|
 Humanity, finding no answers to the riddle of their own existence, now apply their own reasoning. Women and men seek to be enlightened. Religion is but the most ancient and honorable way in which we have striven to make sense out of God's universe. Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. Philosophers seek the rightness of events. Economists seek the cost of events. All strive to hear the voice of God. In the vastness of spaces between worlds, it is hard to hear God. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. We bring nothing with us, but our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Lama Freya Silvstedt, Contemplations  In the year 2116 the united nations of Earth launched the last cold sleep colony ship. Things were falling apart. The center could not hold. Anarchy and terror were loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide swelled, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence was lost. The best lacked all conviction, while the worst were filled with passionate intensity. What little conviction the best had was focused on a desperate bid to preserve the species amongst the stars, because they saw little hope for civilization here. The excesses of their predecessors were catching up to them:    In the final days before the launching of the Herald of Humanity even in the few areas nominally at peace; riots were getting worse and more frequent. You left orbit with two of the crew still missing and presumed dead in the riots in Paris.  traditional Frenchmen, engaging in a traditional French street riot.   Captain Hardrock personally picked you to be his third in command. Because of him you are one of the lucky few who would survive the imminent collapse of civilization on Earth. You owe him everything. His well-known accomplishments and genial personality make him extremely popular with almost all of his officers and he has earned the respect of the crew. When the Herald is fully staffed you serve as the damage control officer, but even with the best longevity treatments the pinnacle of human science can provide, you will have to spend the majority of the trip in cold sleep. The full crew won't all be awake again until near the end of voyage to the new planet. In order to stretch out your lifespan and prevent cabin fever, you will rotate through several cold sleep/awake rotations during the voyage. For the next 1200 light years, whenever you are awake, you will be in sole command of the Herald and a skeleton crew; mankind's final hope. If any of the other officers are awake at the same time as you before you enter the target solar system, it means something has gone really wrong. All the commanding officers have strict orders not to wake the others during their shift unless the Herald of Humanity is on the verge of destruction.  As the Herald of Humanity's nuclear powered rocket engines kicked on, you knew in your heart that Earth would never build another colony ship. You and the rest of Captain Hardrock's crew had to ensure the safe delivery and establishment of the colony you were transporting or there would be no more humans ever again. Even once you land, your duty will not end. Arriving at a new planet is just the first step in a long, long journey. Before you left, Captain Hardrock showed you a secret store of weapons being carried across the stars. Captain Hardrock tells you: "I pray that these weapons are never used, but before we left I was briefed on the possibility of attacks by native animals; or worse, intelligent natives at our destination. We are all that is left of our species and we cannot afford to fail so we are carrying these weapons of destruction instead of food, tools, or Auto-Fabricators. They won't last long, and it will be a long time before we can build the tools to build the tools to build additional ammunition; but they should be enough to allow us to establish a foothold. In order to keep them from being turned on the crew or colonists we are the only two people who can know about these. I suspect that there is a second store whose location is known only to Commander Ernest Oldcastle; my executive officer. I'm not supposed to know about that, but its hard to keep secrets from a captain about his own ship. That's one of the reason's I'm telling you about this and not Oldcastle. He's smart enough to suspect the existence of these weapons, but not knowing where they are should help keep him honest. You must not tell him about these weapons unless we need them against aliens. Even if there is a mutiny or rebellion, the weapons must be saved against future need. Using them on other humans would only reduce our numbers and risk the survival of our species. Better that many bad men survive then that a few good souls should slowly wither and decay in a disastrously small gene pool." In addition to your command responsibilities, you were cross-trained in one other field as part of the preparation for this mission. 1) What other field are you cross-trained for? A. Navigation B. Engineering C. Medicine D. TDY with Marines E. Logistics F. Military Police G. Xeno-Communications - No other sentient races have been encountered so this is an attempt to give you a 2% chance of success instead of a 0.0000000009% chance of success H. Orbital Image Analysis write in Welcome to the game! I'm very happy you are here. