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Post by Rigil Kent on Jul 26, 2018 9:29:57 GMT -6
As stated in the other threads, there are two major influences for campaign: Miami Vice and The Expanse. The former essentially has characters who are undercover as drug traffickers or smugglers but are actually Miami-Dade police officers, so that’s fairly obvious, while the latter is intended more for the feel of the system (he says hopefully.) Note that not all PCs have to be undercover - in fact, as long as just one is (and he’d probably need to be the “leader”), the rest of the PCs could legitimately be criminals. That said, the worse the crime, the more difficult it will be to keep the team together. For example, looking at Firefly, Jayne Cobb could never be trusted to be read-in for an op like this, while Amos Burton in The Expanse is pretty loyal to his crew … With regards to the operation itself, I’m planning on just beginning in media res with the undercover mission already underway. The original plan (developed by the Operative(s) boss) was for the undercover PC(s) to be inserted into the Altmac Comital Prison population so (s)he/they can start make contact with one of the identified traffickers. (PCs who are not (initially) read-in for the op will be in prison for other reasons.) Attempts to simply seek out traffickers in-system has resulted in dead operatives, so this new operational plan is taking a view toward a longer term operation. Rather than begin pestering the players for character stats this early in the process, I thought I’d instead go with the notion of archetypes at this point. This serves as a quick overview or description of a character. For example, if I was going to archetype the Expanse crew (plus Bobbie because she’s awesome), I’d identify them simply as the Bridge Officer (Holden), the Pilot (Alex), the Tech (Naomi), the Mechanic (Amos) and the Marine (Bobbie.) Miller would be the Investigator (which is amusing considering …) Obviously since I’m heavily influenced by The Expanse, that means spaceship stuff will come into play at some point so all (or most) of PCs should be capable of serving as crew in various capacities. In the above example, Bobbie is a Marine so she’d be an ideal gunner and so on. It also occurs to me that we could potentially reuse a number of the characters that were in use for the Star Wars: Fringe benefits game although some would (obviously) have to be tweaked a bit. For example, the droid that Giger used would have to be seriously re-evaluated (but not necessarily discarded, I suppose), the Twi’lek (ChrisIII) and Trandoshan (SQ) would have to become different species entirely, but the other characters are potentially salvageable for this if you so wish. It does occur to me that having a team leader (and one of if not the only one who is officially read-in for the op) being a psion (see Ondo Traelark) could potentially be useful, but in that case, he’d absolutely have to have certain disads since officially, psionics are illegal in the Imperium. Still … hey, CJ, wanna play a psion? But Archetypes are probably the way to go for the time being.
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Post by LabRat on Jul 26, 2018 12:48:07 GMT -6
Interesting. I'll have to think up a character. I'm not sure if Tesla would fit into the setting well unless I formulate her to be more of a Julie Mao-esque character. Huh...now that I just said that, that may not be a bad idea. She could easily fill the role of the pilot and have more white collar connections. Maybe her father sold her out as "just business" and that's why she's in lock up. Dammit, I just made my character....
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Post by Rigil Kent on Jul 26, 2018 12:55:08 GMT -6
Interesting. I'll have to think up a character. I'm not sure if Tesla would fit into the setting well unless I formulate her to be more of a Julie Mao-esque character. Huh...now that I just said that, that may not be a bad idea. She could easily fill the role of the pilot and have more white collar connections. Maybe her father sold her out as "just business" and that's why she's in lock up. Dammit, I just made my character.... That was easy! Straight away, sounds like she probably isn't (initially, anyway) read-in on the undercover op, but recruiting her by the Operative(s) is probably a good idea. This is especially true if we keep borrowing from The Expanse and her dad is a Jules-Pierre Mao type who potentially has ties to people/things he shouldn't...
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Post by WxMAN on Jul 26, 2018 12:57:03 GMT -6
Thinking of doing a hybrid of Shed Garvey / Naomi / Zoidberg... as a Aslan if allowed... "People and computers are kinda the same thing"... just don't look to close at his background
EDIT: Again, if I can even find time to play *sad trombone*
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Post by LabRat on Jul 26, 2018 13:04:11 GMT -6
Straight away, sounds like she probably isn't (initially, anyway) read-in on the undercover op, but recruiting her by the Operative(s) is probably a good idea. This is especially true if we keep borrowing from The Expanse and her dad is a Jules-Pierre Mao type who potentially has ties to people/things he shouldn't... That's kind of where I'm going. She probably discovered that Daddy wasn't her kind of scum, and he decided to give her the ultimate time out by landing her in prison as a show of power. Naturally instead of her being cowed, she's now actively working against him. She is most definitely going to be cut off from his resources but she will still have her thumb on the pulse of higher society and white collar crime. She could be a good source of connections, information, and if needed, drive the getaway vehicle.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Jul 26, 2018 13:11:39 GMT -6
Thinking of doing a hybrid of Shed Garvey / Naomi / Zoidberg... as a Aslan if allowed... "People and computers are kinda the same thing"... just don't look to close at his background EDIT: Again, if I can even find time to play *sad trombone* Aslan are certainly available. In the Saturday group, the PCs discovered that the count's son and heir has Aslan bodyguards. CommJunkee's vargr PC actually beat one of them up ... and yes, the 'cats and dogs' jokes were noted.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Jul 26, 2018 13:14:36 GMT -6
Straight away, sounds like she probably isn't (initially, anyway) read-in on the undercover op, but recruiting her by the Operative(s) is probably a good idea. This is especially true if we keep borrowing from The Expanse and her dad is a Jules-Pierre Mao type who potentially has ties to people/things he shouldn't... That's kind of where I'm going. She probably discovered that Daddy wasn't her kind of scum, and he decided to give her the ultimate time out by landing her in prison as a show of power. Naturally instead of her being cowed, she's now actively working against him. She is most definitely going to be cut off from his resources but she will still have her thumb on the pulse of higher society and white collar crime. She could be a good source of connections, information, and if needed, drive the getaway vehicle. Okay ... getting the two characters - Julie Mao vs Tesla - confused in my head. Are you thinking more Julie (spoiled rich girl who found out dad was scum & left) or more Tesla (grew up aware that daddy was scum)?
