[M] TradeHard, an Interstellar Adventure of Exploration and Trade (OOC)

[Holeypaladin]

Rated M for potential violence, strong language, sensual situations, and all that other fun stuff.

(Banner by Pad)

The galaxy is a vast place, rich in resources, with more than 250 billion stars of all colors and sizes, many of which have planets which orbit them. The most rare of resources is life, and the most rare form of life is that which has its own Sentience and awareness of itself... but with so many billions of planets in the galaxy, it is no wonder that such sentient life has arisen on numerous different planets, separated from each other by vast gulfs of empty space.

Long before any known civilizations ascended to the stars, the legendary Promethean civilizations of antiquity formed vast interstellar situations, spreading life to various different worlds across the sea of stars. And then, some thousand years ago, the Prometheans mysteriously vanished, along with almost every trace of their civilization.

Over the past millennium, however, many other races have ascended to take their place among the stars. As life expanded outward from isolated planets to spread throughout the stars, various species of sentient life forms came in contact with each other. This led to a new era of expansion, Imperialism, and Trade. In this era of aggressive capitalism, survival of the fittest requires a merchant to Trade Hard... or die.

TradeHard

Welcome to TradeHard! In this interstellar adventure, we will be writing a cooperative story involving the crew of an interstellar trade freighter. An mysterious foreign investor has recently shown up in the trade nexus of Terminus, with apparent ties to the Trade Federation, to the extent where his investor ID number checks out, at least. He has placed an extended lease on our ship, the Spice of Life, taking the captain and grew under his employ. The plan? Business as usual, except business is to take place in a spinward direction across the known galaxy, with an occasional special mission of exploration and survey...

All good stories include the Holy Trinity of Good Storytelling, which consists of Plot, Setting, and Characters, which shall be described as follows:

Plot
The Spice of Life is affiliated with the Trade Federation, a neutral party in the affairs of interstellar politics and an intermediary. The ship and its crew will be conducting missions of trade and exploration, though these missions are not without substantial danger. Economies are always shifting according to the whims of supply and demand, and the lack of efficient communications between various star systems equates to imperfect information. Additionally, some of the less civilized corners of space are home to various clans of space pirates, who prey on trade freighters like wolves prey on sheep. What exciting adventures shall unfold in this story of aggressive capitalism?

Setting
TradeHard takes place in a mostly undocumented region of the Promethean Galaxy (Sector Grid 35). This 5,000 * 5,000 * 1,000 lightyear area consists of various different interstellar factions, with an average technological development level of 16 with the highest being 18. For comparison, modern earth has a technological development level of 11. The Trade Federation is the dominant trade power in the area, though not without its rivals, both political and economic. For the most part, however, it is up to us to build this part of the galaxy as we go, so for those of you who enjoy world building... have fun!

Spoiler: A few Important Setting Notes 

1. All civilizations in the galaxy have had interstellar space travel technology for less than one thousand years. No exceptions. This is to prevent ridiculously overpowered technology from making its way into the story and introducing inconsistencies that I'd rather avoid.
2. There is no magic, only technology. This means that magical powers such as telepathy, life forms consisting of pure energy, and godlike aliens are forbidden.
3. Technology will be regulated by GMs. Most typical science fiction technologies are acceptable (laser weapons, railguns, faster than light travel, etc.) but certain ultra-tech devices are forbidden (No teleportation, planet destroying weapons, artificially created worlds, etc.) Additionally, technology that exceeds Level 18 requires special approval. Your characters would need to have a VERY good reason to be using technology from other, more technologically advanced parts of the galaxy. (No nano swarms, antimatter-based power and weaponry, personal force fields, high-speed FTL communications, collapsium-alloy materials, or advanced contragravity without GM approval.)
4. Creativity in designing alien races is welcome, but so are remarkably human-like aliens! Earth itself, however, is more than ten thousand lightyears away from where our story takes place, so none of our characters will have heard of Earth or know of its existence. So please, no Earth references, but feel free to have "space humans" like in Star Wars if you like! When designing alien races, please take into account basic biology, so nothing too extreme.
5. Additionally, creativity is encouraged when designing various alien civilizations and cultures! As a general rule, no single civilization within this part of the galaxy has a population higher than 500 billion people, though there may be an exception or two somewhere in the area. Any civilization with a population over 500 billion is to consist of multiple different alien races, however. Also keep this story is about the crew of the Spice of Life, and these civilizations are plot devices.

Characters
The characters of our story consist of the various crew and officers of the Spice of Life. Though we will have numerous non-player crew members since the total crew of the freighter is around 160, player characters will be the focus of the story. Feel free to include the actions of various non-player characters in your writing, however, so long as you do so responsibly! The Trade Federation employs countless different alien species as crew and officers on their ships, due to a merit-based employment policy rather than a race-based policy, so be creative!

Spoiler: Crew Positions: 

Note that it's unlikely that we'll fill every slot. The rest will be filled with NPCs. If you feel up to writing multiple characters, feel free to do so, so long as you don't neglect interactions with other player characters! Also, feel free to suggest additional crew positions... there's always room to add a few more.

Financial Director: John Smith
Captain: Skia Ndico-Owerr Kerssi
First Officer:
Navigations Officers: (Awaiting Cosmic Fury's application)
Boatswain:
Pilot:
Copilot:
Communications Officer: (Awaiting Bunny's application)
Master Gunner:
Gunners:
Chief Engineer:
Engineer Technicians: Dynsen Crylz, Tezh and Dàzhos (NPC)
Chief Medical Officer:
Nurses:
Master Chef:
Cooks: Huxley Wormeater
Chief Cargo Officer:
Accountant:
Chief Security Officer: Anson Korso
Security Guards:
Crewmen: Luor Celan (Janitor)

Spoiler: Character Application 

Full Name:
Alias:
Species:
Biological Gender: (some species might have more than two...)
Description / Appearance:
Crew Position:
Personal Equipment:
Skills:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Personality:
History:
Other:

Spoiler: Our ship: The Spice of Life 

Spice of Life, Capitalism-class interstellar trade freighter.


