The Well of No Return

Hello perspective player! I just stumbled on Steel Rift and have made a lite RP, Living World Arena/Tourney/League server!. It is Play-By-Post, with me handling the map and rulings so that it can be time-zone and time-available agnostic! Players are free to schedule between themselves if they want to resolve a match over Tabletop Sim with me as Arbiter, but no one is reqiured to do that. (Also feel free to send pics of physical minis if you want to use/display them! The system is mini-agnostic for anyone interested in playing Steel Rift locally.) There is 1 change I have made so that its easier to manage as a PbP game (inches to Hex Tiles), and there is currently 1 very simple homebrew added. You wont need to buy a copy of the rules, as I have them available on the server. Advanced Rules will be added over time, both to not overwhelm players but also so I can cherry pick what works with the League and missions that I will present players with (and to a lesser extent the flimsy lore I have for this game-world). Players will be a General Purpose Administrator/Logistics A.I., usually manufactured and purchased by Militaries and MegaCorps for admin work on large vessels and in company-cities. In this case though, the players have been purchased by an Underboss of a Redlight planet. They'll be placed in control of the crime faction's Blood Sport Assets in the burgeoning, new Mecha Coliseums popping up all around the seedy ecumenopolis. You'll put together HE-Vs and teams and enter them into Bouts, Tournaments, Leagues, etc. Obtain purses and prizes from wins, bet on other player's matches for side profit, and go Rogue to get out from under the crime boss's thumb! Eventually players will be able to accept contracts off world for MegaCorps and Sovereignties (ala BattleTech style) and will be able to flex more of the mission types and advanced rules over time. I'm running it via a purpose made Discord server and using Tabletop Sim purely so the maps and models will be a bit more exciting than a 2d, top-town grid. There is currently only 1 mechanical roll tied to Roleplay itself (subject to change depending on what players decide to get up to). You can always hit me with ideas and things you'd like to see that we can work together to make happen! If anyone is interested feel free to DM me and ask any questions you might have! A final note: The game is tagged as 18+, please respect that. And if any player has a concern about anything (including regarding me) please feel empowered to bring it to my attention so it can be resolved!

The Helix Initiative was introduced to the public as a revolutionary leap in environmental adaptation, biological medicine, and survival science. Officially, the organization claimed it was developing new ways for humanity to survive ecological collapse, disease, and resource shortages. Behind closed doors, however, Helix operated hidden research divisions dedicated to experimentation far beyond legal or ethical limits. Somewhere deep within those divisions, a scientist identified in surviving records only as Dr. W██d████ T████ developed a machine capable of shrinking living organisms to less than an inch tall. The technology was presented internally as a breakthrough in resource efficiency and medical research—but many of the subjects brought into testing were children between the ages of eight and sixteen. Most never returned. You are one of the survivors. After undergoing the procedure, you awaken inside an ordinary city park that has become an impossible wilderness at your scale. Blades of grass tower like trees. Puddles become lakes capable of drowning entire groups. Ants patrol the dirt like armored soldiers, while spiders transform sections of the park into web-choked death zones. Every inch of terrain matters. Every storm is catastrophic. Survival depends on learning how to weaponize the environment itself—crafting tools and defenses from thorns, sap, insect shells, broken plastic, roots, and scavenged debris left behind by previous miniature civilizations that clearly did not survive for long. As you explore deeper into the park, you begin discovering abandoned outposts, collapsed shelters, and fragmented Helix logs detailing increasingly unstable experiments. The records reference attempts to create “evolutions chosen suvivors” capable of evolving beyond normal biological limits. Again and again, one phrase appears alongside heavily censored personnel files: MARROW SYNDROME. The disease slowly destroys the body in stages—first decaying bone tissue, then muscle structure, and finally flooding the lungs with blood. Somewhere among the corrupted files are hints that Dr. W██d████ T████ never joined Helix out of loyalty. Some logs imply he infiltrated the organization to expose its corruption, free the surviving test subjects, and continue researching a cure for a terminally ill child connected to the syndrome. Whether those rumors are true remains uncertain. Helix officially denies the existence of both the disease and the scientist. Not every strange thing in the park comes from Helix laboratories. Survivors occasionally encounter a bizarre figure known only as Rock—a hyper-muscular talking bee obsessed with shouting “MUSCLE” at every possible opportunity. Most groups dismiss him as insane until they realize he understands far more about the park than he should. One moment he acts like a reckless coach forcing terrified children to become stronger, and the next he casually references erased facilities, failed experiments, or “previous attempts” that nobody else remembers. Near the edges of abandoned Helix sectors, Rock sometimes becomes unusually quiet, staring into empty space before muttering warnings that sound less like jokes and more like genuine fear. HE IS WATCHING YOUR EVERY MOVE...

