Tweak

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Tweak says, "I feel like chicken tonight!"

back to action mods (ranger_mods) wrote,
@ 2009-05-25 23:44:00

Premise & FAQ

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Premise:
This is not your child's Power Rangers, nor is this entirely what you may recall from your childhood. While the basics were drawn from the original television show, Back To Action! is what the show would have been if it had been produced for an adult audience. There will be intense violence, heavy political plots and even - yes, of course - sexual content. The bitter wars of the past have finally ended and the Earth is finally on it's way to healing. Although the US has grown since the financial strains of the past, crime and pollution have taken over on a scale unlike any previously seen before. The streets are not safe and even with a 10:00pm curfew for all US citizens, the rate of muggings, rapes and murders has sky-rocketed. The struggles of the CGH (Council for the Good of Humanity) are not in vain however, and with the help of a few pieces of legislation, the ban on Power Rangers and their mentors is lifted in 2044. The year of 2045 marks the start of a new era for the US and government funds are immediately thrown into Project PR, the restoration and integration of Rangers into the US. The year of 2047 comes and a central training base is opened just North of Angel Grove, the original home of the Rangers. It expands quickly with the help of previous Rangers (from other countries where there were no bans or elderly Rangers from before the American ban), completed with a two year training school, full campus and communal living accommodations. The privately owned grounds are soon after opened to the youth of America in hopes that the legacy of the Rangers might be reborn. Between the CGH and the US government, a decision is made to form teams for every major city in the US, an effort that - while ambitious - is taken to heart immediately. The Project Power Ranger Academy is divided into seven color groups and applications begin to pour in from every state. The year is 2053; eight years have passed since the opening of the PPRA school and the world seems to be on it's way toward recovery. Talented new Rangers, wisened professors and eager youth are helping to carve out a better America, one city at a time. This is the start of a new era, the age of peace and the time of the modern Power Ranger. However, with every bit of light, there is an equal amount of darkness. Evil exists and will forever remain a part of the human race, and even with the millions of grateful human beings, peace is not a constant. Riots are becoming more and more common and are particularly serious in the Southern US, violent and involving the lives of thousands. Politicians are divided, some fighting for another ban to be placed on the Rangers, accusing them of trying to control the world, of dominating, of being too powerful and unnecessary. On a much more frightening level, the existence of hostile aliens and other creatures have returned to being in the public eye. The rise of Exus and Velloh have done nothing to soothe the angry politicians and citizens, rather adding fuel to the fire. The sibling aliens have taken up residence in the Moon Palace, abandoned ages ago by the villains of the past. Not much is known of these aliens aside from the very simple fact: they are not here to make peace. Which side will you choose?

Detailed Timeline:
Timeline 1993 The first team of Rangers is brought together 1994-2009 Several teams of Rangers come and go, protecting the Earth 2012 The Power Rangers are banned and dispersed, almost entirely forgotten 2016 President Beackahl is elected and manages to put the US into the most severe debt ever recorded, war erupts throughout the globe 2018 President Beackahl declares Martial Law 2019 The UN is disbanded and the US finds itself isolated 2024 The US suffers severe financial ruin 2027 VP Reise is accused of misappropriation of funds and sentenced with treason 2028 President Eberhardt is elected and initiates the CGH (Council for the Good of Humanity) 2030 The warring countries burn out, are taken over and new governments are established, some left in ruins 2031 The US continues to suffer financial crisis 2032 President Stewart is elected and an immediate plan to restore the US is enacted 2036 Stewart is re-elected and hailed as a savior, given the turn around of the country 2037-2043 The US continues to try and rebuild 2044 President Wheaton is elected, the ban on Power Rangers is lifted 2045 Project PR takes off... 2046 Exus and Velloh arrive and take over the Moon 2052 President Richard Starkson & VP Lathan Williamson is elected

