"If Allah helps you, none can overcome you. And if He forsakes you, who can save you?" ISMAT and The Ayyūbidiyun ISMAT is a relatively small trade corporation based on Bourak. The company has recently invested heavily in a major share of SILK destined for the Wotan blockade in the Paradiso System. To transport the SILK, ISMAT has enlisted a small armada, led by their flagship; The Andalucia, which is a Superheavy transport, retrofitted with a formidable array of defensive measures. The Andalucia holds the entire SILK shipment in its secure cargo hold. With SILK being the commodity that it is within the Human Sphere, ISMAT has paid a sizable sum to enlist the services of The Ayyūbidiyun. The Ayyūbidiyun are a diverse military order, drawing on the best soldiers the Haqqislamic Military can offer. This includes soldiers from each major military division as well as several smaller mercenary companies and criminal organizations. They sell service as a private defense contractor to trade corporations and the wealthy families of the Human Sphere, specializing in the Silk trade. To Augment their defenses, and ensure the safe passage of SILK to the fractious Strike Zone: Wotan, The Ayyūbidiyun has enlisted the aid of their Sinbad Fleet. The Sinbad are a conglomeration of junkers, stolen and ramshackle ships, manned by chartered pirates. These are the Yuan Yuan and Bashi Bazouk. While these pirates are usually considered undisciplined, and definitely unsavory, they have an intimate knowledge of the seedier parts of space, providing invaluable insight for safe, largely unseen, navigation. The Ayyūbidiyun, while comprised of many battle-hardened individuals, started as a relatively small Kum Khanate in the Gabqar region of Bourak. This biker gang was made up of tribesman from all walks of life who banded together when local Khans and Silk Lords began pressuring the community, forcing many into labor as harvesters. These daring tribesman gathered to resist their local oppressors, using guerrilla tactics to harass and ambush Silk transports. Over time, the gang became quite knowledgeable about everything regarding the transport and sale of Silk, and soon became expert smugglers. With each successful raid, the Ayyūbidiyun became larger and more powerful, and began offering smaller gangs and tribes their protection while on Silk routes. This expanded to full-fledged logistics contracting. The downtrodden had become like the hand of Allah, controlling so much of the Silk flow, that the Haqqislamiq military soon took a keen interest. Instead of taking action against the gang, High Command decided to set up a unique contracting deal. The gang now holds responsibility for the silk shipments Across the Sphere. To obscure this partnership, the Ayyūbidiyun have spread word that too much attention was drawn to the gang, forcing them to flee to relative safety on Dawn. High Command collaborated in this, staging raids across the region. In reality, the Ayyūbidiyun have grown and diversified. They now have holdings in Druze Bayram Security, Starco. Free Company of the Star, and partnership with all branches of Haqqislam military. Most recently, the core Ayyūbidiyun who relocated to Dawn have begun building ties with the Minotaurs. They consider Amastan Ag Brahim their primary ambassador to the Mercenary Company, and have promised the Minotaurs his complete dedication and loyalty. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ High Profile Members and Characters of Note: Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb Commander of The Ayyūbidyun Master of Strategy Yūsuf is unique in the Ayyūbidiyun, in the sense that he was once an aspect of ALEPH. After intervention from the Old Man on the Mountain, and considerable financial support from ISMAT, Yūsuf has become free of the clutches of the AI. He seeks to repay this debt with the piety befitting his rank, and so prove his value to the leaders on Bourak. To this end, Yūsuf has gathered a sizable battle force, The Ayyūbidyun. “The life of this world is only the enjoyment of deception.” Rafki Khawarij Religious anchor of the Ayyūbidyun Mohamed Motoko Hacker Djanbazan Betty Danger Assassin Druze Lucky TAG Pilot Starco. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'll get up stats for Amastan Ag Brahim tomorrow, I need to go dig them out of my notebook. I'll also get more details for some of these characters. If you are interested in the ongoing struggle between the Ayyūbidiyun and their PanOceanian rivals, I can get that up as well. (Spoiler: PanO has not been doing well). Spoiler: Hint PanO has been taking a beating.
