The aliens the truth RPG is a simple forum RPG that is heavily god-modded(Net-slang for regulated) but with a simple set up compared to the standard h2g2 RPG, so that the plot is both simple to follow and that there is a large degree of unknown about where the plot is going. It's as though the player knows about as much as the character they inhabit.

The RPG began on the 21st April 2006 after a registration period of only 72 hours. In this short time only four members of the forum joined, the forum RPG has since grown, it has had patches where there were only two activate players. Luckly more joined and thus the RPG survives to this day.

The Rules

Updates

There is one turn per day unless one of the players asks for a temperory suspension. On rare occasions it may increase to two updates a day.

More than one move

Normally there should be one move per day. However it should be known that:

• It is possible to make multimoves, where players can list their characters orders in one post which will be played one move per turn until they run out of moves.
• If players post more than one seperate move, a contridicting move, the last move will be the one that is taken into consideration.
• If characters become inactive, they can be controlled by other players (as long as the moves don't contridict). If a character is inactive throught the stage. The character is killed and experience points lost.
• If people say 'fire' without saying specifically what they are 'firing', the last attack they used will be repeated.

The Exclusive club

Because of the long term nature of RPG, we have a 'black tie policy' when it comes to those who join. Members must:

• Have at least twenty five posts
• Must be members for at least week

Character customisation

When new characters are created, the players are asked to give their characters:

• Name
• Species/Race
• Caste
• Clothes

Species

Individual species have advantages and disadvantages:

• Human/Terran- A nice all rounded species. There is no definite advantages or disadvantages for the mammals.
• Reptoids - Ideal warriors, there scaly skin and strong bones give them a 50% hit point advantage. There cold blood means they have a 50% environmental tollerence penality. They suffer a bad impression because of their aggressive nature and they have the unique ability of being able to see on the infa-red spectrum.
• Greys - Ideal psions, since they have a +100% fatigue and +100% psionic attack power. However because of degrading genetic stock, they have a 25% hit point penality and suffer a poor impression.
• Cyborgs- Each cyborg is different depending on how they have been augmented. Minimal enhancement will have stats close to their original species whereas the full conversion can see hugely inflated stats.

Caste

Castes are fundemental principle to the game, they affect what abilities you have and will have later on. It isn't as much 'rock, paper, scissors' but the the positives and negatives of each caste slot together. The ability to choose abilities as you level up means that you can customise your character to either work with your strengths or repair your weaknesses.

Warriors have a high attack but low defence

Strategists have a high energy threshold but low attack

Psions have a high defence but low energy threshold

There is more information on the castes later on.

The characters¹

Here is a list of the players:

Telepath Wannabe

He is a human psion who wears black pants, grey t-shirt and black robe with hood. He is heavily a-moral character who will only kill as a last option or when he really needs to, he will tend to use the power of words more than the power of his psiball. He began developing his psionic abilities with the use of the internet.

• Enviromental tollerence -1 (from clothes)
• Impression +1 (from clothes)

Fireemblem

He is a half-Drako half-human psion who wears black jeans, a red long sleeved shirt and a black sweatbands on wrists. Fireemblem is a shoot first ask questions later kind of guy, he is a half-alien which makes him a ridicule on Earth which is why he spent so much time away from humans. He longs to return to home planet and hopefully joining the aliensthetruth team will get him to his goal. Despite him being a strong and versatile character because of his reptilian nature he tries not to stay active for long periods of time, the slightest environmental change could make him become out of breath.

• Hit points +50% (from species)
• Environmental tollerence -2 (from clothes) -50% (from species)
• Impression +1 (from clothes) -10 (from species)
• Fatigue +1 (from clothes) +50% (from species)
• Special ability: Infra-red viewing (from species)

Tool

Tool is a human psion with nordic roots who wears a white robe and mysterious armour underneath. He is a late edition of the group but neither-the-less he is a strong backbone. Having been killed and brought back to life by unknown methods, Tool hopes to search for how he was brought back to life and for what purpose.

• Hit points +10% (from clothes)
• Fatigue -1 (from clothes)
• Special ability: Divine spirtuality (from haggling with host)

Invader Veex

Invader Veex is a grey psion who was sucondered by his race to help the aliensthetruth group. Being quite young, he has not fully developed his psionic abilities compared to the standard of the rest of his race. He plans to develop his abilities alongside his human comrades.

• Hit points -25% (from species)
• Environmental tollerence +50% (from species)
• Fatigue +100% (from species)

Lorelei

Joined on date: 12 June 2006
Controlled by _-X-_Norma-x-Jean_-X-_

Lorelei is a biologically-enhanced and cybernetically-augmented human strategist.

