The Northern Empire: An Alternate Setting

[Thanqol]

Thank you for that, math and scale and numbers are my super weakness which was why I did it the way I did.

Numbers are my specialty, and I loooove coming up with numbers like that, so thank you!

Oh, one other thought on this topic.

I didn't really imagine that the radiation levels were consistent across the Belt; instead, they're probably the greatest right next to the Crystal Empire's side because that was the impact point of all the bombs. So there'd be some immense spikes and sudden dropoffs rather than a consistent 2/1/0.6/whatever rads across the entire field. Since then, as it scarred the trench into the ground and it started to fill with irradiated molten snow, the entire Belt became hazardous but not really quite as bad as those small intensely radioactive areas on the Empire's shore.

This also opens it up a little to combats in the Belt, if you're in one of those less than utterly lethal spots, but that quickly approaches territory where the Game Master's discretion should take over from formal ruling. If you can see an elegant way to math those concepts that'd also be cool.

[The Custodian]

As long as your premium is less than the 600 caps required for a party of six to cross the bridge you'll have customers - but I imagine you'd want to try and specialise in folks who are desperate.

Or ponies who want to get in without alerting any authorities.

I would think it depends on wether the game is Post Unity or not.

I vaguely recall that...wasn't the goddess reach somewhat more limited before Redeye began feeding her unicorns? Would her reach even had made it up to the Crystal empire?

I ask because I once had an alicorn's who's backstory involved that except in Saddle Arabia.

Considering that Alicorns = Fallout Super Mutants it could happen that a stable or other facility up north was also equipped with taint to produce them (In the same way that Fallout 3 introduced the east coast super mutants.). But otherwise the only Alicorns that should be hopping around in the wasteland are those the Goddess created.If we are following FoE cannon strictly.

The idea of a stable up there equipped with taint is interesting however, here's an idea for a faction/creature...It was gonna be in a story i was considering of writing then got lazy an didn't

The Stable
Nopony knows its number. Or anything else really. When the bombs fell upon the empire many ponies evacuated into Stables despite the massive shield Shining Armor created. It was merely a precaution, the ponies were confident in their leaders ability to repel the attack but just in case... When the worst had passed many ponies emerged from their bunkers alive and well, except those in The Stable. For years the Empires military tried to enter however Stabletech did a fine job in its construction, explosives and other weaponry failed to budge the massive door. They only succeeded in scorching the number off but nothing else. In the end Shining Armor was forced to give up. Instead he decided to create a military base around it. He believed that if the ponies inside ever decided to come out they would find themselves outgunned and outnumbered. Nopony could have expected what happened next.

In the dead of night the base was attacked and almost completely wiped out. The survivors spoke of massive crystal beings emerging from the stable, twice the size of a pony they overwhelmed the defenders. Only the strongest weapons were able to harm them, shattering the creatures into pieces. In the weeks that followed the creatures would carve out a small chunk of territory for themselves. As for their motives they didn't seem to really want anything. . As for why they have not been destroyed yet by the much larger Empire military The Stable has the Republic to thank. The empire simply cannot spare the resources to completely eradicate the strange creatures.

The creatures themselves come in a wide array of colors and sizes, however all are completely made out of crystal and shaped like ponies. Their intelligence however is rather limited. Beyond firing a weapon most of these creatures are brutes.

FOr the most part these creatures are kinda like the Eastern Coast supermutants. Unlike the mutants in Fallout the difference between the Alicorns and The Crystal Mutants are rather substantial. Where the alicorns are rather regal, intelligent and coordinated these mutants are brutish beasts similar to the ones in Fo3.

As for stats... I was thinking they would have a high DT. In the realm of 40+. The downside however is if anything bypasses that DT crippling and death is rather simple due to thier low HP (Essentially their crystaline bodies cause most fire to bounce off harmlessly, however what does have the power to hurt them usually shatters the creatures.)

Thoughts?

EDIT: I find it odd that the republic would have a no magic policy. Considering how the MLP world is saturated with the stuff. IM guessing none of the races within the republic use magic then?

[Thanqol]

Considering that Alicorns = Fallout Super Mutants it could happen that a stable or other facility up north was also equipped with taint to produce them (In the same way that Fallout 3 introduced the east coast super mutants.). But otherwise the only Alicorns that should be hopping around in the wasteland are those the Goddess created.If we are following FoE cannon strictly.