Sorry to change the subject a bit, but I wanted to share this: Dreanna and her Geist "Echo" One question: How well connected to Mayanet are the Minotaurs? Since we're in Dawn, I expect nothing fancy, but at least with access. It's just that Echo is developing a personality. Since Echo is the reminder of a past Dreanna doesn't want to remember, she usually stays out of Dreanna's way, content with surfing Maya and playing VR Games barely connected to Dreanna. But now that they landed on an Atek planet, I thought I'd make Echo more active and intrusive, because she no longer has her distractions. And since she's almost part of Dreanna, no Maya is the equivalent of no lighter for her host.
Why do you want to access the MayaNet? Correct question is 'how well connected to Arachne are we?' ;) A: not as well as we want to be, but you can fix that if you want (this is the answer everywhere that isn't a Mothership or already power/range limited, like a space ship). But in a serious answer to your question. MayaNet / Arachne is Speed of Light slow. Which practically means that synchronous connections are limited to the planet and immediate vicinity. Connections available in system become increasingly asynchronous (in-system from seconds to multiple minutes) as you get away from the point of origin with certainly hours and probably days separating intersystem traffic. Dawn's network (whether MayaNet or Arachne) will be slow and boring comparatively to Bakunin. Slow because you're dealing with planet scale lag, boring because its not Bakunin. Literally the only datasphere more exciting than Bakunin's normally is the combined Bakunin/Corregidor/Tunguska datasphere mid-Krug.
@oldGregg . . . Nice details on the "Haqqislamite Silk Cargo-Fleet"; I found nothing that is too much jarring or controversial from the P.O.W. of established stuff yet written for the Minotaurs. . . Maybe just the fact that Campaign start at "Infinity Official Timelines" many, many months BEFORE the first hints of someyhing untowards will be happening on Flamya Island on Paradiso, and so even more before Tagline, Wotan, ALIVE and the Uprising debacle. . . Don't know if "StarCo" and the "Ikari Warriors" are linked to a specific "Creation Timeline"; also while You are more then welcome to deepen ANY "P.C. Contact Ties" with many extant parts of the established C.B. Stuff these will not exclusive. . . Such as even if with "Trusted Alliance Contracts" with the Druze Society (that could be the "Branch" of Chief Arslan OR NOT !!) there will be other "Chapterhouses" with far different concerns; same thing with the Kaplans; for the Yuan-Yuan they are a bunch of "Human Edge Pirates" and so ONE Fleet is allied and another DIRE FOES and another else just "Opportunistic Scavengers". . . Same thing with some Trusted Haqqislamite Silk-Lords and other "Bourak Merchant Princes" that instead are corrupted, selfish and adverse to the very idealized concept of "Ariadnan Teseum Belongs To Ariadnans". . . In the same key there will be "Local Natives" (especially Irmandhinos "Boat Smugglers" and Cateran "Road-Bandit Hillbillys") that will be opposed to their "Minotaurs' Cousins" and Pan-Oceanian and Yujings that will be INSTEAD far quite receptive to pay their JUST due for precious % Alloys directly from the Mercenary Vault Coffers. . . @Danger Rose . . . Very interesting Character Portrait (even if She is appears to Me a little "Foxy Lady" rather than "Neko Catgirl"). . . The "Homebase" of the New Knossos Island is ALSO a Nomads Nation Embassy and a Legal Haqqislamite Caravanserary; they have ENOUGH "Quantronic Data Relays" to be considered one of the MAIN "Nodes of Arachne" in the whole of Planet Dawn. . . They have also Mayasphere Connections, usually well monitored by the small contingent of Observancers in the Minotaurs to NOT allow A.L.E.P.H. or Interlopers from the Hyperpowers to use them. . . 1°) On the Island Premises it will be Arachne Connections AS GOOD as being INSIDE a Mothership with IMMEDIATE 100% "Bandwidth" Acceess Privileges. . . 2°) The "Minotaurs Flagship" called "Black Sails" is a Main Primary Relay; it will be as good as being on a big Nomads Spaceship or Haqqislamite Cargo "Star Freighter" and the more a big vehicle (Luzige specced as "Field Command Center" or one of the Big Vtols owned by the mercs) is nearby to act as "Secondary Relay" and the better will be the "Links". . . 3°) Normal Ariadna "Frontier Territories" have as much as coverage as 1990 Cellular Phone "Hex Cells" and in the most insulated "Stanitsas Communities" (and around Local Teseum Bandits Hideouts) there will be JUST Military Radio Channels. . . Should You be found stranded in a Wild Antipode Village their nice "Hollowed Out Trunk" nearby the Sacrificial Totem Pole, that act as "Tam-Tam Drum" is the most You can aspire as "Distant Communication" goes. . . 4°) The more "Advanced" is an Enemy Mining Extraction Base is (either a Temporary Industrial Camp, a "Mucracker" Naval Ship or a Semi-Mobile Drill Platform) and the more powerful their "Mayasphere Relays" will be; obviously some "Mixed Native Barracks" will be far less advanced than a Pan-Oceanian / Yujing "Mining Corporation Headquarters". . . The more powerful the Connection and the more secure the "Firewalls" will be. . . Obviously any "Hyperpowers Mayasphere" will be "Virtual Enemy Territory" but You have the Character of @oldGregg in the squad that is the BEST Hacker available to the "Biker Riff-Raffs" of the Minotaurs; specialized in ANY kind of "Silent Desert-Commando Black-Ops" would be very easy for Him to open an useful "Temporary Backdoor" for You to "Steal Gygabytes" from Targets. . .!!
