[M&M 2e] Red Sands Chronicles. (OOC)

[Voda Vosa]

Nice page Fred! I've done mine too.

 

[Blackrat]

Yeah, heromachine 3 is awesome... Unfortunately I didn't manage to create a satisfactory helmet with it

 

[Binder Fred]

Ooo, a challenge! What did you have in mind re helmet? Fishbowl, Space marine-y? Iron man? If you have a picture that would help. EDIT= Have you looked in Head\Mech?

Voda: For some reason I was SURE your PC was the turban type.

 

[Binder Fred]

Couple of bits and pieces. Something in there for everyone.

Shayuri: Have you considered something a bit stronger for a motivation to leave your home for the city? Say entire sections of the Beast which you don't/only half-way understand, circuits you've never seen before, functions un-guested at (aether-magic-psionic-alien-time travel based?) threaded through the more classical circuits, or maybe a critical, mystical central part(s) just plain missing (artifact questing anyone?)? Whatever this missing function does, it could in fact be the main/most formidable part of the mech's true purpose. Gives you a mystery that you can't (entirely) solve on your own, a reason to crave financing (to pay for exotic parts, sure, but books and manuals of lost knowledge don't come cheap, and neither does truly good expert advice (and who *knows* what those crazy sages might ask in lieu of hard cash payments!)). Plus, of course, room for the suit to grow in an unexpected direction in the future.... Interested?

Blackrat: I'm curious as to what the role of the Spartans is in the political field of Mars (?). As I understand it, each city-state is independant, so are the Spartans produced by one city-state that rents them out to others as mercenary "peace-keepers"? One city-state that uses them for military expansion/policing the wilderness/its own citizens? Multiple, culturaly-related but politically competing city-states, each with it's own cadre of Spartans (say all the cities of southern Amazonis Planitia)? Are they a religious group akin to fighting monks, sending out disciples into the world to train and spread the good word? A religious group tied to a city-state's official religion? Something else?

Voda: What role does steam play in your Scimitar power? Is it a propellant, shooting out of holes on the back-side of the blade (and/or out the handle for thrusts), or is it intended to scald the target instead? You could have both, of course, just wondering how you see it working.

Oh, and while I think of it: no moon on Mars (well, technically two very, very small ones, but no tides to speak of). So could Sahid perhaps be a "Reclaim Earth" political type? Drumming up political and technical support to, well, to rebuild Mars' space capabilities first, of course, but then, and most importantly, put back together what went wrong with earth. Nicely parallels his drive for redemption, and he's got a personal stake in it as well since, I assume, proximity to the earth's much larger moon/the source of his original power would actually make his powers grow quite a bit? All for the good of humankind, of course. Don't think we'll be going into space quite yet, but it *does* give him a direction to go and he *is* immortal. Long-term goals should be his bread and butter.

Also, I added the current map of Mars to the Gazetteer. Sadly, I have no idea what the scale of this map is...

Forgot all about this question, sorry. Anyways, taking the radius of Mars as 3,396km, we get that each 15° is (2*3.1416*3,396km)*(15/360)=889km. So the distance between Victoria Town and the nearest city of Sentenza is roughly... 3100km or about three-quartes of the east-west width of North America (say New York to Salt Lake City). Even at an average 50km/h, 8 hours a day, it'll still take a full 8 days to travel between the two.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Couple of bits and pieces. Something in there for everyone.
Voda: What role does steam play in your Scimitar power? Is it a propellant, shooting out of holes on the back-side of the blade (and/or out the handle for thrusts), or is it intended to scald the target instead? You could have both, of course, just wondering how you see it working.

Oh, and while I think of it: no moon on Mars (well, technically two very, very small ones, but no tides to speak of). So could Sahid perhaps be a "Reclaim Earth" political type? Drumming up political and technical support to, well, to rebuild Mars' space capabilities first, of course, but then, and most importantly, put back together what went wrong with earth. Nicely parallels his drive for redemption, and he's got a personal stake in it as well since, I assume, proximity to the earth's much larger moon/the source of his original power would actually make his powers grow quite a bit? All for the good of humankind, of course. Don't think we'll be going into space quite yet, but it *does* give him a direction to go and he *is* immortal. Long-term goals should be his bread and butter.

You got it on the first try, it's a propellant intended to give extra thrust power (aka Penetrating).

