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The Ambassador Craft Quintessence Moved throw interstellar space. Adreft for millennia monitoring sube sector of the Galexit less interesting arm for signs of life. It had swung this way a while ago and found a small blue-green world orbiting a nice little yellow sun. The 3ed planet had come nice large lifeforms, The only intelligent beings were in the oceans. So the craft had dropped down to have a chat. Sea-living beings, some large and some small had turned out to be die-hard eco-types who hated tech and were quite happy with their Eco-friendly culture. As for the greater Glaxity, thank you but no thank you. It was not for them. But please do come by again, just not soon.
So the craft had bid them good bay and would come back after a few ice ages. It had filed a report and headed off to the other end of the galactic arm. So it was with some shock that I headed back to have another look. Some 50 light-years out the sentient ship's electromagnetic sensors started to pick up singles. Coded signals no less, tech signals. Had the whales and dolphins changed their mind? But as it started to decode the signal to its shok the images and later sound. Showed not seas and fish but land animals and their culture. O it know the animals, having dose a catalog of life. But last time it had looked they had been swinging from trees and grooming each other's butts. Here they now were, jumping into space in tin cans. Shock was not the word for it, this was evolution on overdrive, other intelligent races took millions of rotations of their worlds to get from banging rocks to well... rockets. As it decoded the signals it learned culture languages and history. And an explanation came to light, this race where death worlder. Not like other death worlds because of the environment, no the world was most agreeable to life. No it was because the now dominant sentient race on the planet where shockingly Violent. There shea inventive ways they had come up with killing things including each other were amazing. From throwing each other off high places to nuclear reactions. The willingness to gleefully throw themselves their family and tribes at each other in Vhilance was amazing. Fascinating in fact. A real-life death world on its patch. Wow, o yes there where worlds like this in the Galaexy a lot of them but to find a pristine one. Well, it would be writing research papers for whole galactic rotations. There and then it had made it mind up to head to this world and 'Blend in' to study it from the inside. Hard to do with your a 10,000+ ton sentient spacecraft, But it had a plan. It would make a Holoform of itself. Take a stereotypical human from the signals and copy that. Blending in was the game. It flashed off a quick report and got to work.
A few days later a nice looking if not classily dressed woman walked into a realters in New Jersey and paid for a small modest house in gold. One lump of pour 100% gold.
And so it was that Mrs. Tess Ence Moved into the earth and started her research. Whole a new
the body slipped rings of Jupiter.
Just to clarify, this campaign will mostly not have anything to do with Earth. Earthborn heroes and Earth influenced heroes are fine, but we will be roaming around in space. On strange planets and such.
I took her/it to a starting point, I hope, I think once it/she shows up Earth gets into the, "we are part of a bigger Galaxy!" kind of thing, and the event acts as one of many catalysts for humans to head out and "SAVE THE GALAXY" with Captain Proton thing.
I recognize few or perhaps even none of you need the following, but just in case it is helpful:
In case it's not clear, in M&M 3e, "Devices" means Powers that have the Removable or Easily Removable Flaw. Depending on what you are using to build your character (e.g., Hero Lab vs Ski's CharGen vs book etc.) this may not be obvious. Difference between what should be Equipment and what should be a Power should have to do with how integral it is to your character. Frex, Green Arrow's bow is a "Device," i.e., Power because everything Green Arrow does has to do with his archery. But a guy who's main schtick is something else and he just keeps a bow on hand for ranged attacks in case he needs it, probably just bought that as Equipment.
Or possibly didn't even buy it at all; if you buy a Ranged Damage power you're perfectly allowed to just flavor it as an object your character miraculously never gets disarmed of. System is nicely flexible like that.
Or possibly didn't even buy it at all; if you buy a Ranged Damage power you're perfectly allowed to just flavor it as an object your character miraculously never gets disarmed of. System is nicely flexible like that.I recognize few or perhaps even none of you need the following, but just in case it is helpful:
In case it's not clear, in M&M 3e, "Devices" means Powers that have the Removable or Easily Removable Flaw. Depending on what you are using to build your character (e.g., Hero Lab vs Ski's CharGen vs book etc.) this may not be obvious. Difference between what should be Equipment and what should be a Power should have to do with how integral it is to your character. Frex, Green Arrow's bow is a "Device," i.e., Power because everything Green Arrow does has to do with his archery. But a guy who's main schtick is something else and he just keeps a bow on hand for ranged attacks in case he needs it, probably just bought that as Equipment.
Yes, you can fluff your Power Set any way you like.
