[AW] Apocalypse Soon

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The Game Room > [AW] Apocalypse Soon

Mr. Prokosch: Feb 14, 2012; Behold My Magnificence!

Private Pepper posted:

�We�re gonna die out here sergeant! We�re gonna die because some gently caress head suit somewhere decided it was a good idea to send us to bugfuck hell planet to loving die! gently caress that guy and gently caress you! All of us are gonna die! If I�m gonna die, I ain�t gonna do it marching in a goddamn circle waiting to get my face eaten! My mind is loving made up. So you got a choice. You let me read my loving book in peace, OR YOU SHOOT ME IN MY loving HEAD! Both sound sweet as poo poo to me. You loving pick.�

This is a game of Apocalypse World inspired by Apocalypse Now with a bit of starship troopers. Whether you�ve been drafted or you volunteered, whether you�re a special forces badass or a grunt with a talent for improvisation, you�re now stuck on a hostile planet with no support. You were dropped off in some shithole firebase with one ironclad order: hold. No word since then. No relief. Nothing. The world might not have ended for folks on Earth, but your world has turned pretty loving apocalyptic. Everything on the base is breaking down, including the people. And outside? A jungle world filled with hostile aliens. All you know about any of that poo poo for certain is that it loving hates you.

Have fun.

Recruiting for an Apocalypse World PBP game. Will use discord to organize stuff and chit chat. Premise is a bit off from standard AW so keep that in mind and flavor apps accordingly.

For apps:
1. Art is cool
2. Drafted or volunteered? How did you feel about the war?
3. What's the scariest thing about this place?

Discord: https://discord.gg/HqMQtMD

Deadline: Monday 12/11

Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Dec 6, 2017

# ? Dec 5, 2017 23:17

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 23, 2024 09:00

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

Lance Corporal Aboah, Jacob D - The Landfall Marine
A little mood music

M9A4 "Marauder" Combat Hardsuit.

I grew up in the Nai-Basa Sprawl, officially known as the Nairobi-Mombasa Metroplex in the Kenyan Administrative District on Earth. I wanted something more than just down-stack manufacturing work or retail/service industry poverty. The only way out was to be a Citizen, so I signed on. At the time, the Newsfeeds kept saying "Oh, this little conflict will be over any day now." That was two years ago.

I guess I tested well, because they put me in Mobile Infantry, which is fine, I guess, Orbital Drops are terrifying and they suck, but I'd rather face the Bugs wearing the next best thing to a loving assault vehicle than these other poor fuckers wearing nothing more than kevlon and maybe a basic enviro-suit.

I hate this place, I hate the military, I hate these people, I hate the bugs.
The only thing I don't hate at this point is my Suit, but only because it's the only thing keeping me alive.

quote:

Drafted or volunteered? How did you feel about the war?

"Service Guarantees Citizenship" they said, and I wanted to know more. The thing is, back home they don't tell you how it really is out here. They make it sound like we're going to save humanity, that this is all some minor problem that we'll solve and go back to normal. If I knew then what I knew now...well I might have joined up with one of the labor divisions for citizenship instead.

quote:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

Back in Basic, one of my drill instructors said something that stuck with me. "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because I am the baddest motherfucker in said valley." And for hundreds of drops, on dozens of planets, that was the truth. Here though, I've seen entire companies in Marauder Suits walk into those trees and just...disappear. No distress calls, no signs of battle, no bodies when SAR goes after them. Just...gone.

People whisper that it wasn't even the goddamned Bugs that got em.

quote:

Playbook: Landfall Marine
XP: 0
Harm: 0:00
Look: Man, fatigues, Disciplined face, Piercing eyes, muscular body

Cool +2
Hard +2
Hot -1
Sharp +1
Weird -2

Vulnerability: Hunger 0:00

POWER ARMOR (Assault Configuration)
Power +2
Agility +1
Armor 2
Massive 2

Systems:
Psy Isolation Rig: protects from psy-harm while in the suit.
Point hardened Laminate Armor: ignores ap ammo
Target acquisition & lock system: Add +1 to all attack and combat moves
M-2490 Squad Automatic Railgun (SARGe): 50cal mg (5-harm far area messy)
Handheld weapon adapter: Allows you to aim and fire handheld weapons.

Charge: 0:00
Damage: 0:00
Ammo: 0:00

GEAR

Under Armor Interface Suit (Hi-Tech)

Basic Field Uniform (worn outside of suit)

M-58 10mm pistol (2-harm close loud)
BARTER: 0

Hx

Zee the Hocus: -2

Willie Sideways Thompson - The Driver: -2

Reine - The Contaminated: -2

Major Roosevelt Profit - The Chopper: -2

Sgt. Vasile Petrescu - The Maestro'D: -2

Lt. Casey Casino Duff - Battlebabe: -1

quote:

MARINE MOVES:
Agent/combatant
you get all of the landfall marine missions.
You have contact with an orbital drop/echo platform.
Each time you complete a mission, you can call for resupply.
During play, the MC may have your superiors contact you with orders or with information relevant to your missions.
MISSIONS

Infiltration: when you destabilize and disarm an armed population, without direct combat, seizing its position and resources, receive resupply.

Information & control: when you parlay with the leader of an armed population, representing reclamation interests, and win material concessions or collaboration, receive resupply.

Reclamation: when you identify and accurately report an area of the landscape suitable for excavatory bombardment and reclamation, receive resupply.

Reconaissance: when you identify and accurately report an armed population’s position, strength, numbers, and resources, receive resupply.

Relief & recovery: when you come to the aid of a fellow landfall marine or other reclamation personnel in duress, or recover reclamation matériel, receive resupply.

Scout / survey: when you identify and accurately report an area of the landscape with strategic value, receive resupply.

Spearhead: when you defeat an armed population in direct combat, seizing its position and resources, receive resupply.
RESUPPLY:
When you receive resupply, choose 1 of the following:

Ammo: erase all of your walkingsuit's ammo countdown segments.

Bombardment: for the rest of the session, you can use bombardment as a weapon. 8-harm far area messy.

Medical: erase all of your harm countdown segments.

Rations: erase all your marked hunger and food countdown segments.

Reinforcement: the MC brings an NPC landfall marine into play as your reinforcement. Tell her to create them as a threat and to give them a walkingsuit.

Repair: erase all of your walkingsuit's damage countdown segments.

Retrofiture: exchange one of your walkingsuit's systems for another of your choice.
Walkingsuit calibration
when you charge up a walkingsuit, roll+its power instead of roll+weird.

Special Move
If you and another character have sex, you both mark experience.

quote:

POWER ARMOR MOVES

When your walkingsuit is in baseline, erase 1 charge segment for each hour that passes.

When you charge up a walkingsuit, roll+weird.
On a 10+, mark no charge countdown segments.
On a 7-9, mark 1 charge countdown segment.
On a miss, mark 2 charge countdown segments.

Once your walkingsuit's charge countdown has reached 12:00, it cools automatically down to baseline. Before you charge it up again, let it recover some charge segments.

When your walkingsuit goes into hard shutdown, roll+agility.
On a 10+, all 3.
On a 7-9, choose 2.
On a miss, choose 1:

Your walkingsuit slows to a stop. Otherwise, it freezes immobile at this precise moment.

Your walkingsuit lands in a stable, balanced position. Otherwise, it falls awkwardly.

Your walkingsuit maintains its baseline comms and sensor activity. Otherwise, it leaves you deaf and dumb.

When you use your walkingsuit to cover ground, name your route and roll+agility.
On a 10+, choose 3.
On a 7-9, choose 2.
On a miss, choose 1:

Do not mark a charge countdown segment. Otherwise, you must mark 1.

You cover the ground very quickly: as a vehicle with speed equal to its agility. Otherwise, you cover it only at human running speed.

You avoid impact with the ground or obstacles. Otherwise, your passage is noisy and you leave an unmistakeable trail of battered scenery.

You keep to the available cover. Otherwise you expose yourself to enemy attention and fire.

When you use your walkingsuit to force an entrance or exit, name your route and roll+power. On a hit, sweet, you’re there, and anything that stood in your way has suffered whatever harm or impact necessary (MC's call).
On a 7–9, mark 1 charge countdown segment.
On a miss, mark 1 charge countdown segment, and you’re hung up somewhere midroute or on some difficult threshold.

When your walkingsuit's ammo countdown reaches 12:00, you’re out of ammo. Do not use any of your weapon systems until you use resupply (or some other means, such as a savvyhead's workspace) to erase ammo countdown segments.

When you ram a person, a vehicle, or a structure intentionally, add your walkingsuit's power to its massive to determine the harm you inflict.
When you use your walkingsuit as a vehicle otherwise, use its agility for both its speed and its handling.

Error 404 fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Mar 14, 2018

# ? Dec 6, 2017 00:33

Tricky: Jun 12, 2007; after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage

Spc. Reine, The Contaminated

"Service guarantees citizenship? Not after they see what I've become."

quote:

Drafted or volunteered? How did you feel about the war?

"Volunteer... not that I'd admit it to anyone. It's not like I'm an ooh-rah glory hound or a starry-eyed kid, you know? It was the only way I was going to ever get out from under all those loans I took out to get my degree in mechanical engineering. And, y'know, the idea of getting to vote when I got back wasn't half bad either. Maybe hop up the queue for a procreation license. Everyone loves a citizen, right? My parents never did make the jump, just toughed it out as provisionals. Guess that's not really relevant, though, given that I'm stuck on a bug-infested hellhole and never going to see civilization again!"

"The war? It's hosed. It's hosed like ten ways that are immediately obvious and then like five hundred that aren't. I mean, god, this was supposed to be a simple territory grab. That was the way I heard it. We'd get a forward base that the big guns could stage out of, then crush the bug homeworld. Wherever the gently caress that is. In practice? They stuffed us in a sinking boat, surrounded by sharks, and you gotta be loving joking if you think they bothered to leave a life jacket."

quote:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

"God, what isn't horrifying about it? If it isn't the legions of killer aliens, the weirdo diseases people keep catching, or the fact that everyone here is a goddamn lunatic... well, I guess there's one thing that's slipped under everyone's radar. Sure as hell wasn't on mine until, you know, all this. So here's how the power systems work: it's a bit of a ramshackle mess. Part fusion core, part geothermal, all finicky as hell. As you probably guessed, they're sunk down below the firebase. Basically right on top of bedrock. Only there's these cracks in the walls down there. Not huge, you know, but apparently big enough for something to squeeze on through. Something that looks a little something like this."

