Soviet Steam
24-07-2008, 10:43
(OOC: Skip this first part if you want to go straight to the specific business at "RP Overview" subtitle further down)
Soviet Steam, a puppet of Third Spanish States, Presents:
Mad Science! and Grey Hats
NS Scenario Idea Overview
Short History: Mad Science!, Commies, Steampunk, Magic, Dark Fantasy, epic WW1-esque conflicts with airshaps. And of course: ADVENTURE!
Long One:
Have you played Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum:_Of_Steamworks_and_Magick_Obscura)? I suppose that the likely answer is "no". I've created Soviet Steam with one basic, very basic concept: Victorian Science! versus Magic. Science! is basically whenever you see a 10 ft tall automaton, huge airships, spider robots, and all sorts of mad stuff that only happens in Steampunk.
I wanted to create both a scenario for character centric RPing and a good premise for a Great War with trenches, clumsy tanks moving on steam, epic cavalry flanking and also the horrors of a World War One, only this time, with magic serving as a very rough analogous to engineer brigades to match technological superiority, and Slavic-styled vampires that scavenge the battlefield for the freshly dead like vultures, while having all sorts of myths, only this time, using the same mythology that inspired The Witcher.
What makes it difference from other NationStates that deal with Fantasy, other than the fact it's Dark Fantasy and contain Steampunk elements? First, there'll be war, strategy, diplomacy, tactics, combat etc in other threads involving Soviet Steam as I don't intend to use this puppet exclusively for character RP. I just find it easier to get started with the character part rather than with ORBATS, but there'll be Sign ups for wars, only they will be 100% realistic 1910s Past Tech(except I'll be a bit lax by allowing functional Mark-I esque tanks to exist since the start of the conflict). The wars involving magic will all be stories, because honestly, mixing magic with tech in a competitive RP would be likely a disaster of wanktacular proportions.
Scenario Overview
Pangaea is a large continent which is almost as big than Asia at 32 million square kilometers(its name is basically because nobody explored the seas yet) although it's filled with less than hospitable lands to the north, this is the map:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8536/map5rp1.png
Short History: Russian Commies get mysteriously warped to new world, meet knights, massacre knights("Tis' only a flesh wound!") until they meet mages("It weighs like a duck!"), fall back until they do the same they did with Napoleon, invent steampunk stuff because of the war, regain their lost ground, war ends, ally with dissident capitalists at Novaya Russia, and still wait for a new war with the knights and mages of Theocracy of Perun and Kingdom of Yaga. Because of it they hate magic and hunt anyone who is born with it.
Long One:
Soviet Steam is basically a nation that originated after some of the people of Russia who had a much earlier and successful Communist Revolution inspired by the Paris Commune were mysteriously teleported together with parts of their towns to a strange and unknown world, because -spoiler excuse because I didn't think yet on a truly interesting answer to the mystery nobody could guess- . With most of their infrastructure intact, there was not much of an upheaval and they simply tried to get used to the new world, and like man is curious, explore it.
They are major supporters of the scientific method, because religions and superstitions are associated with the Ancién Regime, and other than Leninists, they are also real technophiles, and became even more after the mysterious event.
Then they discovered that this world is completely different from world. There was something there that did not exist in Earth: magic, and some people began to manifest weird powers. At the first time, due to a strange loosening of the grip over civil liberties after they got there, nobody scolded those who demonstrated it, because it was deemed as some sort of strange and extremely rare phenomena happening in one of each 10 millions of their population. Also, who would bother about someone who twists forks or can light ovens without a match? Some did and tried to study it, only to conclude that it was the first phenomena that is completely impossible to be understood through the scientific method.
Then they discovered their enemies. At first, it was a laugh to shoot those poor backward armies of knights in plate mail with gatling guns. It was a slaughter that continued to push them through the interior of the continent they were in, deeper and deeper until they noticed that their weapons were jamming more than a M-16 which last maintenance was a year ago. And the further they advance, the worse it got, until finally they discovered why: That new supernatural phenomena was strong in the depths of the continent, and for some reason, it disrupted the scientific laws that a rifle depended upon to work properly. And worse, finally their artillery came, and it's difficult to hold a trench when unnatural maggots are eating you alive. It was a true nightmare and with their morale lost, their enemies began to make inroads.
As you are probably bored with all this text, let's just say what happened was roughly the same that happened when Napoleon tried to invade Russia, only that their enemies got worser losses than Napoleon. Theocracy of Perun and Kingdom of Yaga were them. The first was ruled by the closest thing Pagan worshipers with magic had to a Televangelist, while the latter is stuff of nightmares, where firstborns are always sacrificed, among other things. Both feature as anachronistic, conservative Regimes, exactly like Tzarist Russia.
Then a new side came. A bunch of peasants to the west limits of Soviet Steam weren't quite happy with the idea of letting "the people" take over their small properties. And taking advantage of the war, they quickly declared their independence and founded Novaya Russia(Empire Earth 1). It's basically a sort of Eastern variant of the typical western liberal(see: Adam Smith) Republic, being at the opposite edge of Soviet Steam. But also being technophiles and enemies of Perun and Yaga. They had little choice but to resort to some of the good diplomats among them and accept a cease-fire, because they had little of defense by that time, but their enemies weren't aware of it yet.
Novaya Russia and Soviet Steam became allies in the "Brotherhood of Steam"(No pun intended with Fallout), because of their closer affinity with technology, and of sharing common enemies("enemy of my enemy..."). The war then suddenly ended in a stalemate, Soviet Steam recovered lost territories, but didn't dare to invade their enemies due to the strength of magic in the heart of the continent, and the war de facto ended. Yet it brought changes. Soviet Steam was as desperate as a certain Germany, and then all sorts of whacked projects began to get support. Three were utter successes and also helped to turn the tide of the war: The powerful but very scarce Automatons(although they are still the equivalent of modern B-2 Spirits on maintenance costs), the growing Steam Tanks(Don't ask, suffice to say it's bigger than a Mark I, and as slow as one, plus they require someone to put the coal into the engine) and the wonderful combat airships(and general use civilian airships which also boomed thereafter). After the war, a spark of Science! and ingenuity and a revival of the maddest Tesla ideas(in this alternate reality Tesla was already born, but most of his legacy was lost as he died in the new continent, just a pretext for a future adventure). Political reforms also came and despite authoritarian, it's more socially progressive than many Western democracies. A "liberal autocracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_autocracy)" perhaps. Except for the practice of magic.
