Shorticus

A Hostile Galaxy [Science Fiction Civilization Political Simulator]

Quick question: do planets generate research inherently when colonized, or do we just have +2 research baseline for our civilizations?

Storing your RP pictures.....

Personally, I love using IMGUR for everything.

EDIT: You can store stuff on IMGUR, then make a Google Doc that organizes links to your pictures for ease of access.

American Dream: A Shattered Union

I have another part of a post ready, but I'm posting the first half now rather than delaying my post any longer. I've been doing a lot of editing.

I'm also unhappy because I couldn't find the perfect music for certain scenes... and I spent hours hunting for it. Which I shouldn't have done.

Expect another post tomorrow - one concerning the Huachua. Also: strawberry ale + strawberry soda = good combo.

American Dream: A Shattered Union

Blue Morning

"The sky is beautiful today," said Elizabeth as she set a chipped clay cup in front of her husband. "It's bluer than I've seen in a long time."

Bill grunted in answer, then told her "Thank you" as he reached for his cup. After taking a sip, he looked on out the window facing away from the canyon and smiled a little. The sky was blue, certainly, and there were soft clouds above. The air was cool, too.

"You know..." Bill stared across at his wife and felt at peace. Elizabeth was his everything: tall, smart, and she had curly blonde hair that he used to joke looked like wheat. That hair was starting to grow a little silvery, but it just made her look even prettier. God, he was glad it was Saturday finally. He was glad to have a morning at home.

"You know," he continued after a long silence, looking back toward the window, "the Assembly is looking over the response from New Mexico, and I've already dealt with the bills they pushed at me. I've already met with the presidents - all four of them - and I've kept this coming week free of speeches and meetings."

Elizabeth took a seat with her own cup of milk, reaching on over and squeezing Bill's wrist. "You actually set a week aside for us? Will the Council function without its taskmaster?"

Bill snorted. "No," he grumbled. "But it'll do them good to try."

It was then that Bill heard the chanting. It was a distant sound, but it felt like a roar. Bill stopped drinking, set his cup down, and grew a hard expression. "Elizabeth," he said in a serious tone, "get the Major."

"You don't think-?"

"I do," said Bill grimly. He grabbed his coat off the wall, then stopped and made sure his revolver was still in the inside fold. It was. "I'm going to try and talk them down."

It took a while for Bill to get on down to the ground level, his house being one of those carved into the canyon itself. He got down the steps as quick as he could, nodding to his neighbors as he went. They seemed to be content to watch the scene from afar, but not Bill.

There it was: a crowd twenty or thirty strong brandishing stones and fruit, each of them shouting "Suffer not!" at the top of their lungs. They hurled missile after missile at a pair of young people in ragged coats who tried to shield themselves with their arms as they stepped away. One tripped and fell into the dirt, sending a cloud of dust into the air, and as the other stepped over to help him up she was struck in the forehead with a stone the size of a golf ball. She staggered back with a muffled cry.

That's when Bill fired his revolver into the dirt. The whole commotion came to a stop. He took a few steps forward and looked about at the crowd, his jaw set firmly.

"Is this how we treat strangers in our city?" he demanded icily. There was no answer for several seconds.

"They're not even people!" shouted a bald man with a brown beard, stepping on out from the crowd. "They're Evols! Ain't hard to figure out, unless you're a dumbass!" One of the men beside him nudged the speaker hard with his elbow, whispering something. The bald man looked up, paled considerably, then blurted out, "Er - no disrespect, Mr. Secretary General."

Bill flicked a glance on up as well. He could see a few Council Guardsmen already perched up in the canyon. Ah, he thought. Thank you, Elizabeth.

"I'll answer the question for you," Bill rumbled, folding his arms over his chest. "This is not how we greet strangers in Canyon City. There are no laws here that say Evols aren't people. Go home."

There was an air of outrage about the crowd, but a few of them acquiesced. Others followed, and then the rest, and soon the crowd had dispersed into the streets, huddled in small groups, muttering to themselves. Regrettably, there was little Bill could do about that: while it was true that the laws didn't declare Evols to be non-human as they did in the United Pueblos, the public backlash for punishing the mob could start an outright riot.

Still, there were certain things that human decency demanded be done. Bill stepped on over to the bedraggled pair, helping the one who couldn't stand to his feet. He gave them both an appraising look: they were shaky and scared, certainly, but they didn't look violent. The girl had tusks jutting from her mouth and spikes sticking out of her skin. The boy had a sort of slime covering his skin. He looked like a fish or a frog.

"I wish I could make up for what's just happened to you two kids," Bill said earnestly, smiling at them. "How did this start?"

"We were... we were goin' through the market, lookin' for somethin' cheap to eat," said the girl carefully. Bill could tell that she wasn't telling the whole truth, but he didn't blame her. "There was some preacher with a black hat that spurred 'em on when he saw us. And before we knew it..."

Of course, thought Bill bitterly. El Padre. That man had caused Bigishie a lot of trouble, and he spouted a lot of hate in the name of peace. It bothered the Secretary General to see God's name used in that way: he always felt that name should be called on as a force of love.

"I see," the middle-aged Navajo said, tucking his gun away. "If you need food and a safe place to stay, my home is open to you. It's not much, but-"

It didn't take any further convincing to get the couple to go with him to his house.

