Post by Nocturne on Feb 16, 2018 20:14:27 GMT
Hello all! So, I tried to run this game a while ago, and didn't get very far, mostly due to life issues causing some rather intense burnout. I was originally going to keep the three players I chose last time, but one of them had to drop out. I'm looking for a third player to complete the trio.
Without further ado, let me present to you, Triumvirate! This cyberpunk, or perhaps more accurately, post-cyberpunk campaign is inspired, among other things, by Shadowrun and Ghost in the Shell. Some aspects of the setting have been changed, but for the most part it remains the same.
Please read the document below. It will hopefully give you the information you need to build a character for this setting.
Triumvirate Background Document
Character Creation
As this is a full contact campaign, I advise you to build a character with some amount of combat skills. As previously mentioned, I will be taking one player, and their character will belong to the mega corps faction, so make sure to read up on that section of the Background Document and feel free to ask any questions.
The two current players are Dark Shadow and haybalebarn. Dark Shadow's character is Eliza and haybalebarn's is Nero.
Your PC gains either the Elemental Connection or Mystic Senses Edge for free as well if they wish to have it, as well as one non-Skill Edge of your choosing that you qualify for. This represents the high amount of supernaturals in the world, as well as my own desire to give everyone (including me with NPCs) more freedom to build characters as they like. The only banned Edge would be Touched (Mewtwo) as PCs are in the eye of the public, which doesn't fit the way I envision Mewtwo usage in the setting.
All playtests are in effect, except for the playtest capture rules. You may use the core and any of the splatbooks to make your character, however, Usurper from Blessed and the Damned and Glitch Bender from Do Porygon Dream of Mareep are not available for character creation. In general, please check with me on Skype if you're using Blessed and the Damned content beyond the Touched Edge. Characters should be between the ages of 18 and 21. PCs start off at Trainer Level 5 and one Level 15 Pokemon with a single Egg or Tutor Move that corresponds to the playtest rules. Your chosen starter must be a non-(pseudo or otherwise) legendary Underdog that is not a single stager. If it evolves at or before Level 15, that's fine, unless your chosen Pokemon is an Eevee. Eeveelutions will require a minimum Level of 20 to evolve in this game. Also, feel free to use Alolan Pokemon from the Ultra AlolaDex as starters if they meet the requirements. Alolan Pokemon are still native to the Alola Region, but it's not impossible to acquire them elsewhere.
You may give your Pokemon Skill Backgrounds if you so wish. It's not a requirement, but since it's more useful than not, I'd recommend you do so.
Players receive 15000 Pyen at character creation to buy items with. Anything left over after character creation is not lost, however availability of certain items after game start might be limited.
Weapons will use the cheaper costs in the core book, 2000 for Simple and 4000 for Fine. Also, guns work differently in my setting, so please don't fluff your weapons as guns, rifles, etc. High-tech versions of more medieval weapons are fine however.
As hinted at in the blurb, datajacks come free with the cyberization process and as such, are mandatory.
Restricted items: TMs that cost over 2500. The DPDoM weapons are off-limits for character creation.
Dex XP is in use and will be shared among the party.
Special Rules
This game will use one of the alternative rules in the core book for augmentations. These replace (not add to) the Augmentation Shock rules. Page 59 in Do Porygon Dream of Mareep has these rules, however two of the tiers have been swapped in order for this game.
Since Augmentation Shock isn't being used, Upgrader's Emergency Reactivation and Efficient Installation Features will be changed to the following.
Recruitment will end on Friday the 23rd of February at 8pm GMT+0.
Finally, please join the following Pre-Game Recruitment Discord chat: discord.gg/QAG2ecH
Without further ado, let me present to you, Triumvirate! This cyberpunk, or perhaps more accurately, post-cyberpunk campaign is inspired, among other things, by Shadowrun and Ghost in the Shell. Some aspects of the setting have been changed, but for the most part it remains the same.
This is not the Pokemon world as you know it. The year is 2036. 40 years ago was when gods first began to walk the earth once more. The presence of the man made god, Mewtwo, heralded a new age. The number of humans with supernatural powers shot up rapidly around the world, as if humanity was suddenly evolving in response to some unseen threat.
Then on the mundane side of things, Team Rocket was an enemy that took a lot of manpower and a coordinated effort between Kanto's forces to take down, rooted as it was in Kanto's underground. The war with the criminal organization took the lives of many Trainers. It showed the world how fragile human life really was.
In the 40 years that have passed since then, mankind has witnessed the rise of other enigmatic gods from their slumber and the fall of new criminal organizations who tried to use them. There have been wars, such as the Indigo War, a civil war between the Kanto and Johto regions, which ended with tentative peace agreements and a splitting of the Indigo League into the Kanto and Johto League. These events have caused humanity to place a lot of importance on their growth as a species, resulting in advances in weapons manufacture and technology. Where mundane crossbows and bladed weapons were the apex weapons 40 years ago, now it's super advanced Laser Rifles, Psionic Blades and their kind.