But those poor sods just can't control it, it just react with one of each ten million citizens and they can't block it, no matter how hard they try. Most take refuge in Novaya Russia, where they are more liberal with the practice of magic, and where due to its economy, some of them can take advantage of their skills for ends which are completely opposed to the values of Communism. Others still keep their ideals, despite the fact most despise them, and tend to get depressed and in a state of negation. For what could be worse for a hardcore skeptic atheist commie than to discover he has something that is downrightly a privilege and which origin is attributed to gods? Yelena knew how it sucks. More on the next part.
RP Overview
No Short version here, because it's important and central to the sign-up to understand it. If you RPed in the White Tower (http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=554180) with my characters, this will also explain further on how they magic work. Wait, Short version for those who RPed with me before:
Ivan is bringing Yelena back to Soviet Steam, after he sneaked a bunch of self-righteous onlookers to ensure nobody would meddle with the business of Russians. He needs to get her to an eccentric Mad Scientist called Vyankostanov who claims he knows how to bring the recently dead back before it's too late, because he feel sorry for her long train of seriously jinxed bad luck and because she had a similar background to his. But there are some who might try to stop him from doing it. You can RP as a witch hunter after Ivan, as an average Russian getting into the middle of the mess by being at the wrong place at the wrong time, an would-be Mad Scientist also looking to meet doctor Vyankostanov in his legendary research laboratory. I don't mind if it's a gadgeteer genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/fun/freestuff/desktops/mainpage/mainpage_R_1600x1200.jpg) as long as whatever you RP isn't too outlandish. Both Lowbrow and Highbrow humor is more than welcome though, so if you want to do it for the LULZ, satirize some stereotype or alike, just head below to the Sign-up Overview, unless you want to read more and isn't at tl;dr yet.
Ivan Berezovsky is one of those unfortunate "one in ten million" with affinity to magic, although it goes deeper. He could "see dead people"(I promise I won't make further references to that movie) since he was a child, although such unwilling capability had nothing to do with magic. He eventually suppressed it, and due to certain less than pleasant ghosts, forgot about it. Then when he came there, it awakened again. And more than that, he discovered accidentally that he could cure people with the help of spirits of the dead with magic as an intermediate(in short, he is more of a channeler than anything else). His skills were basically Necromantic(here Necromancy is not about raising zombies, more on it later), and as the dead "see past, present and future as one", he is basically a sort of seer, although he rarely gets anything that isn't a complete garble. But like good people died, bad people also died, and he discovered that he could channel the hatred and torment of evil spirits to harm people as well as he could channel the compassion of the good ones to heal them. Magic simply amplifies the effect. Ivan is nothing more than an ESP, and the primary way magic works for him, and for all the "one in ten millions", is by improving, focusing and channeling ESP skills rather than by being the source of the power itself. Yup, they are nothing more than over-glorified paranormals.
Now imagine how it's difficult to be bothered by the rants of the dead and by the police going after him, with initially nobody ever giving him a hand during his toughest moments, and his wife refusing to go with him of selfishness, and you'll have an idea of why he became such a selfish and greedy mercenary "mage" and healer.
He came to the White Tower because comparing the quantity of magic in it with the quantity of magic in Pangaea is like comparing the quantity of oxygen in Mars with the quantity of oxygen in Earth. And when the only place where magic actually works at its fullest is ridden with vampires and evil spirits that can trap your soul in a porcelain cup for the eternity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodyanoy), he had to find a better place to understand everything, and maybe stop being bothered by the dead.
Although he had a friendly welcome, after Yelena arrived(again running away from an angry "Burn the Witch!" mob) with the biggest jerk in the face of Pangaea in the form of a talking crow(I thought on calling it "Jim Crow", but he never met an Afro-American to make unpleasant jokes about(Holy Political Correctness Batman!)). And Yelena got a new gadgetry-filled mechanical arm broken because of the magic disrupting the Scientific! principles that made it work, the electric prod which was the first successful invention in her life destroyed, her flintock pistol obliterated and her mood down the drain.
Then the crow began to throw quite offensive jokes on her, and she got pissed enough to try killing it. In defense, as it was an enchanted being, it shot a lightning bolt straight into her heart and she stroked. Ivan came just in time(I don't want to get into an argument on how it was already known the basics of cardiac reanimation by that time, this is not NSG) and as he was majored as a doctor through the scientific way before arriving at Pangaea, he saved her life(not exactly). She then threw accusations to him, and as he is the type with less stamina than a 2 years old, he left to his room to rest.
Then many things irrelevant to what is going to happen here happened. I'll brief it that Yelena was bullied into becoming an hero to save a Fae, right, a Fae. They had no idea that in her world these supposedly existing spirits(Low and Dark Fantasy, remember?) trap souls in porcelain cups or lure sailors to their deaths, but that's another matter, like it's another matter that in Soviet Steam all non-human sentiences are spiritual(demons as depicted by Orthodox Christianism, mythical Slavic fairies etc. Technically there are half dozen at best of extremely reclusive dragons that "one in 500 millions have ever witnessed" but here they are not sentient)... or maybe some eventual Clueless Berks who missed Sigil in their planewalking and got their Brain-boxes malfunctioning(Planescape: Torment is epic, after all the developers who did Arcanum also did it, and Fallout 1 and 2).
