DSE: Chapter 1 | The Beginnings [OOC]

[Arcalane]

Yeah, I'm mostly workin' on the rest of the thing. I'm trying to plan it out before going in the deep end to see if it makes any difference. So far, trying to work out how the system is "composed" and such.

[Stygian]

Got some space for another eejit in yer crew?

[Arcalane]

Got some space for another eejit in yer crew?

Probably. Just remember to use the template.

And expect to burn if you use the word "Unknown".

[Stygian]

Roger that.

Name: Sebastian Tycho, nickname "Stygian"
Age: 68
Gender: Androgynous, previously male
Species/Race: "Synth" (Synthetically created and/or engineered organism), originally human

Appearance:
Standing at about 6"0 in his "original" humanoid form, Sebastian very much resembles a regular human being, though this is far from the truth. At first look he seems a somewhat handsome, hard-edged caucasian man of his late twenties, pallid blonde with a broad-shouldered and long-armed athletic build suggesting a weight somewhere above two hundred pounds, maybe two hundred and twenty. On second examination though, most notice his skin, underlined by black veins, his sliding, almost liquid movements and the fact that he seems to wear his pair of sunglasses at precisely all times.
   In truth, Sebastian usually weighs closer to three hundred and eightly pounds, and though he is able to very closely mimick a human being, he has come far from one. In his exposed, "true" form, he appears as a humanoid-shape creature with its skin made up of some slithering fluid, so dark green it seems black, the only visible facial features being a viciously serrated "mouth" of sorts and a pair of light-reflective green "eyes".

Species/Race Data:
Originating from a strain of creatures manufactured for commercial and medical purpouses, medical symbiotes made to slow aging and cure diseases, "Stygian" as he, or it, has come to call itself after its transformation, was originally named "specimen S47-A0c" and created using a revolutionary method of "forced" evolutionary engineering. Developed under extreme conditions and exposed to unique stimuli, Stygian is a species all of its own, made a much more "full" and evolved creature than even some natural symbiotes found in some ecostystems.
   Stygian is a fully morphic and regenerative symbiote that obviously has the ability to completely bond and fuse with its host, human or otherwise, and to transmit this trait to it. It is a highly physically evolved specimen, capable of imbuing its host with tremendous strength and resilience, in addition to the great speed and agility it gains from its morphic form. It also alters its host's senses to fit its own, and enhances both them and the creature's reflexes greatly. The Stygian perceives its world somewhat alike a human, but has senses that blend into each other in a fashion, touch with hearing and taste with smell. Its sight might be the greatest difference, as the Stygian sees poorly in the normal light spectrum, but can pick up even low levels of backdrop radiation in gamma and ultraviolet, and compile this into a detailed picture of its surroundings, perceiving things hidden from the vision of most other beings.
   Perhaps one of the more intimidating traits of the Stygian to some, is that it displays an unusually high psionic resistance and resilience. Because of its almost entirely alien and shifting nervous structure, and perhaps some energy distortion property due to stimuli it received while evolving, it is as impossible to interfere psionically with the creature's nervous system as it is for it to use psionics, and despite this the creature still seems psionically sensitive, able to pick up on and trace the synaptic energies with great acuity. It also has an extremely miniscule "psi signature", despite both quick and strong neural activity, that works together with its adaptable body temperature, generally somewhere within 3 degrees of 17 degrees celsius, to make it hard to detect by anything but smell. Still, though it has proven very resilient to telekinesis as well, the creature's protection is far from complete in that department.

A note on the Stygian's biomorphosis: While the Stygian is more than capable of mimicking nearly any organism its size, there are several discrepancies and limitations to this ability. Firstly, it cannot change its weight without ridding itself of or adding bodymass. This requires much materials and time, and may affect the creature's health if done improperly. It cannot decrease its weight to less than just above 160 lbs, nor increase it to more than 450 lbs, no matter its size. Also, while it is capable of mimicking structure and texture almost immediately, it cannot produce an accurate pigmentation beyond basic coloration very fast. When it takes on a new form its colouration thus usually seems somewhat off, tending towards blacks, greens and greys. It is capable of near enough perfect color imitation, but usually has to adjust it for half an hour, maybe more, before its camouflage is complete.
   Apart from camouflage, the biomorphosis gives it regenerative and acid and alkalic-, fire- and poison-resisting properties, and can also function as a natural weapon for the Stygian. It consists of a relatively high amount of bonded minerals and metalloids compared to other organisms, can harden and sharpen its body as easily as loosening it, and is quite capable of ripping, digging or "eating" through materials other creatures could barely scratch. Additionally, it has proven capable of adhering to and moving across steeply inclined and even reversed surfaces, and is quite capable of supporting its own weight many times over even while hanging upside down from a smooth surface. It can also apparently split its body into several portions, though only over short distances and periods of time.

