Naturally, issues arose before long. Six colonies along one edge of inhabited space abruptly vanished over the course of a few months; scout ships sent in to figure out what had happened reported only empty husks of what used to be planets, stripped entirely of usable resources and biomass. By chance, the next disappearance left traces of its true fate in the form of satellite transmissions that had managed to escape being jammed, revealing massive fleets of scarlet-shelled spacecraft that appeared without warning in the world’s upper atmosphere, bombarded its surface with pillars of flame and chemical bombs over the course of a few hours, and proceeded to harvest it of everything they could take. The colonists had been unable to fight back, having been demilitarized as per Odrassil law.
Realizing their vassals’ plight, the expeditionary fleet returned to their home for the first time since they’d been exiled to the stars, begging both sides of their ancient civil war to help them protect the four species they’d so thoughtlessly tampered with. After much deliberation, they agreed to hear out the fleet’s request and signed a ceasefire, putting an end to a conflict that predated interstellar flight. Meanwhile, new battle plans were drawn up as the Odrassil finally gave a name to their opponent: Heriad.
Over a year has passed since the plea was made. You, a member of one of the four vassal races, have just emerged from the cryo-pod you were hibernating inside. The room and corridors outside are all twisted jumbles of failing machinery and rusting metal plating. You have little memory of who you are and the life you led before your slumber, and absolutely no memory of where you are or why. The other pods in the room, filled with others of your kind, are sealed. The door outside is not.
Suggested Goals:
- Find some friends.
- Jog your memories and figure things out.
- Do something productive.
Well, that’s the premise over with. As for plot and location, that’s gonna be revealed in stages over the course of the first act, which I’ll try not to drag out for very long. To that end, there’s going to be a GM-controlled character wandering around with you during the opening stages of the game, an amnesiac Odrassil named Talandar. He has an uncanny knowledge of the halls and crevasses of your prison, and once things get figured out, he’ll probably have a somewhat big role in what comes after. You aren’t being forced to follow him, but if you’re looking for quests or information later on, he’s probably one of the first guys you’d want to talk to.
SPECIES CREATION: Now, with Bound by Faith, I had a bunch of pre-planned races and factions for players to choose from. Sunset Drift, on the other hand, will be reserving the faction and political stuff for background info; as for playable species, I figured that it might be better for the roleplaying experience if the players made up their own, so that’s what’s going to happen! To elaborate- everyone uses the species creation guidelines below to come up with his or her own playable race and send it in, and I’ll be choosing four of them to appear in the actual game, and then you get to create your own characters based on those races! Now, I’ll be including descriptions of what I’m looking for in each category of the rubrics, but you should think of them more like suggestions rather than rules. If you’ve written your species or character well enough, then regardless of the finer details, it’ll make the grade.
Species name: (Go on, give it any name you want! We’re going by Odrassil naming conventions here; no need to stick to what your race’s mouth can or can’t pronounce, if it even has a mouth!)
Physical appearance: (What your species tends to look like, natch. Try to keep things at least mostly anatomically viable, though; no metal skin or aura of flame or anything, and try to shy away from Rubber Forehead Aliens territory.)
Unique qualities: (All the cool stuff your species tends to excel in by nature of its biology. Again, try not to make things too fantastic; no magic, no regenerating heads or palm lasers or natural flight or so on. I’m thinking more along the lines of being able to see a slightly wider spectrum of light than humans, or sensory bristles allowing one to detect motion via certain types of air currents, and just stuff in general that your species might have gained through gradual evolution and kept. Feel free to include stuff that you think would help your species get through the setting, but try not to make things too contrived or game-breaking.)
Culture norms: (Prejudices and preferences, governments, language specifics, tech levels, design styles... Really, just quirks in general for your species. Keep in mind, though, that the Odrassil forced their vassal races to disarm so that they wouldn’t kill themselves, so there isn’t exactly gonna be a lot of military-oriented stuff. Repressed violent tendencies, maybe, but no militaries.)
Name: (Self-explanatory, really.)
Species: (Remember, if your species didn’t get picked, you’re stuck with one that did. Just restating the obvious, here. :P)
Appearance: (We know what your species looks like in general, but there’s bound to be a few differences between individuals. Here’s where you go into that.)
Species abilities: (Included for ease of access. You can optionally copy-paste the abilities of the species you’re using here, perhaps with some specifics on which ones you’re better or worse at.)
Personal skills: (The more individual-specific skills your character has, ranging from simple stuff like “good at swimming” or “really good reaction time” to things like piloting a certain variety of boat.)
