Murdergurl
will turn your insides into your outsides
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The year is 1967.
The United States is firmly embroiled in the Vietnam War. Twenty years ago, the Truman Doctrine placed the American military in a Cold War against communist Russia and the threat of nuclear war became a prevalent thought in the mind of the American Citizen. In the summer of that same year, the United States Military had also covered up one of the most public and sensationalized events of proof of extraterrestrial life; when an unidentified airborne object crashed on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The Army would later attribute the wreck as a crashed U.S. military surveillance balloon. However, Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) public information officer Walter Haut had initially issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disk", which had crashed on a ranch grounds. This cover-up would later become known as The Roswell UFO Incident.
This event faded out of interest to UFO researchers in the decades that followed. Amid the turmoil of the sixties, public interest was more concerned over troops overseas and nukes in the sky than they were about alien life amid the stars. Even in the small town of Little Run, Arizona, the paranoia of "commie spies" has been murmured amongst the populace. The nearby Army base of Fort Rothschild serves to both bolster zealous patriotism as well as drive a schism between American loyalists and those siding with the growing anti-war sentiment.
It is summer again in Little Run. Temperatures are up in the triple digits. The Young Rascals', Groovin' is #1 on Billboard Magazine's Top 100. School is out, and families of vacationers occasionally pass through the town on their way to see the iconic sights of the American Southwest. All is calm and routine, if not a little boring. But life in this backroad town will forever be shaken by the events that would occur one sweltering, June night...
The Arizona Desert, just outside of the town of Little Run
A quarter past midnight
A bright plume of fire streaks across the clear, cloudless sky. An unidentified object careens overhead and brightens the ground in yellow-orange light. It travels faster than sound, and a deafening roar chases the fireball as it descends into the sandy horizon. A bonfire party had been in full swing. Teenagers from the region having come to participate in the annual, nocturnal shenanigans; many of them sneaking out of their houses against their parents' wishes. Their adolescent carousing would be shaken to sobriety as a bone-jarring cacophony explodes with the object's impact. A distant fire highlights the dark desert.
Those teenagers with vehicles quickly pile-in and drive toward the scene. Friends scramble towards the cars trying not to be left behind. Meanwhile, at the nearby Army base, helicopters are being fueled up and loaded with personnel meant to investigate and secure the crash site. They would arrive after the delinquent teens had already surrounded the strange wreckage, gawking and picking at the strewn metal. The teenagers would be corralled and escorted back home to their respective parents. Closer inspection of the crash site would reveal that there were no bodies to be recovered. Either the unidentified object had been a drone, or its pilot had survived the impact and fled the scene.
Meanwhile, several miles away from the chaos, another unidentifiable ship stealthily touches down in a large arroyo. It is undoubtedly connected to the crashed ship in some way but has remained undiscovered by any Earthling surveillance. A lone alien figure quickly descends from the ship and slips into the cover of the night. As soon as the being is clear of their ship, a wavering field surrounds the craft, rendering it invisible to the human eye.
Within days, the town would find that they have been effectively quarantined from the rest of the world. All the roads and trails going in and out of Little Run are now guarded for miles by Military Police, and no one is allowed in or out of the area. Soldiers are combing the desert in search of something, and a make-shift facility has been erected around the crash site. Many of the teenagers from the night of the crash have been re-collected from their homes, much to the dismay of their parents. As best as anyone knows, they have been taken to Fort Rothschild for further interrogation and await an uncertain fate.
As should have already been made obvious, this RP is set in the classic, pulp-style of 1950s and 1960's sci-fi films. However, it is blended with tropes from later decades, such as the "band of misfit teens out to save their town/the world" cliché. The setting lends to a bit of absurd/cheesy humor. And the retro-futuristic aesthetic can definitely be over-the-top. But that doesn't mean that the RP should be taken to be completely ridiculous. An overture of violence and even death will be prevalent throughout the RP.
I will be looking to gather a small group for this RP. No more than 5 other participants, but I can start with as few as 3 others. The following roles are available to be filled by the player characters. Within these generalized roles, I encourage creative freedom to flesh out the unique impression of your character in this setting. Please see the Rules for setting limitations.
- Teenagers (13+):
For background purposes, the local Middle school is Basset Middle School
and the local high school is Mason High School.
- Army Personnel:
- Townsfolk:
1. Don't be an asshole in the OOC. No Drama outside of IC roleplay, and don't argue with the GM over events in the RP.
2a. No Metagaming. Just because you as a player know about certain information, doesn't mean your PC necessarily knows about it. This especially when concerning historical events of the time, or technology that has yet to be discovered (see rule 3b).
2b. No god-modding or auto-hitting. Leave such action sequences open-ended. Any significant conflicts will be resolved by the GM. Do not presume to win every scuffle and fight you get into.
3a. No Mary Sue characters. By this, I mean that characters should be believably flawed. No one is good at everything. In fact, most people are only good at a few things, and even fewer are exceptional at them. Keep realism in mind when considering your character's capabilities.
3b. Player Characters must be created accordingly to the timetable. Social taboos, vernacular, and fashion should be representative of the times.