Technology has improved rapidly not only where weapons are concerned. After the wars with Team Rocket and other criminal organizations, many Trainers were left critically injured. Prosthetic technology has improved by leaps and bounds. Cybernetic replacement limbs became widespread. Nowadays they're barely thought of as prosthetics. Almost every adult citizen has a cyberized brain at least, alongside a datajack, used to access the vast internet and wireless communications. Cyberization is the process whereby a normal brain is physically integrated with electronic components to produce an augmented organ referred to as a cyberbrain. This operation is done at the age of 16 when an individual's brain is mature enough.
The advent of cybernetics has given way to the Age of Virtual Reality, where information on the internet, is even more widely accessible than before thanks to a VR landscape commonly called the Net. With this, however, comes a new wave of cyber crimes. Corporations such as Devon and Silph are being hacked by runners, criminal mercenaries who work in the shadows of society, and the corporations themselves are far too mysterious to be clean. Even the League has skeletons in their closet, and things are often not black or white.
Times are changing and the winds of change have given birth to something new and powerful. Just five years ago, a new god revealed himself. Calling himself "Missingno" he appears as a male human figure made of strings of code and has powers over the very technology that has brought mankind so far. Missingno's followers are gifted with abilities that also pertain to technology, and though some use these for less than lawful means, the god himself advocates a secure and harmonious Net. Within just five years he has managed to build a Net Security company called Ordis, that is widely known for incredible service. This company hasn't quite reached mega corp status yet, but is rapidly heading there as more and more mega corps and regular corps use its services.
The Pokemon League has lost a lot of power since the events of 40 years ago. The war with Team Rocket, especially their use of Mewtwo and then subsequent wars with other Teams, who sometimes managed to make use of the gods and their primordial strength, left them weakened and they were often forced to request additional help from the companies that would become the mega corporations of today, as well as from allied gods. This culminated in a complete shift within the balance of power, as the mega corporations really made the League pay for their help, forcing them to cede land to the corps which would then become corporate soil. Mega corporations became regions unto themselves, in which employees gained corporate nationality in addition to their normal nationality.
These days, the three factions, the triumvirate of the League, the Mega Corporations and the Gods, are constantly competing with each other. Each is vying for more power over the lives of the people, for different reasons. The League has hidden agendas, but also resents the power that has been taken from it, and wishes to regain its former glory. The mega corporations are hungry for more money and more power, as is the nature of capitalism. It's unclear why the gods are so adamant about gaining more followers, but the prevalent theory is that their divine spark, the thing that allows them to exert such tremendous influence upon the world, is affected not only by the subconsciousness of humans and Pokemon alike, but even more so by the strength of their belief.
You are Trainers who are just starting the gym circuit in the Kalos region. When the Ever Grande Conference of 2016 concluded, the gym circuit had been revamped in the face of the technology and abilities that humans were capable of using and Pokemon battling became a full contact sport. It is still humanity's oldest tradition, and considering this status, it is no wonder that all major factions in the world want to have a stake in it. In order to resolve this issue, new ways of becoming a licensed Trainer were established. Trainers can now be sponsored by mega corporations or even the gods, who have both risen to become factions that also wield great influence in the world. The mega corps basically can get a certain number of people past the Trainer application with assurance of their becoming a fully fledged Trainer. This privilege is usually given to the family members of high ranking or hard-working mega corp workers. Being sponsored by a god generally entails having an emissary of the god carry out relations with the League. They can get the god's chosen people past the application process, just like the mega corps. At the moment, the League has their agents handle all prospective Trainer applications, however, there is a way to fast track these. Being endorsed with a written reference by a person of status within the Pokemon world is currently the only way to do this. The most well known people to endorse prospective Trainers are Pokemon Professors, however Gym Leaders are also known to endorse people that for whatever reason can't or won't join their Gym, but are very suited to becoming Trainers.
The League, who still administers all Trainers, forces Trainers to team up with two people that are sponsored by the other factions, forming a group. This was done in order to prevent the building of a one-versus-the-world mentality that became very common in Trainers.
Then on the mundane side of things, Team Rocket was an enemy that took a lot of manpower and a coordinated effort between Kanto's forces to take down, rooted as it was in Kanto's underground. The war with the criminal organization took the lives of many Trainers. It showed the world how fragile human life really was.
In the 40 years that have passed since then, mankind has witnessed the rise of other enigmatic gods from their slumber and the fall of new criminal organizations who tried to use them. There have been wars, such as the Indigo War, a civil war between the Kanto and Johto regions, which ended with tentative peace agreements and a splitting of the Indigo League into the Kanto and Johto League. These events have caused humanity to place a lot of importance on their growth as a species, resulting in advances in weapons manufacture and technology. Where mundane crossbows and bladed weapons were the apex weapons 40 years ago, now it's super advanced Laser Rifles, Psionic Blades and their kind.
