White Machine OOC [In Progress]

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Capntastic
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White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:11 am

Image
A Psychedelic Journey Through the Omniverse at Infinite Velocity

#Setting Primer, The Basics: For eons your world has existed with the spun in a cycle known as day and night. The sky of the daytime was one of gleaming white light, dotted by specks of black. The night was a scintillating haze of color, moving in patterns both unpredictable and aesthetically harmonious. This cycle was unbroken as all possible glories in the world were attained by heroes and pantheons that in turn either sank into obscurity or fought to maintain their place, and eras both bold and peaceful held their attentions. This dance was obviously not meant to last forever, as a disc of blackness has appeared in the night sky, and it has grown steadily larger since discovery. The world's highest intellects agree: this is the end of the world. The highest cultures of the world have united to forge a way to escape this death sentence. Led by their heroes and deities, a few aim to strike out across the skies to attain new glories, and find entire worlds both bold and peaceful to hold their attentions.


#Game Information, The Basics:

I'm going to be running a campaign on the board, using the REIGN rules. REIGN is ORE, and for most things it's "Roll your stat+skill in d10s, find the matches", and those matches, known as sets, contain both how good you do, how fast you do it, how much you hit for, where you hit, etc. It's really cool. If you need the REIGN rules, PM/AIM me and I can help you out.

Your character will be one of the aforementioned powerful folk. You'll get a fair amount of points to play with, and a few extras. Please, feel free to come up with as outlandish as a concept you can. The game will be fairly trippy, and the precise tone and texture I'm aiming for is hard to describe. I've bandied the phrase "Floating islands, abstract terrain, weird ass monsters and cults with gems for faces, etc" about in IM with a few, and it comes close. Basically, imagine if you had a semi-lucid fever dream after listening to a lot of prog-rock while gawping at the album art splayed out across your bedroom floor. Another way to explain it, that only gets half the idea, was "Conan the Barbarian, Spelljammer, and that Birdy Nam Nam video mixed in a blender." It's a hard thing to explain.

Anyways, the point is that your character can pretty much be any sort of crazy vaguely-humanoid thing you want. A bird-headed clockwork archer? Easy, how about its arrows are fletched with its own feathers that let it see where they've been shot? A sentient muscular system that constantly seeks out new and better skeletal systems? It would take some work, but why not? I'm really hoping the players trust me enough to feel safe in investing themselves in this game. But, I also hope that I'm capable of paying dividends on that investment.

[More info, clarifications, to come. Feel free to ask questions!]

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Besyanteo
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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Besyanteo » Sun Nov 28, 2010 10:36 pm

I've IMed you about my interest in this. Looking forward to more details!

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Mon Nov 29, 2010 12:33 am

I can hardly refrain from being involved in this. I'd never live it down if I had a chance to make a 9+ on the 0 to 10 scale of weirdness and turned it down.
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby ChristianC » Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:14 am

Manbitches and Manhos all know I'm the biggest boy in the milk yard DJ blow that Jabba-dunk up.

I'm considering playing The Sun/Moon God/dess joined in the same body for ease of travel.

Either that, or the Queen Bitch of Europop. IN SPACE.
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Besyanteo » Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:18 pm

CC worries me that my character may not be weird enough. But I will continue with the concept regardless!

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:56 pm

A Few Notes on Tone and Thematics:

With essentially anything being possible, some have expressed frustration at nailing down a perfect concept that is both fun, capable of doing cool stuff, and 'fits' the 'setting'. The setting, essentially being an omniverse, can have anything happen, but that doesn't mean it's going to be random. I'll try, for the most part, to attain a semblance of coherence, otherwise it'll be impossible to know or care what was, is, and will be happening. Essentially, Point A will usually lead to Point B.

Here are some pictures that exemplify things that are surreal and yet not 'random':

Image

Here is Tarkus. Alongside being the title and coverart of a particularly well known Prog album, the song itself actually tells, vaguely (and with the help of the inside album art), the story of a creature made to fight. Tarkus is an armadillo tank that hatched from an egg birthed by a volcano. It is not merely two random 'cool' things slammed together; with its pristine chrome scales and deadly cannons it is a collection of things that form an idea of an indestructible killing machine. It was created by violence, and will live and die by it.

