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Okay, less than a month is a very short time. Everyone is in a new, unsettled situation. Families, social relationships and networks are disrupted and destroyed.
If the choice is mine, I'll go with Hannah now being in the military. It's not a thing she ever possibly imagined, but she'd do it if for no other reason than to get access to facilities like labs and workshops that wouldn't be present on whatever vessel she initially arrived on.
So, NPCs:
The status of her relatives is technically, optimistically, unknown. But after about a month if that were going to change it probably already would have.
The first things Hannah would do is try to find and reach out to her "tribe"; scientists, technologists, experts of other types. Dr. Alice Wing and Sykes if they're still alive certainly since they're biologists so Hannah shares a background with them. On the ship they would be people like the Chief of Engineering and medical officers.
Hannah would do this for three reasons:
1. Pragmatism: the sciences are always a team effort so a new team must be formed from whoever is left.
2. Altruism: She wants to be helpful. She would volunteer to learn to help with ships repairs, etc. if needed and she's available.
3. Comfort: Those are the kinds of people who speak Hannah's language, have similar interests, and share social mores with her. She may now be in the military, but that doesn't mean she has absorbed a military mindset. She's still an outsider who finds the people around her now to be fairly rough, harsh, and holding values that are strange to her. She doesn't know the lingo, and shares little common ground with them.
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@Sasha: That works for me and would definitely make sense given the change to Virgo.
So I think between Hannah, Sasha, and the NPC Nathan, that answers three out of the four Relationship questions.
@DMDM: Regarding taking engineer and pilot, I was thinking one of Thea's things was to constantly be trying to improve her fighter 'to squeeze the most out of it plus a bit more.' But seeing how XP works, I'll take Single-Minded for now instead and maybe shoot for Tinkerer at some point down the line. And it seems like there's a it of synergy between single minded and solo mission as well.
So, now I could see Thea as Engineering's or Hannah's go to guinea pig. Anytime there's a need for a test pilot to try out a new drive that could go BOOM!, new unstable weapon system that doesn't always fire, a new sensor suite that detects F-298 from a longer distance, but leaves you blind up close, Thea is willing to give it a try because: "The survival of the human race is at stake here! Whatever I've got to do, I'll do it no matter the risk. What's one life compared to the entire Fleet?"
The rest of her immediate squad know her value and she's earned their respect more times than any of them can count since the disaster of the Corak attack. Thea's always the last one home from a mission, making sure everyone on her team lands before she does. And she may not be the best pilot in the fleet, but she fights hard and is willing to put it all on the line so she's saved a life or two more than a few times. But her recklessness can also put them in tough spots and her mission at all costs can rub some the wrong way, especially Nathan who's now Squad Leader since Thea went and got herself frakked by nearly taking out the hanger with Hannah. Of the squad, Cockroach currently sides with Nathan, while Raven is solidly with Thea. Finally Buzzsaw walks the middle just hoping to live through this all.
Maybe her squad and Gunny's have a friendly 'kill' competition going. It started to just boost morale a bit within the ships crew, but has turned into some serious competition between the squads? The contest hit the civilian fleet and now the Underground offers odds on each pilots/squads chance to take the lead or even survive each mission. There are even interfleet podcasts/journalists covering the blasted things which is driving command crazy because it is a distraction and doesn't always put the military in the best light.
I'll try to get all of this into a set of final semi-coherent background narrative bullets tomorrow along with an actual alias.
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A little over a year ago Earth’s leaders had a strong suspicion that the Corax intended to invade. They didn’t have any solid evidence of this, but deep down they suspected the possibility. After observing the aliens, they found the Corax had the unique capability of opening a rift large enough to pose a significant threat of invasion. After watching the process a few times, they determined that the aliens were in possession of a new technology that existed specifically on one of their lead ships, called a Harbinger. Although our scientists didn’t fully understand the technology, they suspected that it was some sort of high-powered variable tech that was similar to our jump capability. Because of this, they began research into a new ultra-powerful EMP that they believed would render the harbinger useless. The only catch to the successful use of the device was that it had to be within two hundred meters of the target.
