Overview

@Nile 20 I see you joined us after the name change. Welcome. Most of the members are from a few years ago when this club began as a pirate game. There's a half baked plan to run an Expanse game, but it hadn't gotten a lot of traction. There is an ad campaign getting ready to start, so we have the opportunity to build something fun, creative and hopefully interesting. If not The Expanse - which I still hold out secret hope for - what ideas have you got? It needn't be an actual RPG a setting, group of characters or storyline is a place to start.

Does anyone have any thoughts about what to do with this club? Ad campaign goes live in two weeks. I'd like to have something here....

While I work my way through Siobhan and Jan being poor and desperate, does anyone have thoughts about what we want to do to define characters? I used the official Expanse RPG but it may not be the best tool for this kind of play-by-post environment. Cypher? PDQ? Something else?

Jan thumbed open the hatch to the micro slot he and Siobhan shared. The Belter lounged at what looked like an uncomfortable angle, but the station's low gravity was far more normal for her than it was him. He gave her a weak smile - he'd been poor before but not poor in the belt. Poor on Mars meant something different. Here you could feel yourself being a commodity. Siobhan's eyes twinkled as she looked up. "Not long - I'm sure we'll find a can out of here any day now." Jan shrugged, "We better - I made shit today and there's hardly any kibble left." She flicked a notice to his handheld. "Fights tonight." Jan looked down at the announcement. "I dunno - in this gravity, I', not sure I could take you." Siobhan laughed. "You can't take me in any gravity, Jan." The Martian shrugged. She wasn't exactly wrong. "So - you fight?" "Everyone knows me." She pushed off the corner and bounced over to jab him playfully in the side, "It's good you're cute." Jan gave a bitter chuckle. Since leaving Ruby of Karur Jan had felt fairly useless. He barely spoke lang belta and was having a hard time lining up work on the docks. He was as good as any of them, better than most, frankly, but his Martian accent cost him far more jobs than his strength won him. "Doesn't do much good with most beltalowda." "Nope." She agreed in English then grinned broadly and added, "Im does na, mi dear. Amash im does mean kowmang wants fo beat to ass." Jan chugged through the creole slowly and as he figured it out shot a glance a Siobhan. "Great - so take a fight that I probably can't win, just because everyone wants to see me get my ass kicked. And what, you bet on them to win." Siobhan looked guilty for a long second before she looked up, "Not at first?" She asked sheepishly.

While @IsabellaRose is on hiatus she's asked me to get things started here. As it is her character who actually owns the ship we'll be taking through the ring, I'd like to run a little prequel on Vesta. My tentative set up for this is Siobhan and Jan have just left their last ship, Ruby of Karur, They had been happy members of that crew for several years and in a long relationship with the pilot. When their lover and the ship's captain were moved to another ship by the owners and replaced with much more abusive and difficult crew, the pair left and have been eking by on the docks of Vesta, hoping for another opportunity. Have they met anyone interesting on the docks - and what kind of shady things are we all doing to get by?

The rough idea at this point is most of the crew know each other already. Siobhan, Jan and the pilot all worked together on their last ship. The current ship is tentatively owned by an affluent Earther (well, her dad's company, technically)who hired the other three on Vesta. Do you think your engineer came with the ship? Is she, maybe, torn between her company paycheck and the promise of a life beyond the Ring? It's a thought - not even a suggestion - just an idea that kinda fits with the ideas that are already bouncing around.

Yes. She got splashed with highly corrosive chemicals in an industrial accident or maybe a skirmish (actually, its sort of both) and the arm couldn’t be saved or regrown. I’m not sure if anyone would want graphic details, but it was bad. She had to do it herself because things were desperate. I’d be willing to RP it. If you’d like, she could tell the story to a newer crewman. It would be a bit of a horror story. Yeah, she has big frizzle energy. She’s going to be pretty neurotic and awkward, but also fiercely loyal and protective of her ship and crew.

Madam Oc reminds me a lot of Miss Frizzle from The Magic School bus... Our freighter probably doesn't have a huge supply of drones - maybe a cargo lifter to move larger containers and a security drone or two to surveil the barge-shuttles. A prosthetic seems completely sensible. Do the others know what happened to your arm?

