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 In the Milky Way galaxy, alcohol based offenses are considered especially heinous. In Council Space, the dedicated bar staff who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Drinkers Unit. These are their stories. Some spacebar music John Hanson, Editor, Lonely Planets e-zine posted:No list of the hottest bars in Council Space is complete without mention of perhaps the most exclusive nightspot of all. Or perhaps, is that the most elusive of all? That’s because this bar is onboard a ship, travelling from system to system without rhyme or reason. There’s no way to track it or predict where it will be next, so you just need to hope you’re lucky enough for it to stop by your local system. Lareus Mellin, Reporter, excerpts of an interview with a Turian patron posted:Lareun Melin: Can I ask your name and occupation? Ponall Eji, Bloggist, AboveSpectreClearance extranet site posted:I can barely hear myself think. Music is so loud. Everywhere so crowded. I think this ship wants it that way. Keep everybody liquored up. Keep them dancing. Stop anybody from looking too closely. Asking any questions. Because once you pull back the curtains and see how sausage is made, the magic is ruined. You get scared. See how the strings are pulling you. Dancing to this ships tune. No, not a tune. A siren song. Drawing in hapless partygoers. Getting them drunk. Sucking out all their credits. Kicking them back out the airlock again. It’s insidious. But the real question is why. Why does a ship want money? Why does a ship need so many people? Why does a ship go to so many weird places? And the answer? Obvious. This ship wants a friend. Somebody to keep it company. And the staff? That girl behind the bar? That Krogan at the door? Just some of the ‘friends’ it’s hoarded over the years. Jaliz Helila, Spy, Asari counterintelligence posted:tfaemr tish many drinks, i've blended hin perfectly. amd it appears your suspicions were correct, matriarbhc. i have slpotted four istg operatives, two turian blackwatch members, and za hguman nw7 agent aboard already. i suspect batarian and hanar interests as welql, but have not beedn abele rto cofnirm drell omperations at this time. but so ufar nsone of them hvae beaen able to gelan anything from this place. i don’t enve know if there irs any wday to gather informfation fro.m there arue no caccess ports to hack and arseas outside fo the entertmtaenin floor are locked ofgf. those identified in previous reports as staff either know as little about it bas the rest of us lor are excellent liars, ewither way ythere is no avenue forr moirfoitnan through them either. Howdy space cowpokes! So this is a game set in the smash hit Bioware universe of Mass Effect! But you won’t be following Commander Shepard, or leading a crack team of Spectres, or even be a fun loving group of space mercs scrounging jobs for cash. No! This is a game about a bar. A space bar. A space bar on a space ship. A sentient space ship, no less, who just wants to help people have a good time. And, of course, the select few people that it allows to stay and run the place! The game is set a few years after the Reaper War, I’m leaving the exact time a bit loose so character creation doesn’t get cramped or anything. As a rule, don’t let things from the game get in the way of making a cool space dude. But things are still recovering from the galaxy being blown up, you can see why spacebar would want to help people have a good time! The PCs will be the bar staff, and will have already been travelling with the ship for a little while now. As part of your backgrounds, I’d like a bit of a story on why and how you ended up on the ship and were allowed to stay. Because this ship doesn’t just let any old schlub stay on board and travel with it, so something must have interested it enough to let you stay! As for what the staff is, the limit is your imagination! Bar back! Manager! Accountant! Entertainer! Bouncer! Whatever you like the sound of! If you want to be some Asari who has been tending bar for years and years, go for it! If you want to be some jumpy Salarian chef who only just got on board, go for it! If you want to be a pilot on a ship that flies itself, go for it! I’m looking for fun and interesting characters here, if you can sell me on an idea I’ll help you make it! Now, the Ship and the Bar both have names already. But the ship hasn’t shared it yet. And even if it did the names are in some unpronounceable and indecipherable alien language. So you guys will have to think up a good ship and bar name too if you can! The coolest spacebar in the galaxy needs an equally cool name! You can find the game PDF right here! Now, I know it’s in WEG Star Wars D6 system, and that’s not exactly the most widely played system out there, but this is the best of a few Mass Effect system hacks out there. In that PDF has everything you need to make a sheet even if you don’t know anything about the system. And I’ll be more than willing to help out if anybody has trouble! And if we need to bend the hack a little bit to make a character idea fit, I’m all for it! I’m on IRC, you can catch me in #wonderplace if nowhere else.  The ship wants some awesome space dudes to be the crew, not just a bunch of loser freshies. So I am adding some extra stuff onto the standard character generation from the book! When you pick a species to play, add two more Attribute Dice on than it gives you by default. And after that you start with 41 skill points to work with to make your character. And the skill cap at character creation is now 10. And, so long as I can see it as reasonable by your background, you can start with any sort of equipment you like.Mass Effect 3? Boy that ending sucked! Red/Green/Blue lights, am I right? And how! That’s why we here are Robodog Gaming Concerns GmbH are boldly choosing to sidestep the issue and ignore it as much as possible. How did the war end? Bunch of poo poo blew up over Earth! What about all those other alien planets? A bunch of poo poo blew up, but things are getting fixed now! How about those mass relays? A bunch of poo poo blew up, but those bits are all fixed now! Quarian? Geth? Krogan? They sure are all still alive and around doing their things! The