Cold Shock++Log:1, Year 5 after Emergence, Day 72++
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And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. *Metal taps on stone like surface* This realm's Human Philosphers put it best, for I have long gazed into the dark, and it has looked into me... This realm knows not the true horrors of war, and what lies in the abyss, but if it can be managed a few will be made to witness the abyss, to save the others from the knowledge of it.
Ignorance is truly bliss, but to remain ignorant...some from this crop must be harvested and made to know. And know they shall... In time, this will serve to benifit them, turn them away from what became of others...
I shall give them the cold embrace of the void, if only to make them insolation for the rest of these....primitives. A gift they shall never know of, and one that must be given. As it is the responsible thing to do. It is time to show them the void, their eyes open, so the rest may stay shut.
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..........RulesThe most important rule to note for this game is no god-modding, you cannot make you character perform ridiculous feats, have knowledge of things they should not(Even hinting at it), or be able to do things they should not be capable of. You are not all one man armies, and so do not act as such, you are not all knowing either. Any who break this rule will be punished in game, what they do will be retconned and will instead face character consequences, if it gets bad enough, character death. You get three strikes with this.
The second rule to note is their will be minimum writing lengths, do not post something less than two complete paragraphs, meaning eight sentences. Think out each post, if you cannot think of something, do not post, I repeat, do not post. Short posts will be ignored or deleted. Do not respond to short posts. If you and a characters are having conversations and cannot think of ways to lengthen the post, combine your posts in a PM and make the conversation the viewpoint of one person(So it makes sense) and have the others write their replies. Then one of you makes the post. Ways to lengthen a post, include observations of your surroundings and other characters, gestures your character makes, condition your character is in, thoughts and feelings and movements. Their is plenty to write about. If you need to know about your surroundings, ask a GM through a PM or in the OOC thread. So remember, 2 paragraph minimum, this means 8 sentences minimum per post.
A Third rule is to know that this game will not be rules heavy, it will have a honor based system where you the player are responsible for making reasonable posts and actions that are within the abilities of your character, in both knowledge and combat. Refer to rule one for the punishments of going against this rule. In combat the GM, or whoever has created the scenario, will describe the situation in the best way they can, they will tell you where enemies are positioned, what they are doing, and where you are positioned, it is up with the players to write out what they do, within limits provided. Meaning you can kill random enemies with "ease"" as long as you write out and describe the combat(AND IT IS REASONABLE AND NOT DESCRIBED IN AN OP WAY, REFER TO RULE 1), communicate with the other players so you can know where everyone else is and who they went after. Remember struggle, take damage, fight back, over come difficult odds, run from impossible ones. Come up with smart solutions to combat situations.
The Fourth and final Rule relates to difficult actions, or interacting with NPCs. You may talk with and make up NPC(Within reason, do not make them act out of character, Refer to rule 1 for punishments) and interact with said NPC as long as they act properly and do not give you some sort of advantage, not getting free stuff. So for purchasing Items, ask us GMs and will will tell you what they have in stock and how much it costs. Difficult actions will be determined by the GM, or if you think something should be difficult let us know, its better to let us know then us possibly mistaking it for god-modding. So lets say you want to hack a door, but its either very encrypted, or its a door that a foreign alien species designed(You can not possibly know the programming language it uses or immediately comprehend its mechanics, unless it is incredibly simple), then we can do a simple dice roll challenge that can be determined on the spot, depending how difficult it should be. This also applies to attempting something outside your character's skill set. This will also apply to Psionic powers in all cases, until the GM grant you proficiency to be able to use powers without consequence.
Character Sheet/Creation Guide
[spoiler={Insert Character Name Here, Insert Player Name Here}]
[u][b]Name:[/b][/u]
[u]Race:[/u]
[u]Biological Age:[/u]
[u]Height:[/u]
[u]Eye Color:[/u]
[u]Hair:[/u]
[u]Description:[/u]
[u][b]Class:[/b][/u]
[u]Combat Proficiencies:[/u]
[u]Secondary Combat Skill:[/u]
[b][u]Profession:[/u][/b]
[u]Skills:[/u]
[u]Knowledge:[/u]
[u]Misc Knowledge:[/u]
[b][u]Psionic Abilities:[/u][/b]
[u]Gear:[/u]
[u]Armor/Clothing Description:[/u]
[u]Weapon Descriptions:[/u]
[u][b]Background:[/b][/u]
[/spoiler]
Name-DescriptionThis Section is pretty simple and straight forward. Enter a Character name, and surname if applicable, or some form of identification. For Race it should be the race of the empire you come from, and while on this note, do not use characters you intend to use in the empire game, they will no longer apply there. However that does not mean Empire characters cannot make Cameos(At GM discretion). Also for race, if their is a subgroup your character belongs to, please identify it. Meaning Ethnicity and such. Such as Human, Oriental for an example. The rest is pretty self explanatory. For the Description, please write AT LEAST 1 paragraph. You may include an image but be warned, a paragraph description is still needed. In the description include everything from skin color, to identifying marks, such as tattoos, scars, birthmarks,etc.
