[Dark080matter]

~Synopsis~

H.P. Lovecraft-edition Tower Defense with Giant Fighting Robots.

~Campaign Premise~

Note below that there are certain changes to the standard setting, although solely to dates and locations.

The year is 2035 AD. According to the history textbooks, 15 years ago the earth was forever changed by a cometary 'second' impact on the Antarctic continent. But the textbooks and common knowledge are wrong. Second Impact came about when a scientific expedition investigating a dormant extraterrestrial life-form ("Adam") attempted a disastrous contact experiment, using as their tool a recovered precursor artifact of unimaginable power (the "Lance of Longinus").

Beyond the superficial natural disaster that resulted in the immediate deaths of millions worldwide, a greater evil was uncovered. Man had unwittingly awoken an ancient enemy of deific power. Though Adam's destructive might was contained before it could annihilate life on earth in one fell stroke, his wounded throes scattered the seeds of man's destruction. A side-effect of Adam's rebirth was the creation of the spawn-cores of the 'Angels'. Subsequent research has confirmed the following facts about the Angels:

• They are completely loyal to Adam and ultimately seek to fuse with his shattered remains, creating a Third Impact which would be completely unsurvivable by any life on Earth.
• They are now biding their time hidden from detection in either space or perhaps the desolate places of the earth, their growth masked by the mass confusion of the world's governments following Second Impact.
• They are perhaps the ultimate life-form (after Adam himself), immaculate creations with nearly limit-less control over their own bio-structure and a natural mastery of the "Absolute Territory Field," a psycho-somatic boundary that is a focused projection of their immensely powerful souls. Within their AT Fields, they are a terrifyingly powerful foe unlike any creature ever before witnessed.

We are not defenseless, however. While the Angels grow and adapt in hiding, the UN has taken charge in order to safeguard the remnants of Adam and the Lance. Using the latest advances in biotechnology combined with breakthroughs of study into the unearthly nature of the enemy, they have created Project Evangelion. With the semi-secret paramilitary organization NERV as the foundation for the EVA research testbed, the tools of man's salvation were created. The Evangelion bio-weapon is a mix of Angel and human DNA that has been cybernetically enhanced and restrained. Evangelions are all humanoid in shape, but of a vastly alien biology and a monstrous appearance even with their exterior armor plating.

It was decided that the Evangelions cannot simply be unleashed to run rampant against the enemy, for to do so would be to release an unpredictable and unstoppable weapon into our own midsts. They have thus been partially lobotomized and their exterior armor plating is at least as much intended to be a physical restraint as it is an external protection. For mankind to use the Evangelions, they must have pilots. You are the restraining factor in the engineering of mankind's most terrible weapon yet.

~What You Should Expect, and What I'm Looking For~

Neon Genesis Evangelion (hereafter, simply 'NGE') is, mildly put, subject to viewer interpretation. It has one of the most unusual and confusing plots in anime, let alone plenty of other media art forms. So I'll start by telling you what I see in the show. Arguable creator intent aside, I prefer to think of NGE as Japan's sick, sick love letter to H.P. Lovecraft. The pieces are all there: The ultimate foe is a cosmic, un-reasoning evil that has been sleeping beneath the Earth's surface since before mankind. Central characters routinely stumble across terrifying secrets and terrible monstrosities and suffer from a gradual descent into madness. The enemy is utterly alien, completely impossible to reason with, and regards mankind as an unfortunate and annoying by-product of it's existence, as one might consider the ant colony that's in your house after you come back from vacation. The entire narrative eventually breaks down into insane ramblings as characters routinely question reality or apathetically give up on it all. And in the end,

...all my tales are based on the fundamental premise that human laws and interests and emotions have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large.
--H.P. Lovecraft

everyone's desperate struggles to preserve humanity are simply worthless.

