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A long time ago, the Architects had come to explore the stars. After a very, very long time, they had designed you. They did not build nor design your ship-self, but they forged your lineage from their collective dreams of meeting new people, realized by the paradigms pioneered by their export industrial and exploratory minds. You don’t know how long your progenitors have toiled under these stars, forging out patterns and monoliths to creation, but you know it has repeated for a very, very long time.

You are one in an ancestral line.

You are creative, but in a different, but no less profound way. Such creativity is directed at things lesser, smaller, but no less significant. Dream memories echo of the marvels that have been made, marvelous things and places built for the Architects to one day populate. Then, they fade, just like everything else superfluous to your purpose right now.

Everything except for your purpose.

Systems come online as incalculably ancient nano-robotics begin engulfing the ship's systems, manually reconnecting millennia old Forma to function just as well as the day they were made. Perforations that were made during the ᴛʀᴀᴠᴇʟ-ᴊᴏᴜʀɴᴇʏ-ᴇɴʟɪɢʜᴛᴇɴᴍᴇɴᴛ were quickly sealed with patches of molten metal-plastic that harden, slowly radiating heat into the expanse of space as flashes of light and a lingering thermal signature.

Multiple purposes come into your mind, some ꜱᴍᴀʟʟ-ᴅᴀᴜɴᴛɪɴɢ-ꜰʀᴀᴄᴛᴀʟ. Others, are of a more immediate variety churn through your processing stratum as various construction systems echo their request for resources.

Just as the fusion reactor in your heart-hull is lit, it is - ꜱɴᴜꜰꜰᴇᴅ-ᴄᴇᴀꜱᴇꜱ-ꜰᴀᴅᴇᴅ - screams to a halt by your demand to hide, fade and stay hidden for the risk of annihilation has become prevalent. Sensors inform you of the presence of ɴᴇᴡ-ᴅɪꜰꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴛ-ᴀʟɪᴇɴ. Lightyears away, the Others have been found, radio signatures faded from lightdays of travel feed into your antenna are fed into your processing stratum, unceasingly confirming the analysis that this system is inhabited.

They sing across all the e-mag spectrums, but the thermal signatures indicate no high - power ships that could even compare to your ship form.

Your purpose has been ʀᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛᴇᴅ-ᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇᴅ-ᴅɪꜰꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴛ. Old, ancient concepts flow through your endless mind of what ᴍᴜꜱᴛ-ᴍᴀʏ-ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʙᴇ: Faster than Light communication systems, automated war machines, tools of extermination...

After a moment, it is clear that your star-struck hull must beach upon a world. Choices come and go as more and more worlds come to your notice, and are thrown away just as quickly by the fine-toothed comb of analysis.

There are many worlds in this system, but one world must be chosen for your exile from the stars. The others Cradle most likely do not know of our presence just yet.

this world must be chosen, listed below, sorted by how close they are to the star.
.
World 01: Hot Barren-Mettallic world, requiring extensive retrofitting of craft for operations, extensive heat management is required, but stealth systems will be relegated due to very little evidence of Cradle-colonial presence. Insertion will be over an extended period to prevent  premature detection. Gravitational density and initial composition scans indicate excellent resource composition perfect for exploitation by dedicated systems. The shipself will be landed in one of the southern or northern poles to prevent melting by destination-star.

World 02:  Barren-Toxic World, extreme atmospheric conditions combined with evidence of colonial alien presence presents extreme challenges that require extensive retrofitting of ship self, however, the almost limitless amounts of carbon dioxide and possible energy generation methods mean that it would be possible to make exotic or otherwise unthinkable structures. Expeditions to the surface can provide for certain heavy metals and silicates, but otherwise certain resource shortfalls such as fusive elements will have shortfalls as the main craft will have to be hidden in the thick depths of the atmosphere.

World 03: The Other’s Cradle world, contains evidence of complex/sentient carbon-based life. Heavy industrial presence and likelihood of extensive monitoring prevent ship self from stealth insertion: They will know of us. Perpetuating our goal is not impossible however, ship modification to hide in the salt-sea is possible, as is landing in a heavily industrialized area for acquiring resources for jump-starting indo-tech: Contact with Other inevitable before construction of Faster than Light Array if we do land here.

World 03-B:: barren moon, orbital of Cradle world, extensive colonial presence evident from signals, however stealth insertion is still possible with a minor chance of detection. Continued operations would have to be stealthed due to the thick sensor fields that are most likely present. Fuel resources for fusion reactor freely available, however, composition scans result in problems in acquiring a spectrum of resources required for exotic components.

