Egads, activity...

Arkady Sergeyovich Fedorenko

The son of a pair of machinists from Rostov na Don, Arkady received a technical education and went to work at the repair shops of the regional electrical train system. Showing considerable talent at machining, he was taken under the wing of an aging tool and die maker supplementing his pension by working part time off the books, and taught the proper way to fabricate and assemble the various mechanical and electrical parts needed for the work. This quickly led to lucrative work off the books of his own, making tools and parts for various shops and helping out at small repair businesses. It also led to a strong contempt for the post-soviet era off the shelf components available in Rostov and a lot of the folks who used them; leaving him with a marked tendency to simply do everything from soup to nuts himself.

Aspect: If you want something done, do it yourself.

After a few years of this, he got swept up into the Civil War between the Ukrainians and the Moscow backed Russians. He fought for Ukraine for a bit over a year, and became moderately good at the niceties of killing the other chaps before they killed you; but after a rather messy ambush (which he was on the right side of) the whole thing became too much for him. He was sidelined for a few weeks with shell shock, and came out of it with a strong distaste for killing which got him put in a medic post for the remainder of the fighting. He overcame his reluctance only once, destroying a Russian armored personnel carrier with an RPG to protect a wounded civilian.

Aspect: Defensive pacifist.

While serving as a medic he found himself becoming more pious; finding considerable comfort in his mother's Ukrainian Catholicism when things got messy. Once the fighting died down he left the service, married his pre-war girlfriend, and took considerable comfort in the Church as he got back to work and tried to put his experiences behind him.
Almost a year later, chatting with a couple of other veterans about their problems, he decided that he should help others find this comfort. So with his wife's blessing he entered the seminary, and after several years of making good the shortcomings of his formal education and mastering his new calling (all while working part time off the books for the needed funds) he was duly ordained a priest. He was assigned to a parish near his native Rostov, and moved there with his wife.
Two years later, a well regarded parish priest, Arkady noticed an article in the paper about how many Ukrainians were going to be on the new starship. He and his wife Irina (not yet blessed with children) decided that the twin appeals of ensuring that the holy sacraments were available to those colonists, and of having a family someplace with a better future than Rostov, outweighed the risks involved. Arkady sent a request up through the hierarchy to be assigned to that post; and slightly to his surprise was informed a month later that he should consider himself so assigned and report to Kiev as soon as practical for further training.

Aspects: Pious, Good Shepherd.

Oooh, nice. You've got a couple of Aspects unassigned - not a problem, you can assign them later if you want, I'm just noting their absence. I like the "do it yourself" Aspect, and... hmmm. Can I assume that his wife asked for the cryosleep module next to his?

And then, of course, both of you still need skills, and then Kajin's character, and then we'll be ready to go!

Will get started this weekend once everything is out of the way.

Excellent! Then it'll just be guest starring, skills, and stunts!

Sorry, brain has been more or less fried. Still trying to figure out my character.

I recommend avoiding frying pans for a while, just in case.

Okay so for once my mind is in a good enough place to concentrate on creative tasks without getting a massive headache. I know it's been far longer than anyone would have liked, but I'm still interested in the game and am working on my character to be submitted for play. Here's what I have so far:

Name: Felix False

High Concept:
Colonial Environmental Manager
Felix is a civilian engineer with expertise in the fields of environmental management and mechanical engineering. He specializes in heat management. Keeping cool the areas that need to be cool and keeping warm the areas that need to be warm. That's a tough job in space with a great many cryogenically frozen passengers, and it'll be even tougher when they make planetfall and need to start building habitats that have to withstand local conditions.

Trouble:

Aspect:
Pride Comes Before the Fall
Nothing angers Felix more than someone with an undeserved chip on their shoulder. Someone with a position of power, real or imagined, and they're using it to look down on those who have less power? Someone who abuses their power just to make other people miserable or gloat over them? Felix greatly relishes watching such people fall and it won't take much convincing to get him in on a trick that'll make a smug jackass look the fool.

Aspect:
Entrepreneurial Streak
One of Felix's passing hobbies is the study of economics and the value of goods. He comes from a family of business owners and stockbrokers, and a lot of their predilections rubbed off on him. Pretty useless for a colonist, but that doesn't mean that Felix doesn't exercise his skills in his off time. If you need it and are willing to pay or barter for it, he might know a guy that can get it for you. For a finder's fee, of course. Cigarettes, extra dessert rations, posters for your room, he's the guy to go to.