• Hit points: +10% (from species)
• Defence vs. warrior: +50% (from clothes)
• Accuracy: +50% (from species)
• Environmental tollerence: -10% (from species) +1 (from clothes)
• Impression: +1 (from clothes)

Deceased Players

Blood Trik'

Joined on date: 30 April 2006

Date of Death: Unknown

Cause of Death: Inactivity

He was a human strategist with African roots who wears blue jeans, white t-shirt and bling around his neck. Contridictary to his repretation he is a good moral character who assist the group of psions on their quest. He was the only one of the group to use strategy to defeat his foes rather than psionic abilities. The bling around his neck gave him a good impression when he encounters alien species.

He was killed when assaulting the SWAT team who were raiding the Los Alamos Research Laboratory in capture the aliensthetruth team. He used tear gas grenades however the SWAT team were wearing night goggles and they shot him. He retreated before the SWAT fired at a gas mainpipe, due to a communication mix up they believed the gas was cut off hwoever it was'nt and it was matter a time before the building exploded. Blood Trik' was killed in the explosion.

• Impression +5 (from bling)

Crypto

Joined on 25th July 2006

Date of Death: Unknown

Cause of Death: Inactivity

Crypto was a human and was training to join the Aliensthetruth group. He was the first warrior to apply to join the group and was fully intent on getting his first kill. Little was known about him.

• Environmnetal tollerence -5 (from clothes)
• Advantage vs. warrior +50% (from clothes)

Non Playable Characters

Mauritania

Mauritania is the communications and odd-job man. Increadibly resourceful and knolwedgable, it's almost that he knows in advance what is going to happen. Thus someone as important as this you don't want on the front line so he tends to hang about their transport with the engine on incase they need a quick getaway.

Lt. John Cliché

This is a man with a vendetta. He comes from a family with a strong military background, ever since Telepath Wannabe killed his brother in Area 51 he has been using the full resources of the US Army to hunt him down to avenge his brother's death.

Commander X

He was formally the commander of the Military wing of the Los Alamos Research Laboratory. He assisted the Aliensthetruth group when the world was coming into to get them. He joined the Aliensthetruth group as a American military expert but the reason why he joined remains a mystery and refuses to tell his name.

Cute Little Alien

After being liberated from Area 51 by the Aliensthetruth team, Cute Little Alien has been encouraging a greater relation between her species and the team. She seems to have her own mothership and is willing to trust the team with the resources therein.

The mission²

They hope to one day expose extra-terrestial intellegence to the world and unlock the conspiracy that surrounds it. They have no wish to expose their alien friends to a media and possibly military frenzy, so they are looking for away to make contact with alien lifeforms in a more social friendly environment.

Each character also has a personal objective in the game which they will need to unlock. They will receive a load of experience points, truth points and a special ability only their character can use when they have completed it.

The stages³

Stage 1: Area 51

After discovering that Area 51 was a facard the aliensthetruth team went to investiagate what the infamous groom-lake facility was all about. They found a small bunker under an Abandoned hanger inside which contained more mysteries than answers.

They split up to investiage the bunker, they soon discovered a hive of grey incubators and incredable evidence to alien existence. A fire spread and Telepath Wannabe freed the greys who quickly contacted a nearby ship to rescue them.

Blood Trik' discovered a UFO but several parts were missing making extremly dangerous to fly and a mysterious reptilian creature who was attempting to steal it. Blood Trik' subdued the reptile and with help from Telepath from the contol room brought the UFO upto the surface.

Fireemblem was also at Area 51 however he got shot at several times, nearly died twice and did'nt discover anything useful. All in all a bad day for him.

Stage 2: Los Alamos Research Institute

Following a paper trail in Area 51, the aliensthetruth crew go to Los Alamos in the hope of retrieving the missing parts of their UFO.They go in undercover however it is not long before the security alarms start sounding.

When the entered the military technology research block meeting heavy resistance however they overcame it in the nick of time. They discovered the remaining sub-meson brain in the hands of Lt. John Cliché he dropped when he tried to kill Telepath again and forgot about it when he retreated. Tool discovered the commander and an Objective Force Warrior, a type of fighting robot. Telepath discovered the Conditioning Unit in the Commander's Office with the help of the Commander.

They all met up to escape to the roof as the Aliensthetruth had been destroyed as the military finally moved in. With the help of Tool's psibeam and an alien laser weapon given to Mauritania they cut a hole through the concrete onto the roof and boareded the aliensthetruth helicopter.

Stage 3: Cheyanne Mountain Complex

The aliensthetruth group arrive at Cheyannne Mountain hoping to disable the Space borne tracking radar so that they can escape in their UFO into the depths of space.