Personality:
While androgynous, Sebastian, or Stygian, still kind of considers itself male and sometimes displays decidedly "male" personality traits. A bit reclusive sometimes, Stygian is nevertheless mostly courteous, and strangely enough even humorous, despite the underlying tone of harshness it often has to it. It is also patient and slow to anger, though beware when it does, and has a quite strong sense of honesty, loyalty and ideals. But at the same time, it would be best to listen twice to what it says, for while it never lies unless it is absolutely neccessary, it has a way of twisting its words sometimes so that its meanings become hard to interpret. It also usually does things for its own purpouses, rather than some common goal, but will not hesitate to go out of its way if it beleives it is the right thing to do.

History:
Born Sebastian Tycho on the colony Nithalus IV, Stygian was originally a mere human, an ex-military nano-engineer and technician who took the step into bio-engineering with the aid of a friend during his employment at the Haudée mega-corporation. Devoted to the concept of evolutionary design, he was convinced that it was possible to acheive great results using this technology not only in technological applications but also synthetic biological ones, despite organic structures being far less predictable. His work and that of his associates contributed to making Haudée one of the leading companies in nano-solutions and hard-engineered symbiotes.
   When the full and unrestricted "forced evolution" process provided some unreliable and nasty results though, and Haudée management turned the project military, Sebastian wanted out. Haudée would not let him, threatening to have him fined and locked away. They were too dependent on their researchers' work, and their silence, to risk losing control over them. Frustrated with his situation Sebastian contacted the authorities, and in secret began preparing to escape, to take records and one of the prototype symbiotes with him as evidence and research material. He began administering special treatment to himself and the symbiote in question, a specimen designated S47-A0c, checking routines and events and slowly transferring his assets and possessions to new locations.
   Unfortunately, a Haudée informer found Sebastian out before he was fully prepared, and once he found out he desperately hurried to get away, rushing to the Haudée labs where he worked and hastily retreiving the symbiote and records. Security caught up with him though, while he was trashing the lab. Panicking, he fled, nearly killing himself in an ensuing car chase. Wounded and hunted, he fully bonded with the symbiote on the run, making his way off-planet as a stowaway.
   For thirty-three years, Stygian has now lived in the shadows of the star systems, constantly making efforts to hide from Haudée. Straying between locations and occupations, it has lost all purpouse other than to live on and live as well as it can. It took up the occupation of collector and bounty hunter, something that fit its talents, and actually managed to get by pretty well until its ship and home, a heavily modified long-range fighter/bomber called the Husk, was severely damaged and derelicted, leaving Stygian stranded and looking for a new ship, either for itself or to serve on.

Personal Possessions:
Besides the usual clothing, most of which consists of shirts and trousers in various combination of black and dark green with silver details, Stygian also owns an old but well-kept black military coat in the long, thick Nithalan fashion (there are mostly cold planets in the system). It also has a pair of good military boots to go with this, and it still owns a pair of military-type large handguns that fire case-bonded ionized gas charges, although it rarely uses them but mostly keeps them in a box. Apart from that, it doesn't own much but a field flask, a silver lighter, a pair of sunglasses of the latest model with built-in optical display and zoom (a little luxury for a job), a pack of fine cigars it hopes to smoke some day, and a pair of cigarette packs (it smokes, simply because it can without repercussions to its health). It doesn't have much cash; in fact, it's nearly broke.

Phew! That took some time.

[Eibborn]

Made some basic edits to my profile- nothin' important, but I just thought ya should know.

[Azlan]

I had to make an adjustment to Locklear's profile...

