Eternity RPC Board
09-26-2018, 04:41 PM
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.
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.
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