The word "Device" is a holdover from M&M 2nd Ed, where it specifically meant "Power with the Removable Flaw" hence that definition. And the math for how Equipment works is they is all basically temporary Powers with the Easily Removable flaw. The only reason I brought this up at all is SuperTumbler was trying to make a distinction between the two.
I ergo wouldn't call a Power that looks like an object but isn't removable a Device. For example, Good Knight Gracie's sword that only she can wield and can never lose isn't a Device, it's a power effect with the magic descriptor that happens narratively to look like a glowing sword.
And that all goes back to the first thing I posted which is think of the end result you want and then design the power.
Anyway I'm not sure I'll app into this (time constraints) but happy to banter about system builds or help folks build if wanted.
Its all great, I think what I am going to do is make and AI core PC, with Alt form of a Hologram, So the AI jumps between the two when needed. The Ship is limited, as it is space-bound and is really just a base of operation, [PCs can have rooms in it] And it and team can jumping from world or do space-based stuff. So a kind of home/travel platform while out there in the stars. When on a world or some other place, Qin is in Hologram form. Both use formes use force fields to affect things.
That way I think it would work fine :) and fit power level.
I took her/it to a starting point, I hope, I think once it/she shows up Earth gets into the, "we are part of a bigger Galaxy!" kind of thing, and the event acts as one of many catalysts for humans to head out and "SAVE THE GALAXY" with Captain Proton thing.
Cool. I just like to overcommunicate at this stage so no one ends up disappointed.
Ok the core is there, I do not see her being in Space ship form for game play other than taking the crew from A to B
The 10,000-tone towing cross-like shape of the ambassador Class star Curser Hung in space around a small Red dwarf star.
It had been waiting for a while for orders from the Galatic counsel of races. The last batch had just said, It was to pick up a new crew and new orders with them. But the who and where, well that had not come yet.
While it waited it had been bathing in the light of this small red sun. While playing 5D chess with its own Avatar. As a sentient spacecraft the size of a cruseliner. , Time was not much of a problem as it could slow down its own frame of reference. But Where was the fun in that? She looked a the system of three planets, moving around the sun. While it waited it checked its internal spaces. Bedrooms ready as its housekeeping drones had done that rotations ago. The food hall was now fully stocked, the Pool water was cleaned, the gym was ready, and even the entertainment holosuit was cleaned. in all but name the space craft was twiddling its thumbs.
That is a crazy build. Well done.
Does she go by Quin? or Tess?
As the Ship Quintessence or Tess is fine,
As Holoform Mrs. Ence or just Tess is fine GM.
As I said :), the ship is a little messed up after being exposed to an early Earth TV signal. So it's having a bit of an identity crisis. It wants to jump around the cosmos doing GCoR Biz, but it also likes to bake. It has a very well-stocked Kitchen with all the white goods you could ever need.
But no talking toster, that gag has been done to death. :)
Tess, I think Roy may be in love :)
GM SuperTumbler, with 'Tess' as part of the crew, do we contribute the 5 points to improve her? Or can we use the five points for for 'team related' things, like communication gear. Or something else? I just realized Roy's 'senses' are still strictly human.
Also, I know some things are limited by the PL, is the 'offense' one of those things? Presently I have his weapons array at + 10 (+ 5 dex, + 5 combat skill) can he spend more points on combat skill making it: + 15 (+5 dex, + 10 combat skill)?
You know if
"The question becomes how did he get from that time and place to your time and place? I like the idea of him being from a really ancient war and he has just been floating here. Everything he was fighting for is gone, both sides now gone."
She may have just found him sitting on one of the planets she has been looking at and Teleported him into her. That would be so funny.
He would materialize in a 1950s Kitchen, with Tess pulling a Samon flan out of the oven, asking him if we wanted to sit at the table or watch TV with his dinner.
Wondervistion kind of thing.
She may have just found him sitting on one of the planets....
That would be awesome!
I borrowed the idea from the war in firefly, (through a series of strange events their connected) but he's a replicant from bladerunner with a suit that makes him basically immortal. But the suit doesn't cover his head. If his head is wounded in a fashion that the nanites can't push out the projectile (like it's sticking out of both sides of his head, so they keep pushing against each other) he can't regain consciousness.
So if Tess would be so kind as to pull the round from the rail gun out of his head, he would be her friend forever :)
So I wanted to lean on some space magic and landed on a necromatic herald for a deified heavenly body called Xibalba, a super massive black hole that will eventually consume the galaxy…in like thirty-ish million years. This is a play on Silver Surfer with Mayanfuturistic Aesthetics and a of Loki trickster demigod vibe. Needless to say they are bored out of their mind and usually falls into practicing cosmic mischief to shirk their fated duty. The alien turned avatar often prefers bringing back dead curmudgeonly alien folk, coveting gold, and toying with gravity rather than traversing world to world, feeding its god to hasten a galactic apocalypse. Is this a viable idea for this type of game?