Languages known: (Still technically a personal skill, but important enough to deserve its own section. Chances are there’s going to be some variation in species selection and background, which means differences from character to character in what you can read and write.)
Equipment: (What your character was carrying upon going into cryo. Try to make it fit with your backgrounds and not be game-breaking, okay? For example, no micro-translator thingies; it makes communication too easy, and even if that wasn’t an issue, it would still end up limited to those of you whose job it was to deal with speakers of many different languages on a daily basis. On a similar note, I might allow a grand total of one race requiring hostile environment suits, but that’s it.)
Personality: (Pretty much what you’d expect.)
Prewar history: (What your character’s life was like before the Heriad showed up. Again, feel free to include stuff that you think would help them through the RP setting, but try not to make things too contrived or game-breaking.)
And now, an example- the GM character, Talandar of the Odrassil! Do note that for story-wise reasons, he’s being exempted from some of the restrictions I’ve imposed on you guys, and some of the specifics aren’t actually all that specific; that’s all intentional. Do NOT follow the leader in those cases, ‘kay?
Species name: Odrassil
Physical appearance: Humanoid, but more sturdily built than humans, and about a third of a meter taller on average. Each hand has four fingers and a thumb, but twice as long as they would be on a human; each foot has four finger-like toes and a protruding heel (making it somewhat resemble a bird’s foot, although not as bony). Eyes tend to be entirely red except for pupils. Dark-skinned and covered with gray fur, which is shorter on the head and legs and nearly absent on the feet and around the mouth. Also, a vestigial tail. ^^ Essentially, humans with a few alterations.
Unique qualities: For nearly every organ system in a human, there’s a more complex version in an Odrassil. Extreme flexibility due to muscle and skeleton structuring, easier breathing and better circulation due to cardiopulmonary structuring, and so on- they’re just better at physical activity in general. Their senses are mostly the same as a human’s, although their brains are better at processing the information and picking out finer details. Again, they’re pretty much humans with a few alterations.
Culture norms: Odrassil mostly keep to themselves, so not too much about their society is out in the open. From the looks of things, though, they like shiny stuff, especially shiny stuff colored gold or bronze, as well as smooth, overlapping designs and bird motifs. Probably used to be mostly carnivorous, but these days meat dishes are usually treated as delicacies. Organizations tend to be rigidly structured, but flexible in function; in other words, do what you have to, as long as you obey the chain of command. In fact, rumor has it that the eons-old civil war was actually the result of one nation badly phrasing a request, the other being rude about it, and things escalating when both sides decided to teach the other a lesson in obedience via long-range missiles. Despite being the most advanced race in the sector, only their FTL tech explicitly defies the laws of physics, and even now nobody quite understands how.
Name: Talandar
Species: Odrassil
Appearance: Dark-skinned and humanoid, but with extra-long fingers and groomed lead-colored fur covering most of his body. Slightly less than two meters tall, with broad shoulders and a more solid build than a human’s, although not as overtly muscular-looking as that would imply. Eyes are red except for pupils. Dressed from head to toe in a somewhat form-fitting suit of bronze-colored metal plates with loads of pockets and a smooth, layered design; retractable helmet is more bucket-shaped and decorated to resemble a stylized bird’s face.
Species abilities: Mostly the same as a human, but with slightly better physical prowess and more capable of picking out details from sensory input. Somehow, those huge hands don’t get in the way. :P
Personal skills: Possesses an intuitive grasp of how the tech in wherever the hell everyone woke up works, and can navigate the hallways and corridors with ease despite not consciously knowing where he’s going. There’s probably some other stuff, but he’s forgotten it.
Languages known: If you can speak it, so does he, although he might not remember how at first.
Equipment: Hostile environment suit with several hours’ worth of air, capable of taking surprising amounts of punishment for how thin and flexible it looks; PDA-like pocket device with more functions as the plot demands; concealable solid-projectile handgun; all-purpose engineering toolkit.
Personality: Short-tempered, terse, and prone to fluctuations in speech pattern and volume; often follows up his outbursts with mumbled apologies. Moves like he’s constantly in a daze, and occasionally looks like he’s about to fall asleep standing up. Extremely stressed about his lack of memories and needing to be on time for, uh, something he doesn’t remember. Woke up on the wrong side of the bed, apparently.
Prewar history: To be revealed. This guy’s pretty out of it. From the looks of things, though, he spent some time as a mechanic or something.
Shane just because I'm Asian doesn't mean I get to be Godzilla 