about just having the players be part of the same group. All my other RPGs have gone with the PC conflict thing, and with this being the "and now for something completely different" RPG, I feel like having only one faction seems to be a good idea.

Zero Hex said -For the tone, yes, a more super robot-style roleplay is good, because if you look around basically every mecha RP seems to stick to what can be more or less defined as "the real robot genre" something fierce, and while that's all well and good, having some a different style to the mecha would be real nice for a change.

Yeah, I think this is going for more Super Robot tones where cynicism can take a hike whenever awesomeness kicks in. Where you can do the impossible and see the invisible. Mind you, cynicism is still there (it's not called the Reign of Terror because everyone was greeted with fluffy puppies and bright rainbows), but it's not going to be a sudden whiplash.

Zero Hex said -If by "revolutionaries" you mean the people who can manipulate elements, I'd suggest leaving that up to player choice, with the caveat that if someone chooses to not be one, they should not be screwed over because of it. Something like having to specifically construct Navirezes to channel the abilities which means they sacrifice other functionality (armor, physical power, mobility, you get the drill) for it. A fairly typical squishy sorcerer vs brawny fighting man divide for balance purposes. I'm sure other people can come up with other ways to balance this.

Hm... That could work. I brainstormed the idea that, since the Navirezes are essentially primitive mechs (like, the first ones to be made), they'd have the same amount of vision as a tank or probably just give tunnel vision, so they'd be crap for someone who would, say, light things on fire since they need to actually look at the thing they're setting on fire. Another idea could be that, because the Navirez's cockpit is super tight (again, think tank), using your powers inside the mech is a bad idea. Both ideas lead to the conclusion that, in order for a Revolutionary to use their powers, they have to get out of the Navirez (not all the way, they could just pop out of the mech's hatch) but doing so would make them an easy target. The trade off is, obviously, that the Revolutionary is able to use their powers. I have thought of a plot hole for this already (if they can't be able to use their powers with the Navirez, why bother piloting them in the first place?) and the only justification I can come up with is because even outside the Navirez, it could give them better defense than if they're without one, as they're just a second away from the mech to just retreat back in and wait for a moment to strike.

I'll take the custom Navirez idea into consideration, though. It'd be cool to see the Ace Customs that the heroes and villains would use for their Navirez. Considering giving them a unique name: Ramirez.

Zero Hex said -As for characters, I'd lean towards original characters only. I'm sure someone'll be offended by this, but from my experience people tend to be bad at accurately portraying existing and well-defined characters in a convincing manner, and then there's the whole bit with fucking with historic characters which may or may not eventually become important plot-wise. sides a story about the unknown heroes and soldiers behind the curtains of history has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Hm... Perhaps. History has essentially screwed up the moment France was able to make mechas (since that would imply they had advanced technology), so ripples could shake up the flow of time enough where the previously important players of the Revolution are now either warped beyond who they were or were simply demoted to just witnesses in the battle. There are some historical characters I have in mind of using.

I'm still on the fence about allowing historical characters to be playable, just allow them to be NPCs, or have no mention of them whatsoever save for nods, though I'm leaning towards the former two, since it just wouldn't be the French Revolution without people like Robespierre or Jacques.