"I don't know what it was after, but it seemed pretty drat interested in the generators. Kinda glommed on to the sealed bulkhead and was doing... something. Alien poo poo, you know? I shoulda just run for one of the drat grunts and had them vent it, but, for some reason, I thought it'd be a great idea to up and kill it myself. This place does things to you. Weird things. So, right, I stabbed it. I don't even have a combat knife like the rangers or anything, I just used my multi-tool's spot cutter. Sharp as hell, but you gotta get right up in there."

"It didn't turn around and maul me, which is weird, but the weirder part was the stuff that sprayed out of the cut. It was almost like it was pressurized, just shot this intense stream of blue goo all over me. Some of it got in me. Mouth, eyes... it was everywhere. I... don't really remember what happened after that. Some whispers, maybe. When I woke up, I was... different. Like this. And the voices. So many voices. It's not all bad. I can get by siphoning a bit of the generator's power, no need to sell of my last bits of home for an actual loving share of whatever slop is in the cookhouse. And... well, call it a hunch, but I don't think I need to worry much about the bugs. I'm still human on the outside, but inside? I think I'm something else entirely."

quote:

Name: Reine
Look: Woman, Utility Wear, Luminous Beauty

Stats:
Cool +1
Hard +2
Hot -1
Sharp +1
Weird +2

Contamination:
Inhuman strength and reflexes: you are many times stronger and quicker than the uncontaminated. Any time you think that your inhuman strength or reflexes might help you, ask the MC to choose 1:
� You get +1 or +2 to your roll, or you get +1choice or +1hold after your roll.
� You can act under fire to do it, when a normal person would be simply incapable.
� You inflict +1harm, +2harm, or add ap to your attack.

Inhuman flexibility: you can contort your body into bizarre, appalling, and unnatural configurations. You can fit through or into spaces that no one could possibly fit into, in order to hide, escape, or gain entry. You can also impress, dismay, or frighten someone without using seize by force to do it. The MC can have you act under fire to hold a position for a long time, to take the most extreme positions, or to move while contorted.

Inhuman resilience: no amount of harm can make your life untenable. Treat harm past 11:00 as painful and temporarily debilitating, but not lasting. At the beginning of the next session, reduce your harm to 6:00. The MC might decide that certain kinds of extreme harm�immolation or beheading, for instance�count as a decontamination attempt, as follows.

Decontamination: you might be able to be decontaminated. Maybe a savvyhead or an angel with an infirmary can help, or a brainer or a hocus with augury, or a quarantine with a medlab or a Ψ-isolation rig. Maybe you have another plan of your own. In any case, seeing a decontamination attempt through to its conclusion immediately makes your life untenable. The only way to be sure of decontamination is to change to another playbook, and to agree with the MC that your contamination belongs to your old life that you're leaving behind. Seeing a decontamination attempt through gives you an opportunity for this, but doesn't require it or guarantee it.

Moves:
The other one: tell the MC to create the other one as a perversion of birth who comes to you in your brain and acts for you with your body. Once per session, and more often if you choose, tell the MC that now you're the other one. Ask the MC what you do.

Hive mind: you share thoughts and senses with others who share your contamination. At any time, you can ask the MC what they're seeing, hearing, feeling, and thinking about, and you can read them if you choose, even from afar. At any time, you can also ask the MC if there are others who share your contamination, and who, or who's new.

The lily of the pits: if you have [circle 1: human blood, any blood, raw flesh, electricity, terror, poison, the moment of death], you don't need or desire anything else. At the beginning of the session, spend 0-barter on lifestyle, and tell the MC that you toil not, and yet are arrayed in charnal splendor.

Gear:
Multi-tool (3-harm intimate hi-tech)
All sorts of spare parts (6-barter)
A beat-up technician's uniform

Contaminated Special:
If you and another character have sex, but only the first time you have sex with them, give them a move from your playbook. You're allowed to ask the other player their preference, but ultimately you choose the move, and the substance if required.

HX:
On your turn, consider these: human blood, any blood, raw flesh, electricity, terror, poison, the moment of death.

Ask one or both:
� Which one of you has provided me with [choose one of the above]? For that characters, write Hx+1.
� Which one of you has blocked me from [choose one of the above]? For that character, write Hx+2.

For everyone else, write Hx-1. They have been shadows to you before now.

Tricky fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Dec 8, 2017

# ? Dec 6, 2017 00:38

Sax Battler: Jul 31, 2007; Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

We had a mission.
Into that hell, we went. Sarge, Lima, Docker, Hilbert... Me.
We always get it done, that's why command sent us.
Command isn't answering. loving comms.
Nobody else is answering, either. Where is everyone?
I've been out of meds for a while. That's not good. We saw what happens, during training.
There might be some with the grunts at base camp.
Out of ammo, too. When did that happen?
We should always stay with the squad, must have missed pickup.
What was our mission?
Where did the squad go?
Can only trust the Squad. Only Squad.
Grunts can't know our mission.
Did we do it? We always do it.
Suit is breaking down, have to keep the Squad alive.
Time is T plus ???

Time to contact local frendlies.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Drafted or volunteered?

I volunteered? A long time ago now. I feels like it, at least. Before the war.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

How did you feel about the war?

It's still going on. We haven't won yet. It's a war we have to win.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

You can't trust anything. A safe place one day can be a deathtrap the next.
Docker was preparing camp one day in a clearing and it, inverted?
We burned it, but he was gone. We haven't slept much, after that.

quote:

Name: Hark the Faceless
Look: Concealed gender, damaged armor, blank eyes, muscular body

Stats:
Cool+1
Hard+2
Hot-1
Sharp=0
Weird+1

The Unexpected: when someone sees you unmasked for the first time, they take s-harm, in addition to anything else that happens.

Unmasked, you are:
Irresolute. When you inflict harm, inflict -1harm.
Powerless. You lose access to all of your character moves. You can still make basic moves.

Moves:
Rasputin: shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being scary as gently caress and coming at someone, you get +1armor.
You still get shot and stabbed, bleeding just doesn�t bother you that much anymore.

Juggernaut: take -2 on all �when you suffer harm� rolls.

Norman: you seek the advice of your mask. Roll+weird to see what it directs you to do. On a 10+ mark experience and take +1forward if you do as your mask wishes.
On a 7�9, take a +1 if you do what it wants and act under fire if you don�t. On a miss, it has its own agenda. Act under fire if you don�t follow it

Gear:
Breaching tool (3-harm hand messy)
Decaying armored suit (2-armor)
Oddments worth 2-barter

Sax Battler fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Dec 6, 2017

# ? Dec 6, 2017 00:58

Platonicsolid: Nov 17, 2008

Lt. Casey 'Casino' Duff

A Special Forces Badass

quote:

Drafted or volunteered?

Casey waggles her hand. "Bit of both. Was on the other side during the Mars rebellion, that I signed up for, dumb kid that I was. After, peace deal said we'd get 'integrated' into the stabfor. Settled in good after I punched a few Earthers who needed punching. They saw my eval scores and shipped me off to special forces training, which is too loving funny, right? Got out just as this little party flared up, non-stop fun since. Hell, this was supposed to be a break! A milk run guarding an outpost. Way to gently caress it up, Earthers."

quote:

How did you feel about the war?

"Eh, it's poo poo," Casey rolls her eyes and gestures upwards with both hands. "Right, I know," she puts one hand out, hand up with thumb below, like using a sock puppet, "'All war is poo poo!' Sure, gently caress yeah it is, it always is. This is extra poo poo poo poo. If I'm gonna die, prefer it to be for something."

quote:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

A deep, long chug, that tips her cup up so far to get the last drop outs. A deft motion flips it upside-down and plonks it on the table. "You not buying me another drink."

quote:

Name: Casey 'Casino' Duff

Playbook: The Battlebabe
Stats: Cool +3, Hard 0, Hot +1, Sharp +1, Weird -1
Look: Woman, showy armor, sharp face, caculating eyes, muscular body

Moves:
Merciless: When you inflict harm, inflict +1 harm.

Perfect Instincts: When you read a charged situation and you're acting on the MC's answers, take a +2 instead of +1.

Gear:
N271 Sharpshooter Rifle (2 harm far reload ~~loud~~ silenced hi-powered)
N17 Semi-automatic Pistol (2-harm close ~~reload~~ semi-automatic loud ap-ammo)

Platonicsolid fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Dec 7, 2017

# ? Dec 6, 2017 01:02

Basic Chunnel: Sep 21, 2010; Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

I�m interested

# ? Dec 6, 2017 08:02

Mykkel: Oct 8, 2012; we were somewhere around hesaim on the edge of the spinward marches when the drugs began to take hold.

Interest post.

# ? Dec 6, 2017 12:21

Zedhe Khoja: Nov 10, 2017; sürgünden selamlar
yıkıcılar ulusuna

Major Eren Berk the Hardholder
Commander of 7th Battallion's Company A: Berk's Beserkers. Now known as the Kanka

Drafted or volunteered? Volunteered. Long before this shitfest. Was planning on being a lifer, looks like thats a pretty short time from where I stand right now.
How did you feel about the war? I didn't. It' wasn't my job to. My job was to rip and tear these bugs limb from limb, until its finally done. Still is.
What's the scariest thing about this place? The futility of it all. No I don't mean in the "whats the point of the war" type nonsense. I don't give a poo poo about that. I mean no matter what strategy we tried, no matter what target we took out, it never made a difference. The swarm remained unchanged. And every battle, no matter how careful we were, became a meatgrinder. Soldiers in one end. Meat out the other.

Which got me to thinking. What if we set out to make a meatgrinder. A place desinged to do nothing but drain lives and calories from the foe. All of our strategies took a permanent overwhelming numerical advantage in our enemies favour as our primary axiom. What if we were wrong? What if this war was one of attrition? Why not, simply, kill them all?
Our previous operations suffered so many casualties that the idea was laughable. None of my superiors would even entertain the notion. But they aren't here to say no anymore are they?

