NEMA, Chaos Earth, and D-bees story ideas

[ardashir]

Okay. So in the canon Chaos Earth setting NEMA is hotly and violently opposed to all D-bees they meet because they're 'invaders', intentionally or not, and more immediately because they're competition for the drastically limited amounts of food, medicine, and other resources that the humans they're protecting desperately need. Is there anything that can change this?

I had an idea of a NEMA patrol getting alerted to some children believed to be living in an abandoned building. More worrisome there are also reports of 'monsters' I.e. D-bees seen there. Something non-supernatural like, say, Wolfen or the like plundering supplies. NEMA goes in armed and ready. They have intermittent encounters with the D-bees on the way in. Nothing too deadly, maybe some long-range sniping or traps set up to keep them out. Finally they find the kids and learn they're still alive because the D-bees have been giving them some of the food and other supplies. And the children don't want to leave their defenders.

Going with the canon, how would NEMA be expected to handle that?

[glitterboy2098]

i wouldn't say "hotly and violently opposed", so much as "they're largely ignoring them". the upcoming Chaos Earth: First Responders goes into this a bit more, though you've pretty much pegged the why.

NEMA will not help Dbees, but unless they are actively hostile will also not fight them. that said general swayer in the rise of magic book, in the journal entry introduction bit, basically remarks that most they've met have been hostile, and that she sees them as 'monsters' to protect humanity from. so odds are high that NEMA would not be likely to work with the dbee's in this situation.. though they might use non-lethal force to make them vacate rather than just killing them all.

[ardashir]

i wouldn't say "hotly and violently opposed", so much as "they're largely ignoring them". the upcoming Chaos Earth: First Responders goes into this a bit more, though you've pretty much pegged the why.

NEMA will not help Dbees, but unless they are actively hostile will also not fight them. that said general swayer in the rise of magic book, in the journal entry introduction bit, basically remarks that most they've met have been hostile, and that she sees them as 'monsters' to protect humanity from. so odds are high that NEMA would not be likely to work with the dbee's in this situation.. though they might use non-lethal force to make them vacate rather than just killing them all.

Thanks for the response. I do have the Rise of Magic book, but I lack the others right now and I was wondering what if anything they had to add.

And just what is the 'First Responders' book going to be about? I imagined it was going to cover things like EMTs, fire fighters, etc., maybe for games set literally on the day of the Great Catastrophe. But going by your brief description it sounds like I was way off.

[Highlord]

I remember back in...I want to say 2009 or so, I played an Elven Knight from (actually the Mystic Knight Keeper sans white rose potions and such) that had been displaced from her world to Chaos Earth. Used spells to make communication possible, made use of quasi-magical flintlock weapons alongside her sword and armor to fight demons and horrors. She took a group of about thirty under her protection and got them to safety behind NEMA lines, which is how I met up with the rest of the party.

Being able to talk, and proving to be knowledgeable and useful, made me a quick ally despite being nonhuman.

[Grazzik]

When I read canon descriptions of what is going on broadly, I often consider how frequently the books gloss over the difference between the meta-story of the grand stage and the intensity of individual drama.

Consider a lizard man DBee in Chaos Earth six months into the apocalypse.

The meta-story - NEMA kills the DBee because the monster looks like all the other reptilian monsters and food is limited (maybe the giant lizard tastes like chicken?).

The individual drama - a NEMA soldier is trapped down a well until a rope is lowered to help them out. Climbing to the top, the soldier sees their rescuer is a bipedal lizard holding out a canteen of water and a chocolate bar.

The meta-story can inform the individual drama by setting underlying assumptions, prejudices, and initial reactions, but only so far before the PC needs to make their own decisions based on their lived experience. When someone objects to a scenario playing out by pointing at canon and saying a PC must act a certain way, they are taking agency away from the GM and players involved to make their own choices. At that point, they should just watch TV.

Individual dramas can also impact the meta-story, over a long time or many interactions. Think how CS psychics have socially and culturally evolved in Rifts over the years, from the despised to protectors of humanity. In Dead Reign, people have gone from screaming noobs in a constant fight or flight mode, to forming rooftop communities with strategies to fight the undead in just a couple years. However, in both those examples, you may still find a CS psychic being used by ignorant townsfolk as a scapegoat for recent unexplainable murders, or a rooftop community member out on a salvage run that starts screaming at the first sound of a moan.

So, regardless of what canon says are the prevailing winds, players and GMs should focus on what has the immediate impact on THEIR story and on what the PC does given the PC's alignment, ME/MA/temperament, cultural or religious beliefs, state of mind, and physical/security needs. Being stuck in a collapsed basement with your mortal enemy but needing to collaborate makes for great roleplaying not just to see if you both get out, but what happens after?

Then again, DBees can make for great loot pinatas... and maybe do taste like chicken...