There are some thrash movies about ESPs where their brains explode when they overexercise. I decided it would be too silly, and as this isn't a tribute to B-movies, Thrash or Gore, went with a clean death by heart stroke. Specially because... once you got one, your chances to get another by overexercising, coupled with being utterly stressed, are quite big, aren't they. Then she died with another heart stroke, but Ivan got an idea. He channeled the destructive power of the spirit of the former Executioner who sacrificed kids for pagan gods in Yaga and all the fluff, to kill anything alive that touched her body.
Of course this executioner was a 1.21 meters (4-foot) tall midget, and neither he is strong of spirit, so in the end it was only enough to kill the sort of thing that provokes the decay of a body, bacteria, maggots etc. Then he used a clever ESP skill that involves being nowhere and depends entirely on magic, and hid with Yelena's body until finally his ride back home came.
He felt sorry for her, and as he knew she was going nowhere because of her staunch atheistic convictions, Ivan offered her a last chance to return alive, in the secret laboratory of Doctor Vyankostanov!
A man who said he could bring the dead back through Science! rather than the already proved ineffective "magic". "Magic" only works on living beings, healing "magic" at least. Trying it on dead is like applying penicillin to someone who already died of infection. Thus they were back(he, as she is technically dead), and back to business. But the secret laboratory lies on the top of one of the 800 meters tall mountain, it's winter, Ivan is a total cripple and being that close to the Badlands makes traveling to there very inconvenient. On purpose of course, because there are many who consider the good doctor a lunatic that should be put in an asylum or a "traitor of the people". But there is supposedly a relatively safe way to get there(airships are prone to self-combustion that close to the Badlands, before you ask). The bad news is that only the closest allies and friends of the doctor know it.
And of course, maybe someone of the White Tower might be coming after them(him, I mean). But this is another matter.
Sign-up Overview
If you came from the White Tower thread, ignore this unless you are intending to do something really outlandish, like sending a HUGE ZOMBIE ARMY to march and rule the world MWAMWAMWA, or looking for an excuse for a war that will just not work. In these cases the answer is simply NO. There'll be war with epic artillery barrages, cavalry charges, but this is not the time for it. But first, if you read everything, you noticed that I mention that comparing Faerun and Pangaea regarding magic is like comparing Earth and Mars regarding oxygen. Thus, please comprehend that if you come, your characters will be affected. The badlands concentrate almost the entirety of magic, while the starting point of the adventure will barely allow Ivan to heal a superficial scrape, or the pyromaniac next-door to lit a match. As the adventure furthers, magic improves, but as this is a Low Fantasy world, it'll never be the entire focus of the adventure, nor too outlandish. Expect at best 50% of what your character could do in a more conventional Fantasy scenario, and if this character is really very powerful and experience, 25%.
As I wrote before, all teleports Yelena did were either to other worlds, or completely accidental. It just won't work here. it'll require magic characters to actually use the stat that magic depends on(intelligence) rather than the "hand wave - problem instantly solved" way. I know some won't like it, but I believe it actually helps to create a better scenario. Specially if you are a fan of the Adventure genre(I'll try to give it an adventure-ish thing. I've played some Infocoms, but I'm not a native English speaker, although I don't speak Engrish either. I'll try to promote creativity over the freeform RP equivalent of rolling dices.
OMG I'm trying to be a Game Master and I never did this before!(Couldn't resist, but don't worry, when I want to make something of outstandish quality I go for it. I never played tabletop RPGs, but I will handle it)
-----------------------------------
If you didn't come from the White Tower, this is a general thread for the extremely little used Steampunk, and by extension, for those interested in past tech. Yeah, there are one automaton for each 150 millions of inhabitants, a few dozens of airships, but this is still mostly Past Tech, with a few realistic extrapolations like a functional analytical engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine). The fantasy part here is, how should I say, Secondary. The primary will be the Mad Science and the Victorian feeling, with the fantasy being more focused on haunts, ghosts, horror than on lightning bolts. I'm trying to do something here that I will strive to reach at least 10% of epicness, so get your seats fastened and pay attention:
Human Characters ONLY, unless you really want to RP a ghost or spirit with likely the same level of participation of a NPC(Except for White Tower if you have an IC justification to go after them).
Actually, maybe you could try a spirit that... sticks to Ivan and becomes fond of him. And one that is clumsy and sometimes forget about being dead. Just remember this is not a D&D standard game world. There are no elves, dwarves, hobbits, shapeshifters, fifty-foot women, smurfs(even though some say the smurfs were communists), mudkips, slowpokes, talking cars, nazis, zombies, black men(it's a continent that was colonized only by Caucasians and is very, very isolated, that's why. One day I have make a RP involving genuine, prejudice-free African mythology and Shamanism) and thus, no anthropomorphic animals besides... human beings duh.
Well, there are vampires, but they are just undead humans, and Baba Yagas are old human witches that are so ugly that they became stuff of legends.
Now if you really want to roleplay a vampire, remember the sunlight(I won't forgive that), and that I would really appreciate originality rather than going on the clichés of movies like Underworld. Suffice to say, Anne Rice is one of the best writers of the theme in my opinion, and the best Dracula was the first, black and white one. Now if you bring a comic relief (http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/biteme.php?view=archive&chapter=3120&mpe=1), you'll win a cookie
--------------------------------
Yeah, now the sign up(The stats should not be taken like written in stone, and you are not obliged to provide them either, just you can't have someone who is agile as a leopard, strong as a pissed off Viking warrior princess on premenstrual syndrome, tough as an ultramarathon dodeca-champion., smart as two Einsteins after mentats, with the accuracy of legendary Soviet Union snipers and enough luck to win "Who wants to be a millionaire" 10 consecutive times in the same year.
Now I'll get straight to this(I bet some though "phew")
1) NO MUNCHKINS (http://home.netcom.com/~shagbert/pages/munchkins.html)
2) Try to be original. I'll do my best to create an unique game world.
