SyrianHamster

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Right guys and girls, I thought I'd keep you posted.

I've adjusted the intro to include what I'm going to call the United Trade Federation, and its composing member towns. I've also outlined a rough plot line that the story will follow, to keep everyone focused and the RP moving. This will be disclosed in the RP's release. However what I will say is that it starts with Rockhelm being besieged by a large force of tribals. The Federation responds by gathering its joint militias in Independence, who then go onto relieve the besieged town. After being a part of the crushing Federation victory, characters get caught up in a sudden and devestating alien assault.

I imagine the RP will then take on a resistance theme, as the characters attempt to rally humanity against a common enemy.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Annnnnd the site is back up. You'd of thought during the down time I'd of gotten stuff down, but nope!

But okay, I'm around for the next few days and will have time to spare. Generally speaking I am free for a lot of the time, but every now and then events from the outside world take over. For example, I've got a friend's wedding to attend on Saturday, which means I gotta spend most of friday getting everything ready... and to convince my gf that the first thing she tried on looked fine, and that there's no need to try on another thirty combinations.

All of that said, I will have time to get this hashed out, no probs. Here's what's going to happen:

- First things first, I'm going to slightly rework the RP. By rework I mean to expand the introductory post a bit; old character sheets will still apply and can be copied/pasted to their new home, so you guys haven't got much to do. However, I need to include the Alliance's (its name for now) history, layout, member settlements, some sparse details on them and their inhabitants. Player characters will then be able to come from settlements outside of Independence, although considering how close these settlements are to each other, that shouldn't mess too much with anyone's back story. It will however offer more variety, as each of the settlements harbours its own religion and psychology.

- I will also leave a blank section for the aliens, which is something I need to mull over. When they enter the RP, this section will be updated to include their appearences, and types of equipment in use, with plenty of room for players to go ahead and bring in their own stuff. I've made the mistake before of trying to give everything it's own ironclad lore, which takes too much time and depletes external creativity.

- Once I've gone to the trouble of writing it all out, the RP will be posted, with the OOC section and seperate character sheet thread.

I'm not one to sit around and let things die, so I'm putting a 48 hour deadline on this thing to be finished.

In the meantime, you guys can keep throwing ideas around. Like mentioned, I'm going to avoid making the world too detailed, for practical and creative reasons.

Stay tuned, I'll have something up ASAP.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Evangelyne said
I see. Sorry to hear you don't have time for this RP :(Anyway, I don't want to be GM. I joined this RP to get away from all the GMing I do IRL. Though I'd happily help out with shaping the story/setting/envoirment etc.I'll post some ideas soon!

I've some ideas.

Independence could be a part of a patchwork of towns and villages that loosely form a small country, out of mutual security. To the north, across the river, would be Port Anthastiln, headed by an eccentric self proclaimed River Admiral Carl Barnes. Anthastiln controls the river way with a cluster of wooden barges.

To the south is Outpost 29, a former US military outpost, whose people are the descendants of the occupying soldiers and who have adhered to a time-tested military doctrine, but are too few in number to become a regional power. They are ruled by Marshal Jake Irons, who leads them with determination. They look down on outsiders, and consider themselves their own race of stronger and superior humans. Interracial marriage with outsiders is illegal, and punished by death. Their population has stalled as a result of this extremism. All being said however, they are on good terms with all member states, and are generally left alone to their own devices unless the Alliance is threatened.

To the east is Rockhelm, a fortified town with a large wooden wall circling around it. They bare the brunt of the 'savage' tribes in the wilderness beyond, and recieve an annual fee from all member settlements to maintain their defences. Rockhelm is the newest town to the Alliance, having originally been the camp of the late Chief Award Rockhelm. They traded their savage ways for the more enlightened ways of their sister towns after Rockhelm fell in battle against another tribe, and his surviving peoples became a target of mass rape and genocide. Tribal heritage is rich here as a result, and the inhabitants still see themselves as fierce warriors, very practiced in fieldcraft and hunting. They rely on all manners of weapons, but the bow is their favourite.

To the west, on the old state border, is Fartown; a bustling trade gateway to the west. It is the richest of the towns, and therefore the defacto capital. It is ruled by a council of wealthy merchants, who command large personal militias. They periodicly try to sieze the lands of their allies, citing unresolved legal or contractual issues as their reasons for doing so. The town incorperates many of the ruins that were once Kansas City, and efforts have been ongoing to renovate these where possible. However, the general population are confined to slums, and live in tents within the crowded ruined streets.

