New Star Army Plot Ship

[Wes]

The Sakura is full, the Celia is slow and in the middle of a mission, and the Destiny is overloaded; The Star Army needs a new plot ship.

In order to start a new plot ship, we need:

• A Story GM (Volunteers?) Story GMs usually also role-play the captain.
• General ideas of the story's possible events and outcomes
• A theme for the plot (Romance, action, exploration, friendship, etc.)
• Roleplayers grouped by online activity. Actual players shouldn't be a problem because we can grab some form the Destiny and more are incoming all the time.

Here's some ideas of mine:

• YSS Nozomi (part 2): The YSS Nozomi, under Ketsurui Hanako, head out to forge diplomatic ties with new species on behalf of Yamatai. (Note: Yui's been retired from use as a main character). This would also accomodate the new samurai character just made. (I'd be the GM. This would be a good option if we can't find another GM. I'd prefer each ship have a different GM, though. In the event one GM has to leave, the damage is minimal that way.)
• Hull Breach: A regular warship serving in one of the regular Star Army fleets fights an ongoing conflict against the SMX. A gritty, bloody, and high-emotion plot that focuses on characters surviving the horrors of war. Primarily aimed at newer players and power armor pilots. Some player character deaths would be likely and expected.
• Secrets of Yamatai: A Star Army ship investigates abandoned SMX worlds and follows the trail back to the heart of Yamatai, unveiling a secret that could prove the salvation of the endangered nation. During the plot, characters would likely interact very closely with some Mishhuvurthyar characters and may go aboard an SMX ship and in some genetic dungeons... (Note: The YSS Sakura might take this plotline)

I'd like your ideas as well.

 

[Tom]

I totally dig the hull breach idea (being completely new, however, I'm far far too underqualified to even touch GMing.)

Here's an idea I'll throw out.

Shortage: An expeditionary ship experiences a malfunction while traveling over a long distance. All communications and further warping capabilities are disabled through some unknown anomaly. With finite resources dwindling, the crew has the heavy burden of trying to repair the damaged systems, while simultaneously keeping the morale of the general public on the ship stable (or do they keep them ignorant of everything?).

The idea offers a lot of opportunities for various crew types. Mechanics have to deal with trying to fix a horribly damaged system. Military police must deal with rising public tension as "failsafe" technology starts going down. Pilots have to explore for resources in a huge galaxy (needle in a haystack and a good opportunity to stumble on something... interesting). Leadership must address the crumbling psyche of their crew, the public, and themselves as time progresses.

For some wicked (read: vicious) fun, throw in the ideas of Hull Breach to create a truly desperate atmosphere.

 

[Zakalwe]

Those are all good ideas. I love the Hull Breach and Secrets of Yamatai setting, and would love to RP in either.

 

[Sypher]

Those ideas are really cool. I like the hull breach.

Crash down: Star army ship coming away from a fight over an smx planet get, they get shot down. They have to survive for weeks as they can't get comunication with their fleet ships. This would have a high death rate. Also possibility that all crew will die. This will show, moral, death, friendship, leadership and survival.

Just an idea, you can shot it diwn in flames if you wish. (Get it...)

GM. I'll volunteer if that's ok. Would you be able to participate fully?

 

[Tyler]

Problem with Crashdown: it was tried on Neo Fenyar and came to an abrupt halt. You'd need to REALLY plan that one out and clearly state conditions, anything on the worlds that could be used to the PC's advantage or lack there of and such. I understand there are things the PC players can't know as they are GM only secrets but you should tell them something at least.

 

[Sypher]

Yeah. Cool. I just put down a short idea. I understand. I didn't know it was used before though. Excuse me for that.

 

[Zack]

Mini-Plots: Although war, internal conflict, and weapons development has all but eclipsed higher indevors like pure science and exploration some ships devoted to that cause still exsist. Lone ships in deep space find that space is not always as vacent as it seems.
Miniplots deals with a single ship running into odd situations. It wouldn't rely on a overall story arc but focus on created several small plot arcs to keep intrest and action high.

