A roleplay?

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'd pick a title and start a thread in User Fiction, but include "Collaborative Work" or something in the title as well. Mention in the first post that if people want to contribute they should post in this thread (include a link) or PM you first rather than just jumping in. Might also want to include details fo the setting and/or write an opening post to establish the situation.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, that sounds about right for how these sorts of things usually work.

[stardust]

Makes sense, thank you Eternal_Freedom. Probably the same basic layout I've put into them when I create them, I imagine.

[stardust]

What about character and/or ship sheets? I can look up the capabilities of an ISD or a Galaxy-class starship, but anything unique or obscure might require some... help.

[The Romulan Republic]

I personally don't feel that there's any need at all for detailed stats. or anything, if this is to be, as I gather, more of a collaborative story than a role-playing game, but I think it would be reasonable that if posters are going to introduce a particular ship or technology or what have you, that they make sure to provide some basic information on its capabilities (particularly if its from a less well-known franchise). If only in the interests of maintaining a sense of continuity and avoiding plot developments based on a misunderstanding of what should be possible for a given piece of tech. or whatever..

That should probably be done in a separate thread, though, not a story thread. Don't want too much clunky exposition.

[Eternal_Freedom]

A question on your opening post, you specificy we can bring one ship up to "battleship/dreadnought" size, surely that depends on what universe we're drawing from? I mean, something like the Infinity from Halo would count as a dreadnought or maybe even a titan in-universe at 6 km length, whereas a SW Dreadnought might be 12-19km, or a big bad Gloriana-class battleship from 40K would be up in the 25km+ range.

[stardust]

A fair point. Personally, as the UNSC Infinity is the only ship that was built (far as I know, from what I've seen and read) I'd classify it as a titan. On the Star Wars side, I'd say a fairly standard Imperial-class star destroyer would be the upper limit to run with. I'm not as familiar with WH40k as I'd like to be when it comes to their ship designations, so I would be a bit more forgiving there. Something big that anchors or leads ssquadrons of smaller ships, but nothing that'd be a mobile battlefortress unto itself.

Something like that would be for another collab altogether. How am I doing so far?

[Eternal_Freedom]

So far it's going well I think. 40K ship designations are kinda warped by just how damn big they are, a "small" escort is ISD sized at 1-2 km and operate in squadrons in battle. Really any sufficiently big ship is going to be a mobile battlefortress, thats why they're battleships or flagships.

[stardust]

Perhaps for the sake of argument we could scale them down to something comparable to everything else. Hypothetically speaking. Thoughts?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Scaling them down becomes...problematic. Trying to set a relative power limit is problematic as well, since what is an omguberdeathship in one universe will get one-shot-killed by a frigate in another universe. It's a difficult balancing act. I think the best thing to do would be to ask new participants what ship they plan to use and make a value judgement on whether it's too powerful or not.

[stardust]

That seems reasonable.

[The Romulan Republic]

Question:

Are we limited to one large ship per franchise, or one ship in total, or what? Ie, can we bring in ships from more than one franchise?

Oh, and I'm claiming Serenity and her crew from the Firefly/Serenity 'verse, if that's alright (though definitely not a battleship). Probably post-film. A pan-dimensional trading hub without a strong central authority would, after all, attract smugglers like flies to honey.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Depending on size limits, I'm bringing either a battleship from my own work (named, appropriately enough, the ISS Eternal Freedom) or the Gloriana-class battleship Hellfire from my own Space Marine Legion of 40K. Terminator squad boarding teams, mwahaha!

[stardust]

@Rom: One large ship, total; and seeing how smugglers would react to a pirate blockade would be interesting!

@Eternal_Freedom: Tell me more about this battleship from your own mind! I am curious!

I've also started a thread, feel free to check it out.

[Eternal_Freedom]

@Eternal_Freedom: Tell me more about this battleship from your own mind! I am curious!

It's a soft SF universe, Imperial Earth fighting renegade and genocidal splinter faction. Ship tops out at about 3.5 km long, 4 main spinal mounted coilguns, smaller coilguns in turrets across the hull, powerful shields, heavy armour, fast and undetectable hyperdrive (I think I had it doing 5 light-hours in half a second, or 36,000c or thereabouts) and enough ECM and point defence that missiles are not a serious threat unless used in insane quantities. Usually part of a five-ship battle group (other ships were Royal Sovereign, Avenger, Defiant and Battle-Born).

These battleships were the biggest the Imperial fleet could build, but the enemy (Tienari, from Terra Nova Republic or TNR) managed to build 12km+ dreadnoughts and planet killers which kicked off the fifth and final war, the Imperial launched a preemptive strike to take out the planet killers and their shipyards.