The Grinder is close enough to the firebase that on good days you can barely breath for the stench that comes off the wind. And its the first thing noticed when making a visit, long before the foliage disappears into a carpet of ash, splinters, and rotting muck two miles out from its walls. To walk on the ground anywhere besides the maintained strip of road out here is madness. So much ichor, sloughing fat, and foul bile has been spilled from bugs out here that it's turned the already muddy ground into a revolting lagoon of carnage. Stories of soldiers stepping out for a smoke and disappearing in the slime have begun to crop up. Berk's men, an already notoriously vicious company, have developed something of a bad reputation since their exodus to their charnel house. Like the fortress they inhabit they're now adorned with the barely cleaned corpses of their enemy. Their uniforms, once pristine, are barely recognizable for the gore that's accumulated on them. Even more ominous is the complete breakdown in discipline and disregard for the chain of command. Referring to each other, singularly and as a collective as "Kanka". And they only ever seem to get weirder as time goes on.

pre:

By default, your holding has:
75-150 souls.
for gigs, a mix of hunting, crude farming, and scavenging (surplus: 1-barter, want: hungry).
a makeshift compound of concrete, sheet metal and rebar. Your gang gets +1armor when fighting
in its defense.
an armory of scavenged and makeshift weapons.
a garage of 4 utility vehicles and 4 specialized battle vehicles (detail with the MC).
a gang of about 40 violent bastards (2-harm gang medium unruly 1-armor).

Choose 4:
for gigs, add lucrative raiding. Surplus: +1barter, want: +reprisals.
your gang is large instead of medium, 60 violent bastards or so.
your armory is sophisticated and extensive. Your gang gets +1harm.
your compound is tall, deep and mighty, of stone and iron. Your gang gets +2armor when fighting in its defense.

And choose 2:

your population is decadent and perverse. Surplus: -1barter, want: +savagery.
your gang is a pack of loving hyenas. Want: +savagery.

Zedhe Khoja fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Dec 6, 2017

# ? Dec 6, 2017 15:22

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Thinking a Kilgore-esque Chopper.

# ? Dec 6, 2017 15:41

Mykkel: Oct 8, 2012; we were somewhere around hesaim on the edge of the spinward marches when the drugs began to take hold.

Dr. Frenkli Willis

Drafted or Volunteered? How do you feel about the war

Volunteered. Military Intelligence was the only place that would allow Frenkli to conduct ESP experiments in peace. So sure the price was a year rotation in a bug infested hell-hole,
the prize was being able to maximize his talents in mental manipulation. The psychic environment of this hell hole had only amplified his abilities.
The war didn't really concern him until recently. With no contact from home, the situation had deteriorated. He could no longer continue his experiments in the lab, as he now had
to devote a majority of his time to actually staying alive.

What's the scariest thing about this place

I haven't proven it, but I think that the purple vines that envelope some of the taller trees have developed a sort of sentience. And that sentience is angry at us.
I've looked at some satellite images, I think the purple vines are migrating from tree to tree. And they are beginning to enclose us. Nobody in the base cares about
some vines that give off a psychic resonnance. They are too occupied by the thing with the spiky limbs and hive mind. I think the vines are the bugs natural predator.
And they/it do not like us killing it's food source.

pre:

Look
Man, Dress Uniform, pale face, dead eyes, awkward angular body.
Stats
Cool+1 Hard+1 Hot-2 Sharp +1 Weird +3

Moves
Deep brain scan  when you have time and physical intimacy with someone�mutual
intimacy like holding them in your arms, or 1-sided intimacy like they�re restrained to a
table�you can read them more deeply than normal. Roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a
7�9, hold 1. While you�re reading them, spend your hold to ask their player questions, 1
for 1:
What was your character�s lowest moment?
For what does your character crave forgiveness, and of whom?
What are your character�s secret pains?
In what ways are your character�s mind and soul vulnerable?
On a miss, you in􀃬ict 1-harm (ap) upon your subject, to no benefit.

Preternatural at-will brain attunement: you get +1weird (weird+3).[/i]

 Brainer Gear 
violation glove (hand hi-tech) For purposes of brainer moves, mere skin contact counts as time and intimacy.
pain-wave projector (1-harm ap area loud reload hi-tech)Goes off like a reusable grenade. Hits everyone but you.

Gear
hidden knives(w-harm hand infinite)
oddments (8-barter)
Dress uniform is made out of a synthetic armor polymer (1-armor).
Hx
TBD

Mykkel fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Dec 6, 2017

# ? Dec 6, 2017 16:49

quiggy: Aug 7, 2010; [in Russian] Oof.

Zee, the Hocus

For anyone else, this assignment must have felt like Hell. Hostile alien world, no support, everything breaking down around us, death very loving certain. But y'know, when the alternative is more of my life spent in that loving lab with needles in my skin and the whirr of mech-saws and scientists invading my brain over and over and over again... I'll loving take Hell. Looks like some of these soldiers have noticed me too and started following me and taking orders. Fine. All the better to carve out my own slice of this world.

quote:

Drafted or volunteered?

I was taken from a home I never knew when I was just a baby and subjected to these insane experiments my whole life, torturing me and driving me to the brink of death over and over and over again to unlock whatever psychic potential they thought I had. Drafted or volunteered? What do you loving think?

quote:

How did you feel about the war?

Here's the great thing about being a psychic slave of those fascist goons: you don't really get a loving opinion in whether the war is just or not. I was sent here to kill, not to think about the morality of killing.

quote:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

I bet most folks would say it's the monsters in the forest or the situation breaking down day after day but no, it's none of those. It's what happens if the brass comes back. If they see my treason... well I'll wish I was back in those labs.

quote:

Name: Officially, Z-78b-X. I go by Zee.
Playbook: The Hocus
Stats: Cool+1, Hard=0, Hot+1, Sharp-1, Weird+2
Look: Managed to fashion myself a pretty badass getup from some leather I found lying around. Moves and breathes easy and makes me look scary as poo poo. Hot too--cape, tight pants, the works. Only thing that pisses me off is this drat collar they put on me before sending me out here. Haven't managed to get that off no matter how hard I've tried. Hope it's not communicating with them still.
Other: 1-armor (from Divine protection), oddments worth 4-barter, heavy rifle (harm-3 close/far loud autofire)

Moves:
Fortunes: fortune, surplus and want all depend on your followers. At the beginning of the session, roll+fortune. On a 10+, your followers have surplus. On a 7�9, they have surplus, but choose 1 want. On a miss, they are in want. If their surplus lists barter, like 1-barter or 2-barter, that�s your personal share, to spend for your lifestyle or for what you will.

Frenzy: When you speak the truth to a mob, roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7�9, hold 1. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to make the mob:
� Bring people forward and deliver them.
� Bring forward all their precious things.
� Unite and fight for you as a gang (3-harm 1-armor size appropriate).
� Fall into an orgy of uninhibited emotion: loving, lamenting, fighting, sharing, celebrating, as you choose.
� Go quietly back to their lives.
On a miss, the mob turns on you.

Divine protection: your gods give you 1-armor. If you wear armor, use that instead, they don�t add.

Followers:
By default you have around 20 followers, loyal to you but not fanatical. They have their own lives apart from you, integrated in the local population (fortune+1 surplus: 1-barter want: desertion).
Characterize them (choose one): your cult
If you travel, decide whether they congregate in their own communities

Also:
� Your followers, taken as a body, constitute a powerful psychic antenna. Surplus: +augury.
� Your followers are rigorous and argumentative. Surplus: +insight.

But:
� You have few followers, 10 or fewer. Surplus: -1barter.
� Your followers disdain law, peace, reason and society. Surplus: +violence.

Hx:
Willie 'Sideways' Thompson (PoultryGeist): Hx+3
Maj. Roosevelt Profit (Comrade Gorbash): Hx+3
LCpl. Jacob D Aboah (Error 404): Hx+1
Spec. Reine (Tricky): Hx+1
Sgt. Vasile Petrescu (Shogeton): Hx+1
Lt. Casey 'Casino' Duff (Platonicsolid): Hx+1

quiggy fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Mar 14, 2018

# ? Dec 6, 2017 18:04

Mr. Prokosch: Feb 14, 2012; Behold My Magnificence!

Zee, the Hocus

1. Most people's plan is to wait for rescue. Re-supply, relief, evacuation, an orbital bombardment, loving something. But if the brass comes back like they hope, you're hosed right? And if they don't come back, aren't you still hosed? So what's your plan?
2. What have people taken to calling the enemy?

Dr. Frenkli Willis

1. So what experiment were you working on down in that creepy lab of yours? What went wrong with it?
2. Comms are dead, but you have other ways to make contact. What happened when you tried to phone home?

Major Eren Berk

1. Who is the sanest Kanka? Who is the most bugfucked?
2. How does the grinder work exactly? Like, what's the step by step for the murder factory?

Hark

1. Trouble remembering the details of the mission, huh? Well, think hard, take a step closer to the now. What was the moment when the mission went wrong?
2. What do you know is true and what do you know is a lie?

Reine

1. If the enemy came down on everyone like an endless wave of meat and violence, would you fight it out with the humans? Turn around and eat some face? Just watch it happen?
2. Who on base are you closest to? Do you think they suspect?

Lance Corporal Aboah

1. Everything in orbit is Need to Know and You Don't Need to Know. But you know something: They dropped a squad a while back, and they got listed KIA a few minutes after they went down. Now it's your turn. How do you feel about that?
2. What's the official name for the enemy?

# ? Dec 7, 2017 02:40

Davin Valkri: Apr 8, 2011; Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Okay, it's been a little while since I've done AW, and I haven't done 2nd Ed. before. So tell me if I'm screwing this up.

Spc. 25U Hui Luis, the News

Goooood morning, Firebase Anvil! We're in day who-the-hell-knows-this-place-turns-funny-anyways of deployment and the weather is expected to be both hot and acid-rainy today, so make sure you've got your waterproofs and--er, breaking from the mess hall, people, looks like they mistook the waterproofs for kombu leaves and cut them up for the stew pot. Then again, the meat's so rubbery anyways not like anyone can tell. Says here that they had to do it as a stretching measure because someone made off with the fruit crate, so if you've seen--oh, hold up, new message from the ordnance department. Quote, "we mistook your pineapples for ours, so go dig around in the grenade range and you'll find them. They might be a bit metallic tasting." Isn't that sweet, folks? Let's give Ordnance a big kaboom and a few pineapples of our own.