Technology has improved rapidly not only where weapons are concerned. After the wars with Team Rocket and other criminal organizations, many Trainers were left critically injured. Prosthetic technology has improved by leaps and bounds. Cybernetic replacement limbs became widespread. Nowadays they're barely thought of as prosthetics. Almost every adult citizen has a cyberized brain at least, alongside a datajack, used to access the vast internet and wireless communications. Cyberization is the process whereby a normal brain is physically integrated with electronic components to produce an augmented organ referred to as a cyberbrain. This operation is done at the age of 16 when an individual's brain is mature enough.
The advent of cybernetics has given way to the Age of Virtual Reality, where information on the internet, is even more widely accessible than before thanks to a VR landscape commonly called the Net. With this, however, comes a new wave of cyber crimes. Corporations such as Devon and Silph are being hacked by runners, criminal mercenaries who work in the shadows of society, and the corporations themselves are far too mysterious to be clean. Even the League has skeletons in their closet, and things are often not black or white.
Times are changing and the winds of change have given birth to something new and powerful. Just five years ago, a new god revealed himself. Calling himself "Missingno" he appears as a male human figure made of strings of code and has powers over the very technology that has brought mankind so far. Missingno's followers are gifted with abilities that also pertain to technology, and though some use these for less than lawful means, the god himself advocates a secure and harmonious Net. Within just five years he has managed to build a Net Security company called Ordis, that is widely known for incredible service. This company hasn't quite reached mega corp status yet, but is rapidly heading there as more and more mega corps and regular corps use its services.
The Pokemon League has lost a lot of power since the events of 40 years ago. The war with Team Rocket, especially their use of Mewtwo and then subsequent wars with other Teams, who sometimes managed to make use of the gods and their primordial strength, left them weakened and they were often forced to request additional help from the companies that would become the mega corporations of today, as well as from allied gods. This culminated in a complete shift within the balance of power, as the mega corporations really made the League pay for their help, forcing them to cede land to the corps which would then become corporate soil. Mega corporations became regions unto themselves, in which employees gained corporate nationality in addition to their normal nationality.
These days, the three factions, the triumvirate of the League, the Mega Corporations and the Gods, are constantly competing with each other. Each is vying for more power over the lives of the people, for different reasons. The League has hidden agendas, but also resents the power that has been taken from it, and wishes to regain its former glory. The mega corporations are hungry for more money and more power, as is the nature of capitalism. It's unclear why the gods are so adamant about gaining more followers, but the prevalent theory is that their divine spark, the thing that allows them to exert such tremendous influence upon the world, is affected not only by the subconsciousness of humans and Pokemon alike, but even more so by the strength of their belief.
You are Trainers who are just starting the gym circuit in the Kalos region. When the Ever Grande Conference of 2016 concluded, the gym circuit had been revamped in the face of the technology and abilities that humans were capable of using and Pokemon battling became a full contact sport. It is still humanity's oldest tradition, and considering this status, it is no wonder that all major factions in the world want to have a stake in it. In order to resolve this issue, new ways of becoming a licensed Trainer were established. Trainers can now be sponsored by mega corporations or even the gods, who have both risen to become factions that also wield great influence in the world. The mega corps basically can get a certain number of people past the Trainer application with assurance of their becoming a fully fledged Trainer. This privilege is usually given to the family members of high ranking or hard-working mega corp workers. Being sponsored by a god generally entails having an emissary of the god carry out relations with the League. They can get the god's chosen people past the application process, just like the mega corps. At the moment, the League has their agents handle all prospective Trainer applications, however, there is a way to fast track these. Being endorsed with a written reference by a person of status within the Pokemon world is currently the only way to do this. The most well known people to endorse prospective Trainers are Pokemon Professors, however Gym Leaders are also known to endorse people that for whatever reason can't or won't join their Gym, but are very suited to becoming Trainers.
The League, who still administers all Trainers, forces Trainers to team up with two people that are sponsored by the other factions, forming a group. This was done in order to prevent the building of a one-versus-the-world mentality that became very common in Trainers.
Please read the document below. It will hopefully give you the information you need to build a character for this setting.
Triumvirate Background Document
Character Creation
As this is a full contact campaign, I advise you to build a character with some amount of combat skills. As previously mentioned, I will be taking one player, and their character will belong to the mega corps faction, so make sure to read up on that section of the Background Document and feel free to ask any questions.
The two current players are Dark Shadow and haybalebarn. Dark Shadow's character is Eliza and haybalebarn's is Nero.