Aspect:

Excellent!

So, current state of play:

Balthazar, Nathan Snow:

Rugged Survivalist.

Six aspects:
-Been There, Done That.
-If I Can Survive Anywhere, I Can Survive Here.
-I'm Sorry, That's Classified.
-The Strong Defend The Weak.
-I Don't Need No Steenking Infrastructure.
-You Can Run, But You Can't Hide.

Still needs four aspects from Guest Starring.

Skills: Not yet selected (but I imagine Survival will be pretty high on the list)
Stunts: Not yet selected (the Animal Companion stunt has certain practical problems - your pet doesn't get a cryosleep module, unfortunately - but stunts like Animal Friend and King of Beasts could still be useful).

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Weremensh, Arkady Sergeyovich Fedorenko:

Technician, Tool and die maker, Catholic priest

Four aspects selected:
- If you want something done, do it yourself.
- Defensive pacifist.
- Pious
- Good Shepherd
You've got room for two more Aspects, even before Guest Starring.

Skills: Not yet selected (but I imagine Engineering will be pretty high on the list)
Stunts: Not yet selected.

If you want his wife, Irina, to travel with him, then you'd need to take one of the Stunts that permit a Companion - Contact or Lieutenant are probably the best options (there are a few other Stunts that allow for companions, but they didn't really look suitable to me). If not, then she either elected to remain at home, or failed to be permitted onto the ship, or did not survive the cryosleep process (your choice).

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Kajin, Felix False:

Refrigeration engineer

Two Aspects:
- Pride Comes Before the Fall
- Entrepreneurial Streak
You've got room for four more Aspects, even before Guest Starring.


Skills: Not yet selected (he looks like he'll have a good Contacting skill)
Stunts: Not yet selected (though you might find Walk The Walk particularly useful)

Skills: You get fifteen in total, picked from the following list:

Academics, Alertness, Art, Athletics, Burglary, Contacting, Deceit, Drive, Empathy, Endurance, Engineering, Fists, Gambling, Guns, Intimidation, Investigation, Leadership, Might, Mysteries, Pilot, Rapport, Resolve, Resources, Science, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival, Weapons

Descriptions of what each of these skills do can be found here.

You gain one skill at +5 (Superb), two at +4 (Great), three at +3 (Good), four at +2 (Fair) and five at +1 (Average). Since you are all heroes, and exceptional individuals, this makes you far more skilled than the average person; in general, someone who does something for a living will have a skill of +1 (Average) at that thing.

Stunts: You get to pick up to five of these. There's a nice list of stunts over here, but if you can come up with something you really want that's of approximately equivalent usefulness to a stunt, feel free to ask.

Skills? Stunts? Anybody?

Or should we start with the characters as they are and you can choose skills on-the-fly and stunts between major scenes?

Are we still going to be doing guest-staring? Or should I just pick out 4 more aspects?

Still in the process of solidifying my character. If you want to do some guest aspects with me to help me round things out I'd be more than happy.

Felix's skills are thus:

Engineering +5
Contacting, Resources +4
Science, Rapport, Might +3
Alertness, Empathy, Endurance, Guns +2
Gambling, Athletics, Resolve, Weapons, Survival +1

I'll figure out the stunts later.

Guest starring would be great. Go for it.

Yay, Felix has skills!

Okay, I think it's time we started this game.

Guest starring will net you additional Aspects, which you may find useful.

I will be starting it up on Thursday 25 February. Any character whose skills and/or stunts are completed by then will have access to those skills or stunts. All characters will wake up with a temporary cryosleep sickness. There are three levels of severity:

- Mild cryosleep sickness is a temporary penalty to all skills, reflecting the fact that you haven't had a good meal in a few centuries. It is cured by having a good meal and maybe a night's sleep to digest it. Everyone will have this at the start.

- Moderate cryosleep sickness means that you have a headache and can't concentrate on anything - specifically, you can't use any stunts. All characters without stunts will have this at the start. It is cured by providing your character with a selection of stunts, and then letting your character get a good night's sleep.

