Futuristic Splicers - I Am Legion - OOC Thread

[Mirgris]

I might be open to the idea of giving everyone the Basic Military package for free, and if your class gets it already, allowing you to pick another skill package.

That would be great I could take something less optimal without feeling bad.

 

[Sherwood]

Ok, we'll go ahead and do this. Everyone gets the Basic Military skill package for free. I'll update the Character Thread.

 

[Psychie]

Awesome. I have some work to do on Toni now to pick her skill list.

 

[Mirgris]

Ok, we'll go ahead and do this. Everyone gets the Basic Military skill package for free. I'll update the Character Thread.

Okay so there is a armor host modification that lets you make an MDC resin and it has the following section.

"Other Uses than Combat: The resin can be used to create weapons and tools, patch stone, concrete and steel, or reinforce construction projects or to do quick repairs on buildings, armor, or other simple objects. To make weapons and tools, the resin is usually placed into molds, like plaster, and allowed to harden."

I was thinking of making and selling armor plates when we travel, but also I like the idea that I would be helping arm humanity against the robots. It really fits my currently planned backstory as a survivor of the lost colony. He would also happily do it for free for people who could not afford to pay him.

There isn't a cost for the molds (Or a skill for armor smithing) so I was wondering if I could just have a reusable mold for a plate. (I'm thinking the style of plate used in modern plate carriers)?

 

[Sherwood]

Okay so there is a armor host modification that lets you make an MDC resin and it has the following section.

"Other Uses than Combat: The resin can be used to create weapons and tools, patch stone, concrete and steel, or reinforce construction projects or to do quick repairs on buildings, armor, or other simple objects. To make weapons and tools, the resin is usually placed into molds, like plaster, and allowed to harden."

I was thinking of making and selling armor plates when we travel, but also I like the idea that I would be helping arm humanity against the robots. It really fits my currently planned backstory as a survivor of the lost colony. He would also happily do it for free for people who could not afford to pay him.

There isn't a cost for the molds (Or a skill for armor smithing) so I was wondering if I could just have a reusable mold for a plate. (I'm thinking the style of plate used in modern plate carriers)?

So you want a mould for some kind of, what? A shield that can be carried by a person? Am I understanding that right?

I think that would be ok, unless you are looking for something very different and I'm just not on the same page as you.

 

[Mirgris]

So you want a mould for some kind of, what? A shield that can be carried by a person? Am I understanding that right?

I think that would be ok, unless you are looking for something very different and I'm just not on the same page as you.

That is a plate, and the carrier it goes in.

I want a mold to produce the plates. I guess in theory someone could strap leather to it and make a shield, but I wanted it so two could be used to make body armor.

(They still have to provide or create some form of carrier, but that's the easier part, technically duct tape would work.

 

[Purr]

M.D. plates are a great idea! Better to have an Armor Rating with a Mega-damage plate than no M.D. protection at all - and it's a heck of a lot easier to come by/cheaper than any other form of M.D. protection I can think of! Go Mirgris! =)

 

[Mirgris]

M.D. plates are a great idea! Better to have an Armor Rating with a Mega-damage plate than no M.D. protection at all - and it's a heck of a lot easier to come by/cheaper than any other form of M.D. protection I can think of! Go Mirgris! =)

Yeah so I'm thinking after witnessing the destruction of his home he is of the opinion many people aren't doing enough to fight the robots.

So what I'm thinking is the Amber to make plates, (or plate, because if you don't retreat you have no need for a back plate)

Then there is a different mod.

"Spines and Blades: A number of natural spines and blades (made from a natural resin-like material) project from the top of the Host Armor's hands ,knuckles, forearms and shoulders (2D4+4 of them on each side). They add +6 M.D. to the Host Armor's punching and hand to hand attacks, or the spines can be pulled out and thrown as daggers, doing lDlO M.D. each (up to three can be thrown at one time). Each blade pulled out regrows, but it takes 4D6+24 hours. The blades themselves, once pulled out, can be saved and used as conventional knives (each one has 5 M.D.C. and remains a Mega-Damage weapon even after being plucked from the armor)."

