Mass Effect: Going Dark (RPG)

[rhoenix]

Updated the character creation post again - corrected skill descriptions for Biotic Skills, and added Special Skills for clarity.

Also note that weapons skills no longer give a "special ability" to use during combat.

[White Haven]

Bailey being the guy he is, I somewhat suspect that Sidonis's nomination is actually just a giant troll aimed at Garrus.

[Hotfoot]

Frankly, I'm more concerned that Bailey hasn't yet killed any of the frakkin' toasters yet...

Oh well, plenty of airlocks in the future, I suppose.

[JD196]

Name: Urdnot Tallos
Homeworld: Tuchanka
Species: Krogan
MOS: Soldier
Skills: Armor (Advanced - Soldier only)
Fitness (Immunity)
Assault Rifle - allows use of the assault rifle
Pistol - allows use of the pistol
Submachine Gun - allows use of the submachine gun
Shotgun - allows use of the shotgun
Sniper Rifle - allows use of the sniper rifle
Heavy Weapons - allows use of heavy weapons


Pre-nomination personal history: Born on Tuchanka in 1963 (Earth calender) to clan Urdnot. Survived rite of passage easily and had planned to train to become shaman however he was forced to leave the planet at the age of 50 due to embarrassing his clan at a crush. He spent the next 170 years as a merc on omega before finally leaving just before the reaper war to rejoin clan Urdnot.

Pre-nomination military background: Spent most of his life as a merc for the blood pack and was personally responsible for stopping over 50 blue suns and eclipse operations. Fought alongside humans and turians during the reaper war, killing hundreds of enemy's. Worked well with other species, not sharing his fellow krogan's beliefs that all other races are weak.

[rhoenix]

Welcome to the game, JD. Make sure to leave a post in the New User Intro thread in the Great Hall forum to properly introduce yourself. And then, fill in the rest of Urdnot Tallos' skills. ;)

SirNitram, you still have two more skills to choose. Overwhelm and Carnage don't count.

[rhoenix]

Bailey being the guy he is, I somewhat suspect that Sidonis's nomination is actually just a giant troll aimed at Garrus.

Bailey? Do something just to get a rise out of someone?

Nah, doesn't sound like him at all. He's too by-the-book.

EDIT: Also, I've yet again edited the character creation post, cleaning up the skill descriptions for several skills, and clarifying the effects of several of them as well. If any of them are ambiguous or in any way unclear, let me know.

[SirNitram]

I know. Life has been busy! And I apologize.

[rhoenix]

I know. Life has been busy! And I apologize.

No worries, I completely understand that life sometimes does not play fair.

[SirNitram]

Updated. Many-As-One is now encased in the best armor/mass effect field the Geth could form on a Trooper-class Standard Mobile Platform.

[rhoenix]

Since this is going to come up at some point, I've been looking into maps, and map software to use for this game - since, let's be honest, having maps will make this game much easier for the visual types.

So far, I haven't found anything that really suits my needs just yet, so I may end up just making maps in GIMP or something. We shall see. Regardless, I'll be getting loose ends taken care of for when the real game starts, following the candidate trials, which will effectively be the game's prologue.

[Soleimon Berserker]

Name: Sol’Amon Nar Tolshek
Homeworld: Quarian Flotilla (The Tolshek)/ Rannoch
Species: Quarian
MOS: Vanguard
Skills:
Pistol: Allows use of the pistol
Submachine Gun : Allows use of the submachine gun.
Charge: The finer study of Inertia (granting the use of Charge, which is effectively a Throw used on the self - note that despite the name, only the Vanguard's particular style of this skill actually generates inertia)
Shockwave: The art of localized areas of increased gravity (with a rapid wave of them being sent in a direction, knocking most enemies off their feet and stunning organic targets)
Armor (Basic): Allows use of light armor and/or reinforced clothing
Armor (Combat): Allows use of full medium environmental hardsuit armor
CQC (Close Quarters Combat) Specialist (Quarian Meela'helai): A martial art reminiscent of Earth’s Brazilian Capoeira, though Meela’helai involves much more acrobatics and aerial moves, formerly a form of hunt dance from the nomadic days of the Quarian’s past.
Barrier: The biotic art of resisting damage (with Barrier being a physical representation of this, able to supplement shields with another layer of protection)