 

[Wes]

I like the "mini-plots" and "shortage" ideas. The "crashdown" one is good, too, Tyler is right about if having been done recently. If we did do it again, I think we might want to add a twist on it like having the characters arrive in an escape pod and having to adapt to life on a farm-type world where technology is practically non-existant. Maybe we could throw in some horror elements to make it more exciting, too.

Another idea I had was using the old YSS Yui for a plot ship. It'd be neat to have new characters be able to use the same ship that was used by Yui and Chiharu. It's not a complete plot idea, but it would be interesting and educational.

 

[Zack]

Even with those twists, the crashdown plot sounds like a carbon copy of the Feynar one. No Tech, Horror elements, bad omen.

The Fenyar plot didn't have any horror elements, man.

 

[Tyler]

I'd volunteer for a position as a GM but I already know I'd suck terribly at it. *laughs* so I'll just sit back and throw plot ideas out as I come up with them. I'm currently working on one for my own race and detailing them more. Any help would be appreciated. And Zack having no tech isn't a bad thing really just different.

 

[Abwehran Commander]

I personally was thinking about creating an plot on an Abwehran Imperial ship once the species is introduced. I haven't gotten the complete and total idea down pat yet, since I'm still fine tuning the Abwehrans. But it's still something that can be done down the line.

This thread is for discussion of a Star Army plot ship, since there's a large number of Star Army characters out there. I'm fine with your plot idea, but it won't support Star Army characters and doesn't belong in this thread.

 

[Tom]

Work just drains my mind. Need something creative to think about. So, for another idea...

Virus

This game is mostly for medical/support class types, but others can squeeze in too.

Something contaminates the life support systems of a ships, spreading a virus of unusual strength (even affecting those resistant to diseases). Symptoms at first seem like nothing more than a cold but later become debilitating. Doctors scramble to find a cure... leadership and the brave soldiers sent to investigate must answer another question... was this a biological attack from enemy forces?

 

[Zack]

That is the kind of situation that SA tech can easily overcome, if anything thats the kind of thing that would happen in the mini-plots plot rather than being its own stand alone arc.

 

[Harlequin]

Against the Tide: By some unforseeable impossibility, the Star Army fleet is in actual retreat. Broken and reeling, command has ordered that (plot ship name here) act as the core of the vanguard group ordered to hold off pursuit and, if possible, draw them away from the main force. A variant of Hull Breach where the likelyhood that anyone will survive is very minimal.

Operation Longinus: The offensive derivation of Against the Tide and Hull Breach. Looking for a quick way to bring an end to the conflict, Star Army Command has commissioned the starship (plot ship name here, sugg. Amenonuhoko: look it up) with a small support fleet to carry a mass-destruction weapon towards the an important SMX target (their homeworld, main fleet rally point, etc.). This strategic strike should bring the war closer to an end, but it's also undeniably risky.

 

[Zack]

Both of those aren't large enough to be major plot arcs. Both sound like events that would take place in the frontlines plot arc and not be plot arcs of their own.

Hull Breach: A regular warship serving in one of the regular Star Army fleets fights an ongoing conflict against the SMX. A gritty, bloody, and high-emotion plot that focuses on characters surviving the horrors of war. Primarily aimed at newer players and power armor pilots. Some player character deaths would be likely and expected.

This plotline could easily encompas both of the plot arcs you've suggested. Because battles themselves are fairly short, your plot arcs would end in the space of a single thread.

 

[Harlequin]

I contest that by saying you can make them plots of their own, independent of the front lines plot arc through virtue of existing within their own situations that would motivate characters involved in them in ways different to a generic front line plot arc.

If you want to run them as single battles, then they could certainly be run that way. If someone else wanted to take the blurbs I wrote and extend them into a campaign, that's also a possibility.

 

[Zack]

You even say in your own posts that these are just knock offs of the hull breach plot. Why even bother posting them in the first place if they are not bringing in anything new?

Thats my point, you haven't provided anything that would prove otherwise.