3) If you want a character of flesh and bones capable of rational thought, you'll want a Caucasian human who speaks Russian, likes Vodka and dances Polka whenever he goes west(Wait, They no longer are close to the Czechs, nevermind), this character might have fangs, be afraid of sunlight and suck blood if you prefer. Otherwise, see here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_Mythology). Spirits of dead people are allowed, although you'll need to effort to make a character that can't touch anything and interfere with anything, and that only Ivan can listen to, be interested(although maybe the spirit could talk with Yelena). If you want to RP a god, refer to rule 1
4) If you want to take Yelena's soul to Warp/Hell/Whatever, dominate the world with an army of Doom MWAMWAMWA, rules 1 and 2.
5) Not a rule, and advice. Pay attention to what is written. I'll leave clues, and if you make a post about your character taking a closer look at something, I'll reply. I'll try to recreate the mood of games like The Longest Journey as well.
6) Like the Game Master tends to... find plausible IC ways to get rid of bad RPers, I can do it as well. I promise I won't be a jerk regarding it, and will have a good tolerance threshold, but character godmode, that is the mark of the munchkin.
7) Don't make hushed posts, take your time, try to take advantage of it to flesh out your character. If there is a fault, and I admit it, is that I write too much(like you saw here) and prefer to draw inspiration, so my threads will not be fast paced with one-liners or two-line long posts. The good news is that you will be able to safely keep up with them even if job, social life, games and other threads in NS are taking most of your time. Again, I'm sorry this won't be much freeform, but it won't be the same without I giving descriptions, explaining things, assuming NPCs and alike. Maybe I can temporarily pass the GM role to someone else if something really big kills the entirety of my free time for a week.
8) This is serious, if someone could assume Ivan role in a good manner who I know to be a good RPer, I would give in a trial thread, and if I liked it, then I would be able to take exclusively the role of GM here.
SIGN UP IS ON!
Again, if you came from the White Tower thread, I likely know your character, so it won't be necessary to fill this.
MANDATORY
Name:
Gender:
Nationality*:
Age:
Physical Desc:
Psych Desc:
Skills Overview:
OPTIONAL (All start at 5, you have a total of 5 points to put up, and he max for each stat is 10, or you can sacrifice severely the skills of your character and get more 5 points, again, this won't be written in stone, just don't expect your character to be a ultramarathon champion with Endurance 3)
STrength: 5
PErception: 5
ENdurance: 5
CHarisma: 5
INtelligence: 5
AGility: 5
LucK: 5
Skills range from 0 to 100%. There are equations, but I won't waste your time with them, I'll just list which stats influence the skills. I won't ask anyone to roll dices, but if every time you use a skill you succeed, see rule 1. Also, if you didn't get it, this is based on SPECIAL
Combat:
Pistols(AG):
Rifles(AG):
Archery(AG):
Heavy Guns*(ST+AG)
Melee(ST+AG):
Throwing(ST+AG):
- You can add more if you want as long as the skill you add makes sense and fits the setting, so please, no "Assault Rifles" and alike, nor "Dwarf Power"-
*Basically the specific training needed to operate heavy machineguns and alike.
Thievery:
Sneak(AG+PE):
Pickpocket**(AG+PE):
Lockpicking(AG+PE):
- Ibid -
Scientific:
First Aid(PE+IN):
Doctor(PE+IN):
Science!(IN):
Mechanic(IN):
- Ibid -
Social:
Barter(CH+IN):
Persuasion(Ibid):
Gambling(IN+LK):
- Ibid -
Planning
Logistics(IN):
Tactics(IN):
Strategy(IN):
- Ibid -
This skills involve making sure the party won't make stupid things or run out of supplies and are as essential for leadership as is charisma. Ivan covers them all to a point, specially logistics, so they won't starve or run out of toilet paper, while Yelena knows the basics of tactics but never practiced what she learned. As they are not going to command an entire Division, Strategy won't come into play.
"Magical"
Telekinesis(PE+IN):
Necromancy(CH+IN):
Sixth Sense(IN):
Premonition(IN):
- Ibid -
Other
Horseback Riding(PE+AG)
Train Operation(PE+IN)
Writing(PE+IN)
- Ibid -
*Available nationalities are Novaya Russian, Soviet Russian, Yagan, Perunian and None. Notice though that once the journey goes to Soviet Steam, they will likely shoot on sight any Yagan or Perunian. Also, if you read a bit about them, I'll brief here to make it easier: Soviet Steam people are technophiles and Leninists, Novaya Russia is made by independent peasants and enterpreneurs who embraced capitalism and a lifestyle close to early 1900s British one, Perun is heavily religious, like a polytheistic version of Islam, and their people are self-righteous and tireless preachers. Yaga is made of hopeless, Nihilistic and cynical people with no regards for other or compassion because having your firstborn killed, among other things, don't do much for yourself. Of course, these are stereotypes, and Ivan, being a technophobe who sees dead people is the living proof that not everyone is like that. I'll give lots of freedom to build characters
**You cannot pickpocket a dragon scale from a sleeping dragon, if you get what I mean. Only a complete retard wouldn't notice someone picking his pocket in front of him, for example, among other things. And of course, it'll be an useless skill in commieland
I hope this drew your interest, or that at least it was an entertaining read. I have many hopes about how this could get.
PS: "Grey Hat" is the nickname given to necromancers(I won't make another reference to that movie, like I said before) who use the power of spirits for both constructive(healing) and destructive purposes instead of focusing in only one of them. On necromancy, it's not about raising zomg zombies because this isn't the stage of a Romero movie, and because magic cannot enchant things that are not alive. The same reason why the anti-hardcore resurrect in two easy steps will never work there.
Good news is that if your character dies the doctor might bring the same back to life after the journey is over. But I won't be pushing it. Promise.
And before someone asks "Doesn't this belong to NS rather than II?", let me say that I have plans for this to eventually lead to a major diplomatic, political and social upheaval that will certainly be enough of an international incident, if only there were 1900s Past-Tech NSes to get involved at it...
