So I've noticed a huge lack of RPGs with storylines. Or at least ones that unfold at a decent pace. So I've decided to make a two-parter (and possibly a subsequent sandbox sequel). But too much explaining, let's get to the story already!
Nearly 64 light years away from the Blue Planet is a mostly barren alien world, mostly inhabited by polymimetic crystalline formations, and the occasional fungus patch. The crystal itself is the future of human space technology, with it's self-replicative behavior. Unfortunately, the scientists that were studying the crystals were mimicked. With the jumpstart of having a living being in it's molecular memory, it began spawning a whole civilization. This attracted the attention of a race of ancient explorers, of whom we know little. But now, to harvest the crystal and put it to our own uses, we have to subdue the local fauna and transport them to processing plants. Sure, some naturalists had objections, but the war council made a tactical decision that they wouldn't complain after a few minutes in the cold vacuum of space.
12/4/AD2162/0630 Earth Time: Mankind is half an hour away from it's first interstellar invasion. You've got to gear up and get to your dropship. Outside the generation ship there are faint pops in the atmosphere, probably enemy fighters.
Character sheet:
Rank: Name: Type: Age: Gender: (only for officers and infantry) Size: (height, weight, build, pick your type before you do this) --------------- --------------- Conditions: HP: Vehicle: Group: Primary: Secondary: Sidearm: Melee: Augment: Backpack: --------------
Types: (basically race)
Officer: Human (male or female) Rank: 2nd Lt. HP: 60/60 Size: No specs Weapons: A41 Carbine, B12 Shotgun, Colt M911, combat knife Specialty: Access to vehicles, platoon-size groups Description: A cushy, well-paid job well behind your assigned cannonfodder. Or if you've got nothing to lose, at the very front of the onslaught.
NCO: Human Augment Rank: Corporal HP: 75/75 Size: Larger than regular human, no real restrictions Weapons: G60A SAW, 40mm rocket launcher, Razor Automatic pistol, KA-BAR Specialty: Access to augments and mech suits, team-size groups Description: NCOs are the liasons between the cannonfodder and the officers.
Warrant Officer: Human Augment Rank: Warrant Officer HP: 80/80 Size: Slightly larger than an NCO, consistently heavily built Weapons: M20 Assault Rifle, 40mm Rocket launcher, Colt M911, Trench knife Specialty: Access to heavy vehicles (e.g. tanks, fighters), mech suits, augments Description: Highly trained and specialized soldier capable of a dynamic addition to any fighting force.
Infantry: Human (male or female) Rank: Private HP: 50/50 Size: They take 'em all shapes and sizes Weapons: M20 Assault Rifle, P90C SMG, Colt M911, Combat Knife Specialty: Access to careers such as medic, driver, gunner, or grunt. Description: Cannonfodder.
More weapons will be available later on, and if the players ask, more vehicles. Choose your loadout, and I'll set the rest up. Your rank is basically your level, and with level comes larger teams and access to better quality equipment and weapons. Want to increase your HP? Equipment does that. Augments also do that.
Word to the wise for wannabe officers, managing a large group can be as challenging as it is rewarding. You can get promoted to the point where you control several tanks, aircraft, or even ships! But managing those resources is time-consuming.
Your objective: Establish a foothold on the alien homeworld, and push to what seems to be their capitol. Expect heavy resistance.
(Did I even have the ****pit open? Also I don't know how long this mission is going to take, I also don't know how much ammo the guy has and I would rather not run out in the middle of a fight!)
They have energy weapons, nobody knows just how much ammo each one has. There are at least five soldiers, as far as you know. This "mission" is more like a side objective. The town itself is of low strategic value, although the inhabitants are worth a good amount of money after processing. Your objective is to locate the Citadel, thus starting the next chapter of the story. Once Operation Citadel is complete, it will launch the Sandbox version of this game, where you can choose many postmodern-age careers, such as bounty hunter, mercenary, trader, crewmember. Does this answer your question sufficiently?
