Part 1: Background
Alternately, you may wish to jump to: The main Spheres page -- My main page --
My page of SF and RPG's -- My page of drawings and writings
A distant speaker played the latest song by Bantu Beat, and an autostore hologram hawked ready-made optical implants. Scents of spicy Dali-Thai food, ammonia and biofuel drifted lazily in the air. A broken infogram relayed news that was already weeks old (something about a visit by a high official of the Human Space Defense Alliance).
Two workers walked by, talking about "docking tolerances" and "container depths." A family of South Asian extraction jabbered as they went down the hall, apparently lost, followed by their cargobot. A steady stream of people continued in and out of the bathroom, and up and down the corridor, all bound for other settlements or systems, but a few people stayed constant in the flow.
Out of the dozen or so who stayed there, a few stood silently, a few sat in the cracked and aging seating, and a few paced like caged tigers. Some shuffled a little nervously, but all noticed the others, and sized the others up.
The minds of the seated people contradicted their calm exteriors: Are they going to be working with me? Is that the combat expert she told me about? Who's that guy over there -- a derelict or some kind of disguise expert? Is that bulge a gun, or a handscanner (and how did they get it through customs)? But for some, doubts remained: Am I going to get a job out of this? Why do I have to take scraps from that damned agency? Why did I ever believe that guy could get me a useful job?
A woman walked out of the bathroom, face down, tousling her hair a bit. As she looked up, those in the group all checked -- was it the woman their contacts had described? But she seemed nondescript, and simply walked away, down towards the concession area.
Four o'clock came and went, and none of the assembled group saw the person they were looking for. The hologram at the autostore changed to an ad for a new entertainment app; the cargobots were replaced by a small fleet of sweeper-mice. A couple -- apparently a pair -- eyed each other, shrugged, and walked back towards the red light district. Several other people who seemed to have been gathered for the same purpose also drifted off. Finally, a mere handful remained. They looked at each other steadily -- they could see skill and resolve in each other's eyes, and respect was a natural courtesy for such professionals -- but just then, each received a contact from someone.
In their own ways -- through skull implant, or wrist computer, or phone -- they took their calls. It was the woman, the one who'd walked off after shaking her head. She said, simply, "Follow me...:" Almost as one, they looked up and saw that they had all received the same call. Would they follow her?
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Jon Walker |
| Amidst the remaining individuals is a slender man, unremarkable looking,
wearing a grayish-green jumpsuit. Until the call came in, he had
been sitting quietly by the door, talking to himself or reading, unnoticed
by most as they came and went. The only reason that anyone might
notice him now, is that he stood up after answering his phone, as did several
others in the room. Running a hand across his close-cropped brown
hair, he looks down at the seat where a large carry-all and a small glass
case are resting and mutters, "About time, eh Norris?" Picking up
the carry-all and case, he stands aside as yet another impatient person
runs by, this one with a chromed head. "Goodness, whatever will people
do for attention, eh, Norris?", he mutters, looking down at the case he
is carrying.
Jump to [Jon Walker][Joseph][Korshnoi][Nick] |
Joseph |
| Among the professionals who remain in the waiting area some will notice
a very large, dark haired, dark eyed man of light brown complexion seated
off to one side who appears to be engrossed in a leatherbound softcover
book titled "Manasek: Proper Procedures for the Devout". A
cursory examination will show the very large man dressed in a utilitarian
traveler's robe w/hood emblazoned with symbols and designs of a distinctly
Arabian flavor. On the seat next to the very large brown skinned
man is a long wooden walking staff ringed at several spots in metal, and
on the seat next to him is a small backpack with many external pockets,
strapped atop which is a very worn looking rolled up rug. On two
occasions during the waiting period before the woman makes contact the
others will notice him unstrap the rug from his backpack, lay it in one
corner, kneel upon it and begin a series of prayers.
Unfortunately, he is now numbered among the dead. We may see him in heaven, inshallah. Jump to [Jon Walker][Joseph][Korshnoi][Nick] |
Korshnoi |
|
 |
Korshnoi disentangled his beard from the playful grasp of the child,
smoothing it back into shape, a shape reminiscent of the thing in front
of old earth trains (a cowcatcher, they called it). He wore his old uniform,
without the patches of course, its loose fitting, heavy fabric and earthy
tones a familiar, conforting presence. On his upper arm, a black armband,
held in place by his rico and inscribed with arabic letters and the words
'Ali's Hope'. "'Fraid my ride is here." He said, addressing the child's
mother. "Pleasant trip." He stood, squared large shoulders, flicked
the gold tack on his ear for luck and walked towards the concession area,
heavy boots making a subdued thump with each step, his seemingly calm blue
eyes dancing about as he looked over his future comrades.
Jump to [Jon Walker][Joseph][Korshnoi][Nick] |
Nick Kazantz |
|
 |
A Caucasian male human sits in one chair in the corner. He is
not very tall and looks vaguely like someone from the Mediterranean area
of Earth...dark hair and eyes, with olive skin. He is intently watching
something on a rico, with occasional exclamations of alternating joy and
dispair. He sometimes looks away and up at the rest of you, but usually
for only about the length of a commercial break. When the call comes
through, he shuts off his video and gets up.
