Here's where we will discuss and direct the game. A few details that have been asked about already. Because this game is about being better writers I'm going to ask that we abstain from pics in the game and instead try to use descriptive writing to achieve the same effect. You may, however, post a pic in this thread after the fact and ask everyone how you did. As eluded to in the intro, I'll be trying to integrate your characters into the plot instead of just having them along for the ride. Some of you will be given objects, or specific knowledge or memories via PM, that will be important for the plot at some point in the game. Please wait until I make the first official game post to intro your characters in the Bar. I'll let you know when its time. Character slots are filling up faster than I expected, but prior commitments are going to keep me from getting the game really going for another week or two.
I want a spot! I want a spot! And I have questions! Lots! First, some background on Tachyon Particles and fields for those who are not scientifically inclined. (Or those who are biologically inclined, such as myself). Second, I'm having trouble understanding what exactly the Tachyon sails look like. Do rods create a flat field? Orb shaped? If flat, is it diamond shaped? Elliptical? I also had trouble visualizing Andromeda's sails. Something clipped to her feet? a rod in her hands? I need some help. Third, travel. Travel between planets can take years even with near light travel. So do these crafts have a warp drive of sorts? How do they pass great distances? Fourth, bio tech and bio-mechanical tech. At what state has bio tech and bio-mechanical technology advanced? In other words, can scientists engineer special species of animals and plants, is cloning possible, cyborgs and androids, mechanical prosthetic, etc? This sounds awesome by the way.
Phew you sure do! I'm on the opposite spectrum of sci-fi details as my good buddy JohnH, who's running PAX. Many details aren't worked out, tachyon particles for example are just an excuse to use the 'solar sails' because I think they are cool, and are not really based on the REAL tachyon particles you might read about on WIKI. :redface: In my universe they are subatomic particles flow through space in currents and can be harnessed in tachyon fields like wind in a sail. This is one place where I'm deviating from my original idea's and giving the power to the players. I did a poor job of describing those images as they exist in my mind. The Sails should be concave/convex, and round or oval shaped. Don't worry about Andromeda's foot clipping sail, that was tough to convey. Just know that you need a rod or rods to generate a field, that that the rods can be bent into shapes. Let your imagination take you from there. The picture I was trying to convey was that she balanced on a rod, like walking on a tightrope, and that the 'sail' that formed beneath it gave the appearance of a surf/snow/hover board. She then used her hand held sail like to create a sail boarding effect. We will be sticking mostly to one galaxy, and so sail travel in shuttles and ships will be sufficient (I'll be providing the ship as you will see). I suppose intergalactic travel must exist, so we can reference Warp gates if need be. I'm stretching reality a little and will be having travel between stars reduced to weeks or months, if you have any idea's on good justification, I'm all ears. Hadn't thought of that. I'll let you decide, one two conditions, 1) shard tech is critical to the plot and can't be superseded by whatever you come up with, and 2) maintain consistency with what others write. Lets hope it is So far the list of tentative players includes: Aconite jonathan hernandez13 Honorious EvilFlamingo theSilverDepths I don't think I forgot anyone, and we have room for a couple more.
Many thanks, besides spelling my pseudonym/screen name wrong. (Not a big deal) That cleared up a ton of questions. Many thanks.
Please note the update in the description page regarding shard-harnesses. On discussion with others I realized that these suits are fairly important to the feel of the story. Style and appearance will vary by character so take some creative license in your design.
Yes, Tachyons are hypothetical or theoretical particles, they are cool because a)they have a very catchy exotic name b)according to theoretical science they cannot travel slower than light, meaning they are FTL particles, an elusive holy grail of science because of their special properties they are common in many science fiction filns, shows, and fiction - if they ever do get discovered and can be generated their applications could involve intergalactic communications and so on In your universe Justin we should keep the details a little loose, but since they're theoretical we can make them the "handwavium" of our game with various properties bordering on the magical, and that can explain away many technologies. I imagined the ships as looking almost like an Earth sailing vessels but kind of steam-punkish, imagine Captain Nemo's Nautilus with a big sail. They have already shown that its possible to propel a spaceship with a solar sail, if Tachyons are travelling through space like we think they might be than by making a sail that repels it it would make the ship move. Since Tachyons are FTL let's just say that they can make a star jammer travel FTL too!
Lebby can join, but Only if he stops referring to himself in the third person AND NO crossing dimensions!
However, you'll probably just end up damaged and adrift near Cardassia Prime... (btw, any practical lightsail would need hundreds of square miles of sail for a craft that could transport a handful of crew. More if it has to carry a conventional drive as a backup propulsion system)
Leave it to Cog to make the obligatory random Star Trek joke, if anyone would have recognized the Bajoran sail craft it would have been you and lightsails the size of cities moving a tiny craft are such a cumbersome detail that it saps the fun out of the romantic idea of a star jammer, that's why we need unobtanium and hand-wavium
I have more questions! First, some clarification on fields. In the short story, the archer dude was sailing, attacking, and defending with the same field. Is he switching between offensive and defensive fields actively? Second, when energy is converted to matter, what exactly is the matter? You said sand, but is it literally sand, just some assortment of matter that resembles sand, or a totally random assortment protons neutrons and electrons? Third, Defensive fields convert energy into matter, correct? Well, are they calibrated/designed/something so that ambient energy, such as sunlight, is excluded from the conversion? Fourth, On a related note, if a character were to accidentally stick their own hand through an offensive field, would there hand be converted or is there some safety mechanism that cancels the conversion? Fifth, On a further related note, could a field be used offensively to injure others at a close distance? Such as hitting someone with a field, there by converting them (Matter) into energy? Or would they're suit the attack? Or is there a sort of biometrics system installed that recognizes humans and cancels the field? Sixth, This goes with the second, is it possible to control what type of energy is released or what type of matter is created? Such as, throwing rocks through a field and getting light or fire or electricity. Or Pushing heat through and getting gold on the other side (Which sounds illegal anyway). And a last thing. Actively moving along tachyon stream/wave/things. Such as having a sort of tachyon field wing. Pushing against the tachyon rather than being pulled by it. Yay questions!