On to the message board! PFC T.S. at OP 413 has a call out for CPL A.U. at base camp--"I know what you did, you loving bitch. Meet me at the firing range or you're a coward." Heads up to CPL A.U., I'm always open if you want to leave a reply! Here's a message from SSGT 25232301 to PFC X.P.: "I'm so sorry, I acted out of line during the last patrol. Maybe you'll never hear this, but I beg forgiveness." I think I know X.P., Staff Sergeant, I'll see they get the memo. To EFT I.I.I. asking after his squad around the Valley of Vales, sorry buddy, no word yet. Trust me, once I hear from them, you'll be the first to know.

Announcement from the general! It's the same as yesterday, so who cares! Anyways, here's Wonderwall.

_{Error, file corrupt? It played just fine last week! poo poo, uh...}

Er, maybe I should have read that report from the general, folks! It says "on or about nobody-cares yesterday afternoonish our troops engaged the enemy in a minor skirmish in the vicinity of Wonderwall. Unfortunately, due to the fanaticism of the enemy and the intensity of our fires Wonderwall was destroyed in the fighting. The staff express the necessary condolences." Guess we're not gonna save them after all, huh?

Drafted or volunteered? How did you feel about the war?

Ahahahaha, you think I signed up for this poo poo! Guy like me who just wants to switch on and listen to the voices signing up for a war in some backwater planet that the radio can't even get to! You'd be...absolutely right. *sigh* They don't make draftees into comms specialists...

What's the scariest thing about this place?

You probably want me to say "the acid rain" or "the other soldiers around here" or even "the aliens who wanna melt my face off"! And you'd be kind right on the last one! But not in the way you'd think!

See, I got this side project I'm working on. We can't figure out how the aliens communicate with each other, you know, no sensible audio, no pheremones, nada. I figure, any sort of communication requires some kind of change from one thing to another--pitch, amplitude, whatever. If you've got system that can track those kinds of changes you can do some basic traffic analysis and try to reconstruct the comms system. And then from there you might be able to tap into that babble and maybe convince one of these jerks to defect or something! So I got some extra radio gear from CPT Maxine and hooked it up to do some broad band sweeping, and I gave it to a squad on a search and destroy mission. They'd switch it on once they made contact, and hopefully we'd get something to process.

Well, they made contact alright, and we got signals! But the signal strength and shift were all wrong--there was no way in hell they could've been coming from the aliens right in front of them, more like someplace miles below. So I gave it to another squad, and they got signals returns--originating from miles above the battle site. And no matter how many times we tried it we kept getting source errors of miles, sometimes tens or hundreds of miles.

Eventually CPT Maxine pulled the plug on it, said the recon groups didn't appreciate the extra weight. But I've still been looking over it. And I can't help but come to one of two conclusions.

One, the aliens communicate by means of the most ridiculously distributed intelligence ever. The planet and the moons around it are just nervous nodes. We're living on a giant loving brain and fighting off sentient white blood cells.

Or two, the aliens know what I'm trying to do--and they're trolling me!

quote:

Name: Spc. 25U Hui Luis
Skin: The News
Look: Ambiguous, utility wear, inquisitive eyes, slim body, lilting voice

Stats:
Cool-1 Hard=0 Hot+2 Sharp+1 Weird+1

Moves:
No bullshit: when you read a person, you can always ask �is your character telling the truth?� for free.

Consummate performer: when you�re in front of an audience (MC�s call), you get +1 to any rolls you make.
(Should I swap for Unflappable Persona?)

Gear:
M1420 DMR (Hunting rifle, 2-harm far loud)
Standard issue bodysuit with utility LBE and light armor (1-armor)
Oddments worth 1-barter (recording of In the Navy?)

Studio:
By default, your radio studio is a makeshift building which can comfortably house 2�4
people, with broadcast equipment and a single NPC guard (2-harm 1-armor, you detail).

Provost Blinken--He's more smug than a pug, but for a Provost he believes in open comms lines. I think that's why he's saved me from the brass' wrath at least once.

Choose 2 amenities:
A savvyhead�s workshop with 1 option (you detail)--the spare comms equipment room, lots of transmitters and receivers
Strong walls (1-armor)--the place is a bunker

Choose your station�s attractions (as many as apply):
Music salvaged from the golden age. Radiodramas. Expert advice. A lot of its recorded, but sometimes I do the last one live. Hey, I'm not a complete fuckup!

Choose 1 complication:
It attracts an endless stream of desperate people and you have an obligation to help. That's what the message board is for, after all.

Name 3 informants: PFC Chang, my source of scuttlebutt for enlisted rankees, 2LT Morro, who sits at the officers' table & player character
Name your biggest fan: CPT Maxine. There's a reason she cleared my experiment, after all.
Name 2 people you�ve pissed the gently caress off: LTCOL Masterson, because the brass always hates me, & player character

Davin Valkri fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Dec 8, 2017

# ? Dec 7, 2017 07:49

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Lance Corporal Aboah

1. Everything in orbit is Need to Know and You Don't Need to Know. But you know something: They dropped a squad a while back, and they got listed KIA a few minutes after they went down. Now it's your turn. How do you feel about that?

Game over, man. Game over.
I've been trained to Drop and Fight, so I'm gonna fuckin Drop and Fight, but I plan on living to see tomorrow, so the loving Mission can take a distant second to survival.

quote:

2. What's the official name for the enemy?

[Excerpt from ExoPedia]

Sapiens Cimex Hostis

Often referred to colloquially as Bugs, among other names, Sapiens Cimex shares more in common biologically with the Tardigrade than with any known terrestrial arthropod. Cimex possess four legs and two arms, and demonstrate an intelligence and technological acumen mostly on par with humanity...
[Excerpt Ends.]

# ? Dec 7, 2017 08:34

Mykkel: Oct 8, 2012; we were somewhere around hesaim on the edge of the spinward marches when the drugs began to take hold.

1. So what experiment were you working on down in that creepy lab of yours? What went wrong with it?

My experiments do not go "wrong". Science never goes "Wrong".
. . .
. . .
. . .
<sigh> Okay, so one of the experiments did take a strange turn. As you may have noticed we can not digest most of the flora and fauna out there. Which with supplies cut off makes for an interesting situation. I was attempting to splice the DNA of an earth chicken with one of those small half meter lizards that are everywhere, you know the ones you barely notice anymore. The theory being that the resulting mutants should be edible.

And it worked. Had several living viable specimens in the lab. You know the transformer explosion about 2 weeks ago in Building 10 in Annex C? That wasn't a transformer explosion.
That was the specimens breaking out. The specimens had grown to be about 1.25 meters, which was alarming of itself, but testing had concluded that the specimens would be edible. The specimens broke out of the cage, and discovered that human's taste delicious. Unfortunately, I can not tell how many of the creatures are still living in the wild. There were only about 30 of them total, so I'm sure it's fine.

2. Comms are dead, but you have other ways to make contact. What happened when you tried to phone home?

I don't know. I have no memory of the next 2 days. Dr. Cole and Dr. Simaku tell me that they didn't notice anything odd about me during those two days.
Except one thing. They said that I never used the words I or me when talking to them. It was always we or us.

# ? Dec 7, 2017 14:42

quiggy: Aug 7, 2010; [in Russian] Oof.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Zee, the Hocus

1. Most people's plan is to wait for rescue. Re-supply, relief, evacuation, an orbital bombardment, loving something. But if the brass comes back like they hope, you're hosed right? And if they don't come back, aren't you still hosed? So what's your plan?

Fun fact: I had never heard of birthday cake until I was on this planet. Didn't know what it was until I saw some of the enlisted men making a makeshift one out of a bread ration. They don't tend to throw parties for the kids they're torturing for psychic powers, is what I'm trying to say here. My point is that I didn't have a life until I was here. I'm hosed no matter what, and I'm probably not ever gonna leave this rock. My plan is to make the best of it, to live my life as best I can, and die before those sons of bitches get their hands on me again.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

2. What have people taken to calling the enemy?

Depends on which people you're talking about here. Most of the soldiers here call those things in the jungle the enemy. Maybe they're also wise enough to realize that the transformers are the enemy, or the generators, or the ration supplies, or maybe even the brass if they're real smart.

My followers, on the other hand? They know the real enemy isn't any of that poo poo, it's fear. Fear of death is gonna stop you, because let's be honest here, we're all gonna loving die on this rock. Let's make the most of the time we got and have some fun first, yeah?

# ? Dec 7, 2017 16:18

Tricky: Jun 12, 2007; after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage

Mr. Prokosch posted:

1. If the enemy came down on everyone like an endless wave of meat and violence, would you fight it out with the humans? Turn around and eat some face? Just watch it happen?

"I wish I had an easy answer for that, I really do. Before this, it would have been simple. Of course I'd have fought it out and died with them. I didn't have a choice. Now? Now I do. So, part of me, the human part, still wants to help. I may not like everyone here, but I don't think they deserve to die. Most people, anyway. There are a few that can become bug chow and good loving riddance. The thing is the whispers. The... god, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like I've become a part of something bigger than any of us could possibly imagine. And, uh, sometimes it's too much for me. I've been losing time, waking up in weird places. Not much at first, maybe a minute here or there, but it's been getting worse. I don't know what I've been up to while the other me is in control. I'm not even sure I want to know. But, uh, I definitely get the vibe that it's not great for the base."

"So, really, I guess it depends on who's driving."

Mr. Prokosch posted:

2. Who on base are you closest to? Do you think they suspect?

"Mm, well, I'd have said some of the other engineers, but... well, there aren't many of us left. The ones I considered friends? Dead... or worse. You'd think we have a pretty sweet gig babying the main reactor, but the other part of the job � the dangerous part � is maintaining the power lines out to the forward installations. The mortality rate on that detail is off the charts. The bugs know how important the lines are. I don't know how, hoping it's not some sort of psychic leakage on my end, but... poo poo. But, uh, friends. Friends. I think I have a few that haven't died. I guess there's my bunkmate, Sparks. She's alright, y'know, for a software type. God knows we probably wouldn't be friends outside this hellhole, but you can't do this poo poo alone."

"I mean, uh, I think she knows something is up, but I don't think she's quite made the jump to me being all infected by alien goop. I've been distant. Gave her my ration pack last week, which probably raised some flags. Not a lot of people waving off the food and coming out looking even healthier."

