Hey guys ! EDIT 03/12/2020, 21:52 : Okay so I came back to this after a day of doing something else and oh boy. I knew writing it it wouldn't be the finest piece of art but I didn't realize how horrendous it actually was. I'll come back to this later on I guess, I stand by the core idea but this needs way better gameplay loop and sharper cultural insights to be worth anything. I feel like homebrewing today. After discussing the new directions MRRF could take, I started thinking about how to reference French culture/stereotypes in the Infinity universe. MRRF takes inspiration in our military and resistant culture, from the two WW. From our inner cultural perspective, our more "heroic" side, humble people driven by courage taking arms to fight the invader through fire and wind, and dying in the mud for my generation's freedom. But what about the darker side of our civilization ? The royalty and the nobility, the religious hegemony, the starvation of peasants, the witch hunting, the colonialism and so forth ? Or fast forward a few hundred years, the colaborationists, the denunciation culture ? Or only about half a century ago the massive incentivised immigration of cheap workforce for rebuilding the country only to park them in ghettos below the poverty threshold with no effective solution to culturaly integrate them ? So, let me introduce you to the very fine folks of the Court of Saint Honoré. If you though the Bakunin guys were lunatic enough, beware. I don't know how to integrate them properly in the lore yet, but the idea would be that while the French people went to space with Ariadna, the more wealthy and culturaly conservative French citizens would have stayed on earth to eventually embark in one of the Nomad ship, or lesser ship tied to a bigger one. The idea for them would be to save pristine their "pure" blood and superior culture and sense of taste, their legacy, something PanO and ALEPH wouldn't have permitted to an extent they'd be happy with. So they get to space with a few indoctrinated people from lower social origin, promissing them integration and education, only to keep them in the lower decks and eventually, over time, enslave them again to keep the ship and food supplying running while partying, swimming in meaningless dramas and having retarded childs. The leading game-design threads would be deception and high discrepency between units, like a lot of very cheap warbands and LIs, think Hungries and Kuang Shi, and a couple of expensive, very heavily armed HI, fearsome TAG and highly competent engineers and doctors. No hackers or advanced electronics, computing isn't noble enough. No proper military, you have to treat those guys relatively well if you don't want them to fuck you up. Warbands would be themed around slavery, lower social class mockery, gruesome/horror 20th century burlesque aesthetics (think Bioshock). Some characters would be pure madmen, born and raised right iwithin the court insanity, a perfect mix of unspeakable fetichism and extreme normativity (classic aristocratic figures, think Marquis de Sade) while some others would be more nuanced, self-aware, maybe to the nihilistic point, almost part of the masquerade against their will while still being somewhat asshole-ish and even a bit narcissistic, growing very priviledged (think poor man's representation of existentialist essayists). Here are the idea I got so far. Keep in mind that this is a work in progress. Spoiler: WB Une Nuit à Paris Squad : WB, Irregular, Extremely Impetuous A rumor runs on the lower decks saying that, if you are really, really handsome or smart, you may be offered on your 18th Birthday to join the court, and that it's so wonderful up here that no-matter your current life relationships, you'd never ever want to come down here. Nobody really knows actually, nobody ever came back to tell. Une Nuit à Paris : Mademoiselle There's a good reason to that. If this is offered to you, you wouldn't be going anywhere else than a lab. On the menu, brainwashing salad and pheromon pulser stuffing. Force fed. Madame's are a deadly trap, running desparately towards their future romantic companion, actually the closest ennemy, only to shoot pheromonic gaz at them while stucking them in melee. They usually don't survive the action, but neither does the target. Skills : V : Dogged, Kinematika L1, Hyperdynamics MOV 6-4, CC 18, BS 12, PH 13, WiP 10, ARM 0, BTS 0, S 2, AVA 5 Weapon : Pheromon Pulser, Stun CCW (Basically a MadTrap that can force targets out of cover, a Pheromon hit turning the target Extremely Impetuous for a turn) Une Nuit à Paris : Monsieur If you're a low-life lad, your fate isn't really brighter either. If you're ever invited to a higher deck party, just politely decline, it's not worth the shot. Unless you have a particular thing for getting your kidneys replaced with an explosive charge, and I'm no one to judge. At least they don't get stuck in a 5 centuries old gender-tied social function, that's still something I guess. Skills : V : Dogged, Explode L1 MOV 6-4, CC 18, BS 10, PH 13, WiP 10, ARM 0, BTS 0, S 2, AVA 5 Weapon : Chain Colt, Knife (Basically a Kuang Shi) Spoiler: LI Cagoulés, Gantés : LI, Regular, Frenzy There's been a long time since people stopped evaluating someone's intellectual worth with an IQ test. Systemic approcheas made possible by the development of artificial intelligence offered way more meaningful ways to help oneself understand himself and his underlying mental needs. CSH people like to think otherwise. At 6 years old, every boy borned on the higher decks of the ship has to undergo a WISC-VII test to assess of its mental capabilities. Scoring below 110 offers you a straight ticket to the militia, whose only cultural horizon is action movies, gansta rap, japanese animation series and pornography. Old world spiritual sins, if you ask any court member about