[stardust]

Oh that sounds interesting! Bring that one! And for the fleet brawl I have in mind, bring all of them!

The Sword, on my part, isn't nearly that big. Just a hair over half a mile, but it represents the culmination of research and development by four separate races, humans included, to design and build a capital ship hunter. It can outfight it can't outrun, and outrun anything it can't outfight.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ok then, the Eternal Freedom will appear first, and the Hellfire can appear later for the fleet brawl.

Whats the setup for this? Are our universes aware of the central hub's existence and are tasked with re-taking it as per the non-intervention treaty, or can we just blunder in and join the fight?

[stardust]

How I'm going to start is by having my characters get contacted and retasked from whatever they were doing to investigate the scale and scope of the threat, negotiate and nullify by whatever means are available. And yes, it's implied that all "factions" are aware of all other "factions'" existence, as they all use Central for one reason or another. Per the "non-intervention" treaty as you call it, it is in their best interests to maintain the status quo; anything that disrupts Central could potentially by extension affect the multiverse in unpleasant ways, and NOBODY wants that. Make sense?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Works for me. My guy has only recently come out of a short but very brutal war that saw a lot of his friends die, so he's kinda messed up inside and he's about 3 ranks above where he was six months ago, simply due to how many senior commanders died in the war. But his ship survived, most of his task force survived and his wife (also the XO) made it through as well, so he's mostly on an even keel. But he's likely to react poorly to people who threaten civilians.

[The Romulan Republic]

How I'm going to start is by having my characters get contacted and retasked from whatever they were doing to investigate the scale and scope of the threat, negotiate and nullify by whatever means are available. And yes, it's implied that all "factions" are aware of all other "factions'" existence, as they all use Central for one reason or another. Per the "non-intervention" treaty as you call it, it is in their best interests to maintain the status quo; anything that disrupts Central could potentially by extension affect the multiverse in unpleasant ways, and NOBODY wants that. Make sense?

I feel like there should be some canon backstory for how Central was discovered, who discovered it, what brought about this merging of the multi-verse (though not necessarily everyone discovered it at the same time).

[stardust]

I feel like there should be some canon backstory for how Central was discovered, who discovered it, what brought about this merging of the multi-verse (though not necessarily everyone discovered it at the same time).

You can invent something if you like, I have no real prerequisites - I figure it's an urban planet, like Coruscant in Star Wars, and is the only planet in the Sirius system and was extensively terraformed from the airless rock it used to be when first discovered. Beyond that, go nuts. Heh, it could have a bloody history, one of extensive conflict as factions and peoples fought for control over it, until ..... yeah I'll just stop here

[Eternal_Freedom]

Is the inter-universe jumping aspect a natural phenomena or artificial?

[stardust]

I'm inclined to go with natural, if it matters. Doesn't bother me either way.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That works.

Oh, and an idea for your epic fleet brawl idea: in 40K, the Tyranid Hive Fleets seen so far are implied to be merely the advance guard for a much larger and more powerful main body that's still traversing the intergalactic void. Have them encounter a jump point leading to Central (but some distance away fromt he actual planet, like ten AU or so). The Imperial or whoever forces tracking this massive hive fleet send a frantic warning through to Central, knowing that this Hive Fleet, if it takes the world, will not only have a shitton more biomass to spawn more 'Nids, but will have access to every inhabited universe. Have Central send out a rallying call for anyone who can come to it's aid.

Alternatively, use the Wraith from Stargate: Atlantis, they operate on a similar principle, but their starships are big, powerful and have guns.

[stardust]

That works.

Oh, and an idea for your epic fleet brawl idea: in 40K, the Tyranid Hive Fleets seen so far are implied to be merely the advance guard for a much larger and more powerful main body that's still traversing the intergalactic void. Have them encounter a jump point leading to Central (but some distance away fromt he actual planet, like ten AU or so). The Imperial or whoever forces tracking this massive hive fleet send a frantic warning through to Central, knowing that this Hive Fleet, if it takes the world, will not only have a shitton more biomass to spawn more 'Nids, but will have access to every inhabited universe. Have Central send out a rallying call for anyone who can come to it's aid.

Alternatively, use the Wraith from Stargate: Atlantis, they operate on a similar principle, but their starships are big, powerful and have guns.

I LIKE IT! Am inclined to go with the Wraith, if only because their warships have energy weapons. What about a hybrid mix of the two? Like, say, the Wraith are the masters calling the shots, and are the unquestioned heavy hitters, but breed uncountable numbers of attack beasts to swarm a hard target, like the 'nids?