[HEADING=1]-- COALITION --[/HEADING]
The year is 2184 CE, one year after the death of the great Commander Shepard. With the loss of one of their top agents, the Citadel Council worries about the safety of the galaxy. Shepard's death has been followed by new reports of Council Spectres missing or killed in action... but by whom? The geth presence in the Attican Traverse and the Terminus Systems has been considerably reduced, and not many of the other non-Council races have the cohesion to stand against the Citadel. And of course, the mysterious Collectors skulk around in the shadows of the galaxy, exchanging technology for bizarre requests. The little that is known about the enigmatic race is kept quiet: whether this is out of fear or ignorance is up for debate.
It is with the unknown threat to the Citadel Council and the Spectres that Coalition begins. A turian Spectre, Recarius Kallidan, is on the hunt for followers he can trust to assist in his investigation. From there, he will lead them, and the rest of the galaxy, to the truth. Leads, secrets and information with varying degrees of reliability are all that this Spectre has to work with: only time and patience will tell if they are enough to lift the veil over the galaxy's eyes.
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Hello, and welcome to this RP.
As a fan of both Mass Effect games - still haven't finished ME2 yet, though - and the tie-in novels by Drew Karpyshyn, I have often thought about the series as an RP, even joining one that, sadly, didn't get very far. I haven't seen many Mass Effect threads in 2011, besides Chicago Ted's Aegis Protection Firm, which has gone on for a while now (according to the OP of the current thread, March 2010 was its starting point) and I feel that it would be weird to join in the middle of it. With that in mind, I have come up with my own RP, taking place between the events of Mass Effect 1 and 2. With Commander Shepard out of the picture, we will focus on a different Spectre of my own creation.
To those who wish to join, welcome and good luck in writing your character sheet.
As a fan of both Mass Effect games - still haven't finished ME2 yet, though - and the tie-in novels by Drew Karpyshyn, I have often thought about the series as an RP, even joining one that, sadly, didn't get very far. I haven't seen many Mass Effect threads in 2011, besides Chicago Ted's Aegis Protection Firm, which has gone on for a while now (according to the OP of the current thread, March 2010 was its starting point) and I feel that it would be weird to join in the middle of it. With that in mind, I have come up with my own RP, taking place between the events of Mass Effect 1 and 2. With Commander Shepard out of the picture, we will focus on a different Spectre of my own creation.
To those who wish to join, welcome and good luck in writing your character sheet.
Shepard's actions before the destruction of the Normandy SR-1 are as follows:
- Saved the Destiny Ascension in the Battle of the Citadel.
- Released the Rachni Queen on Noveria.
- Spared the colony of Zhu's Hope on Feros, including the asari Shiala.
- Kaidan Alenko gave his life to complete the mission on Virmire.
- Convinced Urdnot Wrex to understand the destruction of the krogan facility on the same planet.
- Captain David Anderson is the human Council member.
Additional Note: In the manner of the Mass Effect novels by Drew Karpyshyn (at the time of writing), please do not refer to Shepard by gender-specific words such as he, she, him or her. There are other ways to describe the commander.
- Saved the Destiny Ascension in the Battle of the Citadel.
- Released the Rachni Queen on Noveria.
- Spared the colony of Zhu's Hope on Feros, including the asari Shiala.
- Kaidan Alenko gave his life to complete the mission on Virmire.
- Convinced Urdnot Wrex to understand the destruction of the krogan facility on the same planet.
- Captain David Anderson is the human Council member.
Additional Note: In the manner of the Mass Effect novels by Drew Karpyshyn (at the time of writing), please do not refer to Shepard by gender-specific words such as he, she, him or her. There are other ways to describe the commander.
Name: This should be fairly obvious. Do try and keep it relevant to your race, though: you won't see an asari named Steve.
Age: Please keep this relevant to your race, and in terms of galactic standard years. For example, asari can live for up to a thousand years. Salarians live much shorter lives.
Gender: Again, fairly obvious.
Race: I will only accept characters from the following races:
- Human
- Asari
- Turian
- Salarian
- Drell
- Batarian
- Krogan
- Quarian
Any others will be dismissed immediately.
Appearance: Describe your character's physical characteristics. How tall are they? How would you describe their racial features? What kind of clothing or armour do they wear?
Personality: The quirks and flaws that make your character an individual as opposed to a soulless machine or a simple extension of you, the player.
Profession: What does your character do for a living? Are they a soldier, scientist, technician, assassin, courier, doctor? The choice is yours.
Talents: What special skills does your character have? Do they rely on weapons and/or tech attacks to get through combat, or do their proficiencies lie off of the battlefield? Are they a biotic? If so, how do their biotics affect their daily life? Are they a skilled negotiator? Do they have a keen eye for detail?
