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The Adventures of Star Patrol!

The Adventures of Star Patrol!

OK, so I'm the one who requested this so I might as well be the one to start it off!

I'm looking for players to take part in very pulp-y space opera.


The setup:

All characters are part of Star Patrol based on the planet New Earth, a utopian vision of justice and comfort following the destruction of Earth through atomic warfare.

Everything is very 50's influenced, from the design of spaceships and buildings to household appliances of the future and robots to the paranoia of invasion.

New Earth is connected to other systems by Space Lanes to planets with exotic environments, aliens and names.

All is not safe however - out there - there are evil religions, aliens planning to invade, and human psychics hell bent on New Earth domination to name just a tiny fraction!

Only Star Patrol can stop them, and that means you!


Characters:

There will be a bare minimum of skills and skill advances and no attributes (I'll let you know the details when you join) and I think I'll stick to player-created 2 Gifts and 2 Faults rather than have an inexhaustive list. Everyone will get one free Star Patrol Rank Gift however.

Damage-wise I'll run the FATE 2.0 wound track because I like it so much, and I have an idea for pulp-y weapon damage to get away from static ODF or damage rolls. I'll also be using the quite brilliant "Cinematic damage alternative" from Fudge Factor.

http://www.fudgefactor.org/2005/08/cine … tives.html

Gameplay:

I'm thinking quite structured to get the game flowing, I'll describe the initial scene, you then describe "Previously on Star Patrol...", snippets of previous (ficticious) Star Patrol episodes that you'd like to see linked in to this game (and to your character's strengths), include another PC or NPC. We'll have a little interlude of role-playing and question forming before a mysteries phase, where you pursue the answers to those questions and then more action.

Players can make up any details they like before and during play (i.e. no permission required), I will work around the players not guide you down a specific path.

Also, rather than the interminable wait for action which can plague PbP the initial scene will be in media res.

It is very formulaic but that should work in a forum environment and is very true to the 50's pulp heritage.


Finally, I cannot take any credit for the above formula, I have "borrowed liberally" from Danger Patrol by John Harper.

See http://www.dangerpatrol.com

There you can find out more about the structure, and get ideas, if the above doesn't make sense, I'm merely transferring it to Fudge and changing a few details to make it more like a traditional role-playing game.

I would definielty recommend you download it!


Star travel:

As mentioned star travel takes place in Space Lanes, inter-connected "rings" that shorten journeys


The location:

Right, we can either play this right here on the Fudge Forum which has advantages for others coming to the site, showing Fudge at work and creates a nice hub we don't have to leave, or over on RPoL which has dedicated tools for online play-by-post games, like character sheets, maps, in-built online dice roller, and complete thread creation freedom.

See http://rpol.net

I have no preference whatsoever (whatever you read into the above descriptions!) and will be guided by the majority of the players, let me know if either is a deal breaker for you.

Before anyone mentions handling rolling dice here, I'm quite happy to roll all dice as required, or you can roll your own dice using an online roller and posting the results or by rolling physical dice and posting the result. Obviously the last two require a degree of trust, but I'm sure I have no problems here.


Requests to join:

If this sounds right up your space lane reply here with a brief description of your character:

Their name,
their 50's sci-fi archetype,
prototypes of their gifts and faults,
a personal goal (make it mysterious if possible),
and MAYBE a little background to flesh out the archetype and link the character to the gifts, faults and goal.

I'll choose those that (1) actually apply! and/or (2) those that fit in the group and/or (3) those that impress me most.

The Convenient Skill
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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

Definitely sign me up. current/smile

Name: Jordan Dark
Archetype: Intrepid explorer

Gifts:
    Knack with languages
    Good with Computers

Faults:
    Lack of commonsense
    Self Centered at times.
   
Mission:

    To discover the truth about who he is and find out why he is so drawn to the stars.
   

ABOUT:

Jordan Dark began life in an orphanage left on the doorstep one rainy night. He was taken in and raised by the nuns that ran the orphanage and they soon discovered he was good at computers at a young age and had an uncanny knack at languages, not only learning them, but understanding them after a few times of hearing it. He told them that he doesn't understand the words or how to speak them, but somehow he just knows what they are trying to say.

His sheltered raising and prompting from his teachers showed in his lack of commonsense and being self centered at times. After growing in to an adult he left to space as mining ships, but felt a draw to the stars, at night he felt they were calling his name. He decided to become an explorer and discover what it is inside him that beckons to the stars.

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

Name: Johnny Wizzer
Archetype: Brilliant Young Inventor (modeled after Tom Swift)

Gifts:
    Gadgeteer/Inventor
    All-Around Scientist

Faults:
    Insatiable Curiuosity
    Social Inept with anyone but scientists
   
Mission:
   He is compelled for reasons he doesn't understand to expand his knowledge of science until he understands the true nature of all things.
   