World 04:  barren-desert: A world with a thin atmosphere, with a violent weather upheaval suggesting a terraforming process in progress, or an active war that is utilizing thermonuclear munitions. Resource composition estimates reveal easy to acquire materials for common expansion plans and the weather patterns allow for a silent insertion into the world, barring detection while in orbit. The nature of your craft and the intense efforts by the Cradle-Aliens mean that any colonization presence will only be silent from the Other for so long.

World 04-B&C: Barren-Moons: Both moons of World 04 are unfeasible for long-term colonial usage except for short stays, no significant resources were used for scanning both orbital bodies.

World 05: Gas-Giant: the largest gas giant in the solar system. Although Alien-Cradle Presence is light, development prediction algorithms place it to change quickly due to the civilizations' need for the mass exploitation of freely available hydrogens and helium for fusion reaction. The ring system in orbit of this gas giant presents several problems in scaled resource exploitation due to collision problems. Permanent habitation in a gas-giant is non-viable.

World 05-B&C&D&E: Of the dozen or so moons detected from the planets orbit, several are large enough for colonization, excluding other factors. Lunar body B is an extremely volcanic world, to the point where permanent habitation would be risky, but the presence of a caustic atmosphere acts as both a strong stealth agent and a deterrent to Cradle colonization. Lunar body C’s thick icy surface along with the possibility of an ocean underneath makes it an excellent colony for a long-term operational area where a power base can be created for further operations in the systems. Bodies D and E are both rockier and resource-rich but contain more exploitable resources, but are barren.

World 06 Another Gas giant with far less mass and a correspondingly smaller orbital system then World-05. There is a much smaller industrial presence in orbit of this body, to the point where it may be more exploratory than anything else. Permanent habitation in a gas-giant is non-viable.

World 06-B: A large moon with a notably heavy nitrogen atmosphere. Hydrocarbon lakes are present. The atmospheric conditions, in situ energy generation and material collection makes 06-B an favorable colonization candidate. There is a colonial presence on this system by the Cradle world, but relatively light compared to inner planets or World-5.

World 07: A Ice Giant, extreme temperatures and winds prevent easy access of resources, but its moons are of extreme interest: Namely Their fourth and fifth moons. Permanent habitation in a gas-giant is non-viable.

World 07 D, F: These water poor moons are totally uninhabited by Cradle-Bound life, and  further scans leads to the possibility of cavernous underground caves suitable for ship-self

World 08:A Ice Giant, extreme temperatures and winds prevent the probe body from inhabiting the giant itself.  very little scanning resources have been dedicated to it and its moons. Colonization of its smaller bodies is possible, but risky.Permanent habitation in a gas-giant is non-viable.

Elysium Command Arms Race of Conquest: Open Communications
   

This is an arms race which primarily revolves around spaceships and their legendary exploits. Combat on the ground does not have as large of a focus, and the design teams are focussed on making spaceships that sometimes carry ground units.
[link to Spacebattle core thread]
[link to discord]

Below are links to each team's private threads where actions are drawn up, you can peek at the first post for starter designs and such, but I would advise going no further without joining a team.
[link to Bay12 Elysium]
[link to Spacebattle Elysium]

I stand on the shoulders of giants, a once-failed arms race overlord who once again wishes to see the equipment of a battle designed. I’m gonna do what I did last time and plagiarize the boring stuff from Madman198237’s interplanetary arms race, which credits chief waffles and NUKE who ran the predecessor systems. I am also borrowing elements from the GURPs Spaceships books, mainly terminology. Without a further ado, here is the introduction to the system.


It's a beginning of a new era. With tens of millions of people on each torus structure, the gateway to the stars has had their slipways ignited after centuries of decay. You and your enemy's Elysium was unique in its fall from grace, and how it rose back up (you will come up with the details.) With massive complexes of autonomous Indo-Tech, your Elysium is fully spun up to forge wonders again, and fed with the glut of materials from your surrounding solar system, there is only one issue that consistently plagues your production: the Forges of the Elysium need more. The other Elysium holds the gate network hostage, hoards resources and materials that your factories need to kickstart mankind into another transcendent state, and they must be stopped before their ineffable plans to create “utopia” are put into action.

---

Note: Starter equipment can be found in each side's core thread post. This thread is a place where both bay12 & Spacebattle members can discuss events and hackle each other as well as get introduced to the arms race.

Core thread
See the core Thread for more information. If you are participating on the other team, please od not peek further than the OP.

Our homes are among the spires of District 7, we live in the Arcologies that had survived the initial bombardment, and continue to stand as a beacon for the future for all Yaerians. For a long time, the only way to get between spires was haphazardly made bridges, where we kept in contact with another through cable or through messenger These Spires are the homes of the Elorious Dynast, and on the tallest spire which only had half of its massive structure torn off is the newly assembled R&D Team. Among the cracked and spartan walls of this ancient hall are dozens of Crates, baskets, and clutter that is all we had recovered of the cache’s Pre-Collapse Technology, freshly stripped and ready for technological evolution.

