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+--- Thread: PNW Anomaly (/thread-771.html)
PNW Anomaly - Sal - 09-26-2018
Inspired by some short stories I’ve read and podcasts I’ve listened to recently, as well as by some of my favorite games and cheesy sci-fi movies, I’ve been thinking I’d like to toy around with a survival/exploration type of RP. I love any kind of game with a chance factor, but I want to keep it lit-based, too, so the style — for me, anyhow — will be kind of experimental. So here’s what I’m thinking...
The Background
In a future not even distant enough to be considered “futuristic” — maybe next month, maybe next week, maybe even tomorrow — an anomaly springs up deep in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest along the Canadian-U.S. border. First detected by a team of researchers sent from the Los Alamos National Laboratory to study occasional unidentified energy signatures which seem to have been stemming from that area sporadically over the past year or so, the anomaly is unclassifiable. Although they trip the alarms on almost every device possessed by the LANL, the detections are not purely radiological, nor are they completely biological, magnetic, seismic, or — well, exactly anything that has previously been identified. It is all these things at once, and it is something else. The energy seems to peak in inconsistent cycles, sometimes going silent for weeks at a time between spikes, and sometimes having as many as three spikes within a single day.
Stranger, still, are the reports from hikers and scientists alike of strange wildlife spotted within the area. Bald eagles flock in strange patterns, seemingly agitated by something unseen to man. Redwood saplings double in size overnight, and in just under four days, they tower over their neighbors. Sitka deer with antlers as big as oak branches, all gnarled and thorny with dozens of tines, are reported by hunters. Kermode bear sightings increase exponentially — and these bears are huge. Massive. Eight feet tall at the shoulders, and twice that when they stand to full height on their hind legs.
And then there are the beasts that can’t be classified. Rumors of wolf-like creatures with the coat pattern of a wolverine and a scream like a cougar’s spread quickly. Supposedly, they are fast. Supposedly, very fast.
The land in the forest begins to change. Familiar landmarks are suddenly gone. Lakes appear just to be swallowed up overnight as if they never existed at all. Deep, bottomless gorges open up and swallow the earth and everything living on it. Earthquakes centered around the depths of the forest are felt as far south as Boise and as far north as Edmonton.
Disappearances of tourists begin almost three weeks after the first detected anomaly, and the National Park Services of Canada and the U.S. close the parks in the area to the public immediately after one hiker’s remains are found in ribbons. Signs are posted at all entrances into the forest, and trailheads are cordoned off. An international team of scientists (ecologists, biologists, and hydrogeologists, primarily, along with nuclear physicists and others), military, and government representatives is convened to answer the question that is now on the forefront of the public’s mind and that is plastered across every front page of every newspaper from Seattle to Seoul: What’s in the forest of the PNW?
The Plot
You are one of the elite members of the PNW Anomaly Response Team (PART) — or maybe you’re a journalist or a stowaway hiker looking for an adventure and just pretending to be an expert in your field — but either way, you have been selected to deploy into the (Name of Forest Here) to research the anomaly epicenter.
Here’s what you know:
1.) It has been eight weeks since the anomalies in the forest have started.
2.) It has been established that the epicenter of the anomaly is somewhere along the border of Washington state and Vancouver, but no one has officially located it at the start of your excursion. The anomaly seems to span in a radius of approximately 68 mi/110 km around the epicenter. An additional 15 mi/25 km buffer zone has been established.
3.) Wildlife and geological shifts occur more frequently and more noticeably closer to the epicenter and less so at the perimeter.
4.) There have been six confirmed deaths/disappearances related to the anomaly.
5.) The frequency of geological shifts in the anomaly area still occurs irregularly.
6.) There have been no reported irregularities in the Pacific Ocean or Vancouver Island.
7.) Access to the anomaly zone and all national parks/forests in southern Vancouver, Washington, and northern Idaho has been restricted. Entrance by civilians is not permitted and all roads entering the area have been closed with guards posted and traffic diverted around the buffer zone.
8.) Background radiation levels are slightly elevated inside the anomaly zone.
9.) Radio signals are sometimes disrupted near the zone.
Additional information will be forthcoming.
