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[Songs of Distant Earth] The Digital Galaxy Data Network; The guide to joining up, getting started, and the rules.
Topic Started: Feb 7 2009, 05:27 AM (353 Views)
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The world began to descend into a miserable rut as the 22nd Century began.
The internet age sank amongst the global problems that the world suffered: war, disease, anarchy, famine. For a time, the corners of the Earth were not in harmony or sync with one another. Satellites could not provide communication, and cable and telephones could not bring information to the masses. It fell upon the shoulders of the few companies that survived the wreckages of war and global floods to create a new network. New wires were laid, new rockets brought into orbit shiny new devices for faster networking. New was the keyword for the dawn of the 22nd century. A new beginning for everything.
After the Sino-American Wars of the 22nd Century, Earth was left an irrelevant shell, devastated by nuclear winter and its inhabitants greed and pride.
Scientists in the discovered that the neutrino emissions from the sun – a result of the nuclear reactions that fuel the star – were far diminished from expected physical levels. Less than a decade later, it is confirmed – the problem is not with their equipment. The sun is due to go nova around the year AD 3600.
The human race's technology advances enough for various factions to send out pods containing human and mammalian embryos, along with robot "parents," to planets that are considered habitable. Sending live humans was ruled out; scientists and mathematicians proving that the invention of the Quantum drive, essential to give humans the required speed to travel such great distances, was impossible. Seed pods continue to be sent out across the galaxy, and less than a hundred years before the sun is set to go nova, a mistake was uncovered; a minus sign had been accidentally converted to a plus, and the Quantum drive was indeed possible. The time remaining meant that only one ship could be built and sent to the stars: the Magellan.
The universe is a scattered, horrific place, full of colonies of humans who remain ignorant of their original planet. The Magellan races to spread information and history to the disconnected galaxies, and meanwhile trouble brews in distant sentient galaxies. Various planets of humans and other creatures battle and rage against each other, proving that the human pride and greed that damned Earth was carried on to other planets and definitely not unique in human traits.

Guide and History
Introduction
History
Planet Creation
Character Creation
Technology
Travel
[RPGData:30|1|30|30|15|15|27|11|Fire Sword|Warrior Armor|Necromancer|0|None|None|0|0|0|0|None|1|None|The Klu Klux Klan]
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Introduction

Welcome to The Songs of Distant Earth. This Guide is meant to help familiarize you with the concepts found in it, as well as the rules one must follow in the World Project. That said, on to the Guide;

Songs of Distant Earth is what is commonly referred to around here as a World Project, that is, a forum-based traditional Role-playing game. As such, it shares certain characteristics with other role-playing games, with certain key differences, which we will outline later. But first, what SDE about; SDE is what is commonly referred to as "science fiction". These are primarily concentrated on the influences of technology upon a futuristic society, and so it is in SDE; in this case, the universe circa 2172, after a variety of disasters both natural and artificial. Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of daily life, with few exceptions, most of which is manufactured by various independent corporations and planet states.

Forum-based role-playing games work like this; the poster, in the form of the character, posts a message of what the character is doing. Instead of pressing Shift-A by the stove to activate the stove and make breakfast (or whatever meal you require, I suppose) the participant types in the Post "[Character] turns on the stove, putting the food in a container on top". Although this system may seem inelegant at best, one quickly finds that, quite to the contrary, it tends to be highly efficient and easy to learn. For more instruction on the matter, take a look at some of the non-sticky threads in the forum, in which this is already taking place with established characters.

As promised, here is the difference between RPGs you may be familiar with, such as Dungeons & Dragons; there are no dice involved in this World Project, beyond those things which are truly left to chance (such as, unsurprisingly, dice rolls in a casino). Rather, the World Moderator in charge of the encounter or quest determines what happens based on the abilities of the character and their own judgment. Take, for example, our previous example of cooking. Character is trying to cook an excellent meal for his boss. In one case, the Character has gone through ten years of culinary school, and is very experienced in the making of fine foods. As such, he makes an excellent meal. Another person, rather, has never cooked a meal before in their life. Because of this, the meal is horrible and he is fired. Although this may seem to leave room for abuse, it turns out to be wonderfully simple and easy-to-work, requiring minimal effort on the part of the poster.

This is a World Project, a singular sub-forum which is a separate world with its own theme, characters, history, etc. As a WM (World Moderator), I’ll lead you through this world with quests, jobs, NPCs, all kinds of stuff really…
But first, a basic RPing lesson.