Pre-nomination personal history:
Omega has always been a dangerous and unforgiving place…
Some learn this fact long before they ever have a thought of visiting the former mining colony. Others learn this lesson from stories they hear on the transport heading to the station. Still others learn it the most common way…through pain delivered in one of its many back alleys.
Few people could be said to survive on Omega, fewer still could be thought to feel comfortable walking the dark orange lit streets, the thought of few people besides the Vorcha actually thriving on the station would seem insane.
Even less so when that person is a teenage Quarian….
Son of a Quarian Marine and an envirosuit repairman, Sol’Amon Nar Tolshek would easily be described as…..different. That difference couldn’t be explained until he reached the age of 11, and his parents realized he had a habit of developing an opinion on someone within five minutes of meeting them and easily outdoing his fellow students in their studies. This all came to a head when he finally began answering questions that his parents or teachers hadn’t even asked him yet. A series of tests that spanned over a week quickly established that the young man was a biotic, one of less than three dozen in the entire Quarian fleet, and one of slightly more than average strength at that.
What no one seemed to realize during exclamations of amazement at the test results was that the young biotic in question was gone.
Realizing that people had figured out what he could do, Sol’Amon stole away on a freight ship that was supposed to be headed to the Citadel to pick up supplies. However, unknown to the young man in the cargo hold the ship took a quick detour to Omega to browse the ship parts in the markets.
Sneaking out of the hold the next day after a rough night of sleeping behind crates in the cargo bay quickly revealed to the young man that he may not have been on the Citadel. The dirty streets of Omega cast a sickly orange glow on his pristine black envirosuit, and caused his green overwraps and visor to glint lightly with their rusty light.
Any attempt to sneak back to the ship were crushed when he realized his only ride was already undocking and on its way to the Citadel, leaving him stranded on one of the most perilous stations in the galaxy with no money, an omnitool, untrained biotics, and his wits.
After spending a year stealing food, running from crazed Vorcha, keeping out of reach of Krogan mercenaries, bartering with Turian and Batarian merchants, and generally staying alive, the young Quarian met someone who could help him. One of Aria T’loak’s undercover agents, an Asari named Tuila T’Ora was posing as a prostitute. And though she was a former Commando, using her skills to put down a rough client was conducive to ruining her cover, making her of little use to Aria, which on Omega was essentially a death sentence.
While working his way from one of his safe houses to the market to try finding a job to earn some money, Sol’Amon noticed a Turian merc standing over a huddling Asari in an alley, his snarls quickly establishing that this wasn’t what Sol normally dismissed as life on Omega. Seeing him about to pull a pistol on the woman, the young Quarian instinctively lashed out a hand , causing his untrained biotics to flare and launch the Blue Suns member down the alley into a dumpster. Though surprised, the young boy quickly used the personality traits that Omega had established in him, capitalizing in the distraction to quickly get the woman up and moving through the alleyways and lifts to his safehouse.

Pre-nomination military background:
--- Despite being surprised by the display of biotics from a Quarian child, the Asari was able to glean over his surface thoughts as he grabbed her hand to run, quickly establishing a connection during their escape, as well as being instinctively drawn by his unique genetics. Upon learning that he was alone on Omega, as well as untrained in biotics, she quickly informed him he would be staying with her as well as learning basic necessities to survive on the station.
Little did she know that while his biotics were slightly above average, his ability to grasp hand to hand combat was almost instant, quickly developing a mastery of Meela’helai as well as a passing proficiency in Asari martial arts.
Though…….finding out that his technical skills had much to be desired was a source of enormous hilarity for her, and a slight sting to Sol’s pride. Not many Quarian’s were actually bad with software, even if his skills with hardware were at the normal proficiency for his race.
After training him for almost four years, at the age of 16 she finally roused him from watching the extranet feed of the naming of the first human SpecTRe as a Commander Shepard to go see Aria. Of course, the queen of Omega had known her agent had a young Quarian staying with her, as well as the fact that said Quarian was receiving training from the Asari. Sol soon learned that he was to be one of Aria’s secret weapons, not many people would believe a Quarian to be a danger to them, less that the Quarian was a close combat specialist, fewer still would believe he was a biotic at all, let alone one more than the ability to lift a cup of water.
Over the next year and a half, Sol’Amon was ordered to “take care” of Humans, Turians, Krogan, Salarians, Batarians, Asari who’d displeased Aria, and even a Hanar. And while he didn’t ever enjoy his work, Aria had more than clearly stated in their first meeting that if he didn’t do what she wanted, the way she wanted it, then “his Asari” would be the one to pay for it. If he did, they’d both be given comfortable quarters, and Tuila would be able to get actual assignments instead of staying undercover as a piece of fluff.
So he did his job, and he did it well. Sure there were problems, no plan is perfect, and every now and then he’d be forced to go head to head with a group of Batarians, a squad of Turians, hell once he’d had to face off against a trio of Krogan from the Blood Pack. But despite any injuries he’d taken he always finished his mission.
…………..
…And then the Reapers came…
Omega was one of the last places hit, apparently the Reapers wanted to take out the actual home planets of every race before moving on to the multi-cultural areas. And while every one of the Citadel races were fighting back, the Terminus systems were in turmoil, Aria had luckily established a small alliance with the Blue Suns, Blood Pack, and Eclipse, as well as the Batarian pirate kings which netted the lot of them a just large enough fleet to start kicking back against the Reapers, but things weren’t looking good.
That’s when Shepard showed up, the human had pieced their haphazard conglomerate of merc and pirate ships together into something resembling a military force. All under the joint command of Aria as well as Urdnot Wrex. Joining the mercs and pirates together with the Krogan clans had to be a stroke of genius, with the Krogan working as a deterrent to slacking off they were able to keep the Sentient machines back long enough for Shepard to do whatever it was that stopped them.
During the fight, Sol had in fact been on a series of Eclipse and Blue Suns vessels, working his was through the hordes of husks and “Heretic” Geth to board the Geth ships and use his biotics to destroy their power cores. By the end of the war his Terminus Fleet ship danger rating had reached an S ranking, right up there with Urdnot Wrex and Grunt.
Once the war finished, Sol used the ensuing pandemonium on Omega to slip himself and Tuila off station and onto a shuttle heading to Bastion, when he received a message on his Omnitool. It read….