Without delay, command chose their most formidable squadron, led by (CAG) Deigon Black, and outfitted their ships with the prototype EMP. The squad new going into it that the EMP would render their ships inoperable once it was detonated and that the mission would likely be a one-way trip. Even with that, Black’s squad accepted the assignment thinking it was humanity's best chance at preventing an invasion.
The task was a difficult one, considering the Harbinger had many defenses. During the approach, the Harbinger’s ships eliminated over half of Black’s squad. There were recordings of the event that was so graphic in nature that they couldn’t be release to the public. After the first engagement, Black commanded his unit to split into two columns, knowing that one of them wouldn’t make it, but would serve as a decoy to allow the second column to get within range. Command analyzed his situation and determined that his chance of success was nonexistent. After receiving this information, Lieutenant Charles Edington, who was Black’s primary point of contact, ordered him to detonate the device where he was. Although Black new he was well out of range, he chose to follow Edington’s orders and detonated the EMP. That left him and his squad with unresponsive ships. To his dismay, the EMP was ineffective on both the Harbinger, which was out of range, and the Corax’s fighters. Command was wrong about the alien’s tech, and to that end, humanity payed the price. The EMP left Black helplessly floating in space while he watched his squad get torn apart by the Corax. Ultimately, he survived unscathed. To this day, no one knows why he was spared. From his unpowered cockpit, he watched as the Corax opened a massive rift and began the assault on humanity.
As a result of detonating the device prematurely, which Lieutenant Edington denied knowing anything about, Deigon Black was decommissioned and forced into retirement. Lt. Edington, on the other hand, weathered the assault on humanity and ended up being promoted to Lieutenant Commander due to the military’s limited number of surviving officers.
NPC
Lieutenant Commander “Charles Edington” (XO) is a level-headed opportunist who has climbed the ranks of success due to his family’s history in the armed forces. His father and grandfather where both noteworthy men of honor. Because of that, Charles has had it easy. Although he has not contributed anything noteworthy in the current struggle, he is one of only a few surviving officers who still holds a legitimate command rank. He seems eager to prove himself from the command deck, but dislikes anything that would put him in the direct line of fire. His days are spent supervising the daily running of the ship’s rosters, managing the day-to-day operations, and reporting anything noteworthy to ship’s current Commanding Officer. His nights are generally spent alone in his quarters, where he listens to music on an old, salvaged CD player in order to unwind with a half glass of scotch.
@Sasha: I think Hannah will find her way to you in your less official capacities soon enough. But first she'll have to become frustrated with trying to get things through normal channels and realize there is a black market at all. "Oh my god! Really? How does that kind of thing work here?"
@Hannah, that works for me - but Sasha would be miffed to hear what she does described as black market. There is a black market, they're called Nexus and they deal in stuff like narcotics that's illegal. What Sasha does is more influence peddling - like, you can file that requisision form 19738/A/TTTP876/#98A and maybe in 3 weeks it'll be returned to you because you filled in part 3(a)(iii) when you should have left it blank and signed part 4(b)(ii). Or you can hand it to Sasha, who knows the right people - or at least, she knows what they like - and you'll get it a day or so later. Of course, you now owe her a favour.
It's not striclty illegal, but it is *defeinitly* in the grey zone. (Which is probably why Comander Hooke hasn't been able to get those gorgeous hands of his on evidence for a conviction.)
Ok, after reading back I see that rdknight has already called out the XO by name. I will be changing the name in the narrative to reflect Mateo Benjamin as the Lieutenant Commander.
A little over a year ago Earth’s leaders had a strong suspicion that the Corax intended to invade. They didn’t have any solid evidence of this, but deep down they suspected the possibility. After observing the aliens, they found the Corax had the unique capability of opening a rift large enough to pose a significant threat of invasion. After watching the process a few times, they determined that the aliens were in possession of a new technology that existed specifically on one of their lead ships, called a Harbinger. Although our scientists didn’t fully understand the technology, they suspected that it was some sort of high-powered variable tech that was similar to our jump capability. Because of this, they began research into a new ultra-powerful EMP that they believed would render the harbinger useless. The only catch to the successful use of the device was that it had to be within two hundred meters of the target.