Can just produce knives. Which with a little Amber for a stick, easily becomes a spear.

MDC Chest plate and a MDC spear is enough that it isn't "Good" equipment. It is however a hell off a lot better than anyone without being enlisted under a warlord is getting normally.
And making a habit of passing them out regularly means in his life span he might equip hundreds, or even a thousand people he comes across.


And maybe they can stick a handle on a spare plate and have a shield too.


Worse case scenario it's a steady production of materials for trade to fund my slap patch addiction.

 

[Purr]

Worse case scenario it's a steady production of materials for trade to fund my slap patch addiction.

Hey, can you have too many slap patches in a game like this? =)

 

[Sherwood]

So Dann, any closer to a character class chosen yet?

 

[Purr]

So Dann, any closer to a character class chosen yet?

I am typing out my thoughts as we speak. As it stands, it's a three-way tie between Deliveryman, Dreadguard, and Bombardier. I have questions. I'll post them soon.

"Soooon!" =)

 

[Purr]

Holy crow! The Deliveryman comes with NO hand to hand Skills? NO Physical Skills whatsoever? NO Weapon Proficiencies?! I get their background, I understand their purpose. But nothing?

Yeah. It's time I sleep on this. See you all tomorrow (or when Real Life allows)!

Okies. Let me touch on this. =)

First off, thanks Mirgris, for the details! It was late and I should have written "survival-improving Physical skills." It's what I was thinking but "Physical skills" is what I typed. So yeah. I saw a huge of lack of decent Attribute-improving (thus survival-improving) skills just for starters.

This lack of Physical skills including any Hand to Hand and lack of Weapon Proficiencies has me worried. We've got two extremely combat-capable PCs and my guy/gal doesn't even have Hand to Hand: YMCA "karate." So... a typical Deliveryman Player Character just sits on their phone every time combat comes up? "What does your guy do?" "The same thing I do every combat - I grab my bird and hide until it's over. Lemme know when that is, please." Baaarf, right?

Which leads me to thank you, Sherwood, for including the Basic Military Skill Program. That right there adds a touch of all three of the things the class is missing. I can (O.K... I have) thought up at least three more ways to "improve" my chances of playing a Deliveryman. If it doesn't work out, then it's Dreadguard or Bombardier I go.

So now it's question time:
1. In the past, Sherwood and Psychie have provided a +5%/+1 bonus to skills that are provided more than once by our O.C.C.s.. For example, if we had W.P. Sword twice from our Skill Programs, we'd start with W.P. Sword +2. The Deliveryman has Prowl three times. While I would love to be able to select two other skills, I don't think you guys have ever gone for that. So... does anything change here at all?

2. We are not using MadDog's Compendium v6.5 right? I thought I read this earlier but I'm uncertain?

3. In past games, when using Secondary Skills, we were allowed to select any skill allowed by our O.C.C.. (like "Other" skills minus any O.C.C. bonus). Is the same true here in Splicers? If this is so, this provides some serious freedom in creating a long-lasting RP character. At least for me. And if not? It is what it is (it's fine). =)

* * *​

One thing I don't like about Splicers is that our M.O.S.s are handed to us with very little ability to change any of them. This is on me again; I am too spoiled by Robotech where we had a base O.C.C. skill group followed by choices of M.O.S.s. The huge difference in characters in Splicers isn't really the Bio-powers - it's the education. A handful of "Other" skills and neutered Secondary Skills still means some 80% or so of the skills provided to the O.C.C.s lead to "cookie cutter" characters (educationally speaking).

Maybe I'm missing something? I think there is no way I could create, say, a Special Forces squad in Splicers (meaning, everyone with the same O.C.C. but with their own specialty. Like comm specialist, heavy weapons specialist, demolitions specialist, point man, and so on).

