A Deadly Game of Secrets

[chaos_Leader]

Tom Bishop: It's not a f---ing game!

Nathan Muir: Oh yes it is, that's exactly what it is, and it's no kid's game either. This is a whole other game, and it's serious and it's dangerous, and it's not one you want to lose.

-From the film:Spy Game-

RP Name/Title:

A Deadly Game of Secrets

Style:

Forum

Theme:

Star Fox

Setting:

Lylat system, roughly ten years before the Great Lylat War.

Description:

Lylat is changing.

Recent technological and scientific breakthroughs have realized once unthinkable goals, flights of fancy that were the realm of science fiction and fantasy come more and more into reality with each passing year. Faced with a suddenly exploded frontier, the once sovereign and independent worlds of Lylat now begin to band together, united under the umbrella of the "Lylat Union" (comparable to the Europe's EU).

Tensions between and within planetary governments rise in this uncertain time, in "The Great Nervous Renaissance", and sometimes these simmering tensions boil over. Espionage circles, pirate groups, smuggling cartels and other illicit black-market activity thrive within this widespread tension, giving rise to new and unprecedented opportunities. The taste of a great Cold War is in everybody's mouths, and it's only matter of time before something snaps.

This is History: Dr. Andross has political ambitions, considered a passionate visionary by some, and an egocentric opportunist by others. James McCloud's Star Fox is just another band of mercenaries among countless others. Sauria and Cerinia are known, but still very isolated, distant, and tucked away in the back of the peoples' minds. This is the time for you to make your mark upon history; don't be the one to miss it.

Each of you (the players) have been gathered to the Sargasso station freeport, and then booked passage on a cruiser bound for the world of Fortuna. You were given tickets and notes by a series of mysterious strangers who wouldn't answer your questions, and simply said that "it will be explained later." Now it is later, and your tickets have brought you all to the same private compartment, of the same ship, into a room full of strange strangers.

Goals:

1) The goals that are set before you, should you choose to pursue them.

2) Survive.

I tried this before, it didn't pan out. I'm going to try again, but this time with feeling!

I'm goring to try a little something different compared to the usual Roleplay fare that flies around the Star Fox boards. This is a variation of the classic "mercs brought together" theme, with a bit of a "hardboiled," "film noir," "cloak-and-dagger," "mystery thriller" vibe going on. There's stuff going down alright, but I'm not just going to give it away here before you even play. You're going to uncover the may layers, deception, and treachery right there along with your characters, and uncover whatever truth lies buried down there. A word of caution though: watch your backs. The people you're likely to run into in these shadowy places aren't the kind who're inclined to fight fair.

The GM (that's me) will not participate directly as a member of your party. I'll play the part of the "Tasker" as well as necessary NPC roles throughout the roleplay, but my main purpose here is to keep the ball rolling on the story.

Players:

(Ideally I'd like to shoot for around five or so, but I can work with a little more or a little less)

- Harlow as Lennox or Axel

- Arashikage as Brìd Aimeri

- Ballisticwaffles as Anstas "Trebia" Manslaughterer

- Sroberson as "Steel," "Deter" (given name unknown)

- Mellow Walrus as Al Tim.

-

World Events:

- The Titania/Fortuna conflict is a recent, controversial conflict. It was a simple conflict between the planetary governments of Titania and Fortuna, which swelled beyond control when the two sides of the conflict started to receive outside aid, usually in the forms of weapons, equipment, and training. Corneria backed Fortuna, and Titania was aided by industrial power-players based out of Macbeth, though the Macbeth government vehemently denies any involvement on their part. It is analogous to the Vietnam War, or the Afghan/Soviet war.

- Several smaller-scale conflicts often crop up within individual planets. Mostly these are fueled by a fear and resentment of perceived government overreach by the Lylat Union. The big belief is that the Lylat Union will impose a kind of draconian "new world order" over the planets. The worlds of Lylat themselves have only recently unified their individual nations under a series of planetary governments, and many fear the Lylat Union is going too far, overcentralizing everything.

- The Lylat Union itself is pushing for expansion, exploration, and ultimately colonization. The process of making this work however is taking more effort than anticipated. It takes a long time to send people and supplies to nearby star systems, about a month to get to Cerinia on a fast ship. Many oponents of these goals would rather devote resources to "sort out the dysfunctional family of Lylat" before setting lofty goals like these, while supporters claim that the lofty goals are the means to "sort our the dysfunctional family of Lylat."