If this is, in fact, not starting for a while, I'd like to reserve a spot. I don't have time to sit down and craft a character today or tomorrow, but I would like to join. Otherwise Crimson Flame's end and Fawnskin's atrophy will leave me RPG-less like some kind of animal, and that's a state in which I do not wish to be!
That gave me a good laugh haha xD This RPG seems really awesome, like we're getting more and more into the final frontier as we go along
Could I join? Not sure if anyone has asked beside me and if the list is filled up. If there are spots open. I'd like to join.
I'm in, obviously, as losthawken posted, although I've been silent throughout this thread: Last night was busier than I'd expected or particularly wanted. I'll get character details and the like hammered out today. Also, hello to those of you who have no idea who the heck I am. Token newbie along for the ride, although I've had experience with PBEMs and MUSHes (the internet is a great refuge for gamer girls, beecause oh man, my LARP experience... you can only imagine!)
All together that makes 8 people which is probably the max I could handle, but good because there are always a few that have to leave due to real life obligations. And yes, the original goal for start date still stands at the second week of Aug, not only because we need to FINISH THE CRIMSON FLAME! but because I'll have limited internet access the first week of Aug. On to the questions (unobtainium galore) The original idea was for there to be a single field that did all three jobs. However, I started to think that this seemed a little far-fetched, and was concerned that I didn't have enough hand-wavium to make it work. So I broke it down into three separate fields, which can all be generated by specialized shards. I still waver on which idea I like best so your input is welcome. The energy is a random assortment of matter, technically speaking (and I'm sure Cog already caught this) the amounts of energy being converted are not enough to create an entire atom, but such details are boring... The fields are tuned to work best at mid-range energy, such that could injure a person. sunlight, wind and relatively slow objects are not noticeably effected. the same is also true for extremely high energy, you can't walk on the surface of a star just because you have a Def field. You shard harness AI protects you from that, and performs other important safety related tasks. Yes, the fields can weaponized in this way, however, the interactions between two fields is based on the strength of each shard and the rods focusing the fields. Such a weapon would be risky against an opponent with strong fields, but would be devastating against the un-armed. . Some matter is energized more efficiently than others, allowing for an extra dimension of control in creating blasts (beyond field strength), Mostly you get heat and ambiguous radiation. You will not have access to technology that can control the type of matter produced. I don't see why not Now I'm exhausted... Get your character profiles in to me so I can approve them and try to give them roles in the plot. Also, I feel that the strength of this story is in the plot, so don't think that because details in the world are vague in some places that the plot will be the same way. I've got a good idea of where we are going and how to get us there. At the same time, puppeteering this masterpiece is going to be complicated, and if you ever feel I'm pulling too hard on the reigns and not allowing enough freedom, please speak up.
Okay. One last final question that I feel is pretty important. How exactly are shards found? I know they are crystalline, but are they found growing out of rock structures like modern crystals? Or are they embedded deep in stone like a mineral ore? Are they just found laying around? Or do they just grow off magic trees? And if they must be dug out or something, what is the method for doing so? After that's answered I think I'll know everything I need. And as you can all see, I really love a good milleu.
Great question. I've been trying not to just spell everything out so that it can be developed in story, and so that you all can participate in that development. But there are a lot of important things that I've overlooked. This being one of them. The shards were essentially all generated a long long time ago from a mysterious source and scattered around the galaxy. Over time creatures evolved that could incorporate and use the shards energy. As eluded to in the intro, the easiest way to get shards is to harvest them from the creatures that have collected them. Essentially you are trapper/hunters on the frontiers of space. And yes Leaka, you are in, as is Yellow
If the shards emit any kind of energy or radiation unique to them, they could conceivably be detected by equipment made to find them. Instead of metal detector, shard detectors
So, question. What kind of character are you looking for? Any specific gender? What would clothing be like? For my records, since I save all my characters saved into a computer I do full profiles in my Open Word Office. And I'll just post the brief of it.
Yes Johnathan that's totally doable. Leaka, I'm looking for just about any character. One helpful option would be a newbie shard seeker. It would help with exposition, and developing the world to have to explain things to him occasionally. So far it sounds like we'll have a scientist, an alcoholic shard seeker, and an anti-social shard seeker. I suggested to someone (forgot who) to have a skill in 'shard-smithing' which is the craft by which shards are put into delicate settings, that control and normalize their fields. It'll could come in handy for us. Also think of other occupations that might be helpful; medic, military, engineer, etc. no specific genders needed, though we are trending more toward males than females. Check the short stories for idea's on clothing, and take some creative license. I like a little mix of old and new, but we don't need to go full blown steam punk.
Fine by me. Send me the profile for approval and then you can post it up on the main page. Oh, and I do apologize for the quality of the short stories. Not the example I wanted to set, but I thought they were more refined when I posted them.
