Hunter's Galaxy: A Space Opera RP [:(]

[Obsidian]

@Blue

 

Thank you very much for the detailed response I think I (and others) now have a good idea of how the game will go.

 

Also, thanks for pointing out that I neglected to specify the kind of radiation my character gave off; I had the idea in my head, but just forgot to put it in the description. It is, for the record, a harmless radiation compared to ionizing, but can still do some damage if Destiny is provoked enough. I'll add this to her profile so it's in the same place with everything else. How is the rest of my sheet? Does everything look okay?

[Blue]

Most yes.

[Psychotic Ninja]

My new version balanced? Any more recommended tweaking needed?

[Scorpia]

right, i'll re-work a few things.

[Lord Sinister]

Well, here's my attempt at this. With the physical attributes and personality, I felt that some possible personality points were needed in the physical attributes part as explanations, but if that's wrong then I'll try and fix it. And the personality part contains some backstory, if that's wrong I'll try and trim it out.

 

What does the 'MV' stand for next to the ship name? Also can all ships not have hyperdrives? I ask this because you explicitly state that light frigates can have hyperdrives. In fact is there a limit to what class can have what equipment based on size limitations? I apologise in advance if I have got any of the below horribly wrong.

 

Also brief question about the Utilities system...with the medium frigate, there are only three hardpoints, right? And these can be weapons OR utilities, right? The reason I ask is because if that is the case I'll probably replace the ion cannon with a docking bay for the 'shuttles' I mention in the description of the ship, assuming those are allowed.

 

Also please do not consider the below final just yet, it's not quite complete yet and I'll also be editing it based on feedback.

 

Name: Jaan Tagon (Captain of the Shadow Spear)

Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: 47
Height: 5 feet 9 inches
Physical Attributes: He has hazel eyes and neatly kept dark brown hair with streaks of grey. He has thin eyebrows and lips. He also has a neatly kept goatee beard. His thin and gaunt appearance serve to hide both his strength and experience through many years of military service to some empire somewhere that he has long since abandoned all ties to (after stealing their prototype stealth medium frigate, the Shadow Spear). He is open minded, and combined with his experience this enables him to react fast to new and unexpected situations. He is fairly agile but a previous war injury (I'm no experienced doctor so I'll keep this vague unless anyone has any good ideas for this or unless I have to specify something) prevents him from sustained physical effort such as long runs. As a consequence in close combat he will always be trying to end the fight as fast as possible by subduing his opponent through various forms of martial arts, although he could hardly called proficient at them, he can hold his own.
 
With combat he would prefer stealth over brute force, preferring ambushes, traps and general deception rather than open combat. Hit and run tactics would be amongst his most used strategy against opponents. He can use a multitude of weapons owing to his past military experience, bar perhaps bladed weapons such as swords and so on. He wouldn't be good with those (except for perhaps stabbing an opponent in the back whilst they are unsuspecting).
 
He generally always has a somewhat determined and wily expression on his face.
 
Personality: Despite his love of somewhat underhanded strategies to deploy on opponents, he is a man of principles and will honour agreements and so on (although despite his willingness to honour agreements honestly, he doesn't take betrayal well, and is generally unforgiving of those who break their deals with him (read will never deal with them again), or may well pretend to deal with them only to double cross them out of spite (although often planned at a point where it will provide some gain to him)). He has also always opposed the mass slaughter of innocents (one of his reasons for abandoning his service to the previously mentioned empire). After a tragedy best left vaguely described perpetrated by the Empire, he resolved to abandon them in favour of of exploring the richness of the Galaxy, with no real aim except perhaps slow and enjoyable personal gain.
 
Over a period of months he put together a plan with many men and women he'd come to know over his years of service who were loyal to him. The plan was to steal a prototype vessel that was to the citizens of the Empire who knew, a mere rumour. The Shadow Spear, the first vessel of its kind, a medium frigate with prototype cloaking technology capable of rendering a vessel undetectable to all their known methods of scientific detection.
 
