Whose side are we on again? With all the power groups and their interconnections, sometimes it is hard to keep track of who is with whom. Bitter enemies one day may be thrown together to work against an even bigger threat, for how long is uncertain. That makes for a very confusing world at times, but truth wins out in the end. This may seem a bit less pulpy than we want, since the premise of most pulp is black and white, but I still think it might fit.
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Just brainstorming... There's No End to War, or War Never Ends could be a Theme. As much as we like to tie up the narrative of a conflict at the end, the world keeps spinning and people keep wanting to kill each other. New wars come up, often built on the remnants of the previous war, and the cycle of conflict just keeps turning and turning. A little dark perhaps, but maybe fitting to the sentinal-like nature of our agency.
Some kind of It's Us or Them theme? It includes the idea that there's an all-out contest for survival, and also the division of alliances on each side. Large threats tend to force people/groups together by having mutual enemies. And if the aliens/reptilians/eldritch horrors/zombies win, we're all done for.
Threats... well what about the Splintered Nazi Factions in some way? They lost the war, but they keep fighting, only now they're even more desperate and thus more dangerous. They could be rooted out, but they aren't unified any more so they have to be dealt with individually, each with its own twisted source of power to cling to.
Or maybe there are Evil Enemy Alliances to worry about. As in, now we have Nazis+Elder Gods, or Nazis+Hollow Earth, or even Mar'Chians+government alliances, or whatever. Communists? Actually, I'll have to go check The World so far, but do we have anything by way of Communists?
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Threat: Salvage Inc. - a mercenary group that specialized in recovering super tech for the highest bidder. Whether it comes from aliens, Allies or Nazi's it doesn't matter as long as the price is right. They will happily scavenge a battle field for it after the fighting is done, but they will just as often pop up and attack targets in the chaos of battle and sneak off with their loot.
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Long and Miserable Lives The healthcare system changed drastically after the introduction of alien technology. Once incurable diseases are now curable in almost no time at all. However, the cost of such procedures are astronomical millions of people are without jobs, due to the introduction of alien technology into the industrial sector, a form of indentured servitude for payment has become very common place.
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She Can't Take Much More Captain: When the Mar'Chian made declared peace with the people of earth and began to share their technology there was a rush to put it to use, but not much development on sustainability. Due to the combination of technologies and the haphazard way in which they were implemented, the power grids are unable to keep up with the demand of the Mar'Chian technology. Various parts of the world are subject to constant rolling brown and blackouts. This phenomenon has various social and economic factors.
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Another Nation's Trash is a Super Villain's Treasure: No one wants Antarctica. No government claims ownership and No private companies have laid claim. So why not your resident Super Villian? With valleys dryer than the driest desert and a temperature that can freeze skin immediately, what's not to love?!
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Death Is A Transparent Beast: As with any mad scientist, before experiments on humans they dabble rather extensively in animal science. There are rumours of legendary creatures that stalk the tundra and cold ocean depths. They say you never see them coming and if you did it's too late. These creatures are known as Jagen-Geist and they are genetic experiments, animals genetically mutated to have traits of native ice fish, which makes them completely transparent.
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Theme: From Dust We Came, To Dust We Shall Return.. The revelation of other worldly powers, aliens and dark magics have had a dual effect on religion. Many have abandoned their faiths and live near nihilistic existences, without any regard for later days or traditional morality. Life has no meaning, be it their own or those of others. Others have seen the changes in the world as signs of the end and have become fanatical in their devotions. Old militant orders have new life breathed into them. Secret warriors prepare to carry out hold wars.
Theme: Muscle And Blood Aren't Enough Anymore With all of this technology out there, people living longer lives free of disease and aliens waging war over the skies of Earth, a new breed of soldier is being born. One who isn't just your average boy down the street with a rifle, some training and some grit. Science is pushing wires, steel and hydraulic fluid into fighting men to make them faster, stronger and tougher. More able to face the threats of this new age. Is there even going to be a place for regular people in the fight to come?
Threat: Ghosts In the Machines.. Science has given us hybrid technology scavenged from the aliens who have landed on Earth. But can we trust it? Would they just left weapons fall into our hands to be refitted and used? There are reports of catastrophic failures during battles, weapons exploding in people's hands or vehicles flying to pieces. Was it technology pushed too far, or something else. Something buried in the wires that power human's new weapons that was left to defeat us by itself?