No politics of any kind: right, left, sexuality, real world religions, excessive feminism/whatever etc not allowed, if you have a need to make a fuss about that, you will be kicked out. It's perfectly fine to have those views, but don't bring them to the game (this is meant to be fun, social, intellectually challenging). If you have major psych problems that get in the way of simple social interaction (explosive outbursts etc) don't contact me. I do ask for telephone number just in case of you not showing up to game and you didn't tell me otherwise. Emergency stuff, like if you get sick or something. I do care about my players! 1 Give me warning 24 hours before the game if you are gonna cancel. I need the time to tell the others and cancel the game if I don't have enough people to play. This is non negotiable! 2 Play well with others. If you are too disruptive, I will boot you after several warnings. 3 Take a different role each new campaign. Try new things! 4 You have to show up to play 75% of the time. If you cancel too many times, there's no point to having you in the group. 5 Sometimes you will be required to take a role you don't really want because the rest of the group made their picks already, this is meant to help the group have versatility. If this happens, the next campaign I will make sure you get first pick as to your role/class. 6 If you have to make sacrifices for the group, like blowing feats on item crafting etc, I will try to send good things your way. Teamwork is important. I have been GMing since 1997 or so, cut my gaming teeth on AD&D first ed. I go above and beyond for my players. I am very adept at teaching, btw. This campaign is on Mondays at 6pm Central time Discord video chat, but we could change time/day if the other players are willing and able. Set in Chicago, I've added abilities to the NPCs to support their discipline powers, and set the whole timeline from Chicago 1 to 2 and beyond more gradually, changed who lives. Note that I have changed some of the clans a bit, like switched Gangrel(Sabbat) and City Gangrel (Camarilla), turned certain Brujah into True Brujah, a Ventrue into a Nosferatu, that sort of thing. Vampire has characters that are difficult to create without my assistance if you don't know how the numbers and discipline powers work (you distribute dots, there are no classes). However the game play dice mechanics/rules are easy as heck. The hard part is that it demands more forethought to play, because there's a lot of deceptive NPCs, including your own. It is oddly more ethical/moral than medieval fantasy games by far, even though you don't play a hero normally, and even though you're a vampire feeding on humans and aren't human yourself. It's darker I suppose, lots of intrigue and figuring out what is really going on. Kinda like watching Babylon 5 or Dune, you have to take notes to recall everything that could be vital later. A LOT less combat than medieval fantasy games! It's rare, but nasty when it does occur. Maturity is advised. Note that I broke my campaign down in a timeline, it can be altered by PC actions, even down to the year and month.  VERY DETAILED homebrew campaign that can be changed given PC choices. RIght now they are in late 1990 somewhere between Oct and December, you will get the PC's average xp to start with, along with a host of extra little benefits outside what the creation rules normally grant. You dictate the parameters, I figure out how to make the mechanics do what you want and tell you about potential problems, and I pick out flaws so as to give you your own story arc. Its also a great way to get rid of problem NPCs. The Dark Fate flaw is reserved for anyone meeting their end during Gehenna, the end of the world. See, the Antediluvians rise, and they are hungry for their clan members.... That doesn't mean you can't play, you can still run other characters even after your main one croaks. Official list of clans/bloodlines you can take in Chicago compatible with the group as it is: Nosferatu (must take Dark Fate flaw), Toreador, Ventrue, Brujah, Gangrel (Sabbat), Malkavian, City Gangrel (Camarilla), Tzimisce (must take the Dark Fate flaw), Gargoyle, Caitiff (Anarch typically), Assamite (Milwaukee Sabbat), True Brujah. Obscure list (you can take them if you want, but you won't have support from fellow clan members in Chicago): Daughter of Cacophony, Nagarajah, Salubri (Warrior and very Camarilla), Lamia.  Got a Cappadocian (a hospital morgue doctor and a necromancer), Salubri (one Healer(an FBI agent), one Watcher (a homicide Chicago police detective), and Lasombra (an amateur boxer and criminal lawyer, he wants to go Camarilla). We have a Tzimisce plastic surgeon and medieval weapon enthusiast who sometimes does stunt work for Hollywood, the player is starting Monday Aug 31st. I have set up each pc to have fast growth, to have really good rolls for their disciplines right away. The party could use a member that has Celerity (this requires high Wits) as clan, or possibly Temporis, Thaumaturgy. Luckily there's a 5 point merit that allows anyone to buy clan xp rates, hint hint. You gotta also pay for mentor ratings since you need a teacher to increase your disciplines outside of Celerity, Fortitude, Potence. BTW, I made these 3 powers much easier to use, and less vitae expensive. If you pick from the obscure list, you can BUY up to 7th generation, but you blow 6 background dots to pull it off.  Caitiff are interesting, I made them able to teach ANY discipline they learn; normally the 13 clans can only teach their clan disciplines. A Tremere is possible, but you'd need to be a diehard Anarch (meaning the local Tremere want your keister dead, although good news for you that the Chicago ones are less than competent). If you don't know the clans, I can give you information but you will need the V20 core rulebook (learning the setting and abilities but not the disciplines), the dark ages core rulebook (mostly just for the super powers/disciplines), tome of secrets (all forms of vampire magic, even Obtenebration), and Erciyes Fragments (this will feature heavily in the campaign, its the Vampire bible of sorts including prophecies) books. Also a total of 20 d10's, basically two matched sets of 10 d10's, but the 2 sets cannot match each other. Preferably translucent dice, not solid. Chuck out any that have bubbles inside. Game always starts at 6pm central Mondays. The Guide to the Camarilla from the Revised edition might be handy, but not strictly necessary. Prince's Primer is nice for understanding elder vampires' mindset. They are very manipulative, and deceptive. This is a copy of an update I gave to a player that missed a session: Both Michael Payne Toreador and Son of the Malkavians are dead, and Jay found another body in the basement, this time of a dead boy, a formerly months old vampire Caitiff. His name was Neon, and Damien of the Brujah (one of 2 anarch leaders was caring/teaching for Neon) Damien will have to be told. Neon was chained via manacles to the basement floor in Son's Skokie residence, his throat ripped out and his face gnawed upon. Evidence was found that Son was blackmailing Horatio Ballard into insane and demeaning acts. You could get a major boon from Ballard using this, or use it against him in other ways. (the players gave this information to the Nosferatu, who now owe them big time)  Ballard apparently has been naughty. Michael accidentally killed Son, and Michael is dead thanks to the party knocking him into torpor, and the elders ending him. recall, Michael was suicidal, and homicidal after the party ended his ex wife. plus had a rep for being a thug who used to cause chaos your character Salubri Healer just rescued the young couple that Son was psychologically torturing, and you shot Michael (bashing damage, just reduced him to torpor) as he tried to use Ben the Cappadocian as a shield