stev

You can quite easily have a good character that plays on a more specific or lesser-known part of the setting rather than harp on the big central theme and still have it fit well and reflect the lore. I'm all for having set out themes for the different backgrounds, it's just a bit shit if a good concept gets invalidated because it doesn't emphasise one particular theme of the culture they're from.

While a lot of this sounds great, I'm vehemently opposed to making it mandatory to play themes and archetypes straight if you're from a particular place. I personally believe that a big part of what makes for good roleplay and good characters is the opportunity to explore different areas of the lore and play with interesting character themes; forcing people to play to specific themes in specific ways basically cuts out almost everything I look for in roleplay. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that while this can be good for getting people into the lore, representing it in-game better and help (maybe newer) players get to grips with setting and character-focused roleplay, enforcing things like this could lead to a great deal of good roleplay getting de-facto removed.

I really like this! If this is added I'd also love a folding stool/stepladder or something, since atm I just carry a wrench and deconstruct/build a stool each time I wanna use one.

Definitely. Feel like bandanas should also be included with this, if possible.

Maybe there could be an optional leadership role open only to whitelist holders? That might help with sticking to lore. Love the idea itself though, hope it gets added.

While Vyazhdoun was raised a PRA patriot, he has become disillusioned with the Republic's brutal methods and believes the Republic desperately needs internal reform, not another war; he will, however, be trying to publically appear to be a loyal Republican citizen, as he wishes to avoid as much attention as possible from PRA authorities. He is somewhat sympathetic to the plight of the ALA/DPRA but is quite skeptical, having seen many injuries from ALA action. He has no sympathy with the Njarir-worshipping NKA. Vyazhdoun believes in the Ma'ta'ke pantheon, seeing the existence and influence of Raskara to be consistent with the pantheon's mythology. He believes that Raskara has claimed him as its own, dearly hoping that he might one day escape its grasps, retaining some faith in the mercy of Marryam, the patron deity he was raised venerating.

Oh please god yes.

BYOND Key: Memescope McGee Character Names: Species you are applying to play: Tajaran What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Light grey-brown (Hharar) Have you read our lore section's page on this species: Sure have, officer. Why do you wish to play this specific race: I’m playing whitelist pokemon I really enjoy the war-torn home planet and recent history of massive conflict, playing out across a cultural (and physiological) backdrop of rigid castes and decadent, oppressive nobility. I also greatly enjoy the darkly rich folklore and religion that makes itself felt throughout society and its conflict with both the secular Republican state and conflicting religious sects and cults. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The bred-in caste system, fraught political history and potential for interesting backstories involving extremely morally grey military conflict all make the Tajara pretty interesting to me. The castes are, to my mind, the most unique part of the Tajara in that each have their own cultural history and beliefs but also physiological specialisations and severe discriminations based on those, perceived or otherwise. Character name: Vyazhdoun Hrratkaczhvi Character backstory: Vyazhdoun was born in the winter of 2430 to a Hharar family at the tail end of the Great War relocated to the outskirts of Orul, Ras’nrr, under the young People’s Republic. Enjoying favoured treatment as the Hharar son of a Republican veteran and a midwife-priestess of Marryam, he experienced little of the Republic’s ugly side. Finishing his basic education with middling results and taking some training in basic nursing, he was happy to live his life as a simple local healer; then the ALA declared its rebellion, plunging his home continent into war once again. Having heard his father’s stories of the horrors of war, he volunteered his meagre abilities with the Ministry of Health, serving as a nurse in civilian healthcare. On January of 2458, the Ministry of Health began implementing the Rehabilitation Program, the beginning of the infamous re-education camps, to which Hrratkaczhvi was re-assigned. He saw the horrors of the camps first-hand, tending to wounds sustained in re-education and even assisting in some of the more experimental treatments. He saw Tajaran men, women and children tortured merely for the crime of different views, different politics, different faiths. He had had enough. He planned to lift a guard’s pistol and end himself. A subversive prisoner reached out to him, the day he planned to do it, offering a way to change the course of fate, which Vyazhdoun desperately accepted. To his surprise and exaltation, he was relieved of his post, another nurse taking his place and handing him some paperwork. It was only after the train ride to Al’Mari City that he realised the papers listed him as Doctor Hrratkaczhvi, a newly reassigned practitioner up for promotion at the city hospital under NanoTrasen contract. There he met another of the subversives, a doctor driven to the edge by stress and resorted to taking on the fate of another, a mechanic, who took on the fate of a clerk… Vyazhdoun realised he had been inducted into the ranks of the Raskariim, now far too late to back out. He transferred offworld to try and escape the maddening influence of the cult, flying for a station in Tau Ceti, the NSS Aurora, but the hooks are in too deep, the only option is to appease Raskara, to keep overturning fate, to throw down the old idols, to keep playing the charade, to do what the messages say, to hide from the Republic, to try and do some good in this retched world, to turn more innocents to the way of the King of Maggots… To keep on living another day in the hopes he will be free from the Dark Moon’s grip. What do you like about this character? I really enjoy the subversion of the archetype of the sensitive soul traumatised by horrors they’re forced to perpetrate then getting inducted into an ominous subversive cult and playing an unwitting role in strange machinations. I’m also hoping it’ll be really interesting playing a character who’s ICly outright fraudulent and constantly terrified and anxious about getting found out by either the Cult of Raskara, NT or even the PRA. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Solid 8-9/10, please massage my ego. Notes: aestheticcc