It is thematically whole within itself, and by embodying an idea, can have contextual links to other things, should it be placed in, say, an RP setting. This is all a longwinded way of saying that it is capable of being understood for what it is, despite being surreal.

Here is an image that is random as fuck, and while amazing in its own way, would not really fit into anything without a lot of reworking:
Image

This is a cool image made of a bunch of different individual elements that are, in their own ways, cool. I know I love stock photos of telemarketers. Anyways, the problem with this is that you can't immediately tell what this sort of thing's motivation is, nor how it would probably behave. This sort of situation, while visually exciting, isn't maneuverable in or around.

Here's a good one:


We've got color schemes mixing, incomprehensible monsters atop a pile of skulls, etc. There's action, here, both in the battle up front and the psychedelic shifting background, and despite the complete lack of knowledge about what is going on and who is fighting who, you know it's important.


Here's the last one I'll write about now, but this one is fairly good. You can tell that this guy, here, represents America. He is wholly committed to that theme, but also represents aspects not normally associated with it. Democracy and a skull-smashing barbarian aren't, visually, easily put together. But the concept works. Also, the way that his star-sword leaves a red-white-and-blue trail is an amazing detail that indicates that not just any dude is cutting these robots to shreds, but it's the power of America.

Here are some other images I find inspiring for you to gaze upon

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:30 pm

More Notes A: Your character, as the head of a culture (or similar), should embody that culture's ideals. Since we'll be using the Passions/Cravings/Mission modifiers, your character's 'mission' will be, at the outset, achieving the goals of your people, as their representative. Feel free, when creating these cultures, to do what you like; assume whatever territories they have are vast and, currently, well defined and peaceful. The world, currently, is a blank slate and will be retro-constructed once I get a good handle on the characters at the forefront of it. It's not that important, but it's a good idea to get into the head of your semi-epic character and see what they hold dear.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby ChristianC » Fri Dec 03, 2010 3:49 am

Well, Space Dandelion is my idea!

Basically, I'm one of the 37 "offsprings" of an ancient evil / god-being who has been enjoying the benefits of generations upon generations of devout followers, but with the end of the world coming, and the Ancient Evil being, well, ancient, it has decided to imbue 37 of the most faithful followers with ...his/her (hir?) essence and basically transform them into clones of ...itself, let's go with it. Naturally, none are quite as powerful as the real thing, yet, but in essence they're incubating inside the followers right now.

Personality being an amalgation of the two with no memories of either lives, so that's swell.

Ancient Evil is a sea-god, by the way, or was at least worshipped as such. Make of that what you ma-IÄ IÄ! CTHUHLU FTHAGN!
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:46 pm

I've sent my thoughts over AIM, Christian. You're dead.

Anyways, try to have a general idea of (1): Your character concept, visually, and abilities-and-skillswise, so if I need to work on custom powers or disciplines, I can get to work. (2): A bit about their culture, and where they fit into it. I think you all have the REIGN core rulebook, so getting an idea of what sort of stuff you can do (Look at the stats and skill descriptions, martial and esoteric disciplines, point buy advantages and possessions, etc to get an idea of what sort of cool things can be had.) should be easy enough. Try to get the concepts near-finalized sometime this weekend, and then we can get character sheets done in the coming week.

