Duke Redav: Hideously scarred veteran of the clone wars, more machine than man.  Cotar Fomas of the planet. (Human side.)

As for characters, well I don't have any names yet (I usually don't until I get a feel for the character and that won't be until I start burning them up), but I do have two basic ideas for what I might go. Either could be a FoN, but they don't need to be, and I'm happy to let someone else take the slot if they want it badly for some reason.

The Pirate Lord: Fiercely independent pirate captain turned reluctant freedom fighter and proud citizen of the Communes. Given the age the requisite lifepaths are likely to make him, probably more of a grizzled Adama type than Jack Sparrow.

The Resistance Leader: Radical leader of planet based democratic/communist resistance network. An idealistic revolutionary type in the Che Guevara mould. I must admit part of the appeal is the fact that it might be an amusing challenge to play an ideologue whose politics differ so wildly from mine.

Yeah, you can use your "I'm unhappy and I want to change it" vote for regulation. I'm willing to go with Illegible Smudge most of the way on this. I think he makes a good point for Slavery over Immigrant Labour and Utilities instead of Non-Military Weaponry.

However, I think it might be a good idea to keep Military Manufacture regulated. Doing so doesn't prevent the pirates and space miners from having cruisers, etc. but it does make it harder - every ship they have, they've stolen from the League or the Church or the nobles, making it a precious commodity. The space miners have cobbled together crude batteries and missiles that'll fight off most direct assaults, but the balance of military power remains tilted towards the League and Church. The communes' "warships" are converted Mercators and Civilian Hammers, not ships of the line.

If you're worried, IlS, I'll let you take a military ship for your pirate character for 1 rp if you want one.

As to the psychic clones, how's about we split it down the middle? The Church keeps on trying to mass-clone psychics, with mixed results. Occasionally the results are perfectly fine, but most of the time, mutant horrors emerge, or the clones end up insane, or worse yet (to their creators), they end up perfectly normal but not psychic. So there are some psychic clones, but they're not ubiquitous. Is that a fair compromise?

Figures of Note so far:

Vaylen:

Piers Harken - A ruthless and ambitious psychologist clone who is the Merchant League's vice president of security and espionage (NPC)

Human:

Cotar-Doctor Emlyn Grange: Emlyn is the Head of Genetic Regulation and Standards Board, the department that authorises all marriages within the system and oversees clone production. As such he has access to everyone's medical records. It also monitors for signs of individuals acting against their destiny by meddling with their genetics. Pious and fairly incorruptible. (NPC)

Duke Redav: Hideously scarred veteran of the clone wars, more machine than man. Cotar Fomas of the planet.

Plus, either a pirate lord or a communist leader, depending upon which IlS prefers.

Comments:

hgjs> Is Redav gonna be your character?

IlS> Whichever one you don't want, I'm snagging as an idea for the Vaylen side.

Here are some either proposals. Tell me which ones you like most. If one of them interferes with a character you want to play, nix them and I'll come up with something else.

Arch-heretic Sil Amanto - a former Dregus exiled and stripped of his rank, now the spiritual leader of the miners. (Vaylen) (NPC)

Baron Gurnat - The last Darikahn Forged Lord, rebellious and proud.

Quote from: PseudoephedrineYeah, you can use your "I'm unhappy and I want to change it" vote for regulation. I'm willing to go with Illegible Smudge most of the way on this. I think he makes a good point for Slavery over Immigrant Labour and Utilities instead of Non-Military Weaponry.

However, I think it might be a good idea to keep Military Manufacture regulated. Doing so doesn't prevent the pirates and space miners from having cruisers, etc. but it does make it harder - every ship they have, they've stolen from the League or the Church or the nobles, making it a precious commodity. The space miners have cobbled together crude batteries and missiles that'll fight off most direct assaults, but the balance of military power remains tilted towards the League and Church. The communes' "warships" are converted Mercators and Civilian Hammers, not ships of the line.

If you're worried, IlS, I'll let you take a military ship for your pirate character for 1 rp if you want one.

Thanks, that all seems very reasonable. I may have been giving the wrong impression about the military manufacture anyway - it was always my intention that the communes and pirates would have converted Mercators and Civilian Hammers rather than actual warships, and that they were a cobbled together force that couldn't stand up to the government in a straight fight, but had to resort to harassing attacks, ambushes and raids. I wasn't so much interpreting military manufacture as having a fleet of cruisers as I was thinking of the old Privateer games (or Escape Velocity more recently) where you could just buy a Large Laser Cannon for your ship off the shelf.

Quote from: pseudoephedrineAs to the psychic clones, how's about we split it down the middle? The Church keeps on trying to mass-clone psychics, with mixed results. Occasionally the results are perfectly fine, but most of the time, mutant horrors emerge, or the clones end up insane, or worse yet (to their creators), they end up perfectly normal but not psychic. So there are some psychic clones, but they're not ubiquitous. Is that a fair compromise?