[Arcalane]

Just as long as you make it clear what you modified, then I can go over and make sure there's nothing particularly wrong/uberish about them.

Still workin' on the combat system. That may or may not be ominous. You decide.

[Azlan]

I identified Locklear's racial ability.  He is a half-breed between a "Lightbringer" and a common Valallai and as such, had a 50/50 chance between Light Expulsion and Psionic Machine Empathy and the dice rolled for Light.  Machine empathy would be more useful, but I prefer allowing some random chance into the mix.


Locklear has Photophoric Light Expulsion.

[Boog]

That works out pretty good, since my character already had enough reasons to be scared of the rest of the crew without them being able to read his thoughts sometimes

And again I make fun of Az's character a little!

"I've got a case of Photophoric Light Expulsion."
"Yikes. Where'd ya catch it?"
"No clue, but my doctor keeps perscribing this cream that makes all my fur fall out..."
"Tough break man."
"Yeah."

Oh yeah. I edited Rickardo's personality profile a little.

[lucas marcone]

Ian korchev
age: 43
gender:100% grade A dude
race: stantorin AKA lizard man
rank: weapon engineer

appearance: body style: six and a half foot tall blueish green. anole/crocodile style head andanimal style feet.
tone:200 pounds lightly muscled. 
face:ugly face (think old salty sailor type face)
scars:long scar runs along the length of his left jaw and down across his chest, bitemarks on his sholder (right) forearm (left), and burn marks on his whole right arm leg and side of torso.
clothes: metal mosher clothes

race data: the lizard men are a reziliant race on stantor's ice moon iratha. forced there after years of waring with the mamals of stantor only a few can look past engraved prejudice to even see mamals as equals let alone friends. lizard men are a long lived people with life expectancy rangeing from 200-234, of corce this is before their enharent asshole attitude, quick tempers and dangerous thrill seeking

personality: strong quiet....asshole, this embodies Ian but ofcorse he so does love everything that goes BOOM in the night. he is well learned but prefers strength over thought. he is also one of an extream minority of prejudice"less" lizardmen. seeking adventure he hired on as weapons engineer and an adventure is EXACTLY what he expects to find

history: nothing is really known other than what he lets on. he prefers people to see his strengths and fear them rather then see weakness and exploit it. what is known is he used to be a construction worker and that he was married three times, each one's death surrounded in mystery.

posessions:2 uzis, 1 sawed off barrel shot gun (bought at S-MART ), a plethera of notebooks with novels short stories and what not written by him, lap top with a few mmorpgs and first person shooters.

[Arcalane]

Will your next trick involve putting your other foot in your mouth?

Considering there is no S-MART (or equivalent), that kind of rules out the shotgun, which would be very ineffective in boarding anyway. Same for the uzis. Modern weapons are going to be of limited effectivity against various forms of personal armour.

~~

Shuttle & Messenger Probe Statout

Kytech Standard Shuttle (KS):
-
The KS Shuttle is a fairly cheap and widespread shuttle design used for civilian use. It has extended fuel tanks that allow short interplanetary trips (KS Shuttles are given a "ride" up to orbit, much like modern shuttles) and long-distance atmospheric trips. With a dual-nozzle low-consumption ion drive, the KS is efficient, if somewhat slow. Despite their poor armour integrity, KS Shuttles have a high structural integrity, compared to other shuttles, so they can land even after making a particularly bumpy atmospheric descent.

Cost: Cheap as peanuts. 1kcr, tops.
Sensor Strength: 2. Very limited.
Shielding: Nada. 0 Points.
Armour: Titanium Plating. 10 Points.
Structure: Standard. 50 Points.
Propulsion: Ion Drive

Current Cargo: (excluding vital supplies and any ammunition)
None

Weaponry:
None

Subsystems:
None

~~

Kaiseka Messenger Probe
-
At some point in time, any galactic citizen is bound to see a Kaiseka Messenger Probe in operation. These long, slim devices are basically a small memory bank, guidance computer, standard drive and warp drive in one package. They're actually pretty tough for something so small - some designs are nay bigger than a microwave, whilst some are as big as torpedoes.