As this is all coming together, I'll be working on posting up a bit more background and setting info, rules-tweaks, important rules snippets and such. I'm fully committed to bending the rules of REIGN in favor of what we're working towards, and it's increasingly pleasing that I don't really need to bend them that far.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Sat Dec 04, 2010 12:33 pm

I have conjured up a new character concept, and I would like to discuss it with you before I start to really harden it. It's a little out-there in terms of my ability to put it into system-words.
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Besyanteo » Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:32 pm

My concept so far, still subject to change and suchlike:

My character is a man with very strange arms. They are strange because he doesn't have hands, strictly speaking. Instead his has the heads of animals, and the skin of his arms changes to appropriate to whatever animals they are at the moment. If lost, those arms will regenerate, but only his arms. He's something of a sorcerer, too, but I'm not sure if he should be really incredible with that yet or not. Those heads on his hands can chant extra spells for him, so he casts multiple spells at a time when he needs/wants to. He's interested in power, and fancies himself a warlord. Loyalty and respect are important to him, and he'll savagely attack anyone that appears to be working to weaken the relationship between himself and his followers. His metabolism is weird, trying to support three sapient brains at a time, and he eats a lot of food as a result. He will drop everything to have a good meal at most any time, unless there's some font of incredible power on the other side of the room- Then he'll grab said object, and go back over to eat after.

I'd normally try to dress this up a bit more, but I'm not really feeling it right now. Feel free to comment or ask for clarification on anything.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Idran1701 » Sat Dec 11, 2010 3:21 am

For my concept, I'm going with a variation on a deific concept I had some time back, since it seemed to fit this. My guy, the Septumvirate, is, essentially, a humanoid mass of color, a sentient rainbow fractal. His body has a vague humanoid shape, but his surface is covered in constantly shifting patterns of color with infinite levels of detail. He's named because he's somewhat...multiple personality I guess is the best way to describe it, but literally just personality, nothing else. One set of memories, one identity, but seven personalities sharing that identity, each associated with a different color and holding a different set of viewpoints, a different set of interests, etc.

He's as the creator, and in a sense, the god, of a race of fractal "dragons" (named only because of a vague resemblance to the race). They are all physical manifestations of computational processes, formed by his own essence serving as a sort of fractal seed, as it is usually called by them, created partially out of boredom, and partially to solve problems he was interested in, but not so interested that he wanted to devote the time to personally work them out. Of course, the processes tended to remain existant after deducing, and even reproduce in a form, budding like hydras (the underwater creature, not the mythological reptile). Of course, they tend to be a bit single-minded, focused on matters relating to the problem they were spawned to solve even after it was no longer an issue. And their buds in turn tended to remain devoted to some related issue, though after a long enough chain, they could end up pretty far indeed. The Septumvirate doesn't care about this much, he lets them do pretty much whatever they want so long as they don't overly bother him. He never really expected an entire civilization to spawn purely from his ponderings, but it gives him some slight amusement whenever he thinks on it too long.

Culture-wise, it's hard to describe exactly how they keep themselves. They tend not to do much beyond ponder issues related to their personal core principle and, occasionally, bud off new dragons. As such, his personal city - located on a remote island far from any settled lands - is little more than a place of learning and research. Since one of his first ponderings was on sorting a collection of writings efficiently, thanks to the efforts of one "clan" (as they call themselves), much of the world's knowledge has ended up collected in a sort of city-wide university and library, giving it a reputation as a mecca of intellectuals and philosophers.

That's about all I've come up with right now, but I imagine it should be plenty.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Sat Dec 11, 2010 6:18 am

Here's the sheet blank, so far. May be updated if I need to change something.

If you want to play around with character creation and get an idea of what you can make, aim for about 100 points. Relevant pages in the book are 19-61 or so. Generally, for stats, 2d is human average, 3d is pretty good, and 5d is the theoretical human max. Past that, you get cool stuff like being able to dodge lasers (6d in coordination), or lift a HMMWV over your head while giggling (8d in body). Obviously, we won't be going strictly by the number with regard to the body stat , but it's good to have a nice idea of what is what.

After we get the character concepts finalized and I finish the disciplines and martial paths and whatever special advantages you want me to cook up, we'll move on to creating the party's mode of inter-dimensional transport- each culture will be contributing to its creation, and it will reflect that by being a mish-mash of what societies you've created, as well as being crewed and populated by folks from your world.

Edit: Skills are the same, with 1d being horrible (can only get a set when the pool is using a stat), 5d being Olympic level perception, and beyond that just being incredible. High stat + high skill = crazy rad.

