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 Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 12:45 pm
All Mass Effect subject materials © BioWare. Shepherd's promise:
__________The Shepherd is a guide, a guardian, and a leader.
Protector of his flock, the Shepherd must lead it to new, fertile pastures
and away from any and all dangers that may threaten it.
If a member of the flock is led astray, the Shepherd must find it.
If a wolf threatens the flock, the Shepherd must defeat it.
If the flock wanes, the Shepherd must preserve it at all costs.
There is no flock without a Shepherd and the Shepherd, without a flock, is nothing.  " Setting.2175AD. Before Saren and the Geth attacked Eden Prime and before the galaxy knew of the threat of the Reapers. Setting will remain fixed on the Citadel, the galactic "hub", a 44.7km long, massive space station, populated by 13.2million or so extra-terrestrials and humans alike, the Citadel is the center of all things in the known galaxy. As it stands, there will be no space-faring expeditions or adventures. Plot.Plot will be based on missions that are posted as transmissions in the discussion thread. It will follow the playable characters as they explore life AFC with humanity and before the Geth Wars. Inter-species relations, internal politics, and crime organizations, right down to the personal struggles of individuals and relationships will tell the story. Experience.“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
Paulo CoelhoThe sum of all accomplishments. That which marks sentient races a pace ahead of those who will not adapt.
Experience will be gained by all playable characters based on the successful posts of actions. Each post must contain one, and only one, significant action. Any significant action is an action in which your post directly affects another playable character or an NPC and, in turn, provokes a reaction in turn. Action can be physical or spoken, and should always provoke a response. Not all 'action' in your post must be accounted for experience, such as opening a door, waving at friend, or anything that doesn't affect another player. When in doubt, ask yourself "are my actions in any way providing a RE-action for another player?"
Because your experience is based on interaction with others that is also how you will count your experience. With the exception of character building posts of your own, your experience will be based on the posts of other characters you are interacting with and how they are interacting with your own. Example Gary walked down the hall to Chora's Den, a place he frequented often because he was a pervert and an alcoholic. Example The teal-skinned Asari approached Gary upon entering the bar and smiled, introducing herself: " Hi there, my name is Selia. Teal is my natural color, which is rare for an Asari... wanna buy me a drink since I'm so special?"
The specific actions that will gain your character experience are:
Automatic Actions: Any action that affects another character, especially playable characters, is one action. This can be a combat action, a dialog action, any action that requires a reaction. However, only "codex worthy" dialog responses will garner you experience. Such things would be your character: meeting new characters, learning something significant about another character, entering a plot location for the first time, etc. Anything that would reflect on your character's experiences, literally, and be considered worth noting.
+100 exp. for "combat" actions
+50 exp. for "dialog" actions
+50 exp. for "explore" actions
*bonus experience is awarded for the daring. Any action that is judged to be lethal or pious, a renegade or paragon action, is a bonus 50exp.*
Roll Actions: Any action that is based on a stat and must, therefore, be rolled for success is a roll action. The only stats to be rolled on are Electronics, Decryption, Charm or Intimidate.
Note: All PC may roll to resist a Charm or Intimidate roll, and all PC are an automatic medium difficulty level. However, they do not gain modifiers to their resist and must beat the Charm/Intimidate roll, plus modifiers, with a natural result.
Difficulty modifier for rolls:
Easy: >5
Medium: >10
Hard: >18
+50 exp. for successful rolls.*for more on dice rolls.
Level Gain.
Experience gain will eventually lead to Level gain, which will mark your character stronger or weaker in combat and determine the level of success on all significant actions. The experience marker is 500, gaining incrementally as levels increase, and each new level starts the count again at zero:
500exp -- You have reached level 1! -- Exp: 0/1000 to progress
1000exp -- You have reached level 2! -- Exp: 0/1500 to progress
1500exp -- You have reached level 3! -- Exp: 0/2000 to progress
and so on.
Level gain will automatically allot 2 points for character stats.
Civilians will begin at level 0 (with 6 starting points)
Mercenaries will begin at level 1 (so they will have 6 starting points, plus 2)
Military or C-Sec officers at level 2 (6 starting points, plus 4)
[Experience gain will be posted in the discussion thread. It is expected for each PC to keep track of their experience and asign their given stats on their own.