I'm ambivalent about the EMT access (even as an EMT main) but I'm definitely against the janitor change. For janitors who actually RP, dept access is great - as a janitor, you really need to actively interact with a lot of people to get much RP. Stuff like wiping down the windows in the Science corridor is one such way that'd be removed with the Janitor access nerf.

Make it fit in webbing if this is done too, please!

Really not keen on these. They don't look like leather jackets, just generic jackets. EDIT: Adding this to the jacket selection? Sure. Replacing distinctive sprites with this? Nooo. I'd love redone sprites of the leather jackets that still look like leather jackets, but basically removing the options is pretty meh to me.

Precisely this. The sprites are good but it's all just so drab-looking.

Shark x Shark Bait pls

Consider yourself corrected, audio emotes work fine over radio*. EDIT: *As far as I've seen from mute characters in roleplay. Could be that they didn't take muteness mechanically and are merely roleplaying it? I couldn't say for certain.

I'd be fine with mute Cargo people, it's a similarly low requirement job and I've seen mute miners do fine - the better ones often establish a signal for "help needed" like blowing into the mic loudly and stuff like that. Many Science roles + Biochemist also aren't really impacted too badly by muteness, though I'd hesitate to say anything outside of those roles would be viable for mute people. Certainly Engineering, Security and actively healing Medical roles all require speech.

Gonna have to drop out after all, sorry for flipflopping.

My favourite hostage main ❤️

I'm interested in playing a Paladin and am very experienced with 5e, both as a player and as a DM. I can't make the first session, unfortunately, but should be able to make following ones reliably.

I thought I'd post their planned flavour text, as that might help demonstrate my knowledge of the lore more to people's satisfaction. General: Standing at just over six feet, this ancient-looking Unathi looks grizzled and weathered; their black scales are fading with age to a dull, patchy grey and their squat, muscled form is usually hunched over a walking stick. They walk with a slight limp, favouring their left leg. An Unathi might notice a couple other things. Most striking is their oddly androgynous appearance, masculine in bearing and musculature but effeminate in their snout shape and proportions. Their accent in Sinta tongues is a rural and rough Moghean, likely from a village swallowed up by the Wastes, but with a sophisticated vocabulary suggesting higher education later in life. Head: Their horns are enormous! Their venerable horns spiral out and then inward in a way that must surely have been cultivated not to dig into their skull. Long, weathered frills extend from the top of their head down to the base of their neck. Face: Their teeth are oddly assorted in condition, some cracked and dulled while others are shiny and sharp; this might indicate some teeth were grown in later than others to replace lost ones. Eyes: One eye is an old, faded yellow, the other bright, seemingly thirty years younger. Both seem tired, though sometimes burn with a fiery passion. Arms: The scales of their right arm have been stained in Peizi juice with a simplified depiction of Emperor Seryo’s imperial standard, clearly reminiscent of Human tattoos; it seems to be carefully maintained. Hands: Their claws have grown long and slightly curved over the years, although two on the side of the right hand is oddly short and straight; a Dominian might recognise this as a tailored replacement. Legs: A large patch of scales on their right leg are a shiny, pure black; a Dominian might recognise this as a tailored replacement. Feet: Their claws have grown long and slightly curved over the years.

They were raised in a small, rural pre-contact town providing minor goods and services to surrounding villages in a family at the lower end of the middle classes. The clan followed Sk'akh; although the faith acknowledges men born into the wrong bodies, the sleepy, quiet nature of the town meant that its shaman was complacent and didn't consider the unladylike Sakzsha to be anything other than a nuisance, cementing their lifelong resentment towards Moghes and the Hegemony. They converted to belief in the Moroz Holy Tribunal following the foundation of Dominia though remains somewhat skeptical of some of it's deviation from Sk'akh, following a slightly muddled combination of the half-remembered doctrines of Sk'akh and the modern Edicts of the Tribunal. While I was initially disinclined from the laundry and cooking option, I think that's what I'll end up going with. Seeing an opportunity to finally escape the woman's life, they would consistently hound and challenge the raiders while stuck doing those duties, eventually earning a fight mainly from irritating them into giving up and letting then fight. While inexperienced and ultimately losing the duel, they displayed such fire that they allowed them to train with the warriors, perhaps chiefly for amusement, but displayed such drive and fire that an accompanying shaman deemed them a warrior's soul born into the wrong body. While I'm not keen on the Kataphract idea, as that doesn't mesh well with their resentment of the Hegemony and some traditional Unathi customs, the point of muddled motivations is valid. I currently envision their motivations and conflicts as: Becoming tired of the pressures and the restraining politeness of Dominian Noble society, especially with it being run more and more by humans and with the recent outlawing of slavery Wanting to figure out their self-identity in a place with laxer cultural expectations before their soul joins with the Great Spirit/Goddess, conflicting with their opinion of humans and their meddling within the Empire Trying to embody the traditional image of the warrior, conflicting with their self-identity issues although these will likely change and develop as I play it out ingame. I am, of course, intentionally making the character conflicted on a number of issues so there's a lot for them to work out through play. I could definitely see me doing a female Hopeful as a separate character by the way!

