Raparth
Oracle of Dimensional Science
This is our initial out of character threat for the play-by-post game that will follow up a Technocracy (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition) one-shot that I ran. Here's where we can start to chat, figure out character ideas (I'll make a character thread and then later RP thread when we're ready), and get things going. Out of character chat can certainly continue in Discord as well.
In the one-shot: the players explored a Syndicate (specifically Special Projects Division) underwater base (aka the Zheng He Construct) in the South China Sea that had been thought lost in the Dimensional Storm. They were sent there because monsters (up to and including kaiju creatures) were attacking the surrounding areas and had been traced back to the Zheng He base. They discovered a station with no one left alive, but strange monsters within. Juliette Cai, a SPD Director they found who had shot herself in her office a few months after the Dimensional Anomaly isolated the facility, was found, as were her records of conversations with an unknown superior who had gotten reports on progress in Restricted Lab 13. The players discovered a massive dimensional rift that was leaking into the base and even outside into the sea, allowing horrific creatures to enter Reality. Having disabled the base's shields, Void Engineer reinforcements came, assessed the base, and sanitized the rift. There are, however, still questions of how far this clear Deviance goes within the Technocracy...
So, as a storyteller, I would like to explore the ideas of power, paranoia, corruption, and conspiracies within the Technocracy and beyond. I have envisioned a group of player characters who go around investigating problems and solving them. Now, what I would like from you all is: would you prefer that to be primarily a social/political (e.g. within the Technocracy) sort of investigation or a go-out and find and destroy monstrous creatures or other threats (e.g. things that break through the Gauntlet) sort of investigation? I imagine we will, at least at some point, get some of both, but based on player preference I will focus on some aspects more than others.
Neither of those two ideas really lean towards spending most of your time in deep space or hiding among the Masses. Instead, most of your time would be among Technocrats, then going to do excursions on missions. Now, if you would prefer leaning more towards the Masses or towards the Umbra/Deep Space, let me know!
The mood and tone I'm currently thinking of (beyond the paranoia, uncertainty aspects) is the struggle of hope and desperation. You should be able to see and achieve goals, but sometimes the obstacles stacked against you are massive or unknown. So, I'm thinking of using bits of the horror and weird fiction genres, but it is important to me that players and their characters have agency (and effective agency!). You can (and will) make a difference! Maybe not always, maybe not cleanly, maybe you won't know the consequences, but the world can be improved through the actions of Enlightened individuals like your characters.
Player characters can be entirely new, or you can steal ones that I made for the one-shot.
In the one-shot: the players explored a Syndicate (specifically Special Projects Division) underwater base (aka the Zheng He Construct) in the South China Sea that had been thought lost in the Dimensional Storm. They were sent there because monsters (up to and including kaiju creatures) were attacking the surrounding areas and had been traced back to the Zheng He base. They discovered a station with no one left alive, but strange monsters within. Juliette Cai, a SPD Director they found who had shot herself in her office a few months after the Dimensional Anomaly isolated the facility, was found, as were her records of conversations with an unknown superior who had gotten reports on progress in Restricted Lab 13. The players discovered a massive dimensional rift that was leaking into the base and even outside into the sea, allowing horrific creatures to enter Reality. Having disabled the base's shields, Void Engineer reinforcements came, assessed the base, and sanitized the rift. There are, however, still questions of how far this clear Deviance goes within the Technocracy...
So, as a storyteller, I would like to explore the ideas of power, paranoia, corruption, and conspiracies within the Technocracy and beyond. I have envisioned a group of player characters who go around investigating problems and solving them. Now, what I would like from you all is: would you prefer that to be primarily a social/political (e.g. within the Technocracy) sort of investigation or a go-out and find and destroy monstrous creatures or other threats (e.g. things that break through the Gauntlet) sort of investigation? I imagine we will, at least at some point, get some of both, but based on player preference I will focus on some aspects more than others.
Neither of those two ideas really lean towards spending most of your time in deep space or hiding among the Masses. Instead, most of your time would be among Technocrats, then going to do excursions on missions. Now, if you would prefer leaning more towards the Masses or towards the Umbra/Deep Space, let me know!
The mood and tone I'm currently thinking of (beyond the paranoia, uncertainty aspects) is the struggle of hope and desperation. You should be able to see and achieve goals, but sometimes the obstacles stacked against you are massive or unknown. So, I'm thinking of using bits of the horror and weird fiction genres, but it is important to me that players and their characters have agency (and effective agency!). You can (and will) make a difference! Maybe not always, maybe not cleanly, maybe you won't know the consequences, but the world can be improved through the actions of Enlightened individuals like your characters.
Player characters can be entirely new, or you can steal ones that I made for the one-shot.