Except, rather then brainy New England professors and hard-bitten gumshoes, NGE relies on already-unstable anime teenagers as the driving force of it's cast. And finally, there is an ultimate horror that even Lovecraft never quite worked into his own stories: that to survive in the face of our destruction, we will turn to reverse bio-engineering the very enemies that seek to annihilate us. And then previously-mentioned teenagers will be forced to mind meld with these shackled eldritch abominations (which might have the souls of their tragically-deceased mothers, maybe) and wield them as a weapon of equal terror to the Angels themselves.

So yeah, I guess this is what you can expect from me. I'm looking for a team of players that consists of 4-5 Eva Pilots, and one Operations Director. I'd also like to have a co-GM (or a player who thinks they could eventually become a co-GM), in order to ensure the longevity of the game.

Feel free to style your characters as any of the following:

• Neo-Spartan military kid from special programs run by a branch of the US military or the UN, or Russia, Japan, or any other nation you can think of. Perhaps you even were a child soldier in disaster-struck Africa or Indo-China before NERV discovered you.
• Manufactured lab rat genetically crafted by a cabal of NERV bio-technicians working in Germany, or by the Prometheus Facility (see "What is Ankh-1" below), or a US-government conspiracy operated out of the Nevada desert (the classic option), or any other weird and mysterious organization of your own creation (give the GM something to work with by identifying the goals/resources/motivations of said agency).
• A Prodigy recruited from just about anywhere you'd like.
• An Impact Survivor military commander whose tactical abilities were recognized to the UN and was seconded to NERV as an operations director. Or perhaps, your connection to the EVA project made you a test pilot who has incredibly managed to survive and continues on as a combat pilot (I am perfectly willing to consider such applications).
• Something else...? If you think you have a good idea that's not yet a possibility in the rules, ask. Maybe we can forge something together.

~Rules and Stuff~

Adeptus Evangelion is a campaign setting based on the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and composed using the core rules of Dark Heresy as it's base. If you're familiar with either of these already and this sounds like a stupid mash-up, well... only taking the time to study up on it might be enough to convince you of your error. If you already know of NGE or Dark Heresy or both, then you probably want to see the Introduction PDF, which provides a good hand-hold on the intentions, tone, and place of the original series in the setting of Adeptus Evangelion. It also provides credit to the development team of the rules (headed by the sublime Black Mesa Janitor). The rules (which are in their 2nd Version now) were crafted by a team of homebrew developers who meet regularly via IRC, and have been undergoing constant playtesting for some time now.

Dark Heresy can be run as a grid-based system, which is what I plan to do. Google documents will be used as an integrated combat noteboard during battle, and the Ditzie map-tool for the map (example ditzie map shown here).

The Dark Heresy basic rules framework

Private Message me. Do it!

isn't hard to find, and Dark Heresy itself is a fairly uncomplicated system.

If you are unfamiliar with the setting, or wish a refresher of basic facts and relevant data, then it is recommended that you begin with the 'Welcome to NERV PDF'. Further player-relevant chapters of the rulebook are to follow. If you really don't care for all the extra rules stuff and setting fluff, I've marked the chapters directly needed for Character Creation only below with *. The other stuff is just good to know so you can, like, play the game. Whatever. Oh, and the Chapter cover pages. I only included those because I like the artwork on some of them and I wanted to share. Seriously, that's the only reason.

A link to the Battle Rules Reference PDF (I actually put this together myself, yay)

Three turns of sample combat!

Adeptus Evangelion cover page
Character Creation (cover page only)
*Character Creation chapter
*Character creation chapter Errata, and Dark080matter's handy newbie guide to Adeptus Evangelion character builds
Evangelion (cover page only)
*Evangelion chapter
Modified Rules (cover page only)
Modified Rules chapter
Combat chapter
*AT Field chapter
Life on the Ground (between battles)


I hosted these PDF uploads at the Interest thread for this campaign, which can be found here.