Good:
Shinji chuckled as he tossed the javelin at Bob Dole’s chest.

Bad:
Shinji chuckled as he threw the javelin at Bob Dole, watching it slam into Bob Dole’s chest, skewering him.

You see, Bob Dole could’ve very well dodged, or ducked, or blocked, or even taken that damage, but what matters is giving him the opportunity to react.
Also, let’s say the player controlling Shinji encountered an NPC (named Gendo, let’s say) controlled by me, perhaps as a game, or as part of a quest, etc.
Shinji pulled back the bow string and let loose the arrow towards Gendo’s head.
Now, how would I, the WM decide if the arrow missed, grazed, or hit its mark? Shinji’s skill of course, if he’d ever shot an arrow before, his archery skills, etc.


Current RP Mods:
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History

In the beginning of the conflict, there was nothing to be concerned about. Sure, the tides were getting higher, sure the tropics were getting warmer, sure the ice caps were getting smaller, but no one really noticed, and no one really cared. Humans prospered in their cities of steel, ignorant to what was happening in the world around them. But soon, they found they could no longer ignore the water which had begun to flood low-lying countries. The words "Oh that's so horrible" could be heard in many living rooms across the world. But by that time, it was not easy or even possible to solve it.

Increasingly, land became flooded by the rising waters, and the ice became smaller, and the summers became warmer. The leaders of the world grew edgy, the people grew angry. Why hadn't they stopped this when it had started, they asked. Why didn't they stop before it was too late? They flung these questions at their leaders, and their leaders flung these questions at each other. But nothing was being done, and the waters continued to rise.

By then, whole countries had become submerged beneath the waves, and minor wars were taking place worldwide. But not until Europe started fighting did it become major. It is impossible to know who fired first; for the systems were all automated, but very soon weapons of horrible power were flying through the air toward the largest cities in the world. The US and other countries, having had erected barriers to their destruction through these missiles years before, emerged nearly unhurt. Others were not so lucky; London was a blasted ruin, the Eiffel Tower lay in pieces on the streets of Paris, and Berlin's monuments were demolished. Even great Asian cities such as Tokyo and Beijing faced their fair share of damage, killing millions.

With the destruction of the cities, many governments fell as well. Anarchy descended on much of the world, and looting became rampant. What remained of the UN set out to rectify this problem. The floods had more or less ceased by the time of the UN Council, twenty years after the War, but the world was still a patchwork of squabbiling dictatorships. The leaders of the world met in a conference, and drew the borders for new countries, establishing governments to control them.

It was soon realized that these borders were drawn without consideration of the ethnic and religious distinctions of the world. Many nations continued in the anarchy they had maintained since the War, their UN-installed governments controlling only small areas around the capital. Despite this, prosperity returned to large sections of the world, particularly western Asia and North America, whose lofty towers had stood through the conflict.

And then someone discovered AI. Many regarded it as disarmingly simple, in the end. Though the secrets of the process were quickly bought by a large corporation and closely guarded, a number of companies popped up to exploit the growing market for intelligent machines. In particular, corporations, originally founded to design and build high-quality representations of the human form that would be virtually indistinguishable from normal humans, grew to power in the post-AI world, eventually becoming the biggest non-governmental organizations in world history.