GM's Note: Both of these are somewhat open compared to the previous version of the character sheet, so feel free to throw in anything you think is useful.
Possessions: What does your character own that they will bring aboard Recarius's ship, the Steadfast? Weapons, armour, an omni-tool, or (almost) any other items your character deems valuable. When choosing your character's weapons, please don't pick anything too powerful or otherwise unusable; most humans would be unable to fire the M-98 Widow sniper rifle without breaking an arm. Also, no Collector weaponry or heavy weapons; the Steadfast's armoury will provide the latter.
Biography: Your character's life up to the present day. Where were they born? How did they receive the training they have? When did they leave their home planet? Did they travel the galaxy, enlist in the military, or score a swanky job on the Citadel after a while? The choice is yours.
Please include an event in which the character participated, that caught the attention of Recarius Kallidan. As a Spectre, he won't just go round picking people off of the street to join his team aboard the Steadfast, his starship. In your character's biography, they should either make their way to the space station Omega at some point, or receive a communique from Recarius telling them to meet him there. The meeting with Recarius will not take place in Afterlife. Rather, the message directs the reader to a medium-quality apartment on the space station; a female quarian will be waiting outside to mark the place.
Notes: Anything you feel is necessary to flesh out your character beyond the entries above.
Age: Please keep this relevant to your race, and in terms of galactic standard years. For example, asari can live for up to a thousand years. Salarians live much shorter lives.
Gender: Again, fairly obvious.
Race: I will only accept characters from the following races:
- Human
- Asari
- Turian
- Salarian
- Drell
- Batarian
- Krogan
- Quarian
Any others will be dismissed immediately.
Appearance: Describe your character's physical characteristics. How tall are they? How would you describe their racial features? What kind of clothing or armour do they wear?
Personality: The quirks and flaws that make your character an individual as opposed to a soulless machine or a simple extension of you, the player.
Profession: What does your character do for a living? Are they a soldier, scientist, technician, assassin, courier, doctor? The choice is yours.
Talents: What special skills does your character have? Do they rely on weapons and/or tech attacks to get through combat, or do their proficiencies lie off of the battlefield? Are they a biotic? If so, how do their biotics affect their daily life? Are they a skilled negotiator? Do they have a keen eye for detail?
GM's Note: Both of these are somewhat open compared to the previous version of the character sheet, so feel free to throw in anything you think is useful.
Possessions: What does your character own that they will bring aboard Recarius's ship, the Steadfast? Weapons, armour, an omni-tool, or (almost) any other items your character deems valuable. When choosing your character's weapons, please don't pick anything too powerful or otherwise unusable; most humans would be unable to fire the M-98 Widow sniper rifle without breaking an arm. Also, no Collector weaponry or heavy weapons; the Steadfast's armoury will provide the latter.
Biography: Your character's life up to the present day. Where were they born? How did they receive the training they have? When did they leave their home planet? Did they travel the galaxy, enlist in the military, or score a swanky job on the Citadel after a while? The choice is yours.
Please include an event in which the character participated, that caught the attention of Recarius Kallidan. As a Spectre, he won't just go round picking people off of the street to join his team aboard the Steadfast, his starship. In your character's biography, they should either make their way to the space station Omega at some point, or receive a communique from Recarius telling them to meet him there. The meeting with Recarius will not take place in Afterlife. Rather, the message directs the reader to a medium-quality apartment on the space station; a female quarian will be waiting outside to mark the place.
Notes: Anything you feel is necessary to flesh out your character beyond the entries above.
- First and foremost, I will only accept one character per person. No exceptions.
- I will not tolerate plagiarism in any way. If I see a character sheet that looks oddly familiar to something I've seen before, but wasn't your creation, then I will dismiss it. In addition, if I see a sheet that bears an almost uncanny resemblance to sheets I've seen from you before, outside of this genre, I will ask you to write a new one. Originality is good: it helps you to expand on your characters and build more onto them as you go.
- - In addition, I request that applicants create characters with no connections to existing characters in the Mass Effect universe, nor any connections to organisations such as C-Sec, the Blue Suns or the Spectres. My turian character will be the only player-character Spectre in the RP.
- Given that the Citadel Council is in denial on the subject of the Reaper threat, the truth about the Reapers is not widely known. None of the accepted characters will know the official story about Shepard and the Reapers; not even my Spectre knows. If people go on and on about the Reaper threat in a galaxy where it is little more than rumour, it breaks the universe a bit.