Nice ideas! He'll like to reclaim earth and purge it of whatever substance is rendering it inhabitable. He'll feel he can only redeem himself completely IF he retakes earth for human kind, restoring what he helped to destroy.
I had assumed that since he is now far away from the moon, his powers have diminished to his actual PL, so yes, returning to the earth would boost his abilities I should think.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Blackrat: I'm curious as to what the role of the Spartans is in the political field of Mars (?). As I understand it, each city-state is independant, so are the Spartans produced by one city-state that rents them out to others as mercenary "peace-keepers"? One city-state that uses them for military expansion/policing the wilderness/its own citizens? Multiple, culturaly-related but politically competing city-states, each with it's own cadre of Spartans (say all the cities of southern Amazonis Planitia)? Are they a religious group akin to fighting monks, sending out disciples into the world to train and spread the good word? A religious group tied to a city-state's official religion? Something else?

I can actually fill in some of the blanks here from what some of the ideas Blackrat and I came up with. Spartan Garrisons appear to have some sort of regional governance's. Their membership tend to be recruited and trained locally (one garrison 'overseeing' and protecting up to three cities).

They are believed to be a relic from the war that destroyed life on Earth and nearly destroyed the Martian Civilization. It is rumored that the organization is based out of one of the great city-states, although it is unknown which (since only the upper echelons of each garrison seem to know the true purpose of the Spartan Guard).

So yeah, something is going on behind the scenes, and people seem to suspect maybe it involves the Spartans due to their tendency to travel outside their home city-states and their increasing numbers in various regions. But then, it appears other groups, like the trader guides, are up to something...

Forgot all about this question, sorry. Anyways, taking the radius of Mars as 3,396km, we get that each 15° is (2*3.1416*3,396km)*(15/360)=889km. So the distance between Victoria Town and the nearest city of Sentenza is roughly... 3100km or about three-quartes of the east-west width of North America (say New York to Salt Lake City). Even at an average 50km/h, 8 hours a day, it'll still take a full 8 days to travel between the two.

Ha.. I think my numbers might be off then (then again I went off the 3400 rounded number) so I got 897 km (per 15 degrees) or 1389 km per inch on that map. Though converted to miles to annoy all the non-Americans.

 

[Shayuri]

Shayuri: Have you considered something a bit stronger for a motivation to leave your home for the city? Say entire sections of the Beast which you don't/only half-way understand, circuits you've never seen before, functions un-guested at (aether-magic-psionic-alien-time travel based?) threaded through the more classical circuits, or maybe a critical, mystical central part(s) just plain missing (artifact questing anyone?)? Whatever this missing function does, it could in fact be the main/most formidable part of the mech's true purpose. Gives you a mystery that you can't (entirely) solve on your own, a reason to crave financing (to pay for exotic parts, sure, but books and manuals of lost knowledge don't come cheap, and neither does truly good expert advice (and who *knows* what those crazy sages might ask in lieu of hard cash payments!)). Plus, of course, room for the suit to grow in an unexpected direction in the future.... Interested?

Heh, my writeup clearly left something to be desired. This was basically what I had in mind. In other words, Deez has only been able to restore the very simplest and most basic functions to operation. She lacks tools, expertise and parts to do more.

But yes, the idea is that with time and access to high tech goodies, Deezy will unlock additional functions and goodies within this machine. It is, after all, a relic from a time when technology was much higher than now. And there are questions too, about it that are unanswered. What was it doing, all by itself in the middle of nowhere, with no pilot, and no real damage (beyond the damage done by time and exposure)? Was it abandoned? Why? Was it hidden? Why?!

Etc.

 

[jkason]

All these pictures, thought I'd have a go at it. It's not exactly what I was thinking (but then, I'm rarely able to get things to translate right from my head, and I've never tried anything ... well, 'steampunky' was sort of what I was going for, I guess) , but I think I managed a fair approximation:

[sblock=Brian Shaughnessy]

[/sblock]

 

[Relique du Madde]

I think I should add that there are regional differences between each of the different Spartan Garrisons, so the practices and technologies used by each Garrison varies greatly.

*Cough* So, Blackrat, wanna fill in any info on the Olympia garrison, that I haven't already mentioned?


Also..
All 6 submissions are complete. Unless I get another submission in the next few hours, I'll actually announce the team at midnight tonight (pacific time).

 

[Blackrat]

Heh. I mainly worked within the guideline Relique provided me. Although I think I influenced the vision somewhat Anyway, reading Relique's last posts it seems he already changed a bit from our previous conversation. It's ok, still fits to the general outline.

So, the Spartans are:
-An independent military force that some cities (like Olympia) use as their main law enforcement, and that some cities hire as merc law enforcers.
-They are considered the most efficient military/law force on whole Mars.
-They are considered inpartial to the general politics, only conserned with upkeeping law and order.
-They seem to consider themselves a World Police, claiming jurisdiction across whole Mars. They do however acknowledge the sovereignty of each city and do ask permission whenever acting inside city limits. This permission is usually given since it means the governments can asks their help in return. And a Spartan Peacekeeper in a city is usually enough to drop crime rates by considerable amount.
-All this might very well be a front for something else...