Soviet Steam, a puppet of Third Spanish States, Presents:
Mad Science! and Grey Hats
NS Scenario Idea Overview
Short History: Mad Science!, Commies, Steampunk, Magic, Dark Fantasy, epic WW1-esque conflicts with airshaps. And of course: ADVENTURE!
Long One:
Have you played Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum:_Of_Steamworks_and_Magick_Obscura)? I suppose that the likely answer is "no". I've created Soviet Steam with one basic, very basic concept: Victorian Science! versus Magic. Science! is basically whenever you see a 10 ft tall automaton, huge airships, spider robots, and all sorts of mad stuff that only happens in Steampunk.
I wanted to create both a scenario for character centric RPing and a good premise for a Great War with trenches, clumsy tanks moving on steam, epic cavalry flanking and also the horrors of a World War One, only this time, with magic serving as a very rough analogous to engineer brigades to match technological superiority, and Slavic-styled vampires that scavenge the battlefield for the freshly dead like vultures, while having all sorts of myths, only this time, using the same mythology that inspired The Witcher.
What makes it difference from other NationStates that deal with Fantasy, other than the fact it's Dark Fantasy and contain Steampunk elements? First, there'll be war, strategy, diplomacy, tactics, combat etc in other threads involving Soviet Steam as I don't intend to use this puppet exclusively for character RP. I just find it easier to get started with the character part rather than with ORBATS, but there'll be Sign ups for wars, only they will be 100% realistic 1910s Past Tech(except I'll be a bit lax by allowing functional Mark-I esque tanks to exist since the start of the conflict). The wars involving magic will all be stories, because honestly, mixing magic with tech in a competitive RP would be likely a disaster of wanktacular proportions.
Scenario Overview
Pangaea is a large continent which is almost as big than Asia at 32 million square kilometers(its name is basically because nobody explored the seas yet) although it's filled with less than hospitable lands to the north, this is the map:
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/8536/map5rp1.png
Short History: Russian Commies get mysteriously warped to new world, meet knights, massacre knights("Tis' only a flesh wound!") until they meet mages("It weighs like a duck!"), fall back until they do the same they did with Napoleon, invent steampunk stuff because of the war, regain their lost ground, war ends, ally with dissident capitalists at Novaya Russia, and still wait for a new war with the knights and mages of Theocracy of Perun and Kingdom of Yaga. Because of it they hate magic and hunt anyone who is born with it.
Long One:
Soviet Steam is basically a nation that originated after some of the people of Russia who had a much earlier and successful Communist Revolution inspired by the Paris Commune were mysteriously teleported together with parts of their towns to a strange and unknown world, because -spoiler excuse because I didn't think yet on a truly interesting answer to the mystery nobody could guess- . With most of their infrastructure intact, there was not much of an upheaval and they simply tried to get used to the new world, and like man is curious, explore it.
They are major supporters of the scientific method, because religions and superstitions are associated with the Ancién Regime, and other than Leninists, they are also real technophiles, and became even more after the mysterious event.
Then they discovered that this world is completely different from world. There was something there that did not exist in Earth: magic, and some people began to manifest weird powers. At the first time, due to a strange loosening of the grip over civil liberties after they got there, nobody scolded those who demonstrated it, because it was deemed as some sort of strange and extremely rare phenomena happening in one of each 10 millions of their population. Also, who would bother about someone who twists forks or can light ovens without a match? Some did and tried to study it, only to conclude that it was the first phenomena that is completely impossible to be understood through the scientific method.
Then they discovered their enemies. At first, it was a laugh to shoot those poor backward armies of knights in plate mail with gatling guns. It was a slaughter that continued to push them through the interior of the continent they were in, deeper and deeper until they noticed that their weapons were jamming more than a M-16 which last maintenance was a year ago. And the further they advance, the worse it got, until finally they discovered why: That new supernatural phenomena was strong in the depths of the continent, and for some reason, it disrupted the scientific laws that a rifle depended upon to work properly. And worse, finally their artillery came, and it's difficult to hold a trench when unnatural maggots are eating you alive. It was a true nightmare and with their morale lost, their enemies began to make inroads.
As you are probably bored with all this text, let's just say what happened was roughly the same that happened when Napoleon tried to invade Russia, only that their enemies got worser losses than Napoleon. Theocracy of Perun and Kingdom of Yaga were them. The first was ruled by the closest thing Pagan worshipers with magic had to a Televangelist, while the latter is stuff of nightmares, where firstborns are always sacrificed, among other things. Both feature as anachronistic, conservative Regimes, exactly like Tzarist Russia.
Then a new side came. A bunch of peasants to the west limits of Soviet Steam weren't quite happy with the idea of letting "the people" take over their small properties. And taking advantage of the war, they quickly declared their independence and founded Novaya Russia(Empire Earth 1). It's basically a sort of Eastern variant of the typical western liberal(see: Adam Smith) Republic, being at the opposite edge of Soviet Steam. But also being technophiles and enemies of Perun and Yaga. They had little choice but to resort to some of the good diplomats among them and accept a cease-fire, because they had little of defense by that time, but their enemies weren't aware of it yet.
Novaya Russia and Soviet Steam became allies in the "Brotherhood of Steam"(No pun intended with Fallout), because of their closer affinity with technology, and of sharing common enemies("enemy of my enemy..."). The war then suddenly ended in a stalemate, Soviet Steam recovered lost territories, but didn't dare to invade their enemies due to the strength of magic in the heart of the continent, and the war de facto ended. Yet it brought changes. Soviet Steam was as desperate as a certain Germany, and then all sorts of whacked projects began to get support. Three were utter successes and also helped to turn the tide of the war: The powerful but very scarce Automatons(although they are still the equivalent of modern B-2 Spirits on maintenance costs), the growing Steam Tanks(Don't ask, suffice to say it's bigger than a Mark I, and as slow as one, plus they require someone to put the coal into the engine) and the wonderful combat airships(and general use civilian airships which also boomed thereafter). After the war, a spark of Science! and ingenuity and a revival of the maddest Tesla ideas(in this alternate reality Tesla was already born, but most of his legacy was lost as he died in the new continent, just a pretext for a future adventure). Political reforms also came and despite authoritarian, it's more socially progressive than many Western democracies. A "liberal autocracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_autocracy)" perhaps. Except for the practice of magic.