I wasn’t necessarily seeing her as having the Octo arms. I meant more along how she looks, which I really like. Kind of a messy-hot science lady. I was going to ask about cybernetics, because I know that it’s sort of possible, but not explicitly there. I wouldn’t want full-fledged robots, but advanced drones seem possible. I could also see her having a prosthetic arm that she can maintain with hard work and money. There could be some reason that it couldn’t be regrown. I think that the arm could be used as a weapon, but she would only do this in emergencies, because it’s expensive to fix. It would be an obvious, metal prosthetic.

A woman in her 30's to 40's is fine. Madam Oc's cybernetics aren't really a thing in the Expanse, although I don't see why they couldn't be. Clarissa Mao has implants (granted they're more biological than electro-mechanical) that she can activate to become a deadly combatant, Josep gets regrowth therapy for his severed arm and when the Cant is attacked we hear about prosthetics - so all the underlying technologies exist. @IsabellaRose, do you have any thoughts? I'm inclined to say, "Why not?" I think we need to limit the quantity of servo arms and make any kind of fine manipulation subject to some kind of check, but everything to create that kind of technology exists. The mental capacity to really control them is the hard science fiction limit on it, in my opinion.

Hey there! I watched the first season of the Expanse and liked it. I’m going to want to review the technology in the setting, but I’m not sure how strictly you want to keep to the canon. I can definitely see catching up for it. I’ll have more details later, but I want my character to be a woman in her 30-40’s who is an engineer and can keep together sub-par systems. She’d look like Madame Octopus from the Spiderverse movies. She’s be very protective of the ship and sometimes people would call her Mrs. (Ship’s Name). She doesn’t mind this, really. I can see her being in a polycule, for sure.

OK. It's been 4 years since anyone posted anything here, so I'm going to put a stake in this monster's heart and repurpose it for a new game. This will become an Expanse game. For fans of the show or books, watch this space for a new RP based on the Green Ronin RPG. It will use a very trimmed down resolution mechanic and no experience with it, or any other table top RPG, is neccessary.

"Aye Aye Capt," Talia says and checks her compass to be sure she was still on course. As she put her compass away she thought of the man that she broke and sighs thinking she maybe cursed due to how she'd broken him. As night was falling she met with a helms mate letting them know of their course before laundering off to the Captain's Quarters.

"See we make it afore 'morrow noon is all I ask." The captain replied with a nod. Venus crossed to the ladderwell and turned back to the first mate, "You in the market for a new man, Talia? Break the last one? I told you he looked scrawny." A storm of blonde hair shook off any answer with a smile. "Save it. I want you an Lavule in my quarters at the night watch." She slid down the polished hand rails on her hands. At the bottom she turned into her cabin.

Talia nods in agreement," Aye aye Captian, That we do need. Maybe a few more fellows to board the ship to tame some of these wild women." She gives the Captian a playful wink as she feels a hard breeze blowing behind her heading into the sails giving a ship a hard tug forward. Talia laughs," Looks like the breeze agrees with ya. At this rate we'd be there moon high tonight!"

When Venus returned from the stores, she doubled back and bounded up the ladderwell to the quarterdeck. Talia tended the wheel, and surveyed the deck while the captain and boatswain had been below decks. "We need to make it by tomorrow, love." Venus replied to her first mate. "Lavule and I just checked the rum stores and sundown tomorrow, we'll all be strung from the yards." Venus clapped Talia on the shoulder, "Monster will get us there, you'll see to it. I'll call the crew for a vote when we get there - we need a new quartermaster."

Standing at the helm Talia sighs softly as her golden eyes turns down onto a compass she keeps on hand around her waist. Heading Southwest she turns the helm steering to the left lightly following her instincts goes. Her long hair pulled back into a partial pony tail still showing her length of going down most of her back. Wearing a black corset around her waist emphasizes her c cup breasts beneath a white tunic. Wearing a tight red skirt she sways her hips side to side as she a little she ponders on songs to sing when she saw the captain walking her way. "Bright day Capt," Talia calls out heavy with accent of an ancient language long lost only few who knows. "Kel'ia San jeo gwain Marjia Port sian vika," she says quickly in her tongue then she quickly switches to English after realizing she was speaking the wrong language. "We'll be in Marjia's Port in a few days time. Given the wind is on our side."