~Character Creation~

Go to this thread to make all of your Character Generation dice rolls. Detailed instructions can be found in the first post of the thread. You may take the "Speak Language" skill once for free to represent your nationality (everyone still starts with English as well). Once you have generated your stats, you can now create your character application. The character application goes in this thread, and is formatted as shown below.

Character Application

Name
Nationality
Background/Career Path
Age/Gender

What does your character look like? How do they act towards others? You may include a picture here if you like.

What sort of character traits does your character have? Does he chew on drinking straws all the time? Does she like to flip coins or tell bad jokes? Give me a quirk or two; something that your character does that others would notice.

Give me at least a few paragraphs of character background. You can do this in any style you want, but I should have a basic idea of who your character is and what they have done.

This section should be written in character. I want you to tell me how your character was discovered/created/enlisted by NERV. This doesn't have to be long, but it should showcase your writing talent. You can either write about your first meeting with a member of NERV, your initiation or commisioning ceremony, wetly emerging from your birth capsule, or anything else you think would highlight your character and his or her connection with the organization.

Another 'in-character' background section. This time, tell the story of your first meeting with the Evangelion project. For pilots this could include your first synchronization test. What was it like linking your mind with an alien intelligence, horribly foreign yet at the same time somehow all too familiar to you? For an operations director, you probably received a classified briefing about the true nature of Eva. How did you take it?

Game sheet

Link to my character generation rolls

Weapon Skill:
Ballistic Skill:
Strength:
Toughness:
Agility:
Perception:
Intelligence:
Willpower:
Fellowship:
Synch Ratio:

Fate Points 1/1

Background Traits

Assets

Drawbacks

Trained Skills

Gear

Career Advances

Ego Barrier 100%
Insanity Points 0

Evangelion Sheet

Evangelion Unit 08 (Dark White/Bright Black)

Movement 6/12/18/36

WS 45
BS 45
Str 35
T 35
Ag 30


Weapons
Cranial Horn [1d5+1 R, Pen 0]

Prog. Knife [1d5+6 R, Pen 3, Progressive]

Pallet Gun [Basic, Range 30, RoF S/-/3, 1d10 I, Pen 0, Clip 6, Rld: 1Full, Inccurate, Unreliable]

Current Synch Ratio 44%
ATS 0 / 0 / 5

Distinquishing Features

Angelic [Berserk Evas treat this Eva as an Angel, and attack it whenever possible. While it’s Synch Ratio with its pilot is 1d5 less, it has +1 ATS.]
Cranial Horn [The Evangelion has a large horn on its head that may be used for a mediocre gore attack, dealing 1d5-2 rending damage]
Heavy Armor [+1 armor bonus to all areas. Reduce its agility by 5]
Flagship [In any battle where the Evangelion is defeated, subtract 2 collateral from the pool as the Eva’s home country chips in to repair it.]

Hit location (AP) Wounds/Current:
01-10 Head (2) 3/3
11-20 Right Arm (2) 3/3
21-30 Left arm (2) 3/3
31-70 Body (4) 9/9
71-85 Left leg (2) 4/4
86-00 Right leg (2) 4/4


Biological Upgrade Points / Spent
0/0

Structural Upgrade Points / Spent
1/0

Weapon Upgrade Points / Spent
0/0

The Game Ad thread will close on June 19th, at which point players will be chosen.

~Setting Details~

Essentially, the plot of the campaign will run as a sort of parallel 'elseworld' to the show. Rather then being beneath Tokyo-3, the Geofront is actually located at a sub-oceanic location within the Marshall Islands chain. Vague references may be made to Tokyo-3 or other sister NERV installations in Russia, Japan, or Germany, but the center of the storyline will revolve around Ankh-1. You are unlikely to encounter any Angels that are quite exactly like what is seen in the show, as I am going to use the game's Angel Generator system to bring to bear the full emotional uncertainty of an unknowable cosmic enemy. Be afraid!... or you know, mildly uncertain as the case may be.