This union of towns is small, with a combined population of around 30,000 people. Independence is the smallest member town, but benefits by sitting in the middle of the alliance and is therefore sitting on a common trade route.

The roads are sometimes patrolled by militias, but this is a costly practice, and is only carried out when bandits damage trade links significantly. As a result, the wilderness outside of town bounds are dangerous, infested with humanity's worst and various wild animals; some of whom have evolved over the past few centuries into slightly larger forms of themselves.



The smaller red outline denotes the Alliance's borders. Everything East of Rockhelm is frequently pillaged and raided by tribesmen, and living is difficult. There are constant skirmishes between the Rockhelm militia, and tribal invaders. Everywhere else is relatively civil, with local militias keeping a tight noose on any foreign incursions.

Anthastiln employs the heavy use of firearms, and its well funded but fledgling militia is able to destroy most of its tribal adversaries, leaving its surrounding areas pretty calm. They are the chief firearm producer in the region, and benefit greatly by trading these weapons with the Fartown merchants, who then pass them onto their distant contacts.

Outpost 29 is the only member to hold a small yet professional army, and often trades with its neighbours by sending advisors to train their militias. They use mostly spears and crossbows, but also have a small unit of reliable 12. pdr cannons that even Anthastiln's engineers have been unable to produce.

Independence is a blacksmithing town, and is responsible for supplying the other towns with weapon-grade metals or wholly finished products. As a result, it has at times become a target for the others, with Anthastiln usually being the chief agressor.

This is all just me brainstorming, shoot me down at will.

---

Our first contact with the Aliens could be when Rockhelm calls for aid, after a large horde of wildmen, on a scale never before seen, attempts to run the town into the ground. After the battle it could transpire that they were actually fleeing an unidentified enemy with advanced weaponry, and were trying to gain hold of Rockhelm so they could use it as their own fort.

Again, shoot me down at will.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Evangelyne said
When I applied to this RP I interpreted it as the world was split into smaller communities, like tribes. Also do we have a currency? I Think that with the lack of resources we wouldn't want to spend the little we have on making coins or bills. I was imagining the community like this:People can stay and get fed if they work for the community. All resources would be handled by some sort of authority, most likely one leader/village chief or the current military leader. So the leader in the community deals out work tasks that needs to be done for the day, make sure he deals out food rations when its time to eat and work on securing whatever resources the community finds.Trade would be through exchange like: I trade you this pig for your pots.When it come to laws it's probably up to the leaders of the village to decide what's ok or not. These rules would of course only apply to the community only. It would probably be simple, don't kill, steal, rape or anything like that within the community.As it is included in both mine and Brandon's CS we do have a militia already. I imagine it's used for protecting the village, hunting and scouting for resources and plot raids against other villages.This is just my thoughts about it. Do you agree on anything I'm blabbering about?

I agree whole heartedly. However, I would like us to establish the form of government over our immediate community. If we're veering towards a more tribal heirarchy, then that's fine. So we'll have either a Chief, a Mayor, a Count, Lord, President - doesn't really matter, but a consensus on what the man's/woman's title would be grand. I imagine he'll/she'll feature quite heavily in everyone's life, as he/she would be their chief benefactor.

HeySeuss said
Guys, quite frankly I don't have the time to run this. I just got done running a week of overtime and can't keep up with this. If someone else wants to GM, have at it.

Sorry to hear that, but I understand life can explode at any moment for a number of reasons.

I am prepared to GM this, if no one else will, but would rather not. If I am however to GM this, I want people to come forwards and help me flesh out this enviroment. The following points need to be clarified:

- Main community religion, if there is one, and if so, how aggressive or passive is it?
- The name of the chief/lord, or a clarification on the kind of government in place.
- The size of the community, in thousands or hundreds, depending on how small scale it is.
- The time of the Alien invasion, that is to say, does it start at the beginning of the story, or later on after people have faffed about in the market place?
- The settlment's layout. Is it walled? Is it on a hill? Is it mingled with the ruins of the old settlement? Are there holy temples or churches? That kind of stuff.
- The region as a whole. How many other communities are out there? How close are they? Does ours have diplomatic ties with them? Are there frequent wars/skirmishes between them and us?