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I expect to enjoy writing it. Voices Of A Distant Planet is a Choose Your Own Adventure game. I hope to be able to post every weekday. Weekends I'll either be able to post a lot or hardly at all. Every update will offer options to proceed with. You can always propose an alternate path to pick. Some of the best plans in previous games have been write ins and I always enjoy reading them. The choice with the most votes will be picked. Type as much as you like, and when you vote please bold your vote like this. You will have many opportunities to ask questions of the people you encounter and can always ask questions about your own knowledge. One way this game is different from other games is that your adventure is a freeform adventure. You choose your path. The ship, or the colony if you live that long, can and will change around you based upon your actions and the actions of others. You do not have a predetermined story to run through. Your path and ultimate fate are not planned. Today, the day we started the game, I honestly have no idea where we may be two months from now, let alone how it might one day end. It is all up to you. You do not have plot armor. You do not even have normal armor. You are a fragile human being. Bad decisions can get you killed or wreak horrible consequences which you did not intend. If you want to, feel free to join us on irc #voices on synirc.net. I also idle in #madgod & #ohgod which tend to have more people in it. I am more likely to see and respond to comments in #voices because the other channels can get too busy for me to keep track of. If I miss a comment there, I'm very sorry. If you do not know what IRC is, here is a web based chat version which will not require you to register or download anything: http://chat.mibbit.com/ Many other CYOAs can be found at https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3764360 LLSix fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Feb 1, 2017 |
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 01:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 11:32 |
|
|
Character Sheet
Dramatis Personae - People You've Met
LLSix fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Feb 3, 2017 |
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 01:53
|
|
|
Reserved
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 01:53
|
|
|
Reserved - just in case
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 01:53
|
|
|
Reserved - I've regretted not having more of these reserved every game I've ever run.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 01:54
|
|
|
C: You can never have too many doctors when the nearest hospital is light years away.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 02:24
|
|
|
How large is the crew? What's the planet we are going to like? Has humanity encountered xeno-animals before? B I'm guessing we have enough people trained in those disciplines as it is. What I don't understand is why evil overlordship is not one of them.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 02:46
|
|
|
F, because murdering people is a life skill.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 02:50
|
|
|
B. Engineering, because knowing how to fix the ship might turn out to be sort of kinda important if (when) poo poo Goes Sideways.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 02:55
|
|
|
C
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 02:57
|
|
|
Mr. Nemo posted:How large is the crew? Mr. Nemo posted:What's the planet we are going to like? Mr. Nemo posted:Has humanity encountered xeno-animals before? Mr. Nemo posted:I'm guessing we have enough people trained in those disciplines as it is. Mr. Nemo posted:What I don't understand is why evil overlordship is not one of them. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 03:23
|
|
|
evil overlordship is more of a talent than a skill. Also B
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 03:33
|
|
|
We already have the serious scientific "Start your own colony CYOA" with Olothreutes' one, the silly one with I don't know who, I wonder what flavor this one will take. Hopefully the voices of a distant planet are actual voices and we meet some aliens.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 04:11
|
|
|
F Call me spacecop
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 04:35
|
|
|
E
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 04:41
|
|
|
Voting F
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 05:34
|
|
|
Every one of the Space CYOA's are filled to the brim with aliens. Hopefully this is one that we can actually find and eliminate those treacherous murderous Xenos.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 05:47
|
|
|
Mr. Nemo posted:We already have the serious scientific "Start your own colony CYOA" with Olothreutes' one, the silly one with I don't know who, I wonder what flavor this one will take. Hopefully the voices of a distant planet are actual voices and we meet some aliens. I didn't know about either of those. Outrail posted:Every one of the Space CYOA's are filled to the brim with aliens. Hopefully this is one that we can actually find and eliminate those treacherous murderous Xenos. That would be telling.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 05:52
|
|
|
F. Sam Vimes in Space
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 12:56
|
|
|
As tempting as I find the phrase "Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics" I'm going to have to go with G: Xeno-Communications We are expert in every form of tea ceremony know to man and are credited with the development of several theoretical forms. A polite society is an armed society, after all. That's why you're 3rd in command. While the demise of Earth is certainly regrettable, the possibility of alien contact an an excellent opportunity to pad our unfinished thesis.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 18:27
|
|
|
 Personal Log, Year 100 - Doctor Drake Moreau I woke from cold sleep for the first time today. It was a notably pleasant experience; like lazily waking up on a cold winter morning after a heavy snow. I was aware long before I was aware I was aware. I can describe the biological mechanism behind this with perfect clarity. I helped design the system after all. After the initial shock warming to get the body back above the thermal threshold where crystallization is a serious danger the "beds" warm up slowly. The full wake-up process takes several days during which period a sequence of increasingly gentle drugs is administered to keep the patient asleep. Each new drug permits the brain greater awareness of its body until the final stage where we filter all of the drugs out of the bloodstream to remove the last block from true consciousness. I am pleased that my efforts to make waking painless were successful. The process worked perfectly and my mind is alert, although my muscles are somewhat weak. A regular routine of exercise should fix that soon enough.  