Class-Combat SkillsLike any RPG, there will be a "class" for your character, this is generally to describe your role in combat, whether its Marksmen, sniper, rogue, assassin, Guardian, Support, medic, ect. You are free to invent a class as long as its described so we understand what you mean. Combat Proficiency describes your ability to use certain weapons, if you are a sniper, obviously you will use sniper rifles, and ect. You get to be proficient in two weapons to start, penalties will be given if you attempt to use weapons you are not proficient in using. You can learn to use new weapons over time, during times between missions/campaigns. However you will be limited by your class, and what is reasonable for your character to be able to use. Also there is a difference between weapon types, you will have to learn to use alternative versions of you weapon types. So identify what weapon type you are proficient at like this Sniper Rifle(Kinetic). For light ranged weapons(Meaning not heavy weapons) their will be 6 types {Kinetic, Photonic(Laser), Particle, Plasma, Tesla, Exotic}. You are limited to what your race has, the rest can be found or bought through the course of the game. For Heavy weapons(Meaning Gatling guns to Rocket/missile launchers) you get 7 types {Kinetic, Photonic(Laser), Particle, Plasma, Tesla, Explosive, Exotic} you only have what is available to your race similar to light weapons. For Melee weapons it will be simplified into Two-handed and One Handed, with 5 types for both {Standard, Powered, Energy, Electric, Exotic}. Pretty much all of you only have access to Standard.
Secondary combat skills will be different you can have 3, or more depending on class, and you may need to sacrifice one weapon proficiency to have more secondary combat skill. Secondary skills can be sort of like abilities, such as Suppressing Fire, Spotting, Stealth, etc. Or other forms of combat such as hand to hand combat, or Improvised weapons(Meaning the ability to use things around you in close combat such as stabbing someone with a pencil or bashing someone with a sharp rock laying near you. For Medics this can include Combat stims, Field Medical Treatment and similar things. For someone who supports, that might be coming to someones aid, Covered Retreats, and when you get tech later on giving Allies Temporary Shields and etc. This can also mean piloting combat vehicles, or piloting combat craft. Discuss with the GMs if you are unsure if a skill is acceptable. And as always, penalties if you do not have the skills required, and extreme penalties for not knowing medical skills.
Profession-KnowledgeFor Profession this is rather self explanatory, as it means what is your characters job, if any. Are you a professional soldier? Doctor? Thief? Librarian? After deciding this, give yourself skill related to this, limiting you at 4 depending. This can be just about any skill your character has not related to combat. However space combat skill can be included here, meaning piloting combat space craft. Try to keep to what your profession would know.
Knowledge will pertain to exactly that, what your character is able to know or talk about. Everyone has basic knowledge of their own race, however to know everything about your race you will need to put Historian(Your Race Here), also all characters, unless they are an idiot , know basic things from math and science, on a basic level, for anything higher than that please specify. You may have 4 knowledge skills, two major and two minor. Major meaning you know just about everything for that subject(Like Historian), while minor means you know more than most but not everything in a subject. You can have more if you sacifice a skill for it. Also try to have knowledge related to your skills, also having certain types of knowledge can grant skill by default. Miscellaneous knowledge is not limited, and can relate to things your character likes, it does not necessarily affect your skills, but may be related to them.
Psionic AbilitiesThis is essentially Warp Powers, as you may come in contact with warp phenomenon during the course of these adventures. No one has these powers except Killer Rin's Race, with its Minor Telepathy, which his race gets as default. Only way for this to get stronger is to develop psionic powers through Warp Contact which has a chance of inducing mutation. You have a choice to get these powers in most cases, however if it is appropriate to give you a power as a sort of penalty, so be it. Only ORGANIC races can develop these powers, so most of you can with Rin's race having its foot in the door. So leave this blank, except for RIn's race, which simply put {Telepathy:Minor}. These powers are pretty unlimited in terms of scope and power, but have consequences. Checks are required, so dice will be rolled for these, nothing complicated though, and no major penalties if you fail. If you god mod though, your head may pop. Just let us know if you plan on getting these powers later on and the GMs will ensure you are given the chance. Skill level will come into play here, as follows {Novice, Skilled, Mastery} for each power, using a power gets you closer to increasing skill level, which in turn decreases chance of disaster. Their is always a chance for it to go wrong, but as long as you don't over exert yourself, or use a power that is dangerous by default, you should be fine.
Gear-Armor/Weapon DescriptionsGear is essentially everything you own in terms of what you will bring with you. What you can bring into combat is different though, as that is limited to what can be carried. Include tools of your trade, weapons, armor and such. Clothing doesn't really need to be specified, I assume you will actually bring fresh clothing and not ferment in weeks old undies. However anything useful should be accounted for. Also a wallet is essential. what a good amount of money to have at the beginning will be determined later. This game will have its own currency to be used universally and it will be kept in check, your starting money will mostly be for your home planet only, whenever you are there(Which won't be much at all unless the plot bring us there, which will be discussed later.) Give decent descriptions of your items, if necessary, you may also simply link pictures, which this is the only time this will be accepted as a description on its own. If you have more to add about these item, write it.
BackgroundProbably the most essential part of this sheet. A minimum of two paragraphs is required, more is highly encouraged. Build me a believable character please. You may be required to make changes if the GMs think it is necessary. If you intend to keep things hidden from people, please PM THE GMS ALL NECESSARY INFORMATION. You cannot hide information from us for any reason, IF it is important to character development and if you intend to build a plot for the group to follow during the RP. (Yes, you can make quests, this doesn't mean their isn't a story for this game, there is plenty to do, but you can add to it.) So make it a good read, but don't overdo it, sometimes things can become a bit repetitive, so edit and revise if necessary.
Final NotesThis game has a story it will follow, so do not fear stagnation. You can create your own plot-lines to follow as well, but take time to develop them, and PM detail to the GMs and we can figure out together when it would be best to follow it. Who knows, if it is appropriate and around our ability near the beginning, after the Intro mission, we can do a player made mission. Please have fun, this is what this game is for, first and foremost, not only will we flesh out each of your races, with your characters, but we will build a galaxy as we explore, encounter new civilizations, dungeon crawl, and hopefully stop terrible things from happening. Its cold out there in the unknown, you might be shocked at what you find.