Without delay, command chose their most formidable squadron, led by (CAG) Diegon Black, and outfitted their ships with the prototype EMP. The squad new going into it that the EMP would render their ships inoperable once it was detonated and that the mission would likely be a one-way trip. Even with that, Black’s squad accepted the assignment thinking it was humanity's best chance at preventing an invasion.
The task was a difficult one, considering the Harbinger had many defenses. During the approach, the Harbinger’s ships eliminated over half of Black’s squad. There where recordings of the event that was so graphic in nature that they couldn’t be release to the public. After the first engagement, Black commanded his unit to split into two columns, knowing that one of them wouldn’t make it, but would serve as a decoy to allow the second column to get within range. Command analyzed his situation and determined that his chance of success was nonexistent. After receiving this information, Lieutenant Mateo Benjamin, who was Black’s primary point of contact, ordered him to detonate the device where he was. Although Black new he was well out of range, he chose to follow Benjamin's orders and detonated the EMP. That left him and his squad with unresponsive ships. To his dismay, the EMP was ineffective on both the Harbinger, which was out of range, and the Corax’s fighters. Command was wrong about the alien’s tech, and to that end, humanity payed the price. The EMP left Black helplessly floating in space while he watched his squad get torn apart by the Corax. Ultimately, he survived unscathed. To this day, no one knows why he was spared. From his unpowered cockpit, he watched as the Corax opened a massive rift and began the assault on humanity.
As a result of detonating the device prematurely, which Lieutenant Benjamin denied knowing anything about, Deigon Black was decommissioned and forced into retirement. Lt. Benjamin, on the other hand, weathered the assault on humanity and ended up being promoted to Lieutenant Commander (XO) due to the military’s limited number of surviving officers.
NPC
Lieutenant Commander “Mateo Benjamin” (XO) is a level-headed opportunist who has climbed the ranks of success due to his family’s history in the armed forces. His father and grandfather where both noteworthy men of honor. Because of that, Mateo has had it easy. Although he has not contributed anything noteworthy in the current struggle, he is one of only a few surviving officers who still holds a legitimate command rank. He seems eager to prove himself from the command deck, but dislikes anything that would put him in the direct line of fire. His days are spent supervising the daily running of the ship’s rosters, managing the day-to-day operations, and reporting anything noteworthy to ship’s current Commanding Officer (CO). His nights are generally spent alone in his quarters, where he listens to music on an old, salvaged CD player in order to unwind with a half glass of scotch, or in the company of a young woman named Hannah.
So sorry to do this to you Rdknight, but your XO boyfriend just became a turd .....LoL
@Oscar - Maybe Sasha is feeding you information ont he quiet? The question would then be, what's in it for her?
I was thinking something remarkably similar, actually. Oscar knows that Sasha is a great source of information, and he's perfectly happy using her as an anonymous source, but Oscar is frustrated by the fact that he usually has to "pay" for the information, instead of Sasha offering the information because she believes in the principles of government transparency.
So, she probably knows more than she ever tells Oscar, but occasionally he'll be able to broker a deal with her such as an exchange of information, or Oscar keeping some other piece of news out of the press, because that's a favor that Sasha can offer to someone else. And just occasionally, Sasha telling Oscar some piece of information that results in an informative article works out well for both of them.
All, I made this spreadsheet to help me visualize each other's relationships and a few other things. It's probably not complete as there's been a lot of changes and such to people's backgrounds (and it's kind of hard for me to keep up). Feel free to update it if you want, or feel free to ignore it. It's just a tool for me to see if anyone is getting left out of the web of relationships that's being made.
Speaking of which, here are Oscar's relationship questions:
1) Who is feeding me information on the quiet? What secret or rumour are
they about to tell me?
-- I think Sasha fits the bill, here. See my above reply to her.
2) Who sees me as a thorn in their side? How have I recently got in their way?
-- Deigon, seeing as how you see yourself as a contender for command, I can see you feeling like Oscar isn't someone who's helping the fleet, but actively hindering it. Oscar's frequent reporting of things that command would rather keep secret is a regular hurdle to keeping up the support of the civilians in the fleet.
I'd like to work in something with Devin, but I don't know anything about his background.