- Severe cryosleep sickness includes symptoms like shaking hands, gaps in memory, lapses in concentration, and general fatigue. Characters with severe cryosleep sickness treat all skills as if they were at +0 (before taking into account the negative for mild cryosleep sickness). All characters without a list of skills when the game starts will have this. It is cured by providing a list of skills for the character and then letting the character get a good night's sleep. (Felix already has his list of skills, and is thus immune).

Got that? Let's get this underway, then. We've delayed for long enough.

New And Improved!

Name: Nathan Snow.

First Phase: Nathan (Nate for short), was born to a life of adventure. His parents were a pair of fairly well known international photographers and reporters who worked for National Geographic. Always on the move, they brought Nate along with them wherever they went, where he learned from some of the best survivalists, hunters, and masters of primitive skills in the world first hand, in their natural environment.

Aspects:
-Been There, Done That.
-If I Can Survive Anywhere, I Can Survive Here.

Second Phase: Traveling with his parents, Nate visited some sketchy places, including the odd war zone (only when he was older), and seeing what one person could do to another inspired him to join the military to try and protect others. Within five years he was part of a multinational group of special-forces that didn't officially exist, going where others wouldn't, and doing what others couldn't, all in the name of peace and stability. Returning from an operation, he learned that his parents had been killed just a few scant kilometers from where he had been. The helicopter had passed right over the firefight where they had died on the way back, and his superiors had said nothing when he was in a position to help those he cared about most. Stricken with grief and blaming his superiors, he resigned on the spot.

Aspects:
-I'm Sorry, That's Classified.
-The Strong Defend The Weak.

Third Phase: Unemployed and without purpose, Nate fell back on his drifting ways, relying on his extensive survival skills to keep food in his belly and the elements at bay. That is, until he got an email from an old friend from his unit, Alex. In short, Alex had stumbled on something big, and was in trouble, possibly dead, and in hiding if not. Someone had decided to try and establish a new world order, which was nothing new in and of itself, but this time they were awfully close to succeeding. At the core of it was a group that had Imaginatively decided to call itself The Order. Drawing inspiration from all sorts of secret societies real or fictional throughout history, they steeped themselves in the arcane and the occult. It would have been hilarious if it weren't for all the powerful names on the member list. With that list of names and a purpose once more, Nate set out. Evidence was found, and people in positions of power free from the Order's grasp made aware of it. Sanctums were raided, Secret meetings broken up, and occasionally people were dealt with in a very professional and permanent manner. At the end of it all, the Order was no more, and Nate was once again without purpose. Having traveled all the world over, he decided that it was time for a change, time to seek a new horizon. And so, leaving letters to people he could trust to guard against the return of The Order, Nate signed up for the Colony Ship Project, and left to drift among the stars.

Aspects:
-I Don't Need No Steenking Infrastructure.
-You Can Run, But You Can't Hide.


Guest Starring!

Arkady Sergeyovich Fedorenko: While "not" visiting the Ukraine to do something that never happened, Nate found himself witness to a rather messy ambush that looked like it might turn south for the good guys. Being a decent sort, Nate decided to do what he could to help out, but knew he could only get off one shot without getting in trouble with his superiors, by blaming it on an accidental discharge. Taking his time, He lined up his shot on the heavy machine-gunner who had somehow gotten into a partially collapsed building and was the cause of most of the trouble. Took his time to line up one perfect shot. Boom. The gunshot came as a surprise, as it should, and the round seemed to almost leisurely wander away, taking it's time, just as Nate had, before finding itself unerringly at it's mark. Before Control could ask anything, Nate was already on the radio. "Sorry, everything's alright. Just had to muffle a sneeze, and the hair-trigger on my rifle went off."
....
"Understood, proceed with Mission. Control out."

Aspects:
-It Only Takes One Perfect Shot.
-There's What You're Supposed To Do, And Then There's What's Right.

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L33t Skillz:
+5:Guns.
+4:Survival,Alertness.
+3:Athletics,Resolve,Weapons.
+2:Endurance,Fists,Stealth,Engineering.
+1:Mysteries,Sleight-of-Hand,Burglary,Might,Academics; Ancient Cultures.

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Stunts:

-Danger Sense.
-One Shot Left.
-Death Defyance.
-Wilderness Medic.-->(Same as Herbal Remedies, but uses Survival instead of Mysteries.)
-Tracker.

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Does it look good? Is it too late?