Citadel? Well, I guess that one was covering in blood and guts and blew up for good. But basically, I don’t want magic space children getting in the way of a good time. If you need something to help make your character and game stuff gets in the way, we can move the game stuff. Shepard? Wrex?? Turns out all the legendary universe saving stuff being one 30 year old human did sound like a load of horse poo poo to everybody BUT humans! Plus, you know, secret operations Spectre stuff so who really knows what’s what. So this Shepard stuff is shrouded in mystery. AND turns out every other species in the galaxy is loving terrible at telling human genders apart, so nobody even knows if this Shepard is a woman or a man! What is this game even about? Okay, so you guys are the crew of USS SpaceBar. But running your space bar isn’t the only thing that’s going on. The ship flies about and takes you along for all sorts of adventures. Delve into exciting space battles! Wheel and deal yourself out of tricky situations! Land planetside and explore strange new worlds for exciting, undiscovered kinds of beer! The sky’s the limit! Star Wars isn’t Mass Effect! Indeed it is not! But out of all the Mass Effect hacks I read through, this one seemed to fit in with what I was doing the best. I mean, biotic stuff is basically the force! I know it is a little unclear in places and needs about three more editing passes, but if you’re unclear on anything from the book just ask me about it and I’ll help you out. And since this is a hack, I am more than happy to bend stuff if it helps with character ideas and sheets. So the ship is also a bar and both are in space?? The ship is a ship! A living ship that can’t directly communicate with you fleshies, but all the same sentient. Flies itself around to see interesting new places and everything. But the ship was made for entertainment, so most of it internally is a bar slash nightclub. Which it needs some help running, which is where you guys come in!  This is the ship btdubs Robodog fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 04:31
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Robodog posted:#1 Geth having the 'Shunned' characteristic is a real loving bummer, so we are 86ing it. Make a note of it, Geth makers! Robodog posted:#4 Geth get a bonus to the Security skill. The book has no Security skill. Whoever wrote this hack needs, like, half a dozen editors to fix it up. Treat the bonus to Security as a bonus to Decryption. Robodog posted:#5 The system for biotics in this hack is kinda lovely. So I'm now making it that for each D you spend on the Biotics attribute, you get 4 skill points specifically to spend on buying up biotic abilities. Look at that, now biotics don't instantly hobble your characters skills! >Sample sheet< pre:Sample Name Robodog fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 04:31
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< Sample Character Picture
Species Name
Characteristic One: Description
Characteristic Two: Description
Characteristic Three: Description
Talents
Talent One: Description
Talent Two: Description
Talent Three: Description
Dexterity: xD
Skill One 1
Skill Two 1
Knowledge: xD
Skill One 1
Skill Two 1
Mechanical: xD
Skill One 1
Skill Two 1
Perception: xD
Skill One 1
Skill Two 1
Strength: xD
Skill One 1
Skill Two 1
Technical: xD
Skill One 1
Skill Two 1
Move: x
Ranged DV: x
Melee DV: x
Brawl DV: x
Vehicle DV: x
Ship DV: x
Melee Damage: x
Damage Resist: x
Initiative: x
Hitpoints: x
Medals: 3
Paragon Points: x
Renegade Points: x
Credits: x < Roll at Orokos and c+p
Equipment:
Gun (Range, Damage, etc)
Armour (Class, DR, etc)
Stuff
Other stuff
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I might possibly maybe make a character for this!
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Feb 13, 2015 04:35
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Going to draw up an app for this! Woohoo!
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Feb 13, 2015 04:48
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I played the heck out of Star Wars D6 as a kid, and I played the heck out of Mass Effect as a slightly larger College Kid, so this combination intrigues me. Add into that mix that I know you run a good game, and I might just try to make a Krogan Bouncer or something!
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Feb 13, 2015 04:54
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Making a Hanar DJ as soon as I read this rulebook. No other sentient can spin more records at once.
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Feb 13, 2015 04:58
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Gonna put together something Geth-y. Maybe a bartender or accountant - always a safe bet when you can't forget anything with your robot space brain. 
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Feb 13, 2015 05:33
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I'm down. Gotta refre4sh my memory on the whole D6 system.
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Feb 13, 2015 05:39
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Making a killer accountant for this.  Prepare for some combination of Golgo 13, G0-T0, and Garak.
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Feb 13, 2015 05:39
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Tagging interest!
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Feb 13, 2015 05:40
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I keep picturing the Mass Effect equivalent of Always Sunny in Philadelphia for this, on an aside.
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Feb 13, 2015 05:41
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So this is going to be 6 Elcors, right?
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Feb 13, 2015 05:47
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I'm thinking of going a
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Feb 13, 2015 05:56
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Fuzz posted:I keep picturing the Mass Effect equivalent of Always Sunny in Philadelphia for this, on an aside. I wouldn't object to this. Gharbad the Weak posted:So this is going to be 6 Elcors, right? I wouldn't object to this.