Working on an NPC relationship I have in mind, but it's late.
So sorry to do this to you Rdknight, but your XO boyfriend just became a turd .....LoL
Actually it's kind of a nice twist on things. But there are a couple of problems that would need overcoming before the XO would be Hannah's boyfriend. First she would have to realize he's interested. Hannah is bad at picking up on things like that. Second she would have to like him back. That's up in the air and depends a lot on him.
2) Who sees me as a thorn in their side? How have I recently got in their way?
-- Deigon, seeing as how you see yourself as a contender for command, I can see you feeling like Oscar isn't someone who's helping the fleet, but actively hindering it. Oscar's frequent reporting of things that command would rather keep secret is a regular hurdle to keeping up the support of the civilians in the fleet.
As it stands, Deigon is decommissioned and forcibly retired do to the incident revolving around his last mission. He doesn't see himself as any form of contender for command. He was a CAG before the incident but since has become disgruntled with command. That said, he does share in humanities struggle. To that extent, he would consider piloting again if approached. As far as command, probably not. He currently distrusts the fleet's leadership and for good reason.
Looking at your question, I would say Deigon fits well here. He has a personal history with the mission that failed humanity and the cover up that followed it. You're considered a thorn in his side because he isn't allowed to talk about it, its classified.
So sorry to do this to you Rdknight, but your XO boyfriend just became a turd .....LoLActually it's kind of a nice twist on things. But are a couple of problems that would need overcoming before the XO would be Hannah's boyfriend. First she would have to realize he's interested. Hannah is bad at picking up on things like that. Second she would have to like him back. That's up in the air and depends a lot on him.
At first, I was simply going to put together a random XO to fill in the story, but when I noticed that you already declared who our XO was and then further, had him crushing on you......well it was a perfect fit. It had me laughing a bit.
@Hannah, that works for me - but Sasha would be miffed to hear what she does described as black market. There is a black market, they're called Nexus and they deal in stuff like narcotics that's illegal. What Sasha does is more influence peddling - like, you can file that requisision form 19738/A/TTTP876/#98A and maybe in 3 weeks it'll be returned to you because you filled in part 3(a)(iii) when you should have left it blank and signed part 4(b)(ii). Or you can hand it to Sasha, who knows the right people - or at least, she knows what they like - and you'll get it a day or so later. Of course, you now owe her a favour.It's not strictly illegal, but it is *defeinitly* in the grey zone. (Which is probably why Commander Hooke hasn't been able to get those gorgeous hands of his on evidence for a conviction.)
Ah! This exactly makes my point. Hannah is book-smart, but until a couple of months ago she was a grad student. She's been cocooned in a certain kind of world where hard work and ethics matter more than thin-slicing legality, so she's naive concerning such things.
Sasha would have to teach her the distinction you're talking about.
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Still here, was cleaning out a basement the last two day. And wow have things exploded here lol
Dr. Alice is alive and on board. She's basically the #2 scientist in the fleet now, working under Dr. Sloate. She doesn't like to talk about what happened to Sykes.
The first things Hannah would do is try to find and reach out to her "tribe"; scientists, technologists, experts of other types. Dr. Alice Wing and Sykes if they're still alive certainly since they're biologists so Hannah shares a background with them.
I'll add Dr. Alice Wing as a relationship then. Having her as a mentor sounds like the right way to describe it.
Getting Thea's alias set up.
DMDM: I'm good either way on the start up. Action or downtime.
@Oscar: I was thinking I could answer your third relationship question. Thea met you following the disaster of the initial Corax attack as she was searching for any sign of her family or Rowan. Although generally reserved and proper, she did show you Rowan's garbled last transmission to help identify him if you ran across any recent images or vids. It was a comm signal that originated from the bridge of the Damocles minutes before it exploded. As far as you know, all transmissions from that ill-fated ship have been redacted by the military and any effort to dig into what happened has been summarily shut down. So far you've kept the existence of her dead husband's final transmission a secret, because you can't help but wonder it there is something more hidden in it besides apologies, last words of love and worried doom? Could it contain some damning evidence as to what happened in the battleships final hours or minutes? Was it an inside job? Or a new Corax threat that the military is trying to cover up?