---

---

The sun wasn't quite gone from the sky by the time the Evol couple had fallen asleep by the fireplace. They'd been awkward, nervous guests, but Bill had little complaint with them. They were generous with their thanks, that was certain, and they told him a lot about their travels westward. By the sounds of things, they'd tried eking out a living in the wild for as long as they could. They'd hoped Canyon City would be different than the other places.

They were very young - fifteen and sixteen, Bill wagered - but they'd already seen so much. He sat with his wife outside the house, staring at the stars.

"Rumors are going to spread," Elizabeth noted, chewing on her lip like a piece of gum. "You're already viewed poorly enough as it is for trying to pass that law last year. Now we're housing Evols in our own house. People will try to take advantage of this."

"They may do what they will," huffed Bill, folding his arms over his chest. "I can't just let two kids be stoned to death! I won't stand idly by when lives are at stake, Elly. You know that."

"And that's why I married you," said Elizabeth in a sharp tone, "but that doesn't make your way of taking action any less stupid."

"Stupid?" Bill snorted loudly. "What would you have me do, then?"

"I'd have you think next time you decide to put my husband in front of an angry mob!"

Bill went quiet. They both did. Minutes went by, the only sound to be heard the distant hooting of an owl. "I'm sorry," Bill said, reaching over and putting his arm over his wife's shoulder. "It's just... Sometimes I become so caught up in this... I get caught up in all of this, in my responsibilities to the nations. I forget my responsibilities to you, sometimes."

"Well," said his wife with a grin, "I don't think about you all day, either. I spend more time writing history."

The two of them sat in silence for a while longer, just watching the sky. The sun had set too low for them to enjoy the day like they'd planned. Eventually, the married couple shared a brief kiss before Elizabeth went inside to sleep.

Bill stayed outside to watch the sky turn black, but his peace was interrupted when a man in a messenger's outfit came jogging along the steps, his hand tightly clasping a satchel at his hip. He looked out of breath, but before Bill could ask him if he needed a drink, he yanked a folded paper from inside that satchel and thrust it at the Secretary General.

Bill's eyes flicked left and right rapidly as he read, widening in shock. He felt weak in his stomach.

"So," he said quietly, "it's war, then."

GAME: Crush A Wish

Granted, but it's not just this day that goes faster. The earth moves so quickly that people can't actually stand anymore. They're suspended in mid-air, flung this way and that, constantly slamming into each other and perpetually blinded because the dawn and sunset happen so quickly that their eyes are constantly bombarded by shifts in the light. Mankind goes extinct because of this.

I wish to die peacefully and happily, having lived a full and long life of virtue and plenty, and to pass into a utopian afterlife in which I can rest happily ever after.

The Change One Letter Game!

Seeks

GAME: Crush A Wish

Uw wens wordt verleend, maar je verliest de mogelijkheid nederlands te spreken.

My wish is to be rich!

FRAMEs: Chapter II [Reboot] (Mech combat, politics & corporate intrigue)

Also, as an aside, I have the tabletop RP book that image is from; the game it's from got me into roleplaying many, many years ago, and my regular group and I still use it now.

Lucky; I wish I had a solid group with interest in Mekton. Mostly it's just Pathfinder or D&D, and after a while fantasy starts feeling really uninspiring.

• Almost gets into a Battletech tabletop game
• Says he's too busy
• Regrets for the rest of his life

^ The above is my story of shame.

A Hostile Galaxy [Science Fiction Civilization Political Simulator]

@Shorticus
Well the Uarushi Swarm and Zellox are world eaters so there is that. The Mithran took curious, so they probably chose a tech for production. The Resomi took the industrious characteristic as well as the Killasumaq

Edit: Two others also took curious.

@Lauder

Yeah, technologies get listed in the ledgers of each nation, note. Most nations don't start with tech, but anyone who took Curious has 3, and I have 1 as a bonus for writing my CS first.

FRAMEs: Chapter II [Reboot] (Mech combat, politics & corporate intrigue)

Radar works by bouncing radio waves off objects and receiving the signals to determine the bearing and range of said objects. FRAME radars are primarily for locating the position of other FRAMEs or military-grade vehicles. The received signal informs the pilot of the approximate location, size, bearing and range of whatever objects it comes into contact with. This information is displayed on a monitor in the cockpit. Radar alone doesn't typically differentiate between friend and foe, however, so additional visual confirmation about the nature of the objects is necessary to avoid friendly fire or other incident.

Okay, awesome - this is the sort of information I definitely need to know when RPing. Do different FRAMEs have different monitors that display things differently, or is there a standard look to how the heat signatures appear on the monitor? If you know someone is an ally and mark that heat signature as allied, does it appear differently on the radar than unidentified heat signatures?

And now for a bit of fiction: The C3 suite subsystem sort of combines the sensors of multiple FRAMEs in a unit and clumps it into a cohesive picture. So a commander like Cecilia could look at her C3 monitor and see the radar and heat signatures of all her squadmates, and she can also use the system to see just what their sensors are picking up. It constantly collects data being fed by allied machines and puts it into a visual map of the zone of operation.
So Cpl. Jones might have an "oh, shit" moment and turn the corner to find a squad of mooks looking at him, and Lt. Brown's C3 will update him of the new data Jones' FRAME has picked up from the mooks. It's a nifty tool for commanders to micromanage their grunts remain totally aware of updates to their surroundings and act accordingly.

And this whole piece is really helpful to know. I'll be sure to keep note of it when writing here. All that's needed to get information on a FRAME's equipment is visual, aye? Or are there more advanced tools to discover what they have?