Bay 12 Games Forum

*Potentially insert something here*

Spoiler: Introduction (click to show/hide)

Ah, Vanaard Corp. Great pay, interesting jobs for (almost) everyone, and bleeding-edge science. When they offered you a job, you had no second thoughts about joining. Finally, your extensive knowledge of DNA, biology, and other such stuff had earned you a job that will most certainly give you a lifetime of luxury, and would be a fun job: You had been hired as a Bio-scientist! A job to experiment with DNA, unique organisms, and generally everything holy to god. It's something nobody else was and still is offering. And best of all, it was TOP SECRET! You always wanted to work on something top secret!

Yeah, it was great. Really great. Great for 3 months. Then... uh, it went pear-shaped. See, when you deal with top secret things, they're generally not things that are safe. Most of what you messed with was okay: From viruses, to genetically modifying various creatures (even, sometimes, humans), but... two days ago, a meteorite hit Earth in a secluded location, and apparently Vanaard Corp found something interesting there. Something living. So, they shipped it to your section, without even telling you much besides to treat the meteorite as a contaminated object, and telling you to breed whatever you found on it. And that's what you and your other Bio-scientists did. Oh boy, was it exciting--breeding alien life. Surely nothing could go wrong?

Well, uhh... see, when you were breeding the alien life--which you now know are microbes--they began multiplying explosively. They created literal goo of microbes, which you had to put in barrels as your employers didn't exactly specify how much to breed. Not wanting to disappoint, you all decided that breeding as fast as possible was the right choice. So, as I said, you and your fellow employees bred the alien microbes, and put them in barrels. Well, eventually you all needed some help, as there were so many barrels. It was perhaps not a surprise that eventually a spill happened. A barrel was knocked over. Which then lead to more knocking over, and more and... eventually, you and your fellow employees were laying down in pools of this stuff. Despite your protective suits, the barrels had knocked you around a bunch and surely ripped or bashed a few holes into the suits. Oh, and two security guards and one janitor also got splashed with the stuff. It was nearly immediate when the quarantine alarm went off. You and your fellow Bio-scientists were carried off into quarantine rooms, but before you could get put into one...

You hear a scream. A scientist runs by. Then another. Then a security guard firing his pistol wildly. Then the janitor--oh god what the hell, why does he have claws and wings and holy crap the infected security guards look like something out of a sci-fi movie. The guards taking you to quarantine, obviously freaked out about this, push you all away and shoot wildly at you all before they run down a corridor.

Oh this is turning out to be a great day. You all feel your skin tingling, the entire facility is now in quarantine while there's horrific nightmare infected about, and in all likelyhood in the next hour the US military will be locking down the building with everything from machineguns to tanks to bombers... What now? And can it possibly get any worse?

Spoiler: Notes (click to show/hide)

While this RTD may seem entirely nonsense, I expect at least some sensibility--ALL CAPS will probably get you stabbed by the GM, actions way way out of scope and out of character (I.e, "Blow up the world with my mind") will almost certainly be ignored, and repeated attempts despite my protests and warnings will get you kicked. Repeated actions that blatantly do nothing but waste time (like stacking boxes in a boxfort for no reason) will probably get you kicked or attacked or something else to encourage you do actually do something worthy of merit. Generally, treat this RTD with at least some respect--it doesn't have to be even nearly that of most RTDs, but at least some--or get out.

The game will run on a 1d20. Things higher to 20 will be increasingly more successful, while towards 1 things will go apple-shaped. It will be very arbitrary on how specifically things go.

Depending on your action, the result will arbitrarily (but semi-sensibly) determined based both on the roll and the action. Jumping a short distance, for example, will generally always go good(enough) unless you hit somewhere extremely close or at a 1, while attempting to punch through a concrete wall WITHOUT superhuman strength will generally cause you damage unless you get somewhere near a 20, in which case you might avoid damage, but in no case will you actually be able to punch through the wall.

In general, this RTD will be highly arbitrary. If you cannot take what I write at face value, you might want to reconsider your attitude towards this RTD. It's a game, and one that's not necessarily meant to be won or heavily invested in.

Roleplaying is completely unenforced. It's up to the players to decide whether there is roleplaying, based on how they treat their actions. Gasp, you get to decide things! Exciting.

I am reserving the right to end the RTD any time when I actively dislike running it. That's not saying I predict to end it very shortly after I start it, I'm just saying that I'm not going to put any sense of dedication towards it like I have with my previous RTDs. I reserve the right to update when I feel like it--if I have a bad or overly boring day, I will skip this like most other things if I feel like I don't want to do it.