You did good kid, now enjoy your little piece of azure and have a nice life on that Citadel knock off. If your ever in Omega I expect you’ll be coming to see me, make sure you send word first. I know how dangerous you are and I’d hate to think you were coming to settle some ‘score’.
Don’t forget to Embrace Eternity, Aria
P.S. Urdnot Wrex sent me a message saying you’d be getting some interesting mail, when you do, know that I agree with it.

The next day he received a message from Commander Shepard through Urdnot Wrex and the Krogan Councilor stating that he was invited to take part in Spectre examinations, as well as a message from the Admirals of the Migrant Fleet and his parents. He only read the one addressed from Shepard.

He’d obviously need to work on his sneaking, but that wasn’t what he’d been trained for. He was Applied Chaos Theory. A series of seemingly random qualities that culminated into a force that could move mountains.


Background Information:
Hint: The tattoos on his envirosuit have a personal meaning.

-Hobbies
Reading, Extranet Games, Earth Football, Turian Gladiatorial fighting, Varren Fights (Hey it’s Omega), Envirosuit Combat Modifications, and Clubs (Though nothing lives up to Afterlife’s VIP section.)

[rhoenix]

Welcome Sol,

The character looks good for the most part - the following are my nitpicks.

- You can also use Pistols, since every character can.
- You can also use basic Armor, since every character can.
- there's no such thing as weapon special abilities (such as Mayhem) anymore.

Other than that, it's good.

[Soleimon Berserker]

True, i'll go edit the post so I can clean up and add those. It may just be me, but this looks like it's gonna be a pretty good story.

[rhoenix]

System update - I've edited the OP of the game to include details about combat, and how actions are performed. For now, during your turn, you may move, act, and move again for your turn. You may reserve your action to approximate reactionary fire - and so can enemies.

I'm still working on the issue of maps, but for the game's prelude, there won't be a real need for maps, though they would be nice. I'll update all of you here as events progress.

[frigidmagi]

Name: Andrew Lysander
Homeworld: Anhur
Species: Human
MOS: 1371 Engineer
Skills: Submachine Gun
Electronics
Decryption
Armor Basic
Hacking
Triangulation
Assault Rifle

Backstory: Andrew was born on the mixed world of Anhur, a world that tried to legalize slavery via backdoor proceedings. Some people didn't take it well. Some of those people were Andrew's parents, who joined the anti-slavery militas. Andrew himself was about 10 years old at time and saw his parents as heroes. They didn't make it through the war. Andrew was then raised by the Blacks, his parents best friends, after the brief civil war. While they raised him as their own, the memory of his parents remained and soured him on remaining on Anhur. At the age of 18 Andrew joined the Alliance Marine Corps, drawn by the chance to get off planet and having heard of the Battle of the Citadel. The news left him wanting to do more then sit on a colony world waiting for the end to come. He finished his training just after Commander Shepard disappeared. He served the next two years without blame or distinction, a fairly average, unremarkable Marine. His unit was rotated back to earth for a series of urban training exercises when the reapers attacked. Andrew Lysander received a promotion to Cpl at this point.