They decided as the guarrison was too strong to fight that they would allow themselves to be captured. Tool disguised himself as the only surviving guard. The following is what happened next described by Telepath Wannabe:

"We where taken by trucks, through the mountain, to a near-by air-force base. While between the mountain and the base, me and Fire-Emblem fled our prisoner/troop transport, and started doing guerila attacks on the military units through the forest. Veex didn't. Tool was driven all the way to the base infirmary, from which he left to an office of one of the officers. FireEmblem and I climbed to the top of the mountain, where I left him firing psi-beams at the base. Around this time, Tool had shot the officer, caused the military to attack him, and thus got the distraction he needed to flee and blend in with the military again, this time right next to the main sencor dish. Meanwhile, I had gotten one of the troop/prisoner transports, gotten in, and drove it to the base. Seeing the large sensor dish, and Tool next to it, I drove the truck into the barbwire fence and the sand-bags guarding it. After alot more time then was neccessary (We both got a couple of kills - and EXP - though, so all's good) he planted C4, which he stole from the base, on the support of the sensor dish. Boom. The dish collapsed, we got into one of the near-by trucks with a missle launcher, and drove towards the mountain. We had a little encounter with some apparently hostile Reptoids. They withdrew with no explanation, though, and we drove to the mountain. Climbed said mountain, and got picked up by Mauritania with the UFO."- Telepath's battle report

Stage 4: The Iummo System

The team leave Earth and after meeting up with Veex, who had been rescued from the military by his own people, they head for the grey homeworld Ummo, in the Iummo System. When they arrive they discover the system is being invaded by the reptoids.

They meet up with Cute Little Alien who is in the percession of a mothership. The mothership can apply an energy field which when applied to a psion can amplify their psionic powers. The team use this technology in help the greys to thrwat the invasion.

But what will happen next? Will Ummo fall? What will this mean for the team or indeed their universe?

The stats bar⁴

This is one example of the status bar for a standard lvl1 human psion:

[HP 10 (10) | Fat 10 (10) | EI 40 | I 0 | Shield (Off)]

'HP' stands for Hit Points which, as is used in most games, to represent how much a forfiet a player has before he/she/it is killed. The enemy can remove HP by attacking the player. The first number on the stats bar shows the current level of Hit Points and the number in brackets represent the maximum level of Hit Points.

'Fat' stands for Fatigue which is the energy level used by the psion when they use certain abilities. For example one psiball uses one 'amount' of fatigue and one impact of on a psishield costs one 'amount' of fatigue. If a psions fatigue reaches zero, the psion will faint (unable to move until revived by another player).

'Ammo' stands for Ammunition which is the energy level used by warriors which is only used when firing a weapon. Other abilities have no penality. If a warriors ammunition reaches zero, the warrior is unable to attack until they resupply.

'EI' stands for Environmental Tollerence. This is the level the character recieves no disadvantages for being in their environment. Each 'scene' has it's own environment tollerence value and if this value is higher than the characters tolerence value then the character recieves damage, either 'energy' damage or 'hit points' damage. A scenes environmental tollerence can alter by events such as fire or an environmental manipulation attack.

'I' stands for Impression, this is an index of the amount of 'welcome' a character has when they enter a room. Characters with a positive impression will receive a more talkative reception while characters with a negative impression will tend to be shot at when they walk through the door.

'Shield' lets the player know whether their psion has their psishield is on or not.

'Fol' lets the player know how many followers are accompanying their strategist.

'-Man' lets the player know whether their psion is using anti-manipulation techniques.

Caste abilities⁵

There are ten different ability paths for each caste they can choose from which will be gradually unlocked until they reach lvl5, following a specific path will allow their character to a have a stength in a particular field and weaknesses in others. They can alternate down different paths and have a well rounded base with no strengths or weaknesses.

The following is the ten linear ability paths for each caste. The table further down discloses information on the individual abilities. Please note not all abilities are included only the ones that have been unlocked by the players.

Warriors - Those who use brute force to reach their objectives⁶

Revolvers [including alien mass driver weaponary] -These are basic handheld weapons which shoot bullets at targets. This ability paths increases the attack power of the revolver. When on alien worlds revolvers are replaced by mass drivers.

Evasion - These moves help the character avoid being hit by the enemy however they are unable to fire back while evading.

Machine Guns [including alien beam weaponary] - These weapons have a high ammo useage and can cause a lot of damage on a mass of units. They don't have to be targeted.

Ammo storage - Allows the character to carry more ammunition, these abilities are passive.

Missile launchers [includes alien missile launchers] - Allows the character to score a lot of damage for little ammo. They tend to be wildly inaccurate, so unless it's something big, there is a high chance it will miss.