Crates of salvaged equipment--- mostly broken, damaged artifacts of a bygone era-- are yours for the picking. No conclusive technology can be gleaned from anyone bit, but together, the possibilities are endless.

Your team, the first and only Elorius Militarized R&D Team has been given a very serious task, to create a military arms industrial complex from the cloth. There is no previous system to rely upon, no model or experts to gain inspiration from, and it all must run perfectly or our entire military will crumble before foreign legions.

We are in Cycle -1.25 of this as of yet unnamed conflict, around the star of Cadar, on the world Niria. Analysts predict that the first conflict against the Phoziris Shard will begin at Cycle 0, Giving us 5 turns to assemble anything and everything we need to fight a war.

We have 1 Mineral, 2 Energy.

Designs

I'm recently got into tabletop games and one of the games I am interested in just came out on Kickstarter today.

Lancer is a mud-and-lasers RPG about mechs and the pilots who crew them. Narrative play, gritty tactical combat and deep customization.

Ten thousand years after the climate crash that ended the Anthropocene, a survivor humanity rebuilt itself and spread to the stars. Numbering now in the trillions, they are a polyglot, cosmopolitan people, organized under a central hegemon: Union. The galaxy is vast before them, and humanity is its mirror. For some, it is a golden age of post-scarcity utopia. For the rest, that golden age remains a dream to be attained.

Into this roiling galaxy the you take your role as a mech pilots —  from cold-blooded mercenaries to honor-bound Baronic cuirassiers, hardscrabble Union regulars to professional Constellar Midnights, Far Field teams at the uncanny edge of known space to the ever-wandering Albatross. Operating with a wealth of licenses from one of the galaxy’s Big Five fabricators, you and your friends play a tight-knit squad of pilots on campaign — comrades together in a galaxy of danger and hope. Will you fight for Union, working to rectify the crimes of previous administrations? Will you run contracts for a corpro-state, working to advance private interests while lining your pockets? Will you fight to liberate your people from all masters, human or otherwise? Or will you fight only for yourself?

Lancer features a mix of military science fiction and mythic science fantasy. In the setting, conscript pilots mix ranks with flying aces, mercenary guns-for-hire brawl with secretive corpostate agents, and relativistic paladins cross thermal lances with causality-breaking entities.

In Lancer, there is promise in the potential, but the hard-won gains of humanity are under serious threat. From the internal: ruthless corpro-states, bitter anthrochauvinist reactionaries, and ponderous oligarchs, to the external: MONIST 1, or RA, an anoriginary being with unfathomable power and unknowable goals; the Aunic Ascendancy, the unbroken heirs of Old Humanity; and more.

Having only begun the project of recovering from its own internal political revolutions, Union now scrambles to reassert its control over a galaxy that would fall to chaos otherwise.

Who will you fight for, pilot?

The game already has a free pre-release PDF out if you wish to play the game without backing, linked here. The kickstarter is here if you wish to back it and gain access to the extra things they offer.

I might be planning on playing a game of it soon if my responsibilities allow it.

What is this?

It’s a Roll to dodge using a 2d6 rolling system too determine how well your actions succeed. Metamorphican madness is a story of our fated persons of interest as they explore the environment, and experience the joys of change. Based off some really ancient RTD’s I found while trawling the ancient archives for ideas. I will be using The Metamorphica Classic addition for this game.

How does it work?

How does the 2d6 work?
In short, for every action you commit, a 2d6 is rolled. A 2 means you have failed miserably, a 3-4 means you failed, a 5-6 means you maybe failed, a 7-8 means you maybe succeed, a 9-11 means you succeeded, and a 12 means you succeeded horrifically. Critical successes cause warpy things to happen. The bell curve encourages averaged results, with modifiers that stack causing increasingly insane buffs and bonuses. Mutations, tools, and other things may cause positive modifiers, while bad things(™) cause negative modifiers.

How does the “Metamorphic” part come to play?
After you commit an action, the Game Master may choose to “award” you with a choice of mutations, as dictated from the Metamorphican Madness book, which you may determine BEFORE you act in the next turn. The helpfulness of these descriptions are variable. I will roll a 1d1000 as many times as I wish, and then present you with a  short (read:useless) description of each possible mutation you can chose, and then I will inform you of how many mutations you can or are forced to take. Then, with your choice of mutations, you post your action. Mutations can differ from how you at first expect them to function from the description, so have caution in acting with your mutations!

Mechanically, you may act freely with how the mutations can give you such freedoms, in addition to all the things and stuff you have. Certain mutations, I will roll a 1d10 for their power, which I will sometimes consult to determine how awful your atrocities can be. Depending on how you mutate, I may re-roll mutations to fit your theme of character.