I will report myself to the nearest Observance Chapel. With luck, they might not turn me into a Sin-Eater. Yeah. That character portrait went through several iterations of eye shape, hairstyles and ear size. I settled for the one that looked more competent. Arachne Connection is perfect. I wrongly wrote Maya, because it was late at night and wanted to finish quickly; hence why I sinned against the Observance and am now in line to be a Sin-Eater.
And here would lie the character sheet used with online creator. I have that uneasy feeling I probably should have done character slightly differently.
How so? Because there's still time to tweak a few things here and there. I'm always terrified that I made a useless character. Which is why, I usually roll a Bard. No preassure if the character is not a Tank, a Wizard or a Healer. In this setting, I'm not sure of the equivalences, so I'm double plus scared. At the same time I'm excited. @stevenart74 and his friends have built such a rich background and you guys have made such compelling characters that it's hard not to want to participate.
@Beodren . . . All in all I don't see any glaring errors; is just that compared to the excellent Brawn / Physique Stats the immediate Close Combat Skills should be a little more amped up; but as said beforehand by @Danger Rose there is still time to fix all of this. . . Especially as there are AT LEAST two careers to add (3° and 4°) to bring EVERY Character on par with "Tony From Corregidor" as @inane.imp 's character being the first to arrive was the one to "Set The Stakes". . . I think that anyway from Your Character Choice I will try to give You some "Perks" related to Melee Combat with the Family Heirloom Claymore, the "Precision Rapid Fire" Shooting with the "Ultra-Mk12" and some nice Leadership / Command stuff to reflect a Career Soldier, of Noble Highlander Blood, hailing from a prestigious Caledonian Clan. . . As usual My "Standard Tactics" is to RAISE all the Player Characters to the same "High Plateau" (to a sensible, shared, logical "Target Number" !!) rather than LOWER anyone to a "Minimum Denomination Score". . . The R.P.G. created by Modiphius for Infinity is very well written, but unfortunately there could be some issues to have the most well-balanced options even right from the Start. . .
@stevenart74 I ran out of Life Points for third career option, and I decided that ten years of service among spec ops sounded pretty well already. As for Close Combat being low, I was tempted to take close combat as signature skill, but based on my knowledge of Infinity I realized I probably would be better off with decent ballistics to patch up mediocre coordination. Also in Dog Warrior form I believe I pass CC tests on 16s... which isn't that bad, right?
Third and Fourth!!! *_* I came here looking for copper and found instead gold. This opens more oportunities to fine-tune details. I suppose I could double both of her current jobs (unless I roll Bodyguard, then I'll insert that in her background). Maybe a short stint as the ship's Captain bodyguard (given that she has the claws and agility for it); and another round as TAG Pilot.
It's different than Infinity because of the Zone system. In Infinity CC is a tool rather than a weapon similar to hacking, but as far as I can tell it is a bit more RPG traditional in this. Also a lot of combat can happen in a non-military environment: bar brawls, capture/prison escape scene, while information gathering, etc. In time like those all sorts of skills will become useful. How often that comes up depends on the GM.