That is just the kind of thing Tess would do, we can link backstories.
She should find him, fix him, and place him in a 1950s home,[Ships rooms] where he wakes up at the dinner table and Tess is sitting opposite reading a magazine about Tupperware. How does that sound? He can spend time exploring her and pick out his own rooms. If picked would be nice in the game to have both show up, He can explain just what Tess is. I can add a small shuttle craft so if he takes piloting/Astrogation we have a planet shuttle. [Brakable tech for GM to strand party, always a good plat eleiment]
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Tess, I think Roy may be in love :)
GM SuperTumbler, with 'Tess' as part of the crew, do we contribute the 5 points to improve her? Or can we use the five points for for 'team related' things, like communication gear. Or something else? I just realized Roy's 'senses' are still strictly human.
Also, I know some things are limited by the PL, is the 'offense' one of those things? Presently I have his weapons array at + 10 (+ 5 dex, + 5 combat skill) can he spend more points on combat skill making it: + 15 (+5 dex, + 10 combat skill)?
I'm going to have to ponder how the ship works. What if someone is on the ship but Tess isn't? Since it is an alternate form, it would (narratively) cease to exist. That probably isn't exactly what we want.
What are you seeing that makes communication expensive (I'm not discounting the possibility I'm missing something)? For 5 points you can communicate at pretty much any range. A comm-link is a 1 point feature.
For offensive things, your attack and damage are limited to twice your power level. So at power level 10, the combination of those things can't exceed 20. You can build things with any combination that adds up to 20.
I usually let equipment break those limits. If you suddenly gain access to the Death Star Laser, you can use that weapon at full power.
So I wanted to lean on some space magic and landed on a necromatic herald for a deified heavenly body called Xibalba, a super massive black hole that will eventually consume the galaxy…in like thirty-ish million years. This is a play on Silver Surfer with Mayanfuturistic Aesthetics and a of Loki trickster demigod vibe. Needless to say they are bored out of their mind and usually falls into practicing cosmic mischief to shirk their fated duty. The alien turned avatar often prefers bringing back dead curmudgeonly alien folk, coveting gold, and toying with gravity rather than traversing world to world, feeding its god to hasten a galactic apocalypse. Is this a viable idea for this type of game?
That is a cool idea. There is a villain in the setting named Collapsar who is a black hole and sort of a Galactus expy. That will probably come up in the campaign, so we might want to weave some of those stories together eventually.
I'm going to have to ponder how the ship works. What if someone is on the ship but Tess isn't? Since it is an alternate form, it would (narratively) cease to exist. That probably isn't exactly what we want.
Tess decants herself into the Holoform when not on the ship and her sidekick looks after the shipbody GM, When Tess is in shipfrom she IS the ship and her Sidekick acts as an interface.
:)
Ok so I have a fix, went with using the Sidekick root, so that both the ship AND sidekick can exist at the same time. QUIN-TESS-ENCE is always the ship, but when a 100,000-ton spacecraft can't come to the party in person, it uses Mrs. Ence her sidekick who will go with the party. :)
But as a player will limit control to either the ship or Sidekick, with the other being GM controlled, So as to limit power to the level of the parties.
:)
Just to confirm then, there isn't going to be a 'team' anything, there's a ship that's a PC and other people get to ride in it if they need to?
Gotta be honest, I would rather go the JLA route in that case; all the humanoid/bio characters can have apartments on the 'JLA' satellite, except the ship, who can have a docking bay. Each character could then still make a signature contribution to the satellite configuration so that it actually felt like their base of operations.
I probably wouldn't object to the Green Lantern: The Animated Series option either, where the ship's nav AI basically emancipated itself by creating a body. The ship is still a ship, the steering wheel still turns it, but Aya the AI is directly patched in to the ship because it houses her sentience for the most part.
Submissions so far:
Doctor Night
Praetorian
Slid/Sled
Rockhead
Quinn-Tess-Ence
Just to confirm then, there isn't going to be a 'team' anything, there's a ship that's a PC and other people get to ride in it if they need to?
Gotta be honest, I would rather go the JLA route in that case; all the humanoid/bio characters can have apartments on the 'JLA' satellite, except the ship, who can have a docking bay. Each character could then still make a signature contribution to the satellite configuration so that it actually felt like their base of operations.