# ? Dec 7, 2017 18:12

Shardix: Sep 14, 2011; The end! No moral.

PFC Zinaida Soloviev, "Mother Russia"

"It was the silence. You could hear a pin drop. It's as if some god had personally cleared a space in the world. Marked out a box, vertical and horizontal, and decreed that everything inside that box was finished for all time. And we're in it. And it's terrifying.

That's when I see her. A single figure in the smoke, not moving. I feel like I'm in a dream or something, it's all so unreal, but my legs are moving me towards her and my voice is asking her if she's okay. Then I see her for real.

She didn't exactly look at me. Hell, she probably didn't even know I existed. It was more like I just walked into her line of sight, and...drat, instantly wished I hadn't. She stood there with her body armor falling off of her and the blood all over her and the wounds-I mean how she was standing at all, I do not know-and there's maybe thirty of enemy dead at her feet. And what I see in those eyes of hers makes me wonder if I'll be next.

You've heard of a thousand-yard stare? This lady had a million mile one. She'd seen forever. She'd been somewhere else, and I don't know, sometimes I wonder if she'd maybe had a pretty good loving conversation with someone she met there."

They'd made planetfall, and things had been dicey but under control. "We're taking a walk" the LT had said. "See what we can see." A polite way of saying the brass wanted recon and they drew the short straw. Mother Russia didn't think about it much. She just followed orders. It had gone as well as anything on this planet ever went. Half the platoon dead, sarge along with them, and the lieutenant screaming into the radio for them to drop everything they had on their location. And for once, command actually listened.

When the smoke cleared and the evac teams rolled in, Mother Russia was all that was left. Command was pissed. 100% casualties would have been bad, but easily shuffled off into the limbo of bureaucracy. A sole survivor, though? And a loving private to boot? That was nothing short of embarrassing. Still. She was a warm body and plenty of other squads needed reinforcing.

That one didn't come back either. Or the one after that. After round three, they had her brigged. They couldn't pin fratricide on her - the evidence clearly showed she wasn't responsible - but they had to do something. She was killing morale. She didn't even have the decency to complain about it, just waited for her next assignment like a good little soldier. By the time things were well and truly falling apart, she had quit bothering to report to her superiors entirely and opted to conduct patrols on her own. That was her job after all. Nobody else was willing to go out past the wire, and nobody had told her to stop.

quote:

Drafted or volunteered? How did you feel about the war?

I was drafted. Just another pair of boots to carry a pair of hands to carry a rifle. I never had any personal stake or interest in the war; it was just something I had to deal with. A two year tour sucks, but a ten year prison stint sucks more.

quote:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

I am. I left a daughter back home and I am going to see her again. Whatever it takes. Even if I have to kill every living thing on this rock. In the meantime, I do as I please because nobody has the balls to stop me.

quote:

Name: Mother Russia, the battlebabe
Look: woman, showy armor, striking face, arresting eyes, slim body

Stats:
Cool+3
Hard-1
Hot+1
Sharp+1
Weird=0

Moves:
Ice Cold
Visions of Death

Gear:
Model 500 (3-harm ap close reload loud) [handgun, ap ammo, big]
Assault rifle (2-harm close/far loud) [rifle, semiautomatic, hi-powered]
Sturm suit (2-armor)
Oddments worth 4-barter

# ? Dec 7, 2017 21:10

Sax Battler: Jul 31, 2007; Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Trouble remembering the details of the mission, huh? Well, think hard, take a step closer to the now. What was the moment when the mission went wrong?

Trouble remembering most of it, actually. I remember finding parts of Decker in a spot miles from where he vanished. I remember a structure of some sort, or maybe more of a hive, tunnels and caverns.
I remember the failsafe, a metal case Sarge had on his back. Some suit gave it to him, back on the shuttle. We opened it, I think, in the end. There was a light...
Was that the mission?
Did we do it? Did we damage some vital past of their command, and that's why there are still humans on this planet?
Or were we hosed before we even made landfall?

Mr. Prokosch posted:

What do you know is true and what do you know is a lie?

What's true is I need this base to keep the Squad alive, and a Nightfall operative is nothing without his Squad.
If I need to fight on the front line to keep the Clims at bay, I will.
If I need to trim the officer pool to stop infighting, I will.
And if it comes down to it, I will gladly pound the fear of me into every last jarhead left if it keeps this shithole from imploding.
The Squad has to keep going.
Right, Sarge? Yeah.

This firebase. One big lie.
Don't get me wrong, it could function well as a staging ground, but I saw the documentation. I've talked to the officers left.
It doesn't add up. Key personell were never stationed. Arms and supplies... Even with regular resupply, it would have taken more to function properly.
This base had a different purpose.
Maybe it still has.

# ? Dec 7, 2017 23:35

PoultryGeist: Feb 27, 2013; Crystals?

PFC Willie �Sideways� Thompson, the Driver

Hey don�t be funning at my boys. Yeah, Logistics hosed up dropping them here instead of the museum two systems over, but I tell you what: they�re light, which is a godsend in this shithole. They�ll be in, save your rear end, and back out before the MBTs or walkers get unstuck from the first wallow.

Drafted or volunteered? How did you feel about the war?
I�m technically a volunteer. Last job I wheeled for went sideways and I got sent up for felony murder. Was given the choice of military service or a long stretch in a nasty hole. Still not sure if I made the right choice.

What I think about the war? poo poo, I�m just a motor pool rat, I don�t get paid enough for that kind of question. I mean yeah, of course I�d like to be somewhere else with less shooting and fungal infections. But the brass say this shithole has some sort of precious resource, so I just need to keep my head down and finish my term.

What's the scariest thing about this place?
Don�t laugh, but I�m positive that time is passing differently here. Like, all the official stuff is sync�d to the UMT signals, yeah. But I got myself a prettyboi calendar in the shop, and its twenty days ahead of UMT. Freaky, huh?

quote:

Sideways, the Driver
Looks: Woman, utility wear, gorgeous face, cold eyes, Slim body,
Stats: Cool+2 Hard=0 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird-1
Gear: sawed-off (3-harm close reload messy), oddments worth 4-barter, stained fatigues

Moves:
Eye on the door: name your escape route and roll+cool. On a 10+, you�re gone. On
a 7�9, you can go or stay, but if you go it costs you: leave something behind or take
something with you, the MC will tell you what. On a miss, you�re caught vulnerable, half
in and half out.

My other car is a tank: you get a specialized battle vehicle (detail with the MC).

Lyft: Massive +2, Speed 0, Handling 1, Armor 1 (4x4, rugged, off-road, quirky, guzzler)

Thumper Massive +2, Speed 0, Handling 1, Armor 2 (4x4, rugged, off-road, sleek, cramped) Mounted 50cal mg (5-harm far area messy)

# ? Dec 8, 2017 00:46

Shogeton: Apr 26, 2007; "Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

Sgt. Vasile Petrescu

"Ah private. Come in, take a seat. Dinner is at twenty fifteen, but for a weary warrior, I do have some piping hot coffee. You look like you had a hard day. Well, one day closer to getting relieved."

"Hah, don't give me that look, private. Yes, this is a regular SNAFU we're in, but we're the best of the best. We'll manage. And when they get back, well, medals and gushing Holo-TV interviews for all. Have a little faith in the brass. They have a plan, I'm sure. We just do our part in it, and our kids will turn this planet in a nice vacation planet, and we'll put all the stuffed beasties in some museum. And we'll have our grandchildren go 'did you really fight those big creatures gramma' and we'll tell 100 % true stories our kids won't believe, but our grandkids will."

"Two things will keep us standing. Hope and discipline. We're not just a bunch of mean sods on an almost as mean ball of dirt. We are the point of the spear of a growing galactic force. So we don't really have proper communication. That is bad. But you know what, every morning, oh eight-hundered, I raise that flag, and I play the anthem, and I salute. And that means I'm not here alone. I'm part of something that is far greater than this planet and all the bugs on it, and we will not lose. And you are part of that too."

"So I know that keeping your uniform and yourself up to standards doesn't seem that important right now. You're not gonna get written up on it or anything. But it's important for you. Those rules are what keep us together. The rules are what tie us to home. The rules are what tie us to our soldier self, rather than the half-feral bandits some deserters are turning into. So, for your own sake, respect them."

"I'm not the best fighter. You do a lot better at it I'm sure. But I'm the sergeant of this mess hall, and I will do my best to keep this place clean and compliant with regulation as much as possible. We're still soldiers, we're still part of this army, we're still fighting this war, and that means we haven't lost. So chin up. You lived, a whole bunch of them didn't. That's a win!"

It's called 'The Mess Hall'. Sgt. Petrescu stubbornly refuses other names that pretends he runs 'some restaurant for civvies or something' The first thing people notice when they see it is how clean it is Not simply the cleanliness to keep things running, not is it the clinical cleanliness of a sterile lab. No, it is the cleanliness only gotten by having a place that is regularly used get maintained to exacting regulations. It is the kind of clean that some people might remember from boot camp, as in 'the clean the drill sergeant thought acceptable'. There are sigils of the different regiments and battalions. There are papers reminding people of the widely ignored and forgotten military code. There are propaganda pictures, showing the people back home hopefully looking at a giant soldier. Some of the propaganda looks like it was freshly drawn, lacking the production values but more... personal.

And then there is the smell. There is almost always coffee to be had. Breakfast lunch and dinner are at Oh eight thirty (after Flag) twelve hunderd and twnety fifteen. It is nothing fancy. This is a military mess after all, but it's there, and it's fresh. Payment is never asked for, not exactly. Rather, now and then he asks for aid in supplying the place. He usually gets it. And while people complain, and call him moto, and delusional, and roll their eyes and all that, well, they do it behind his back, because you don't piss off your cook, and for some, it's a reminder of how things used to be, and maybe the hope that it's not completely ridiculous they might go back.

quote:

Drafted or Volunteered? How do you feel about the war?

Volunteered! Third Tour of Duty! Just because I'm a citizen doesn't mean I can't do my part in fighting the wars my vote helped start. And you know, I don't regret it. Yes, it sucks being on this world with these creatures. They are terrible. All the more reason for us to be here. Got to wipe these things out. Make the galaxy a better place for humanity. Dirty job but someone's gotta do this.