Squad Charlie: Support Bravo (100 Sergeant Ackles/75/50/50), Medical Charlie (100 Sergeant Stephans/45/50/50), Bravo Scouts (100 Sergeant Padelacki/75/70/75), Transport Alpha/Bravo (75 Corporal Jameson/A50//B50/50) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gear: Padded Boots (5hp), padded pants (5hp), padded jacket (5hp), Padded Gloves (5hp), Knee guards (5hp), elbow guards (5hp), shoulder guards (5hp), Plate Vest (25hp), Tactical Interface Helmet (40hp, allows platoon helmet cam access, mobile command interfacing with vehicles)
Primary: A41 Carbine (180/30 rounds) Secondary: B12 Shotgun (45/5 shells) Sidearm: Colt M911 (42/7) Melee: combat knife Augment: N/A Backpack: 2 flares, command radio (allows access to fire support, reinforcements), 2 smoke grenades, 3 Officer MREs, 1 bottle of water, 2 power cubes, flashlight, 2 HE grenades --------------------
Rocket after rocket blows chunks out of the great stone walls. Finally, the westernmost wall of the third floor collapses, and the great spire smashes down in the town, crushing several huts and cutting off one of the few little streets. A chain blast from the windowless second story rockets chunks of rubble up into the air. The mech reloads and continues the barrage blast after blast let off hypersonic waves deafening everyone temporarily. The thick armor belt on the ground floor keep most of the wall from collapsing. As the final rocket rips chunks out of the structure, three surviving marines stumble out, chunks of their bodies blown away. One is crawling with only one leg. Behind them, collapsing structure blows up, pulsing out a brain-jarring explosion, flinging the wounded aliens into the midst of your troops, in a blinding mushroom inferno.
You empty two pods into the building, the final, massive explosion knocking you senseless. As your vision comes back from a colorful blur, you see a badly-injured alien crawling towards you, legless. It raises its weapon to fire at you.
You step out just after a massive explosion rocks the APC you're in. Everyone who was outside is lying on the ground, stunned. You see two aliens still alive. One crawling towards a mech lying on the ground, and another on two incredibly burned legs, shooting soldiers on the ground.
Squad Charlie: Support Bravo (100 Sergeant Ackles/75/50/50), Medical Charlie (100 Sergeant Stephans/45/50/50), Bravo Scouts (100 Sergeant Padelacki/75/70/75), Transport Alpha/Bravo (75 Corporal Jameson/A50//B50/50) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gear: Padded Boots (5hp), padded pants (5hp), padded jacket (5hp), Padded Gloves (5hp), Knee guards (5hp), elbow guards (5hp), shoulder guards (5hp), Plate Vest (25hp), Tactical Interface Helmet (40hp, allows platoon helmet cam access, mobile command interfacing with vehicles)
Primary: A41 Carbine (180/30 rounds) Secondary: B12 Shotgun (45/5 shells) Sidearm: Colt M911 (42/7) Melee: combat knife Augment: N/A Backpack: 2 flares, command radio (allows access to fire support, reinforcements), 2 smoke grenades, 3 Officer MREs, 1 bottle of water, 2 power cubes, flashlight, 2 HE grenades --------------------
"Take them alive!" I shout, "Non-fatal wounds authorized! Bind them!" I order to anybody still standing, if nobody calls back an affirmative I pop out of the tank and shoot the aliens with my pistol, aiming for the arm to stop him from firing.