Medical equipment - Allows the character to heal himself and others.

Body Plate - Techniques which decrease the amount of damage a warrior recieves. The body plates fits snuggly underneath the warriors normal clothes and other personalised armour.

Anti-aircraft weapons - Weapons which have a advantage vs. aircraft and maybe flying psions?

Vehicles - Equipment which helps the warrior get around and may offer armour.

Bombs - Explosives which can cause a severe damage to the enemy and the environment.

Strategists - Those who use cunning to outwit opponents⁷

Knives

Grenades A strategist can use grenades to disable or damage a large number of opponents. These make up for the lack of attack by their basic attack.

Partisan These weapons are specialised in the ability of picking one man out of a crowd. They are the perfect anti-stragetist weapons.

Environmental assistance - Abilities which increase environmental tollerence.

Medical trainning - Heals self and others.

Followers - An army of soldiers who follow the strategist and abilities to increase their power

Anti-followers - Devices which kill other strategist followers

Anti-manipulation - Abilities which prevent the user being manipulated by psions

Bombardment - Abilities which can kill vast numbers of people or generally wreck the place.

Affairs of state - Abilities which unleash infinite resources at your disposal.

Psions - those who use the power of thought to manipulate their environment⁸

The psions form the main body of the group with 80% of the main characters using the power of thought to reach their goals.

Meditation - This is a plot device so that psions can quickly recharge fatigue by 3 (+ 1 per experience lvl). They can only meditate when they are not outsourcing fatigue to another ability such as psishields or flight. Meditiation only lasts one turn.

Psiballs - Their basic attack, a psion can craft a ball of their energy which can be unleashed on their enemies. The psiball path allows them to upgrade the power, number and accuracy of these balls. Abilities:

Psishield - The first line of defence for a psion, a psion can use their energy to throw up a barrier around them to protect them from bullets and the like. The only problem is psishields absorb energy with every impact so they should only be used as a temperory measure. The psishield path allows them to upgrade the efficientcy, and range.

Psibeam - An anti-psihshield attack. A psion can craft their psiball into a long beam of energy designed to 'drill' through an enemy psishield. Ofcourse it would not be as powerful as a psiball since some of the energy is still abosorbed by the psishield however it is guarnteed to have a better chance of success than a psiball. The psibeam path will upgrade the power, range and accuracy of the psibeam.

Healing - The healing abilities. A psion can use the energy of other objects to absorb into their own and others. The manuipulation of tissue means that psion healing abilities are greater than that of the other castes. The healing path increases the rate of HP recovered and decreases the amount energy used in the healing process.

Life manipulation - Abilities which can manipulate the thoughts of others. Psions have developed strong minds because of their abilities and so this ability path involves methods of subjecating other weaker minds. Everything from seeing what other people see to complete mental assimalation and controlling enemies every move comes under this catergory.

Anti-manipulation - Abilities which prevent the user being manipulated. Because of these strong minded psions, other psions have developed measures to prevent them from getting inside their heads. Everything from subtle hits of manipulation to total blocking of other minds comes into this catergoy.

Object manipulation - Abilities which allow the psions to interact with objects. Psions will occasionally come across objects which can't be lifted, so this catergory will help psions move stuff around.

Logistics - Abilities which make getting around easier. Psions will occasionally find blocked paths or get lost. The abilities in this catergory will help those weary travellers. Everything from walking on water to multi-dimensional teleportation is covered in this ability path.

Environmental assistance - Abilities which increase environmental tollerence. Psions are still flesh and blood (for the minute anyway) and the universe is a hostile place. The abilities in this catergory help psions survive even the harshest environments from smoke filled darkened rooms to gas-giants and the cold darkness of space.

'Environmental' manipulation- Abilities which can kill multiple targets and generally wreck the place. The most destructive abilities for psions are found in the category and are much more powerful than the flimsy psiballs. But bewarned these abilities do not distinguish between friend or foe and you could find yourself blown up by your own petard.

Ability table

Game attributes

This describes the probability relative to accuracy.

Close range 0-5m (less than room sized): 1/1 for small target. 1/1 for medium target. Large target 1/1.

Short range 5-10m (across the room): 6/1 for small target. 1/1 for medium target. Large target 1/1.

Medium range 10-40m (Through two different rooms or across a very long room): 12/1 for small target, 2/1 for medium target. Large target 1/1

Long range 40-100m (Across a building): 18/1 for small target, 4/1 for medium target. Large target 2/1

Artillery range 100m+ (Across the other side of a map): 24/1 for small target 8/1 for medium target. Large target 2/1.