But those poor sods just can't control it, it just react with one of each ten million citizens and they can't block it, no matter how hard they try. Most take refuge in Novaya Russia, where they are more liberal with the practice of magic, and where due to its economy, some of them can take advantage of their skills for ends which are completely opposed to the values of Communism. Others still keep their ideals, despite the fact most despise them, and tend to get depressed and in a state of negation. For what could be worse for a hardcore skeptic atheist commie than to discover he has something that is downrightly a privilege and which origin is attributed to gods? Yelena knew how it sucks. More on the next part.
RP Overview
No Short version here, because it's important and central to the sign-up to understand it. If you RPed in the White Tower (http://forums3.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=554180) with my characters, this will also explain further on how they magic work. Wait, Short version for those who RPed with me before:
Ivan is bringing Yelena back to Soviet Steam, after he sneaked a bunch of self-righteous onlookers to ensure nobody would meddle with the business of Russians. He needs to get her to an eccentric Mad Scientist called Vyankostanov who claims he knows how to bring the recently dead back before it's too late, because he feel sorry for her long train of seriously jinxed bad luck and because she had a similar background to his. But there are some who might try to stop him from doing it. You can RP as a witch hunter after Ivan, as an average Russian getting into the middle of the mess by being at the wrong place at the wrong time, an would-be Mad Scientist also looking to meet doctor Vyankostanov in his legendary research laboratory. I don't mind if it's a gadgeteer genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/fun/freestuff/desktops/mainpage/mainpage_R_1600x1200.jpg) as long as whatever you RP isn't too outlandish. Both Lowbrow and Highbrow humor is more than welcome though, so if you want to do it for the LULZ, satirize some stereotype or alike, just head below to the Sign-up Overview, unless you want to read more and isn't at tl;dr yet.
Ivan Berezovsky is one of those unfortunate "one in ten million" with affinity to magic, although it goes deeper. He could "see dead people"(I promise I won't make further references to that movie) since he was a child, although such unwilling capability had nothing to do with magic. He eventually suppressed it, and due to certain less than pleasant ghosts, forgot about it. Then when he came there, it awakened again. And more than that, he discovered accidentally that he could cure people with the help of spirits of the dead with magic as an intermediate(in short, he is more of a channeler than anything else). His skills were basically Necromantic(here Necromancy is not about raising zombies, more on it later), and as the dead "see past, present and future as one", he is basically a sort of seer, although he rarely gets anything that isn't a complete garble. But like good people died, bad people also died, and he discovered that he could channel the hatred and torment of evil spirits to harm people as well as he could channel the compassion of the good ones to heal them. Magic simply amplifies the effect. Ivan is nothing more than an ESP, and the primary way magic works for him, and for all the "one in ten millions", is by improving, focusing and channeling ESP skills rather than by being the source of the power itself. Yup, they are nothing more than over-glorified paranormals.
Now imagine how it's difficult to be bothered by the rants of the dead and by the police going after him, with initially nobody ever giving him a hand during his toughest moments, and his wife refusing to go with him of selfishness, and you'll have an idea of why he became such a selfish and greedy mercenary "mage" and healer.
He came to the White Tower because comparing the quantity of magic in it with the quantity of magic in Pangaea is like comparing the quantity of oxygen in Mars with the quantity of oxygen in Earth. And when the only place where magic actually works at its fullest is ridden with vampires and evil spirits that can trap your soul in a porcelain cup for the eternity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodyanoy), he had to find a better place to understand everything, and maybe stop being bothered by the dead.
Although he had a friendly welcome, after Yelena arrived(again running away from an angry "Burn the Witch!" mob) with the biggest jerk in the face of Pangaea in the form of a talking crow(I thought on calling it "Jim Crow", but he never met an Afro-American to make unpleasant jokes about(Holy Political Correctness Batman!)). And Yelena got a new gadgetry-filled mechanical arm broken because of the magic disrupting the Scientific! principles that made it work, the electric prod which was the first successful invention in her life destroyed, her flintock pistol obliterated and her mood down the drain.
Then the crow began to throw quite offensive jokes on her, and she got pissed enough to try killing it. In defense, as it was an enchanted being, it shot a lightning bolt straight into her heart and she stroked. Ivan came just in time(I don't want to get into an argument on how it was already known the basics of cardiac reanimation by that time, this is not NSG) and as he was majored as a doctor through the scientific way before arriving at Pangaea, he saved her life(not exactly). She then threw accusations to him, and as he is the type with less stamina than a 2 years old, he left to his room to rest.
Then many things irrelevant to what is going to happen here happened. I'll brief it that Yelena was bullied into becoming an hero to save a Fae, right, a Fae. They had no idea that in her world these supposedly existing spirits(Low and Dark Fantasy, remember?) trap souls in porcelain cups or lure sailors to their deaths, but that's another matter, like it's another matter that in Soviet Steam all non-human sentiences are spiritual(demons as depicted by Orthodox Christianism, mythical Slavic fairies etc. Technically there are half dozen at best of extremely reclusive dragons that "one in 500 millions have ever witnessed" but here they are not sentient)... or maybe some eventual Clueless Berks who missed Sigil in their planewalking and got their Brain-boxes malfunctioning(Planescape: Torment is epic, after all the developers who did Arcanum also did it, and Fallout 1 and 2).
