Darwin Soldiers 4 Discussion thread

[Nick22]

This is the discussion thread for the new Darwins Soldiers rp. This one is alternate Timeline from the first 3, so whether we coubnt anything a canon will be left to the individual poster.

 the basic premise is that a majoir corporation has been doing research on subjects with powers and mutant abilities. one escpes and  havoc ensues.

 given that its AT, we can either bring back characters or create new ones.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Oh cool! Yeah I want to join, it's been ages since I did an RP with y'all

What's the name of the corporation, and the city this takes place in? Just want to know for purposes of coming up with a character

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

And for factions, it sounds like the main ones would be company personnel (scientists, security guards), test subjects (either working with them, or escaped), and city residents (law enforcement, civilians, criminals). Let me know if I missed anything, I just like thinking in terms of factions.

[Nick22]

sure those factions work, might have others pop uo too as we go along. Still working on my chars personally, but excited to head back into this universe

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Sounds good! Here's who I was thinking I'd play, they'd be involved in causing the test subject breakout:

Name: Dr. Casper Gemini
Age: 34
Species: Otter
Faction: Test Subjects (secretly), Scientists
Specializations: Psionics and Psychotronics Research
Powers/Cybernetic enhancement: Soul-Bound Entity Materialization
Weapon of Choice: OTs-38 Stetchkin
Appearance: Prematurely graying hair, medium build with unkempt fur, often wearing a rumpled labcoat and looking lost in thought. Sociable but submissive in personality, often overlooked by others as not seeming particularly remarkable in any way.
Backstory: A disgraced scientist under investigation for a lab accident which killed his assistant and razed his laboratory (nobody’s quite sure how he survived without a scratch). He’s now on scientific probation after the incident uncovered multiple ethical and legal breaches in his research methods, and he’s virtually guaranteed to lose his job in a matter of days. In desperation, he’s planning a hail-mary act of sabotage to divert people’s attention to a much more dire situation, and he’s even got an ‘inside woman’ to ensure nobody can pin the upcoming catastrophe on him.

Name: Pauline “Polly” Gemini
Age: 34
Species: Otter
Faction: Criminals
Specializations: Hand to hand combat, swimming, improvised weapons, firearms, stealth, social engineering
Appearance: Long brown hair, well-maintained appearance as she previously used her body to charm her way into high-end establishments for assassinations. Tattoo of an anchor on her right shoulder. Physically fit with a thrill-seeking attitude and little to no regard towards her own safety or the consequences of her actions.
Backstory: A street orphan whose birth parents weren’t interested in raising a girl, Polly wound up working various oddjobs that grew steadily more shady as she proved herself a natural at robbery, smuggling, racketeering, and eventually contract killing. Her sordid lifestyle eventually caught up with her and led to her untimely death…but somehow that wasn’t the end, as she later found herself summoned by a similar-looking but unknown man who used her to shield himself from a deadly psionic blast. Further testing revealed he could “project” her into existence essentially at will, and she eagerly accepted another chance at life, especially when his ambitions were just as crooked and entertaining as the criminal sorts she used to work for. At the time the RP starts, she’s just started her job at Casper’s company as an innocuous janitor. Though the pair don’t expect to need that cover story for very long…

(Casper’s power detailed: Casper can summon Polly into existence, whereupon she emerges in front of him inhabiting a body functionally and visually identical to her original. She can remain in this new body until it’s killed, whereupon her temporary body disappears and her conscience is forced back into Casper’s head. She does not retain any clothing or possessions from previous times she was summoned. Casper can mentally communicate with her at all times, even when she’s dead, but he cannot preemptively ‘desummon’ her while she’s active in the field.)

[Serris]

So, from the premise, I assume that the psychic powers are naturally occurring whereas the mainline Darwin's Soldiers canon has the psychic powers be the product of experimentation by Pelvanida?

And I also assume that it's a private company engaged in the research versus a government owned entity?

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

Out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in the escaped experiments being the focal characters? We could have other main characters chasing them as well, and unaffiliated deranged test subjects who start wreaking havoc on the city, but roleplaying a group of runaway mutants/test subjects might be really fun, we'd have to worry about cops and bounty hunters and whatever forces the company sends after us, plus we'd all get to choose different powers. Dunno, just an idea to consider

[Nick22]

my assumption is that the company is private , yes. and sure we can do that LBT. it would be something new.

[Gungrave]

Finally on deck to explain this. I'm the one who bugged Nick about it on discord. So, the setting is by the numbers for Darwin's, but I'm doing it as AU because (1) I have my own setting that is low-key similar to this one and (2) I don't want to be bogged down by previously established lore, UNLESS there is a high enough consensus for that. Then I'll have to re-familiarize myself with the Darwin's brand and go from there.

"You've mentioned AU. What's different this time?"
For one thing, I want to lean heavier into the sci-fi aesthetic. Almost cyberpunk. If you've seen Psycho Pass (and you should--season 1 at least), that's the general look and flavor I'm aiming at, with a slight touch of mysticism, since I'm also going for body horror. That's another thing that sets it apart. Wanting more body horror that comes with the powers. Instead of just "my character shoots fireballs," make it something like, "character's skin absorbs heat at abnormal rate and expels that heat in the form of fire." You know what I mean, I'm sure. You're all smart here.

"So is it a private corpo this time or still the tried-and-true gov't entity?"
This time, we're going private. Like I said, I like doing different stuff. Though, if interested, we can say the private corpo has government contracts and connections, like Lockheed-Martin or Boeing. I find no issue allowing the world/setting to have options. If it matters, the main governmental arm that would relate to this is the Ministry of Genetic Regulation, with possibly Health and Public Safety being relevant. Just because we're going private, doesn't mean you won't see some glowy bastards show up.

"You said psychic powers?"
I did. They may occur naturally in some, and via experimentation in others. The ramifications of this, as well as possible differences may be discussed further. I'm fine either way.

Further worldbuilding ideas: ShowHide

No name for the city yet. Feeling something Japanese or Korean in terms of naming ideas. Open to suggestions. This is a role play so that means it's a team thing. I don't like shutting people out from building stuff.

The Corp: GeneTech. A merge of other augmentation and biohacking companies (Bio Labs Inc, Quadracell, City Calorie Corp, Apparatus Technology Solutions). You know how in real life there are five mother companies that own all others and each has their own "sector?" Similar concept here. Theirs is anything to do with living things. From vitamins, to cyberware, to biohacking, even breaking into the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics fields. The reasons for the role play taking place is a program in which they look to expand into weapons manufacturing. But they're very much not the biggest fish in this area. They currently compete with the likes of Tepper Inc, Kong Industries and Logistics, and Defender. This last one is more in the PMC field but hey--war is money.

Law Enforcement: As there is no city name yet, I can't say "CITY NAME Police Department." Moreover, since we're leaning into the cyberpunk, they would be the CITY NAME protection/enforcement service. I can likely cook up an acronym or some such in time. For now, it doesn't truly matter. But they exist.

Other Crap: Of course, being what the setting is (and as someone else pointed out), there may come a time where privateers get involved. Bounty hunters, PMCs and the like.

So, that's my spiel. Let me know what you think. Apologies, I just have a lot going on at the moment. Can still RP, but just background noise I need to get to. Let's see what we can cook up.