They would be quite well qualified for the position given their previous experience in government-sanctioned privateering operations, with a (largely ceremonial) degree from the Dominian Imperial Military Academy.

BYOND Key: Memescope McGee Character Names: Lichfield Agathus, Amachye Uchechie, A.I.D.E. #04743, Ini Ugonma Species you are applying to play: Unathi What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Greying black Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes. Why do you wish to play this specific race: Their honour-bound society and heavily traditionalist views seem intriguing to play, especially with their political history with the galaxy at large; the history of the Contact War, the Aut’akh and the pirate takeover of Dominia are of particular interest to me. The heavily sexist Unathi society is also rather interesting to me, especially the slightly conflicted inclusion of souls born into the wrong bodies—I intend to play one of these people as my first character. Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human: The Unathi’s strict honour system combined with their predilection towards aggression and stubbornness seem to make for a unique roleplaying experience on this server, along with the societal aspects mentioned above. Additionally, the (as of now) unique mostly mechanical Aut’akh and their conflict with traditional Unathi culture and its beliefs about prosthetics should provide very interesting RP opportunities. Character Name: Sakszha Kazkhz, Head of Security Sakszha, born in 2390 as Shuzko Sassoak, had the misfortune of being a warrior’s soul born into a frail woman’s body. Throughout her early life she chafed at her clan’s expectations, forced to cook and clean and other such honourless task, denied the warrior’s life that was rightfully hers. Being crass, violent and unladylike, her clan struggled to find her a husband for many years, eventually finding a man so weak-willed as to agree to the marriage for a pittance. She proved a poor wife indeed, angry and distracted from all her womanly duties. The aliens came when she was already well into her forties, bringing with them the grand opportunity to escape her loathsome life to the stars. Intimidating her husband into arranging passage on a ship, the two had the misfortune of being picked up by a band of raiders. While her husband quickly perished, she impressed the aliens and her own kind both with her incredible knack for violence, despite her gentle sex, and finally acknowledged her as, if not one with a man’s body, then at least a true warrior’s soul, and took up the name of Sakszha. Rising up the ranks of S’kraskin Seryo’s raiders, they participated in the Lightning War for Moroz and earned their place as a House Noble under their new clan, Kazkhz. Following the fateful events of the Lightning War, they spent their years as an officer of the Kazkhz privateer fleet largely at ease with their lot in life, kept alive in their elder years past expectations of their species with the genetic magics of the Empire. As the years have passed, however, they have been growing increasingly uneasy about their place in the world and within the Empire’s ever-expanding Human bureaucracy. Increasingly frustrated with the Human-dominated Empire they fought to build, they have decided to strike out on their own (with a few serving Ma’Zals, of course) to Tau Ceti for its new, liberal experiences, travelling home now and then to stave off the impacts of age. What do you like about this character? The whole ‘born in the wrong body’, kind-of-trans-kind-of-not thing is super interesting to me along with exploring Unathi gender roles in an unusual way with someone who doesn’t really conform to either. I also just have a soft spots for ex-pirates, especially given this one was literally given a noble title for it. How would you rate your role-playing ability? Pretty high up there, I guess? I mean, I don’t want to be an asshole or anything but it’s hard to answer this one without sounding like one, so… Notes: I got to this aesthetic after a bit of messing around with character creation on a local copy:

Bumping since my trial's been over for a day or two.

I mean sure, a poorly played contractor in an unfitting role could make other contractors look worse, but isn't that the case for any instance of lore being badly represented? This really seems more like a moderation matter than one to lock by mechanics. As it currently is, I've seen firsthand contractors in unreasonable positions be shut down pretty damn quickly through moderation, and coding in a hard limit to what jobs contractors can do seems unnecessarily limiting. Moreover, locking contractors from certain corps into specific jobs seems pretty reductive and detrimental to the lore - since we're talking about these massively powerful megacorps with fingers in many pies, reducing them to a single specific role just seems counterproductive.

From what little I've seen/interacted with Volvalaad, you seem to have either quite poor understanding of the lore, little care for it or perhaps both, a rather bad thing for a Head. -1