Seeking Players: Magitech, Cybernetics, Intrigue

[Excession]

RULES OF NATURE
​

In the bad old days, Magi ruled the world; cruel and capricious sorcerer-kings who set themselves above ordinary humankind, wielding arcane might by raw effort of will.
Then Samantha Klein invented invented the revolver and things got a little more equal.

Two-hundred and seventy years later, the Imerian Federation officially bans Magi from public office. All legal citizens are tracked by use of the Redline - an enchanted chip that contains their personal information. Ostensibly to keep Magi from going rogue and to offer more convenience to the rest of humankind.
But here's the trick: denied thrones, Magi discovered boardrooms can be more powerful. Politicians can be bought. Police can be bribed. The massed poor can't do a thing about legal business.

Corporations rule the world. The government exists purely to maintain the illusions of freedom and choice. Forget Magic - money makes the world go 'round. Corps operate like sovereign nations on their own property, with employees heavily monitored, often paid in company Loyalty rather than real money, free to kill or imprison as they see fit.
Worse off still are the Blacklines. The poor, the downtrodden, the unprofitable. No legal rights, no protections unless they can pay private police companies. Grist for the capitalist mill.

Enter Lightning Security Solutions, LLC. A private military company with a conscience, founded by former police captain Lexi Smoke. They've put their money on a brave new world - the city-state of Fortune plans to implement a socialist democracy, putting fetters on the corporations and power back into the hands of the people. LSS jumped on the contract to assist and protect Fortune's current mayor from corp assassins, the city from espionage, the people from the depredation of vengeful corporate powers.

18 months in the making, today Fortune declares their new constitution and secession from the Imerian Federation. Now is the time the corps will strike, using anonymous PMCs in a show of force to make an example of Fortune.
It's on you, soldiers of LSS, to save the day.

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INTRIGUE. VIOLENCE. CYBERNETICS. POLITICS.
I'm seeking five players to take on the roles of officers in Lightning Security Solutions; professional soldiers fighting for a better future. Characters will be maimed. They might die. Sometimes the price of justice is sacrifice. Sometimes that sacrifice is your humanity.

I need:

• SUB-COMMANDER: Commander Smoke's second in command, leader of the initial player group.
• MCM SPECIALIST: Magical Counter-Measures; an expert in technical and sorcerous systems, a hacker and anti-mage in one.
• STRIKE COMMANDER: The consummate soldier. A front-line combatant who knows the value of teamwork and individual action both.
• INFILTRATOR: War is not the ordinary world. Morals and valour are comforting illusions best left at the door. A knife in the dark is worth a thousand swords at dawn. [please note: this character is preferred to have a history as a child soldier for over-arching plot reasons].
• ARMOURED COMMANDER: You are the shield for the men on the ground, employing advanced war-machines and powered exoskeletons to take out enemy artillery and armour.

More information will become available when a quorum of players has been achieved.

This RP will be supported by a dice-based mechanical system, but do not be intimidated - pre-written character sheets will be made available and rolls will be kept to a dramatically necessary minimum. Prior experience useful but by no means required.

This RP would benefit from at least one post per week, ideally up to three. There is no requirement for minimum wordcounts* or arbitrary notions of literacy: if you can communicate clearly, play with the group, and maintain a character, you are welcome.

Please post if you would be interested and ask questions as you like; I am happy to answer them.

Mood Music:

*I prize concise, effective prose and may politely request toning it down if you routinely go over 1k words per post.

 

[MagnoliaSweet]

I'm interested, but I don't want to reserve anything.

 

[Kurogane86]

I'm interested and would like to reserve the INFILTRATOR.

 

[R-9 Pilot]

I'm just curious about the dice system you'd be using. I might have some other setting-related questions too.

 

[Excession]

I'm just curious about the dice system you'd be using. I might have some other setting-related questions too.

I'll be using Crucible, a system I designed. It's reasonably newbie friendly, which was always one of my design goals.
Feel free to ask any other questions.

 

[Ichimofo]

I'd be interested in the mcm specialist!

 

[R-9 Pilot]

I'll be using Crucible, a system I designed. It's reasonably newbie friendly, which was always one of my design goals.
Feel free to ask any other questions.

As a tabletop guy, i just tend to have an interest in how the rules work in general. So if there;s a primer somewhere on how it works, I'd be happy to have a link and read it over.

I've also got a couple setting questions. Are androids or AIs common? What sort of cybernetics and weapon technology is common? how does magic tend to work in the modern day?

 

[Excession]

Sure; here's the slightly simplified primer.
Simple Primer

It's nice to know there're more tabletop folks on Iwaku.

Are androids or AIs common?

Soft Constructed Intelligences are pretty common - administrative assistants, autopilots, drones. Hard intelligence is much, much rarer - it's an expensive process.

What sort of cybernetics and weapon technology is common?

You have three basic kinds of cybernetics, but they all revolve around the same invention.

The Neural Spike is a ruby-infused chunk of bioplastic partly melded with the brain at the brain stem. Different spikes have different features, but pretty much all of them come with data storage & playback, wireless communication, and entoptic AR displays.

Mundane cybernetics are usually made mostly of plastic, or with a titanium mesh seam, and don't do much other than operate as advanced prostheses. They're normally hard-wired to the Neural Spike to facilitate their control - thought becomes action, as with any limb. Require electrical power to function but the batteries usually have long lives and are easy to replace.

Mass produced magical cybernetics are more advanced, with differing features depending on the magic used to construct them, Independently powered, they may be linked to the Spike by hard wiring, or by a wireless inferface (which is less secure). Examples include the Cassandra Empathy Booster, which allows the user to more easily read people, or the Z-3R0 Oracle which allows the user to perceive ghosts.

Custom magical cybernetics often include bound spells, a slew of special features. beautiful craftsmanship, and a maker's mark. Each one is unique.

There is, technically, the field of bioaugmentation, but the powers that be hate it.

how does magic tend to work in the modern day?

Magic is basically another branch of science. The thing is, no one has yet found a way to manipulate magic without a Magus. Magi are people born with the ability to use the Magic immanent in the universe, divided into twelve types. The process is as much art as science, but long story short - bulk enchantment of raw materials can allow for magical devices to be contructed on a larger scale than the mad wizard workshops of the bad old days.

No one is permitted to be a Magus in this game, for narrative reasons as much as for simplicity's sake.

If you'd like to know more about what it's like to live in the setting, this might help.
Economies of Scale – Preview

 

[R-9 Pilot]

I do like that initiative works with last in, first out. I did a similar thing for a space combat game once, where movement went from lowest to highest, then actions went highest to lowest. So better initiative meant better ability to have a good position in battle. It's fun to have things where it's not just "go first" but some other tactical advantage.

Not sure what role I'd play if I did pick up. Maybe the command one, so everyone in the end dies due to my failures to do a good job.

 

[Excession]

Alright, four interested is a good start.

I know a fifth I can contact, but hopefully there will be another applicant soon.
Any questions, so far?