Mass Effect: ODST

[Captain Untouchable]

I played Halo ODST in Germany with Peter. Aside from being an awesome game that everyone with an xbox should play (plus, it's got Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk and Tricia Helfer), it's also given me an idea that might make for a cool Mass Effect roleplay, if people are interested.

What ODST does is take one of the events from an earlier game (specifically Halo 2), and then lets you play as the "other guys" who aren't the normal heroes of the series. To give a Mass Effect example, if we started off with the Battle of the Citadel, our characters might be fighting Geth in the wards while Shepard is fighting Saren and Sovereign; we might be the people responsible for safely getting the Citadel Council to the Destiny Ascension; that sort of thing. There's no preamble, exposition, or lead-in: you're dumped straight in the middle of the action, and we learn about the characters as we go.

It could work as a one-shot, or a new setting, or whatever... I just have the urge for some runny shooty scifi roleplaying.

[Morgan Evanar]

Haaaaaaaaaaaay whaddup.

[Nikolai Odell]

I've done some reading and idea-juggling and such with a couple of people, and I sort of have a plan.

At the end of Mass Effect, the Normandy drops off Shepard and a Mako to chase Saren through the Conduit, and then double-times it to a rendezvous with the Fifth Fleet, who then show up cavalry style at the Battle of the Citadel. This leaves Ilos crawling with Geth, who have a sneaky back door onto the Citadel just aching to be used. With the Citadel Fleet in disarray, the Systems Alliance is the quickest to respond: and with Shepard and the Normandy a little bit preoccupied with the whole attack on the Citadel thing, they're forced to rely on us instead.

Confirmed characters so far are -

• Staff Lieutenant Victoria Collins, an N7 Sentinel. She narrowly missed out to Commander Shepard as humanity's first SPECTRE candidate. Earthborn and biotic, she enlisted at eighteen and was sent to Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training on Jump Zero. Something of a Renegade, she earned the attention of her superiors as the Sole Survivor of a thresher maw attack on Akuze in 2177. (Sarah)
• Gunnery Chief Nikolai Odell, an O6 Soldier. A Colonist, he was orphaned when Batarian slavers raided his home on Mindoir. He enlisted at eighteen, serving as a Marine and later specialising as an orbital shock trooper. His unit led the assault on Torfan in 2178, and he earned a reputation - and the nickname "The Butcher of Torfan" - for his Ruthless execution of Major Kyle's orders. (Jace)
• A pilot/driver, played by Peter.
• Private First Class Kendon Adair, an O2 Rookie Adept. Born in 2154, a Colonist. Received L2 biotic implant in 2168 – part of the final class of students inducted into the BAaT programme. At the closure of the BAaT programme, relocated to the human-Batarian colony of Anhur. During the Anhur Rebellions (2176-2178) was recruited by the Eclipse mercenary company on account of his biotic abilities. Subsequently enlisted with Alliance military in 2182 after parting with Eclipse a short time earlier due to their willingness to support human trafficking. (Jenny)
• Ento, a Salarian Engineer. A consultant with Alliance R&D, he is an expert on VI software, on integrating Citadel and Alliance technology, and in a vast array of other fields. He joined the team as a "specialist" on Prothean technology during their mission to disable (or destroy) the Conduit on Ilos. (Charley)

If we do more threads we can branch out into aliens easily enough, especially if/when we get into "Earth is on the Council now, we should work together more" territory, but for now it probably makes sense to remain relatively human(ish), with one or two exceptions?

[Victoria Collins]

Time to save the motherfucking galaxy, bitches.

[The Citadel]

Time to save the motherfucking galaxy, bitches.

Not if I have anything to say about it.

[Victoria Collins]

No body asked you, you horrible little child thing!!!! >:

[Captain Untouchable]

As you'll probably have noticed from Sarah's post... we're being total dweebs and are making all sorts of references to biotic moves, game mechanics, and shizzle-wizzle like that. It's a bit of fun, but we're hoping it'll make writing for Mass Effect a different/interesting experience compared to other scifi soldier people you might be writing. Something like that.

If someone has set you up for a potential paragon or renegade interrupt, you can use the files Sarah has sorted, which I linked to already because I'm awesome.