Background:
The only son of brilliant scientist parents, Johnny was a child prodigy. Home taught by his parents, he was already multiple grades ahead when he entered public school. An outcast because of his genius, he never got along with other kids. Designing a revolutionary particle accelerator at 12 years old probably didn't help. Even after skipping from high school into college while still in his early teens, he was still an outcast. Faculty disliked him for correcting their latest research in class. Tragedy struck with his parents death in a terrible accident on the day he graduated with double doctorates in biological and physical sciences at age 18 for New Earth's most prestigious university.  With nothing to tie him to the world he grew up on, he hungers for travel to the stars and the amazing discoveries to made there!

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

It's all right guys, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm just waiting for a few more to show some interest (hopefully) and then I'll get underway explaing things a bit more and giving you the character creation info.

For others, there are plenty of 50's sci-fi characters waiting to be snapped up: the flyboy, the combat specialist, the mystical occultist, the sneaky agent, the smooth talking schmoozer and a whole lot more.

I'll look for two more at the least, and will probably take six at the most, so if you want to have some role-playing fun while you're here, join in. I guarantee you won't be the only one not to have done it before, and I'll explain everything as we go along.

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

I keep trying to get Ann to join and play - we need a damsel in distress - although she threatens to play either a mysterious occultist or a femme fatale super spy  current/wink

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

Darn. No damsel in distress? The geek in me is disappointed. current/big_smile But I'll go for a femme Fetale.

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

Name: Ming Ming
Archetype: Young emperor-to-be

Gifts:
    Hypnotism
    Followers

Faults:
    The Ladies!
    Ugly
   
Mission:
   He wants to restore the Ming Empire albiet one adventurre at a time. current/wink
   
Background:
He is one of the many illegitimate sons of Ming the Merciless, wanting power over the known universe!!!

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

fudgebob wrote:

Name: Ming Ming
Faults:
    The Ladies!

LOL. The fault of all men in the galaxy. current/big_smile

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

paul wrote:

I keep trying to get Ann to join and play - we need a damsel in distress - although she threatens to play either a mysterious occultist or a femme fatale super spy  current/wink

Well, if she were a femme fatale there would certainly be some guys to twist round her finger...

Then again the occultist would have some pretty handy info, and if she wants to be truly mysterious she can PM me her character design (that goes for other people too).

Anyway, let me finalise the character creation stuff, and I'll post that soon for you all to follow through, it shouldn't take too long.

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Re: The Adventures of Star Patrol!

Character creation

OK everybody, here are the character generation rules. I have tried to keep them simple and to help characters conform to the usual pulp archetypes.

If you think they need a little tweaking to get right, let me know, particularly if they are hampering your efforts to get your character "right".

OK, you've all selected 2 gifts and faults, based on some of the skills below you might like to give them a tweak as they are more likely covered by a particular skill. Perhaps they shed light on some aspect of that skill, or you can change them completely.

Each character gets the free gift Star Patrol Officer. I suggest one of you steps up and takes a further rank gift to become team leader, alternatively you can split it amongst you, or assign it to one player freely if you want.

OK, so here are the skills with corresponding example actions, to get a feel for them:

Athlete
Running, jumping, endurance

Businessman
Appraise, haggle, finance

Crafter
Pottery, engineer, artist

Criminal
Break and enter, contacts

Fighter
Brawling, karate, fencing

Marksman
Raygun, grenades

Medic
Surgery, diagnosis

Occultist
Magic, mysteries

Officer
Investigate, interrogate, alertness

Outdoorsman
Survival, hunting, animal

Pilot
Driving, piloting

Psychic
Telepathy, telekinesis

Repairer
Maintain, mechanic

Scholar
Knowledge, research, "soft" sciences

Scientist
Mathematics, astronomy, "hard" sciences

Socialiser
Impress, deceive

Spy
Stealth, disguise

Technician
Computer hacking, sensors

There is a certain amount of overlap in some of these skills, and some may initially appear more useful than others, but because of the nature of the format, with the "Previously on Star Patrol..." section you can very easily work them into the story.

Due to the breadth of each skill each character has:

1 Primary skill (Great)
1 Secondary skill (Good)
2 Professional skills (Fair)
2 Background skills (Mediocre)

One important thing to consider is that these are your Star Patrol assessments and they are very rigorous, if you really were a Superb Pilot you'd likely be the best they have. It's something to aim for if we get that far, plus it allows a good roll not to break the ladder. Also I will be assessing all other people you meet on the same criteria, so the average citizen would easily register as Terrible or Abysmal in comparison.

I think everybody should start with 4 Fudge Points, I expect I'll give them back at a decent rate so don't be afraid to spend them!

They are used for re-rolls, a +1, or to transmute damage per the Fudge Factor article (so a Taken out result would mean imminent doom!).

I'll run through the equipment and combat mechanics next, as there a couple of tweaks here that I think ought to work but I the above should keep you busy for a little while!

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