There are some thrash movies about ESPs where their brains explode when they overexercise. I decided it would be too silly, and as this isn't a tribute to B-movies, Thrash or Gore, went with a clean death by heart stroke. Specially because... once you got one, your chances to get another by overexercising, coupled with being utterly stressed, are quite big, aren't they. Then she died with another heart stroke, but Ivan got an idea. He channeled the destructive power of the spirit of the former Executioner who sacrificed kids for pagan gods in Yaga and all the fluff, to kill anything alive that touched her body.
Of course this executioner was a 1.21 meters (4-foot) tall midget, and neither he is strong of spirit, so in the end it was only enough to kill the sort of thing that provokes the decay of a body, bacteria, maggots etc. Then he used a clever ESP skill that involves being nowhere and depends entirely on magic, and hid with Yelena's body until finally his ride back home came.
He felt sorry for her, and as he knew she was going nowhere because of her staunch atheistic convictions, Ivan offered her a last chance to return alive, in the secret laboratory of Doctor Vyankostanov!
A man who said he could bring the dead back through Science! rather than the already proved ineffective "magic". "Magic" only works on living beings, healing "magic" at least. Trying it on dead is like applying penicillin to someone who already died of infection. Thus they were back(he, as she is technically dead), and back to business. But the secret laboratory lies on the top of one of the 800 meters tall mountain, it's winter, Ivan is a total cripple and being that close to the Badlands makes traveling to there very inconvenient. On purpose of course, because there are many who consider the good doctor a lunatic that should be put in an asylum or a "traitor of the people". But there is supposedly a relatively safe way to get there(airships are prone to self-combustion that close to the Badlands, before you ask). The bad news is that only the closest allies and friends of the doctor know it.
And of course, maybe someone of the White Tower might be coming after them(him, I mean). But this is another matter.
Sign-up Overview
If you came from the White Tower thread, ignore this unless you are intending to do something really outlandish, like sending a HUGE ZOMBIE ARMY to march and rule the world MWAMWAMWA, or looking for an excuse for a war that will just not work. In these cases the answer is simply NO. There'll be war with epic artillery barrages, cavalry charges, but this is not the time for it. But first, if you read everything, you noticed that I mention that comparing Faerun and Pangaea regarding magic is like comparing Earth and Mars regarding oxygen. Thus, please comprehend that if you come, your characters will be affected. The badlands concentrate almost the entirety of magic, while the starting point of the adventure will barely allow Ivan to heal a superficial scrape, or the pyromaniac next-door to lit a match. As the adventure furthers, magic improves, but as this is a Low Fantasy world, it'll never be the entire focus of the adventure, nor too outlandish. Expect at best 50% of what your character could do in a more conventional Fantasy scenario, and if this character is really very powerful and experience, 25%.
As I wrote before, all teleports Yelena did were either to other worlds, or completely accidental. It just won't work here. it'll require magic characters to actually use the stat that magic depends on(intelligence) rather than the "hand wave - problem instantly solved" way. I know some won't like it, but I believe it actually helps to create a better scenario. Specially if you are a fan of the Adventure genre(I'll try to give it an adventure-ish thing. I've played some Infocoms, but I'm not a native English speaker, although I don't speak Engrish either. I'll try to promote creativity over the freeform RP equivalent of rolling dices.
OMG I'm trying to be a Game Master and I never did this before!(Couldn't resist, but don't worry, when I want to make something of outstandish quality I go for it. I never played tabletop RPGs, but I will handle it)
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If you didn't come from the White Tower, this is a general thread for the extremely little used Steampunk, and by extension, for those interested in past tech. Yeah, there are one automaton for each 150 millions of inhabitants, a few dozens of airships, but this is still mostly Past Tech, with a few realistic extrapolations like a functional analytical engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_Engine). The fantasy part here is, how should I say, Secondary. The primary will be the Mad Science and the Victorian feeling, with the fantasy being more focused on haunts, ghosts, horror than on lightning bolts. I'm trying to do something here that I will strive to reach at least 10% of epicness, so get your seats fastened and pay attention:
Human Characters ONLY, unless you really want to RP a ghost or spirit with likely the same level of participation of a NPC(Except for White Tower if you have an IC justification to go after them).
Actually, maybe you could try a spirit that... sticks to Ivan and becomes fond of him. And one that is clumsy and sometimes forget about being dead. Just remember this is not a D&D standard game world. There are no elves, dwarves, hobbits, shapeshifters, fifty-foot women, smurfs(even though some say the smurfs were communists), mudkips, slowpokes, talking cars, nazis, zombies, black men(it's a continent that was colonized only by Caucasians and is very, very isolated, that's why. One day I have make a RP involving genuine, prejudice-free African mythology and Shamanism) and thus, no anthropomorphic animals besides... human beings duh.
Well, there are vampires, but they are just undead humans, and Baba Yagas are old human witches that are so ugly that they became stuff of legends.
Now if you really want to roleplay a vampire, remember the sunlight(I won't forgive that), and that I would really appreciate originality rather than going on the clichés of movies like Underworld. Suffice to say, Anne Rice is one of the best writers of the theme in my opinion, and the best Dracula was the first, black and white one. Now if you bring a comic relief (http://www.girlamatic.com/comics/biteme.php?view=archive&chapter=3120&mpe=1), you'll win a cookie
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Yeah, now the sign up(The stats should not be taken like written in stone, and you are not obliged to provide them either, just you can't have someone who is agile as a leopard, strong as a pissed off Viking warrior princess on premenstrual syndrome, tough as an ultramarathon dodeca-champion., smart as two Einsteins after mentats, with the accuracy of legendary Soviet Union snipers and enough luck to win "Who wants to be a millionaire" 10 consecutive times in the same year.
Now I'll get straight to this(I bet some though "phew")
1) NO MUNCHKINS (http://home.netcom.com/~shagbert/pages/munchkins.html)
2) Try to be original. I'll do my best to create an unique game world.