I probably wouldn't object to the Green Lantern: The Animated Series option either, where the ship's nav AI basically emancipated itself by creating a body. The ship is still a ship, the steering wheel still turns it, but Aya the AI is directly patched in to the ship because it houses her sentience for the most part.
I'm not committing to anything yet. Depends on what the final team looks like. I wasn't thinking of a team that was as put together as having a big ship and a space station base. That feels more Guardians of the Galaxy 3/Return of the Jedi. Was hoping to start more at ragtag band of heroes and scoundrels and build.
In other words DOOM PATROL!!
Love DP
Rigel, This was an interest thread so GM put it, its just some of us wanted to test builds and things got out of hand ;}
Thanks for the pick GM,
I can flip the side kick to the ship side and have my main PC the holo form, if your worried about the ship,
Was hoping to start more at ragtag band of heroes and scoundrels and build.
We could always downsize and ask that the QUIN-TESS-ENCE version we find be a five-person shuttle that got separated from herself. Still a sentient vessel with a great holo form. Making one of the plot hooks finding the 'unconscious' rest of her that she was separated from. Very similar to how they found the Andromeda in the first show.
That way we start out small, and on the way to find the 'mother ship' we save the galaxy a couple of times. Once we find the ship, we have a bigger base of operations. Maybe we use a space station as a base before that, maybe not?
As a nod to that Idea we could use the '5 points' each to build said shuttle so it doesn't cost Tess more just to let us use her as a plot hook.
All good ideas Roy, and there are a number of ways I/we can go with this.
The AI root is still there, WIth QUIN-TESS-ENCE using whatever tech body is to hand. But I think once the GM outlines our starting points, the builds will alter to match. So I'm holding off doing any more changes until then :)
I'm not committing to anything yet. Depends on what the final team looks like. I wasn't thinking of a team that was as put together as having a big ship and a space station base. That feels more Guardians of the Galaxy 3/Return of the Jedi. Was hoping to start more at ragtag band of heroes and scoundrels and build.Just to confirm then, there isn't going to be a 'team' anything, there's a ship that's a PC and other people get to ride in it if they need to?
Gotta be honest, I would rather go the JLA route in that case; all the humanoid/bio characters can have apartments on the 'JLA' satellite, except the ship, who can have a docking bay. Each character could then still make a signature contribution to the satellite configuration so that it actually felt like their base of operations.
I probably wouldn't object to the Green Lantern: The Animated Series option either, where the ship's nav AI basically emancipated itself by creating a body. The ship is still a ship, the steering wheel still turns it, but Aya the AI is directly patched in to the ship because it houses her sentience for the most part.
I should own the fact that if I even see the word "ragtag" I start hearing the music from Battlestar Galactica in my head (the RIchard Hatch version, not the dark conspiracy version)
In other words DOOM PATROL!!
Love DPRigel, This was an interest thread so GM put it, its just some of us wanted to test builds and things got out of hand ;}
Thanks for the pick GM,
I can flip the side kick to the ship side and have my main PC the holo form, if your worried about the ship,
Oh my bad then ... I thought when the new thread started it was a real recuitment thread and people weren't spitballing anymore, they were actually submiitting builds. Sorry about that.
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This is the recruitment. Ends Sunday.
This is the recruitment. Ends Sunday.
Understood - I need to see if I can find a good template for Dawnstar from the Legion. I have always thought she was highly underrated.
This is the recruitment. Ends Sunday.
I glow corrected :)
@GM SuperTumbler, A thought hit me just, like a slice of lemon wrapped around a gold brick in fact. I could be missing a massive plot device.
What if QUIN-TESS-ENCE [Ship] Hand something along like an 'Experminaltal Probability Drive" much along the lines of The Infinite Probability drive form 'Hitchhiker's guide to the Galexity'
In this way, basic flying around a system can be just flight power, but where the ship ends outside of that can be purely plot-driven. With the Dark Genilty driving car moto or TARDIS wife mantra of...
"This craft may not take you where you want to go BUT it always takes you where you need to be!"
@CucumberTree: So in answer to your question. What of a human male suddenly appeared in the QUIN-TESS-ENCE [Ship] deck, why there would have a computer voice coming from the comms tech saying something like this.
"Two new crew members have joined the ship at a probability factor of 272,102 to 1, and falling. Nomailty will be reached in 3, 2, 1 Nomaility accomplished, probability factor is now 1 to 1."
Just then QUIN-TESS-ENCE [Side kick - Holoform 1950s housewife looking] Would enter the space and ask.