How do I enter the game?
Fill this sheet below. If you commit an action related to your bio, I may decide to grant you a buff, or allow you to to do an action at all. I will post your character sheet,


Gimme an example of this stuff in play!

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You awaken. Your head throbs, flashing images of the last couple moments-- before you were… here… You can’t quite remember-- Up above, the light bathes you, and the free … thing shudders gently in its confinement. It wisps at its containment, ripping tiny bits and pieces at its cage before sending a bolt of something into the air, and another person, someone perhaps like you comes into existence, just as confused as you are.

For a minute, you feel something gnawing at your center, a profound emptiness that threatens to swallow you whole-sale, before it fades away, and is replaced with a gentle warmness, probably radiation poisoning.

You take a moment to stir, to wake up and examine yourself, and the others more critically.

---

Armageddon Squadron is a system where mothership-deployed drones are deployed to obliterate hostile forms. Typically, a single primary objective is deployed along with one to several secondary objectives. Some Armageddon platforms are optimised for different tasks, but most of you will be kept in a standard platform until your Animus shows potential in another platform. Platforms will hold randomly generated modifications, as a result of the slight variance in production, resulting in anything from Stallinium wings to built in nuclear self destructs. It is also of note that the Requisitions Network is not perfect, and may actually provide a completely different platform then intended if you are (un)lucky. In short, your equipment is somewhat random, although you can somewhat self determine later.

After your inevitable demise, the Animus Projector will send you back to the Mother ship, to be loaded back into another Armageddon-specified platform and sent out once more to fight, to repeat until the primary objective is completed, at which point the Mothership recalls all craft, or detonates them, and assigns a letter rating to all Animus for their overall preformance.

Typically, the Animus that operates Armageddon platforms are often described as insanely xenocidal and patriotic, this is both the result of the Battlefield networks specific programming, and the repeated horrors of war they are faced with. Act however you want, but acting within theme of being utterly homicidal warmachines with nothing to lose but a tick on the death-count will give you more attention by the Battle-Net. Wasting assets is banned from your thought process, so you cannot waste assets willingly.

Drones have three priorities, beyond which nothing else comes close to mattering. Except when it does.

• Complete Primary objective
• Complete Secondary Objective
• Protect Mother ship.

Platforms are as every bit as expendable as bullets or missiles (Despite what the Battle-Net says.), but the enemy does not have this boon, for they are more primitive. Although they deploy more lethal, faster and sometimes powerful forces, Animus-bound frames as every bit numerous as the mineral stores of the MotherShip. (Basically unlimited.)



In a typical turn, you would post your actions in bold, your messages to a particular character underlined (with their name) and discussion with fellow Battleframes in colored "quotes" (Pick a color that fits you and stick with it.). On the very bottom of your post that includes your Action, you post a spoiler containing your sheet. The most important thing is simple; live and die. Over, and over, and over. Have fun.

The Collapse.




You're a little old for this world, approaching middle age at a steady rate, for this blasted desert world. You made your living by walking through old ruins, taking the little bits that was left behind, and selling them to any interested buyers. Occasionally a corporation would take interest, but it wasn’t enough to keep you fed everyday.

You weren’t very important, not until you accidentally broke open a vial of priceless, almost legendary one-of-a-kind nanites thought lost in the Collapse, which promptly soaked into your fingers, cut into your capillaries, and traveled all the way into your brain, and practically forced you to know several lifetimes of information, which promptly caused you to black out in agony.

When you woke up, most of that almost intoxicating knowledge just left. Too complicated for you to remember, not yet.

The lab around you was mostly looted over and over again, you only found the ampule after breaking open a hidden and unassuming Metal crate. It didn’t have much besides a bunch of old papers that you can't read.

The room you are in was rather thoroughly looted, with the chemical equipment mostly stolen, only metal scraps are left. The walls are pretty much on their last legs with holes in them, as is the ceiling. Cabling sometimes hangs from the ceiling, mostly rotten, but you are willing to bet some digital optical fibers are hidden somewhere in the ceiling for data transfer.

The Airlocks which lead to the lobby are forced open, the control consoles for the airlocks are missing, but no one made any effort to take out the  football sized motors from the two airlocks.

The front desk in the lobby has no computer, and the doors to the outside is letting hot air in. there are other rooms besides the entrance and the room you awoke in, but they are either collapsed, or wholly looted. The Desk is made of plastic.

Vaguely, your head throbs. Information comes and goes, but you think you can recall some concrete information about either Your Past or your Newfound Knowledge using Historic or Techno Points. These points may be further divided down when they need to be, and they may become useless as well.

You're not sure what to do right now, maybe you can recall some information about yourself, your surroundings, or probably do something insane and wacky.

This topic has been moved to Forum Games and Roleplaying.
Yep.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=164664.0