Academy Information:
The Project Power Ranger Academy (PPRA) was founded in order to train select students in the disciplines and techniques needed to be a Power Ranger. All incoming applicants are only between the ages of 17 and 25, as youth are more of a viable training resource and will provide many years of active service. This rule came into existence after several years of the PPRA being a functioning establishment. They went from being desperate to being able to pick the best applicants available. Training at PPRA is a rigorous two year program involving such courses as: martial arts, yoga, tacticals, logic, personal fitness, meditation and the history of the Power Ranger. All courses are mandatory for every student in order to better educate future Rangers. Because of this, though, the training program can be very stressful. The full list of classes with descriptions and professors is HERE. The school is divided into six houses, each named after one of the original Angel Grove Rangers. A fully sentient, multi-functional automaton lives in every dorm, all modeled after Alpha 5. Additionally there are thirty extra models taking care of the school grounds and electrical systems. They are friendly and helpful and are there to help us. Each new student is given a communicator, assessed and placed into the house that best suits their strengths and weaknesses. The hope is that each house will bring out the particular strengths of each student and help to curb or guide them in any weaknesses they may possess. When a new student arrives, they are given the Ranger Placement Exam (RPE) to discover the house most likely to serve their personalities. Soon after being placed, they are sent to meditate with Professor Applegate of Meditation 101 to connect with their individual animal spirit; thus begins a long and difficult training process. Animal Spirits are vitally important to every Ranger. They dictate uniform design and Zords; they even help training Rangers discover the special power hosted by their souls, hidden until discovered and brought out. This ability does not need to correlate to the animal spirit the student possesses, and is not something the student can choose (though players may pick their power). Please check the Cast List for a list of taken powers; hopefully we will not have too many overlapping powers. As well as providing dormitory style living for the Rangers in training, the Academy also provides a comfortable and safe environment for their Professors, retired Rangers and for the brave and hard-working active Rangers. Apartments are available to all who choose to make use of them, free of expense and open to those contributing to (or who have retired from) the PPRA and the expanse of Ranger influence in the states. A cafeteria, library, full gym and fitness center, recreational rooms with televisions, pool tables and couches and a well groomed outdoor meditation area are all on school grounds and can be used by all Professors and Rangers, active or training.