MAGIC: Magic or other crazy voodoo will work like this- You buy dice in Magic:[Type], like Magic: Fire, or feel free to flavor text it as something more cool but still kinda descriptive, like 'Mind Daggers', or whatever. You can put it under Mind or Command, whichever works more for what you're going for. It'll cost the same as normal skills. How it works in practice, as I see it, is you tell me what you want to do with it, and I roll and determine the effect. To prevent these from becoming a 'does-everything' skill, types will be pretty narrow, restricted to one or two areas; like Fire or Psychic magic, in the above examples. Likewise, if you're going to use them as a direct damage type of thing there will be penalties of some sort. Creative uses will be given preference over these. More "I use my fire magic to light the ground on fire and impede their movement" than "I use fireball."

Hopefully this helps out in some ways, and as always feel free to send a private message or IM. Try to get stuff worked on this weekend, and then we can move onto the next phase.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby ChristianC » Sun Dec 12, 2010 6:12 am

I will be playing Imageor this campaign.

Basically the idea behind the culture of mine is that an ancient evil of some kind, fairly Lovecraftian, was bound to the depths of the Earth on this planet, many, many years ago, since it had threatened to destroy the cosmos, or got into a fight with another race of omnipotent being... the history is a bit fuzzy on that part. Either way, this ancient, unspeakable terror remained there, patiently waiting, biding its time, sleeping, dreaming. It spent many years sleeping.

So surely you must understand its confusion when it woke up to find small, tiny, insignificant gnats looking up at it, chanting, dancing, going at things wildly like in that scene of Event Horizon. Yeah, you know which one I mean. Apparently, the old being found out after a brief period of rage, confusion and massive amounts of death, these tiny creatures had heard the call from their master in their dreams, and had gathered into small groups of faithful, growing in numbers, feeding off of the gifts and wonders it had been sending out (purely unconsciously) through its sleep. Some of these followers were, indeed, quite different in appearance from the masses, but all of them were fanatically devoted to this ancient, dreadful being.

This was a completely new experience to It, and one which It was not entirely comfortable with.

However, these small groups had, over time, grown so much in number that, eventually, they had gotten enough power to topple the rulers of the land atop the sleeping monstrosity, and pronounced themselves force majoris, rulers of the land, and heads of the state and church. The ancient evil, nonetheless, had very little interest in the daily going ons of these tiny, insignificant animals, and remained, slumbering, deep underneath the ground, occasionally waking up at the behest of the Pontiffs, the most devout followers. These events, of which there were few, usually heralded a great time of joy and celebration (and darkness and despair for their enemies, usually), and for a while, things were peaceful.

However, even ancient things can die, and foreseeing the destruction of the planet It had called home for so long, the Ancient Evil gathered together the council of Pontiffs, and without much ceremony, planted a seed into each of the 37 Pontiffs, a part of itself that would, eventually, grow into an offspring with equal power to its patron. Naturally, the puny and useless souls of these pontiffs were consumed at the process, driven mad by the overwhelming terror of the darkness between the stars. What remained behind, however, was a new, wide-eyed life, sharing some core memories of it's hosts body, but only in intangible, lucid ways like an intense dream you remember only when a certain smell is in the air.

These 37 seeds were instructed to spread, to bring some of their faithful with them, and seek out power, influence, understanding and, most importantly, ensure the survival of the dark and most evil race so that war could once more be waged upon the timeless beings that had once imprisoned It on this forsaken rock.

Thus, Imageound itself alone, relatively weak, with only a handful of followers competent enough to come with It into space. Lacking the technology to fully build it themselves, they sought out other cultures that would do the same, adding their haunting and sometimes unnatural talent for architecture to the lot.
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:08 am

I will be playing the part of The Bargainer (more proper name pending), a sort of middleman between the Cosmos and individuals. When someone says "I wish...", The Bargainer is there to say, "I can give you that wish for the price of..."

He travels the world, with motivations unspoken, finding persons with the most to lose--that is, the greatest ability to buy--and offering them what they want. And if anyone else is looking for a deal along the way, well, who is he to turn down a sale?