it, "but at least it is something those poor boys can understand and go by. Hopefully they'd be able to serve their family, even if it is in their own terms". Skills : Fireteam : Core, Fireteam : Triad MOV 4-4, CC 11, BS 11, PH 12, WIP 12, W 1, ARM 1, BTS 0, S2, AVA : Total Equipement : AP CCW Profiles Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades Combi Rifle, Smoke Grenades Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades Combi Rifle, Forward Observer, Smoke Grenades Combi Rifle, Minelayer, Antipersonnal Mines Combi Rifle, Paramedic (Medikit) Spitfire Combi Rifle, Number 2, Smoke Grenades Light Rocket Launcer, SMG Light Smoke Grenade Launcher (Typical LI profile) Aymeric De Foucault, Sergent des Cagoulés, Gantés : LI, Character, Regular, Frenzy Poor Aymeric's life started quite poorly. Born 2 weeks too early, weighting less than 2kg, he spent 2 weeks in a bady incubator before going back to his mother's arm. Unfortunatly, it didn't went better going on. Aymeric as always been a calm, silent kid, looking at the stars, not playing with the boys his age, always asking weird questions. He wasn't even interested into having a girlfriend ! He was quite a shame to his family, tho they'd never admit it. When he went to past the test at 6, it was no surprise to everyone that he scored poorly. The doctor said he wasn't able to hold the focus on the test for more than 10 minutes. Nowadays, he is almost 21, and life is going a bit better for him. Designer drugs help a lot in that regard. He found some friends in the militia. It almost seems like he even found an interest in girls ! Really a shame what happened to him, poor De Foucault family. Hopefully they got Eloïse. Skills : Fireteam : Core (La bande à Aymeric), Fireteam : Triad, Fireteam : Duo (Eloise), Shock : Immunity MOV 4-4, CC 11, BS 12, PH 12, WIP 14, W 1, ARM 1, BTS 3, S2, AVA : 1 Equipement : Nimbus Plus Grenades, D-Charges, DA CCW Profiles : Combi Rifle, Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Chain of Command Boarding Shotgun, Lieutenant Boarding Shotgun, Chain of Command La Bande à Aymeric : as long as Aymeric is part of a Fireteam : Core of Cagoulés, Gantés, every member of the Fireteam gains the NCO, Number 2 and V : Courage Special skill. (Typical LI vet Character profile) Kessiers : LI, Regular Kessiers used to be the Polytechnics Engineering school representatives of the students, holding the students bureau and organizing galas for the technocratic elites of Paris. Now that there are no real studying programs anymore, the school directly implanting knowledge to the brain of the smart-enough, Kessiers are just glorrified party organizer, with world's knowledge of physics and engineering as a bonus. And thanks to the martial legacy of the school, they are not so bad with guns either ! At least when it comes to taking care of them. Skills : Engineer, V : Dogged, Marksmanship LX MOV 4-4, CC 11, BS 12, PH 11, WIP 14, W 1, ARM 0, BTS 0, S2, AVA : 3 Equipement : Markman Rifle, D-Charges, Stun CCW Profiles : (baseline) Traktor Mul Control Device (Good Engineer profile) Eloïse De Foucault : LI, Character, Regular Aymeric's little sister, Eloïse had a way better hand from the start. Undoubtly bright, perfectly fitting the mould of the Court, she was the family's beacon when her borther had to join the militia. She was allowed to join the medical training program at 17, and suceeded brilliantly two years later at the final real-life surgeon examination. Now she's enjoying her high life, scratching one dancefloor after another to the sound of the latest dance music released. Just don't ask too much about what she's doing on her Thursdays evenings, or where the EDF marked blue pills spreading all around are coming from. You might not like who you'll met wondering. Skills : Doctor Plus, V: NWI, Fireteam : Duo (Aymeric), Bioimmunity, NCO MOV 4-4, CC 13, BS 4, PH 10, WIP 15, W 1, ARM 0, BTS 3, S2, AVA : 1 Equipement : Flash Pulse, Medikit, Viral CCW (Premium Doctor profile, Avicenna tiers but will probably be fairly expensive when I figure costs out) Spoiler: TAG La Terreur Squad La Terreur : Maximilien : LI, Regular, Impetuous Maximilien, real name Maxime, 34 years old, should definetly be in the militia. But it helps to have your father be a core member of the court. A lot. Maxime's hobbies are dressing-up and roleplay, of many kind. His favorite historic period to reenact is the French revolution, and especially the Terror years, where a few people were able to terrorize a whole country with the sole power of a guillotine and a few loyal soldiers. Naturally, everyone around the ship finds it perfectly sane and rationnal, considering how nice a period it was for the nobility, to be able to eliminate by this mean the weaker, denser people among them while therorizing everyone else. Decent families had already left the country a few weeks ago, feeling the wind shifting. Anyway, back to Maxime. For his 30th birthday, his dad ordered from the Kessiers the best present for his little boy : a fully functionnal walking guillotine. With a monofilament blade. That hit the mark straight on. Now Maxime has a new reason to wear his wig and jacket. Bleeding low-lifes was starting to lose its flair. Skills : V : NWI, Berserk, Kinematika L1 Equipement : Carabine, Robespierre Control Device, Shock CCW La Terreur : Robespierre : TAG There's not much to say about Robespierre really. It basically is a remote controlled, reskinned Projekt Ratnik with a guillotine using a monofilament blade in the place of a pilot sit. It just grabs people, or robots, put their head right through the hole in its chest, and drops a blade on it. Time proof design. Maxime loves it. Skills : Fatality L1, Lo-Tech, G : Synchronized MOV 4-4, CC 18, BS 14, PH 14, WIP 13, Str 3, ARM 6, BTS 6, S5, AVA 1 Equipement : ECM, Redfury, Monofilament Guillotine