If required, I can go ahead and forge my way through all of these answers, but I'd prefer you guys to mold an RP that you are likely to play, rather than me roll the dice and land on something you guys think resembles an over-microwaved lessange.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

So in all seriousness, shall we conclude that some of the old world religions remain, but in modified forms owing to the loss of original holy scriptures, or a lack of them. New religions have arisen, and there is a fairly tolerant law system in place that doesn't descriminate against them unless they are linked to over turning the established authority?

Also, what of the rule of law and the military? And the established authority? Are we in a republic? A monarchy? Feudal? A kind of common man's council? Is there a police force? Town watch maybe? And if there's an organised army, who owns/funds it? We better start fleshing out our liege lords before we start, unless we are living in a kind of civil anarchy.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

So have old world religions survived? I can imagine Christianity coming out quite strong in this; through my limited understanding of it, isn't there something to do with the end of the world and a seven year war between Christ and the Devil? Or have I been watching too many movies?

Also, are we still using the old world calandar? Months, days etc?

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Evangelyne said
I expected that much SyrianHamster. I would think more of a "I've seen that guy, he is a hardworking fella and is therefore worthy of my respect." Simply, an acquaintance.

Yeah, that's the exact angle to fit the frame.

I'm not even sure that phrase makes sense, but there you go.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Blue Dog said
I've always been very flexible with my CS s so it could have been about the same time as melody. How long ago would that have been?Also Ham, I have some ideas, I'll pm you tonight, gotta get to work soon though. I just have one question for right now though, how would Bjorne interact with younger children?

He loves younger children, as he is pretty much one himself, albeit in a much larger body.

Evangelyne said
So I've been keeping an eye on your CS's and have a some thoughts about relationships.Since Melody have done hard labour all around the community it wouldn't be surprising if she had met Bjorn or even worked beside him for a while. By the looks of it you worked hard, so that would mean you would have earned Melodys respect. So can we maybe be acquaintances?

Of course. Bjorn has done all kinds of physical work, and probably would have bumped into Melody at some point.

Just to be clear about Bjorn, he's not a regular hang-around-with-people type. The blacksmith pretty much owns him, and keeps him on a tight leash; nothing he himself has a problem with, but you know, he's got a set bed time and isn't allowed near 'bad influences'. He's almost always off on errands, and gets yelled at for stopping to talk to people too long. However there are times when he gets a few hours of the week to himself and his antics. Most interactions will have taken place during work, or as brief conversations.

He is friendly to everyone, unless they are 'bad people'. In which case he ignores them, runs from them, or in a few circumstances, gets inadvertently violent with them.

Those that Remain - Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Blue Dog said
I think Brandon and Bjorne could be friends.

I think we could accomodate that. Bjorn's face will be well known locally, and he wont be a stranger to any of the permenant residents. There are bound to be some people who take a protective role towards him, whether or not it is out of pity. PM me your proposed details, and I'll put them into my sheet.

Those that Remain [Sheets]- Post-Apocalyptic Earth Invaded

Name: Bjorn Thatcher

Age: 19

Appearance: Bjorn is a giant of a man, easily reaching seven feet tall and is broad at the shoulders from six years of serving as a blacksmith’s porter and impromptu pack mule for the local community. His black hair is cropped, but he is usually seen with several weeks’ worth of full beard growth. He constantly smiles, and is missing his two front teeth. His eyes are hazel coloured. He appears some years older than he really is.

Skills/Abilities:

- Strong as an Ox: Bjorn is as strong as he is tall. Years handballing bundles of iron to and from his blacksmith master, and carrying various wares for the locals when they can’t afford a beast of burden has blessed this young man with incredible strength – although far from being considered super human, he could crush most of the locals at an arm-wrestling contest.

- Dim Light, Good Soul: Bjorn is not very bright, which makes things very black and white for him. He is able to see the good and bad in a situation without delving into philosophy, which although sometimes gets him into trouble, more often than not puts him on the right side of the law and his peers. This makes him very difficult to corrupt, or to make rebel against established authorities, rules and practices.

- Brave: When it comes to acts of courage, some describe them as bravery or stupidity depending on their view point. Well, for Bjorn it’s both. He doesn’t have the cognitive capacity to realise life’s worth, and therefore isn’t too concerned with losing it. This makes him a stalwart companion in any bar brawl, criminal apprehension - or indeed military action.

