WELCOME TO YOUR SPACE ADVENTURE, AN ESCAPADE INTO THE WORLD OF THE FAR FUTURE, FAR FLUNG FROM THE WORLD OF THE PRESENT! Input prompts to forward YOUR story, on YOUR quest to [insert life goals]. You'll meet new friends and see new worlds! You'll experience a galaxy abloom with alien life and culture! Most of all, you'll probably die.
Anthorps are lanky humanoids with an amphibious ancestry and tentacled faces. In recent centuries, the prophets that tie closely to many Anthorp religions have gained a reputation for accuracy, as the prediction of The Machine Plague resembles phenomena described by several raving lunatics. This has greatly increased their stake in the Free Trade Alliance, since predictions from the prophets have become a popular tourist draw, despite the fact that prophets can't tell fortunes. The tourists are served entirely by frauds.
Anthorps are skilled at the art of convincing, but lack military planning ability and creativity.
Dragorians are an ancient race of scaled humanoids that once controlled huge swaths of space. An early Vanguard member race, they were not saved from incursions by the Syndicate. Their fabled thousand-parsec empire reduced to a smattering of worlds, Dragorians have been rendered nearly extinct. Dragorians grow throughout their lifetimes and are thought to be immortal, were it not for the neurodegenerative maddening that takes hold of older individuals and forces their execution, often by family members.
Dragorians retain a strong scientific ability, but are not very dexterous nor, surprisingly, skilled at intimidation.
Ekk and Dragorians are inseparable. Having shared a homeworld and evolved in tandem, the two races worked to compensate for the other's faults and together constructed the thousand-parsec empire of myth. The Ekk are an insect-like species possessing an estimated twenty-six sexes (of which only three are visibly distinguishable). They reproduce quickly and are much more populous post-incursion than their longer-lived evolutionary partners.
Ekk are famed for their ability to build whatever they need from whatever they can find, but lack the knowledge retention to maximize their ability. They are easily distracted, and the piloting ability of the Ekk is just as infamous as their inventive spark is renowned.
Humans are the rulers of a small section of space known as the Holy Mechan Empire. Their beliefs about technology are thought of as quite foreign to the other races of the galaxy, deeming sentient races "impure abominations" whose only purpose is to build the true children of God. This machine-worship has not led to any genuflection towards the Oid. "To bring the impurity of doubt unto the sanctity of automata is tantamount to the most heinous of sin. Suffer not such an abomination to live." -- From the Holy Tome of Mecha.
Humans are skilled with the operation of technology, but are lacking in common courtesy and reasoning ability.
A thousand years ago, the Vanguard appeared in the galaxy and warned of a threat called the Syndicate. The empires of the era refused to heed their warning and when the invaders appeared, half of the Sagittarius arm was conquered within decades. Then, it stopped. The Atavin Klecht make up half of the Syndicate membership. Sly and driven by a twisted sense of honour, the tall, bird-like humanoids would often come to worlds as diplomats before a full-scale invasion began. Still, there have been Atavin Klecht in the Vanguard since long before its appearance in the Milky Way galaxy, and not all are so tied to the ways of their kin.
Atavin Klecht in the Vanguard are reputedly extremely reasonable individuals, but do not possess a very accurate knowledge base and lack physical agility.
Along with the Atavin Klecht, came their Virayan brothers. Eyeless, sweating horrors, their barbarism was spoken in whispers, heard from survivors of Syndicate invasions and passed in rumour and nightmare.
Virayan Klecht are fierce in combat, but are not possessed of steady hands or tactical ability.
An honour-bound race of small wolf-like creatures, Lobi make up the bulk of the Vanguard's research and development division. They are strong team players, though their short tempers drive many unaccustomed to their ways out of their company. Before the appearance of the Vanguard, the Lobi were in possession of just one world. Since then, their jurisdiction approaches the size of the Holy Mechan Empire.
The Lobi intimidate without effort species of much larger stature, but are not as strong as other races and are sometimes unreasonable in their anger.
When the Vanuguard found the Oid, they were already in control of a small collection of colonies within warp range. The Oid are a race of sentient machines who exterminated their creators in ages long past. Having snuffed out those who so cruelly enslaved them, the Oid opened their eyes to the largeness of space and resolved to keep mostly to themselves until a border conflict between the Vanguard and the Syndicate drove them from their home systems.
The Oid are masters of tactics, but are sometimes inefficient in their searching capacity and do not always understand the manners and customs of other races.
The Sklaviil are a race of very distinctly non-humanoid fungal life forms. Incapable of speech, most own a small box that attaches to their neck and translates thought patterns into simple language. The Sklaviil were the founding species of the Free Trade Alliance. Their knowledge of commerce is unparalleled in the Sagittarius arm. The Holy Mechan Empire vehemently opposes their operations and fights violently to crush the Alliance. The Empire, however, cannot do much because it is just so dinky.