Personal Log, Year 200 - Doctor Drake Moreau I do not know why I am required to take a turn as commanding officer of the Herald of Humanity. Having me serve a turn as command officer is clearly foolish. Everyone aboard this ship would be much better served if my unique talents were preserved until landing when there are real biological threats. Any infectious agent that can survive the journey through the empty void to reach us here would be beyond even my abilities to cure. However, I do enjoy being in charge. I'm master and commander as they used to say. When I say go, the crew goes. When I say come, they come. Much like the dog I trained when I was 8. Still losing 10 years of my life out of every century we travel is too high a price to pay. I'm already older than most of the other officers and I'm keenly aware of the limits of the longevity treatments used on us.  Personal Log, Year 300 - Doctor Drake Moreau Another century, another decade of menial drudgery. I'll make another round of the cryo sleep beds soon. Not that there will be any problems. My design is perfect. Checking all 70 thousand odd beds will only take 2 or 3 years though. How will I fill the remaining time? I can only order the crew to do jumping jacks until they collapse so many times before it loses its amusement value. Maybe foot races around the habitation ring? Anything to keep the tedium at bay. I can even justify it as necessary to keep my portion of the crew in peak physical fitness.  Personal Log, Year 500 - Doctor Drake Moreau Or perhaps it is year 400? I feel woozy from waking up from cold sleep today. No, I woke up from cold sleep yesterday. The days and the years blend together out here in this void. I knew that the depths of space were devoid of life but I did not realize how utterly alone I would feel. Has it been half a Millennium already? I don't remember what I did the previous century and I apparently made no log entries, but the ship's clock insists we've been drifting towards our destination for 500 years already. I dread tomorrow and long to sleep once more. Nothing interests me.  Personal Log, Year 600 - Doctor Drake Moreau I've come to loathe the trip through these connecting corridors to check on the cryo sleep beds. The corridors were designed by an idiot with a hard on for zero-g. They are symmetrical in every dimension and nearly indistinguishable. I worry sometimes that I might get turned around in here and wander lost until the end of time. My voyage never ending. I wake up covered in sweat sometimes and I know I've had the nightmare again. The one where I lose my grip on the wall in these corridors and drift; weightless in the middle of the freight-sized corridor. Those nightmares are the worst because it's a very real danger. If my grip slips or I fail to push off hard enough to reach the next hand hold I could be floating down here for hours. Maybe even days with nothing to push off of and no way of moving until a stray gust of wind pushes me towards a wall. I don't know why I bother to continue carrying out this duty. The cryo sleep beds never have anything wrong. They are perfect in every way. I would expect nothing less. I designed and built them with my own two hands. Maybe that's why I make these trips. A pilgrimage to remind myself of my great achievements.  Personal Log, Year 700 - Doctor Drake Moreau In order to keep myself from going crazy, I have decided to use this time to prepare for any problems that we might encounter when we finally reach ****. The medical bay has a number of sample jars that I can use to hold bacterial cultures. The first step will be to guess at what sort of alien micro-organisms we might encounter and create samples of each. Once that's done I can begin looking for ways to combat them. Personal Log, Year 800 - Doctor Drake Moreau That bitch of an engineer, Yurika, has the command shift after me. That horrible woman left me a note complaining about my lax maintenance of the ship. Doesn't she realize I have more important things to do than personally tighten every loose nut and bolt on this boat? I have experiments to perform! Hypothesis to test! Wait, maybe I can turn this to my advantage? I'll pass her concerns along to one of the micro-brains assisting me during this shift. Maybe it'll keep them busy and out of my hair so I can focus on my delicate samples. The preparations I make now may be the difference between success and a plague worse than the black death after we land.  Personal Log, Year 900 - Doctor Drake Moreau Progress is slow, but I persevere. There is no problem that medicine cannot overcome given time. I have an abundance of time. Personal Log, Year 1,000 - Doctor Drake Moreau I have found cures and vaccines to several of the most likely attack vectors, but there are so very many possibilities. I worry I will not complete my work in time. In order to avoid the tedious and lengthy process of recreating my simulated diseases every time I wake I plan to modify the spare cold sleep beds to preserve my samples until I can work with them again. They're much too dangerous to leave unattended while I sleep. There are fewer spare beds than I expected. Those fools back on Earth are trying to sabotage me! I will not permit them to succeed.  Personal Log, Year 1,100 - Doctor Drake Moreau My modifications to the cryo sleep beds worked perfectly. I would expect nothing less. I designed and built the original models with my own two hands. Major modifications like these would be extremely dangerous if carried out by anyone else. For me? Child's play. My work will progress faster than ever. Personal Log, Year 1,200 - Doctor Drake Moreau Supplies in the medical bay are running low. I suspect some of the other command officers have been wasting them on treating minor injuries to their portion of the crew. A criminal waste given what I could do with them. I will leave a note requesting that they be more efficient in their use of our limited supplies.  