Spoiler: Character Sheet (click to show/hide)

I'll make this simple for you, Bob and Jane:

Name: The name for your character, please avoid using numbers. If for whatever reason you want to have a family name too, put your personal name and your family name in separate [brackets].
Gender: Male or female. This is only taking into consideration their physical body, not their mental stance. A man who decides that she's a female, while still having a male body, is a male for this consideration.
Strengths: A vague sense of your character's strengths (skills or attributes) outside of being average. Can be anything you want. It is mostly fluff, but it might just influence me to tip favor for you in cases where a roll can be interpreted multiple ways if I feel nice. The chance decreases the more specialties you have.
Weaknesses: A vague sense of your character's weaknesses (skills or attributes) outside of being average. Once again, can be anything you want. It is mostly fluff, but if you want to make your character more prone to failing some things for the entertainment of the masses whenever a roll can be interpreted multiple ways and I feel like making you fail, go ahead.
Impending Doom: What your character considers to be what will kill him/her. Doesn't directly affect the game, but it may influence what I write and, potentially, even how I kill you. If I do, of course, heh.
Description: If you want to say something important about your character and waste our time, like your character's clothes or hair or whatever, go ahead and put something here.

And... that's it? From a GM like me? Heresy.

Spoiler: Mutagenic Microbe Strains (click to show/hide)

Possibly the most complex part of this game. What, you didn't think you were breeding single types of microbes did you? Heheh.

You will be infected the moment the game is started with at least one of these. You will also initially be mutated one time at the game start. The strain type you are infected with will be random. You cannot be infected with more than one. In order to ensure that there's even spread, once one is picked, it will be removed from the types that can be picked until the entire list is used up, then the random-list will be restarted. Each one has benefits, and obviously some flaws. The microbes have to look after themselves you know. Good news though: Unlike everyone else in the facility, due to GM Influence, none of these will cause you to go insane.

Strain A: The Random.
  Purely random. It randomly mutates you. Randomly. The limit is my imagination, so the more interesting things you can make me think of before you get mutated the more random your mutation choices. Mutates every 20 turns (slow). Spreads by blood of the infected (moderate). Injures the infected when it mutates (moderate). Regenerates infected (moderate).

Strain B: The Alienifyer.
  Attempts to mutate you into some sensible, yet unique alien-like entity. Once done, it refines your alienness by changing increasingly minor things. The limit is, once again, my imagination. With restraint. Mutates every 15 turns (slightly slow). Spreads by blood of the infected (moderate). Does not injure the infected when it mutates (great). Does not regenerate infected (horrible).

Strain C: Mysterious Identity.
  Attempts to make you look human on the surface, but it will change your appearance randomly. Across genders. Underneath the surface also can change. Mutates every 10 turns (moderate). Spreads by blood of the infected (moderate). Does not injure the infected when it mutates (great). Does not regenerate infected (horrible).

Strain D: Eldrich Horror.
  Changes you into varying types of dangerous tentacle monsters. Mutates every 15 turns (slightly slow). Spreads by goo of infected (infectious). Greatly injures the infected when it mutates (bad). Highly regenerates infected (good).

Strain E: The Infector.
  Mutates you to make you as infectious as possible. Mutates every 15 turns (slightly slow). Spreads by various means (varies). Greatly injures the infected when it mutates (bad). Highly regenerates infected (good).

Strain F: The Mass.
  Mutates you basically randomly, but you absorb the material of any dead creature you touch. In doing so, once you eventually hit a critical mass, you split in half, leaving a mass of infected body behind (which hurts A LOT). Mutates every 10 turns (moderate). Spreads by touch (very infectious). Slightly injures the infected when it mutates (good). Regenerates infected extremely quickly (great).

Strain G: The Goo.
  Mutates away you until you are but an increasingly simplified mass of (highly controllable, human intelligence) goo. Once that's finished, your body will reform and the process will restart. Mutates every 8 turns (slightly fast). Spreads by touch (very infectious). Does not injure the infected when it mutates (great). Highly regenerates infected (good).

Strain H: The Mutant.
  Mutates you to have superpowers or superweaknesses yet attempts to keep you looking vaguely human. Can moderately defy reality in mutations. Mutates every 10 turns (moderate). Spreads by blood-blood contact with the infected (barely infectious).  Injures the infected when it mutates (moderate). Does not regenerate infected (horrible).

Strain I: The Monster.
  Mutates you into some sort of alien monster very quickly, before mutating you into another, and another... Mutates every 5 turns (fast). Spreads by blood-blood contact with the infected (barely infectious). Does not injure the infected when it mutates (great). Does not regenerate infected (horrible).

Strain J: The Critic Strain.
  Mutates you depending on how you preform on actions--you do very well, it impairs you, you do very poorly, it helps you. It will use any time of mutation to achieve its goals to criticize you for no reason. Mutates every 5 turns (fast). Spreads by blood of the infected (moderate). Does not injure the infected when it mutates (great). Does not regenerate infected (horrible).

Strain K: The Holy/Unholy.
  Mutates you in an angelic/demonic theme. Alternates every mutation, unless you preform a good or evil action. If I ran out of ideas for one side, I will do the other. Mutates every 10 turns (moderate). Spreads by touch (very infectious). Does not injure the infected when it mutates (great). Slightly regenerates infected (bad).

*Insert more types before I start the game if I do*

*Potentially insert other stuff below*

For me it's mainly the lack of feedback. Like i can go write my merry way, but i get highly uncertain about the quality of the content i write and thus i stop writing. Whilst i would like to ask for feedback, i feel it's a kind of nagging the player which i do not want and thus i don't ask.

And when i do ask, i get no feedback.