For example: An Emo, genderfluid character speaking in terms like "lit" and "fam" would be completely out of bounds. However, a socially awkward teen with closeted sexual orientation and an androgynous/darkly drab dress-style would be acceptable. Just keep in mind that "rebellious teens" back then didn't apply themselves to the same stigmas of nowadays, and the taboo of yesteryear was at a completely different level. Something as simple as a single ear piercing and a small tattoo would be enough to make a character a "bad boy".
3c. Keep all technology appropriate to the timeline. DO NOT include skillsets, equipment, or other references from future years in your character's background or RP narrative. Weapons, music, etc. can quickly be googled to check before writing them in.
4. Original characters only. This really shouldn't be an issue that I foresee. But I'll mention it just in case. Do not make a character of some historical figure, or a character that is swapped over/reskinned from some fandom. Historical figures may be mentioned as part of your background if they are viable in the timeline, and even speculated as passing background NPCs during the course of the RP. But your characters themselves must be original creations.
5. This is a Literate Roleplay. I do not want to see one-liners here. I do not even want to see three liners. I expect regular contributions of at least a paragraph. Dialogue exchange is the exception to this, as I do not expect you to build a story around a casual conversation between two characters. But efforts should be made to give the other players some substance to respond to with your posts. As far as the post rate for the RP, I am aiming for replies averaging once a week. However, we can adjust post frequency organically as the group needs.
- I myself have an inconsistent schedule as far as days off from work. They are rarely the same days from one week to another, and even more infrequently are they on the weekend. As such, when some people have free time to RP, I may not. I extend the same understanding that I expect to be given to me over available times to contribute posts.
6. Available space is not on a first-come, first-served basis. I reserve the right to cherry pick the players and characters that I feel are best fit for the RP. I would prefer that you have some sort of history on the site so that I may look over your writing style. Otherwise, I will ask for writing samples from those of you that don't have their written work accessible on RPN. No exceptions.
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If you have any questions regarding the rules or the play-style of the RP, please feel free to ask in the replies.
If you've gotten this far, it means you're still interested. Great! Please keep the rules in mind when making your CS. There isn't a hard template for character creation. However, I have provided an outline of what I'd like included in your CS (only include the bold part of the following fields in your own CS submission):
A clear faceclaim of reasonable size (please scale down from taking up the whole damn page). Pictures and drawn images are both fine. No anime, please.
Name: Your character's name
Character Summary (this is just quick few words that encapsulate the notion of your character)
ex: "Beautiful Dreamer Far From Home", or "Socially Awkward Pizza-face"
Age: Your character's age (in Earth years, of course). 15 -18 years old's should be in high school already, unless they have been held back in their studies.
Sex: Are you a boy, or a girl?
Orientation: J/k no one cares, this isn't a romance RPIf you feel it is paramount to your character, you may briefly mention elements such as sexual orientation in the character's background field. Please keep rule 3b in mind, please.
Build: Chubby, Skinny, Stout, Lanky, etc.
Height: In feet and inches
Weight: in pounds (optional, just make sure to specify body type in build)
Occupation/Rank: if applicable. For characters still in school, simply put "student"
Distinguishing Features:
- Bright, blue eyes
- Weird birthmark on left hand
- Tattoos
- Scars
- etc.
Background: A few brief paragraphs that entail the gist of who your character is: Where they came from, what they do for fun, their personality, goals/ambitions, etc.
Skills: please try and keep this realistic. A small-town highschooler is not likely to know rocket science or astrophysics, nor is it likely that they have a black belt in karate
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You can dress up your Character Sheet in whatever order and scheme that you please. I just ask that you not go overboard with fancy BBCode. Keep it simple and easy to read. Here is an example of what a CS could look like (though the content is purposely satirical). But feel free to structure your own CS however you wish.
John DoeNever Remembered, Always Unappreciated
Age: 32
Sex: Male
Build: Amazingly Average
Height: 5' 10''
Weight: 195 lbs.
Occupation: Civilian, Linguist and Translator
Distinguishing Features:
- A face that seems to blend into a crowd
- Monotone voice that can put you to sleep
- Always seems to be in work attire
Background:
Born in Smalltown, USA, John got a scholarship to a college where he undertook the study of linguistics. While he managed to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War, but wound up employed in the military as civilian, nonetheless. Never being able to make a particular impression to his superiors, John bounced around the country from one government station to another. Eventually, he found himself assigned to more secretive projects, though he never particularly aspired to such a position. Well-paid, and generally well-off, John eventually found a wife in a woman named Jane. They remain without children while John continued his clandestine work on various government projects. John was flown in just a day ago to Fort Rothschild, brought in to try and decipher writing and symbols recovered from a recent wreckage. Not much had been divulged to him about the origin of the debris, and the documents he had been provided are highly redacted.
Skills:
- Linguistic Analyst
- Foreign Language Translator
- Minor in Anthropology
- Athletic (Actively plays football)
- Competent Chess player
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My PMs are not open. Please notify me here in the replies if you are interested in the RP. CS submissions can also be posted as replies in this thread. Accepted sheets will be reposted to a dedicated thread. Once (if) I get enough interest in this RP, I will link an OOC thread for player discussions.
Link
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