The idea of a stable up there equipped with taint is interesting however, here's an idea for a faction/creature...It was gonna be in a story i was considering of writing then got lazy an didn't

The Stable
Nopony knows its number. Or anything else really. When the bombs fell upon the empire many ponies evacuated into Stables despite the massive shield Shining Armor created. It was merely a precaution, the ponies were confident in their leaders ability to repel the attack but just in case... When the worst had passed many ponies emerged from their bunkers alive and well, except those in The Stable. For years the Empires military tried to enter however Stabletech did a fine job in its construction, explosives and other weaponry failed to budge the massive door. They only succeeded in scorching the number off but nothing else. In the end Shining Armor was forced to give up. Instead he decided to create a military base around it. He believed that if the ponies inside ever decided to come out they would find themselves outgunned and outnumbered. Nopony could have expected what happened next.

In the dead of night the base was attacked and almost completely wiped out. The survivors spoke of massive crystal beings emerging from the stable, twice the size of a pony they overwhelmed the defenders. Only the strongest weapons were able to harm them, shattering the creatures into pieces. In the weeks that followed the creatures would carve out a small chunk of territory for themselves. As for their motives they didn't seem to really want anything. . As for why they have not been destroyed yet by the much larger Empire military The Stable has the Republic to thank. The empire simply cannot spare the resources to completely eradicate the strange creatures.

The creatures themselves come in a wide array of colors and sizes, however all are completely made out of crystal and shaped like ponies. Their intelligence however is rather limited. Beyond firing a weapon most of these creatures are brutes.

FOr the most part these creatures are kinda like the Eastern Coast supermutants. Unlike the mutants in Fallout the difference between the Alicorns and The Crystal Mutants are rather substantial. Where the alicorns are rather regal, intelligent and coordinated these mutants are brutish beasts similar to the ones in Fo3.

As for stats... I was thinking they would have a high DT. In the realm of 40+. The downside however is if anything bypasses that DT crippling and death is rather simple due to thier low HP (Essentially their crystaline bodies cause most fire to bounce off harmlessly, however what does have the power to hurt them usually shatters the creatures.)

Thoughts?

Hmm. I like the idea of the fragile crystal entities, but there's no motivation or scheme behind it. It basically works out as the Den of Random Encounters and that's not super useful as a setting element - especially, if I'm reading this right, it's located inside the Capital itself? If it's been inside the walls of the Capital all this time by definition it can't be a very big threat because otherwise they'd have had a huge impact on the setting. There's also that these things are one Shield from Shining Armour away from being trapped in their hole while the Emperor, I don't know, diverts a river into it and drowns everything inside. I'm happy for this thing to exist as you've described it, but I don't want to expend a setting element as awesome as the Taint on it.

My idea for Alicorniation was actually leaning towards the other direction: A branch of HREC is seeking to create new Princesses of the Sun and Moon on the idea that they'll then be able to destroy Sombra and cure the Corruption (and then maybe help the rest of Equestria or something, we don't really think that far ahead). I'm seeing them reverse-engineering the Taint successfully enough but then getting caught up on how to go from 'Regular Alicorn' to 'Sun Princess'. Oh - perhaps they're trying to indoctrinate ponies via chronic Memory Orb use into thinking they are Celestia or Luna.

And because they're HREC and HREC are borderline mad scientists, whenever they get a failure they just release it into the wild.

I'll have a think, this deserves contemplation

EDIT: I find it odd that the republic would have a no magic policy. Considering how the MLP world is saturated with the stuff. IM guessing none of the races within the republic use magic then?

Yeah, magic loses a lot of it's lustre when A) It was used to end the world, and B) It's being used every night by an evil unicorn king to give everyone nightmares and C) It's strongly associated with ponies, who are Not Us. A violent rejection of it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Also that powerful unicorn sorcerers regularly go mad and give in to the King of Darkness, that also makes it easy to demonise.

I think the key in Reindeer magic in the Republic is the cultural shift; Reindeer magic is a one-Master, one-Apprentice thing, oral tradition, and it's illegal to write down anything related to Magic theory. It's a crude kind of way to blinder their own magical development and keep them from the heights of research that result in Megaspells and the like. One Reindeer creating an evil golem is fine, a Unicorn will mass produce them and that's where the problem is.

[The Custodian]

Heh, to be honest I never found the mutants in Fo3 to have much of a motivation or scheme beyond just being there also. XD As for the location of the stable. I wasnt thinking directly in the city. In my original plans for them in my story it was supposed to be smack dab in the middle. And as for the motivations, Sombra was supposed to play a role in things. Cant really do that here since you already have plans with him. (I like your ideas more though ^^ ). It wouldnt be difficult for the stable to have been settled in the countryside then. Outside the bubble.