The plan (which is only mentioned rather than explained to keep things short) went off without a hitch thanks to the captain's connections and the skills of his chosen loyal companions. It has been several years since then (and they since collected the families of those who wanted to bring them) and the crew are now well accustomed to their ship and fairly self-sufficient within it.
 

 

Ship Name: ISV Shadow Spear

Build: Medium Frigate
Draft Length: 202m
Speed: Medium (could be pushed up to high in a straight line at the cost of manoeuvrability, ie turning would be along very large arcs)
Agility: Average
Armor: High
Power Provision: Very High
Crew: 142+Captain+ship's NON-SENTIENT computer
Description: Built by a nameless Empire several years ago the Shadow Spear was a prototype in using stealth technology. Designed to carry scientists on test runs rather than for actual combat, it carries lightly-armed shuttles with sophisticated research and scanning equipment rather than proper strike-craft. The vessel is primarilly designed for hit-and-run strikes. It can push its engines to a speed greater than usual (at the expense of mobility) in order to improve the efficiency of its stealth strikes against other equivalently sized or larger vessels (it's not designed for extended combat against other vessels). Decloaking, firing its heavy cannon, and then hoping enough damage was caused to allow the ship to turn (or re-engage stealth mode) without significant damage. It's not designed to counter smaller vessels although it does have a point defense network that may allow it to hold its own, but due to the ship's limited mobility the effectiveness of this point defense network against serious numbers of opposing fighters is doubtful.
 
The Shadow Spear has a sizeable amount of cargo space. Four cargo sectors, A, B, C and D, each one with rooms and bays of various sizes, scaling up further down the alphabet. ie A has a lot more rooms and bays than B, C, or D, but they are smaller and more specialized, with rooms devoted to things such as shelving and small containers rather than the space for enormous cargo containers. D on the other hand has the fewest bays, but they're larger and quite capable of containing large industrial equipment if it needed to. D's main cargo bay has a direct line to the shuttle bay through some large service doors, and could be used as an auxiliary shuttle bay if the main one's outer door were damaged rendering it impossible to maintain a liveable atmosphere in there, but it would take time to set that up. In general the close proximity means that heavy equipment or large objects transported on to the ship via shuttle craft could be stored in Cargo sector D's main cargo bay.
 
The ship is also capable of entering the atmosphere of planets and of landing on the surface of planets. Usually this would be done to make repairs that cannot be made in space (as to visit the surface of a planet the ship's shuttles can usually be used).
 
Service: The Shadow Spear saw very little service under the empire beyond a few test runs. However following the captain's acquisition the Shadow Spear has spent the last four years roaming the Galaxy, contending with pirates, various authorities, and the natural hazards of space itself. Conflicts are generally few and far between, with the aim being to secure treasures without engaging any hostile forces. The Shadow Spear's first combat came when it engaged an imperial patrol ship (heavy corvette class) mere minutes after it was stolen. A lucky shot from the heavy cannon did a surprising amount of damage to the patrol ship's main reactor and following several chain-reaction explosions, the patrol ship exploded.
 
Initially the captain mainly focussed on assaulting and stealing from supply ships of the Empire, acquiring wealth, trinkets, various artifacts and so on. Depending on whether or not the stolen goods could be made use of by the Shadow Spear and her crew, they were sold on to the black market. Inevitably though, the Empire soon began to crack down on the Shadow Spear's games of cat and mouse with the authorities. Supply ships began travelling in convoys, with heavy escorts. The Shadow Spear eventually decided to branch out in to the rest of the Galaxy. The frequent stealing of supplies provided things such as food for the crew of the Shadow Spear, but in case their main source of food and supplies (stealing from imperial transports) eventually ran dry, the captain had the foresight to have the entireity of cargo sector B devoted to the purpose of providing and storing food for the crew of the Shadow Spear. Crops are both grown and farmed on board the ship and provided that food is rationed, the system works well. The importance of cargo sector B to the rest of the ship is invaluable.
 