Lylat: a Snapshot:

I've drawn several cultural/societal analogs between the worlds of Lylat and Earth, as a means to have a better idea what they're like, and what they think of each other.

The planets of Lylat are arranged in a "ring", giving all the worlds an identical orbit and rotation period, as well as identical gravity. Travel is also usually done along the orbital path of the ring, though sometimes directly across (hubshot).

Corneria:

USA, UK, Japan

Heavily technology driven. Most of the newest and most innovative breakthroughs in technology come out of Corneria. People outside Corneria often view Cornerians as arrogant, boastful, aloof, clumsy, meddles in the affairs of other worlds; often how the US is seen by those outside it. yet for those who live on Corneria, they will know that it is an incredibly diverse world, with just as many bad qualities as good.

Macbeth:

Germany, China

Heavily industry driven. They consider themselves the main tech/industry competitor against Corneria. Very competitive, and often less scrupulous than Corneria. Often viewed by outsiders as headstrong, stubborn, competitive

Zoness:

Brazil, Spain, United Arab Emirates

Zoness is a world that enjoys a sudden influx of wealth, due in large part to natural resources, the main one being iron mined off the ocian floor, and products made with that iron. (Iron in water gives it a green hue). Znessians are also conscious of the risks over-mining has to their world, and do their best to keep it clean and presentable. They have enough clout to their name to resist influences. Popular vacation spot for many, as their wealth can pay for lavish luxuries.

Katina:

Russia, Slavic countries

Gritty, tough, hard-knock and long-time partner of Corneria. Stereotypical Katinans value discipline, honor. They have produced some impressive military minds in the past, and fearsome warriors.

Fortuna: (is actually both Icy and Jungly)

India, Tibet, Southeast Asia

Ambitious. Fortuna is a rapidly developing world, powered by a strong partnership with Corneria. Still heavily reliant on outside help, but . Fortunans still hang on to their traditions, and proudly show off their cultural identities as they rise up.

Titania:

Pakistan, North Africa

A little behind, but pushing to keep up. Titania is one of the least populous world of Lylat, and most expoited by outside powers. Has an ancient heritage that most locals don't seriously care about, so focused on trying to keep up with the rest of Lylat. Nonetheless, Titania attracts historians and archeologists from all over Lylat.

Aquas:

Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland

Major trade hub across Lylat, especially since tensions between Titania/Fortuna drove most to go the other way around the ring. Considered very neutral, and perfectly content to scoop up money while keeping quiet.

Some guidelines for characters:

- It doesn't really matter where your character came from or what they did before. What matters is that they have a talent/skill that is useful, they can handle themselves in a pinch, and that they're for hire. If you can meet these criteria, I can probably work around almost anything else you come up with.

- They have to be pre-Lylat war. You can use your fan characters, so long as they are properly tweaked to fit the pre-war setting.

- "Supernatural advantages": In this setting, folks suspect that all these new scientific/tech advances might turn up "superpowers" but there's no proof yet, just wild-eyed speculation. So unless you can make a good case to me why your character has a "power" and isn't locked away in a lab somewhere (hey, it can happen), then it's probably not happening.

- No one player is going to have a team of their own at their disposal. You have other players with other characters, work together and form your own team.

- If you have any ideas for special arrangements for your character, of if you have any questions, send me a PM and we'll see what we can do.

Once you have your character, post his/her details in the character sub-forum and provide a link here, everyone can take a quick look. Ideally, the less the characters know about each other, the better; find out the details on your own.

[Geo Stelar]

I'm kinda interested. Would you let Steve McKarter as my character? I can set him up at the beginning of the RP to be out of his team.

Here he is ---> Steve McKarter.

[chaos_Leader]

I'm kinda interested. Would you let Steve McKarter as my character? I can set him up at the beginning of the RP to be out of his team.

Here he is ---> Steve McKarter.

I can work with him, so long as he has no team, and is tweaked to fit the setting. Bear in mind though that I don't pay much attention to stats; all they tell me is what you think of the character and/or what the character thinks of themselves. I'll be paying much closer attention to the decisions you/your character makes.

If it helps, I could write up a brief contemporary history, just to lay out what'd be considered "world events" at the time.

[Geo Stelar]

Oh yeah, no problem. Technically Steve has his own team, but like I said, I can set him up to be out of his team for this RP.