Both of your plots involve a single mission theme. In the past all fleet combat actions have been very short, taking very little time for the actual battle to complete. This would leave the plot ship without anything to do almost as soon as the plot had started if past experiance is in indication.

Hull breach is broader and not only includes the plots you've already mentioned but also includes potentially limitless combat engagements.

What you've done is akin to me taking the Shortage plot and making a a 'everyone has to go down to a planet to scavenge for supplies' plot. It is more or less the exact same thing and isn't bringing anything new to this thread at all.

With hull breach its already implied that combat missions will require a bit of skill to acomplish and will be part of the overall war with the SMX. Again, this implies that it already includes your single events as well as others such as hit and run operations. If your going to try and put up something here you might as well try and come up with something original that other people haven't already suggested.

Someone already did expand your blubs into a campain, that was the whole hull breach plot arc.

 

[Harlequin]

They are bringing in something new. They're taking the generic and giving it a direction to go in. Saying this falls into Hull Breach is more or less true because you could replace any instance of Hull Breach and put in 'War' and you'd have what it really is at its core.

But then with that reasoning, you could take any combat related plot, say it falls under 'war' and call it a day. If we just had chartacters bashing heads for no specific reason under your touted Hull Breach setting, then things would get awful boring, awful fast not to mention degenration into something vaguely reminiscent of a DBZ RPG sparring session.

Yes, I admit to saying my plots were derived off Hull Breach because they need a war environment to function in. Apart from that, they're completely able to function as stand-alone products.

 

[Tom]

Trying to steer this discussion back on course...

The Lost Ship

A joint project to go along with "Shortage," SA finds one less ship in its fleet and sends another ship to find it. It may be kinda cool have two ships connected like this. Perhaps this ship gets pieces of a larger puzzle (what is the cause of the warp failure? Is the "shortage" ship in danger of attack? Maybe they intercept enemy communications that reveal that they found the lost ship... and they want them dead. Our heroes must dash madly to find them before it's too late!)

Running something like that may present a very interesting opportunity for joint-campaigning. Perhaps loved ones are separated? Friends?

Glory

A campaign for a small group of players (and a very skilled GM). A discontent commander "hijacks" his crew while on a long-range mission, effectively rebelling against the Star Army. He/she holds a large group of loyal soldiers on his/her side. Many crewmembers, however, do not side with the commander's opinion. Do they risk death for insubordination or death for high treason against the Star Army?

Battle lines are drawn and a civil war erupts on the ship... which side wins? We have to establish whether all players are on the same side against the GM's forces or (for some very interesting flavor) players choose sides and a battle royale erupts. (We can assume HIGH player casualties, so I'd think players who sign up for this one must be ok with that.)

Or is there a chance for escape or a diplomatic solution?

 

[Jadg Wolf]

I do not mindlessly "agree" with Zack, if that's what you're saying. If you're saying we like to bash new people for no reason, you're wrong. We happen to have the same attitude about a lot of things on this board; it probably has something to do with us having been here a long time. I think Zack pointed out a problem, and if you don't think there is one, then you should debate. When Zack pointed out the problem, you didn't really make a counter-argument, but just said "Yes, you can actually make them their own plot arc if you want to" so Zack had to repeat his argument. Past that, I guess you start to make actual arguments.

People keep asking for "constructive criticism" and then when someone points out a problem they're unhappy. People can't expect others to solve problems for them; they're being constructive by pointing it out, but often the person who had the idea resents the other person pointing out the problem.

I honestly don't really have an opinion on any of this. I'm likely not going to be involved, and if I am, I'd rather not have a part in the development of a plot as it feels too much like scripting to me. I'm not trying to argue with you Diver, but you said you thought I'd respond, so I did.

Edit: So that my post isn't pointless, I'd like to say that I quite like the "Glory" idea, but I think it'd be better in the General Roleplay forum as a single thread, and not as a plot arc. If you want it to be bigger than just one thread, you'd likely have to have the ship go on to actually challenge Star Army, though they'd be unable to succeed. Perhaps join the Pirate group?