Anyway, as the Shadow Spear moved out in to the rest of the Galaxy where other forces dwelt, they came in to contact with pirates. Most of the pirates encountered have attacked in rag-tag groups of fighters and bombers, mainly with the intent of ambushing individual ships and plundering them. The Shadow Spear's cloaking device and point defense network generally served to fend off attacks by these. However the Shadow Spear once encountered a very old light capital ship under pirate control (it carried various strike craft within). A tense battle on the outskirts of an asteroid field eventually resulted in victory for the Shadow Spear, thanks to its heavy cannon and the light capital ship's age and condition (it had evidently gone without proper maintenance for many years). It was able to effectively deal damage to the ship it was designed to destroy (although weakening it enough to raid it for supplies was the intention of the captain after the battle appeared to turn their way, however the condition of the enemy vessel meant that the strain of the battle and the attacks by the Shadow Spear eventually ruptured its main reactor and destroyed it), and the asteroids provided reasonably effective cover to re-cloak and prepare to attack from new angles. However despite emerging victorious having destroyed this pirate cruiser, the Shadow Spear did suffer some damage, not just from the strike craft, but also from the asteroid field. Repairs were thus made on a nearby fringe world that was only inhabited by some long-abandoned colonists. The crew of the Shadow Spear chose to make their repairs far from these settlements to avoid both attention and risk.
 
The final 'kill' that the Shadow Spear has gained so far was a light frigate of the Empire they had long since abandoned. It was discovered that the Empire had a way of tracking the Shadow Spear, including whilst it was cloaked (this was eventually discovered to be a very subtle tracking device that has since been disabled and removed, and the rest of the ship was scoured for any more of these hidden devices). Four years after the Shadow Spear had been stolen, the Empire had had a light frigate specially built with the sole intention of tracking down the Shadow Spear and either destroying it or disabling it. On discovering that their cloaking device was useless, and being out-gunned by the light frigate, the captain of the Shadow Spear ordered it in to a nearby hazardous nebula. The light frigate in pursuit of them followed. In the nebula both ships suffered damage, and their sensors and other systems were hindered a fair bit. Eventually an energy discharge from the nebula crippled the engines of the light frigate. The Shadow Spear came about and destroyed it with their heavy cannon. On leaving the nebula, the Shadow Spear was victorious, but not without cost. Seven crew members were killed and the hull was scarred from multiple energy discharges and venting atmosphere in more than a few places. The ship was forced to set down on a nearby planet and make repairs that lasted a month.
 
Since that experience, the Shadow Spear has moved back in to more colonised regions of space. The captain has been looking for work from others rather than simple raiding of cargo ships and the salvaging of various debris from long destroyed or abandoned vessels, and so on from space. This could possibly be in the form of bounty hunting or escort duty for privateers or minor corporations or organisations. In particular he and his crew are on the look out for what they term 'the big one', something that would set them all well off for the future, so they could abandon piracy and perhaps even colonise some small forgotten corner of the Galaxy for themselves and their families...
 
Vessel Records: 3 Confirmed Kills (not including fighters/bombers), 70+ victories (raids on cargo vessels that resulted in the salvaging of supplies, artifacts, monies, successful evasion of superior foes like masses of pirates, authorities, etc), 2 Damages, 0 Hull Rebuild.
Hardpoints:

W1. Heavy Cannon
U1. Docking bay (containing four 'shuttles')
U2. Stealth System Node


Non-Hardpoint Weapon(s): Point defense network

 

No picture right now. I'll see what I can find (or possibly make ).

 

 

EDIT: Heh, Blue I totally hadn't noticed you'd +rep'd me to take the plunge and post this until just now.

[Blue]

@Psychotic Ninja:

It's spartan for a description but it will do.

 

@BillLudwick:

Please re-read the qualifications for Strike Craft and Frigates. Your current description of the Xielumbus is too small of a ship to have three Hardpoints, or not big enough (and with too small a crew) to be a Frigate. Consider Corvettes if you don't want to be enormous but also want lots of weapons.

 

@Srake:

Sorry for not getting to you earlier, I would have bucked-up yesterday but my internet time was cut short. Your character looks well done and vessel pretty properly described, although you might be shooting yourself in the foot at this point by making yourself start with a relatively untrustworthy rust-bucket.