Jump to [Jon Walker][Joseph][Korshnoi][Nick] |
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 |
A picture of Terry Donnelly, the group's employer. |
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A rather dangerous-looking guy with no eyes. |
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The HârnMaster rules in their original form are quite realistic and detailed, and I have kept much of this complexity for my Spheres rules. When we need to, the rules can provide a pretty logical and self-consistent set of guidelines.
However, you probably won't actually encounter the rules very often. Mostly, we will be doing free-form role-playing. The rules will only come into play when we need to resolve a conflict, usually between the players and NPC's, but occasionally between the players and the world around them.
Levels of success are determined quite simply. Any roll which is a multiple of five (05, 10, 15, 20, ... 95, 100) is a critical; and other roll is marginal. Thus, if I roll against my EML of 68 in Recoil Shortarms, a roll of 65 would be a Critical Success (CS), while a roll of 70 would be a Critical Failure (CF). A roll of 63 (for example) would be a Marginal Success (MS), and a roll of 71 would be a Marginal Failure (MF). In any case, I will inform you of your appropriate EML in any given situation, should the need arise.
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Please spell-check
posts before sending them to the list. If your system is unequipped
to do spell-checking, I'd be glad to do it for you.
Please be available
to post at least twice a week.
In general, we
will use a prose style to write. That is, we will write in narrative
form.
We will distinguish
between In-character (IC) and Out-of-character (OOC) writing. Both
are okay, though I recommend as much IC narration as possible. Discussions
between the players about what to do next, etc., are okay in OOC form,
but in no case should players do things like asking each other whose Strength
is above 15, for example.
In general, players
should only dictate what their character is saying or doing, not what NPC's
or the world at large is doing. However, I'll naturally be very open
to suggestions for what should be happening. On very rare occasions,
due to time constraints, I may narrate what your character is doing in
the game. Also, if conflicts arise due to overlapping posts or whatever,
I may do a bit of reverse time engineering -- that is, change what happened
to make it make sense. This will be done only to preserve the flow
of the game, not to railroad anyone.
When you ask a
question or otherwise wish to address your post to someone else, please
make it clear who you are addressing. Similarly, when someone specifically
addresses you, please try to respond promptly. This is to avoid overlapping
and possibly contradictory posts.
Posting regularly,
especially at the beginning, is important, to keep everything interesting
and to get some momentum going. Please be available to post at least
twice a week; if this is too frequent for you, please consider a different
PBEM.
Similarly, a long
term commitment is a necessity. I foresee the first adventure taking
at least a couple months, so if you're planning to go away, be unavailable,
etc. for that period of time, please either be open about this or consider
a different PBEM. If the game continues, I could easily see it evolving
into a long-term campaign (I do in fact have a long-term campaign in mind
for my gaming universe).
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Note, though, that Fred Fleury's PBEM Logs are the main repository for the overall story of Spheres so far. Check there if you want to know what's been going on.
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Probably the best place to start is my general introduction to Spheres. |
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The ARCADIA entry for Keuschburg, the colony city where everyone currently is, or for the system of Luyten, in which Keuschburg is located. You may also want to jump directly to a map of Keuschburg. |
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Two maps of Keuschburg's halls are now up: the one around the hotel used by Johnny and Joseph, and the one which shows the hotel used by Nick and Korshnoi. An additional illustration of the Kirkus-Richards intersection is also available, as is a map of the boulevard the characters are currently (as of May 20) focused on. The sub-street parking garage also has a map. |
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A map of the corridor where the action all began, and a map of the PanMedia offices along that corridor. There is now an updated map of the PanMedia offices as well. |
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There are illustrations of the biotech module we're currently discussing. One is a front view of the module; the other is a side view. |
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A rather simplistic map of Known Space. |
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A zipped star file of Known Space to be used with the ChView program. (Having both the ChView program and my file will allow you to view all of Known Space in 3D.) |
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A map of the Earth, as of 2221. |
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A history of Known Space up to 2221. |
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The current news in Keuschburg. |
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The main encyclopedia of Known Space (still woefully incomplete): ARCADIA.
Particular articles which might be of interest are:
The article which describes the LSN, the largest sphere in Known Space and also the ICA's main rival. |
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I am trying to finalize the Spheres rules for creating characters. This is also where you'll find the rules for skills and some sketchy stats for equipment. |
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One of the players, Fred, has started keeping a log of the game, recording all the events which have happened. It's quite beautiful, really -- he's adapted it into a fairly coherent story, and it's pretty fun to read. Check it out -- and thanks, Fred!
If you'd like to contact me (Rachel Kronick, the GM), please do so at rachelk6@hotmail.com. This is a web-mail address, but I do check it. I will send you my personal e-mail address after you contact me at the Hotmail address; this is to prevent getting spam on my personal account.
If everyone's schedules warrant and game play requires it, we may occasionally use either NetMeeting or IRC or some other chat system.
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