Star Army

Star ArmyⓇ is a landmark of forum roleplaying. Opened in 2002, Star Army is like an internet clubhouse for people who love roleplaying, art, and worldbuilding. Anyone 18 or older may join for free. New members are welcome! Use the "Register" button below.

Note: This is a play-by-post RPG site. If you're looking for the tabletop miniatures wargame "5150: Star Army" instead, see Two Hour Wargames.

  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 December 2024 is YE 46.9 in the RP.

Approved Character [YSS Anoiktos] Patroklos

I've been busy. So far I've only had a chance to glance through it. What I've seen so far seems okay but I need to give it a more thorough reading before I can review it.
 
@Aendri Alrighty, If theres anything you can do to help me make this better I'd be happy to listen, admittedly I found it hard to fully understand everything about them.
 
So, like we talked about a bit, I'll give you a rundown in here, so you know what can be worked on.

- The name is okay, but most people picked up a surname when they switched into a Caelisolan body, since it was a Plebeian thing to not have a surname.
- The wings being black isn't something special he'd have to do. It's an uncommon color, but not unheard of, and much like neko bodies, Caelisolan bodies could be fully customized to their user's desire.
- Under eyes, "though not one too noticable"
- You should include something in the distinguishing features, even if it's nothing big. Everyone has SOMETHING about that that sets them apart, even if that something is that they're completely unremarkable (think Martin from the Dresden Files)
- Like I mentioned, his hatred for Plebeians is kinda baseless, because on the whole, they don't exist anymore. I need to edit the wiki to better reflect that, but something like 2% or less is still in a Plebeian body at this point, so hating an extinct species is kinda silly.
- You can remove the notes about things he wouldn't mention to anyone. The wiki isn't something characters can look up, so it's entirely up to you as the player what to reveal or bring up. No need to note what he would tell someone, just show us. Also, just a note, but eroticism isn't frowned upon in Elysia at all, it's very ancient Greece in that respect.
- If he was born on the homeworld (which is Yamatai, if you weren't aware) in YE06, then he would've been born into a war zone, though this would be a good way to explain his parents being dead, since a HUGE portion of the Elysian population was killed when The Heavens were destroyed. They were kicked off of the planet by YE08, and the wars were only on hold until YE14, so that's not much time to grow up. You might want to make him a bit older, might fix it a bit. Born ~3-4 years before YE01, that way there's a bit more time to grow before all of the rather final stuff happens?
- Keep in mind, as well, that as a Plebeian, he would have most likely needed to steal books and other learning materials. The Plebeians, outside of a very limited number, were on a level only barely above slaves.
- Next, the Senate of Elysia didn't exist until YE28, so he couldn't have been marrying a Senator's daughter back in YE26. Even ignoring that, though, it was very literally unthinkable for a Patrician to marry a Plebeian until the last 5 years or so, roughly coinciding with the introduction of the Caelisolan body. He might be almost a mistress equivalent, but honor is (and always has been) almost everything to Elysians, and a relationship with a Plebeian would shame her family to an incredible extent.

I'll leave the rest of the history alone for now, until we've talked a bit more about how to tweak around what I've already mentioned.

- The phrasing in the communications skill needs some work. It's hard to explain (closest I can come is it's a bit stilted and jerky), but I can tweak it a bit for you if you'd like.
- Under knowledge, you mention that he has a perfect memory. Does he have an eidetic memory in general, or just on these specific subjects?
- Engineering needs to be clarified a LOT. That's a very broad field, just saying that he has knowledge of "engineering" isn't going to cut it.
- Maintenance is kinda touchy. If he has no hands on experience, it's VERY hard to use that skill. Any good mechanic or repairman will tell you book knowledge means nothing beside actual experience working on something.
- Biology needs to be cut back a fair bit. Keep in mind that thousands upon thousands of scientists have been studying nothing but the earth's biological aspects for literal centuries, longer depending on how you define it, and we are STILL learning things we got wrong or hadn't even started to learn yet. A 30 year old knowing MULTIPLE planets worth of biological data on anything but the most general scale just isn't feasible, especially with all of the other skills.
- Same thing as above with Humanities. That's WAY too broad a spectrum to have even the most basic of training in all of them on top of everything else. Diplomacy is the only part that isn't a full on field of its own, and that's only because it draws specific parts of several of the others. We're talking 20+ years of schooling to reach even generalist levels in each field.
-Wash, rinse repeat with Medical and Science. Again, it's a full on, VERY in depth field that people will spend decades learning.

The skills in the general need to be toned back. It almost reads like you've tried to make him a specialist in about a dozen different fields, which would result in him being effectively worthless in all of them. There's a big difference between having read about something and actually being able to put that information to use.