@stevenart74 @loricus Minor shuffling and refocusing of talents and skills: Now we Close combat is a signature skill, along with two complimenting talents, I think this build covers more combat roles, still should be able to pass stealth relatively easy (15s in dog warrior form), while close combat enjoys a significant buff from talents AND being a signature skill.
16 is a really good TN. The game is built around a TN of 10 giving you a 75% chance of passing an Average (D1) difficulty test (without spending any momentum). What makes a particular test stand out is the Talents and gear you have associated with it. I’d aim for TN13/1 FOC as the target for a skill your ‘good’ at. With gear/talents and momentum that seems to be what’s a solid chance of success. Anything more than that is superlative/ highly experienced. For example, if you compare Tony’s Hacking ability and his Discipline (both TN12/1 FOC) he’s quite reliable at doing basic tasks with either but his Stubbborn streak means that his Discipline is a strong skill for him. Tony was my first real experiment with the 12 Lifepoint system, so I ran the numbers a couple of times to see what was possible (first couple of times I maxed out at 3 careers which seems to be the norm, getting 4 required me to hazard a TAG pilot straight away with a fairly low chance of success). Consequently he’s an extremely optimised Gecko pilot: but not particularly well rounded (he’s a fiend in space, can’t convince anybody to do anything and is basically completely institutionalised with zero lifestyle skills).* Tl;dr I wouldn’t be too worried if you come out around 13 in your signature skills, your Talents should make them pop Also, @stevsnart74 has said well be dropped into a 'training sim' as our first combat experience. So there's a last opportunity for tweaking after that. I'm fairly certain we're all experimenting a lot. Also also, I highly recommend that you build a ‘fillable PDF’ with the output of the online character generator. You can’t edit the PDFs the generator builds.
@inane.imp PDF is ready, and even if two of my signature skills are meh, the basic gist of what I was expected to handle should be nicely covered: High Stealth, High Close Combat, High mobility. I think in this build I match needs of the team.
Nah, that was the point I was trying to make: the character looks fine. Particularly in Dogwarrior form he'll be an absolute beast.
Ok, I've updated Dreanna's Character Sheet. I altered the order of the Careers: She started as a Tech-Kitty, then was hired by the Captain as Bodyguard and then did TAG Pilot twice. Now, Iv'e made her experience as TAG Pilot as mostly commercial one, rather than military, so I didn't change her age much, since I asumed she could do both jobs (Bodyguard while on the ship and during business meetings and such, and TAG Pilot when loading and unloading cargo). If it somehow breaks the suspension of disbelief, I can still change her age (or alter her careers, dependng on what works best) Dreanna This is the updated version. Although it's in my Dorpbox account in the Public Section, so it should also have changed in the original link. I just realized Dreanna is becoming a Close Combat beast, which added to the TO will make things interesting (Regular Victim of TO Camo shenanigans here, so the boot will definitely be on the other foot for me, and I'll enjoy it.). Also, since I made her a Bodyguard, she got access to MSV-1 and Heavy Pistol, which I added to her gear.
Up with this I will not put! (But, seriously, what Loricus said, seems like a really sweet character).
@Danger Rose One minor clarification, unless I've been reading it wrong FOC doesn't increase the TN only EXP does. So Agility 13 + CC EXP 3 + CC FOC 1 = TN16. Also you're basically as good a technician as Tony "You can look after your own goddamn ride." [emoji14] FWIW I'm fairly certain that mechanically 1EXP/1FOC is almost always better than 2 EXP (Hacking, Resistance and Discipline are the probable exceptions). The 1 FOC means that there's a 5% chance of 2 successes or you can spend an Infinity Point to automatically generate 2 successes if you're in a pickle.