Hopefully Charley is going to go next with out pet Salarian. If you're wanting to get involved, make sure that you've cobbled together some basic info and let us know in this thread, so Charley knows what other options he has for setting up the next poster.

[Victoria Collins]

Heads up Kiddos:

...my right trigger finger is itchy.

So, if you all don't want your boss to end up with his face ground into a bulkhead I suggest you get your little Paragon on and save him from my wrath.

Or not.

Consider this your blinky blinky blue warning.

[Nikolai Odell]

If you guys let her kill me, I swear to god I will haunt you all.

[Ento]

Paragon / Renegade interrupts tend to tip your hand. I'll prefer to keep my poker face intact, thank you.

[Nikolai Odell]

I'll poke your face, you smarmy salarian bastard.

[Ento]

But we've just met. You may be surprised. I might prove a useful sort of guy to know

[Nikolai Odell]

Or you might just be a glorified seamstress for all I know. One of those good-for-nothing, holier-than-thou Citadel Council race assholes like all the rest.

I'm more inclined to assume 'useless' than 'useful' until proven otherwise.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'd like to play but have absolutely no idea what as

[Victoria Collins]

Blue chick?

[Captain Untouchable]

Stuff we don't have -

Sniper - Odell can use sniper rifles (he will eventually have an Incisor), but we have no one with a specific focus on bigass sniper rifles.

Infiltrator - We don't have anyone with Infiltrator / Kasumi / Thane style stealth/thief/assassin skills. That could be very useful for covert recon, planting explosives, and that sort of thing.

Vanguard - Collins uses the biotic throw / pistol shot to the head combo. We don't have anyone who uses biotics and shotguns for smashy smashy.

Quarian - We're on Ilos to seize/destroy the Conduit, and to shoot Geth. Ento can definitely help with a), but we could potentially justify having a Quarian "expert" on Geth to help us, since that's not necessarily something we're trained for. To break with convention, a Quarian sniper, stealth/Infiltrator, or Vanguard could potentially be way cool.

Krogan or Asari - Awesome as it would be to have them, explaining why we have a Krogan or Asari during this first mission would be very tough. But, making a throw-away character who dies during this mission, forcing us to recruit a Krogan Vanguard / Asari Adept / etc for possible future threads? That could be cool.

- hopefully that triggers off some ideas!

[Kendon Adair]

One rookie adept, reporting for duty.

Born in 2154, a Colonist. Received L2 biotic implant in 2168 – part of the final class of students inducted into the BAaT programme. At the closure of the BAaT programme, relocated to the human-Batarian colony of Anhur. During the Anhur Rebellions (2176-2178) was recruited by the Eclipse mercenary company on account of his biotic abilities. Subsequently enlisted with Alliance military in 2182 after parting with Eclipse a short time earlier due to their willingness to support human trafficking.

[Tom Harriman]

Inspiration, in the form of the opening cutscene from ODST, for those of you who've not played. This is the wavelength I am on.

[Nikolai Odell]

One rookie adept, reporting for duty.

Born in 2154, a Colonist. Received L2 biotic implant in 2168 – part of the final class of students inducted into the BAaT programme. At the closure of the BAaT programme, relocated to the human-Batarian colony of Anhur. During the Anhur Rebellions (2176-2178) was recruited by the Eclipse mercenary company on account of his biotic abilities. Subsequently enlisted with Alliance military in 2182 after parting with Eclipse a short time earlier due to their willingness to support human trafficking.

You Rookie, you know how I'm always telling you not to interrupt?

Please interrupt.

This broad be crazy.


Edit:

God damn it Rookie, this is not the way to get good grades on your next performance review.

[Maurice Godfrey]

Service Chief Maurice Godfrey reporting for Duty. I will be your Mako driver on your trip so fasten your seat belts and make yourself comfortable since this might be a bumpy ride. I am not here to find any new friendships. My pure job on this mission is to drop these crazy idiots off for their suicid mission and then I propel the Mako back on board of the SSV Saratoga and enjoy a nice soufflé for dinner. I will not stay on this godforsaken planet longer than I have to during this mission.

<--This is my ugly attempt to Photoshop an Avatar btw