That's enough for one post! =)

 

[Sherwood]

I keep on forgetting that this is a new game and that all the house rules we commonly play with need to be discussed so that everyone is on the same page. Thank you, dannigan, for bringing this stuff up.

1. Any time you have the same skill twice (or more) it adds a +5% for each additional purchase, or an additional +1 to a weapon proficiency.

2. Correct, at this time we are only using skills from the Splicers book. I might change this later, but for initial character creation Mad Dogs list is off limits.

3. You can pick any skill for your secondary ones that is available to your OOC.

A lot of the specialization that your SEAL team is not going to be possible in the Splicers setting, at least, in my eyes. You can't use radios to be the team's comms guy; there's metal in there, and with the bio comms you have a Machine-proof means of talking between your team silently.

No computer use is possible for the same reason - all that dang metal. No internet, either. Everything you can learn is passed down to you by hand-written papers and word of mouth.

Being the team medic is possible, but not nearly as necessary as a SDC game. Your Host Armor suits heal on their own, and if you are ever hit by a weapon outside your suit, it's time to make a new character.

Weapons are another field that is very restricted. If it is not a bio weapon, you can't use it, leaving you with few options.

Demolition experts can be a thing, especially underground where you can lure the robots into a kill zone and set off for trap. Add the Shellback armor to that and wow. You have an endless supply of munitions.

Does this help give you some insights into what we are getting into?

 

[Mirgris]

Being the team medic is possible, but not nearly as necessary as a SDC game. Your Host Armor suits heal on their own, and if you are ever hit by a weapon outside your suit, it's time to make a new character.

Medic is also repair man, he can "Heal" equipment, because it's biological.

Fully repairing your armor after every fight is a big deal.

 

[Sherwood]

Medic is also repair man, he can "Heal" equipment, because it's biological.

Fully repairing your armor after every fight is a big deal.

Very true. I had not considered that aspect. There are a lot of things about the setting that will take some getting used to.

 

[Purr]

A lot of the specialization that your SEAL team is not going to be possible in the Splicers setting, at leased, in my eyes. You can't use radios to bee the team's comms guy; there's metal in there, and with the bio comms you have a Machine-proof means of talking between your team silently.

Sherwood I'm just talking about Skills only. Not tech. I am thinking that even if the tech were available, the characters aren't. I'm not trying to turn us into a Special Forces team. I am just making a point - nothing more. =)

Does this help give you some insights into what we are getting into?

Some! Much of what you have mentioned is in the books. It's what is not in the books that I can't grasp without you, the GM (like House Rules). Splicers is quite the unusual setting! =)

Speaking of House Rules - thank you! Just freeing up the Secondary Skills helps me to move in a more comfortable direction.

So! Character Shop Talk again. What if... I created a character who was a Deliveryman as his/her "full-time" job, but all the while was working their way up to also become something of a wanna-be "Predator" against the Machine?

EDIT: I put this into a spoiler to take up less of the screen for everyone. =)

Spoiler: Predator concept

The Deliveryman has the Bio-tech at 1st level (like Stealth Field) and some of the skills to perhaps take on small numbers of the Machine (especially with the Black Talon War Hawk assisting). I like the idea of playing a ranged combatant. But who?

Here's one road I thought up:

EDIT: I rewrote this a bit to clean up some of my grammar/word choices and to add a bit more to it.

This involves a Splicer who was once forced to be an Assassin. His house, rather small, was a cult of scholars who sold their assassin skills to anyone who would help further their cause (destroy the Machine at all costs - including their own humanity). To this end, they sent out their assassins to capture recruits (much quicker than breeding them). Once captured, the recruits had Bio-chips put into their brains which granted the temporary skill set of a killer at the cost of any morality save for honor (it made them Aberrant Alignment, the same as the majority of the house). Sooner or later, someone brought this to House Artemis's attention.