Venus huffed, "Jump ship? You'd be a fool not to, Cassandra Lavule. You with a ship and crew of your own? Me'n the mate with Monster - we'd be the masters of the seas. Least until they sent a fleet for us." She wasn't so much afraid as sort of hopeful. Lavule was capable and attractive. Easier to avail herself of that latter fact as equals. Bad mojo to dally with the crew - well, openly, anyway." Venus turned a smiling face back on the boatswain, "I expect the lads and lasses will go buck wild and we'll be apologizing to Marjia. I had intended to see what I could do about weaseling a cabin boy out of the filthy old wench." she said with a wink. "I'll share him with you as long as your one of my crew, eh?" She swung nimbly under the stay and cocked her head toward the mainmast as she started toward the main deck, "Let's have a look at the rum stores and see how much work you have, shall we?"

"Wit' this pack of rats? Not likely capn'. But I'll keep me eye out. Afraid I'm going to jump ship on you?" Cassandra smiled while stepping up to her captain and overlooking the map Marjia's port was always a fun stop and maybe she could keep an eye out for a pretty young thing to entertain her and the captain this time. "Some of the crew have yet to feel a warm embrace, much less the... luxuries of Marjia's port. Could give us time to enjoy ourselves as we resupply and maybe maybe listen for some soft targets on the trade lanes... I'm a bit eager for some action and I don't just mean fucking the tits off a lass."

I was a Marine, so I got the worst of both worlds. Venus turned when her bo'sun answered. The blue eyed captain watched the other woman's breasts sway under the thin cotton of her shirt. She pursed her lips appreciatively but simply nodded. "Promises to be good sailing, Lavule. See the deck crew stays sharp on the sheets. We'll need to mind the wind if we're going to make Marjia's Port before the rum stores run out." The captain turned her face back to the sea, "One day, Cassie, I'll have to replace you and my deck will be a shambles." She said, laughing. "Don't suppose there's one of them you can train, is there?"

(I was in the army, not the navy, so I have to research things! XD) The boatswain, Cassandra Lavule as a little girl had aspirations to be captain of her own ship. However one cannot simply take command of a vessel, it requires experience on the seas under the guiding hand of an experienced captain. Years ago she came under the command of Captain Venus. Crewmates came and went, along with opportunities to gain higher positions amongst other ships, but somewhere along the way somewhere... Cassandra's respect for Venus' leadership as captain, outweighed the desires of a captaincy for herself. After all this time on the sea Cassandra had come to learn the ship as well as her own body making her the perfect candidate for the bosun of The Monster. Cassandra heard the captain call for her and she quickly made her way across the deck of the ship stopping only to berate a shipmate who was not minding the rigging. "If you want your rum ration, I suggest you tie off the main sail! We still have a full day ahead and I won't have you stressing the lines!" Once the crewman had been corrected, Cassandra continued to the captain. The bosun had leather boots that were fraying around the edges suggesting their wear and tear throughout the years. Her pants were baggy and secured via a large belt around her waist with the cotton shirt tucked beneath. Her breasts were only hidden by the cotton fabric as her neckline was revealed just above the leather bandolier that carried her powder and shot for her flintlock pistol tucked into her belt. Her hair was tied into a ponytail on the back of her head with green determined eyes looking up to her captain. "Yes capn'?" Her voice was husky and low with a mild rasp that echoed her harsh lifestyle but also carried her respect for Venus and readiness to take orders.

Venus stood at the bow of Monster, one foot on the base of the bow sprit, one strong, soft hand holding onto a stay as she regarded the sea before her. The other hand rested easily on the hilt of a sheathed cutlass. Low, white clouds boiled into the blue sky ahead, promising a smooth sea and gentle winds. Her long blonde hair and brocaded coat danced in the wind as she surveyed the sea. Tight white trousers and tall, black boots accented her long legs.As her coat danced the crew behind her could catch the occasional glimpse of her firm, round behind. Opposite her cutlass a pistol was thrust into the broad belt of supple leather than hung low about her shapely, feminine hips. Each bore the dark patina of long use on its grip. @WarAngel "Bo'sun Lavule!" she bellowed, turning her head to be heard across the deck.