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Feb 13, 2015 05:59
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Thinking about making a promoter.
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Feb 13, 2015 06:04
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Mr Apollo posted:Thinking about making a promoter. That was what I was thinking of making, too. A skeevy alcoholic Turian club promoter.
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Feb 13, 2015 07:01
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pre:Krunch "Shepard, huh?" He rumbled at the agitated Human standing in front of him. "Name's not on the list, bud." As Krunch flicked the I.D. back at him, the Human drew itself up to its full height. This allowed the Human to defiantly address Krunch's chin. "Don't you know who I am?" The Human argued, "I'm Commander-Goddamn-Shepard! I'm a Council Spectre! I saved the Universe from the Reapers!" Krunch rolled his eyes at the mammal. He'd heard this one before. "Buddy, I don't care if you're on the drat Council. You don't get in if you're not on the list." Krunch's mild amusement faded instantly when the Human reached a hand into its coat. "Maybe this will convince y-" The human began, only to recieve a vicious Krogan headbutt. As its newly unconcious body flopped to the ground, its arm fell out of the coat with a small datapad clutched in the hand. A holographic image of the Human flickered to life. "I'm Commander Shepard," It began tinnily, "and this is my favorite club on-" A smile came to the Krogans face as he enjoyed the sound of the plastic and metal breaking beneath his three-toed boot. "Anyone willing to take our Saviour, Commander Shepard, to the medbay?" ---- Krunch lived as most of his species did after the Genophage, and even more of them before it. He fought. He fought on Tuchanka, amongst brothers and Clanmate. He fought off of Tuchanka amongst the Blood Pack and other mercenary bands. He fought on Tuchanka again, trying to get the right to breed with a fertile female. He had got drat good at fighting. Then that drat Salarian tower exploded, and the genophage was cured! All Krogan Females were fertile again! Little did Krunch know that he was in for the toughest fight of his life: Marriage. Suffice it to say that a Roaming Mercenary Warlord did not take to domestic life very well. His wife, Glursa, had decided that they would both play a part in raising their brood. Krunch had decided, quite out of earshot of his beloved, that discretion was the better part of valour. And so, in the dark of night he stole out of the family home and onto a shuttle bound for Parts Unknown. He hadn't been able to pack his Ancestral Armor or Battle Cleaver without arousing the suspicion of his significant other. As his shuttle juttered and stumbled out of Tuchanka's atmosphere and into the icy black, he knew he'd made the right choice. He had left a note though, "Dear Glursa, I'm not gonna raise the whelps. I'm gonna fight. I'll send money. Love, Krunch" Yamtaggler fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 07:29
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Krogan
Characteristics:
War Prone: 2 points for every one spent on a strength skill
POW: +3 to Search and Initiative
Bruiser: +3 Melee/Brawling Damage
Technological Idiots: Tech skills are twice as expensive to raise
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Oh right, I guess the Genophage is cured?
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Feb 13, 2015 07:39
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Can I be a rachni?
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Feb 13, 2015 14:13
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They're not in the book so I'd have to jimmy rig something up first. Also they can't talk unless they hijack a corpse sooo unless you can get somebody to pair up and app a corpse puppet…
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Feb 13, 2015 14:30
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Robodog posted:They're not in the book so I'd have to jimmy rig something up first. Na i was joking. If hannar are statted I'm making a bartender
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Feb 13, 2015 15:09
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Genuinely tempted to make a Krogan blues singer. Very tempted.
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Feb 13, 2015 15:41
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Application retracted.
fool of sound fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Feb 25, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 19:43
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I am legally obligated to make a character.
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Feb 13, 2015 21:32
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IRC happenings need to be brought to the threads attention. #1 Geth having the 'Shunned' characteristic is a real loving bummer, so we are 86ing it. Make a note of it, Geth makers! #2 Apparently talents are 'awesome' and would be 'fun to play'. So the starting char gen skill cap is now 10. This is in addition to you having 2 extra attribute die than normal and having 41 skill points to buy up skills with. I want awesome cool guys here, people. Go nuts. #3 Krogan I guess if they've been back to Tuchanka are cured of the genophage so they can get rid of that characteristic too. I'm more than happy to ride roughshod over this crappy hack people, if there's a problem just gimmie a bell!