See also:
Classes (and stats associated with each class)
Races
Mass Effect Wiki
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 5:23 pm
_________Chora's Den.
Faelan always hated coming here, to Chora's Den, but when the company needed to do something fast and dirty it always came down to dealing with Fist. The guy was a liar, a scum-bucket, and gave her the creeps. Cato said it was because she had good instincts and, since he was a testament to those instincts, she couldn't disagree. Even in this dive she managed a wistful smile while she thought of him, her on and only, and comforted herself with the knowledge that they'd be together again soon. If she had to sit in a hundred more dark, dingy, flesh-trading bars to see him again then she would, fortunately she only had to sit in one.
Also fortunately, she didn't have to deal with the patrons or the sight of the asari dancers. Located in the back room past Fist's personal office, she could hear the music and the sounds of the laughing dancers and leering men, but didn't have to see them. There still weren't a great deal of humans settling into the citadel yet and, as such, her being in the main bar would have attracted too much attention, be it positive or negative, and the most important thing right now was to avoid that. Her employer didn't want anyone knowing what was in that shipment, hell, she didn't even know what it was, and that meant keeping C-sec out. So Fist had his orders, or as he liked to say, his "recommendation" -- allow the Mercs and contractors access to the back, keep the law out. Considering how much he was being paid to do just that, Faelan had no doubt that he would do his job right.
So she'd wait. Though time was ticking she was patient, she had to be. Too much was riding on her ability to do this just right.
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:08 pm
Chora's Den
Kal'Rem could barely hear the doors hiss shut behind him. The music in Chora's seemed louder than usual today. This wasn't his first time in Chora's Den. After embarking on his Pilgrimage, the first thing he thought to visit was the Citadel, a massive space station that was... Well... The nexus of Citadel space. The Citadel was the political, financial and cultural capital of this side of the galaxy, and it was famed for being a creation of the Protheans, an ancient race that, according to experts, disappeared 50,000 or so years ago.
During his time here, Kal had made connections with some of the local merchants in the wards, developed one or two "friendships" with officers in C-Sec, and even hesitantly interacted with some of the shadier elements on the Citadel. One such undesirable was a man named Fist. Kal didn't know whether this was an assumed alias, or if, in fact, it was part of the human's real name-- but he was the owner of Chora's Den and a well-known crime figure. Kal didn't like being associated with him, and actually tended to avoid him on a regular basis if he could, but on this occasion, Fist was advertising a job that seemed well worth looking into.
Fist had arranged for him to meet with a woman named Fáelán Miller. For this job, Fist was only a middleman. That wasn't always the case, however. Kal was grateful for now.
Kal walked around the circular bar and approached Fist and his bouncer, who were standing in front of the door leading to Fist's warehouse and personal office.
"Well, I'm here, Fist," Kal shrugged, glancing at the bouncer nervously, grateful that he had a black-tinted visor his face. "Where's Ms. Miller?"
"She's in the back," Fist said, gesturing behind him.
Instead of taking him to Ms. Miller, like he was supposed to, Fist crossed his arms and sized Kal up, not for the first time. Kal sighed inaudibly and shifted uncomfortably, waiting for Fist to say his peace.
"Are you sure you want to take this job?" Fist asked, a cheesy grin forming on his face.
Kal sighed loudly this time, and replied in a monotone voice.
"Yes, Fist, I'm sure," Kal replied, frustrated with Fist's stalling. "I really want to take this job."
Kal rolled his eyes irritably. He was really getting tired of Fist making him speak just so he could hear his 'accent.' Racist p***k.
"Okay then, come with me," Fist said leading him into the warehouse.
Kal thought Ms. Miller would be waiting for them in Fist's office, but instead, Fist went straight past his desk and stopped in front of a keypad next to the door ahead of him. This was new for Kal. Kal had always assumed that this back door was simply an easy escape route in case of emergency. Kal didn't know he had quarters for guests back here-- or so Kal thought that was what he was being led into.
The door slid open and Fist waved Kal after him as he stepped into the room. Following after him, Kal spotted a conservatively dressed woman sitting alone at a table meant for more than one person.
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:40 pm
_________Chora's Den.
Fáelán stood as the doors opened across the small room and smiled instinctively at Fist as he entered the room, quickly followed by whom she assume would be the first of her hired help. Though her smile faltered at the sight of Fist she didn't let her gaze linger on him long, her attention focused on the Quarian, and gestured to the table for the Quarian to take a seat.
"Greetings," She said, "please take a seat if you'd like." Directing her attention back to fist her smile faded again.
"Just one... I was hoping there would be more responses.Well, no matter." It wasn't that she didn't think the Quarian was capable, though she'd never met a Quarian before in her life and she was, admittedly, more curious about him than confident in him, she had been instructed to be prepared to secure the shipment if necessary.