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Post by WxMAN on Jul 26, 2018 13:21:27 GMT -6
Aslan are certainly available. In the Saturday group, the PCs discovered that the count's son and heir has Aslan bodyguards. CommJunkee's vargr PC actually beat one of them up ... and yes, the 'cats and dogs' jokes were noted. Excellent... so, I expect him to have to split duties... so he'll be not great at either... maybe this is because Aslan medicine and tech is very different then human medicine and tech and he's having a difficult time adjusting... or maybe his credentials aren't as impressive as they appear to be on paper.... or maybe he is an Aslan spy/saboteur... He also has a very annoying allergy to human dander, and finds them a generally unclean species.
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Post by LabRat on Jul 26, 2018 13:39:02 GMT -6
Okay ... getting the two characters - Julie Mao vs Tesla - confused in my head. Let's split it down the middle. She knew her dad was involved in some stuff, but it was mostly surface level "mafia" type business (think drugs, protection money, etc) that contributed to their wealth. She was mostly okay with it because she got to see the benefits of that wealth. However, her father wouldn't share with her all of the things that he did. I imagine she somehow found her the depths of his depravity (you're experimenting on kids! you monster!) and that was it for her. She tried to leave, and when dad found out, pulled some strings to land her ass in jail to "give her some time to think".
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Post by Gigermann on Jul 26, 2018 14:55:08 GMT -6
Soft-dibs on Investigator. Full-on Miller/Noir-PI
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Post by Rigil Kent on Jul 26, 2018 15:42:04 GMT -6
Soft-dibs on Investigator. Full-on Miller/Noir-PI Heh. You should totally use the dude from Altered Carbon.
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Post by CommJunkee on Jul 27, 2018 5:23:50 GMT -6
Sure
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Post by Rigil Kent on Jul 27, 2018 8:50:35 GMT -6
The was meant to turn that into a joke. You're not expected/required to do that if you have a different idea in mind.
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Post by CommJunkee on Jul 27, 2018 11:47:01 GMT -6
Going with the psion gambler with all the contacts.
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Post by Magman on Jul 30, 2018 17:13:54 GMT -6
Former military marine Whose daughter died from said drug and his wife died of a broken after that, now he is looking for pay back
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Post by Rigil Kent on Aug 2, 2018 12:48:05 GMT -6
Former military marine Whose daughter died from said drug and his wife died of a broken after that, now he is looking for pay back I like it ... is he read-in for the op? Could easily see him be recruited by Giger's character (or his boss) and then, your PC is court-martialed as part of his cover ... alternately, he could be unaware that the op is underway but the agency behind it has maybe been keeping an eye on him for future recruitment...
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Post by Rigil Kent on Aug 6, 2018 11:02:44 GMT -6
Former military marine Whose daughter died from said drug Note that this likely does not mean she OD'ed as tempest seems more of a pseudo-combat drug (I'll post the specifics later, once I figure out how to phrase it properly). That said, however, it makes perfect sense that she was killed by a tempest addict while he was raging ... which still makes your thought technically correct.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Aug 10, 2018 9:42:07 GMT -6
These are the current "character concepts" that I think we're working with. The Sanctioned Operator: this is primary investigator, the spy who has been assigned this mission. Giger initially stated “full-on Miller/Noir-PI” (with Miller being a reference to The Expanse) but (if I understand his thinking based on some offhand comments) seems to have altered his take to more of a Michael Westen/Ethan Hunt spy type. The Psionic Gambler: a half-Zhodani low-life who has numerous connections with the underworld. He’s not intended to be a combat monster – the player suggested having nothing more than a 12 in pistols or beams – and is likely going to be mostly a telepath with perhaps some minor TK. CommJunkee already mentioned looking through Psionic Powers. He’ll be read-in on the mission with the Operator having some sort shutdown code or device or something. The Enraged Marine: former Imperial combat vet whose daughter died due to tempest – which in this case likely means she was beaten to death by a raging addict – which led to the PCs wife dying soon after of a broken heart ( MagMan's words, not mine). Not he’s seeking blood-soaked revenge. Unclear if he’s read-in on the op yet. I totally envision him (right now) like Tychus from Starcraft. The Socialite Pilot: a Julie Mao-esq character whose father was involved in some shady crap that contributed to the family wealth. Initially, she was okay with it since, money let her do whatever she wanted (which ended up being a pilot) but she stumbled upon depths of her father’s depravity and revolted, which somehow led her to being imprisoned. She’ll have some white collar connections but it’s unlikely she’ll be read-in. I look forward to seeing what LabRat does with her. The Aslan Technician: this character is going to be a combo medic/mechanic with the whole “people and computers are kind of the same thing” mentality. Unfortunately, since WxMAN's schedule due to school is wildly inconsistent, we don’t know how frequently he’ll be available so he may sort of turn into what amounts to a recurring NPC who occasionally becomes active. I have no idea if Xenocore is intending to join, especially considering his oft-stated strong dislike of the GURPS system (even though I think that stems from early playthroughs when nobody actually knew how the system worked.)
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Post by Magman on Aug 13, 2018 18:00:11 GMT -6
He is not op in. Died of broken heart would be his way of explaining his wife's death (Her death was suicide).
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