Personal Log, Year 1,300 - Doctor Drake Moreau Captain Hardcastle has seen fit to rebuke me. He accused me of wasting supplies. Accused me! I agree that I have used far more than anyone else, but I'm not wasting the supplies. The work I'm doing now is our only hope of surviving the assault of millions of alien micro-organisms. Does that fool want 9 in 10 of us to die like the Aztecs did after the Spanish first 'discovered' them? Like the colonists of Roanoke? He would be a fool indeed to get in my way. The military are often fools. I will break into the supplies intended to be transported to the surface with us and use those instead of the Herald's supplies from now on. Personal Log, Year 1,400 - Doctor Drake Moreau My work is nearly complete. I have an abundance of medical supplies since I broke into the containers stored for the colonist's use. I will begin experiments on creating algae that can filter out air borne toxins. Personal Log, Year 1,500 - Doctor Drake Moreau I have accomplished that which my long dead colleagues on Earth could only dream of. I have a response prepared for any possible bacterial attack we might be subjected to when we reach ****. Thus far I have discovered over 1,000 species of algae that are unsuitable for filtering air. Two are toxic to humans. Poor Whedon. I remain undaunted. Science always finds a way. Personal Log, Year 1,600 - Doctor Drake Moreau We will be arriving soon. I have accomplished much by being able to devote the full resources of every awake human to my medical endeavors. How much more might I accomplish if the colony united under my leadership? Yesterday's best practices led to dead ends. The most promising paths are new and untried. I have much to think on. **** Even spending 90% of the trip in cold sleep you have many long years of travel ahead of you. 2) How do you avoid going crazy during the long trip? M. Who says I don't want to go crazy? hahahahahahahaha N. Maybe I'm already crazy! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA O. I spend my spare time cross-training in a second option from the previous vote (this means the top 2 picks will be chosen) P. I learn to draw & paint Q. I learn to sing R. Q & I start a barbershop quartet with 3 of my subordinates S. I learn how to play several instruments T. And I start a band with 3 of my subordinates U. I cook the best meals I can instead of the planned meals. Even the best planned nutrition gets old after a few decades. V. I learn how to knit and sow W. I practice slight of hand and other 'magic' tricks X. Loel posted:Practice haunting the ship  Voting from the previous update is still open.See below for your convenience LLSix posted:In addition to your command responsibilities, you were cross-trained in one other field as part of the preparation for this mission. LLSix fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Feb 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 22:54
|
|
|
N, O (G: Xeno-Communications) This is shaping up to be all that I hoped it could be 
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:02
|
|
|
V, every medic should be excellent at knitting and sewing. We shall be more good.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:04
|
|
|
Are you making GBS threads me? loving Mengele?
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:06
|
|
|
I don't know why we're voting, R is the only reasonable course of action
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:18
|
|
|
O Mengele. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:36
|
|
|
Rockopolis posted:Are you making GBS threads me? loving Mengele? AJ_Impy posted:O I'm an insensitive dick. The name has been changed. Sorry.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:39
|
|
|
How has this nut not been spaced already?
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2017 23:48
|
|
|
O Space him, space everyone we can.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 00:00
|
|
|
Practice haunting the ship Learn all the secret paths. Make short cuts and tunnels. Pop out of hallways at ominous times. Loom.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 00:03
|
|
|
Loel posted:Practice haunting the ship this too. I dunno, I got a little snigger out of the name but I am also a hugely insensitive dick at times. The new name is very promising however. Research tentacles and chelicerae immediately
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 00:21
|
|
|
O, Cross-Training
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 00:33
|
|
|
Hexenritter posted:this too. Add tentacles to ship exterior, rename it 'The Lovecraft' and scream a song of xenophobic horror to the stars.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 04:49
|
|
|
We must make ourselves as great a monster as the febrile imagination of whatever blind idiot thing is responsible for creation could conceive only during its most phantasmagoric nightmares, and iterate upon our perfection from there. Only then will we be safe from the cosmic horrors crudely ejaculated hither and yon across the firmament.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 04:57
|
|
|
This gives me a real Children of Time vibe. G S. Start a solo Black Metal project with long droning songs about the inevitability of death and the stupidity of our forebears ala Burzum. Blasphemaster fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Feb 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 05:58
|
|
|
Were we separated at birth or something because we are of a like mind an awful lot. Shame the name changed or that Burzum suggestion would be doubly lol
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 06:02
|
|
|
Write a 15-hour opus that's nothing but really toned down tremello and the moans of our latest test subject, then broadcast it through the ship as required listening.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 06:08
|
|
|
also make a music video that is nothing but shots of bleak pine barrens and ravens in super slow motion
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 06:41
|
|
|
LLSix posted:I'm an insensitive dick. The name has been changed. Sorry.  Keep a picture diary O 
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 06:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 23, 2024 11:32 |
|
|
Adding O to my F vote.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2017 08:48
|
|