Tony Background Spoiler As a child Tony became involved with the mahas of Corregidor. He was involved in a shooting, his buddy, Mateo, actually pulled the trigger. In the aftermath, he effectively got raised by his work-group gaining a more practical education than he would have gotten on the streets. Over the years of military service he kept in contact with his Mateo, but outside of when he returned home they moved in different circles. His mother left him with his father for the glitz of Bakunin, he doesn’t know where she is now. His father is a drunk, who just stays sober enough to keep himself in oxygen and alcohol. He has no siblings. Served a tour on Paradiso. His unit was primarily tasked with extraplanetary work enforcing the blockade: they specialised with the initial entry after a breach. During a boarding to exterminate a Shasvasti infiltration of a cargoship, Tony suffered serious Plasma burns to the right half of his body. The injury was repaired with expedient grafts leaving him scarred down his right side, but with full mobility retained. However, he has a resulting fear of fire (in excess of normal Nomad paranoia around fire). Once healed he rotated back out onto more standard operations supporting Corregidor’s far flung interests. During this period he met and fell in love with Isabella Lopez, a Clockmaker assigned as Support Staff to the Gecko unit. She died (Cube unrecoverable) during an action in support of striking meteor heads. After the event Tony discovered that the miners strike had been engineered as a stock manipulation activity by a Tunguskan legal firm (unsurprisingly with ties to organised crime). A distraught and drunken Tony beat the partner in charge to within an inch of his life. Tony received a criminal record and was forced to pay a ‘blood price’ (a fair chunk of which was raised on his behalf by other pissed-off Corregidorian mercs). However, the jobs dried up as he was effectively black-balled him within reputable Nomad circles, as a result Tony has left Corregidor (with little more than the clothes on his back) for seedier climes. 5' 10" and relatively slight, Tony was ‘average’ before his injuries. He now bears extensive scars to the right side of his body, with burn scars from his face to hip. He has extensive scaring to his right shoulder and arm which has largely been regrown / rebuilt with vat grafted skin and muscle. He has inlaid circuitry that stretch down both forearms, on his left arm this is obscured by a tatoo of a feathered serpent that writhes when he moves his arm. Character Sheet (corrected copy) TAG Spoiler TONY’S GECKO Enclosed, Ground, Hands, Single-seat, Walker ATTRIBUTES: Scale 1, Speed 2, Brawn 15(+1) DETAILS: Max. Passengers 1, Impact 1 2+6§ (Knockdown) DEFENCES: Structure 16, Armour 5, Firewall 10, BTS 6 MOUNTED WEAPONS: • Combi-Rifles (×2): Range C/M, 1+5§ damage, Burst 2, 2H, Expert 1, Vicious 1, MULTI Light Mod AP Mode: AP Round Reloads (+2 Piercing) Grenalde Launcher Mode: Range M, 2+4§ damage, Burst 1, Indiscriminate (Close), Munition, Speculative Fire) - EM2 (Area (Close), Breaker, E/M, Piercing 2) - GOO (Area (Close), Immobilising, Knockdown, Nonlethal) - Explosive (Area (Close), Spread 1, Unsubtle, Vicious 2) - Smoke Grenade (Indiscriminate (Close), Nonlethal, Speculative Fire, Smoke 2)• Chain-Colt: Range C, 1+4§ damage, Burst 1, 2H, Concealed 1, Torrent, Vicious 1 • Panzerfaust: Range L, 2+5§ damage, Burst 1, 2H, Munition, Piercing 2, Spread 1, Unsubtle, Vicious 2 GEAR: ECM 1, Nav-Suite (Area of Operations), Auto-medkit, IC Crybady (Rating 2), Location Beacon, Oxygen Loads (6), Torch SPECIAL ABILITIES: • Ignores penalties imposed by zero-g conditions. GECKO Pilot Armour Type: Combat Armour Soak: Head 1, Torso 1, Arm 1, Leg 1 BTS: 3 Qualities: Vac Suit with 3 x Oxygen Loads, 2 x Parts (Sealant) Goals Spoiler Tony has just suffered a major setback in his life: he's lost the love of his life, his job and left his home. 1) Short term Goal. His intended aim in joining the Minotaurs is to lay low for a while whilst the furour over his assault dies down. Earn some coin and allow him to get his shit in one sock. What this means is he views coming to Ariadna and working for a ground based Merc outfit as 'slumming it': but the pays good, so there's that. 2) Mid-term. He idly fantasizes about screwing over the mafia suits who got Isabella killed. But he also 'knows' that that isn't really realistic for a basic Corregidorian merc. What he's actually after is respect and being accepted back into the Corregidorian merc ranks. Basically it's the next step after 'waiting for the cloud to disappear' being respected enough that the cloud just doesn't matter anymore. 3) Long-term. He had it all: career, respect of his peers and the love of his life. Long term, he'd like that back. Right now though, he's not thinking like that. He's still angry.