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Feb 15, 2015 01:19
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Name: Ressek Age: 36 Sex: Male Race: Batarian Concept: Abolitionist, Pianist, and General Handyman Paragon: 2 Renegade: 2 Medals: 3 pre:Attributes: Dexterity 3D+2 Knowledge 4D Mechanical 2D+1 Perception 4D Strength 2D+2 Technical 3D+1 Move 10 Derived Stats: RDV: 14 MDV: 8 BDV: 9 VDV: 7 SDV: 8 DR: 2 + Armor Brawl/Melee Damage: 1 Initiative: 15 HP: 26 Credits: 6D x 250 Merchants: Many batarians tend to be business “people” be it legal or illegal, they are fierce negotiators and tough merchants. During character creation only, all batarians gain 2 skill points instead of 1 when spending them on Perception: Bargain, Con and Persuasion, also Knowledge: Value and Willpower. (maximum of +6) Four-Eye Vision: For batarians it is possible to use their sets of eyes independently, giving them advantage while searching and reacting to abrupt situations. All batarians have a +4 bonus to Search. Talents: Detonate pre:Skills: Dexterity (Max 7) Dodge 3 Ranged 3 Knowledge (Max 8) Business 1 First Aid 1 Law Enforcement 1 Streetwise 2 Value 6 Willpower 6 Mechanical (Max 6) Starship Piloting 1 Perception (Max 8) Artist 2 Bargain 2 Con 4 Forgery 1 Persuasion 2 Sneak 1 Strength (Max 6) Brawling 1 Stamina 2 Technical (Max 7) Repair 1 Demolitions 9 Starship Mechanics 1 Electronic Devices 1 -Right leg: Secret compartment in the thigh, large enough to hold a pistol, with a little extra depth. Generally used to hold documents and small items he would like to sneak past customs. Has two special security features: a biometric lock and a special safety that when activated, will destroy the contents of the compartment if the leg is disconnect or otherwise “senses” that Ressek is not alive. -Lower Left Eye: Partly damaged in the accident, it was a voluntary replacement. If another Batarian is aware that this is a false eye, they may become hostile, as this is considered taboo amongst many of his kind. It allows him to see in the dark—though obviously his depth perception is a bit lacking. With the right gesture, it can adjust to see the ultraviolet or infrared portions of the spectrum. -Ear and Throat: Ressek has a subaural microphone embedded in his throat that, with practice, allows one to speak over the radio with a mere whisper. Part of the package also includes an inner-ear microphone and an adjustable skintenna—useful in and of itself for eavesdropping on communications. Equipment: Executioner Pistol: 4D, 25m range Phoenix Armor (Combat, Light): DR3, KB7 HAX: 20D worth Proximity Mines: 5 mines Background: Ressek is a Batarian from a once-powerful family. After throwing in with the wrong faction many years ago, they found themselves persona non grata on Kar’shan. Initially, they planned to lie low, biding their time and building their power until the political climate turned back in their favor. But misfortune compounded misfortune, and by the time they could return, they didn’t have the means to do so. The outer worlds had diminished them too much. By the time Ressek was born, both the fortune and the bloodline had dwindled to a single, meager household. His father, in a desperate attempt to regain the lost glory of his ancestors, threw everything that they had into one last effort to try and reverse their fortune. These efforts burned up on Torfan, and as a result, the family was cast down amongst the lowest of the low, the casteless of Hegemony. Forbidden from pursuing reputable (or even profitable disreputable business ventures), casteless like Ressek were forced to do things considered distasteful by other Batarians, like caring for the dead. However, there is always further that one may fall, especially in the Hegemony. When his father died, Ressek and his family were sold into slavery to pay off his father’s debts. He spent years being traded from master to master, each one crueler than the next, until he ended up mining eezo in the Terminus Systems. Dangerous, deadly work, it was reserved for criminals, slaves, and only the most desperate. Miners would frequently fall prey to eezo toxicosis, cave-ins, and other industrial accidents. One such accident nearly took Ressek’s life. A torch in the wrong place lit a vein of eezo, killing dozens of workers, trapping him in the rubble, and forcing the company to abandon their operations for the time being. Ressek only survived by his own grit, a hungry varren mistaking him for a corpse, and a group of kind Quarians on pilgrimage. They had come to investigate the abandoned mining site. Finding Ressek, they patched up his wounds and he helped them strip it clean. He stayed with them for a time, helping them as best he could with his patchwork education. Luckily, when a generally when a Batarian comes on the comm., people consign themselves to a hard bargain, so when he helped them negotiate sales and purchases, he didn’t have to push his rusty sales skills too hard. When they finally parted, they gifted him with a proper leg, to replace the one he lost in the mine, as a gesture of friendship and thanks for the help he had given them. Afterwards, he knew what he had to do. He was dead, as far as the galaxy knew; and to a slave, dead meant free. But that wasn’t enough. He couldn’t let others suffer the way he had. He committed himself from that point onward to freeing all the enslaved peoples of the galaxy. This act, obviously, has made him a wanted man in a number of systems, with a bounty high enough to cross your eyes. But as luck would have it, he has, as of late, found refuge at a certain bar, wandering randomly through space. He offers the variety of skills he’s learned over the course of his life and the ship offers protection—and when they come into certain systems, he returns to his old passions. Vignette: “Thank you, I learned that one a long time ago from a dear friend; glad you like it.” The Batarian pianist bows and heads for the bar on his break. “Here ya go, Ressek.” The bar back gives him his usual—orange juice. “Thanks. That set made me thirsty.” He’s barely touched the glass when a human sits next to him and orders a rum and coke. “Haven’t heard that one in a long time. Where’d you say you learned it again?” “From a friend. What’s it to you?” The human sizes him up, but curiously not stumbling over Ressek’s eyes. They—Ressek is terrible with human sexes—locks straight on the lower set. This one has dealt with more than a few Batarians in the past. “Nothing to it, just trying to break the ice—speaking of which, you look familiar. Have you ever been to Torfan?” Ressek’s lower eyes narrow, his upper set scanning the bar. “No. But my father was. Before the attack, though.” “That must be it. The resemblance is uncanny. Did he play the piano too? Because I could have sworn that I saw a pianist that looks just like you at Omega Station, Lorek, Anhur…Do I need to continue?” The human adjusts a cuff, revealing something glimmering beneath the sleeve. Ressek doesn’t recognize it, but he gets