3) If you want a character of flesh and bones capable of rational thought, you'll want a Caucasian human who speaks Russian, likes Vodka and dances Polka whenever he goes west(Wait, They no longer are close to the Czechs, nevermind), this character might have fangs, be afraid of sunlight and suck blood if you prefer. Otherwise, see here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_Mythology). Spirits of dead people are allowed, although you'll need to effort to make a character that can't touch anything and interfere with anything, and that only Ivan can listen to, be interested(although maybe the spirit could talk with Yelena). If you want to RP a god, refer to rule 1
4) If you want to take Yelena's soul to Warp/Hell/Whatever, dominate the world with an army of Doom MWAMWAMWA, rules 1 and 2.
5) Not a rule, and advice. Pay attention to what is written. I'll leave clues, and if you make a post about your character taking a closer look at something, I'll reply. I'll try to recreate the mood of games like The Longest Journey as well.
6) Like the Game Master tends to... find plausible IC ways to get rid of bad RPers, I can do it as well. I promise I won't be a jerk regarding it, and will have a good tolerance threshold, but character godmode, that is the mark of the munchkin.
7) Don't make hushed posts, take your time, try to take advantage of it to flesh out your character. If there is a fault, and I admit it, is that I write too much(like you saw here) and prefer to draw inspiration, so my threads will not be fast paced with one-liners or two-line long posts. The good news is that you will be able to safely keep up with them even if job, social life, games and other threads in NS are taking most of your time. Again, I'm sorry this won't be much freeform, but it won't be the same without I giving descriptions, explaining things, assuming NPCs and alike. Maybe I can temporarily pass the GM role to someone else if something really big kills the entirety of my free time for a week.
8) This is serious, if someone could assume Ivan role in a good manner who I know to be a good RPer, I would give in a trial thread, and if I liked it, then I would be able to take exclusively the role of GM here.
SIGN UP IS ON!
Again, if you came from the White Tower thread, I likely know your character, so it won't be necessary to fill this.
MANDATORY
Name:
Gender:
Nationality*:
Age:
Physical Desc:
Psych Desc:
Skills Overview:
OPTIONAL (All start at 5, you have a total of 5 points to put up, and he max for each stat is 10, or you can sacrifice severely the skills of your character and get more 5 points, again, this won't be written in stone, just don't expect your character to be a ultramarathon champion with Endurance 3)
STrength: 5
PErception: 5
ENdurance: 5
CHarisma: 5
INtelligence: 5
AGility: 5
LucK: 5
Skills range from 0 to 100%. There are equations, but I won't waste your time with them, I'll just list which stats influence the skills. I won't ask anyone to roll dices, but if every time you use a skill you succeed, see rule 1. Also, if you didn't get it, this is based on SPECIAL
Combat:
Pistols(AG):
Rifles(AG):
Archery(AG):
Heavy Guns*(ST+AG)
Melee(ST+AG):
Throwing(ST+AG):
- You can add more if you want as long as the skill you add makes sense and fits the setting, so please, no "Assault Rifles" and alike, nor "Dwarf Power"-
*Basically the specific training needed to operate heavy machineguns and alike.
Thievery:
Sneak(AG+PE):
Pickpocket**(AG+PE):
Lockpicking(AG+PE):
- Ibid -
Scientific:
First Aid(PE+IN):
Doctor(PE+IN):
Science!(IN):
Mechanic(IN):
- Ibid -
Social:
Barter(CH+IN):
Persuasion(Ibid):
Gambling(IN+LK):
- Ibid -
Planning
Logistics(IN):
Tactics(IN):
Strategy(IN):
- Ibid -
This skills involve making sure the party won't make stupid things or run out of supplies and are as essential for leadership as is charisma. Ivan covers them all to a point, specially logistics, so they won't starve or run out of toilet paper, while Yelena knows the basics of tactics but never practiced what she learned. As they are not going to command an entire Division, Strategy won't come into play.
"Magical"
Telekinesis(PE+IN):
Necromancy(CH+IN):
Sixth Sense(IN):
Premonition(IN):
- Ibid -
Other
Horseback Riding(PE+AG)
Train Operation(PE+IN)
Writing(PE+IN)
- Ibid -
*Available nationalities are Novaya Russian, Soviet Russian, Yagan, Perunian and None. Notice though that once the journey goes to Soviet Steam, they will likely shoot on sight any Yagan or Perunian. Also, if you read a bit about them, I'll brief here to make it easier: Soviet Steam people are technophiles and Leninists, Novaya Russia is made by independent peasants and enterpreneurs who embraced capitalism and a lifestyle close to early 1900s British one, Perun is heavily religious, like a polytheistic version of Islam, and their people are self-righteous and tireless preachers. Yaga is made of hopeless, Nihilistic and cynical people with no regards for other or compassion because having your firstborn killed, among other things, don't do much for yourself. Of course, these are stereotypes, and Ivan, being a technophobe who sees dead people is the living proof that not everyone is like that. I'll give lots of freedom to build characters
**You cannot pickpocket a dragon scale from a sleeping dragon, if you get what I mean. Only a complete retard wouldn't notice someone picking his pocket in front of him, for example, among other things. And of course, it'll be an useless skill in commieland
I hope this drew your interest, or that at least it was an entertaining read. I have many hopes about how this could get.
PS: "Grey Hat" is the nickname given to necromancers(I won't make another reference to that movie, like I said before) who use the power of spirits for both constructive(healing) and destructive purposes instead of focusing in only one of them. On necromancy, it's not about raising zomg zombies because this isn't the stage of a Romero movie, and because magic cannot enchant things that are not alive. The same reason why the anti-hardcore resurrect in two easy steps will never work there.
Good news is that if your character dies the doctor might bring the same back to life after the journey is over. But I won't be pushing it. Promise.
And before someone asks "Doesn't this belong to NS rather than II?", let me say that I have plans for this to eventually lead to a major diplomatic, political and social upheaval that will certainly be enough of an international incident, if only there were 1900s Past-Tech NSes to get involved at it...