Oh, and that 'world contemporary history events' thing would be nice, too. :)

[Arashikage]

Film Noir eh? Well y'know what? Count me in. I'd like to use Brì for this one.

http://starfox-online.net/topic/5382-arashikages-characters/

[CrypticQuery]

I have to say, I hope that this RP gets enough of a playerbase to start; it would be a pleasure to read if the first post was any indication. [i'm honestly debating on participating myself at this point though.] :)

[chaos_Leader]

Okay, updated the OP with a world breakdown of Lylat, plus recent histroy stuff. Also added Geo and Arash to the players list.

[ballisticwaffles]

Ballisticwaffles reporting for duty, SIR.

I am going to use Anstas "Trebia" Manslaughterer as my Player charecter. SHe is the one we talked about in the chat.

[sroberson]

I am interested in trying out a RP. I have never done something like this before though so I am unsure of how to submit the character I have in mind but haven't laid out completely or how to really take part in an RP. The character I loosely created a while ago is based in a timeline beyond the Pre-Lylat Wars, could they navigate through some worm hole that folds the space-time continuum and has them make an appearance during your timezone? Or would that be a bit too bizarre and beyond the ability to fit them?

[chaos_Leader]

could they navigate through some worm hole that folds the space-time continuum and has them make an appearance during your timezone? Or would that be a bit too bizarre and beyond the ability to fit them?

I don't mean to rain on the ideas, but this just won't happen. In the reality of this setting, space-time is not so malleable as silly-putty. See if you can bring it down to reality.

[sroberson]

No biggie, I was just wondering how much of the characters story could be held in tact around what I originally intended. I think i could simply shift the time frame and remove a couple details and it would still work out overall

____

I felt it would be adequate to provide an update on the character I would like to use

http://starfox-onlin...ons-characters/

History would be modified a bit to fit the timeline - thus disregarding the mentions of the Aparoidian and Anglar wars as well as a mention of Andross

[chaos_Leader]

No biggie, I was just wondering how much of the characters story could be held in tact around what I originally intended. I think i could simply shift the time frame and remove a couple details and it would still work out overall

____

I felt it would be adequate to provide an update on the character I would like to use

http://starfox-onlin...ons-characters/

History would be modified a bit to fit the timeline - thus disregarding the mentions of the Aparoidian and Anglar wars as well as a mention of Andross

That should work. I've updated the OP to reflect it.

I'll leave this open for a little while longer, see if there are any other takers. Otherwise we may have our party for the RP. I'll just need a little time to finalize things and set up an initial scenario.

[CrypticQuery]

Everything looks to be in tip-top shape with this request to me; you're welcome to start the discussion thread and actual RP thread whenever you're ready.

[Approved]

[sroberson]

Awesome, any idea when we might be able to kick this off, Chaos? Kind of looking forward to my first RP attempt

[Geo Stelar]

I'm really sorry but I think I'm gonna have to back off of from this one.

[Harlow]

If this one's still on chaos, I'm in.

Lennox Satsura's my character. The only major change it that his storyline will be moved a little to the past in order to fit. http://starfox-onlin...__fromsearch__1

Edited December 1, 2012 by Harlow

[ballisticwaffles]

Ballisticwaffles is always ready for duty sir!

[Arashikage]

I'm still interested

[Mellow Walrus]

And here's another to join the party, I've been needing to get into an RP on this site. I'll be using my character Al Tim.

[chaos_Leader]

I've updated the OP.

I apologize for not being more active and getting this thing rolling. I've been more than a little swamped by work/school lately, but that should clear up fairly soon, and I'll be able to devote the attention this deserves.

Hang in there.

[Harlow]

When this decides to take off, just tell em and I'm ready. Character's decided

[chaos_Leader]

I apologize for not being more active and getting this thing rolling. I've been more than a little swamped by work/school lately, but that should clear up fairly soon, and I'll be able to devote the attention this deserves.

About the RP: I'm just about done with finals for this term, and I'll have all summer to devote to this. College + Work = Scatterbrained, but I'll be slightly less so very soon. I appreciate everyone's patience (I do still have most of you hanging around here...?)

And hey, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Doesn't mean I won't give it try though.

[sroberson]

Still here! Was just wondering about the fate of this RP a couple days ago actually

[ballisticwaffles]

Ballisticwaffles is ALWAYS reporting for duty, SIR!

[Mellow Walrus]

Been stalking the thread since the day I joined it, glad to see that the rp might get back on its feet soon :)