the gist. “How about we take this outside?” The bounty hunter smiles and they both get up slowly. They clear out the bathroom and Ressek locks the door behind them. “So, what do you want? My head? To take me in alive? Last time I checked, they didn’t care, they just wanted confirmation.” The barrel of a pistol emerges from the bounty hunter’s sleeve. “The credits are nice, sure, but I’m after a bigger prize. The marks. That should be enough to buy your life.” Ressek tilts his head to the right. “Marks? I’m not sure what you mean.” “Don’t gently caress with me, Batarian.” The hunter thrusts their gun up close to one of his eyes. “I know you’ve got them. The marks! The slave marks.” “Sorry. Doesn’t ring a bell,” Ressek says with a smile, tilting his head further right, into the barrel. “Maybe this will, then!” The hunter jabs something into his ribs—an omnitool with some kind of mod, he thinks later—and his body jerks out of his control, falling to the ground. He struggles to rise, steadying himself on the overbuilt urinal. An Out of Order sign hangs across it. “At Anhur, you raided BHH, you stole thousands of slave marks, where are the marks, Ressek. Tell me before I start taking popping out your eyes.” “Oh, those marks,” Ressek laughs. “They’re gone.” “Gone? Gone how? You sold them? Where’s the money?” “I mean that they are gone. I broke the marks.” The hunter brings the glowing Omnitool right up to one of Ressek’s eyes. “You’re a terrible liar, Ressek. You’re telling me that a Batarian just…broke all those slave contracts. For what? So some worthless trash mining asteroids in the Verge gets to go free? You expect me to believe that? Those contracts were worth millions. What’s” “It’s simple.” He pulls the urinal’s handle. It begins to roar. “I did it for nothing. For a young Batarian who was sold into slavery, who did the jobs nobody else would, nobody else could. The boy who did what he needed to survive, to escape, and to free others.” The urinal roars louder, drawing the bounty hunter towards it. “Even cleaning toilets on one very strange wandering bar!” A second more, and the bounty hunter is jettisoned into space. “I really need to get around to fixing this thing.” I Am Fowl fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Feb 26, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 05:22
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I've had a weird jonesing for Mass Effect stuff recently, so this sound like a fun time. If I can find the chance, I'll try to read things and toss an app in some time later this week. Thinking a not-so-smooth talking' gambler, maybe Turian or Salarian. Maybe now an indentured worker for the ship after a real bad night of bets against the house. Edit: I am also totally happy with It's Always Sunny in the Attican Traverse. RandallODim fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 01:17
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Really feeling the idea of a Geth Lawyer. How many characters are you looking at taking?
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Feb 16, 2015 06:26
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I'm getting kind of a "Farscape Goes to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe" vibe from this. If that's anywhere in the right ballpark, I am totally keen on playing. In fact, I have a character from an IRL Star Wars game that I enjoyed many years ago; he could probably be ported over rather easily -- especially since he already has a goodly number of relevant skills (like Musical Performance). I do have a couple of questions/thoughts, though: * According to the ME book, musical performance seems to be subsumed under Persuasion; given the setting of this particular game, though, should it be spun off as a separate skill, or based on a different existing skill? Artist seems like a more natural fit than Persuasion to me, but whichever way you go, this has implications for how I spend skill points. * The original version of the character I have in mind was a Lorrdian, a human but with Body Language and Kinetic Communication, on account of the Lorrdians historically being enslaved and prevented from speaking verbally by their owners. In the Mass Effect-verse, this still seems feasible given that Batarian slavers are a thing, but I don't see any Skill or Talent with quite the same flavor as "having a secret non-verbal language, and also being the best in the universe at reading other people". Did I miss the appropriate mechanics, or is that a thing that can be houseruled? * Given their racial propensities, maybe an Asari would fit this notion better than a Human, whether or not a past as a slave is involved? Also, an Asari (ex-?)Justicar seems like an intriguing role-playing opportunity. Ugh, so many ideas... In any case, someone with unparalleled people skills (along with a few surprises based on his/her past) is in the offing, most likely filling the role of manager/maitre d'hotel/concierge/fixer -- sort of an intergalactic Steve Rubell, if you will. TychoBrahesNose fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 07:20
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Leif. posted:Really feeling the idea of a Geth Lawyer. How many characters are you looking at taking? Bars can be pretty big! Might need a pretty big staff to keep it all going… TychoBrahesNose posted:* According to the ME book, musical performance seems to be subsumed under Persuasion; given the setting of this particular game, though, should it be spun off as a separate skill, or based on a different existing skill? Artist seems like a more natural fit than Persuasion to me, but whichever way you go, this has implications for how I spend skill points. #1 I've been filing music and the like under artist, since the performance aspect fits better. If you wanna persuade people, chatting is better than busting out a harmonica. #2 This isn't Star Wars so there are no Lorrdians or Kinetic Communications. You'd have to jimmy rig it using (probably) a mix of some specialisation of Xeno-Linguistics, Scholar (Body Language), and just a high Perception. Or something like that. And Batarian slavers didn't managed to enslave a whole planet/race or anything, so it wouldn't line up 100% in any case. It'd need at least some tweaking. e: if you could give me a scan of the race and/or skill stuff from whichever WEG Star Wars supplement Lorrdians are in, I could look at it and see if we can't just copy it across 1:1! #3 There are no ex-justicars as far as I can tell. The only time there would be an ex-justicar would be if they went and died. But then hey, that could be why they're hiding on SpaceBar! Robodog fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 07:22
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IRC happenings need to be brought to the threads attention. #4 Geth get a bonus to the Security skill. The book has no Security skill. Whoever wrote this hack needs, like, half a dozen editors to fix it up. Treat the bonus to Security as a bonus to Decryption.