The Bargainer is accompanied on his travels by a small retinue of servants, poor souls who didn't think the price would be quite as high as it was. They are sworn and bound to the Bargainer's will, serving out the shame of their hubris for a time that only the Bargainer knows, if their servitude does, in fact, have an end. They carry nothing and only wear enough to cover themselves to avoid public outcries of obscenity, though for polite company The Bargainer has been sometimes known to temporarily give them proper suits ("on the house," he says)--though nothing can cover their obvious humiliation and despair.

As far as appearances, The Bargainer appears to be a shortish, thin but muscular man of about five feet and eight inches, with smooth facial features and a strong, prominent chin. His preferred garmentry is not that different from that of his followers, but when traveling with companions or in the general public view, he magically dons a business suit that is a half step shy of a proper tuxedo. Most notably, however, his skin is divided straightly and definitely down his center as one looks at him from the front: his left side is white as flour, and his right side is a dark gray closer to the color of elephant skin when wet. His suit, when he wears it, does not have this color split aspect, though his hands and face still readily display this peculiarity.

The truth behind The Bargainer is that he was once human, too. He made a deal with a Bargainer, too, and as part of the deal he accepted the Bargainer's mantle, to replace the one who mediated his exchange, for eternity or until he can find his own replacement, whichever comes first. Since then he's arranged trade after trade after trade using the powers of The Bargainer, communing with the universe at large to make manifest people's wishes and desires and taking payment in turn. He's grown since then, become able to facilitate larger and larger purchases, with practice and increased trust from the universe in his sense of duty to his role. And he seeks those larger purchases now, partly to break up the monotony and partly because it's the best way he's found to increase his capability to supply what others demand. He's not sure what happens when he's aligned well enough with existence to deal for anything anyone could desire, but the journey to find out promises to be interesting, in one way or another.

Since The Bargainer was once human, he retains his old skills and physical capabilities, which weren't terribly noteworthy and which he's only barely managed to keep from losing from disuse. He could easily pick up any number of skills, he knows, by making a deal with the universe himself, but he "knows better" than to sample the wares. Mostly, the attributes that have come the most handy (and which he's needed and used) traveling the world are related to general endurance and environmental resilience, and knowledge of societies and their inventions and comforts. The universe, however, values him, and as such he never needs to eat (though he has been known to eat at dinner parties, for instance, to smooth transactions) or sleep, and he is afforded some amount of physical protection from assault by wilderness creatures and sentients, though it is by no means comprehensive--though it is, by all means, appreciated. All part of the deal.
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:51 am

My concept is the avatar of a dead race, one that ascended to great heights before falling to their own weakness.

His people were prosperous once. They mastered technology of infinite complexity, claimed vast swathes of star systems and established their empire. They prospered and enjoyed the fruits of their labour for generations. Eventually, however, they grew bored. Their near-infinite resources were turned to increasingly elaborate forms of distraction and entertainment. Its people grew depraved and decadent, forgetting the wisdom of their philosophers and embracing the moment and whatever thrill they could experience. Bloodsports became common, towering arenas constructed to house innumerable convoluted displays of murder. This is where The Exemplar came into being, born from the collective bloodlust of an entire race and fuelled by adrenaline pumping spectacles of ritualised combat within which combatants moved at impossible speeds with unnatural precision, destroying each other with a stunning variety of weaponry. It didn't last, of course. The civilization burned itself out, its people addicted to the here and now, spurning all other considerations. Empire-wide broadcasts of the latest spectacle reached out to other cultures and, through a billion monitors, the rest of the galaxy watched as an entire species tore itself apart in the pursuit of entertainment.

The Exemplar doesn't remember much of his people or their culture. What they achieved is irrelevant. It is not what they shall be remembered for. Their final moments, those precious times where the artistry and brutality of combat eclipsed their collective consciousness, is what sustains him. To meet your equal on the field of battle and destroy him utterly is to achieve a zen state, if only for a fraction of a second. So now he journeys the galaxy, seeking out conflict wherever he can find it and seeking that next moment of exultation. It shall sustain him or he shall be annihilated. Either option is preferable to the alternative. His power is already failing, the cheers of creatures who live vicariously through his deeds unable to sustain him as the echo of his people fades from existence.