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Campaign Theme: Those who would fight Monsters. It's difficult enough to fight off alien hordes, super nazi's, the commie menace, the elder gods and god only knows what else. It's virtually impossible to do it without surrendering some freedoms, or maybe a bit of humanity or something precious that makes you better than the things you're fighting. The longer and harder the war gets, the more America (and her allies) begin to look pretty fascist themselves. Plus, the people on the front lines keep getting turned into machine men, or going insane and just becoming every bit as ruthless as their foes.
Campaign Theme: Crime always pays. With the economy in shambles and tons of advanced tech floating around, it's inevitable that some folks will use the new technology for profiting from the misfortunes of others. From bank robbers with flying cars and alien heat rays to organized crime masterminds who use ancient magics to keep their minions in line, weird crimes are on the rise and when they get weird and dangerous enough, AEGIS gets the call.
Campaign Threat: Brotherhood of the Black Dawn Originally believed to simply another organized crime family, the Brotherhood has recently come to the attention of AEGIS for their use of zombies and summoned creatures as foot soldiers and assassins. They've been growing quickly and have their tentacles firmly wrapped around much of the crime in the American south. Whether they are simply opportunistic crooks who managed access to dark secrets or something far more sinister remains unknown.
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Mission Theme: Who knows what lies buried in the ice? Antarctica has always been a strange and mysterious place, but even the villains who now call it home have barely begun to plumb the secrets of the icy continent. Anything could be hidden over the next mountain or down the next crevasse. And since this is pulp, it probably is. Ancient haunted cities, Abominable Snowmen, frozen Elder Gods, frozen Ancient Astronauts, frozen dinosaurs, anything really.
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World Theme: It's Us or Them
Forget moral grey; forget neutrality; forget rules of engagement. With aliens, undead, eldritch horrors, and who knows what else out there, it's an all out fight just to survive. Everyone has to pick a side or get trampled underfoot, which can make for some tense bedfellows. People who'd normally pick up weapons and go after each other form alliances just to have the strength needed to fight off mutual enemies. If you're not with us, you're against us, and just about anything is justifiable if it supports the cause.
World Threat: We're All Going Out With a BANG!
The Brotherhood of the Last Day--a quiet, secretive, pan-global group that most would like to consider a bad rumour. Those who have seen the intelligence on the Brotherhood know they can't be dismissed, though. It's hard to tell whether the Brotherhood is a fanatical cult, a radical political faction, a twisted science think-tank run amok, or something else all together; the one thing sources agree on is that they're building a Doomsday weapon. Some think they've already completed it. The device is a hydrogen-fusion bomb of unprecedented scale, a mish-mash of technologies springing from the ill-fated Manhattan project weapons, and it has but one purpose: to ignite the entire atmosphere of the Earth in a devestating nuclear reaction. Such a weapon could only be for the purpose of holding the world ransom, but to what aim? ... Surely they wouldn't plan to use it...?
Mission Theme: The Endless Night
Antarctica is cold, but it's also a polar region, meaning it doesn't have the rise and fall of the sun that we're all so used to. In antarctica, six months of solid day are followed by six months of night--and that's where we find ourselves. It these cold lands, the light of the sun won't be seen for at least another 3 or 4 months, so everything is in perpetual darkness. The cold gets colder, and everything outside your torch-light is an unknown. What lurks in the dark? It's not long before everyone jumps at shadows, and time stretches on to a seeming infinity. For those things that thrive in darkness it's a paradise; for those who don't, it's a hell.
Mission Theme: A Hostile Land
Antarctica will kill you if it gets half a chance. It's inimical to life, but even machines and other... things must be wary; hydraulics freeze, dead flesh turns solid, and anything can end up encased in ice. Every battle here, ultimately, is a three-way one, and everyone must take precautions to see that the land itself isn't the ultimate victor. We have the technology to hold back the cold, at least enough to get by, but it's always right there waiting for one mistake too many.
Mission Threat:The Dead Can't Rest
Perhaps it's the experiments that have breached the wall between life and death, or perhaps it's something about the timeless, remote, dead continent itself, but either way the people who die here don't leave. Ghosts haunt this place like no other, sometimes carrying on grimmly with whatever purpose they had in life, sometimes acting on more unknowable motivations. Nazi necrologists have control, or at least an understanding with many of them, but many others are unpredicatable and turn up at the worst times. Many have learned how to interact with machines, etc., some might even be working within the Nazi death-army. Haunted self-propelled war machines, anyone?