@DMDM: I'll let you decide if the transmission actually does have any relevant hidden data. But at this point Thea doesn't know or suspect it is anything but a static-filled last goodbye. She does know she shouldn't have it, but its not something she's going to willingly part with.
@Devlin: Here's a possible answer to your relationship question number 2. You didn't exactly save her life, but you certainly saved Thea's career when you were the first marine to arrive on the scene of the hanger accident caused by the two rogue researchers. It was clear to you that the two had been drinking way too much and shouldn't have been anywhere near their test equipment. But instead of reporting them as drunk, you took a bit of pity on the two, knowing the ship couldn't afford to lose any more pilots or engineers at this point. So you kept their blood tox levels out of your final witness statement and just reported it all as an accident. Sure Thea got busted down notch, but some price had to be paid. Hopefully she's learned something and this way she's still able to fly and bolster the ships fighter cover when it counts.
So, she probably knows more than she ever tells Oscar, but occasionally he'll be able to broker a deal with her such as an exchange of information, or Oscar keeping some other piece of news out of the press, because that's a favor that Sasha can offer to someone else. And just occasionally, Sasha telling Oscar some piece of information that results in an informative article works out well for both of them.
I like that - Oscar quickly realised he isnt' going to get anywhere with appeals to Sasha's better nature but they have arrived at an arrangment that works for them both.
Ah! This exactly makes my point. Hannah is book-smart, but until a couple of months ago she was a grad student. She's been cocooned in a certain kind of world where hard work and ethics matter more than thin-slicing legality, so she's naive concerning such things.
That works - my post was mainly jsut me working out what Sasha really thinks and I've decided she genuinly doesn't see herself as a criminal. Although as DMDM noted, the line blurs becuase she *will* threaten people (nicely) and if push comes to shove, she knows that Sgt Ada will push and shove someone out an airlock and not think twice about it.
Okay, so I think we're close to starting.
The game alternates action and "downtime". My natural instinct as a GM is to throw you into an action scene, but the book recommends starting with downtime -- see page 86 -- because this helps build relationships. Quote:
It’s important to give the characters room to get to know each other and find their feet, and an acon-oriented start gets in the way of that. But we also want to establish the threats and problems of the war. So, instead, give them the chance to explore their characters in a less tense context. They’ve just jumped away from some sort of dangerous situaon, and they’re at a place of safety, for the moment at least...If you guys are okay with that, then the book recommends we use questions to establish what harrowing situation you've just come through. Are we good with that?
I'm good with that!
2) Who sees me as a thorn in their side? How have I recently got in their way?
-- Deigon, seeing as how you see yourself as a contender for command, I can see you feeling like Oscar isn't someone who's helping the fleet, but actively hindering it. Oscar's frequent reporting of things that command would rather keep secret is a regular hurdle to keeping up the support of the civilians in the fleet.As it stands, Deigon is decommissioned and forcibly retired do to the incident revolving around his last mission. He doesn't see himself as any form of contender for command. He was a CAG before the incident but since has become disgruntled with command. That said, he does share in humanities struggle. To that extent, he would consider piloting again if approached. As far as command, probably not. He currently distrusts the fleet's leadership and for good reason.
Looking at your question, I would say Deigon fits well here. He has a personal history with the mission that failed humanity and the cover up that followed it. You're considered a thorn in his side because he isn't allowed to talk about it, its classified.
Well, I'm not sure how that would work, then. If you have classified information, what is Oscar doing to antagonize you? I don't see Oscar wasting time pestering a source that isn't going to say anything. We could twist it to say that Oscar has enough evidence to feel fairly certain about things, and Deigon knows that Oscar knows, but he doesn't understand why Oscar isn't acting on the information. Or we could drop the connection if that's too convoluted.