Seems fair to me. Thanks for going out of your way to incorporate my input.

No worries mate. Any closer to deciding between the communist ideologue and the pirate?

Anyone else got any ideas for Figures of Note?

Here are some more. I'm presenting the Figures of Note as humans (albeit on the Vaylen side) at this point, but it should be easy enough to hull any of them to make worms. If you like 'em, speak up and tell me.

Mystes-Mater Asha - A widely-beloved candidate for future sainthood, known for her charitable works and loving spirit amongst the plebs.

Comrade-Comptroller Wencelas Nam - A radical communist demagogue amongst the miners who advocates open warfare with the Church and the League, and consequences be damned.

Orvus Gin, Vice President Responsible for Church-League Cooperation - A smooth-talking potentate who shakes your hand so it's easier to stab you in the back.

Quote from: PseudoephedrineNo worries mate. Any closer to deciding between the communist ideologue and the pirate?

Still torn I'm afraid. I may end up waiting to see what other players are coming up with before I make my decision. At the moment, I'm marginally leaning towards the pirate, if only because while I love discussing political philosophy and love playing RPGs, I've always been of the opinion that they are two great tastes that shouldn't be combined. Of course, my communist revolutionary would spend most of his time organizing the cause, distributing propaganda, smuggling in weapons etc, rather than making political speeches, but the point remains.

As for your ideas, I like Orvus Gin and Wencelas Nam the most, with Sil Amanto coming in third.

It's just a shame the game doesn't have Trade Unionist as a lifepath. It could be quite handy for our setting.

Go Pirate then, if you're torn. I totally want some spaceships to zip around shooting lasers and particle beams in this game.

I too am fond of Wencelas Nam. If we go with Piers and Wencelas, then we probably should have someone from the Church as well in on the villainy. That way, PCs will have three angles for relationships. Maybe a Dregus or an Inquisitor?

Dregus-Logoterite Arkan - Chief propagandist for the church, the Dregus-Logoterite is responsible for keeping the population pacified and concerned with Wheel instead of rebelling against their absolute impoverishment.

Ok, planet names while everybody's thinking of Figures of Note and character ideas. Some suggestions:

Lankar
Shars
Entira
Atr-Sors
Gera
Quent

Just thinking about my character background and wondered when people felt this invasion took place. In the last decade? In the lifetime of older characters but not the younger (say, 30 years ago)? Or before any character is likely to have been born?

Edit: Oh, and I'm going with the Pirate Lord...though I'm wondering if I really need to take the Pirate lifepath itself - it really is a pretty rubbish lifepath and it doesn't give me enough resources to take the Owner-Aboard trait, which I really want.

Ok, unless anyone objects, I'm going with Dregus-Logoterite Arkan, Piers Harken and Wencelas Nam as my three main villains and Vaylen Figures of Note. You guys have got Cotar-Doctor Emlyn Grange, Duke Redav and IlS' pirate lord.

Remember, we need a name for the planet.

Ok, now, character burning.

Who wants to play what?

Werekoala > Give me an idea for your character, and I'll do the hard work of whipping him up statistically for you. Mainly, I need to know what he does now, and anything important you want him to've done in his past, like if he was a pirate or a soldier or whatever.

Sounds good. Still working on my character, but in the meantime, I came up with a few suggestions for the planet's name: Karkarus, Vertanna, Averzhan, Yamerah, Edasar, Ubidaan, Sameric, Marikahn, Oberis, Chentassa. Not sure that any of them are any good, but I figured I might as well widen the selection. Of yours, I like Lankar and Atr-Sors the best.

As to names I like Lankar, Shars or Gera the best, mainly because they are easy to remember

As to character my idea is that he is of Darikhan descent and the assumption is that it has been at least one, maybe two generations since the conquest. He entered the security forces[1] as a way out of the slums and his talent and ability saw him promoted to a relatively high level for his origins, but he is never really trusted. In the past few years he has been part of conspiracy who resent the way the Merchant League runs the system. These Young Turks come from both Dunedin and Darikhan stock. The latter are obviously often excluded from power but so are many of the former. The alliance of Church and League in the invasion led to the concentration of power in very few hands. Dunedin crusaders and those who came subsequently to find work once the industrial facilities opened up have found themselves unable to break through the glass ceiling of the League's charter. They also have had some sympathy from the Church.

I'll put it together in BE terms over the weekend but his main motivation is a contempt for the system under which he works and a desire to replace it. However he is not a Darikhan nationalist (the Empire is a story for most) and he is devout Church member (the book seems to imply that the religion is still stron in Darikhan, just that the church as an institution is banned). Probably one of the Figures of Note, either the Dr or the Duke is a (the?) leading force in the conspiracy and a patron my my character.

[1] On the assumption that the clones tend to be used as the muscle for the security and armed forces but that the natural births [womb-bred vs tank-bred?] hold ranks throughout and that there is always a need for undercover and other work which clones are poor at from reasons of religious upbringing and they all look the same.

