LORE!
6 centuries ago, your people left their home, which was once called Earth, though now you tend to just refer to it as "Homeworld", because it turns out most of the people in the universe like to call their planet earth. This exodus was accomplished by building a very large spaceship powered by mostly griffon blood.
The reason why they decided to leave, ironically, was because they had nearly run out of griffon blood. These days, your people enjoy a decent surplus of griffon blood, as well as dragon, chimera, minotaur, hydra, and sandworm blood, among other types.
The upshot is this: you live on a great big space ship with a jump drive powered by the blood of exotic and dangerous magical creatures, or more accurately the Arcane Substance found within that blood. Each jump brings you to a new world, and new Arcane Beasts to hunt, for more Arcane, for more jumps. Also at each new world is a new strain of Humanity, as unlike the expectations of your ancient forebears, this universe is full of humans, and somewhat conspicuously absent any other intelligent alien species.
These people are invariably either too primitive to make good use of Arcane, or have destroyed their own civilization at some point in the past, and are in no condition to travel the stars themselves. It's unsurprising, then, that many of these people join your little nomad civilization, indeed, it's likely that you're a descendant of some tribals, rather than purely the humans of "homeworld". Perhaps you were even a tribal yourself before signing up to travel the stars aboard the Rose's Relief.
It should be noted that this ship is not the only one that left Homeworld. There have even been a few newer ships launched by Homeworlders from other planets. However, due to the rare and limited nature of Arcane, each ship travels on its own, and when two meet on the same planet by chance, conflict is likely. Such conflicts are usually resolved by the use of Powered Bipedal Armor, fueled by Arcane. Or, as they are more commonly called, Mechs.
Now then, on to this particular world. Every other system in living memory and on written record follows the same pattern; a few lifeless worlds orbiting a star, and one living world inhabited by plants, animals, humans, and Arcane Beasts. This world, however, is different. Here, there is no sign of any Arcane Beasts on the surface, only numerious human tribes. This is, obviously, very concerning, as a lack of beasts means a lack of arcane, and a lack of arcane means no way to leave this system. Then, a discovery. The humans of this world hold Arcane Substance in their blood. This is even more concerning, because it means you'll have to kill some humans and steal their blood to power your jump drive.
ALTERNATIVELY!
The history of Earth largely revolves around the city of Xeniga. This is the biggest and most advanced city on the whole world. While most of the world lives in villages and mut huts, Xeniga is a bastion of concrete, steel, and glass. Many very valuable things are produced here, such as radio transceivers, handheld computers, and of course, weapons. Naturally, this means that the city is a valuable target for invasion by whatever tribes don't own it, and it's changed hands many, many times.
In such conflicts, the biggest assets are people like you; mages. While it's known that all people have the spark of Mana within them, the Mages are those with a greater command of the magical force at their disposal, allowing them to perform various great feats like... like killing a bunch of people. And fighting other mages. Let's be honest, if you have this kind of power, you're gonna use it for violence or get violenced yourself.
And so with blade, bow, machinegun and cudgel you fight for Xaniga, or at least for its current owners. Despite the fact that Xaniga changes hands so often, life within the city will usually stay fairly stable, and this is where most mages learn their art. Many of them are more attached to the city itself, and will fight wars for whoever happens to own it at the time. The tribes can't argue much with this sort of flip-flopping, because at least they know WHEN you'll switch sides, and arguing with a mage usually doesn't end well for anyone.
Rumors have been filtering in recently of a large metal object which fell from the sky. Some people have said that metal men and metal man-shaped-ish things are running around nearby. You've gone to the nearest village, Danei, to investigate.
What? I don't understand!Okay, here's the version of that without all the fancy words: Magic space people in mech suits fell from the stars and want to suck all the blood out of the magic not-space mage people. This is so that they can power up their jump drive and leave this system for a place with hopefully better hunting options. Yes, one of those types of people came from space, but they're both humans. The same species, if you ever care to make that relevant (please don't). This, is broad terms, means that those two teams of people need to murder each other and suck the magic juices out to become more powerful.
You get to be either a mech dude/lady or a mage dude/lady. This means that you get to murder other, real-life players and eat their magic juices. Exciting!
Fill out one of the character sheets below. You're probably more likely to get in if you join the side with fewer players. I probably want about six players, but more or less is fine.