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Feb 16, 2015 08:35
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Character concept clarification question: How okay is our sentient party bus with drugs? Because a never ending party seems like the perfect place for a person with connections in every quadrant to set up shop, and I've decided an asari dealer sounds like fun. (Curse you TychoBrahesNose for having a similar thought, but I figure matire'd fixer is distinct enough from illegal needs fixer to work)
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Feb 16, 2015 08:35
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Okay mister man first thing this is a sentient SpaceBar not a sentient PartyBus, they are two totally different things. Second thing the fun times do end when SpaceBar is travelling from system to system or just wants to chill out in a nebula and watch the stars or whatever, only you guys are allowed to stay on all the time. Third thing SpaceBar is fine with dealing so long as people are having fun but that doesn't make it legal!
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Feb 16, 2015 08:44
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I apologize for my insensitive language, sentient SpaceBar. I'll be more considerate in the future. And glad to know a person can get at least some down time working for SpaceBar, it's taxing to be a 24-hour party person. Also, just because it's illegal doesn't mean it isn't fun! All the more reason to have someone to help visitors have whatever fun they're looking for. (And what better place to keep on the run from authorities and debtors than a constantly moving ship with an entirely unpredictable schedule?)
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Feb 16, 2015 09:31
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I'm sure I messed something up -- the PDF is not the clearest on a number of things. [Jury, Geth Law-bot]  Age: Robotic Sex: Metal Race: Geth Concept: Literally Judge, Jury, and Executioner all in one pile of subroutines. Move: 10 Ranged DV: 8 Melee DV: 7 Brawl DV: 7 Vehicle DV: 12 Ship DV: 12 Unique Abilities: Synthetic: Is synthetic. Immune to poison, gasses, doesn't breathe, eat, drink, or sleep, and can live in vacuum. 45 upgrade point limit. 1 point = 1 mod slot. Cannot upgrade self. Technology Aptitude: At creation, gets 2 points for every 1 in Electronic Devices, Search, Security, and Synthetics (max 6) Armor Plated: +4 Damage Resistance, but can't wear armor. Internal Kinetic Barriers: 6 points. Shield Boost: Regenerate full Kinetic Barriers every 2 rounds when not taking damage. Ambiguous Morality: No Paragon/Renegade points. Shunned: AHAHAH NOT REALLY! Singular Unit: Blah blah, is not connected with the Geth mind; instead has tons of individual subroutines like Legion. pre:Skills: (Note: * indicates double points at chargen) Dexterity: 2D+1 Dodge 1 Ranged 1 Knowledge: 3D Bureaucracy 3 Business 1 Intimidation 1 Law Enforcement 4 Law Enforcement Specialization: Litigation 1 (2) Scholar 2 Scholar Specialization: Galactic Law 1 (2) Mechanical: 4D Perception 4D Bargain 1 Con 2 Forgery 1 Gambling 1 Investigation 2 Persuasion 3 Search* 2 (4) Strength: 2D+1 Omni-Blade 1 Technical 3D+1 Repair 2 Electronic Devices* 3 (6) Cybernetics(A) 1 Decryption* 2 (4) Modding 1 Synthetics*4 (8) Omni-Blade: To activate the Omni-Blade you have to roll successfully for Moderate (11-15) Electronic Devices skill, after that the blade materializes. You use Omni-Blade skill for the operation of the blade. A standard Omni-Blade deals +1D damage. Cybernetics: Armor mod: Ablative Coating (it's insiiiiide me!) Collapsible briefcase: It's a normal, metallic briefcase that collapses down on itself like Mass Effect weapons do, so it can be stored in a compartment in Jury's back when not needed. Artificial throat: Jury's throat is replaced with an enhanced voice-box that ensures it will be heard in the courtroom. Or, above the music in the bar, if needed. Pen-finger: Jury's left finger is replaced with an Omni-Pen. You never know when you might need to sign a contract. Background: Jury, or rather, the collection of 500 sub-routines collectively inhabiting the processing core of the Geth that calls itself Jury, is the general counsel for the [Unnamed Space Bar]. An expert in both civil and criminal litigation, its sub-routines act as both judge, jury, and