Also, cut off the part about "He would be considered" at the end of each skill. It's redundant, and not all that accurate anyway. I know people who have no college experience who are just naturally talented in fields, and I know people with decades of schooling who are still useless. List the skills, and let the RP determine where he falls out.


-On the items... the sword is touchy. Like I mentioned before, Elysians are very big on honor. Poisoned blades, assassination... none of that is natural or right to them. Just carrying that kind of weapon would be enough to make a large chunk of the population look down on him, let alone actually using it.

Overall? You've obviously put in the time and work to fill out the character, but there are some discrepancies big enough that they definitely need to be addressed. This one is pending further updates.
 
I'll have this finished by tomorrow, after the holidays are over I'm now capable of focusing on more then just posting. Sorry for the wait @Kai
 
Alright I've altered the sheet quite a bit to fit a more toned down character and wrote a better history and think I covered all the bases you said @Aendri please give it another look if you will.
 
Dear lordy, you certainly love your apostrophes. I tried to remove all of the ones I noticed (the incorrect ones, that is), and also tweaked up the history a bit to have more links and slightly better phrasing on some things.

One thing I think I didn't really make clear enough last time (I probably pushed you a bit too far in that direction, actually), is that Plebians didn't think of themselves as slaves. In that culture, Plebians truly WERE the lesser race, and it was ingrained in their culture and history to the very core. They wouldn't think twice about doing what a Patrician said in most cases, because everything in their lives said they should. It's almost like a parental/child relationship in that respect. The slave perspective is a newer, outside perspective, not one natural to them. Plebians looked to the Patricians for guidance, not as masters, but as leaders.

All of that said, they weren't treated well. It really was a matter of everyone in that society thinking that was how things were always meant to be though, not a matter of subjugation or enslavement. Just something to keep in mind when you're phrasing things and writing things for the character, especially with edits.

The third paragraph of the history should probably be tweaked to reflect that perspective, maybe a bit towards the end of the second paragraph as well.

Going through the rest of the history, keep in mind that the Patricians didn't go out of their way to mistreat the Plebians. They were lesser citizens, but citizens in need of guidance, not people to mistreat. While some of the Patricians definitely took that to extremes, just as has happened irl in some cases, most truly did believe it was their duty to guide and uplift the Plebians to be as close to the level of existence that the patricians stood upon.

The other big one is that if he was on Keren, he wouldn't have been anywhere near the top of the list to transfer bodies. That system was out of contact with everybody, not just Yamatai. When Yamatai found it in YE30 was the first time Elysia knew about it as well, and they would've been near the bottom end of the list unless they had a medical reason for being moved earlier, just because of the limited nature of the initial upgrades.

I'd also think pretty hard about whether or not the languages are really justified. until very recently, the Lorath weren't on good terms with much of anyone on the other side of Yamatai, because they wouldn't stop arguing with yamatai for long enough to get past them, and the Garts are a VERY new addition to the interstellar language lists. Unless there is a really good reason for him knowing those languages, I'd just skip them, since Trade is good pretty much anywhere you go anyway.

The rest of it looks pretty good now.
 
Oh, sorry. Forgot to mention, the distinguishing characteristics needs to be visible. It's what would make him stick out in a crowd, not what people would think of him as a personality.

Under dislikes, do you mean people who act insulting from those groups, or people being insulting TO those groups?

Tweaked a bit of the phrasing in the history, just to clarify some pieces. And removed more apostrophes, which I may just remove your rights to use. Otherwise, the history is good.

Under communications, could you specify how he's good with the languages? Is it all written, or verbal, or a bit of both? How familiar is he with all of them? It may be better to just write it all out, rather than using the bullets.

You also seem to have a bit of a love affair with random capitalization, which makes me want to punch babies.

Starship operations needs to be clarified a bit. You say it's what he's best at, but don't say what it actually is! You gotta be more specific. Is he a skilled pilot of small craft, like shuttles and fighters, or is it more for the bigger ships, like freighters and starships?

That's it. Those details aside, you're good to go, so if you need to, feel free to start taking part in the RP before you're done, none of that is anything that should hold you up.
 
And removed more apostrophes, which I may just remove your rights to use.
As the guy who ends up editing a lot of the stuff on the wiki for these errors, this made me laugh, and I know that feeling. Thanks Aendri for helping Semjax make his character page extra awesome.
 
I've been a little busy doing quite a bit of stuff for other sheets and plots, I'll get right back on this one today at some point @Aendri
 
Alright finished up the changes and alterations... However, I have decided that to support my own plot I'm moving him over to the YSS Anoiktos as a civvie. @Aendri if thats okay.

@Kai Sorry I've had a lot of time to think on this, and with your life being so busy at the moment I don't think Patroklos would thrive under the ISC Roc at this moment.
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top