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View Full Version : [AFMBE/Terra Primate] Only the ape stands between humanity and total annihilation.



Satyr
2008-11-19, 06:44 PM
This is a silly campaign setting, based on the idea to a) combine All Tomorrow Zombies and Terra Primate and b) create a crossover between 28 days later and X-Com: Ufo Defense. it is also my first attempt to create a Science Fiction setting, so I think it will have its weaknesses. i try to orientate this mostly on the old X-Com games and the whole subgenre of terrorising aliens. Because I am not very good with astrophysics (or most science in general), this is not going to be a hard SF setting, but it is also far away from lighthearted space opera with bright special effects. I would describe it as a gritty science fiction, where the spaceships are similar to old dreadnaughts and similar maritime battleships of the steam era, everything is dirty, functional and made out of dark, matt metal or shiny chrome. This is also more a retro science fiction than a modern. While everything is high tech, it will still looks like it come from the Interbellum and World War II era, even when it is computers and spaceships instead of gramophones and steamboats.
WThis is a work in progess, and I will update it regularly with ideas and concepts. I would be very glad for every comments, and ideas and critique and will steal any good idea someone else mentions.

In the 23rd and 24th century, humanity has colonized most of the Solar system. Powerful blocs, the descendants of former nations, rule over mankind, which spans over a huge span of orbit platforms, dome colonies on Mars, Luna and the Jupiter Moons or sub terrain stations in hollowed out asteroids as mining stations in the asteroid belt. Genetic experiments and massive bioengineering and the adaptation to the low-G environment in space have lead to a complete new definition of humanity with a much broader diversity. This include the Loki breed, born in an environment of extremely low gravity, who are very thin, very large and sometimes born with telepathic abilities.

One of the side products of rise of genetic engineering was the creation of sentient apes, originating from laboratory animals in the brain augmentation sciences. After 50 years of struggle, sentient Gorillas, Chimpanzees and Orang-Utans are accepted in most blocs as second-class citizens. Especially in the various military organisations, many apes could make a career in the lower ranks, because they are excellent soldier material and their death in combat did not lead to same negative publicity as the death of humans.

In the first decade of the 24th century, the diverse settlements of humans were attacked by the Enemy, an alien force of extraterrestrial origin. The direct confrontations between human and extraterrestrial spacecraft regularly ended with devastating losses of the human forces, and so it was not surprising that the alien forces reached the LEO and started a bombardment of several major cities on the surface. The attack used a bioweapon that turned many of its victims into feral and extremely aggressive cannibals, which turned the bombed cities in giant slaughter houses. The alien bioweapon is extremely contagious for humans, but the apes are immune against it.

Now the battle for earth has begun - many large cities are overrun by the infected, while Alien ships, hardly detectable with normal electronic surveillance run surprise attacks on military and civil targets. The remaining uninfected humans live in protected enclaves, defended by towering Gorilla Grunts, cocky Chimpanzee fighter pilots and the genius of Orang engineers.
Only the ape stands between humanity and total annihilation.

Satyr
2008-11-20, 11:40 AM
I n this game, you play one of the stalwart defenders of earth – like a sentient ape, a fragile but psionic Loki or a ‘normal’ human – in a fight against alien invaders and former humans who turned into feral beasts. The hordes of the infected (called ‘chuds’ by the UEDF soldiers) attack uninfected beings –including most animals on sight and hunt in packs with an eerie amount of coordination. While they have lost most of their higher cerebral functions, the infected are still able to use simple tools and attack with outmost ferocity, without fear, but sometimes with surprising cunning ambushes. While the infection lead to severe brain damage, the latent psychic abilities of all sentient life forms are no longer hindered by the higher functions. The Chuds are not able to exploit this increase of psionic abilities but it seems that their senses and intern communication is based on this.

Chuds
STR: 2 DEX: 2 CON: 2
INT: 0 PER: 2 WIL: 2
Weak Spot: All
Getting Around: Life-Like, The Lunge, Climbing
Strength: Dead Joe average, Iron Grip
Sense: Like the Living, No Pain, Life Sense
Sustenance: occasionally, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Dr. Doolittle
Intelligence: Tool Use I, Animal Cunning I, Teamwork
Spreading the love: One bite and you’re hooked
Special Features: Diseased Corpse, Rage
Power: 32

The United Earth Defense Forces (UEDF) is a small and more often than not a barely functioning alliance of military forces of the different blocs – and the PCs are among them, probably as one of the task force units. The UEDF is understaffed, badly equipped, and have no real idea how to deal with the invasion forces. Still, it has proven to be more effective than the majority of the national armed forces. Especially the infantry troops - a necessity for the conflict in urban environments and attacks on the often underground bases of the Enemy – have proven to be extremely effective in comparison to regular police and military forces – a success which is also dependent on the high amount of apes within the UEDF. The apes are not only immune against the bioweapon that turns the infected humans in feral monsters, they have also found possibility to prove their own values. For over 120 years, sentient apes were second-class citizens at best. Now, they have a way to become irreplaceable and earn their place as equals in human society.