Equipment:

- Heavy iron stick, three feet long and laced with simple leather strips at the base for grip.

- Water pouch

- Winston – Male pet hamster that Bjorn carries to most places. Whenever Winston dies, Bjorn acquires another of the rodents and gives it the same name, and has done so since the age of six. Unlike a certain Baldur’s Gate character you may be thinking of, Bjorn does not see Winston as a superior being, it’s just his pet and companion.

- Satchel of food, containing mostly bread, dried fruit and some jerky. Bjorn is used to being on the move, and keeps it constantly stocked, as well as can be practiced.

- Iron capped leather work boots. Size 14.

- Well worn map of the local area. (Only Bjorn can read it, as the place names are replaced by various squiggles that he alone can decypher)

History:

Bjorn has never met his parents. They cast him away at the roadside when they were wrongly informed that he was irreversibly brain damaged due to complications at birth, and was left deaf, dumb and blind as a result.

Saved from certain death by a roaming huntsman who showed him pity, Bjorn was interred into the care of the local community. Opinion was divided at first, as even the most untested child carers knew instantly that Bjorn was ‘handicapped’. The town did not need another mouth to feed, another soul to look after; especially when afore mentioned soul seemed incapable of paying back his dues in later life.

However it was through the mercy of one of the local blacksmiths that Bjorn’s life was once again saved from the premature judgement of others. Raising him not quite as his own son, but more as a much loved dog, the blacksmith came to realise there was a faint light behind those eye and started to teach him life's basics. At age six, the young orphan started to speak his first words, much to the community’s astonished delight. Alas, Bjorn could not grasp written words, or numbers, and this quickly limited his place in an already prejudiced society.

Still, he could see, and he could hear. The blacksmith marvelled in Bjorn’s dedication to simple tasks, and soon started using him to run simple errands. Whether it was carrying packs of iron to the forge, or finished goods to their destination, Bjorn was the man for the job. He never strayed from his path, never tampered with the goods he was charged with, and never let the prying eyes of others peer into the parcels he held.

Soon others within the community came to Bjorn, with the blacksmith’s blessing, to ask for similar favours. Sometimes it was to help someone move house, other times it was to help deliver a discreet package. He never saw any of the currency paid for his services, but then he never really understood currency, so this did not bother him. As long as the blacksmith supplied him with food and water, he was as happy as could be.

Psychological Profile:

Bjorn is as already stated, a simple minded fellow. He has the mental age of a nine year old, and this is unlikely to increase. This makes him very trusting of people, unless they are going against the status quo, or are trying to coerce him into doing something he has been specifically requested not to do. He rarely learns from past mistakes, unless they were significantly painful or traumatic. He has no real understanding of death, and believes Winston is the same hamster he has always had simply because he calls it the same name as the original.

Although he lacks the cognitive capacity to learn anything related to words and numbers, he has a good practical mind and can be trained to carry out certain tasks – if the trainer can hold his attention long enough.

If someone is able to gain Bjorn’s trust, he will come to view them as an authority figure, and obey them joyfully.

Relationships and Acquaintances:

Brandon Walker - Bjorn is no stranger to Brandon, having delivered him and his family various wares from his blacksmith master over the years. What started as very brief, but polite doorstep conversation blossomed into Bjorn's longer vocal streaks, and the two know each other fairly well. Bjorn likes Brandon, because he is friendly and is capable of communicating in a way that Bjorn's simple mind can understand. On a couple of occaisions, Bjorn has looked after Brandon's younger siblings for short periods of time, and enjoys their company immensely.

Abraham - Bjorn' original saviour. Bjorn does not know anything about him however, having never been told about his ever so lucky beginnings in life.

Jon Hanock - A local blacksmith, who is a dominant economic force within the community. He is Bjorn's chief benefactor, but in no way a father. He looks after Bjorn's general well being, and is very protective of him, but treats him more as a valuable business asset than a son.

Melody - Bjorn has crossed her path several times over the years, usually during menial labour work. Like Brandon, she is capable of communicating in a way that appeals to Bjorn's lower brain function, and has saved him from punishment on a few occaisions by taking the blame for his work-related mistakes. As a result, Bjorn is fond of her, and she is one of the few people who he will stop to talk to in the street, errands be damned.