Your PC gains either the Elemental Connection or Mystic Senses Edge for free as well if they wish to have it, as well as one non-Skill Edge of your choosing that you qualify for. This represents the high amount of supernaturals in the world, as well as my own desire to give everyone (including me with NPCs) more freedom to build characters as they like. The only banned Edge would be Touched (Mewtwo) as PCs are in the eye of the public, which doesn't fit the way I envision Mewtwo usage in the setting.
All playtests are in effect, except for the playtest capture rules. You may use the core and any of the splatbooks to make your character, however, Usurper from Blessed and the Damned and Glitch Bender from Do Porygon Dream of Mareep are not available for character creation. In general, please check with me on Skype if you're using Blessed and the Damned content beyond the Touched Edge. Characters should be between the ages of 18 and 21. PCs start off at Trainer Level 5 and one Level 15 Pokemon with a single Egg or Tutor Move that corresponds to the playtest rules. Your chosen starter must be a non-(pseudo or otherwise) legendary Underdog that is not a single stager. If it evolves at or before Level 15, that's fine, unless your chosen Pokemon is an Eevee. Eeveelutions will require a minimum Level of 20 to evolve in this game. Also, feel free to use Alolan Pokemon from the Ultra AlolaDex as starters if they meet the requirements. Alolan Pokemon are still native to the Alola Region, but it's not impossible to acquire them elsewhere.
You may give your Pokemon Skill Backgrounds if you so wish. It's not a requirement, but since it's more useful than not, I'd recommend you do so.
Players receive 15000 Pyen at character creation to buy items with. Anything left over after character creation is not lost, however availability of certain items after game start might be limited.
Weapons will use the cheaper costs in the core book, 2000 for Simple and 4000 for Fine. Also, guns work differently in my setting, so please don't fluff your weapons as guns, rifles, etc. High-tech versions of more medieval weapons are fine however.
As hinted at in the blurb, datajacks come free with the cyberization process and as such, are mandatory.
Restricted items: TMs that cost over 2500. The DPDoM weapons are off-limits for character creation.
Dex XP is in use and will be shared among the party.
Special Rules
This game will use one of the alternative rules in the core book for augmentations. These replace (not add to) the Augmentation Shock rules. Page 59 in Do Porygon Dream of Mareep has these rules, however two of the tiers have been swapped in order for this game.
Augmentations affect a person's life force or Essence. Rather than being limited by Capacity, Augmentations are subtracted from a Pokemon or Trainer's Essence which starts at 10.
At the following milestones of Essence loss, the Pokemon or Trainer suffers deleterious effects.
7 or Lower: -1 Base HP
4 or Lower: The target becomes one step Weaker to Ghost-Type Moves. If they were previously Immune, Ghost Type Moves become Neutral.
2 or Lower: The target loses any Aura-related Capabilities they have, cannot learn or use Ghost-Type moves, or Moves with the Aura Keyword
0 Essence: -2 Base HP*
*Each effect is cumulative with the ones above it. A Pokemon or Trainer with 0 Essence therefore has -3 base HP.
At the following milestones of Essence loss, the Pokemon or Trainer suffers deleterious effects.
7 or Lower: -1 Base HP
4 or Lower: The target becomes one step Weaker to Ghost-Type Moves. If they were previously Immune, Ghost Type Moves become Neutral.
2 or Lower: The target loses any Aura-related Capabilities they have, cannot learn or use Ghost-Type moves, or Moves with the Aura Keyword
0 Essence: -2 Base HP*
*Each effect is cumulative with the ones above it. A Pokemon or Trainer with 0 Essence therefore has -3 base HP.
Since Augmentation Shock isn't being used, Upgrader's Emergency Reactivation and Efficient Installation Features will be changed to the following.
Emergency Reactivation
Prerequisites: Upgrader, Adept Technology Edu
Daily x2 - Swift Action
Effect: The user gains Temporary HP equal to their Technology Education Rank doubled.
Efficient Installation
Prerequisites: Upgrader, Expert Technology Edu
Static
Effect: You and your Pokemon gain a +2 boost to their maximum Essence and count
their Essence Loss as 2 higher for the purposes of Essence Loss milestones. You and your Pokémon can install multiple Augmentations in the same Slot.
Prerequisites: Upgrader, Adept Technology Edu
Daily x2 - Swift Action
Effect: The user gains Temporary HP equal to their Technology Education Rank doubled.
Efficient Installation
Prerequisites: Upgrader, Expert Technology Edu
Static
Effect: You and your Pokemon gain a +2 boost to their maximum Essence and count
their Essence Loss as 2 higher for the purposes of Essence Loss milestones. You and your Pokémon can install multiple Augmentations in the same Slot.
Recruitment will end on Friday the 23rd of February at 8pm GMT+0.
Finally, please join the following Pre-Game Recruitment Discord chat: discord.gg/QAG2ecH