EleventhHour
2010-01-14, 12:29 AM
It's a Choose Your Own Adventure bookie! ...except I'm not writing out all the options, just the most popular. And I'm not giving you options. ...(paticularly) dumb ideas, even if massively voted for will be ignored. (No, not just things that are a bit wacky. I mean the really stupid things.)
Oh right. Now to pound out some details of the setting...
Theme :
PostApocolyptic Steampunk! (IE, the Apocolaypse happened a long while ago, and now things are Steampunk.)
Land :
Well... We'll start with this being somewhere in southern Europe/Western Asia and now with more desert! Well, it's warmed up a bunch, most of the world is toxic and/or radioactive, and a few pocket Oases (Yup, that's the plural of Oasis, oddly enough.) exsist. All the old cities are mostly for salvage now, if you can find them sticking up from under five hundred years of sand, and the war that ravaged them before hand. You might wonder about lands along the seaboard, but those are mostly poisoned, and Britian/Japan are plain old taken off the map, the continental shelves they rested on dumping them under the megatons of explosive power. An Oasis is the only places capable of containing human life with thier fresh water, the poisons filtered by miles of sand. Each Oasis is a precious thing, and the water supplies are worth more than thier wieght in lives, or gold.
Transportation :
You have two choices here, (seeing as walking is a death wish and a half), those being a Supellexi, or a skimship. The Supellex are varied, from two-cog (replacing wheels in the desert sand) motorcycle look-alikes, to almost transport truck sizes. A common theme is the mess of tubing, front wheel drive, and run on water. Most people use the poisoned waters of larger lakes or the oceans, the clean water of an Oasis being too precious to use for anything other than drinking. And even then it's worth a life. The second, is Skimshipping. A Skimship is a massive barge, that likely would have been at home with the tankers and trawlers of the oceans, if not for the massive rounded silver pads on the bottom giving off countless little sparks of eletricity in a mock look of old lightning ball toys. Really, on the rear quarter is a massive machine of pistons and pullies to keep enough kinetic force going to power these "frictionless plates." Each skimship is a treasure in itself, and the 'law of the land', even in the massively divided factions is that none of these marvels are to, under any circumstances, be destroyed. Boarded, raided, or hijacked is all still fair game.
Fauna :
Surprisingly, cows and dogs made it through the holocaust of The Age of Humanity's end, almost entirely unchanged. Most other animals are extinct (and least in the area we'll be worrying about for now.), but there are a few notables to watch out for.
Antlions :
These little things used to live in sandier, dry areas, where they would live in small pits, beneath the sand, and eat the unlucky ants to fall in, and over the months, eventually grow wings, fly, lay eggs and die starting the cycle for the next year anew. Used to. Now, an Antlion can grow to be almost twenty feet long, and where thier tiny maw used to only fit ants and other small insects, now can swallow a person or cow with ease, bristling with toxic fangs and claws. One in flight is more easily described as a insectoid dragon, and due to a truely cold and snowy winter never setting in, they grow over the years. Currently, to keep the population of the deadlier flying ones down, and to keep them instinctually away from human habitats, there is a bounty of thirty litres of water per head. Before or after the antlion has become a flier.
Scorpions
These little buggers have stayed generally the same size, but instead of being the sterotypical black, are now anywhere from sky blue, to a deep mauve. Thier sting, unfortunately, has lost it's poison touch. Why is that unfortunate? Because now thier filled with acids, that currently have no cure, and melt the flesh from bones in under ten minutes. Use caution.
Weapons :
Weapons? They vary more than the surviving people do. From dozens of different old war-relics polished and banged back to working order, to new mechanical contraptions that... slightly resemble a crossbow. Let's list off the ones that are most likely to be seen and working...
AK204 :
A practical remake of the old '47 model, retaining the reliability and durability, but with the adjustments of smaller calibur, helical magazines of 60 rounds, and a normally white-ceramic finish. These are an uncommon weapon, but not hard to get a hold of, if you're really looking. Keeping it in ammunition is harder.
X-Bow :
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a steam engine, hydraulics and a crossbow had kids? No? Well, here it is anyway. Drawn back mechanically by the forward momentum of the bolt, and the heat of the small engine on the back assists the motors in drawing back the wieght. These have an effective range of approximately three hundred meters, in perfect conditions. These are fairly common, and can be easily aqquired, reloaded, and repaired.
Knives, Swords, Axes :
As is. You should know what they look like by now, and are as common as most anything. Well, swords are more rare, but...
G11 :
How this 20th Century Prototype ended up in the lands of Flint, they'll never be sure of. But the Church of the Crimson Sun found a supply of hundreds. These aren't available except through the black market, or to the Crimson Oases. Reloads in 50 round clips.
SVT50 :
A semiautomatic hunting rifle, compliments of what was once Russia. Almost as common as X-Bows, but you'll have to scavenge for ammo, since hardly anyone makes it. 10 round clips. Make them count.
SMP3 :
The closest to a handcannon as you're going to get. Steam powered, and with plenty of wieght in bleed valves, compression chambers and not to mention the shot itself, this thing is heavy. It does however, fire a 10cm Iron ball fast enough to punch through a house.
