Character Discussion

And just to double check, are any of your characters officially affiliated with a faction. I believe Sa'id is Consortium, but not quite sure.

I think Brahim would be a dues paying member of the Free League, but he is unlikely to be involved in the politics of the faction. It is more like belonging to a Union or professional guild for him.

Here is a list on character contacts that I have put together so far. Let me know anything that's missing.

Contacts

Sani: Nefrite Garroud (The Free League’s news division). Wants to know everything that could affect the League’s activities in the Horizon. As a spy, could be interesting to have an information trade channel open, especially since the interest is on the Free League business.

Brahim: Abdul Nasr (The Free League). A merchant specializing in technological artifacts and stuff high society wants to have, provides me with information or small favors on occasion. He operates out of Ozone Plaza on Coriolis.

Sa'id ibn Afreen wibn Iskandar: Shuja Mulk-Chitral (leader of the Mehtar nomads). Started the Hargadour rebellion to unite the nomads in the sector of the Lady of Tears. She's his personal contact in the Nomads.

Zahra Abboud: Abu Sayf (Syndicate). Originally just Zahra’s handler in the Syndicate, the one who'd inform her of new assignments. As the years have gone by, there's been a softening in relations, to the point where they're friendly with one another. Zahra's been able to bring Abu Sayf a little farther over to her side, not so much that it puts his position in the Syndicate at risk, but every now and again he's willing to pass her information she maybe shouldn't have.

Farouk ibn Khalid al-Marwan: Mahmoud Khodr (Syndicate). An information broker on Coriolis who Farouk knows from his Syndicate days.

Thank you. It has been noted.

Sa'id was working for a while with the Consortium, but he's not affiliated with them

Maybe two Abdul Nasr contacts is pointless ... I could have an affiliation as well. Totally forgot about that.

1) New contact: Nefrite Garroud (the Free League’s news division). Wants to know everything that could affect the League’s activities in the Horizon. As a spy, could interesting to have an information trade channel open, specially sincde the interest is on the Free League business.

2) Affiliation: The Nomad Federation could be an interesting option given the background and potential conflict since she is working for the Free League.

3) If RIYA is an NPC... could she be my best buddy? I mean... Data Djinn specialist would like her I suppose?

4) Finally, could I justify my lack of empathy with a failed portal jump which may or may not have been planned by someone else? Something like not having the cryobed fully functional. Happening something after Khadija took over an important part of the business. Could can with hidden memories of horrors, a narrative way to explain some uses of Dark points maybe?

You know, scratch that. I think it would make for a more interesting game if Sa'id would not be fully independent but he had to answer to the Consortium. That makes space for more interesting choices when Sa'id and the Consortium interests don't exactly align.

So yes, let's say that he's on their payroll and he's affiliated to the Consortium's Foundation.

Yep, all of that is fine with me.

I will be making the first post a little later today.

Just noticed that I’m not briefly sure what the affiliation means... in game terms. So the crew answers to a faction, the patron is an NPC but our PCs are part of something else? How does that work?

I am not sure, but to me affiliation is more like, you don't necessarily work for them, but you're expected to take actions that push forward the cause of your faction, and if you don't, or if your group takes actions against your faction and you are part of it, there can be consequences down the road.

A bit like in many RPGs you can reclute companions that belong to a certain faction. They do quests with you and generally work on whichever job your group takes, but if the actions of the group end up being detrimental to their faction there might be friction and they might eventually threaten to leave the group.

In my case, I don't see Sa'id as working directly for the Consortium. But if they suggest he makes a certain choice or perform a certain action he would have to do that, if he wants to maintain all the benefits of being part of the Consortium.

Zahra's contact is Abu Sayf, who was originally just her handler in the Syndicate, the one who'd inform her of new assignments. As the years have gone by, there's been a softening in relations, to the point where they're friendly with one another. Zahra's been able to bring Abu Sayf a little farther over to her side, not so much that it puts his position in the Syndicate at risk, but every now and again he's willing to pass her information she maybe shouldn't have.

"Faction Affiliation" just refers to which faction you are an official, card-carrying member of.

Being a member of a faction is mostly for roleplaying. The benefits of joining a faction are that you might gain access to certain restricted resources, such as faction-specific technology. You also need to be in a faction to take the Faction Standing talent.

The drawback to being in a faction is that you have rules or people to answer to, in addition to your patron. And you sometimes have to deal with your faction’s politics.

Some people are really devoted to their factions. Other people are faction members in name only (meaning they do the bare minimum to maintain their membership, but otherwise don’t get involved in faction politics or daily faction activities). Obviously, you can also work for a faction while not being a member of it.

So in short, your character can take his or her faction membership as seriously as you want.

Hope that helps.

Okay, game is live :)

That is an amazing first post, 99_Ninjas!

It will help me to determine Brahim's relationships with each character if I have more information about how and when they joined the crew. His backstory is that he came with the ship - so my question for the other players and GM is how did the ship get a crew? Did they all join together at the same time or individually or in clumps? Do any characters have relationships that predate joining the crew? Is there a timeline for how we all became the brady bunch? How long have we been a crew together before the campaign starts? Thanks

Thank you!

The only relationship that predates joining the crew that I'm aware of is Tarek and Zahra knew each other thanks to Tarek helping Zahra out of an as-of-yet undescribed jam that led to them becoming friends.

As far how long we've been a crew, that I would welcome some additional input on. In my experience, it's always a little easier if the crew already knows each other at least a little bit. I would think that we all joined at different times, but when that happened, I'm open to suggestions.

I intend to play Zahra as a little world-weary, with a dry, fatalistic sense of humor, for what it's worth. I'm also very open to letting the fine details of a relationship develop on the fly/improv style.

I imagine that the crew has been together for several years, so we all likely know each other pretty well. My character, Farouk, has been on the run for three or four years, bu I see him having joined the crew maybe two years ago, making him a more recent addition. His former Syndicate connections put him in touch with Khadija, and after meeting him, she agreed to help hide him in return for his services. Farouk thinks his powers are a blessing from the Icons and so he dislikes using them for other people’s personal gain, but he doesn’t have any better options. Lots of powerful groups are after him.

I feel like the crew probably came together one by one. Maybe there was a core three or four people to start, and others joined up over time.