Rolls are your regular 1d6, like your normal RTD. Results of actions may depend on the circumstance, so even with a 5 you can't punch through a solid metal wall with your bare hands. Unless you're the class which actually can do that, hmm.
If I deem success or failure especially likely (such as if you have an attribute relevant to the action), I may roll two dice and take the higher/lower/
whichever is funnier.
I reserve the right to cheat at rolls as much as I like if I think it'll make for a funner game.
Name: (Anything you like.)
Class: (Shifter or Weaponmaster. Include your extra magical abilities/weapon)
Appearance: (Eye color, skin color, hair color and style, facial characteristics, stature, clothing. Also, pick a spirit animal which represents your character. Please, be creative and anime that shit up.)
Mana: 3/3 (Goes down by one for every turn you use magic. If you don't do magic for a turn or Push, resets to full.)
Push: 0/0 (Increases by 1 every time you Push. Each push, if a die roll is the same or under this number AFTER increasing, something unpredictable may happen. Right number is your minimum push. Every time you rest your push gets cut in half, but it can never be decreased below its new level.)
Attributes: (You may pick one attribute. In addition, you may pick an additional negative attribute for an extra positive one. You can take the same attribute multiple times, mark this with a + on the end, eg. Deadly+.)
Inventory: (Any weapons or equipment you want to bring along. Weapons can be anything from spears to automatic firearms. Don't list more than you could reasonably carry, please.)
Advancements: (Gained during the game, for destroying mechs and taking their arcane reservoirs.)
Name: (Anything you like.)
Class: (Hardsuit, Tech Gear, or Titan.)
Appearance: (Eye color, skin color, hair color and style, facial characteristics, stature, clothing. Please, be creative and anime that shit up.)
Mech Appearance: (Notable customizations and decorations.)
Arcane: 100/100 (Decreases slightly every turn, when you use weapons, and when you perform certain other actions.)
Attributes: (You may pick one attribute. In addition, you may pick an additional negative attribute for an extra positive one. You can take the same attribute multiple times, mark this with a + on the end, eg. Deadly+.)
Inventory: (Three mech weapons (or one heavier one), any additional mech systems, and whatever you want to keep in the cockpit, such as a sidearm, medical kit, or fire extinguisher.)
Upgrades: (Gained during the game, for killing mages and... draining them of blood. Ew.)
Aware: You're likely to notice things, and generally know what's going on.
Acrobatic: You don't like to take the obvious and slow route, and can show up in surprising places.
Quick-witted: You've got a quick draw and are the fastest to react to unexpected events.
Charismatic: People tend to like you, even enemies.
Deadly: When you strike someone, you make sure they die.
Resistant: You can take a lot of punishment.
Wise: You're good at figuring out what's happening, and you're not often surprised by developments.
Unrelenting: It takes a lot to make you give up.
Medic: You know what to do to save people on the edge of death.
Armorer: You can create complex and esoteric weapons, given the tools and time.
Spiritual: You have a close bond with your animal spirit.
Engineer: It's easy for you to repair your mech.
Merciful: You don't really want to hurt anyone.
Overconfident: You don't think anything can stop you.
Frail: It wouldn't take much to destroy you.
Unobservative: You often miss obvious things.
Sluggish: You can't keep up with the rapid pace of combat.
Blood-lusty: You can't stop yourself from killing.
Shifter:
Shifters are mages born with an instinctive, logical understanding of the nature of magic, allowing them to, as the name implies, shift things. Most obviously, they can "Blink", instantly moving their body from one place to another. This can also be used to teleport small objects to or from themselves. Shifters also display supernatural grace in midair, able to float in one place, leap great distances, and jump off of thin air to change direction.
In addition to the above, the Shifter has dominion over two of the following abilities:
Spaceshift: Blink inanimate objects into an infinite "hammerspace" pocket dimension, and quickly retrieve these objects. Due to hammerspace Spaceshifters can carry as much equipment as they like. Push may allow a Spaceshifter to blink very large objects.
Timeshift: Can increase the speed at which they experience time compared to everything else, causing the world to slow down from their perspective. Can cause objects to age rapidly, or stay in stasis. can briefly freeze a living being, preventing them from acting or being harmed. On a Push may freeze time altogether.