Size: Light Freighter
Role: Cargo Transport
Primary weapons: Two medium plasma cannons, spinal mounted
Point defense: One dozen defensive turrets armed with X-ray laser beams.
Hangar bay: Two Serendipity-class personnel shuttles
Defenses: Aegis Industries Mark I Force Field generator, Aegis industries mark II deflector screen, Apollo industries ablative armoring.
Engineering: Helios inc. Mark IV Hydrogen Fusion Reactor, Mercury Propulsion Systems Mark IV Reactionless Thrusters (Capable of 20 gravities of sublight acceleration unladen, or 15 gravities fully loaded), New Discoveries cutting edge Warp Drive Prototype (Capable of 50 lightyears per day FTL velocity unladen, or 37.5 lightyears per day fully loaded)
Crew: Approximately 160 crewmen and sixteen officers.
Cargo Hold: Six Five cargo bays, each with a cargo volume of 500,000 cubic feet.
Miscellaneous: One cargo bay has been reserved by the investor John Smith for his own personal use, and is forbidden to crew members and officers alike. Contents of this re-purposed cargo hold are unknown. Ship has recently been equipped with upgraded armament relative to other Capitalism-class light freighters.
Cost: Approximately 7.5 Billion Federation Credits

Rules:
1. The GM's word is Law. This is the first and foremost rule of all RPs, and it goes without saying.

2. Be respectful of each other. Try to settle any disagreements in a civilized manner. Keep in mind that we're all on the same side in this story, so let's focus on the plot and excitement!

3. Head GM is Holeypaladin. Currently my co-GM is Enigma, though if it becomes necessary to recruit additional co-GMs, I'll let you know! Convince me that we have like-minded views of science fiction adventures, and we'll see!

4. Make sure to read all rules and be aware of them. Additional guidelines exist under the Setting information. If you've read all setting information, make sure to include the name of your character's homeworld in your application.

5. I won't be enforcing a strict post order, but we will be advancing the plot from time to time once we feel everyone has had sufficient time to write about their characters activities. Please try to be active, and if you happen to be more active than certain other RPers, feel free to write co-posts! Co-posts are encouraged... they're awesome, and I love them.

6. Writers of all proficiency levels from beginner to veteran are welcome, but please try your very best to write good posts! It shouldn't be too hard to write a couple paragraphs at least, and to check your post for spelling and grammar before submitting! If you promise to write your very best each post, include your character's favorite food in your application.

7. No mary sue characters or other overpowered characters, please. Play your role among the crew as best you can, but allow other players to play their own roles to the best of their ability as well.

8. If it becomes necessary to add more rules, I will do so. Hopefully it won't be necessary, however!

9. If you've read all rules and agree to them, add in your character's Age in galactic standard years to your character application. One galactic standard year is approximately one Earth year.

10. This is the most important rule of all. HAVE FUN!!!

[Pad]

Would like to reserve an Engineer Technician slot if that's alright. I'll get my bio written by tomorrow. Also, would it be possible to write a couple of NPC characters as part of the engineering techinicians as well? They won't have full-blown bios, like, but they'll be buddies of my character.

[Holeypaladin]

Would like to reserve an Engineer Technician slot if that's alright. I'll get my bio written by tomorrow. Also, would it be possible to write a couple of NPC characters as part of the engineering techinicians as well? They won't have full-blown bios, like, but they'll be buddies of my character.

Sounds good to me! Engineer technicians are responsible for maintaining the fusion reactor, reactionless thrusters, and warp drive, though your character is likely to be specialized in one of the three since they're all quite different from each other.

[AngelDellaNotte]

What is the crew on the ship like? Is it like a big corporation with ranks and uniforms or more of a rag tag thrown together crew. Also I would imagine our character would most likely know each other unless they just came aboard the ship?

[Holeypaladin]

The ship is a civilian vessel, and the crew is something I'll largely allow the RPers to decide as they create their character applications. Since it's not a military vessel it's unlikely to have the same sort of regimental uniform and rank structure, but since they have no problem outsourcing to other entities, it's entirely possible that the security team in particular might be contracted out to a mercenary army that does have a strict uniform and rank structure, if you'd prefer. Basically, what does everyone want in regards to uniform, rank, and overall command structure? This is a cooperative effort, after all!

But yes, the longer your characters have been serving on the ship, the more likely they are to know the other long-term crew members on board the vessel. Consequently, it's also possible that many of you have just recently joined the crew and don't know each other yet.

[AngelDellaNotte]

I have a rough idea for a position suggestion. Someone who is sort of a trade negations lawyer but also handles any sort corporate espionage or "hostile take overs". Kinda a cross between a lawyer and a spy.

[Holeypaladin]

That does sound like an interesting crew position. Their official job title is likely to be that of a lawyer or advocate, as it sounds much better than "corporate saboteur."

[AngelDellaNotte]

Yeah, I am trying to come up with an ambiguous title that wouldn't flat out say what it was but make you wonder.

[Atethecat]

I have an idea for a Master chef/cook from a dimunitive, mole-like slave race but I can't find a picture quite like what I'm imagining for the character's appearance :(

[AngelDellaNotte]

Atethecat, I am searching alien races on Pinterest (my favorite image site) I haven't found any mole characters but I have found some mouse like.