Perhaps a Warlord in the house or some other higher-up had been targeted? Whatever the case, my character - one of these assassins - acted boldly and fearlessly against House Artemis. None of the assassins were successful. House Artemis burned the smaller house to the ground but salvaged the scholars' long-accumulated wealth of unusual knowledge and a handful of what few soul in the house could be (re)turned to the path of Good. With the character's morality restored by House Artemis, he swears fealty to them and becomes a weapon for humanity - something he always wanted to be. Now he sometimes uses his Deliveryman O.C.C. as a guise while hunting hard-to-kill Machine targets.

He or she seems like a person from another time to me. The scholar-house taught him to speak their ways, ways some time long ago imagined. When hunting for House Artemis, he retains many lessons from his time as an assassin - patience, strategy, technique, and the ability to change tactics on the fly.

What do I know of his personality? I think he's a loner (at least at the start). Very proud of his accomplishments. Prouder still to serve House Artemis whom he views as his saviors. I think he has family, but perhaps they believe him dead. Perhaps he has not been reunited with them and he does not want to put them through any pain, hence no reunion. Self-sufficient, a born explorer, and well-traveled, he is willing to work in a small team (perhaps to help him reassimilate into a world where goodness, and not just serving his scholarly masters, matters again).

He's starting life over again. We are playing first level characters after all, but even novices have pasts.

House Artemis saved him from the Bio-chip that stole his humanity and once freed from it, he returned to his honorable alignment very quickly. With a full working memory of what he had done, he acts in good ways sometimes as a kind of penance. He is as at peace with himself as he can be; he knows now that none of his past was his doing, his fault. Instead of sitting and drowning in self-loathing, he chooses the far more positive path of hunting the Machine in ways he hopes it might not expect. He turns from the world of the cold assassin to a hunter - a hard-to-find enigma that destroys his opponents with absolute confidence.

Like a Predator maybe.

What do you all think of this rough concept?

 

[Purr]

Note: This character does not have the Assassin Skill Program. That too was part of the Bio-chip. Now, he is his own person free to follow his own methods.

 

[Purr]

Oh! And if you like that, maybe he doubles (triples?) as an artifact-finder for House Artemis? Maybe they send people like her/him to sites to bring back non-metal goodies (like books?) for the good of humanity? I could play someone like that! =)

EDIT: I am getting ahead of myself again. Better that my character is suited to helping find hard-to-find enemies as in our adventure than ancient texts covered in the dusts of time. =)

 

[Sherwood]

Purr you certainly come up with some inventive concepts for characters! Let me mull this over before I say yes or no to it.

 

[Purr]

Purr you certainly come up with some inventive concepts for characters! Let me mull this over before I say yes or no to it.

Sherwood I have a couple more background concepts I can share? Just mental meanderings like the first; I don't have my heart set on any one of them (including "The Predator"). Let me know if you'd care to hear about them?

(On another note, it's really pretty outside. I'm off to enjoy it!)

 

[Sherwood]

I would be interested in hearing anything you'd like to share that might help you get a good mental picture of your character.

 

[Purr]

I would be interested in hearing anything you'd like to share that might help you get a good mental picture of your character.

Then I'll type more later tonight. I'm doing Sharseya-stuff and I'll be posting in our Conversation prior to that tonight. Thanks for being so interested! =)

 

[Purr]

Sherwood While "The Predator" concept is new, odd, and perhaps something out of a fantasy/sci fi novel, the "Martial Warrior" here is a form of Deliveryman that I can relate to on a different level.

Spoiler: The Martial Warrior.

The Martial Warrior is one who has unearthed the wisdom of the martial arts from the past and has chosen to take on the difficult path, not as a simple journey towards just creating a larger Machine body count, but as a way of life with enlightenment as its goal. In this concept's travels, "he" has acted as something like a modern-day Kwai Chang Caine - a traveler who has seen many different lands and tasted each, helping his fellow human beings wherever they needed aid.