What's the scariest thing in this place.

The table manners of the average grunt! Hah! Their pooor moms should see how they eat."

"Hm... alright, I'll say this, but don't yap on it. I'm not one for spreading morale dampening stories. The ground here. It seems to actively reject anything we plant here. We'll get some bit of land working, and we'll be able to get some food growing there for a bit. And the, without warning, it'll all die, or turn poisonous. Almost on a night. We do our best, and we have managed to get some harvests, but it's... difficult."

quote:

Name: Sgt. Petrescu, Maestro D'
Look: Man,

Stats:
Cool+0
Hard +1
Hot+2
Sharp+1
Weird=-1

Moves:
Everybody eats, even that guy
Fingers in Every Pie

Establishment:
The Mess Hall

Main Act: Easy Food
Side: Coffee, Art (propaganda posters, old and newly made)
Atmosphere: Restraint, nostalgia, forgetting
Best Regular: Lance Corporal Toyota: Old, tough as nails veteran. She's already ready to regale us some tales from previous wars she's in.
Worst Regular: Private Lits: Look, if he broke rules, he wouldn't be a regular, but that boy almost gets off on trying to explain to people how doomed we are.
Who wants in on it?: Private Rolfball I know he's hoping to be part of this, partly because we work here, and don't do patrols often, and he really likes it here. But he's a good soldier, and while he works hard, I don't need an extra hand as much as the other guys need a gun outthere.
Who do you owe for it? Specialist Gams Look, we work hard in the garden, but growing things on this soil is not something we could do on our own Specialist Camo was with the eggheads. Not much of a fighter, but I'm glad they lived, because what little we've managed to grow is mostly thanks to their assistance. Figure they were supposed to help make this place ready for human habitation after our victory. Well, they might still get their chance.
Who wants it gone? Been. Deserter, profiteering piece of scum. Used to be a captain, but you won't see me salute him. He pretty much runs a tiny business 'helping' people. He has a black market going, and he likes get people into debt. Has people making drugs for him, which he sells, and those who can no longer affords his drug, he has them sell themselves for 'comfort' to others. Tried to convince me to 'work together' I told him I was waiting for command to return, and I'd have a full report for his court martial then.

For security:
Everyone is packing, cast and crew counts as a gang (2 harm, small 0 armor)
Convenient Shotgun: (Close, reload, messy, 3 harm)

Crew:
Private Jimmy Fitzergald: Poor Jimmy lost his foot to some monster, but hey, he lives. Poor boy was always pretty soft, not really cut out for a war, but drat, the kid can draw. He's the one that draws most of the art. I mostly focus on putting inspiring and memorizing things on the wall. And sometimes when a soldier asks he'll draw some scantly dressed babe or hunk for someone. He'll do it discreetly and I pretend I don't see it.
Corporal: Maurice Katembo The other cook besides me. Tends to cook a whole lot spicier, and is always trying to try 'fancy new recipes' Flirts with everyone. Can't say I approve, but the situation is what it is, and the rules against fraternizing are pressing, so as long as he keeps the results of it outside of this mess hall.
Private Rachel al'Kurashi: We all do our shifts in the garden, but she's the one who knows most about it, good friends with Private Lits. Pretty quiet. Lost a lot of friends here, and rumours goes it wasn't to the aliens.
Private Derek Michaelson: One of the most dilligent, disciplined soldiers there is. Keeps things clean, does all the poo poo jobs without complaining, makes the least offensive coffee among all of us, and through out it all, keeps his uniform so pristine this old sgt. now and then has a tear coming to his eye. Serious six days a week. Seventh day he has managed to somehow convince me to let him serve the food while dressed in drag, to the amusement of everyone. Look, I know, regulations, but morale needs a booster. I don't know what he sees in it, he's cis, he's straight, but he just loves walking around in high heels getting hooted at by grunts. Still has a mean punch for those getting handsy though.
Private G�nther Dean: Big, heavily scarred guy, seen some poo poo, outright refuses to go out in the woods if you put a gun against his head. But does work, knows a little bit about technology to make sure to keep the kitchen and the coffee machine running. Not an engineer, just handy with technology.

Gear
Kitchen Knife (2 harm, hand)
2 barter of odds and ends
Military outfit with apron over it? Might very well count as armor, he's a soldier too after all

Shogeton fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Dec 27, 2017

# ? Dec 8, 2017 00:55

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Major Roosevelt Profit

The Chopper

You want to take the fight to the enemy, I'm the one you call. My instructors in officer school said I was "notably aggressive" and "extremely goal oriented." What it means is, you gently caress with me and mine, and I will make it my life's mission to gently caress you right back. And right now, the bugs are on the top of my poo poo list. Right behind that is all the whiners and assholes here, who don't know their assholes from their elbows, and are biting their nails because we went off-grid and can't call Command for permission in triplicate before we rub one out.

We've still got a mission here, stupid as it is, and I mean to see it done. So either get on board, get out of the way, or get hosed.

quote:

Drafted or volunteered?

Volunteered! And none of that "oh I was in before" or "before I got drafted or sent to jail" bullshit. I volunteered specifically for this, right out of college. Don't even remember why, idealism or patriotism or to piss off my parents or some dumbass thing. loving brilliant, huh? poo poo, the whole regiment is volunteer. No draftees in AirCav, and sure as hell not in the Shrikes.

quote:

How do you feel about the war?

We're loving it up by the numbers. Look, I get it. The bugs hit us first, we had to do something about them. But no one's got a goddamn plan. Or at least they sure as hell didn't when they sent us here. All the metrics and action items and whatever the gently caress - it's all made up poo poo so Command can point to some spreadsheets and say "we're making progress!" but nobody knows what the hell we're progressing towards. And dropping forces here, and an AirCav regiment to boot? Nobody thought that poo poo out. Just someone moving chits around to make sure it looked they were taking the problem seriously. loving morons.

As for my little corner of the war - eh. Regiment is understrength, we can't keep the speeders operational, we're short of everything except ammo, and everyone is bitching about it. But sure as poo poo we're making sure the bugs here are as hosed as we are. Even if command had a clue that's what we'd be doing, so figure if we do it well, when someone upstairs pulls their head out of their rear end they've got something to work with.

quote:

What's the scariest thing about this place?

Out here in the jungle, cut off from civilization and its moderating influence, fighting the very world we stand on, exposes the true nature of humanity as the most horrifying - gently caress, don't tell me you believe that garbage. Have you seen what we're fighting? It's the loving bugs! You let your guard down for an instant and you. Are. Dead. You sure as poo poo won't see them coming either, and then someone in the patrol is just gone, who the hell knows where, and then a whole loving wave is coming at you from the brush, and the screaming -.

gently caress it. Should have just nuked the whole planet, so we could be sure. But we're down here in the poo poo with them. So we burn 'em out, piece by piece. You'll learn to love the smell of incendiaries in the morning.

Chopper posted:

Name: Profit (Major Roosevelt Profit)
Look: Woman, combat wear, strong face, calculating eyes, sturdy body

Stats: Cool+1 Hard+2 Hot=0 Sharp+1 Weird-1
Armor: 2-armor

Moves:
Pack alpha: when you try to impose your will on your gang, roll+hard. On a 10+, all 3. On a 7�9, choose 1:
� They do what you want. (Otherwise, they refuse.)
� They don�t fight back over it. (Otherwise, they do fight back.)
� You don�t have to make an example of one of them. (Otherwise, you must.)
On a miss, someone in your gang makes a bid, idle or serious, to replace you for alpha.

loving thieves: when you have your gang search their pockets and saddlebags for something, roll+hard. It has to be something small enough to fit. On a 10+, one of you happens to have just the thing, or close enough. On a 7�9, one of you happens to have something pretty close, unless what you�re looking for is hi-tech, in which case no dice. On a miss, one of you used to have just the thing, but it turns out that some asswipe stole it from you

Speeder posted:
Stats: Speed+1 Handling=0 Massive=0
Armor: 0-armor

Looks: Roaring, muscular

Strengths: Aggressive, rugged
Weakness: Unreliable

Gear: 2-barter
Speeder
Combat shotgun (3-harm close reload messy)
Machete (3-harm hand messy)
Fatigues, combat armor, helmet (2-armor)

HX:

272nd Air Cavalry Regiment, The Shrikes

We're a fast strike outfit intended for recon, interdiction, and behind-the-lines exploitation. What we're doing is patrols and poking the hornet's nest to see what happens. Wears on the regiment. But they're still AirCav. All volunteer, well trained, experienced. Meaner and more aggressive than a badger on coke. And the two-seventy-second is to normal AirCav what normal AirCav is to your usual grunts. I made drat sure of that.

Don't gently caress with AirCav.

Gang posted:

Stats: 3-harm gang medium savage 1-armor
Options: Well-armed, 30 or so violent bastards
Vulnerable: Grounded. Your gang�s bikes are picky and high-maintenance.

Aircav Speeders

"Combat speeders were a triumph of military engineering and design, a paradigm shift in mechanized warfare capability pioneered by a force that had spent the last four generations embroiled in desert conflicts, and was brought on line just in time for that force to be reintroduced to the challenges of jungle warfare." - Can't See the Forest For the Trees: Doctrinal Shortcomings in the First Interstellar War, Montreal Ali

Our speeders are an unholy mix of all-terrain combat vehicle and VTOL aircraft. The repulsor systems - and no I don't have a loving clue how that works ask the mechs - let them get pretty high into the air, but they go faster the closer we are to the ground. It's like, you get X meters that you can either use for altitude or speed, and you can split that up however you want. For long range movement, we bounce high and just overfly everything, though not all that fast. Then, when we get close to the target or need to avoid air-interdiction, we drop down to the deck and blast across the landscape like bats out of hell. It's a great system for fighting in a goddamn forest, let me loving tell you.

But hell with it, they're what we got. The regiment is way under strength, only twelve speeders operational. Most of the time. Three of the singles, RLS-4A recon Daggers, plus my RLS-4B. Pair of the ALS-1 two crew Sword attack units. Four ULS-1B Hammers, the standard four-seaters, plus a ULS-1D Shield med-vac, and a ULS-1C Axe gunship. And one of the stretch CLS-2 cargo sleds, the Pike. Plenty of fire power to gently caress up a bug hive-village or bust through an ambush. Long as nothing breaks down...