Cost: 100cr-500cr.
Sensor Strength: 0.
Shielding: Varies.
Armour: Varies.
Structure: Varies.
Propulsion: Ion Drive, One-Shot Warp Drive

Current Cargo: (excluding vital supplies and any ammunition)
None

Weaponry:
None

Subsystems:
None

[Arcalane]

SPAM.

Damage Types & Armour/Shielding Types. Totally WIP.

On a sidenote, the Red-Eye is now properly statted out w/ shield, armour and structure details.

~~

Kinetic
Damage from impact force like bullets or shells. Most common type of weapon.

Explosive
Damage from explosions like standard missile/rocket warheads or high explosive weaponry.

Laser
Damage from high-energy laser beams. Not too powerful, but good range.

Plasma
Damage from high-energy plasma bolts. Powerful but slow-firing.

Pulse
Damage from high-energy pulse cannons. Weak but rapid-fire.

EMP
Damage from EMP weapons. Does no real damage, but shuts off weapons and engines. Drains shields very quickly too.

Corrosion
Damage from radiation, radiation weapons, acid or other corrosive substances. Very dangerous to structure and crew.

Biohazard
Damage from biological hazards like toxin spills, toxic gas, etcetera. Lethal to unshielded crew.

-Special-
Penetration
Penetration is a fairly useful statistic in any weapon. It determines how much damage is done to Structure on top of any armour damage. A weapon with 5% Penetration deals 100% damage to armour and an extra 5% damage straight to the structure. In most cases, you must rely on depleting the enemy's armour before you can start damaging their structure. There are two types of Penetration;

[Type] Shield Penetration and [Type] Armour Penetration. The former determines how much damage bypasses that specific type of shielding or armour. If the penetration is greater than 100, then the weapon strikes for extra damage. An example of this is plasma weaponry fired through plasma shields. Plasma weapons pick up extra plasma from the shields as it passes through, increasing it's destructive capabilities. Some advanced kinetic weapons may significantly bypass standard armour.

~~

Phased Weaponry
Phased-type weaponry is rarer than standard weaponry, and only comes in energy weapon types. As such, phased weaponry ignores all, or a large amount of, standard shielding, even if the resistance is listed. A laser blast could be fully absorbed by an Ablative Shield, but a phased laser blast may skip all or a significant portion of the damage past shields, straight to armour. Thus, Phased Weapons are fairly expensive, and useful in combat. They can only be countered with the equally rare and expensive Phased Shielding.

It should be worth noting that kinetic weapons generally bypass most shields, except plasma and particle shielding. The only true defenses against missiles/rockets/torpedoes are RDS, Point Defense and ECM.

~~

Protection Types;

Armour
Standard form of protection available on all ships. Better against kinetics than energy however.

Reactive Armour
Customised armour, specialised to protect against explosions.

Reflective Armour
Modified armour, designed to offer a greater degree of protection from energy weaponry.

Hazardous Conditions Armour
Armour designed to absorb significant amounts of radiation without taking damage. Also resistant to acid and extreme temperatures.

~~

Shielding;

(Shields do not protect against Kinetic Damage or Missiles unless noted)

Ablative
Cheap and cheerful standard shielding. Works like a sponge. Soaks up damage until it reaches it's breaking point and then collapses. Durable and reliable, but not particularly tough.

Deflectors
Mirror-effect shielding that bounces energy attacks away from it. Fairly simple. Can be broken if enough firepower hits the same area. Very effective against lasers.

Particle Shielding
Particle field based shielding. Stops kinetic projectile weaponry. Ineffective and bulky.

Plasma Shielding
Superheated gas based shielding. Very short range, very inefficient, but effective against kinetic weaponry. Increases damage from incoming plasma.

Phased Shielding
Energy-phased variant of Ablative shielding. Absorbs damage from standard weapons which bypass standard shields, much like a standard ablative shield.

Remote Detonation System
Field which broadcasts detonation signals to all missiles within the system's radius. Does not affect unlaunched missiles/rockets. Has a chance of causing premature detonation of missiles/rockets. Detonation may still be close enough to the target ship to cause damage.

Electro Magnetic Absorption Field
EMAF systems attempt to counter EM pulses and negate them, preventing EM damage. Works like the RDS and thus is not fully reliable. Interferes with standard electromagnetic countermeasures. EMAF will not target missiles, but any missiles caught in an EMAF blast may suffer effects similar to ECM.