TR1 :
A Telsa Rifle. It does what you would imagine, bound up in coils of magnets and with a backpack generator full of vents and hissing dials. It's a lightning gun, to put it simply. No reloading, only the Mechanists can repair it, and if you hold down the trigger too long, it'll overload and burst. Usually fatally.
Factions :
Church of the Crimson Sun :
Generally fanatical, but not a true an extremist group, the CCS control the NorthWestern Oases (A total of three.) And a population of almost six thousand, almost twice that of the other factions. They apply stringent water supply rules, and inspect all Imports carefully before allowing them into thier domain. They are currently in control of two Skimships.
Machinists :
This bunch... are a bit strange, to say the least. Thier leading caste believes that they can... commune with machines. And that eventually they will be risen to be "One with the Great Clockwork." The lower peons don't generally care, and are just happy when the inventions and repaired machinery works. The Machinists are responsible for the majority of new innovations, have a humble one thousand citizens, and control of an astounding seven Skimships, and the largest water supply. Why is thier following so small? ...probably praying to machines weirds people out. Go figure.
Republic of Man :
This is the rather average collection of Oases... there's five of them, rather small, with a population of three thousand, five hundred. They have generally friendly terms with everybody. ...except the raiders. 'cause they don't like having friends. One Skimship, plenty of supplies.
Raiders :
They generally dislike everyone, and pick on Skimships at random. They never try to take one for themselves, and occasionally raid an actual Oasis. Watch out for this bunch.
Well... that about covers the basics. So, before we get into the story proper, I'll play a bit of Q&A so the world is properly setup in everyone's mind, and we'll do some Character Creation as well.
CC :
7 Attribute points to split between Mind, Body, and Dexterity. No 'improvements' are going to be made from an Meta/OOS (Out Of Story) manner, so don't go planning for levels up or anything silly. Your basic human has 2's in all three.
You can pick one set of the following gear (excluding clothes/canteen/food, since those will be provided IC, unless you make some bad choices.)
Soldier : AK204 (40 Rounds), 1 Knife, Worn Helmet
Watcher : G11 (50 Rounds), Pistol (12), Extra Canteen (CoCS only)
Wanderer : X-Bow (50 Bolts), 3 Knives, Extra Canteen
Engineer : Pistol (12), Sword, Radio (Mechanists only)
Guardian : SVT50 (20), Axe, Armour Vest (RoM only)
Sniper : SVT50 (30), 2 Knives, Desert Cloak
Ranger : X-Bow (30 Bolts), Glowtube, Knife
And you can pick a Faction. ...as you could probably guess from the above. Name, and gender would also be great. :smalltongue:
Oh right. Now to pound out some details of the setting...
Theme :
PostApocolyptic Steampunk! (IE, the Apocolaypse happened a long while ago, and now things are Steampunk.)
Land :
Well... We'll start with this being somewhere in southern Europe/Western Asia and now with more desert! Well, it's warmed up a bunch, most of the world is toxic and/or radioactive, and a few pocket Oases (Yup, that's the plural of Oasis, oddly enough.) exsist. All the old cities are mostly for salvage now, if you can find them sticking up from under five hundred years of sand, and the war that ravaged them before hand. You might wonder about lands along the seaboard, but those are mostly poisoned, and Britian/Japan are plain old taken off the map, the continental shelves they rested on dumping them under the megatons of explosive power. An Oasis is the only places capable of containing human life with thier fresh water, the poisons filtered by miles of sand. Each Oasis is a precious thing, and the water supplies are worth more than thier wieght in lives, or gold.
Transportation :
You have two choices here, (seeing as walking is a death wish and a half), those being a Supellexi, or a skimship. The Supellex are varied, from two-cog (replacing wheels in the desert sand) motorcycle look-alikes, to almost transport truck sizes. A common theme is the mess of tubing, front wheel drive, and run on water. Most people use the poisoned waters of larger lakes or the oceans, the clean water of an Oasis being too precious to use for anything other than drinking. And even then it's worth a life. The second, is Skimshipping. A Skimship is a massive barge, that likely would have been at home with the tankers and trawlers of the oceans, if not for the massive rounded silver pads on the bottom giving off countless little sparks of eletricity in a mock look of old lightning ball toys. Really, on the rear quarter is a massive machine of pistons and pullies to keep enough kinetic force going to power these "frictionless plates." Each skimship is a treasure in itself, and the 'law of the land', even in the massively divided factions is that none of these marvels are to, under any circumstances, be destroyed. Boarded, raided, or hijacked is all still fair game.
Fauna :
Surprisingly, cows and dogs made it through the holocaust of The Age of Humanity's end, almost entirely unchanged. Most other animals are extinct (and least in the area we'll be worrying about for now.), but there are a few notables to watch out for.