The Martial Warrior is a concept that combines the pure power of a person who has seriously practiced the arts of life and death with all that he is. All the while, he keeps these powers a secret. He moves from place to place helping others, not staying, leaving only the goodness left behind him in his wake. This combination of skill and determination merged with humility and compassion perhaps makes him seem to some as if he is a wandering monk of sorts. But in truth, he is performing his Deliveryman duties for House Artemis while aiding others along his path.

This concept also contains a special link with the past and death and a new way of life.

Once, not so long ago, after many trials and solving mysteries, he discovered a well-hidden tomb - a sacred mortuary - undisturbed by the ravages of time, the Machine, and Humanity. The tomb belonged those whom humanity would come to know as the Lost Warriors.

Urns inside a sacred mortuary, ceramic and covered in age, held the remains of dead Splicer warriors who, long ago, were revered by the common person in life. The Lost Warriors sought peace among humanity while endlessly fighting the Machine. Some were legends though none sought fame. Only justice and freedom from the Machine and the enlightenment of humanity so that they might never war again, but instead live in peace.

In the end, it was a biotechnical error of the worst magnitude that would lay the Lost Warriors to rest in their fortification-like urns. A single calculation in the creation of their Host Armors resulted in an incurable brain-disease that made them nearly invincible for a time, but it took each of their lives long before the natural order would have. The Lost Warriors knew this. They made use of what time they had remaining. They sent all of their non-combatants, their science teams, and their families far, far away that they would not suffer the brain-disease. Once this was done, together, the Warriors set out on one final mission, one final farewell to humanity, to perform an incredible deed.

They succeeded. They returned with proof of their deeds - they stole sacred wisdom from the Machine. Data that could not be copied, only utilized by those deeply-immersed in the methods of super-science. They destroyed and melted down the site of the Machine. Never again would it terrorize the living. Its secrets belonged to the Warriors now.

But the Lost Warriors had run out of time. One by one, they began to fall to the incurable brain-disease. They did not have the special knowledge required to make sense of the great science they had taken. So instead, as each one passed away, they wrote upon their ceramic urns, the codes that made the super-science active - they wrote too their wisdom of martial methods and mindsets for a life worthy of their goal. Together, the urns translated into one great scientific formula - that once made into reality - might provide some great benefit to humanity - the Warrior's final parting gift.

My Martial Warrior has found the Warriors' final resting place. He has read the urns and memorized the science-code. He burns it into his memory daily (by way of practicing forms, or katas if one prefers the Japanese term). Reading the urns has not only taught him the science-code, but also unlocked some of the secret methods and mindsets of the Lost Warriors - which my character seeks to master. For these Warriors had spent lifetimes merging The Martial Way with the Way of the Splicer - and they alone had made them one before they fell. To them, the passing on of these matters were just another gift to their fellow human being.

My Martial Warrior made House Artemis aware of all of this. He asked how he might proceed or if even he was allowed to. After much consideration and no small amount of debate, House Artemis realized it too lacked the exact science necessary to unlock the Warrior's code. Without the scientists that belonged to the Warriors, the code was good only for learning the martial way - a prize indeed, but only half of a sacred whole. House Artemis agreed to allow my Martial Warrior to continue his search while performing his regular Deliveryman duties - and to share his knowledge with only a small few (our party, I imagine, after we have come to know one another and if those meetings bode long and well).

My Martial Warrior's mission? To one day find the scientific minds and families that the Lost Warriors sent away and provide them this knowledge so that he might return it to House Artemis for the betterment of all living under its banner. The mere mention of this has been disallowed to strangers. He is to allow no other house to learn of it.

So this Martial Warrior concept continues his Deliveryman duties. He helps those people who honestly require aid. He battles the Machine only when he is certain of success and otherwise avoids combat whenever possible. He follows no code except his own and his deep loyalty to House Artemis. He travels all across the land and sea delivering wherever he is sent, all the while practicing daily and seriously the methods that one day will allow him to bring together in harmony the Bio-science of Splicers and the Martial Ways of the Lost Warriors.