Electromagnetic Countermeasures (ECM)
Not to be mistaken with EMAF, ECM systems scramble the sensors of incoming missiles and cause them to veer away. Not fully reliable, much like the RDS. However, in combination with the RDS, survivability in the face of missiles increases dramatically. Military-grade ECM can hijack missile control systems and retarget to the original launcher, or another random hostile.

~~

Resistances;

Each armour/shield type has different resistances against different types of attack. An armour's resistance value reduces the damage of the attack by that %, so an armour that has 50% Kinetic Resistance only takes half damage from Kinetic attacks. The same armour might have 25% Energy Resistance, and thus Energy attacks do 75% normal damage.

Most basic armours do not have resistances – whereas the specialised types do. If a resistance is unlisted, it means the armour takes full damage from that damage type. If a resistance is negative then the armour takes extra damage from that damage type. This can become very problematic.

Some armour may have special effects – mostly the RDS, EMAF and ECM. They do not have "resistances" per se, as they are not strictly armour – actually internal components used to supplement existing systems. They behave as a weapon, but defensively – ie, an RDS targets all oncoming missiles/rockets automatically and rolls to hit. If it hits successfully, the projectile is terminated and explodes harmlessly. Different types of missiles are harder for an RDS to set off, or for ECM to disrupt. If an EMAF successfully counters an EM Pulse, it can either fully negate it or reduce the effects.

~~

Armour types cannot be combined, but you can have multiple shield generators on your ship. Just make sure you have the necessary reactor systems!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Hmm. Can we strap people to the outside of the ship? I kinda want an ablative meatshield.... :-)

[lucas marcone]

the guns are only for target practice(fun). and the S-mart was a joke for those of us who love the army of darkness movie.


anyway is he acceptable? and when does this thing kick off?

[Azlan]

Hmm. Can we strap people to the outside of the ship? I kinda want an ablative meatshield.... :-)

Oh yeah... like that whole Star Control thing!  Let's use people for armour! 

[Arcalane]

 

This thing might not be kicking off for a while yet, we'll see.

[ITOS]

Hmm. Can we strap people to the outside of the ship? I kinda want an ablative meatshield.... :-)

I've heard that cardboard is excellent for dampening kinetic energy.

[Eibborn]

A few minor alterations to my character... This is why I'm a terrible packer. I forget half the stuff I want until it's too late. XD

Do you really want me to keep you posted every time I change something, or would it be better to just let you know if I do anything like giving myself a rail gun or turn into a murderous psychopath? 'Cause characters are, to me, like scabs. I just can't help but pick at 'em. In fact, I don't actually pick at scabs, but the analogy was useful. You understand, I hope.

[Arcalane]

I don't mind if it's stuff like fixing grammatical changes or minor physical aspects, just as long as you don't suddenly turn them into hulking great warbots.

[lucas marcone]

so what exactly must happen before this gets started?

[Stygian]

Dunno. Maybe women must stop bickering, men stop watching football and cats find the key to cold fusion. In a parallel universe, that would already have happened though...

[Arcalane]

so what exactly must happen before this gets started?

I finish actually planning the rest out, or at least finish planning out the local area and such.

[lucas marcone]

*pokes styg with a fork* bad styg bad!

[Arcalane]

Alright, the Amta system is generated, thanks to the Megatraveller rulebooks.

I like to use the resources I have at hand.

[Boog]

That mean we're ready, or is there more to take care of?

[Arcalane]

We are go for launch. Get to it!

[e_voyager]

sounds good can i sign up?

[Arcalane]

Too late.

Maybe if the crew need to recruit... well, more crew. Should the need arise.

[e_voyager]

ah well it was wotth a try. sounds fun so have fun. and

[Azlan]

Megatraveller???!!!  I haven't cracked those books in a decade or more...

Wow, we never finalized some of the positions... though I was trying for a Ship-board weapons spot (guns don't fire themselves), the position would be a weapons officer on military ships, but I imagine more like "defense officer" in a civilian capacity.

Anyways, until Aldoun can be located, one could say he is off shift and I am "backup on duty" until I narrow down a more permanent role.