@Oscar: I was thinking I could answer your third relationship question. Thea met you following the disaster of the initial Corax attack as she was searching for any sign of her family or Rowan. Although generally reserved and proper, she did show you Rowan's garbled last transmission to help identify him if you ran across any recent images or vids. It was a comm signal that originated from the bridge of the Damocles minutes before it exploded. As far as you know, all transmissions from that ill-fated ship have been redacted by the military and any effort to dig into what happened has been summarily shut down. So far you've kept the existence of her dead husband's final transmission a secret, because you can't help but wonder it there is something more hidden in it besides apologies, last words of love and worried doom? Could it contain some damning evidence as to what happened in the battleships final hours or minutes? Was it an inside job? Or a new Corax threat that the military is trying to cover up?
That works for me!
All, I made this spreadsheet to help me visualize each other's relationships and a few other things.
Thank you thank you! I was about to ask someone to do this.
The only thing I would add here are Moves, since they are likely to come up...
Sure, added a Moves column. Everyone should be able to edit, now.
Hey Gunny, can you add your Playbook and Moves to your alias?
I encourage everyone to check the spreadsheet in my quoted post. I've skimmed this thread at best, and some things have changed as discussions happened. One thing I know is missing is that I haven't been tracking NPC relationships that weren't part of Playbook Relationship Questions. I feel like that would be a good resource to track.
Oh jeez, we keep bumping this to the top of the Recruitment forum, but DM_DM isn't recruiting any more. I think we should move discussion to the Discussion forum.
Well, I'm not sure how that would work, then. If you have classified information, what is Oscar doing to antagonize you? I don't see Oscar wasting time pestering a source that isn't going to say anything. We could twist it to say that Oscar has enough evidence to feel fairly certain about things, and Deigon knows that Oscar knows, but he doesn't understand why Oscar isn't acting on the information. Or we could drop the connection if that's too convoluted.2) Who sees me as a thorn in their side? How have I recently got in their way?
-- Deigon, seeing as how you see yourself as a contender for command, I can see you feeling like Oscar isn't someone who's helping the fleet, but actively hindering it. Oscar's frequent reporting of things that command would rather keep secret is a regular hurdle to keeping up the support of the civilians in the fleet.As it stands, Deigon is decommissioned and forcibly retired do to the incident revolving around his last mission. He doesn't see himself as any form of contender for command. He was a CAG before the incident but since has become disgruntled with command. That said, he does share in humanities struggle. To that extent, he would consider piloting again if approached. As far as command, probably not. He currently distrusts the fleet's leadership and for good reason.
Looking at your question, I would say Deigon fits well here. He has a personal history with the mission that failed humanity and the cover up that followed it. You're considered a thorn in his side because he isn't allowed to talk about it, its classified.
It kind of works. Deigon has become an extreme alcoholic since the mission. This is in response to the public's brow bashing, guilt from watching his squad die, and being exposed to the harbinger's gravity wave weapon. In short, after a few drinks, he talks about things he shouldn't. I'm guessing you stick around, providing a few drinks, and then dig for the truth when Deigon lets loose. You're a thorn in his side because you keep bringing him back to a time that he's drinking to forget. Your commonly in the way because Diegon can't relax while you're asking painful questions. That said, if you decide not to use it, I'm ok with that as well.
I like it just fine.
Let us say that it's an open question whether the EMP device would have worked if deployed as originally intended. But anyway, it wasn't and it didn't.
One small change: Harbingers aren't defended by Corax ships. They always appear alone, and they stay alone until the rift opens. So, alone, they should be vulnerable, right? Unfortunately not. They defend themselves by some sort of targeted gravity wave weapon (something no other Corax ship seems to use). In addition to its directly destructive effects, this can cause symptoms similar to overJumping -- neurological dysfunction, convulsions, hallucinations, dementia, madness, and death. That's why nobody has yet managed to kill a Harbinger, and also why the (few) survivors of failed Harbinger attacks don't much like talking about the experience.
Sounds good. I'll make the adjustment.
Bumping to see if anyone is intersted. This is a great game with a great DM, it's a chance to do a survival horror game *in space* and I don't know what more you want than that?!
The Apocalypse World (PbtA) ruleset is easy to learn and you can make a character in about 5 minutes and dive right into the fun stuff.
tl;dr - come on in, the water's lovely! Jsut watch out for the fungus ;)
Looks interesting. Just downloaded it.
Apologies guys, I'm overcommitted and I have to back out.
Good luck!