The Exemplar is a warrior, whatever form he possesses hidden beneath overlapping armour and a visored helm. His gear is battered and bloodied and his very essence reacts to the world around him. Peace diminishes him, his body growing immaterial and his mind dull. Strife empowers him, invigorating the flesh and quickening the mind.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:01 am

A quick note on the Status advantage: While not required, it might come in handy. Despite the world-hopping nature of the game, it makes sense flavor-wise that perhaps some people are just inherently recognizable as someone special. See page 33 of the pdf for details!

A quick note on Culture: Your character's culture will in some way be contributing to the world's effort to venture out into the skies. This conveyance will be handled with Reign's company rules, detailed on page 80 of the pdf. Think of it like the International Space Station- what will your society bring to the table? Send these to me over AIM or in PM.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:05 pm

Here's the sheet. We'll be starting at 100 points.

The 'eerie' skill has been replaced with 'tuning', counterspell has been replaced by 'counterforce'. These are just flavor filters. Go forth and sheetify.

Edit: Any questions about prices for possessions or homebrew advantages can be sent via Private Message.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:05 am

Apparently there's a rule I forgot that states that in REIGN you're limited to 5 in a stat and 5 in a skill. Ignore this rule.

Language in WM will mostly work Stargate-style; speech is easily understood aside from the odd *comtrayya* here or there, but the written word will need to be parsed in a more delicate manner. This is what the Literacy skill is for.

Reminder: You can only have one 'special' (see Expert and Master dice) die in a pool.

GET YOUR STUFF DONE I WANNA START THIS IN JANUARY

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Dec 28, 2010 6:03 am

I have all the sheets and aside from a few minor details to work out things are ready to go. Expect the first post in OTHER RPs at the start of 2011.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Mon Jan 03, 2011 12:28 am

McRib is back


Ritual dictates that offerings take place in this manner: The person is announced by the Attendant who also mentions what their culture has offered to the Worldship, they make a speech or whatever, and then they declare if they will be going or not. Since your current mission is to survive the end, you probably won't turn this down. Anyways, this has been going on for a week.

PM me or IM me for questions and similar.

CLARIFICATION: Attendant is currently just asking who would be willing to not give a speech, in the sake of saving time. This is your chance to either have your character give a bit of dramatic performance art or similar, or to have them excuse themselves to attend the party proper.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:43 am

Anyone that has followers, be a doll and specify how many of each at which level. Also, your followers have a profession which lets 'em roll dice in skill that make sense, so please specify those too.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Besyanteo » Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:07 pm

Technically only the 15, at level 2 I think it was. Anything after that was handwaved masses present for flavor purposes, which we talked about before.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Wed Jan 12, 2011 4:21 pm

As listed on my sheet, I have 10 followers at threat 2, and as omitted on my sheet, their skill is Graces.
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:24 pm

Bhurr? It's got to be SOMEONE's turn...
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Sun Jan 16, 2011 4:18 pm

Yeah it's mine wanna make something of it? [I'll post tonight, I've had a weird and lazy week]

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:04 am

Check your PMs, if you have questions or anything, IM me.

All clonetool marks on images are due to telepegraphic disturbance.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby ChristianC » Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:19 pm

Image

Artistic interpretation
"That's not interactive, there's no back-and-forth with the other player and how much fun is it to watch someone incredibly good at moving their eyes? And then whichever Seeker gets lucky swoops in and grabs the Snitch and makes everyone else's work moot. It's like someone took a real game and grafted on this pointless extra position just so that you could be the Most Important Player without needing to really get involved or learn the rest of it. Who was the first Seeker, the King's idiot son who wanted to play Quidditch but couldn't understand the rules?" Actually, now that Harry thought about it, that seemed like a surprisingly good hypothesis. Put him on a broomstick and tell him to catch the shiny thing...