They were stationed on the North American eastern seaboard. During the fighting, the platoon was separated from the rest of the battalion and literally tripped over a 100 civilians attempting to flee the Chaos. Andrew's platoon decided to escort them down to a nearby shelter. They barely made it using underground transit tunnels and soon found themselves trapped within the shelter. Being Combat Engineers they were able to rig fortifications and demolitions to protect the shelter but the enemy kept coming. Eventually overrunning the outer defenses and breaking into the shelter. 42 Marines found themselves confronting legions of hell that day. It became a vicious last stand fought throughout the tunnels and rooms of the underground bunker, as the Marines desperately sought to become the unmovable object against the irresistible force.

When relief arrived, there were 14 surviving civilians, 3 adult women and 11 children who had been welded into a room behind steel doors. 4 Marines were found barely alive in front of the door, including Lysander. He would be the only one to survive medical attention. Recovery took over a year. Lysander chose to apply for the program, despite being offered an honorable discharge as a decorated veteran. When asked why his reply was "It's wrong to leave just yet."

Profile: Lysander remains quiet, polite but withdrawn. While having received treatment for mental trauma and therefore being stable, he remains marked by what he experience and has in most cases refused to discuss it outside of treatment. He at the moment prefers to avoid any emotional bonds.

[rhoenix]

Glad to see you've posted, Frigid - your character's been added to the roster.

So - with the number of players such as it is now, and the fact that splitting the party usually leads to doom, despair, and mayhem, I would say interesting times are ahead.

I have decided to do this game without maps for the time being. If maps become a necessity, I'll take care of it - but given the setup now, a squad leader can be designated per mission, who them pretty much decides the tactics of approach and so forth. So essentially, RP can take the place of maps.

If any of you have any questions or concerns, please message me on IM or skype, and I'll do my best to give a proper response. In the meantime though, I'll be working on the game's prelude: the candidate trials, and the IC thread should be posted in a few days.

[rhoenix]

Alright, we're in the final phase before the game begins. First, a few issues:

- Soleimon: Your character has Biotic Leap, which sounds neat, but you also have Charge. With Charge, you don't really need Biotic Leap. I would suggest switching Biotic Leap out for Barrier before game begins, though what you replace Biotic Leap with is up to you. [RESOLVED. Thank you, Soleimon]

- Nitram: The mainline geth do not have a Dyson Sphere. They do, however, have several rather large space stations in the Perseus Veil. Please update Many-As-One's profile accordingly. Also, since you are playing a geth, I will give you the option to change out one of the skills you get to pick for Electronics. My suggestion would be to give up Fitness for this, but that's up to you. [RESOLVED - Thank you, Nitram]

- Marcao: Your character's background is very blank - please fix that. What you told me about your character's background would work fine. [RESOLVED. Thank you, Marcao]

Now, for the game's prelude: The Normandy will be making a few stops around the galaxy to pick up the candidates; Bastion Station, Earth, and Ilium are the scheduled stops. If you'd like to have some early character interaction before the characters get to Mindoir, I can start the game on the ship, having just reached Bastion.

Otherwise, I can begin the game on Mindoir itself, and let that be the place where all the initial character interaction begins. Players, let me hear your vote.

[JD196]

On the ship I think.

[Sabre72]

anyway you could make a stop on the Ascension Program Base ? its junko's home really :P
and my vote on the ship

[White Haven]

I'm down for the ship as well. This may or may not have something to do with me being a fan-whore for the Normandy. *whistles innocently*

[Soleimon Berserker]

Same here, I vote for the ship, seems like a good jump off point for social interaction, at least just to show how much dis/trust we've each all developed as soldiers or any other little things that could possibly make the Spectre trials more interesting.

[rhoenix]

Alright - at this point, Marcao and Soleimon have fixed their characters' issues. Now, we're waiting on Nitram to fix his Homeworld, and any thoughts from other players as to starting point - if I don't hear from anyone else about it, we'll start with the Magic Killbus having just reached Bastion.

I have the first game post ready to go. I will not post it until the last character issue is resolved, or three days pass, whichever is sooner. If three days pass from now without resolution Nitram, you'll be dropped from the game.

[rhoenix]

And while all of us wait to begin the game, here's the galaxy map.

Bastion Station is located in the Menvra system, in the Gemini Sigma cluster.
Mindoir is located in the Perelis system, in the Kepler Verge cluster.

Green is the Attican Traverse.
Red is Terminus Systems.
Purple is geth space.
Blue is Council space.
Yellow is the Skyllian Verge.
Brown is batarian space.

[Marcao]

I don't mind if we start the game in the Normandy. If you would rather have it happen elsewhere, I am cool with that.

[White Haven]

I take it by that map that Shep spared the Collector base?