Antlions :
These little things used to live in sandier, dry areas, where they would live in small pits, beneath the sand, and eat the unlucky ants to fall in, and over the months, eventually grow wings, fly, lay eggs and die starting the cycle for the next year anew. Used to. Now, an Antlion can grow to be almost twenty feet long, and where thier tiny maw used to only fit ants and other small insects, now can swallow a person or cow with ease, bristling with toxic fangs and claws. One in flight is more easily described as a insectoid dragon, and due to a truely cold and snowy winter never setting in, they grow over the years. Currently, to keep the population of the deadlier flying ones down, and to keep them instinctually away from human habitats, there is a bounty of thirty litres of water per head. Before or after the antlion has become a flier.
Scorpions
These little buggers have stayed generally the same size, but instead of being the sterotypical black, are now anywhere from sky blue, to a deep mauve. Thier sting, unfortunately, has lost it's poison touch. Why is that unfortunate? Because now thier filled with acids, that currently have no cure, and melt the flesh from bones in under ten minutes. Use caution.
Weapons :
Weapons? They vary more than the surviving people do. From dozens of different old war-relics polished and banged back to working order, to new mechanical contraptions that... slightly resemble a crossbow. Let's list off the ones that are most likely to be seen and working...
AK204 :
A practical remake of the old '47 model, retaining the reliability and durability, but with the adjustments of smaller calibur, helical magazines of 60 rounds, and a normally white-ceramic finish. These are an uncommon weapon, but not hard to get a hold of, if you're really looking. Keeping it in ammunition is harder.
X-Bow :
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a steam engine, hydraulics and a crossbow had kids? No? Well, here it is anyway. Drawn back mechanically by the forward momentum of the bolt, and the heat of the small engine on the back assists the motors in drawing back the wieght. These have an effective range of approximately three hundred meters, in perfect conditions. These are fairly common, and can be easily aqquired, reloaded, and repaired.
Knives, Swords, Axes :
As is. You should know what they look like by now, and are as common as most anything. Well, swords are more rare, but...
G11 :
How this 20th Century Prototype ended up in the lands of Flint, they'll never be sure of. But the Church of the Crimson Sun found a supply of hundreds. These aren't available except through the black market, or to the Crimson Oases. Reloads in 50 round clips.
SVT50 :
A semiautomatic hunting rifle, compliments of what was once Russia. Almost as common as X-Bows, but you'll have to scavenge for ammo, since hardly anyone makes it. 10 round clips. Make them count.
SMP3 :
The closest to a handcannon as you're going to get. Steam powered, and with plenty of wieght in bleed valves, compression chambers and not to mention the shot itself, this thing is heavy. It does however, fire a 10cm Iron ball fast enough to punch through a house.
TR1 :
A Telsa Rifle. It does what you would imagine, bound up in coils of magnets and with a backpack generator full of vents and hissing dials. It's a lightning gun, to put it simply. No reloading, only the Mechanists can repair it, and if you hold down the trigger too long, it'll overload and burst. Usually fatally.
Factions :
Church of the Crimson Sun :
Generally fanatical, but not a true an extremist group, the CCS control the NorthWestern Oases (A total of three.) And a population of almost six thousand, almost twice that of the other factions. They apply stringent water supply rules, and inspect all Imports carefully before allowing them into thier domain. They are currently in control of two Skimships.
Machinists :
This bunch... are a bit strange, to say the least. Thier leading caste believes that they can... commune with machines. And that eventually they will be risen to be "One with the Great Clockwork." The lower peons don't generally care, and are just happy when the inventions and repaired machinery works. The Machinists are responsible for the majority of new innovations, have a humble one thousand citizens, and control of an astounding seven Skimships, and the largest water supply. Why is thier following so small? ...probably praying to machines weirds people out. Go figure.
Republic of Man :
This is the rather average collection of Oases... there's five of them, rather small, with a population of three thousand, five hundred. They have generally friendly terms with everybody. ...except the raiders. 'cause they don't like having friends. One Skimship, plenty of supplies.
Raiders :
They generally dislike everyone, and pick on Skimships at random. They never try to take one for themselves, and occasionally raid an actual Oasis. Watch out for this bunch.
Well... that about covers the basics. So, before we get into the story proper, I'll play a bit of Q&A so the world is properly setup in everyone's mind, and we'll do some Character Creation as well.
CC :
7 Attribute points to split between Mind, Body, and Dexterity. No 'improvements' are going to be made from an Meta/OOS (Out Of Story) manner, so don't go planning for levels up or anything silly. Your basic human has 2's in all three.
You can pick one set of the following gear (excluding clothes/canteen/food, since those will be provided IC, unless you make some bad choices.)
Soldier : AK204 (40 Rounds), 1 Knife, Worn Helmet
Watcher : G11 (50 Rounds), Pistol (12), Extra Canteen (CoCS only)
Wanderer : X-Bow (50 Bolts), 3 Knives, Extra Canteen
Engineer : Pistol (12), Sword, Radio (Mechanists only)
Guardian : SVT50 (20), Axe, Armour Vest (RoM only)
Sniper : SVT50 (30), 2 Knives, Desert Cloak
Ranger : X-Bow (30 Bolts), Glowtube, Knife
And you can pick a Faction. ...as you could probably guess from the above. Name, and gender would also be great. :smalltongue: