WW3 RPG

[Czernobog]

As the title goes, this is a WW3 RPG set about a century into the future, with stuff like powered battlesuits, kill-sats, supercomputer AIs etc.

Background

The 21st century was a relatively peaceful one, after the Aeon of blood that was the 20th. But then, on the cusp of the 22nd, a new power rose in Russia. The Militant Nationalist Party gained power in a bloody revolution, lead by Vladimir Romanov, who swore to regain Russia's full might, and shortly thereafter swore a pact with the Chinese and the reborn Empire of Japan.The Russians took over Central Asia, the Caucasus, Finland and the Baltics, but when Russian forces crossed over into Poland, the EU and NATO declared war, leading to eight years of bloody strife that still continue today...


Rules

The players take on the roles of a squad of 7 elite Allied Special Forces soldiers (incidentally, known as the Delta Eagles), an international unit drawn from the very best of the best across all the nations fighting the Russians.

Your profile should look like this (incidentally, the below profile is my own):


Name: Alfred Franklin Jones
Rank: Sergeant, 5th Drop Strike Force, HALO Drop Force, Rifleman
Date of Birth:19th September 2--- (I want to keep the exact date ambiguous)
Age: 32
Distinguishing Physical Features: Augmetic eye where his right should be, black hair.
Nation: United States of America
Place of Birth: New York City
Biography: Alfred Franklin Jones has fought in the War for its entire duration, and has only recently been promoted to the rank of rifleman in the Delta Eagles. He's sure that this war will see a lot more blood before it ends, and is quite cynical about his group's chances of survival.

[Siege]

Hmm, why not. Can't hurt to whip up a quick profile I guess.

NAME: Maciej Wilder

RANK: Colonel, Task Force 13 'Gray Ghosts', EURAPID

DATE OF BIRTH: 22-06-2XXX

AGE: 49

DISTINGUISHING PHYSICAL FEATURES: Maciej Wilder is a big guy, just over six feet, with dark golden hair just long enough to look a little exotic. He is built more like a swimmer than a weight lifter, all leonine power and lazy grace taken completely for granted. Despite his age he is a lethal combatant, owing to extended genetic therapy courtesy of EURAPID and low-level cybernetic enhancement.

NATION: European Union (Germany)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Berlin

BIOGRAPHY: A career soldier with an elite black ops outfit for EURAPID, there was little that could faze a man like Wilder even before the Russians invaded. Stoic and pragmatic, Maciej acquitted himself exceedingly well over the early stages of the war, wreaking havoc behind the Russian lines and generally proving himself to be very good with explosives and assassinations. He is well acqainted with black ops commando techniques, and twenty-five years in the army, twenty of which in a variety of seedy special operations outfits, has given him a conscience of ice.

[Magister Militum]

Well, let's give this a try...

Name: Lucas Cardoso

Rank: Major, Brigada de Operações Especiais, Equipe de Florete (Rapier Team, Special Operations Brigade)

Date of Birth: March 15, 2---

Age: 36

Distinguishing Physical Features: An interest in weightlifting since high school, along with the naturally physically demanding nature of his work, has resulted in Cardoso having a highly muscular build. In terms of augments, he received the standard genetic therapy typical of all Brazilian commandos, but lacks any sort of cybernetic augmentations, preferring his battlesuit and its power over cybernetic doodads.

Nation: Greater Republic of Brazil

Place of Birth: São Paulo

Biography: Serving as a part of Brazil's prestigious Rapier Team, Cardoso had seen his fair share of action in South America during the rising Great Power's incursions to bring stability and peace to the now Brazilian-dominated South America. With the beginning of WWIII, Brazil would ultimately throw its weight into the mix via the support of its American and European allies. Cardoso now finds himself fighting alongside his compatriots, where is experience in black operations will undoubtedly come in handy.

[Kingmaker]

I'll bite.

Name: Marcus Brykalski

Rank: Lieutenant, United States Army (75th Ranger Regiment)

Date of Birth: 18th Sept. 2XXX

Age: 28

Distinguishing Features: Augmetic legs (original lost to anti-personnel mine), augmetic eyes (voluntary procedure), minor bio-augmetics (US SOCOM standard issue). Brykalski is a compact man, standing about 5'6" and built like a runner (he was an avid and fast runner even before losing his legs). He has a shaved head.

Nation: United States

Place of Birth: Chicago

Biography: Marcus Brykalski was a Chicago native of Polish origin and a student of history at the University of Chicago. When the war broke out, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 101st Air Assault. He applied to the Army Pathfinder school and Ranger Regiment in order to get into action faster. He has led a Ranger platoon for several years and earned a reputation for being aggressive and enthusiastic, even by the standards of his unit. He lost his legs during a raid on a Russian airfield in Poland, but survived and returned to his unit within months of receiving his cybernetics. He has been wounded in action three times since then, and has always returned to action.

[Mobius 1]

Name: Jace “Gold” Rodriguez

Rank: Captain, SILVER Company, 1st Recon Battalion, USMC

Age / DOB: 30, 12-31-20XX

Physical overview: Whipcord lean with black hair grown past regulation length, Rodriguez is distinguished by a red cybernetic eyes that form the only outward sign of his extensive bioGEAR. As a trained assassin, Rodriguez has external noise dampeners and a complex odor neutralization bioGEAR. Two retractable syringe tips coated in a potent neurotoxin are hidden in the first two fingers of his left hand.

Nation / Place of Birth: United States / Miami

Biography: Having lived for two years on campus at the University of Miami as a oceanography major, Rodriguez dropped out and held numerous odd jobs before taking up a commission as a Marine Officer. Fast tracked through a single tour in the Third Gulf War due to the Massacre of Balad Rux is 2XXX. Drafted into the newly rebuilt First Recon’s experimental CIA-sponsored SILVER Company, Rodriguez and his platoon served as the testbed for a variety of infiltration and assassination bioGEAR. A trained sniper, Rodriguez distinguished himself as acting commander during the Seventh Battle of Baghdad when his company’s commander was killed in the ambush. Snarky and coolly confident, Rodriguez prefers to take a direct hand in his company’s fieldwork, leading covert missions as the Russians began to take an interest in the Middle East.

Skills: Rodriguez is a competent commander, but has recently taken more than an equal share of solo missions for US SPECCOM. As such, he is skilled in tracking, stealth, and sharpshooting, as well as the ins and outs of electronic infiltration, making him invaluable in a heavy protected urban environment. Rodriguez can instinctively detect flaws in patrol and camera patterns, but has been surprised more than a few times when stealthing with GEAR off (‘going autistic’) and is as such a master of close quarter combat. His style emphasizes swift, violent takedowns, with his poisoned knifehand neutralizing targets before they knew what hit them.

[Booted Vulture]

Name: Iain S Jones, MD
Rank: Squadron Leader, RAF, 202nd ‘Flying Fancies’
Date of Birth: 6th August 2XXX
Age: 38
Distinguishing Physical Features: complete lack of hair anywhere on body (for reasons of hygiene)
Nation: Scotland, UK.
Place of Birth: Glasgow
Biography: Iain S Jones, was a highly intelligent young Scottish boy, who only ever wanted to help make people, better. Unfortunately for him his ambitions were thwarted by the mercurial gods of fate and chance; Jones had been born to a very poor family in a council flat in Glasgow and did not have the money for new clothes; let alone medical school. However, with typical teenage stubbornness, Iain was not going to let this stop him, so he walked into the nearest military recruiters with half a dozen A* graded A levels in one hand and a pen in the other and offered to commit to any length of service they liked so long as they trained him as a doctor.

Iain is highly intelligent as trained as both a medical and a surgical doctor, he knows very well how to make people better and thus how to damage or kill efficiently in hand to hand combat or with bladed weapons, he also has a steady hand, enabling him to be a fair shot with firearms weapons; not as well as the dedicated soldiers of the team but much better than many of his (now deceased) adversaries have expected from a mere doctor.

Jones primarily serves as the medic for the team and any other VIPs or people that might want healing. He also carries a veritable pharmacy of drugs on his person; some medicinal in purposes; some decidedly not.

[Acatalepsy]

Name: James Woo Cheng

Rank / Previous Unit: Paramilitary Operations Officer, CIA Special Activities Division.
Age / DoB:31 / 2-29-2XXX

Appearance:Is one of the few special operatives with no overt augmetics, mostly owing to his need to be able to blend in with a target population. In fact, he looks significantly weaker than he actually is; courtesy of various CIA "disguise" biochemical alterations.

Nation: United States of America
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California.

Biography: Cheng has had an interesting career path. When the war first started, he joined Airforce JROTC as a way to ensure he would end up in the place least likely to end up in harms way. It was no surprise that he did eventually get drafted. What was a surprise was that the battery of psychological tests picked him out as a future Air Combat Controller. Despite his surprise, he nonetheless threw himself into the training as a way of ensuring both his own survival and the survival of his squadmates. Over the course of his training and first deployment in the European theater, he grew to appreciate his relatively important role on battlefield. When the call came up asking for volunteers for more special operations, he answered and was accepted.

This new unit was none other than the CIA's infamous Special Activities Division. After receiving yet more training, Cheng deployed and served admirably in multiple conflict zones. Notable examples include:

• Operation Do No Harm: A three month mission that successfully obtained blood samples from 72 high-ranking Russian officers and civilians as part of a larger effort to evaluate the progress of enemy biodefense and augmentation programs.
• Operation Sheer Folly: A SIGINT/SEAD program that used forward operation teams operating behind enemy lines to gather information about and disable enemy strategic anti-air and anti-missile defense.
• Operation Voodoo: A series of false flag operations designed to incite hostilities between local warlords in Central Asia and the Russian invaders.
• Operation Pit Bull: A survillence and assassination mission that operated in friendly territory (largely Southern France), hunting down enemy spies.

Skills: James Cheng is first and formost an electronic warfare and drone warfare expert. His role is to help cover the signal trail left by an active operation, to gather intelligence to direct activities of friendly air support, and to confuse, misdirect and otherwise baffle enemy intelligence. He has extensive experience at deceit and blending in with a target population for the duration of an operation, as well as using locally available resources. That said, he is still a special operations soldier and is more than competent at "ordinary" special forces skills such as marksmanship and demolitions.

James often ends up in what is effectively an anti-armor / heavy support role, in that he either directs friendly fire onto targets, operates the heavily armed anti-armor drones, or even uses smaller kamikaze attack drones. It is not, however, something he particularly enjoys, and prefers to misdirect and evade enemies over outright confrontation.

[Czernobog]

Okay, I think we have enough profiles (including my meagre one) to start the game.

[Mobius 1]

Kamin, Siege and I had worked out something of a plot and a villain for the story. I have to head out now, but later we'll be able to give you a heads-up (we're taking a personal hand in this, no offense).

[Kingmaker]

What is the tone of this going to be? Hardcore realism? Gritty war movie? Western action movie? Eastern action movie? Cyberpunk?

[Mobius 1]

If I may, I'll offer the comparison to the old Total Extinction RP, which was probably the only character based RPG on this board that actually accomplished its main objective. It was in a verse where the participants basically had free reign, so the result was a series of increasingly over-the-top action scenes - Akshun, as I call it. People dual-wielded rocket launchers in close quarter brawls, regularly got into fistfights with aliens twice their height, and and carried around autocannons that used entire buildings as support augments so they could shoot robot tyrannosaurs.

High tech schennaigans were abound, but the basic idea boiled down to the rules of Matrix/Wanted/Transformers style fights, writ large. The characters and their actions were larger than life, but given the right amount of cleverness, wit, and sheer willpower, nothing was out of their league. So think post-cyberpunk with the action being a mix of both Eastern martial arts and Schwarzenegger Baysplosion Gunfights. It works out best when every one is just trying to have fun without having to worry about grimdark tactical planning.

Siege and I had the idea of basing the plot around an assasination story - whereever the villain (think the Law of Bruce here) goes, we have to go, he literally is the plot. Siege designed a warlord Marshal straight out of CSW's craziness - Ivan Ivanovich RADUGAN. The Radugan family is the real power behind the Romanov revolution, consisted of a line of increasingly more insane, competent, and dangerous sons that serve as their father's Dragon before eventually offing their father Sith-like and taking over their enterprises. From there, he takes brain scan of his father's brain, destroys the original, and uploads the scan into his brain. This adds a hole new layer of battle experience while simultaenously driving each iteration crazier.