Squad Charlie: Support Bravo (100 Sergeant Ackles/75/50/50), Medical Charlie (100 Sergeant Stephans/45/50/50), Bravo Scouts (100 Sergeant Padelacki/75/70/75), Transport Alpha/Bravo (75 Corporal Jameson/A50//B50/50) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gear: Padded Boots (5hp), padded pants (5hp), padded jacket (5hp), Padded Gloves (5hp), Knee guards (5hp), elbow guards (5hp), shoulder guards (5hp), Plate Vest (25hp), Tactical Interface Helmet (40hp, allows platoon helmet cam access, mobile command interfacing with vehicles)
Primary: A41 Carbine (180/30 rounds) Secondary: B12 Shotgun (45/5 shells) Sidearm: Colt M911 (21/0) Melee: combat knife Augment: N/A Backpack: 2 flares, command radio (allows access to fire support, reinforcements), 2 smoke grenades, 3 Officer MREs, 1 bottle of water, 2 power cubes, flashlight, 2 HE grenades --------------------
A few men try to get up, but are quickly shot by the alien. You open the hatch, draw your pistol, and begin firing at him as he executes your men one by one. 28 bullets and six soldiers later, he finally crumples down, dead. (you had a shotgun and a carbine, bro)
A few men try to get up, but are quickly shot by the alien. You open the hatch, draw your pistol, and begin firing at him as he executes your men one by one. 28 bullets and six soldiers later, he finally crumples down, dead.
F********* what?
flinging the wounded aliens into the midst of your troops, in a blinding mushroom inferno.
How did they manage to kill my guys after they had been Blown out of a building? Seriously? I thought they were just as dazed as my men while also being flat on their face. I would have used me rifle had I known they were totally fine, I would have used the **** gatling guns had I known they were standing up.
How did they manage to kill my guys after they had been Blown out of a building? Seriously? I thought they were just as dazed as my men while also being flat on their face. I would have used me rifle had I known they were totally fine, I would have used the **** gatling guns had I known they were standing up.
1) they were outside of the building. The blast knocked them and everyone else in a radius down. 2)Not sure if you could tell, but they aren't exactly fragile. 3)You have access to everyone's helmet cams. Everyone has a different perspective. You're inside a tank, you have to rely on what everyone else can see.
************* what?
In any war story, but especially a true one, itâs difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen. What seems to happen becomes its own happening and has to be told that way. The angles of vision are skewed. When a booby trap explodes, you close your eyes and duck and float outside yourself. When a guy dies, you look away and then look back for a moment and then look away again. The pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot. And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingness, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.
Squad Charlie: Support Bravo (100 Sergeant Ackles/75/50/50), Medical Charlie (100 Sergeant Stephans/45/50/50), Bravo Scouts (100 Sergeant Padelacki/75/70/75), Transport Alpha/Bravo (75 Corporal Jameson/A50//B50/50)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gear: Padded Boots (5hp), padded pants (5hp), padded jacket (5hp), Padded Gloves (5hp), Knee guards (5hp), elbow guards (5hp), shoulder guards (5hp), Plate Vest (25hp), Tactical Interface Helmet (40hp, allows platoon helmet cam access, mobile command interfacing with vehicles)
Primary: A41 Carbine (180/30 rounds)
Secondary: B12 Shotgun (45/5 shells)
Sidearm: Colt M911 (21/0)
Melee: combat knife
Augment: N/A
Backpack: 2 flares, command radio (allows access to fire support, reinforcements), 2 smoke grenades, 3 Officer MREs, 1 bottle of water, 2 power cubes, flashlight, 2 HE grenades
--------------------
"Men search the ruin for anything that we can give command. Fireteam Alpha join with Fireteam Bravo. Support Alpha do the same with Support Bravo. Medical Alpha do the same. Scout Alpha you are to remain in Squad alpha and you will receive new troops as soon as possible. Bring the bodies to the seven footer. We wait for the transport and then we continue on the mission. This will be some down time depending on the transport time from command, everybody is to eat something, drink something, get checked by our medical teams and keep and eye skyward for any trouble. Engineer squad do what you can."
"Command I have more enemies for you. All dead unfortunately. We do however have civvies for your use. I am also requesting a new fire team and a new support team to replace the ones lost here."
"Scout team how are our hostages? Command will be pleased."