The RP
As mentioned, this roleplay will be part chance-based dice rolling, and part full lit. My part in this will be to serve as DM, or to play the anomaly zone itself and the creatures within it if you prefer to think of it that way. Each “round” will more or less correspond to a day (meaning your characters will mostly be forced to stop to rest at night), and each day will proceed as follows:
I. DM Setup
- DM provides map
- DM provides temperature and weather conditions
- DM describes any notable landscape changes to the area in eyeshot of the party that occurred overnight (roll D12*1 where 1 = no changes; 12 = significant changes)
- DM describes any losses/damage to equipment and supplies overnight (roll D12*1 where 1 = no losses/damage; 12 = significant losses/damage)
II. Player Setup
- Each player rolls a D12 to determine overall individual success that day (1 = death; 2 = survival with critical failure/injury; 12 = survival with major success)
III. Player Posts
This is the part where you guys roleplay as normal, keeping in mind the constraints set by the preceding setup rolls. The recommendation is at least two posts per character per day, possibly more if fewer characters. Other than that, this is open ended, so go wild. I will be available to perform DM activities as needed (rolling tie-breakers, describing new areas as they are entered, deciding the outcome of significant decisions, etc.), but don’t feel that you need to rely on me.
Suggested PART roles (important roles in bold):
— Seismologist, hydrogeologist, wildlife biologist, nuclear physicist, LANL scientist etc. (this is a research team, so multiple kinds of scientists are needed; feel free to make up anything that sounds science-y but might not actually be a real profession)
— National Park Service ranger/guide
— Military representative (can essentially be anything as long as you convince me that there’s a good reason for them tagging along)
— Journalist/photographer - LIMITED TO 1
— Local Bigfoot enthusiast with really good forged credentials - LIMITED TO 1
It is recommended that you create more than one character as your characters may die.
Q ‘n A
Q. Do you have a predetermined plot for this RP? What is our team supposed to find inside the zone?
A. No, I don’t have an endgame. I will contribute as needed, but I am leaving it up to you all as to what PART finds in the forest. Aliens? A secret WMD? God Himself? All up to you.
Q. During my setup phase, I rolled a 1. I don’t want my character to die - it doesn’t even make since because [insert reason why they’re so cool and unkillable here]. Can I just RP them surviving instead?
A. No. Them’s the breaks. You have a 92% chance of surviving each turn, which is actually quite generous considering it does not account for the fact that the land around you is getting more and more hostile as you move toward the epicenter. The odds are in your favor. Make more than one character.
Q. What if everyone dies before we find the epicenter?
A. I’ll write a summary post. The NPCs will mourn your loss.
Q. I don’t know anything about the sciences you listed needing our characters to be experts in. Can I still join?
A. Absolutely. I don’t know anything about like 90% of them, either. And heck, I don’t know much about government/economics/military, and this is primarily a MRTP board. If you can’t dazzle me with brilliance, baffle me with bullshit, etc.
Q. What if my character needs to be awake overnight?
A. Send me a PM to let me know so that I know when to proceed with the setup phase for the next day.
Q. Can we split the party?
A. Yes.
Q. Is there a cap on characters?
A. 8 or 9 seems sufficient.
RE: PNW Anomaly - Seperallis - 10-01-2018
Lit
Are we just creating characters in this thread? Should I hurry up and introduce my Fantasia character reforms? Am I making up whatever I want for my character sheet, or are we even using them?
RE: PNW Anomaly - Ayzek - 10-02-2018
Is there a tl;dr version? Jk, I read it. ARE THERES FORMS I CAN FILL IN?
RE: PNW Anomaly - Sal - 10-02-2018
Yes, you can submit characters to this thread. Might as well keep everything in one place. I’ll update the first post to include a roster and a direct link to each profile.
One clarification about roles, the cap on one military personnel is strictly referring to non-scientist personnel. If your character is a physicist with the Navy or something, that’s fine. If their sole purpose is have gun, carry gun, pew pew, we don’t need a ton of those.
Seperallis Wrote:Should I hurry up and introduce my Fantasia character reforms?
Build that repository, boy.
Uh, I can make a profile template if people prefer that. Suggested:
Code:
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Sex:[/b]
[b]Date of Birth:[/b] [This RP will be set around 2019-2020, so calculate accordingly]
[b]Affiliation/Employer:[/b] [Everyone is a member of PART, so that goes without saying. Who was your character with pre-RP?]
[b]Job Title:[/b]
[b]Character Description:[/b] [Personality and appearance.]
[b]Biography:[/b] [Mainly focusing on why this elite group would have reached out to you, or why you would have felt yourself worthy to offer your services to PART.]
[b]Skills:[/b] [As relevant to this setting]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b] [As relevant to this setting]
[b]Other Notes:[/b] [Optional.]RE: PNW Anomaly - Ayzek - 10-02-2018
I feel like it's a bad oversight to send a bunch of really smart people into a land filled with giant bears and very fast wolf-creatures and only bring along one good guy with a gun. Two, counting the park ranger. Unless they're all armed.