potentially executioner. Unlike most Geth, however, Jury is not a hardened killer. Rather, as a late model produced just before Shepard's final liberation of the Geth, Jury never had a chance to have its processing core integrated with the necessary combat training chips and routines. Jury understands the basic concepts of self-defense, but combat tactics are completely foreign to it. Jury has studied life-forms of all kinds, most notably the main Council races with their advanced jurisprudence systems. At least 65% of Jury's subroutines prefer to model its courtroom behavior after Human legal systems, while the remainder are split between Asari, Turian, and Hanar minorities. Jury has thus developed a fondness for bombastic litigation, adopting a loud, egotistical, arrogant tone with witnesses and opposing counsel. A significant plurality of Jury's processors (43%) desire to learn more about the electronic prowess of the Quarians; thus Jury has begun to learn the basics of engineering. Jury's subroutines are only capable of sarcasm or humor when it's attorney programming has been activated (and even then, it does not do a particularly good job, but is learning by watching old Hanar romantic comedies on holo-vid). Jury is not above using deception, guile, and outright illegal methods when a plurality of its sub-routines are confident that it will benefit from doing so, and not get caught. Jury was acquired by the bar's manager (whichever NPC or PC this ends up being) via purchasing the estate of an Asari matriarch who previously employed Jury. The matriarch primarily kept Jury as a novelty, but became increasingly distraught by a series of unexplained deaths in her personal staff, which tended to coincide with the surprising revelations that the staff had been engaged in criminal activity. When she died of a kidney infection caused by poor diet, with most of her staff too scared to handle the winding up of her affairs, the matter fell to a junior public accountant. While probating the estate, a pattern began to emerge -- it was not all criminal activity that was leading to deaths, only some. In particular, it was only crimes that tended to negatively impact the income in a single numbered bank account. Upon further investigation, that account was linked to Jury. Since it had technically committed no crimes, and the accountant very much liked living, he thought it best to simply divest him to the highest bidder; and there were many. The ultimate winner, was surprisingly not the high bidder. It was an Elcor usurer clerking on behalf of small moneylending firm hired to bankroll some of SpaceBar's successful but itinerant gamblers. Jury was impressed by the skill in drafting by the Elcor....and a bit threatened. It demanded of the accountant that the Elcor's contract be accepted. The accountant was only too happy to see a bloodless solution, and obliged. Within weeks of Jury's arrival on SpaceBar, the Elcor met with an unfortunate accident while in a hover car that suffered a catastrophic shutdown of the flight control software, causing it to swerve violently and explode. When asked about his current owner, Jury simply responds that he is property of the bar (and with the Elcor dead, there is nobody to dispute this). Due to the structure of the contract and the nature of the Elcor's untimely death, Jury is technically not owned by anyone. However, as 99% of its subroutines have come to the consensus that honoring the contract will result in minimal scrutiny and minimal oversight to continue its criminal enterprises, the synthetic continues to abide by its terms. Melee Damage: 2D+1? Damage Resist: 7 Initiative: 14 Hitpoints: 27 Medals: 3 Paragon Points: 0 Renegade Points: 0 Credits: 3500 http://orokos.com/roll/256084 Equipment: Geth Plasma Rifle, (that he doesn't really know how to use; hopefully therefore not too OP. Or potentially it's busted up and has worse stats or something.) Range:30m Damage:5D+3. Bluewire Omni-Tool. Omni-Gavel (it's like a normal gavel but....omni-er). Leif. fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Feb 26, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 10:07
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Since Geth get +4 damage resist naturally I guess you can bolt on an armour mod directly to your chest? Legion did it. So add a +1 to the damage resist from the ablative coating or whatever.