 

@LordSinister:

MV is one of the several modern naming conventions for Merchant Vessels in the real world, Merchant Vessels being the distinction between Private and State Vessel operation. Eg: MV = Motor Vessel, SS = Steam Ship, MSV = Motor Stand-by Vessel, SV = Sailing Vessel, RMS = Royal Mail Ship, HMS = Her Majesty's Service, HMCS = Her Majesty's Canadian Service, USS = United States Service, etc. In practice, this explains "USS Enterprise" or "RMS Titanic" by it's national name identifier.

Since this is SPAAAAAAAACE, feel free to make up your own naming prefix (within reason). I'll just leave mine being MV standing for "Merchant Vessel".

In the original space opera I was a part of, my vessel was called the "ANEC Bluenose", ANEC standing for 'Allied Navy Expeditionary Corps.'.

 

I guess I didn't say, but I should have. Heavy Frigates, like Light Capitals, can have all three of their Hardpoints Weapons or Utilities. Therefore they could be mixed W+W+W, W+W+U, W+U+U or U+U+U or combinations thereby.

Hyperdrives are bulky affairs that work in tandem with large engine and reactor systems, (Small craft do not have much in terms of reactors.) which is why they require a Hardpoint. Also, the Ion Cannon does require two Hardpoints to be used, so I would recommend you change that to the shuttles. I'd recommend three shuttles, no more than four, in order to simplify your extension of control. Whenever your vessel consists of more than one craft, that means you have to be able to coordinate yourself whenever they're deployed independently. In conjunction with that opinion, I would also recommend you expand your crew some. Double it maybe.

 

@Everyone: When I say "crew", I don't actually plan on you thinking about the individual personalities and lives of as many as 500 people in this game. I'm more thinking of [varying from slaves to service-honored employees and colleagues] people who do your bidding, except for a small selection that you'd like to characterize more for a lark or as background detail, like your Executive (First) Officer, Navigator, Chief Engineer, Cook, Ship Medic or whatever.

[Srake]

Thanks for the feedback Blue, but my ship should be fine as my character repaired while he was employed at the Repair Station, so it was pretty much rebuilt. He has been flying it around for a couple of years after all.

[Blue]

Point taken.

 

Planning on lighting this candle on November 1st, unless there are objections or suggestions otherwise.

[Lord Sinister]

I've made some minor changes based on what you said, Blue. I bumped the crew size up a bit but I also lowered the class of the ship to Medium Frigate rather than Heavy Frigate. Are the current figures okay? Is there anything else you can see that I need to deal with on there?

 

I wish I could have more Utility hardpoints.

[Blue]

Your character height is apparently 2 feet.

[Lord Sinister]

Your character height is apparently 2 feet.

 

Crikey I don't know why I missed out that particular statistic, fixed it now.

[Madman]

@Blue

Is everything about my char and ship ok? Do I have to change anything?

[Blue]

@Madman:

I'm going to suppose that the armor is entirely form-covering and worn at all times, which would explain why your character has no indicated Race or Species.

 

Apart from your very small and non-indicative Service record, it's good enough. However I would like to know what wormhole conjuring has anything to do with, and also explanation as to the nature of a single scout fighter by itself without any accompanying wingmen (in any case), or a mothership (unless otherwise indicated). You don't see Mercenaries up and flying Blackbirds modern day everywhere.

[Lord Sinister]

Blue, is there anything left in my post that you feel needs adjusting? Apart from the service and vessel records of the ship which I will deal with tomorrow.

[Luis]

I'd like to know as well if my character is ''OK-go''. I'm fairly new at this

[Madman]

@Blue: The wormhole conjuring has nothing to do with combat or transportation. It's just a story element with no practical purpose. As for the other things you pointed out, I'll just remodel my char sheet a bit.

[Blue]

@LordSinister:

Your character sheet is very detailed and I have no complaints with it. The question then arises as to how much characterization you'll fit into your narrative that might become redundant because of how detailed the sheet is.

 

@Luis & Everyone:

I'll now take stock of our ship situation. And with my cursory glance, I don't think we'll be starting on November 1st.