"Well hello there new crew members, would you like a cup of hot tea some water or a biscuit?"
She walks over and picks up a plant pot that seems to have come from somewhere improbably moves it to a sunnier part of the room and then water it.
UPDATE: For QUIN-TESS-ENCE to deal with infinite probability it's gone a bit quirky, The SHIP/AI has to deal with probability events that or, well not logical. To deal with this it has been made with a very human-like personality. One that can hold to totally conflicting ideas at once. While still being 'logical' it kind of gets feelings to help it deal with the weirdness.
The AI decants itself into any tech body it is able to, StarShip/Car/plane and so on, The holoform is its true form. When it does it pushes a sidekick AI mind into the tech body it just left.] In this way, if the GM wants the ship to be out of reach at the start, the party is with the holoform 1950s housewife. Making for the rag-tag group. The ship and other Tech bodies are always devices that can be removed/damaged in the game.
Gameplay holo form like this,
"I have another body you know, it's a bit bigger than this holo form, the thing is I just can't seem to remember where I left it, it's very perplexing... More cheesecake anyone?"
Descriptors for powers are 'TECH' and 'COSMIC'
Her Holo form is a cosmic energy field, code in an energy body.
Main power is force fields or what ever a tech body she is in has.
Dotting for interest - like DQ I wasn't going to throw my hat in this planetary ring but its a ST game and been struck with some inspiration.
Pulling together an (un)dead astronaut for consideration... perhaps could be linked to Sancuris' necromatic herald? Or maybe a by product of encountering them or their "god"??
It's funny, I remembered the recruitment ends tomorrow so I was going to jump over here and wish everyone good luck, but I didn't remember how many recruits we had and how many spots. Oh well :)
Anyway, Good luck everyone and thanks for running the game GM ST!
5-6 spots. I think I only see 5 actual submissions so far. I'll announce on Monday and then we will get to work hammering the group together and cleaning up/synergizing builds.
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Dotting for interest - like DQ I wasn't going to throw my hat in this planetary ring but its a ST game and been struck with some inspiration.
Pulling together an (un)dead astronaut for consideration... perhaps could be linked to Sancuris' necromatic herald? Or maybe a by product of encountering them or their "god"??
A dead cosmonaut sounds sooo much fun, :)
A dead cosmonaut sounds sooo much fun, :)Dotting for interest - like DQ I wasn't going to throw my hat in this planetary ring but its a ST game and been struck with some inspiration.
Pulling together an (un)dead astronaut for consideration... perhaps could be linked to Sancuris' necromatic herald? Or maybe a by product of encountering them or their "god"??
Haha. Great minds and all that. Exactly the route I'm going - trying to get the build put together whilst climbing in and out of various rabbit holes relating to old Eastern Bloc space programmes and the "Lost Cosmonauts"...
WIP for Black Dow's pitch - trying to get my head around if he'll be a straight up Spectral Spaceman or essentially a ghost entity now "piloting" his bones and spacesuit (that he is bound to)...
At the moment I'm just trying to build who he was (what he still knows), before moving to the deader he now is.
So found this really nice starship in a computer game.
It's a lot smaller than I had planned but it's 100% the idea I had for the craft. Now think about that with some mad improbability drive jumping it around the cosmos. Its not a war ship is a Luxury craft.
But does it include Marvin?
A dead cosmonaut sounds sooo much fun, :)Dotting for interest - like DQ I wasn't going to throw my hat in this planetary ring but its a ST game and been struck with some inspiration.
Pulling together an (un)dead astronaut for consideration... perhaps could be linked to Sancuris' necromatic herald? Or maybe a by product of encountering them or their "god"??
Haha. Great minds and all that. Exactly the route I'm going - trying to get the build put together whilst climbing in and out of various rabbit holes relating to old Eastern Bloc space programmes and the "Lost Cosmonauts"...
Managed to get the gift of Covid for the 2nd time this weekend - feeling rough, so might curtail any opportunity to build on my Space Deader.
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But does it include Marvin?
Did I add, that this thing is a Super Yacht as well, it floats on water,
So no Marvin, this ship is a PARTY BOAT!! Yoooww
Surprised that this ended up being so easy considering how many people were in the interest thread and dotted in here. Maybe the builds were just too hard to put together.
Welcome
Dr. Night
Praetorian Roy Cobb
Sled
Rockhead
Quin-Tess-ence
Dead Cosmonaut, Avatar, Blue Lantern, or anyone else out there, I'm probably up for one more.
Opening Discussion and Gameplay now. Head over to Discussion to work out the group dynamics and finish up builds.