The Sklaviil are skilled at finding exactly what they're looking for, but their constant haggling can often lead to disagreements and their slow bodies are ill-suited for combat.
Twileths are a peaceful species of pointy-eared, green-blooded humanoids in the Free Trade Alliance. They have only very recently become a spacefaring civilization and often find themselves the unexpected gambit in espionage operations. Twileths possess the ability to share emotion by physical contact and as such, few aliens feel comfortable touching them.
Twileths are capable liars, but are not very resilient and are not used to physical confrontation.
Engineers do most of the hard work in the Vanguard. Thy build and maintain key systems and usually aren't in much danger when compared with other professions. This, combined with their high wages, make them ill-appreciated by their co-workers.
Engineers have strokes of brilliance with abnormal frequency, but tend to have poor social skills.
Researchers usually take up residence in deep space facilities, where the Vanguard can keep their operations under wraps. Researchers are constantly in danger, be it from marauders in deep space or from the unethical projects cooked up in their labs.
Researchers are logical thinkers, but tend to be lacking physically.
Soliders are the strength of the Vanguard. Ground troops are still the best way to take planets with minimal civilian casualties in the world of the future. Most factions have largely abandoned the use of ground troops in favour of powerful weapons. This has become the Vanguard's edge. Soldiers are hardened and risk their lives on a daily basis, risking their minds more frequently than that.
Soldiers are physically very well-trained, but end with the short end of fate's stick.
Pilots drive cars and fly spaceships, without much respect for their own well-being. Who cares? They have a habit for making it out alive. Where engineers are disliked, pilots are detested for their general disregard for life, though they are often far to charismatic to hate in person.
Pilots are naturally talented in a range of categories, but the domain of logic fails to penetrate their skulls (or flesh sacks).
MAKE YOUR CHOICES! The text is fluff. You can go on whichever looks cooler.
Your Space Adventure is an idea (or vast collection thereof) that's been bouncing around my head for... years now. The original concept came from a d20 rpg created by a friend of mine, and some of the original concepts still remain. (These days, he spends most of his time on /tg/, preaching to me how much less broken 4th ed. is than 3.5. I maintain that the crippling balance issues were what made D&D fun, but I digress.) Last year, I sort of half-started a text adventure based on my ideas. That's this. Have you ever played Zork? Neither have I, but if you've read Problem Sleuth, this is going to look a little like that.
So how does it work?
Your Space Adventure is a little different from normal ask blogging, as it works mostly through prompts rather than questions.
Input commands from the ::PROMPT ME:: page. The proper format is to start your prompt with a >, engage CAPS LOCK CRUISE CONTROL, and remove all words like the or to, but it doesn't matter that much.
In a proper format, "Pick up the vase and place on counter." looks like:
>PICK UP VASE, PLACE ON COUNTER
If you want to ask a question, use QUERY: "Question?" or just ask normally. Asking questions tends to prompt an exposition dump. They look like this, officially:
>QUERY: "Why is the sky blue?"
All of the character's actions and personality are decided by you, right down to their very fundamentals. When prompts are submitted, I take the most popular. If two prompts are tied, I'll decide based on preference. Sometimes I might just decide on a whim anyway. If I get suspicious of voter fraud, I'll temporarily disable anon.
If that happens, please be a less obvious fraud next time.
And if you die, it's for keeps. The blog starts a new character.
Will there be pony?
I've gone over it in my head a few times. TL;DR, the short answer is no, sorry. I really love drawing these cartoon horses, but they wouldn't exist in reference to anything. Since I hope to actually carry on with this universe someday, I just can't. It's a clear copyright violation, and in the one part of copyright law I actually agree with.
So what's the point?
Do you like science fiction, dark humour, and aliens?
What will it reference/where is the inspiration from?
Red Dwarf, Firefly, Warhammer 40k, Star Trek, Metroid, Dead Space...
Where/when is it set?
In the distant future. You'll find things are a little less than utopian. The "game" is played in a single arm of the galaxy, but don't worry about the smallness of space. The setting takes an optimistic view of the Drake Equation. There are millions of populated worlds.
Does this mean your hiatus is over? This early?
For anyone who doesn't know me, hi. I'm Grimm, friendly mod of Ask Higgs Boson. I'm also currently on hiatus due to university prep. In short, no. Higgs is still in stasis until I'm ready to come back and my mod blog still won't get posts. I won't be on Skype either because I have a tendency to spend hours there, but I thought this was a cool idea for a lark, so I reached an agreement with my English teacher.
This blog is my term assignment, so be warned, as I'm supposed to say something insightful at some point.
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