Have planes been able to fly over the forest? They just can't detect much, given all the wonky sensors? IS THERE VIDEO OF A TREE GROWING YUUUUUGGEEE OVERNIGHT? :O
RE: PNW Anomaly - Sal - 10-03-2018
Yeah, thus the clarification about additional military personnel being fine as long as they have a skill other than Got An A In Gym Class since this is a research expedition primarily. And I’m sure everyone can manage a shotgun (or maybe not. Maybe that’s how you die: buckshot accident.) There would be training leading up to something like this, after all. It’s not like the government scooped up the biggest asthmatic, myopic nerds they could find and paratrooped them into the woods with nothing but the lab coats on their backs.
Air traffic has not been diverted. The anomaly does not extend that high up.
The detections are rather inconsistent, yes. It is still possible to get readings, but often it’s quick spikes or a quick succession of spikes followed by a lot of nothing.
There are probably bear cams in the forest that have picked up some unnatural plant growth and animal activity. Those have probably made their way to YouTube.
RE: PNW Anomaly - Ayzek - 10-14-2018
Name: Johnathan William Andrews
Sex: Male
Date of Birth: April 19, 1984
Affiliation/Employer: U.S. Army
Job Title: CBERN Specialist
Character Description: He's a pretty cool guy, who looks pretty cool.
Biography: Do I haaavveee to? He's a standard-issue CBERN Specialist who was assigned to PART because he's a (standard-issue) CBERN Specialist.
Skills:
He CBERN Specialist very goodly.
Basic weapons handling cause soldier.
Weaknesses: He's not very special.
Other Notes:
Name: Amy Lee
Sex: Female
Date of Birth: January 19, 1992
Affiliation/Employer: US Forest Service
Job Title: Wildlife Biologist
Character Description: You are violating her privacy by asking for personal information. But, yes, she is Korean-American. But she's not your typical Asian, no. Actually, would it be racial stereotyping to say she's tall? She's actually of average height. Make of that what you will.
Biography: She is a wildlife biologist in the region and was lucky enough to be offered to volunteer to explore this exciting new frontier.
Skills:
She Wildlife Biologist very greatly.
She does range-shooting as a hobby.
Weaknesses: She's, um...a normal human female, with normal human female functions.
Other Notes:
RE: PNW Anomaly - Seperallis - 04-26-2019
Name: Tristan Rodson
Sex: M
Date of Birth: Feb. 14 1987
Affiliation/Employer: Apparently FBI, Paranormal Science Investigations Unit
Job Title: Field Agent?
Character Description: A pale white dude, slim of build about 5’9” tall with straight black hair at that kind of scraggly mullet-ish length that skims the eyes and obscures the ears and is clearly at least 3 months beyond any reasonable time for a cut. He seems the kind of person who doesn’t get “out” much, but that’s completely a myth, he just, you know, burns easily and just can’t get any tanner, regardless of what he tries. Beyond that, he looks pretty normal for his job: a comfortable set of shoes that looks nice enough yet still practical for long and rough wear, heavy brown work pants that also look well enough in an office, a slate-blue pull-on tee with a pocket, and a brown cardigan that conveniently covers the concealed holster of his service weapon.
Oh yeah, and thin frameless glasses, the near-sighted nerd.
Tends to do what he wants when he wants, but he’s not, like, malicious about it or anything, gosh.
Biography: The Paranormal Science Investigations Unit is a small and secret service with a long history of investigating and protecting the American public from all manner of extranormal, unexplainable, or anomalous phenomenon. Tristan has been attached to the PART(y) apparently as FBI to get eyes-on, document the anomaly, and determine if what’s happening in the PNW is something natural, or...other, so the agency can perform necessary next-steps to keep the public safe and ignorant.
Skills: Investigative skills and procedures relevant to someone who does a kind of detective work, he’s also received standard and regular service marksman training and basic survival and self-defense knowledge.
Weaknesses: His specialty is gathering and analyzing information, not gathering faces with his fists.
He is not nearly as durable or fit as he was in school.
Upper body strength is not his forte, so try not to put yourself in a situation where the only thing keeping you from meeting the bottom of a fall is his noodle arms.
Not blind, but definitely very nearsighted without his glasses. The loss of detail isn’t much of a problem normally, but in a forest where shapes and colors already blend together?
Other Notes: Aside from normal hiking and survival gear, Tristan is packing a suite of sample and surveillance equipment, both digital and film cameras, gloves, vials, etc etc in the chance there is actually something to sample and analyze later. Trail cams and aerial sensors are nice, but there’s nothing like some good old lab analysis.
RE: PNW Anomaly - Seperallis - 11-20-2019
If we don't get any more cook kids who like to write stuff, can we go ahead and just go with this?
RE: PNW Anomaly - Sal - 11-21-2019
It would be helpful to probably have at least one more person. Two more would be great. I hadn’t intended on making any characters but I gueeeess I can.