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Dec 9, 2017

# ? Dec 8, 2017 05:47

Mr. Prokosch: Feb 14, 2012; Behold My Magnificence!

Hui Luis � The News
1. Tell me about somebody who came to you for help and got it, and somebody who came and left empty handed.
2. Share the best piece of expert advice you have, like the one thing you need everyone to know

Zinaida Soloviev
1. Why do you think you always live but they always die?
2. If you want so bad to see your daughter again, why do you go outside the wire? Why aren�t you afraid?

Willie Thompson
1. What�s the job that got you into this mess?
2. You can range a bit farther than most, where�s the place outside the base you think is safest? Where�s certain death?

Vasile Petrescu
1. Since you still care about this stuff for some reason: who is your direct superior in the chain of command? Who is supposed to be in charge of the base now that the local brass keeled over from brain mold and the second in command took �the strong� and wandered with them into the jungle?
2. Third tour? You�re looking pretty gray. You have a family back home? Kids? Grandkids? Tell me about them.

Marlow Conrad
1. You seem pretty proud of the Shrikes, but word on base is they�re a bunch of loving savages. What happened there?
2. You�re a field officer with a (mostly) intact elite unit, informed opinions about the war, and very low opinions about how this base is being run. You ever consider giving yourself a field promotion to woman-in-charge-now? Anything stopping you?

# ? Dec 8, 2017 23:02

Shogeton: Apr 26, 2007; "Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Vasile Petrescu
1. Since you still care about this stuff for some reason: who is your direct superior in the chain of command? Who is supposed to be in charge of the base now that the local brass keeled over from brain mold and the second in command took “the strong” and wandered with them into the jungle?

That's be Lieutenant Mattu. Young fella, fresh from the academy. Sharp, but not very sure of himself. Still, he had the spine to call out 'Captain' Been when that one started wiping his rear end on his uniform with his drug-den/whorehouse of his, so you KNOW he's earned his 'SIR' from me. Tries to keep my place supplied as well, and I try to make sure to tell him what's going on with the men.

He's a sharp cookie too. Knows his tactics, keeps an eye on the details, but he was supposed to support someone and get experience, and he knows that, so he's always going for the safe choices, and kind of hoping someone'll turn up he can in good conscience support. There's other Lt's, but half of them are part of the whole 'breakdown in discipline' that is going on, and a whole bunch of others are just going along with him, and keeping their heads down otherwise.

As to who's supposed in charge. Not gonna lie, even for me, it's hard to say. Technically Captain Been might have been, but especially after Lieutenant Mattu called him out, he's pretty much dropped a lot of the pretense of being an officer. Captain Huan still tries to maintain order, and oversees some of the tactical display, but he's been getting... demoralized. On his good days, he can get some poo poo going, and we're getting some serious pushing done, on his bad days, well, the lieutenant just doesn't let people in his cabin. Bad for morale to see the CO weeping and screaming like that. Those days the LT just tries to run things.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

2. Third tour? You’re looking pretty gray. You have a family back home? Kids? Grandkids? Tell me about them.

You calling me an old man? I can tango with the best of 'em if it comes down to it! Living a hero's life in the army doesn't give you a pretty boyish face like those wastrels on the Entertainnet, you know.

But yeah, I got some civilian years in me. First tour of duty was when I was some young, stupid kid, eager to get his citizenship, same as most. Girlfriend back home, doing your best. Helped fighting some seperatists, shot some people, saved some lives, did a lot of patrolling, did my part. Made corporal. Got some medals, had happy memories and when my time was done, I returned home a citizen, married my girl, had two kids with my procreation license and opened a restaurant in Budapest.

Didn't end up happy ever after. In the forces, you get respect. Well, you get insulted a lot, but at least it's by people who goddamn fight for their country. Me, I had to smile and say thank you to civilians, snotnosed little punks who whined about the dumbest poo poo and weedy little folks who thought they were better than me because they were asistant managers in some toilet paper factory or some poo poo. I loving bled so you could sell your toilet paper in peace, you citizenship buying piece of poo poo.

And my wife and kids. Ugh... I fell in love with her in high school, but clearly she fell in love with the little civilian boy I was. I guess she couldn't handle the man I'd become. Cheated on me. The courts gave me everything but the kids, Ion and Cristina, they asked to stay with her. Said I was too strict. I... ended up letting that happen. Restaurant went belly up not too long afterwards Spend a few years being a bitter, miserable sod. Then the Martians revolted, and I got a message from the corps, telling me they still had my size of uniform.

And I signed up again, went to Mars, made myself count there, got made sgt. and took care of cooking duties there after my experience. When that finished, there were the bugs and I signed up again. Leaving the army. Stupidest choice I've ever made.

# ? Dec 9, 2017 00:03

Shardix: Sep 14, 2011; The end! No moral.

quote:

Why do you think you always live but they always die?

I've always been lucky. Well, not lucky lucky. Never won the lottery and I'm stuck here. But I never broke any bones growing up. Never got hit by a car or sliced my hand making dinner and I've never stubbed my toe in the dark. Not once. In basic training some jackass fumbled a live hand grenade and the thing landed right at my feet. Dud. Lots of things like that. I've only been hospitalized twice. Once to have a baby, and once because somebody called in several hundred tons of high explosives on my head while bugs tried to eat me. And on the whole, the baby hurt more.

So, it's either the devil's own luck or...

Well, I've seen those creepy brain-jobs. Heard plenty of rumors about the things they can do. I've never been able to read anyone's mind or make their head explode by staring at them really hard - and don't think I haven't tried - but I kind of wonder. Is it a sixth sense that always keeps me just out of the way of harm? Did I disarm that grenade with my thoughts and not even realize it? I don't know.

But I do know that when somebody gets their ticket punched, it's never a surprise to me.

quote:

If you want so bad to see your daughter again, why do you go outside the wire? Why aren�t you afraid?

Most of the other soldiers, I don't really like them. Some I respect. Some I hate. Some I just pity. Most of them I'm indifferent to. But there are two things that ties us together, regardless of anything else. One is that a lot of them have their own families waiting for them somewhere. The second, is that whatever we might think of each other, Out There is the enemy. The wilderness. The animals. The aliens. It doesn't care about us and it will kill us if we let it.

I go out because it means some other dumb bastard doesn't have too. And because he doesn't have too, maybe someday he'll get to hug his little girl again.

As for why I'm not afraid? That's easy. When you're young and stupid and in love you make bad choices, like marrying my girl's father. Real piece of poo poo, and I spent years terrified of him. He liked to drink, and when he did, he liked to use his fists. The day he raised his hand to our daughter, though? I finally wised up and found my backbone again. After one of his drunken benders he just never woke up again. So after seeing the cruelty a human is capable of of, physically and emotionally? Giant loving bugs don't scare me one bit.

Now don't get me wrong. I respect them. I don't mess around or toy with the things. But I understand them and this planet, just a little, and I know how to survive. I might not be special forces or psychic or riding around in the latest and greatest of military technology but it turns out I have some talent in this whole soldiering business. That's not arrogance. Arrogance is what got us all stranded here in the first place. It's just confidence. Confidence that so long as I'm smart, and canny, and better, I will make it through. So when I pick up my girl again, I can tell her honestly that I did my job as best I could. That I didn't hide in a bunker selling myself for protection.

# ? Dec 9, 2017 00:50

PoultryGeist: Feb 27, 2013; Crystals?

PFC Willie �Sideways� Thompson, the Driver

What�s the job that got you into this mess?
Balls. Man, it was supposed to be such a milk run too, ya�know? My fixer got the word that Trans-Martian Banking was gonna take advantage of the annual V-M Day riots in Lowell City to transfer hard assets while the �criminal element� was busy. So we had a open road to hit them on, minimal pig profile, and an armored truck full of untraceable precious metals and diamonds. Only, our demo misjudged how much �tex to use and pulped the guy inside the truck when he blew the door. And it turns out the whole thing was a sting, it was all being watched from the spysats. So yeah, balls

You can range a bit farther than most, where�s the place outside the base you think is safest? Where�s certain death?
There�s this place, out that-a-way. About halfway up Mt. Thunderstuck, the east face clears out, becomes bare rock for like a klik either way. At least two springs and a few caves that I�ve found. I mean, I wouldn�t want to live the rest of my life there, but a spot with no muck or plant life, and spots to hide from the bugs? It�s harbored me several times now and I�ve slept easy.

Conversely, stay the gently caress away from GridMark 205/4A. Looks like a nice open field, grass blowing in the wind. Like those those oldtimey pics of Earth my gran would show me. But that loving grass is alive man. Not in the �plants are living things too� way, in the �tiger eats you raw� way. Saw it pull down almost a full platoon when we tried to cross it, the screams still gently caress me up. Me, Grimes, Wai, and Torez only made it out because we were riding point in Lyft, and that loving grass still ripped the poo poo out of my boy�s undercarriage before we made it clear.

# ? Dec 9, 2017 01:40

Mr. Prokosch: Feb 14, 2012; Behold My Magnificence!

Lt. Casey 'Casino' Duff

1. What was your proudest moment in the Mars rebellion?

2. Typically you work in pairs right? Senior spotter, junior trigger? Which were you? What happened to your other half?

# ? Dec 9, 2017 02:01

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Roosevelt Profit
1. You seem pretty proud of the Shrikes, but word on base is they�re a bunch of loving savages. What happened there?

The Shrikes are a front line combat unit, a highly motivated and highly refined weapon of war. Their mission requires them to and to act quickly and decisively in the face of the enemy. In other words, we trained them to be bunch of loving killers and they got stuck in the rear end end of nowhere, spending most of their time playing cards and fighting off jungle rot. They're a bit... punchy. I make sure they let of enough aggression in the right directions so they stay at least semi-domesticated.

quote:

2. You�re a field officer with a (mostly) intact elite unit, informed opinions about the war, and very low opinions about how this base is being run. You ever consider giving yourself a field promotion to woman-in-charge-now? Anything stopping you?

gently caress no. One my several recurring nightmares is getting stuck with that goddamn job. That assignment is a career graveyard, and I'm not getting buried until I'm loving dead. Playing nursemaid to a bunch of moody draftees and filling out reports on who clogged the toilet and why haven't we cleared more forest - not that there are any chainsaws left running. No room for independent action, waiting for the enemy to pick their time and place to come over the wire, counting on a bunch of half-trained civvies to fight back instead of pissing their pants... No loving way.