Back to the Quarian. "My name is Fáelán Miller, as you've probably been told, and you are?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 9:01 pm
Chora's Den
Kal approached Ms. Miller apprehensively.
"Kal'Rem, ma'am," Kal answered, extending a hand with three digits. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Kal'Rem prayed to keelah that Fist would just politely excuse himself, although he knew that was unlikely. Surely, there were business opportunities to be had at this meeting.
"I hear you have some property you need acquired," Kal ventured.
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 9:22 pm
____________Chora's Den
The Engineer took Kal's offered hand and shook it politely, impressed that he chose to greet her with such a human greeting. He seemed nervous and she wondered if he was nervous about the job or, if like her, simply didn't enjoy being in a place like Chora's Den. She couldn't imagine that people like the Quarians would expend resources on building anything similar to a skin-bar, and she couldn't remember seeing many in any bar she'd even been to. Not that she frequented them herself.
"Indeed." She said with a tip of her head to acknowledge the truth in Kal's observation, and then nodded to Fist. "Thank you Fist." She couldn't actually dismiss the crime-lord from his own meeting room, but she could remind him that he was being well paid to keep his eyes closed and his ears out of range of her company's business. She suspected it was more for his safety than her backing, but there was always the chance that Fist may try to extort anything he did overhear for more credits, or sell it to the Shadowbroker for fun on their expense.
"I'll be in the front, keeping my eye open for any 'volunteers' then."
After Fist excused himself with an arrogant grin and a confident swagger, Fáelán seated herself. Sitting gave her some comfort in a place like this, as did the image of Cota whenever she needed to draw him to mind. With a warm smile brought on by the image of her Turian lover in mind, she returned to the business at hand.
"You have been told enough of this job opportunity to wet whatever appetites you may have, I'm sure, but there's more to this job than a simple sweep of the station and a pin on a map. Because we wish to avoid any entanglements with unnecessary red-tape in recovering our lost property I ask that what we are about to discuss remain between us, and any others that I enlist to help us... can you agree to these terms?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:08 am
Chora's Den
Kal followed Ms. Miller's lead and seated himself at the table on the opposite side of it. Her briefly warm smile instantly became that of a professional Skyllian Blitz player's. "We wish to avoid entanglements" she says, Kal thought wryly. Not for the first time today, Kal was glad most beings in the galaxy couldn't read a Quarian's face.
"I'm not a blabbermouth, Ms. Miller," Kal said with a nod. "Whatever is said in this room stays in this room."
Kal leaned back in his chair, finding it oddly stiff and uncomfortable. There were no arm rests for an occupant, no cushion for the back, and the chair hardly reclined at all. For a well-to-do crime lord, Fist really needed to upgrade his chairs.
Kal waited patiently more details on the job. He didn't think this would be very difficult for him. Most "company property" on the Citadel was information of some sort, and if it was information that he needed to get his hands on, that meant that it was certainly stored electronically somewhere. And if it was stored electronically somewhere... Well, Kal'Rem had hardly met anything he couldn't crack, yet.
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:10 pm
___________Chora's Den.
Fáelán appreciated the Quarian's patience and took it as a sign of his seriousness, also appreciated under the circumstances. He wasn't boasting about his abilities or prowess like she would have expected from any men Fist was willing to send her way, he only wanted to listen. Very professional.
"Very well then, Kal'rem." She sat back in her own chair to bring her arm up comfortably, activating her omni-tool as she spoke. "Earlier today a transport arrived carrying equipment and cargo that was scheduled to be delivered to one of our labs at the Citadel, but since it's arrival at the station it has not discharged a single one of our employees, nor any of the crew. Now, so far we have been able to protect our transport from search and seizure through legal means... but if we do not gain access to the ship then C-sec will find a way to get onto it first and my employers are afraid of how long it would take to recover our property from them once it is in their custody" She hoped that Kal'rem would pick up on her choice of words and, from that, deduce the delicacy of the situation.
She could feel her fingers slowing as they worked through the data being brought up in her omni-tool, a side-effect of the growing knot in her chest as she tried to put out of her mind the potential consequences should C-sec gain access to the ship's contents first. It was growing increasingly difficult to convince the interested authorities that there was nothing of note on the ship, that the cargo was nothing to be 'interested' in, and the hiring of mercenaries did not help the matter. With some luck, however, perhaps she could pass the Quarian's presence off as assistance from a tech specialist. "I can give you the ship's ID and location."