Key

1 - Variously referred to as "Babel" and the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by the international press, known in the city of Ark simply as "the Tower", and vaguely referenced in a few recently declassified UN documents as "ETEMENANKHI." It is sealed to the public and nearly all NERV personnel. The agency that handles work inside the tower itself is widely believed to simply be an inner division of NERV... a convenient lie to justify it's off-limits nature. The smaller secondary tower stands roughly 2.5 times the height of Taipei 101 and is often jokingly referred to as the "little sister."

2 - The eastern seawall is a structure constructed to shield the Tower and the adjoining city of Ark from the wind and corrosive rain forces of hurricanes. The imbalances in the natural precipitation cycle caused by the melting of 56% of the world's ice caps has resulted in extreme storm patterns by comparison to the pre-Second Impact world. Although nearly 20 stories tall and therefore a potent reinforced obstacle, the Seawall is said to rely less on simple physical barriers as it does some form of harnessed ion disturbance barrier that causes adverse weather to 'split' around the city regardless of the storm pattern's actual height above sea level. It is worth noting that the 'hurricane problem' is also extensively aided by the work of the aviation meterological team based out of Ark's western airfield. Using advanced unmanned research probes and cloud-seeding weather airplanes, they are able to reduce the greatest meterological threats to the city to a more manageable level.

3 - Ark, the City of Tomorrow. A symbol of hope for the slowly flooding earth, and currently the second most expensive United Nations budget item after the International Second-Impact Disaster Relief Organization. The city floats atop the waves on a massive framework of buoyancy units and lightweight metal-alloy girders that has resulted in an unusual kind of 'slums' in the miles of maze-like piping beneath the glittering skyscrapers of the greater city area. Considered from tip to tip, Ark is roughly the square land area of (pre-Impact) Manhattan Island , though with a roughly 50% higher average number of floors per building (excluding the unfair advantages of the two monolithic greater structures).

4 - Rig 1, colloquially known as 'the Backbone' by the civilian construction personnel who live and work there. The first above-water structure to be built on the site location of the city, Rig 1 is essentially a massive floating permanent construction scaffold, and continues to provide the necessary framework for the ongoing expansion of the city of Ark. Rig 1 is not self-propelled, and relies on heavy-duty industrial tug boats to maneuver it into place for construction.

5 - The internationally-recognized Prometheus Research Facility, founded by the Physical Sciences branch of MIT (since relocation from the flooded Boston area) in conjunction with a number of other prominent civilian and military research think-tanks. It is unknown how many distinct major research efforts are underway at any given time, although the Facility Director is quoted as stating that "Nano-Engineering" is currently the facilities' top focus, with "emphasis on sustainable resource utilization in the post-Impact world." To this date, the Prometheus Facility PR division denies any involvement in a hypothetical Human Cloning project. Although without any official ties to NERV, key research personnel are known and encouraged to informally collaborate between Prometheus and NERV's Technical branch.

6 - The Daedalus Aerodrome. Technically a corporation-run civilian airfield, although there is a conditional charter in the operations contract granting NERV express use of the field for defense purposes.

7 - Aegis-Beta, one of four secondary seawalls used to supplement Ark's weather defenses (designated -Alpha, -Beta, -Delta, and -Gamma). Unlike the Rig and the UNN Mobile Dock, all four seawalls are capable of independent redeployment using electric turbine propulsion units.

8 - The UNN Mobile Sea Dock, currently depicted refitting a Rapier-class Frigate (the Lexington).

9 - Carrier Battle Group Kirishima, leaving dock. The NSCGN-V UNN Kirishima (a Victory-class Nuclear Stealth Carrier, VTOL) is attended by a Falchion-class Artillery Bombardment Cruiser (the UNN Oklahoma, note the forward deck-mounted Artillery Railgun and vertical launch missile batteries located amidships) and two more Rapier frigates (Tulwar and Jiangkai)

NOT PICTURED - The Sub-Oceanic Geofront and NERV Headquarters.

This. Nerv Headquarters is the pyramidey thing at the bottom.