After the Sino-American Wars of the 22nd Century and the terrible warming of the planet and ice caps, Earth was left an irrelevant shell, devastated by nuclear winter, flooding, and its inhabitants greed and pride.
Scientists in the discovered that the neutrino emissions from the sun – a result of the nuclear reactions that fuel the star – were far diminished from expected physical levels. Less than a decade later, it is confirmed – the problem is not with their equipment. The sun is due to go nova around the year AD 3600.
The human race's technology advances enough for various factions to send out pods containing human and mammalian embryos, along with robot "parents," to planets that are considered habitable. Sending live humans was ruled out; scientists and mathematicians proving that the invention of the Quantum drive, essential to give humans the required speed to travel such great distances, was impossible. Seed pods continue to be sent out across the galaxy, and less than a hundred years before the sun is set to go nova, a mistake was uncovered; a minus sign had been accidentally converted to a plus, and the Quantum drive was indeed possible. The time remaining meant that only one ship could be built and sent to the stars: the Magellan.
The universe is a scattered, horrific place, full of colonies of humans who remain ignorant of their original planet. The Magellan races to spread information and history to the disconnected galaxies, and meanwhile trouble brews in distant sentient galaxies. Various planets of humans and other creatures battle and rage against each other, proving that the human pride and greed that damned Earth was carried on to other planets and definitely not unique in human traits.
[RPGData:30|1|30|30|15|15|27|11|Fire Sword|Warrior Armor|Necromancer|0|None|None|0|0|0|0|None|1|None|The Klu Klux Klan]
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Planet Creation
There will be a number of planets in this RP, the first majority started and run by me, though in time others can be custom-made and I encourage this process. The players that make these planets will be required to make location threads inside of them and run adventures and story threads inside said planets.
Basically, those who will participate in the Project will have to post one planet of his or her creation, like your personal RP. The planets will be compiled and if possible, placed in one big stellar map. Each person will Mod and be in control of his or her planet, and will create quests and stories for everybody to join. The objective of this Project is to have self-sufficient and more importantly, self-regulating planets and bind them together in order to make Role-Playing more fun, realistic and interactive.
There can be quests in just a single planet or quests encompassing a number of planets or better yet, all the planets, which is my ultimate goal. It's up to the Planet Owners to talk to each other if they wish to make collaborations. Remember, supporting other planets is like supporting your town too. It has mutual benefits because planet owners help other planets prosper, and by doing so other planet owners will help yours as well.
The setting and genre of the Space Project is Science Fiction, therefore Magic will not be involved. There are no rules or mechanics as to how quests will be done. It is really up to the Planet Owners, who are like Mods of their own planets, to decide what to do. Again, this is open for all, and there won't be any mods aside from the Planet Owners modding their own threads. I will assist in the creation of Planet Profiles and Character Profiles and run the main plot in the planets I mod, but that's about it.

Making Your Own Planets
Suggested Planet Template (PM me with said planet templates when finished)

Step 1: Create Solar System (You may share the same Solar System with other people)
Step 2: Create and Classify Planets
Step 3: Describe Your Planet's General Facts
Step 4: Describe Your Planet's Inhabitants

Step 1:
Spoiler: click to toggle


Step 2:
Spoiler: click to toggle


Step 3:
Spoiler: click to toggle


Step 4:
Spoiler: click to toggle



[RPGData:30|1|30|30|15|15|27|11|Fire Sword|Warrior Armor|Necromancer|0|None|None|0|0|0|0|None|1|None|The Klu Klux Klan]
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Character Creation

General Rules (Read First)
1.) The word of the mods are final - It's impossible for us to effectively run the RP if we're being questioned with every move we make. You can question our decisions, but when we say we're not going to change, don't dispute it more. If you have an issue PM me.
2.) No God-modding - God-modding is controlling other characters which you do not have permission to control. This includes making them do an action, and killing their character without their consent.
3.) No power playing. Please don't make your character all powerful, or make them never get hit. You need to remember a tiny bit of fair realism. It's not fair or fun to play that way
4.) Don't expect immediate responses from mods - We have lives too, and although we'll try to respond to your posts as quickly as possible, we can't always answer immediately. As such, don't "bump" topics until at least a day has passed; any shorter will simply be annoying.
5.) This isn't a freeform roleplay, mods control the environment, NPCs, etc., and lead you through epic worlds and quests.
6.) Being a traditional, I won't limit the number of characters you can have. There's no limit of three or anything, feel free to submit as many as you want as long as you don't go crazy and sacrifice other characters or overall character quality by making ten billion.


Creating Your Character
1.) Make sure you've read the Digital Galaxy Data Network and at least skimmed the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.
2.) Make sure you've read the above General Rules
3.) Post your character in the Signup thread using the template provided.
http://s10.zetaboards.com/Coloholics_Anonymous/topic/7087670/

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Technology

The current year is 2200, so all sorts of technology is possible. Lightsabers, laser guns, plasma rifles, tractor beams, holograms, cybernetic implants, cyborgs, alien technology.

Whatever your mind can imagine, though don't start off with too much, you'll have the opportunity to purchase more and upgrade yourself as the game proceeds.
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Travel


It's not that hard to get around and it doesn't cost much. Often one can find most everything they need by foot. Most planets have shuttles or spaceships that can take you from to and fro their cities and moons. However, for more major stuff like interplanetary travel or even intergalactic, one will need a spaceship, and those don't come cheap.
One either has to join a faction or guild that provides them transportation or makes them part of a crew for their work, or get a job in a faction or guilt to make enough money to actually buy a spaceship. No one just starts with one for nothing.
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