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:03 pm
Chora's Den
Kal considered the situation her company was in, as Ms. Miller typed away on her omni-tool. A ship they were expecting to arrive was now docked in the Citadel. However, nobody had gained entrance to, nor exited, the ship. And her company didn't want C-Sec involved...
"I can give you the ship's ID and location," Ms. Miller added.
Kal didn't like being kept in the dark. Clearly, whatever was on that ship, she didn't want anyone knowing about-- which probably meant that it was illicit. On the other hand, that begged the question of why her organization would be hiring a freelancer to open their doors for them. Unless, of course, it was just that they had run out of options... Kal didn't like being left in the dark.
"What is on this ship that is so important?" Kal asked, leaning over the table towards Miller. "I'm not going to regret getting the airlock open, am I?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:39 pm
___________Chora's Den.
"I don't know what's on the ship." Fáelán admitted with a casual shrug of her slight shoulders, deactivating her omni-tool and settling her arms before her on the table-top. She rested her weight on them while she relaxed and gathered her words. "The ship is important because my employer says it is, and that's all I know on the matter. I'm just a tech analyst, authorized to hire aid in securing a ship that I need to find."
She lowered her gaze to her hands, avoiding what felt like a scrutinizing gaze from behind the mask, and re-evaluated her approach. After a few moments she dropped the formalities, as well as her volume and spoke in a quiet, casual tone. "I can understand your hesitance in accepting a job that seems so... crooked." Looking up, Fáelán cast a significant glance in the direction of the closed door through which Fist had passed, then regarded the Quarian again. "But the fact is, my employers don't want anyone to know what is on that ship, not C-sec, not Alliance, not even those they pay to secure it. They don't want to just buy your silence, they want to buy your curiosity too. As to whether or not you will regret opening that door when it's all over... well, that answer would require more insight on you than I have."
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:15 pm
Chora's Den
Kal crossed his arms. Ms. Miller's leveling with him only made him more uneasy. Kal didn't think mercenaries were so hard to come by that she felt she should be straight with him after the first question asked-- if only just to secure his doing the job.
"So, I crack the lock on the ship's access hatch and report back to you," Kal surmised. "Will you be coming with me to the dock?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:34 pm
___________Chora's Den
Fáelán shook her head slightly. "It won't be that simple." Thought she almost wished it were.
"Whatever is in that ship has to be secured. To do that, I go with you to the ship and we both get the doors open. From there I'll need on board to check our systems and figure out what happened; you stick around to assist me if I need it." She chewed her lip nervously, then added, "How many "technical assistance" jobs have you done, anyways?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 5:26 pm
Chora's Den
"Twenty-two," Kal answered without hesitating. "Three of which I wasn't paid for... Which also brings me us to that matter. What are you willing to offer me for my assistance?"
Kal leaned back in his chair. He wasn't doing jack-squat for anybody, least of all one of Fist's associates, if he wasn't getting paid. Kal intended to bring a ship of considerable size back to the Migrant Fleet, and doing so was going to cost him a lot of time and effort. He wasn't going to let this woman get the most of out him for the least.
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 6:18 pm
________Chora's den.
Fáelán didn't blink, only smiled again as she remembered just how eager her employer was to get the cargo from that ship.. an eagerness she was willing to stretch if a fat wallet meant an equally eager Quarian. "You must be experienced, and confident with an answer that prompt. Factoring that in... I'll offer you five-hundred credits up front, one-thousand credits for the potential risk factor, and another five-hundred once the task is complete." To her, the sum was inconsequential. She was authorized with a budget, of course, but she'd already diverted some of that to enlisting Fist's aid in securing volunteers and other matters.
She couldn't help but be curious about Kal's sudden aggressive tone when it came to discussing payment but only because he presented himself as a curiosity to her, having never met one of his race before. Maybe he'd let her be more curious as they worked together, she could only hope.
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Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 7:06 pm
Chora's Den
Kal did some quick math in his head. 2,000 credits was decent enough, it seemed. That could take care of this month's rent, as well as needed groceries for the next two weeks. With 500 credits left over after that, it seemed like a fair sum to be paid for this sort of job, and it was more money than he put into his savings than usual. Kal unfolded his arms and nodded.
"That sounds fair to me," Kal said. "I'll take the job."
Kal activated his own omni-tool, the bright-orange holographic interface surrounding his left arm, and awaited the transfer of the ship's ID and location.
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