You come to in a flash of light, followed by sudden vertigo. You open your eyes to find out that you have none, and try to speak only to learn that likewise, you have no mouth, at least at the moment. Still--the unknown senses you
do have bring in an overload of information, more information that you are used to or even equipped to process.
As if someone is doing the looking
for you, the environment around you comes to life. You vicariously take in all the sights and sounds of a medical lab with sterilized plastic tables and equipment organized neatly onto trays, manipulated by labcoat-wearing scientists, doctors, and nurses. You even recognize your own body laying on a table, covered in electrodes and implants, being pumped full of I.V. fluids, and having your vital signs monitored by a team of executive-looking personnel being a glass wall on the far side of the room. At first, you believe you are having some kind of out-of-body experience, but then a simple spark of white light puts you back to sleep and everything once again goes dark.
...
*VITAL SIGNS NORMAL*
*COGNITIVE ACTIVITY DETECTED*
*PREPARING RESCUSITATION... DONE*
*LOADING VR ASSETS...*
Welcome back.
Do you see this?
So you do. We were looking for the reaction your brain has when subjected to stimuli like a question. That means that everything is progressing as anticipated.
Your memory has been severely compromised by the trials. We tried to salvage what we could, but as far as experiences go, you are now a clean slate. Don't see this as harming your sense of personhood in any way. Your personality, preferences, and desires are all there, simply hidden under a veil for you to rediscover.
So, you might ask once we give you an avatar, why are you trapped in your current state? Well, years ago you signed up for a program sponsored by the Central Navy. Five were chosen. All five of you were terminally ill or paralyzed, with little prospects of recovery. Through our program, we are giving you a new body and a new life, but with that comes responsibility. For the next ten years, you will be part of our expeditionary force, using your newfound ability to protect our people from a threat unlike any that you have ever known.
In five minutes, we will begin the process of mental trials in order to help you get back on your feet. In the meantime, please review these files. Feel free to ask questions afterward. Good luck!
*LOADING DOCUMENTS... DONE*
This is an RtD where you get to control remote bodies and do missions for your government. Death is non-permanent unless your character is physically destroyed, in which case replacements will be brought in from the waitlist. There will be five players total at a given time.
Your character is an ordinary person that got horribly mangled/injured/disabled in the past and signed up for a government program to provide a special kind of prosthesis. You don't quite remember your past life, but reading your character sheet will remind your character of his/her past life to an extent. Basically, you will remember these experiences, but you won't feel like you are the one who had them.
Your enemies are a mysterious and highly advanced menace that is inimical to life, at least according to your new superiors.
The prologue takes place inside a laboratory on Ceres. The Central Navy functions as the orbital authority in the Sol System, preventing unauthorized modifications to the orbits of interstellar bodies and in general keeping the peace. The governments of Earth are not the old ones--Earth has been through a cataclysmic war in the past rendering the surface mostly uninhabitable. While the planet heals, humanity has lived inside habitats in orbit, on giant towers over the surface, and deep beneath the ocean inside shielded domes. Society has developed in various different ways, leading to three main distinctions:
Skylanders: These are people still living inside the ancient Skytowers. While today they are interlinked by a massive air traffic network, they were highly isolated in the past and as such each tower is unique in its own way. To preserve this uniqueness, governments regularly maintain the towers and provide spaces for people to live. Resources are fairly scarce on the skytowers, and as such their main practical use is providing a base of operations for planetside research and environmental operations.
Ocean Dwellers: This is where most of Earth's population resides. Due to the availability of geothermal power and endless water supply for nuclear coolant, the undersea dome societies are still going strong and provide a range of industries.
Orbiters: Most governments keep their capitals in orbit with a dedicated crew to maintain the station and tend to the satelite network. Orbiter settlements tend to be based around hydroponics, astronomy, and drydock services. All spacecraft are built in space to save on fuel costs.
There are colonies on Mars and various asteroids, as well as orbital habitats around Jupiter and Saturn. The outer solar system remains mostly unexplored by human beings.
Actions will be rolled for as follows:
Advanced rolls (medical rolls, construction, hacking, maintainence, etc) will use a d6 by default. Each level of skill your character has for the particular action increases the number of sides on the die and also give you +1 to actions for that skill.
Basic rolls use a d6. Standard rules: 1-2=Fail, 3-4=Success, 5=Great Success, 6=Overshoot.
Combat rolls use a variety of stats to determine overall effect. Basically, for each attack you roll a dice with a number of sides equal to 6 PLUS the defense value of the target. The higher the roll, the more likely you are to score a good hit. No damage types, hitpoints, etc. Injuries are unknown until diagnosed, and a basic roll will determine how severe the injury is upon examination.
Each level in a utility skill increases the number of sides on the die by one for a relevant action and increases your roll by one as well.
Example Skills:
-Medic
-Botanist
-Technician
-Tinkerer
-Hacker
-Ambusher
-Detective
-Persuader
-Lier
Some skills apply to combat. These simply increase your rolls by one for related attacks. Defensive skills like Dodger have a specific effect which is described in parenthesis.
Example Combat skills:
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Unarmed combat only)
Melee Combat (Includes melee weapons and ranged weapons like shotguns, etc, but only at very short ranges)
Marksman (Weapons with rifled barrels and pinpoint accuracy. This doesn't make you an expert at sniping with a shotgun, for example.)
Long-Ranged Combat (Improves ALL long-ranged combat, including missile launchers and shotguns)
Improvised Weapon Use (Only works with things that are not purpose-built for combat)
Swordsman (Increases attack rolls and defense while holding a sword)
Dodger (Increases defense against melee attacks)
Juking (Increases defense against long-ranged attacks)
For skills, use a number in parenthesis like (2) to indicate the level of skill you have.
Copy and paste this sheet:
[b]Name: [/b]
[b]Injury: [/b]
[b]Bio: [/b]
[b]Skills: [/b] (3 points total) (Do not include description)
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Topic: The Cloud - One Small Step... (Read 39024 times)