- I will not tolerate plagiarism in any way. If I see a character sheet that looks oddly familiar to something I've seen before, but wasn't your creation, then I will dismiss it. In addition, if I see a sheet that bears an almost uncanny resemblance to sheets I've seen from you before, outside of this genre, I will ask you to write a new one. Originality is good: it helps you to expand on your characters and build more onto them as you go.
- - In addition, I request that applicants create characters with no connections to existing characters in the Mass Effect universe, nor any connections to organisations such as C-Sec, the Blue Suns or the Spectres. My turian character will be the only player-character Spectre in the RP.
- Given that the Citadel Council is in denial on the subject of the Reaper threat, the truth about the Reapers is not widely known. None of the accepted characters will know the official story about Shepard and the Reapers; not even my Spectre knows. If people go on and on about the Reaper threat in a galaxy where it is little more than rumour, it breaks the universe a bit.
[hr]
- I would like to see a somewhat wide variety of characters in terms of race, gender, profession and abilities. Too many krogan battlemasters or human soldiers makes for a less exciting thread, and cuts down on the diversity and character development.
- Anyone who submits a character sheet must be willing to give full commitment to the RP, and they must have every intention to stay with it until its end. This means that if you join, you agree not to drop out unless you either give us advance warning, or you at least tell us that you're gonna bail. No-one likes it when people drop out partway through for no reason.
- I expect all participants to have a high level of competency in regards to spelling, grammar and post length. Anyone - and I mean anyone - who writes a post with a length of one line or less, with little detail or action, will be placed on a warning system. After three warnings, you are dismissed from the RP and your character will be either killed or ignored to death. In addition, I request that all posts are written in third-person, past tense.
- If I deem your posts to be not up to my standards, I as GM reserve the right to ignore them and their poster until the problem is resolved.
- Godmodders and/or godmoders will be removed from the RP upon repeated instances of the offence. I see little difference between the two and will punish instances equally as a result.
- In order for all participants to communicate effectively, I recommend that everyone intending to be a part of Mass Effect: Coalition downloads the instant messaging / conference-call program Skype and sets up an account with which to take part in out-of-character discussions. I and many of my Escapist friends have found this program to be just as effective, if not more so, than an Escapist-based usergroup. It also helps us to get to know each other better. I enjoy writing alongside people I know much more than working with people who are practically strangers.
- - If you already have a Skype account, send it my way once you're accepted.
- Romances are allowed between characters - in fact, I encourage them if they're done right. If, however, things begin to go a little too far into mature content, participants will have to keep it to a certain level. The Escapist doesn't allow mature or heavily-explicit content, even in the roleplaying forums.
- Anyone who submits a character sheet must be willing to give full commitment to the RP, and they must have every intention to stay with it until its end. This means that if you join, you agree not to drop out unless you either give us advance warning, or you at least tell us that you're gonna bail. No-one likes it when people drop out partway through for no reason.
- I expect all participants to have a high level of competency in regards to spelling, grammar and post length. Anyone - and I mean anyone - who writes a post with a length of one line or less, with little detail or action, will be placed on a warning system. After three warnings, you are dismissed from the RP and your character will be either killed or ignored to death. In addition, I request that all posts are written in third-person, past tense.
- If I deem your posts to be not up to my standards, I as GM reserve the right to ignore them and their poster until the problem is resolved.
- Godmodders and/or godmoders will be removed from the RP upon repeated instances of the offence. I see little difference between the two and will punish instances equally as a result.
- In order for all participants to communicate effectively, I recommend that everyone intending to be a part of Mass Effect: Coalition downloads the instant messaging / conference-call program Skype and sets up an account with which to take part in out-of-character discussions. I and many of my Escapist friends have found this program to be just as effective, if not more so, than an Escapist-based usergroup. It also helps us to get to know each other better. I enjoy writing alongside people I know much more than working with people who are practically strangers.
- - If you already have a Skype account, send it my way once you're accepted.
- Romances are allowed between characters - in fact, I encourage them if they're done right. If, however, things begin to go a little too far into mature content, participants will have to keep it to a certain level. The Escapist doesn't allow mature or heavily-explicit content, even in the roleplaying forums.
The Steadfast, Recarius's starship, is a turian frigate re-purposed to house a multiracial crew in addition to the team to be assembled by Recarius. Outfitted with standard weapons and armour for the turian military plus a few extras, it also houses an armoury and training range, and caters to the needs of all races among the crew. The Steadfast's staff is currently made up of humans, turians and salarians; all have agreed to work in a multiracial environment.
Additional Note (Please read before showing interest):
I do not accept reserves for players except in rare circumstances. Post a character sheet - or say that you will have one up in the foreseeable future, then post a sheet later - and I will consider you, though I do not appreciate being kept waiting for one person when a large number of others are ready to go.