On that day, for attempting to erase humanity, the Machine will truly learn the meaning of the word, "regret."

Spoiler: Da Machine sez

Ha ha!

What do folks think of this concept?

Honor and fun,
Dann =)

 

[Sherwood]

Very intriguing, and a very interesting background. I am thinking that I like this more than the first idea you pitched.

 

[Purr]

Finally, I have this concept of "The Soldier." This, for me, might be the toughest to play, not because of her past (again, I haven't settled on a gender), but because of the sheer amount of unknowns surrounding her and the dark emotion (but not PTSD) I can imagine that haunts the character.

Spoiler: The Soldier.

Here, I've put together a combination of Splicer, Special Forces MACV-SOG member, and Aliens Colonial Marine all bound up with a "Kyle Reese" mentality of "survive at all costs or humanity dies." I'm sure there are other bits and pieces of real life people that I've enjoyed reading about over the years out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam (especially the latter).

This concept was born into House Artemis. Fighting and surviving is all she knows. She lives kind of like a wild animal (always hypertensive, always on "yellow alert," never feels she can let her guard down, sleeps with one eye open, etc.). She lives in the same way Kyle Reese from the first Terminator movie probably lived - as if each day could be her last.

Her past includes her being born into a family that lives for combat, is military to the core, and has a never-say-die attitude. She has seen, firsthand, the death and destruction the Machine is capable of and for her, it is waaay past "payback time." Instead, it's a battle for survival. There is no rest.

I don't want to create another "my whole platoon got wasted before my eyes" story (I've read enough of those in Real Life that I'd rather not play one for however long this game lasts). I'm thinking it would be better to, as a Deliveryman, say that she has traveled between House Artemis posts, bases, etc. all of her life. Serving House Artemis is all she thinks about. She has lost friends and acquaintances to death and while it grieves her, it no longer darkens her soul. Instead, it galvanizes her toward destroying the Machine as much as possible.

Because of her losses, she is very slow to get close to anyone. For her, it's really just her and her Black Talon War Hawk affectionately named "Lockheed" (yes, after a certain dragon). She follows orders well and is always ready for combat. But she knows no peace per se. In this way, she is fun to play from an action perspective; it's the downtime that'll be troublesome (kind of like Real Life for some in her position. The demons never really go away, do they?).

In her time, she has come across another family in House Artemis that doesn't have her family's best interests at heart. Her family was entrusted by the other to deliver much-need funds to a far off and desperate member of the other family's household. My Soldier concept succeeded in making the delivery to the distant underground town only to get robbed at gunpoint by the very person she was trying to aid. Turns out, his mind is broken from seeing too much war and now is a psychotic maniac stealing from people just like her, killing them, and hiding their corpses for his own gain. And he's very good at it.

A firefight ensued. The desperate man was badly wounded, but escaped only with his life leaving my Soldier with the funds she was to deliver. The desperate man told his family that my Soldier had tried to rob him. The proof was in the money she had "kept." Now, neither family knows what to believe. My Soldier's goal is to re-track this bastard down and make him tell the truth. Good luck with that. Turns out, he's a Saint and a much-needed one. Sure, people near him don't trust him, but both my Soldier's family and the family belonging to the Saint are too far away to have even heard about his evil doings.

As such, the other family has it out for my Soldier - and they might go through her family to seek revenge. My Soldier wants to make things right any way she can, but with a Saint out to kill her for what she knows (proof of his evil deeds), might she even live until tomorrow - especially with all of the rest that is going on?

While this concept has its advantages (military discipline and mindset, never-say-die attitude), she might turn out to be the darkest to play. But then again, I don't know how light or dark or in-between your Splicers world is going to turn out to be, Sherwood.

Thus, I don't know which concept of mine - Predator, Martial Warrior, or Soldier - fits best.

What do you think of this concept and what are your thoughts, friends?

P.S. Depending on how everyone here answers, I might play some combination of my three concepts. Time will tell. Thanks for reading! =)