Background
In the near future, the country’s of Earth have detected a strange phenomenon in space quickly approaching our solar system. This anomaly has spawned some strange areas of space at first considered space storms, but later was confirmed as small space time anomalies most likely, worm holes. The concern is that where these worm holes appear, whole solar systems are being destroyed. There are five basic factions of scientific theory on how to ensure the safety of our solar system, and since time is of the essence (worst case predictions are in the 10’s of years, best case less than 60 years), the general consensus is to try all of them. Most of the theories involve massive amounts of energy needed to essentially divert the phenomenon by 10 degrees. One of them is a more subtle approach. The world could not find enough expendable people to send on these missions (if you send your best, and if they can’t fix it, and if they can’t return…no second chances).
So, the idea was floated to look at criminals that have the necessary backgrounds and either life sentences or more than 60 years to go, to become the crews for these missions. All agreed that serial killers, rapists, and their ilk should not be used, but white collar criminals (your Barry Madoff’s, scammers who have multiple back to back sentences, political revolutionaries, manslaughter, etc.) would be the most effective force.
These “volunteers” would be offered a new life if they are able to complete the mission and return back to Earth safely. Better than rotting away in prison, right?!
Session Zero – Character Creation
I am running a Sci-Fi game using a book called Worm Fire. You won’t need to know anything about it during the first game, but you will for the rest of the campaign. I will have physical copies and will put the player section in DropBox for those who want to read it.
Just make a character using the core rules. There are some things you should consider. In order to be selected for this mission you will need to have one or more of the following:
- Piloting (perhaps an amateur or professional pilot, or past experience in the military)
- Research and/or Science (always good for someone working in space)
- Repair (would be nice if you have some experience on planes or rockets)
- Leadership Edges
- Good physical condition (although a terminal illness that does not affect your ability to do the job might be a bonus for you!)
- Shooting (specifically experience with artillery as their may be some manual effort needed to get the missiles on target)
- Fighting….just kidding, they don’t care if you can fight…they actually don’t want anyone without some control over their actions – so hindrances like impulsive and mean may exclude you…unless you are just so good they can’t find a replacement.
- Linguist, since this is a world wide effort, people with the Linguist edge would be highly sought after.
- Healing, you never know what trouble might occur and healing would be needed.
Anything else you can think of that might be useful to a multi-national force attempting to save the Earth!!
I will need a digital version of your character, preferably in PDF format (just print to PDF if you have it in Word or Excel).
More details to come, and I’m hoping using Harrowed Halls posts will make this a little easier and more fun to keep track of the games!