As for Reindeer, only a portion of the species has magic abilities. Perhaps the racial division is much more acute in Reindeer and Caribou compared to Unicorns and the rest of pony kind (instead of a 1:1 ratio like ponies. Reindeer are 1:100.) Extremely rare and as such are not seen as a big threat in the republic.

ONe other thing that occurred to me. Memory orbs play a big role in this setting however they usually are only accessed by unicorns. Im guessing recollectors are much more common in this area than the rest of the wasteland?

[Thanqol]

Heh, to be honest I never found the mutants in Fo3 to have much of a motivation or scheme beyond just being there also. XD

To be super honest, a lot of Fallout 3 didn't make any sense and we can set out sights a little higher

As for Reindeer, only a portion of the species has magic abilities. Perhaps the racial division is much more acute in Reindeer and Caribou compared to Unicorns and the rest of pony kind (instead of a 1:1 ratio like ponies. Reindeer are 1:100.) Extremely rare and as such are not seen as a big threat in the republic.

Oh, for sure, the Republic wouldn't have any issues with magic that scarce and controllable.

ONe other thing that occurred to me. Memory orbs play a big role in this setting however they usually are only accessed by unicorns. Im guessing recollectors are much more common in this area than the rest of the wasteland?

Yeah; the Crystal Empire has the infrastructure and the drive to mass-produce them, so they're probably relatively common and cheap.

[TyrannisUmbra]

I didn't really imagine that the radiation levels were consistent across the Belt; instead, they're probably the greatest right next to the Crystal Empire's side because that was the impact point of all the bombs. So there'd be some immense spikes and sudden dropoffs rather than a consistent 2/1/0.6/whatever rads across the entire field. Since then, as it scarred the trench into the ground and it started to fill with irradiated molten snow, the entire Belt became hazardous but not really quite as bad as those small intensely radioactive areas on the Empire's shore.

This also opens it up a little to combats in the Belt, if you're in one of those less than utterly lethal spots, but that quickly approaches territory where the Game Master's discretion should take over from formal ruling. If you can see an elegant way to math those concepts that'd also be cool.

Well, part of the results of the math ended up being that because of the immense distance across, even tiny amounts of radiation tend to be lethal if you're trying to get across. When it takes 6 minutes to run across at full-speed and 12 minutes if you walk, any kind of serious distraction is likely to be fatal, no matter where you fight it. The thing about the numbers I mathed out is that they're absolutely tiny -- ideally a hotspot would have high levels of radiation... but when you consider that what tends to pass as "lethal" levels of radiation tends to be around 500 rads/second (clearly meant to kill without protection), with 'high' levels being around 30/second... To have numbers like that, the relative distance you'd have to cross under those conditions would have to be tiny in comparison to the rest of the belt.

As for stats... I was thinking they would have a high DT. In the realm of 40+. The downside however is if anything bypasses that DT crippling and death is rather simple due to thier low HP (Essentially their crystaline bodies cause most fire to bounce off harmlessly, however what does have the power to hurt them usually shatters the creatures.)

This wouldn't work, because no matter how high something's DT is, it can never lower damage taken to less than 20% of the unmodified value. If you would deal 30 damage, the DT wouldn't be able to lower it to less than 6, for example.

[Godna]

Actually I haven't seen that rule in the official rules. Kkat kinda hates 'needless' math so that 20% thing isn't in the PnP. Also 40DT isn't too hard to breech. I have seen someone do it with spiked shoes.

[Viewing_Glass]

You can do it with Brass Shoes if you are really good...or bare hoof on a buck. However, that takes three perks to pull off, or a trait and two perks.

As a side note, I am starting a game using this setting once the Stalliongrad game is finished. I made it public so you guys can see what I am doing (and different ideas I am testing). It is located here.

[TyrannisUmbra]

Actually I haven't seen that rule in the official rules. Kkat kinda hates 'needless' math so that 20% thing isn't in the PnP. Also 40DT isn't too hard to breech. I have seen someone do it with spiked shoes.

That's strange, I know it was in the ruleset originally. It's there to specifically prevent scenarios where it's impossible to deal any damage at all.
That said, 20% is the kind of math that you should be able to do in your head, within a fraction of a second. It's dividing by 5.

[Godna]

Well if you saw the stink up in the revisions thread. She had complaints about adding 10% to things, but lets not drag this in here. If nothing else we can add a rule allowing their DT to be perfect DT. Monsters get nice toys like that.