 

4 Medium Frigates

• 1 x Assault (Valiant)
  2 x Stealth Combat (Invisible, Shadow Spear)
  1 x Cruiser/Destroyer (Glain-Neidr)

 

4 Scout Flights (4 Craft total) (Great Fox, The Abandoned One, Blurr, Xielumbus)

 

This consist I personally think needs some modification, with all due respect. I made my vessel pretty general in order to accommodate modification for balance, but- at the very least, I expect one Scout Flight to change to Bombers or Interceptors, or change their Craft total to have one wingmate or more. (Remember Scouts; can have two wingmates, and bombers or interceptors can have four. Not everyone needs to be fast and spritely- and Interceptors are better at combat.)

 

I will be changing to a Heavy Frigate in order to support our Strike Craft with a launching bay, but that will limit my abilities in direct combat and relegate the Valiant to much more hanging back from the fray.

As it stands, all of our abilities to combat Capital ships rely on the Glain-Neidr. If someone rigged up an Ion Cannon or switched to Bombers, that would be awesome. If Luis, Madman, Srake and Bill are contented to stay as Strike Craft, that's fine, I can modify to accommodate that with an Additional Craft Bay, but that is dependent on the Strike Crafters diversifying a bit.

Imagine we're in Setup Round in Team Fortress 2, except the map isn't Goldrush, it's the Trainstation from Half Life 2 and we've never played HL2 before: we have no idea what to expect, and this is our loadout:

(This analogy works if you imagine that all three of those Scouts have health penalties, Bonk, and there are no Healthkits in the level.)

[Srake]

All right. I'll change mine to an interceptor Frigate Corvette(I keep on confusing the two) then.

/goes to work

Edited October 31, 2011 by Guest (see edit history)

[Blue]

All right. I'll change mine to an interceptor Frigate then.

/goes to work

Yeah if we use the Team Fortress 2 analogy, this is the order of things:

 

Scouts - Scouts with 45 health, Bonk energy drink, a spotting scope, and no Bat.

Interceptors - Pyros that can run as fast as medics

Bombers - Demomen that can run as fast as pyros but have a weakness to everything and Glaswegian rum.

Light Corvettes - Pyros that run as fast as pyros but can aim and fire in three different directions at once.

Heavy Corvettes - A Demoman that has 8 weapon loadout slots.

Light Frigates - Varying between a Medic, Spy, Engineer, Heavy or Soldier with a slight speed buff and health nerf.

Medium Frigates - Varying between a Medic, Spy, Engineer, Heavy or Soldier with a speed nerf and health buff.

Heavy Frigate - Heavy, Soldier or Medic with 350 health or more.

Everything bigger - A Giant Ogre armed with a wheelbarrow and all the wishful thinking in the world.

Any vessel with a Carrier loadout - Medic on a self-powered wheelchair that has low batteries, armed with 10 paintball guns, one for each finger.

The Space Shuttle - Civillian except it has 2 health and can only travel 8 feet from the spawn room.

Saturn V - SAXTON HAAAAAAAAAALE

[Srake]

My new ship.

 

(<--> = Somwhere in between because I'm an indicisive bastard)

 

Ship Name: Tenrar

Build: Light Frigate AUGH ITS A CORVETTE!

Draft Length: 20m

Speed: Medium

Agility: Medium <--> Above Average

Armor: Above Average <--> Quite Armored

Power Provisions: Medium <--> Above Average

Crew: 3; Pilot, Navigator/Battle Intel, Dedicated Gunner

Description: Described as a "Cost Effective Model" this ship has served its crew well for the past few years. Manufacutred on the Planet Tyrian, this ship came into the Ownership of Srakenyl when he left. Attempted Hybrid of Striker and Corvette. I say attempted, they managed to retain some of the mobility of a striker and most of the punch of a Corvette.

Service: Prototype; No Previous Owners; Merc Vehicle

Records: 7 Kills; 23 Contracts Completed; 3 Repairs

Hard Points

I: Flak

II: Docking Bay

Non-Hard Point

Weapons:

-Superheat Ballistic Gunner Seat

-Light Manipulation Cannon (Stream/Burst)

Utilities:

-Medical Closet

-Pantry

-That One Light Hanging From The Ceiling