Within the UEDF, the different species of sentient apes and their human and Loki comrades all have specific tasks at hand. While the majority of the lower ranks consist of apes, the officer ranks are almost exclusively humans. The rare Lokis have a specific task as the only active psions in the rank of human forces and enjoy many priviledges. The scarcity of these psionics make them invaluable for the forces, and often the officers are willing to sacrifice a platoon of gorilla marines to rescue a single Loki psion.

The three ape species have likewise a concurrence btween each other. The gorillas, physical most impressive of the earth defenders, build the backbone of the UEDF infantry forces. They are not the majority- that are the chimps - but they are the most feared and most heavily discriminated Ape species who have an undeserved reputation for impüulsiveness and aggression.

Sentient Gorilla 9 point quality
Attributes: +4 to Strength, +1 to Dexterity and +3 to Cnonstitution. Gorillas are the strongest humanoids and very tough and extremely mobile for their size. Despite their reputation as impulsive and stupid brutes, the majority of gorillas are very calm and thaughtful persons.
Qualities & Drawbacks: The sharp teeth of the gorillas count as a natural bite attack that does one point of stabing damage per level of Strength. They can also use their long arms for brachiation movements and get a +5 bonus to their movement rate when they move on all fours. Gorillas also get a one point bonus to their size. On the downside, Gorillas ar a discriminated mnority and are slightly too large for facilities and equipment that is mostly made for humans. In habitations which were not designed for them, they always feel and move a little bit akward. Like all sentient apes, their bodies are mre dense and mre heavily muscled, which lad to a negative buoyancy.

The chimps have the advantage that they have most in common with the human ruling classes, and are the most common sentient ape species. They both form the majority of the infantry forces and the flight corps. Their aggressiveness and higher tolerance for high g acceleration makes chimps ideal fighter pilots. Most aces who were able to win a dogfight with an Enemy vessel were chimps, and they have built a reputation. There are also major class conceits between the pilots and the ground forces, especially between chimp pilots and infantrymen.

Sentient Chimpanzee 7 point quality
Attributes: Strength and Dexterity +2, Constitution +1. Chimps are very strong and much more agile than humans. They have the reputation to be much smarter than the other entient apes, but in truth, they aren't.
Qualities & Drawbacks: The sharp teeth of the chimpanzees count as a natural bite attack that does one point of stabing damage per level of Strength. They can also use their long arms for brachiation movements and get a +5 bonus to their movement rate when they move on all fours. Chimpanzees also have the high gravity tolerance quality. Even though chimps are not as heavily discriminated as the other sentient apes, they are still not regarded as equls by most humans. They are also very aggressive and competitive.

Orang-Utans are the rarest of the intelligent ape species, and also the most intelligent ones. While many humans would treat this as blasphemous, many resaearches have shown that the average Orang-Utan is more intelligent than the average human, especially when dealing with material and form-based problems. The combination of this high intelligence and the manual dexterity made engineering extremely attractive for many Orang _Utans, especially because of the social hindrances for sentient apes to have acces to higher education. This has lead to the situation where the majority of UEDF techs and mechanics are Orangs, but the R&D teams alomst never include apes or design their items for apes - most of the UEDF equipment is jury-rigged for ape users by the excellent Orang-Utan techs.

Sentient Orang-Utan 7 point quality
Attributes: Strength +2, Dexterity +2, Constitution +1, Intelligence +1
Orang-Utans are strong and fast, but also highly intellignet - intelligent enough to not show it in public out of fear of an even larger backlash from the human majority.
Qualities and Drawbacks: The sharp teeth of the chimpanzees count as a natural bite attack that does one point of stabing damage per level of Strength. They can also use their long arms for brachiation movements and get a +5 bonus to their movement rate when they move on all fours. Like Gorillas, Orang-Utans are heavily discriminated and have little or no chances of social advancement outside of the UEDF.

Even if the players decide to play a standard human, biotechnological and cybertech augmentations have redefined what humanity actually is; the soldiers of the UEDF have an easy access to augmentations, but most of those are still quite experimental and can have severe side effects for the health or mental stability of the patients. Likewise, most apes have augmentations as well, especially the often priviledged pilots.

Even though the are not nearly as shunned as the apes, it is open to debate if the Lokis (a malapropism of ‘low G’) are not much more inhuman than the apes. While they still look mostly human - aprt from their extremely skinny and tall bodies - their way to recognize and interact with their environment and therefore there whole mental processes and self-awareness are completely different from non-psionic humans. True Lokis are rare, but the only reliable human psions and therefore a major asset in the struggle against the Enemy.

Loki 1 point quality:
Abilities: STR-1, CON- 2, PER +1 the tall but fragile body of the Lokis are far from ieal for physical duress, but their psinonic ability lead to an increased awareness and sharpened senses.
Qualities and Drawbacks: Lokis are Gifted and have access to psionic powers. Their long limbs and general tall bodies gant them one point of size, but they also suffer from a low gravity tolerance.

The present times are grim for the defenders of earth – most urban centres were overrun by the effected, bridgehead bases of the Enemy have spread all over earth, and the remaining uninfected humans on earth live in protected communities which are overcrowded and offer only the most basic comforts.
Without earth as a source of nutrition, the space colonies face severe supply problems and are forced to allot food. Hunger revolts have become a constant thread and the lack of food was aggravated through the evacuation of wealthy earth citizens.