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Feb 16, 2015 10:52
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Robodog posted:#1 I've been filing music and the like under artist, since the performance aspect fits better. If you wanna persuade people, chatting is better than busting out a harmonica. Perfect. quote:#2 This isn't Star Wars so there are no Lorrdians or Kinetic Communications. You'd have to jimmy rig it using (probably) a mix of some specialisation of Xeno-Linguistics, Scholar (Body Language), and just a high Perception. Or something like that. And Batarian slavers didn't managed to enslave a whole planet/race or anything, so it wouldn't line up 100% in any case. It'd need at least some tweaking. I'll see if I can track down the stats, but off the top of my head I think they were from the Corporate Sector books. And based on my old character sheet, they appear to be just like humans except with 5D max in Perception and the two special abilities already mentioned (Body Language & Kinetic Communication). In any case I'm not completely married to all of the fluff/background on the Lorrdians; mostly I wanted to know if there's some sort of skill combo that would approximate their abilities. After all, somebody needs to be able to identify when trouble is brewing amongst the patrons, and then alert the bouncers all subtle-like... quote:#3 There are no ex-justicars as far as I can tell. The only time there would be an ex-justicar would be if they went and died. But then hey, that could be why they're hiding on SpaceBar! This idea is becoming more and more appealing to me…but I can't decide if she's on the run/hiding/ashamed of her past, or taking a page from the Ronin/The Departed playbook. Maybe I don't even have to decide just yet! RandallODim posted:Character concept clarification question: How okay is our sentient party bus with drugs? Because a never ending party seems like the perfect place for a person with connections in every quadrant to set up shop, and I've decided an asari dealer sounds like fun. (Curse you TychoBrahesNose for having a similar thought, but I figure matire'd fixer is distinct enough from illegal needs fixer to work) Who says we can't be working together to keep the Sweet Rave Party going 24/7? Even the aforementioned Steve Rubell of Studio 54 fame had a business partner. And it sort of fits with my concept of a formerly honorable and uptight asari who has fallen from grace for some inscrutable reason.
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Feb 16, 2015 11:51
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"KRAAAH! A glass, pour it in glass! NO DRINK FROM THE BOTTLE!" Name: Haastak Race: Vorcha Ship's sommelier quote:Attributes & Skills Equipment: Acker Blade with Vicious Blade mod, damage: MD+4 Punisher SMG, range: 20m, damage: 3D+2 Data pad with current wine cellar & bar inventory Background: The ship's unlikely sommelier and possibly one of the sharpest tasters in the galaxy, Haastak owes his start in the restaurant business to his years with the Blood Pack mercenaries. After a routine raid on a volus trading vessel led into a routine argument with his krogan captain and subsequently getting not-so-routinely chokeslammed into a barrel of wine and left for dead (vorcha cannon fodder not being particularly valuable or rare), his race's natural adaptivity came to his aid. Submerged in the tannin-rich depths, Haastak quickly found himself possessing both the stamina to drink himself enough wriggle room to escape and a palate rivaling that of any master chef out there. Stowing away on the rescue vessel, Haastak ship-hopped his way onto the nearest spaceport and began his journey in the culinary world. Being largely non-verbally communicative and prone to swinging a knife at customer complaints (and the customers themselves), Haastak at times found it difficult to truly express the scope of his unique talents. Chased out of numerous estabilishments, sometimes after being actually hired to work there, he eventually managed to enter a ship that took a detour to the flying pleasure palace of [HMS PARTY SHIP]. At first, it looked like [PARTY SHIP] would be yet another failure in a long, ambitious chain of restaurants. None of the staff seemingly could or even wanted to direct Haastak to the HR department, and none of the clients seemed particularly interested in him berating them for their poor choice of beverages. This all came to head as the complaints finally brought out Corlus, the bar's volus sommelier and wine taster. After a terse moment where someone explained to Haastak that knifefighting was not the most traditional way of settling things amongst culinary professionals, the vorcha then offered a challenge: blind taste-testing, best out of 7 bottles, loser leaves the wine cellar alone. Excited patrons encircled the duo as they sat, glasses in hand, almost forming a moment of stillness in the chaotic nightclub. They traded wins one for one, until it came down to the last bottle of the cheapest Batarian shard wine sitting on the shelf. Recognizing the taste of a particular brand of anti-freeze used for shipboard mainteinance, Haastak was correctly able to identify the class of cruiser in whose toilets the drink had been brewed, and the contest was over. Escaping further embarassment via the first flight out of the ship, the vorcha picked up the volus' inventorial datapad and got to work behind the bar. After a few days, it seemed to have been wordlessly agreed that there was a new set of taste buds in town. Most nights the vorcha is seen carrying bottles from table to table, angrily sputtering through elaborate descriptions with a definitely lacking vocabulary and violent arm movements. Bushmeister fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Feb 26, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 12:34
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Robodog posted:Since Geth get +4 damage resist naturally I guess you can bolt on an armour mod directly to your chest? Legion did it. So add a +1 to the damage resist from the ablative coating or whatever. OK; yeah I just don't understand how mod slots are any different than upgrade points, and not every cybernetic upgrade has mod slots listed (but yet they're supposed to be 1 to 1?) So basically I have no idea how many modification points I have left over for cybernetics and such.
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Feb 16, 2015 19:32
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TychoBrahesNose posted:Who says we can't be working together to keep the Sweet Rave Party going 24/7? Even the aforementioned Steve Rubell of Studio 54 fame had a business partner. And it sort of fits with my concept of a formerly honorable and uptight asari who has fallen from grace for some inscrutable reason. You work the front desk, I work the back desk? That's an arrangement I could be agreeable too. And then, oh, the pathos when you turn out to be an undercover operative! Bushmeister posted:Name: Haastak This is genius and makes me wish I had an idea anywhere near as fun.
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Feb 16, 2015 20:25
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