# ? Dec 10, 2017 05:14

Platonicsolid: Nov 17, 2008

Mr. Prokosch posted:

Lt. Casey 'Casino' Duff

1. What was your proudest moment in the Mars rebellion?

"Suriving," Casey says, locking eyes, before waving a hand and sitting back. "Nah, that's flip. You can't understand Mars if you've never lived there, and you won't *feel* it unless you were born there. It's not like Earth, where you get air and water and poo poo for free. Earth corps ran the place and to them we were just another resource, with 'acceptable loss rates' and 'capital renewal costs'. With Earth so crowded, always easy to ship in new warm bodies, so don't need to waste money on things like self-sealing domes and tertiary air processors.

I lost my dad in the New Kazakh dome blowout. Nobody investigated or sent people to prison - just clear out the bodies and patch poo poo to get production running. And all of us had a story like that - family and friends dead, getting roughed up and squeezed by Earthers. Lots of hard feelings to go around.

Me, I was young enough to think I was invincible - most of us in the rebellion were. Weird that after all that happened, it was that one murder on the docks that did it. Straw that broke the camel's back, right? poo poo goes down fast. The gangs set up on the corp rent-a-cops, nobody knows who's in charge, all we know is we want the sand to run red with Earther blood, to get back for all the bad poo poo that had happened to us.

The Earth Marines needed to fly in from their base in Syria Planum, which gave us maybe a day to get our poo poo together. We tracked down a crate of mining explosives and rigged the landing pad to blow. Yup, I helped plan the "Massacre of Pittstown Dome." They say now that's what won the rebellion, even if fighting went another three months. You know how long it takes to ship out from Earth.

It's a strange thing to live with. Those marines weren't making the laws or paying the bills, they were probably just grunts trying to do their job, like the guys here. gently caress, after the peace I wound up working with guys like that, and raging dicks aside, most are just trying to get through the day. It weighs on me, and I'm not loving telling anybody. If I met one of their kids, I'd apologize, yeah.

Still glad I did it.

Mr. Prokosch posted:

2. Typically you work in pairs right? Senior spotter, junior trigger? Which were you? What happened to your other half?

Yup, we do. Did.

Special ops paired me up a couple assignments ago with Hugo, this adonis from Rio. Mmm. Junior to me, but barely, good shot, kept me on my toes. The kind of guy everybody likes, who likes everybody. Probably had some dark secret like we all do, but you'd never guess at it.

We land here, first week, bugs got him. We were backing up a basic burn and clear on a hive...turns out it wasn't all dead, and these bugs come bursting out, start ripping into the front-line guys. Hugo and I both start hitting, emergency and all, and then he gets nabbed by a couple fast ones. Those things are the worst - quiet, small, like vicious little dogs with feet made of knives. He got one with his sidearm, I got a second and then Bruno off the last with the SAW. We evaced as fast as we could, but it wasn't enough. Blood loss.

poo poo, I still need to write a letter to his mother.

# ? Dec 11, 2017 05:04

Mr. Prokosch: Feb 14, 2012; Behold My Magnificence!

Picks!:

(In no particular order)
1. Zee the Hocus

2. Willie Sideways Thompson - The Driver

3. Lance Corporal Aboah, Jacob D - The Landfall Marine

4. Reine - The Contaminated

5. Major Roosevelt Profit - The Chopper

6. Sgt. Vasile Petrescu - The Maestro'D

7. Lt. Casey Casino Duff - Battlebabe

There were a lot of good apps here. A few notes on my process:
1. I disqualified automatically anyone who didn't answer questions.
2. Generally everything was on theme so no help for me there but I picked for both complimentary and contrasting theme and perspective. In a few instances there was too much overlap between playbooks so it just became one or the other for that niche.
3. Bonus points of enthusiasm in posting and in the discord.
4. I was looking for 4-5 but I have 7 picks. This is only possible because A) it's a PBP, B) you will never all be in the same room together at the same time, gently caress that and C) I expect a few drops after the 'honeymoon' pbp period. A large group buffers that and makes dropping no big deal. Let me know if the game is becoming not-fun or if you need to drop out for a while due to other responsibilities. If you are slowing other players down I won't guilt trip you about it, I'll just quietly phase you out until you feel like dropping back in or officially dropping out.

Everybody do some hx, game will probably be up Wednesday.

# ? Dec 11, 2017 20:28

Tricky: Jun 12, 2007; after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage

Alright! So which of you have been cottoning on that dear Spc. Reine is a little... different, let's say, then she used to be?

� Which one of you has provided me with Electricity? For that character, write Hx+1. Major Roosevelt Profit � Hx+1
� Which one of you has blocked me from Electricity? For that character, write Hx+2. Lance Corporal Aboah, Jacob D � Hx+2

For everyone else, write Hx-1. They have been shadows to you before now.

Zee � Hx-1
Willie Sideways Thompson � Hx-1
Sgt. Vasile Petrescu � Hx-1
Lt. Casey Casino Duff � Hx-1

Tricky fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Dec 11, 2017

# ? Dec 11, 2017 20:33

Comrade Gorbash: Jul 12, 2011; My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

~~� Which one of you used to ride with my gang? For that character, write Hx+1.~~ Willie
~~� Which one of you figures that you could take me in a fight, if it came to it? For that character, write Hx+2.~~ Lt. Casey Casino Duff
~~� Which one of you once stood up to me, gang and all? For that character, write Hx+3.~~ Zee

For everyone else, write Hx-1. You don�t really care much about, y�know, people

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Dec 12, 2017

# ? Dec 11, 2017 20:39

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

quote:

On your turn, write Hx-2 for everyone. You have only limited intelligence about any of them.

# ? Dec 11, 2017 20:47

Platonicsolid: Nov 17, 2008

Battlebabe posted:

Go around again for Hx. On your turn:

For the characters you can trust, write Hx-1

For the characters you can't trust, write Hx+3

Zee (Quiggy) Hx-1
Willie 'Sideways' Thompson (PoultryGeist) - Hx -1
Lance Corporal Aboah (Error 404) - Hx +3
Reine (Tricky) - Hx+3
Major Roosevelt Profit (Commrade Gorbash) - Hx +3
Sgt. Vasile Petrescu (Shogeton) - Hx -1

Platonicsolid fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Dec 12, 2017

# ? Dec 11, 2017 21:03

Shogeton: Apr 26, 2007; "Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

quote:

Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask
either or both:
� Which of you do I find most attractive?
For those characters, write Hx+2.

Spcialist Reine's got... something about her. Shouldn't be looking at that. Girl's just fresh outta college. Wanna send my own imagination to go clean the toilets when she enters. But she brightens up a room fierce when she enters, and we can use a bit of brightness here, no? Anyway, I know how some soldiers can be, so I keep an eye out on them, and if they're trying poo poo, I'm giving them a good warning. For her good of course.

Major Roosevelt Profit: Now, I don't agree with everything the Major has done. I wish she'd take control of this shitshow, because lovely a job as that is, it's your job I figure. And also, she's loving tolerating that piece of poo poo Been. That said, Jesus, Mary Joseph what a woman! She loving breathes, eats and shits military. Can't blame the Shrikes for following her into hell's rear end in a top hat itself again and again. I mean, obviously, I'd never do anything, fraternization, and I'm pretty sure if I tried something I wouldn't ever have to worry about a court martial. But man... her kind of woman is what gave birth to valkyrie myths.

�

quote:

Which one of you is my favorite?
For that character, write Hx+3.

Lance Corporal Aboah: Hah, poor kid. Landed in the middle of this shitstorm. Sometimes see myself a bit in him. Trying to make sure he gets through this alive to get his medals. Honestly, part of it is because him arriving here was just a boost to morale, just cuz it shows things are still going on, and we still get some reinforcements, but he's got the right amount of experience. Not a loving boot, but not mired here long enough to start to completely forget how to act like a goddamn soldier.

quote:

For everyone else, write Hx+1. It�s your
business to see people clearly.

# ? Dec 11, 2017 21:21

quiggy: Aug 7, 2010; [in Russian] Oof.

Comrade Gorbash posted:

� Which one of you once stood up to me, gang and all? For that character, write Hx+3.

I feel like this is probably me. Gangs and cults don't often get along well.

As for me, I'm gonna ask both questions:
� Which of you are my followers?
� One of you, I've seen your soul. Which one?

# ? Dec 11, 2017 21:28

PoultryGeist: Feb 27, 2013; Crystals?

Which one of you once got me out of some serious poo poo?
For that character, write Hx+1. (Casino has this)

Which one of you has been with me for days on the road?
For that character, write Hx+2.

Which one of you have I caught sometimes staring out at the horizon?
For that character, write Hx+3. (Reine has this)

PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Dec 12, 2017

# ? Dec 11, 2017 22:48

PoultryGeist: Feb 27, 2013; Crystals?

quiggy posted:

As for me, I'm gonna ask both questions:
• Which of you are my followers?

I was raised in the Consolidated Church of Mars (Reformed), but it didn't really take. But I've seen some weird poo poo out here, and your weird poo poo seems to help. So Ave Zee, I guess.

# ? Dec 11, 2017 22:58

PoultryGeist: Feb 27, 2013; Crystals?

Comrade Gorbash posted:

� Which one of you used to ride with my gang? For that character, write Hx+1.

Yeah I was assigned to AirCav due to my apt scores. But seriously, as much as a hotrod that I am, I do it on the ground with a rollcage and 5-point. Speeder jockeys are just nuts.

Still, I appreciate you writing down 'Vertigo' on my transfer sheet instead of 'pissed herself during training maneuvers. Again'.

# ? Dec 12, 2017 00:38

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# ? Apr 23, 2024 09:00

Tricky: Jun 12, 2007; after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage

Lt. Casey 'Casino' Duff would have to be an idiot to trust me. I can't even trust myself, since... y'know. (Hx+3)

Sideways has seen me looking out from the perimeter, yeah. I don't know what it is. I have everything I need with the reactor, we're outputting enough energy that nobody should notice what I'm siphoning, but... I don't know. It's like there's something out there calling for me. Maybe one day I'll make the trip to find it. (Hx+3)

# ? Dec 12, 2017 07:01

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