Quote from: PseudoephedrineOk, planet names while everybody's thinking of Figures of Note and character ideas. Some suggestions:

Lankar
Shars
Entira
Atr-Sors
Gera
Quent

I vote for Lankar-Sors as the name of the planet, and Lankar as the name of the star system (although people commonly use the terms interchangably).

I like hgjs' suggestion here best so far. Lankar for the system, and Lankar-Sors for the planet itself. Since everyone seems broadly in favour of Lankar, shall we consider it settled?

NiallS> Sounds good.

Colonel Hesse Tamar

Here's the good colonel. I've aimed to spend circles to give him control of part of the security services specialising in recovering taxable assets but don't know if I've made it too cheap. Will expand on his background in a bit.

Description
Mid-forties male of caucasian descent. Hair close cropped with shaved section above right ear with tattoo of Burning Wheel denoting his membership as a devotee of the fire. Face notable for cybernetic implants covering eyes and bridge of nose. Generally seems in good shape and has air of authority. Tends to wear uniform or dark coloured conservative clothing

Beliefs:

• The Merchant League is irredeemably corrupt and must be removed and replaced with a government that wants to rule not rob
• The Burning Wheel has guided me safely in my life. Only through its tenets can happiness be achieved
• I would rather die than return to the slums I grew up in. I must preserve and advance my position for the security of myself and my family

Lifepath

• Born on the Streets 9 Years Circles 1 Traits 2, Skills 3
  
• Urchin 4 years Traits 2, Skills 4
  
• Hive Thug 3 years Resources 1 Circles 1 +1P, Traits 1, Skills 4
  One year to change lifepaths
  
• Devoted to Fire 3 years Resources 1 +1M, Traits 1, Skills 3
  One year to change lifepaths
  
• Security 3 years +1 P, Traits 1, Skills 4
  
• Security 3 years +1 P, Traits 1, Skills 4
  
• Security Officer 5 years, Resources 2, Circles 1, +1M/P, Traits 2, Skills 7
  
• Agent 6 years, Resources 2, Circles 1, + 1M/P, Traits 1, Skills 8
  
• League Official 5 years, Resources 2, Circles 2, Traits 2, Skills 5

Stats
Age 42
Perception 4 Will 6
Agility 4 Speed  4 Power  3  Forte 4

Traits
Orphan, Addicted, Cold blooded, Devoted to Fire, Bored, Thug, Mean, Clean Cut, Determined, Moustache, Opportunist, Paranoia

Skills
1.   Inconspicuous 3
2.   Intimidation 3
3.   Doctrine 2
4.   Security 4
5.   Interrogation 3
6.   Investigative Logic 4
7.   Bureaucracy 3
8.   Close Combat 4
9.   Assault weapons 2
10.   Torture 3
11.   Signals 2
12.   Extortion 3
13.   Streetwise 3
14.   Security rigging 3
15.   Blackmail-wise 3
16.   League-wise 3
17.   Murder-wise 2
18.   Bribe-wise 2
19.   Rebel wise 2
20.   Crowd Suppression wise 2
21.   Frame wise 2
22.   Persuasion 5
23.   Accounting 2
24.   Command 3
25.   Law 2
26.   Tactics 2

Resources 5
Colour: Has a uniform of the security forces, a provided for apartment within a respectable part of the habitable zone, personal weapon and use of an automated car. Has a personal portable computer that acts as a semi-intelligent personal assistant

Hard tech: Cybernetic implants that display scrolling update of world around (+1 Per) – i.e. body temperature and dilation of people, highlights weapons , items of interest, concealed figures, runs face recognition and acts as a communications device providing video and sound.

Circles 3
Affiliations

• Devotees of the Fire (1D),
• Security Services (2D)
• Anti-League movement (1D)
• Hive gangs (1D)

Reputation

• Colonel-Investigator of Asset Recovery Services (2D). Respected as incorruptible and protective of his men. Seen with more negative feeling by smugglers and tax avoiders.

Relationship:

• Laertes Sully, Deputy in Asset Recovery Services
• Cotar-Doctor Emlyn Grange (Patron and conspirator). Feels loyalty and respect for this man of the Church and his aims of a better world
• Piers Harken (Complicated relationship). My direct boss - dislike and suspicion as someone who was Born on the Wheel and now seeks to advance his own personal profit in service of League

Asset Recovery Services specialise in retrieving items and property on which insufficient duty has been paid - basically customs police equivalent to paramilitary forces as well as some investigative and administrative teams. Colonel has operational control of the division liasing with wider tax bureaus, League members and police.

Instincts:

• Always record my conversations and e-mails
• Never travel without bodyguards
• Always donate to a devotee in need

Steel: 6 (base 3, murdered someone +1, been traumatised +1, Will over 5 +1)