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Jak Snide » Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:46 am

A mighty weapon from a forgotten age! A trophy of conquest! The prize!

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Tue Feb 15, 2011 6:59 am

AN ACTUAL RULE IN REIGN:
Out of Character Enhancement: If you’re artistically inclined, draw dramatic (or
humorous) images. Keep an in-character journal or an out-of-character chronicle. Or
bring a pizza and a six-pack every week. This enhances the fun and deserves an XP award.

Christian gets half of an XP for that. But that's just because I wanna tempt him to draw more~

Furthermore, you all get 3XP for the game so far. And, I'd like to remind you the rules for XP are on page 55 or so of the Enchiridion. Basically, you can spend them to increase stuff. Hurf. We're going to be using the extra rules for burning XP, since the idea of fate point styled buffers is always good. You can burn an XP to do these things:

Squeak By: Replace a failed roll with a 2x1 result. (You can’t make this part of a multiple action.)
Power Through: Add 1d to a pool or offset a -1d penalty.
Shake it Off: Negate one point of damage that you just received.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:22 am

Sorry about the shameful delay, my own laziness merged with a bunch of half-viable excuses to create a two week void of time. I'll do my best not to let anything that dumb happen again.

Anyways, things are going down, finally.


Gonna take this opportunity to tell you about the basic combat maneuvers in REIGN, in case someone gets in a fight anytime soon:
You can attack, which is pretty basic.
You can dodge, which is also basic.
You can parry, but this hurts if you don't have a shield or something to parry with.
You can move.
You can aim by taking a round to prepare an attack, giving you a 1d bonus next round. (You can dodge and stuff while aiming, taking a 1d penalty for multiple actions)
You can do a called shot to target a specific hit location, taking a 1d penalty to set one die to whatever you want before rolling. (IE, 6d attack becomes 5d, letting you turn one die to a 10, and roll the other 4.)

You can do a mix of the above by taking a penalty to the smallest pool. So you can make two attacks by rolling your attack pool -1d. Or an attack and a dodge by rolling (whichever is lower), at -1d.

Combat is described in detail on page 112 of the Enchiridion.

Any further questions can be IMed or posted here.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Sat Mar 26, 2011 5:38 am

Print your team badges out and wear them with pride!

Image

Image

Image

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Sat Apr 16, 2011 3:11 am

I'm going out of town for a week, but I'll have my phone so I should be able to rig a post together somehow.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Sat May 21, 2011 5:47 am

Well that was certainly cool of me :kettle:

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:45 am

Out of Game: We're transitioning to Wild Talents. I think you all have the PDFs required. I'm setting a basic goal for everyone to be brought over by November 10th. Of course, to get there, that means to get some back and forth going as early as possible. Any questions should be IMed to me, or messaged to me here on the board. It'll be fun!

In game: We're at a good spot for people to explore the setting (or what's left of it). The Worldship is an immense place with a lot of stuff. Every character has their own corner of it to call 'home' somewhere on it. That's all I'll say here. It'll be fun!

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:09 am

I have two of the five sheets, I'd like to get the next three within the week.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Shinigori V2 » Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:46 pm

You fucks need to finish your sheets before he does it for you!
Hey there! Can I give you a hand?

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Mon Nov 21, 2011 5:06 pm

And I'll do it with Paranoia sheets too.

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Wed Nov 23, 2011 8:34 pm

Oh shit, does that mean we get perversity points? And narrow specialties? And multiple lives?
"You haven't told me what I'm looking for."
"Anything that might be of interest to Slitscan. Which is to say, anything that might be of interest to Slitscan's audience. Which is best visualized as a vicious, lazy, profoundly ignorant, perpetually hungry organism craving the warm god-flesh of the anointed. Personally I like to imagine something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth, Laney, no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote. Or by voting in presidential elections."
--Colin Laney and Kathy Torrance, William Gibson's Idoru

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Re: White Machine OOC [In Progress]

Unread postby Capntastic » Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:49 pm

They'll be visible on your sheets instead of being behind-the-scenes. I'll have to explain the Universal Hostility Formula and how Boosts work, though.

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