Selfshift: Change self into new forms. Temporarily change parts of themselves into animalistic versions, improving speed, senses, or attack power. Can be used for more subtle changes like for a disguise. On Push can shift other people or transform entirely into an animal form.
Lightshift: Can appear invisible by allowing light to pass through their body. Can also make objects invisible or cause all light in a certain area to be absorbed by the air, creating an incorporeal black wall which blocks all vision. On push, can make everyone on the area see exactly what you want them to see. Or shoot a great big lazor.
Sameshift: Bind together two objects or creatures which are similar, in such a way that both experience the same thing. Cut off one arm, cause the other to be severed as well. Shoot a hole in the left side of a breastplate, cause the right side to get a hole. Pull the pin on your grenade, cause the pin to be pulled on your enemy's grenade. On push can Permanently bind together the fates of two humans, so if one dies the other does as well.
Fleshshift: Freely manipulate living animal tissues, changing them into different functional shapes. This cannot create mass or energy out of nothing; you can't turn a rat into a pistol which fire bone bolts forever, unless the creature has some way of gaining back mass and energy, such as consuming food. using this power to put things back together how they were is very difficult; the magic force has some will of its own, but it doesn't know how to create or fix a human body as you know it. To even attempt to fix a human being without changing it, you would have to have an in-depth understanding of the affected region yourself. In addition, any modifications you make are likely to work as you intend for the immediate future, but past that survival is unlikely; the structures created by this power are simply not made to keep a creature going indefinitely, unless the user is very careful. On Push, the user can modify a large amount of flesh dramatically, very quickly.
Weaponmaster:
Weaponmasters are mages whose control over magic totally depends on willpower. Only the most steel-willed of mages can truly be said to be a weaponmaster. Like shifters, weaponmasters have very high mobility and have a similar ability to Blink. However, unlike the shifters, this ability is just very fast movement, requiring the weaponmaster to physically travel from one place to the other. So no teleporting though walls, kids. Fortunately the weaponmaster can probably just smash that wall open and then blink through the hole. These mages are very strong and hardy, and very skilled in whatever weapon they use, capable of such unlikely feats as knocking bullets out of the air after they're fired. Weaponmasters also get a Soul-Bound Weapon, which is indestructible (so long as the weaponmaster lives...) and of exceptional quality. This weapon can be summoned or dispelled at any time, and identical copies can even be summoned simultaneously, for some sweet triple-halberd-wielding action.
Pushes as a weaponmaster will take you from superhuman to somewhat godly. Not to say that's gonna make you immortal, but it might put you close.
Hardsuit:
Light support role mech. This is a very small mech, just light armor covering the whole body. It provides the user with nearly unlimited flight ability and great strength, sufficient to carry and use some very large weapons. Not very powerful, but can provide air support and fit into smaller spaces and interact on a human scale.
Power upkeep cost: 1A
Flight system cost: 1A per turn
Can carry three man-portable weapons OR one light weapon. ("Light" as in "light for a vehicle". Very massively big for a human.)
Tech Gear:
Mech about the size of a small car, with the user's limb partially fitting into the mech's limbs. This mech usually has a hunched-over posture and digitigrade legs, giving it a more inhuman appearance than the other classes. A century ago, these mechs were called "Battle Gear" and were the primary fighting class, usually used for fighting the bigger Arcane Beasts. When the Titan was developed, these were relegated to a support role, carrying supplies, keeping communications, and supporting a small fleet of drones. The equipment mounted on these machines is well suited for hacking mechs and other electronic machines.
Power upkeep cost: 3A
Jump jets cost: 3A
Can carry two light weapons (one on each arm) and six combat drones OR one heavy weapon and two drones.
Titan:
Largest class of mech, with the head at the level of a two-story building. The pilot rides in the chest and has a comfortable cockpit, like that on a plane. These are weapons specifically designed to out shoot and out tank other mechs, and as such wields some impressive firepower. This class has absolutely no flight ability.
Power upkeep: 5A
Can carry two heavy weapons, and one very large angry thing on its back.
Mission 1 started here
Deaths:
Malcolm "Romeo" Vertix: Heart stopped due to catastrophic brain damage from magic.
Malabus: Mind totally lost due to catastrophic brain damage from magic.
Rico: Flashbanged self, got vaporized by friendly fire.
Razan: Got shredded by friendly fire, body got vaporized by other friendly fire.
Thomas: Eaten by magic.