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Mission Threat: The watchers in the waste Something is out there in the Antarctic wastes, stalking the team. Are they only watching or are they just waiting for an opportunity to attack? What are they? Ancient survivors from Atlantis? Spawn of the Great Old Ones? Yeti? Aliens? More than one of the above?
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Okay soooooo
Whose side are we on again? & Friends or enemies; what day is it? are world themes that I like and could see combined in some way . . . . It reflects the fluid and transitory nature of alliances in a post war environment. . . Especially with the pressure still on from aliens and a Cold War with Russia etc etc. . . . Just new to figure how the unaligned ( good guys isn't a real world alliance) A.E.G.I.S. fit into this. . .
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Evil enemy alliances and splintered nazi factions are both incomplete as far as themes or threats but they are inherent to the setting so I'd love to see them properly developed.
It's a good talking point to find some themes and threats guys
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It's Us or Them with a bit of development this is a great theme . . . . The enemy of my enemy and all that. . . It's kind I how A.E.G.I.S. manages to get away with so much and not fall apart as an organization in the face of their monumental task
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Long and Miserable lives . . . . An extension / counter to my own gilded cage theme I like the idea that the positive will cause a wide and far reaching backlash. . . Only issues I have is there wouldn't be a cost it's provided to the populace somehow by the Mar'Chian union ( not sure how yet but it's not a pay for services type o deal). I'm curious though and would possibly like the idea of a new serf class emerging because of the lack of die offs etc.
She Can't Take Much More Captain. . . . It's not all that threatish ( well besides the rolling brown & blackouts Gaaaaah I take it back) . . I do like the idea of quickly integrating tech before fully understanding or being able to control it . . . To the detriment of the populace. It's good stuff
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Another Nation's Trash is a Super Villain's Treasure I like the idea of Antarctica just attracting lone nutballs and mad scientists and no one care to fight over I because it freakin Antarctica . . . I'd like to see it discussed and developed a bit more
Death Is A Transparent Beast I like it nuff said that's a fun idea . . . Invisible beast hunting you across the tundra ? Come on what's not to love
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From Dust We Came, To Dust We Shall Return.. :So much yes, it adds a further dystopian element and the possibility of Vatican assasins or Templars and who doesn't want that? Let alone the change intone to large swathes of the world everything is balanced in a thread a out two seconds from anarchy. . . I dig it
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Muscle And Blood Aren't Enough Anymore: awesome sauce super cyber soldiers? Barely same experiments, expanding upon the possible villains exponentially. . . I'm in + this seems to be a semi integral plot point to our story what with half of you being augmented in some way.
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Ghosts In the Machines: I like it it's a more sinister take on the captain she can't take anymore threat proposed earlier. . .if we combine them I think we'll have us a good proper threat. I love the idea of technology seeded to us for sinister and nefarious purposes. . . Rogue A.I. And such.
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Those who would fight Monsters: it's a good theme that deals withthe sacrifices made to fight the good fight and wether they're really worth it. . . It's deep stuff. . . Good call
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Crime always pays: love this it's a a possible play style/ mission type that I never even thought of. Good call man super mob? Awesome sauce
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Brotherhood of the Black Dawn: this is awesome . . . The menace it presents and the possibilities to tie it to other things, you've got my attention. A southern crime famu using Eldritch magic to what end? So cool
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Who knows what lies buried in the ice? I like it and it ties well to the already established locales it's good stuff man
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Gremlins!: okay I've loved the idea of gremlins since the twilight zone and the old cartoons. . . It's good stuff a mysterious mischievous menace that no kne can explain. I like it and it'll allow me to wreak all kinds of havoc.
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It's Us or Them: good call and as I said common, and integral to our world. Thanks
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We're All Going Out With A BANG!: Ooooooh my Lordy this is good pulp action, yes, so much yes. The possibilities are insane.
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The Endless Night: I like it alot it's a new take on the other Antarctica themes and threats presented bravo. . . Plus it presents is some good complimentary stuff to build on
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A Hostile Land: same as above good stuff boss
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The Dead Can't Rest: we think along similar lines Antarctic zombies = a fist full of awesome good call boss
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The watchers in the waste: YESsssss! Good stuff it's generic but awesome just the thought and idea of someone watching you from out among the snow drifts I like it alot. And it will tie nicely to the other ideas presented.
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Looks good guys, if you have more as always I'd love to see tem but honestly I think we're good ( of course unless Penchant's schedule has freed up and he's got 1 or 2 more?) either way awesome guys I'm psyched.
If we could get some discussion refining these it would be aces.
Shhhhhh Gamescreen/WIP