FAQ!
Can I play a vampire/werewolf/elf? No. Just no. GTFO. Just kidding... but still, no. Are there Rangers from other countries? The only regulation is that your character must be an American citizen. He/she may have been born somewhere else and then moved to America later. Whatever the reason is completely up to you. Can I bring in a kid? There was one in Power Rangers Turbo. We're sorry, but no thank you on the kiddies as Rangers thing. This is an adult game, and that was ridiculous in the show; seriously, what the hell. Can my animal spirit be a mermaid/centaur/siren/sparkly vampire? No humanoid spirits, as stated in the outlines. Does that mean I can't use any mystical animals? Actually, you can use mystical animals. They will be approved on a case by case basis, and are most likely all a-okay. Things like unicorns, dragons, lochness are all fine. Does my power have to correlate to my animal spirit? No, it does not! Originally this was part of the rules, but it has since changed as it was silly. If you want to match your power to your animal, go for it! We just ended up realizing after the fact that not every animal will come with a great power. Thus the rule change. Why did you replace the Pink Ranger with a Purple one? We were worried about gender isolation (i.e. pink = girls, blue = boys) and thought that purple was more gender neutral. Hopefully we'll have all genders mixed up in all the colors! Does my character have a communicator/morpher? All Rangers in training are issued communicators upon arrival at the school. You don't get your morpher until you've connected with your animal spirit (which is literally a day after arrival), and then usage is restricted to training only until graduation. So yes! All RANGER-RELATED characters have communicators/morphers. If you are a an ex-Ranger, you still have your communicator! You may still use it for - gasp! - communication and for that ever-awesome teleportation aspect. If you are a civilian character, a villain or a professor with no Ranger background, you most likely do not have either of these things unless approved by the mods. Does my student/Ranger/Professor have a vehicle? So long as it's reasonable for your character to own a car, he may have one and use it when needed. There's a parking lot on Academy grounds. How are Ranger teams assembled? We don't want a cliquey environment, so as Ranger applications come to us, the character in question will be placed on the team that best suits him at that moment. This means that if a character comes in and there's a spot open, rather than placing him on a team by himself, there's a chance he may end up in the open spot on the team that is lacking that color Ranger. This is not always the case though. There are (and have been) a few characters that have been separated on purpose, having taken into account their attitudes in general or toward each other. The goal of the Ranger teams is for them to all get along fairly well. Despite being friends, there may still be small squabbles, but there will never be two mortal enemies on the same team. The PPRA takes into account how Rangers interact with each other when in training and so as mods, we have to be sure to try and follow those guidelines as well. As the game expands and characters are dropped and new slots open, there will be room for us to be more picky about who ends up with who. Most of the time, it will appear as though we're just plopping them onto the next open spot, but really for the most part the characters have all sounded like they would work (at least somewhat) well together. Also, we are trying to keep players from being able to bring more than one Ranger into a team at a time. So if you already have a character on Team NY, you may not have another on the same team and would have to be placed elsewhere. Doesn't that mean I won't get to play with my friends? Absolutely not! The PPRA campus is huge and all the characters in the game live there! Just because you won't be fighting with your friends doesn't mean you won't get downtime with them. Is there a Zordon-like character? No, but there IS a place on campus called the First Response Alert Center. It is staffed by four retired Rangers who take shifts watching several Viewing Globes inside the Center. As alerts of attacks or serious happenings come in, they put out an alert to all on-call Rangers. The first team to respond to the call immediately teleports away to do what is needed. Do Rangers have day jobs? As an active Ranger, you will be on call at all times. This means that holding a day job is unlikely - and unnecessary, given that the government funds every aspect of your life anyway. Rangers in training, however, may have day jobs if they so choose. They aren't making any money, though their housing and basic food needs are met by the campus. Anything extra is your problem until you've graduated, so most students usually have jobs. Can my Ranger live off campus? All characters in the game live on campus, either in the apartments or in the dorms. We've made this decision to avoid having a divided game where interacting can be a challenge, and instead created an environment where everyone can bump into anyone else. Exceptions: Villains and Civilians obviously would not live on campus grounds. Does my family know where I am? Your immediate family would know, but anyone else that asked would simply be told your character went away to a boarding school or something along the same lines. Jeopardizing your secret identity isn't a good idea, after all. Is this like the show where all the characters wear their colors? Yes, it is. ;) What are Hormone Spikes? These are basically just elevated levels of hormones in any Ranger's body. Once a character has received his/her power coin (which is upon arrival at the school), these start to happen. It becomes worse the more a Ranger uses his/her power, and after battles they are almost impossible to avoid. They can come in a variety of ways, being as simple as needing to eat more than a normal portion size to as complicated as needing immediate sexual satisfaction. Whatever the effect, if it is not taken care of it will build until it is released in a negative manner. This may mean your character can be overwhelmed by these urges! Violence, irrational thoughts and all that madness will go hand in hand with ignoring these hormone spikes. So what about retired Rangers? Do they have Hormone Spikes? Yes! If your character - at any point in time - accessed the morphing grid, he/she would have suffered hormone spikes - and still does! They are not nearly as bad as they are for active and training Rangers, though they can build up all the same. The morphing grid permanently affects the body of the Ranger that accessed it, even if for a short period of time. Can I be a descendant of a past Ranger? Absolutely. If you want to be Mary Oliver or Kendra Taylor, go for it. We don't care, so long as it's believable and so long as we don't end up with a ton of descendant characters. Everything in moderation, but if there's something you really want to do, just let us know. Do the Villains socialize? If you want them to, they can. Most Villains will actually live in The Moon Palace, so socialization is fine amongst them. The only reason a communal setting was created was to give players the options of doing SLs with their baddies as well. Okay, so are Villains actual characters or not? I'm confused. They are sort of an optional character. If you choose to be a Villain, you can be as involved as you want to be as far as socialization goes. If you want to do a plot every few months, that's fine. If you want to spend most of your time chatting with other Villains and hooking up, so be it. We really don't care what you do with your Villains because they are mostly in the game to cause problems for the Rangers. Can Villains interact with the Rangers? Yep. You can do devious plots, ruin parts of the city, send down monsters, go on a killing spree, hold hostages... Or if you like, you can talk to them face to face in disguise, learn about them and plot horrible things to do to them. So long as you look human, you can likely interact with them. How does a Villain go about executing an attack? If you have an idea for a plot/attack/whatever, just let the mods know. We'll approve or deny it after reading it over and if it's alright, we move forward from there. There will be a warning sent out to the Rangers via the First Response Alert Center (FRAC) on Academy Campus grounds. At that point the Villain can set up a thread for the confrontation, or we can handle it some other way. All of this is open to interpretation, so please contact us if you have questions or concerns. Can I be a Villain (fallen/evil) Ranger or a Vigilante (Batman style) Ranger? Regardless of whether or not you choose to be a Villain Ranger or Vigilante Ranger, the second the character walks away from the guidelines of the PPRA, they are cut off from the Morphing Grid. This means they would no longer have a power source for their Zord or for their coins. As a Villain Ranger, the character could probably hook up with/and work for an already powerful Villain who may be able to use magic or alien technology to give back some of the lost power. As a Vigilante Ranger though, the character would likely not have access to any power at all anymore. We can't imagine the PPRA would allow a Ranger to just take off with their Zord, coin, weapons and uniform and still allow them to draw power from the Morphing Grid. We're just not sure that would be likely given the nature of the PPRA. Are Rangers allowed to marry and shack up/have children? What happens to them? Falling in love and getting married are fine, so long as children aren't in the near future. If/when your couple decides to spawn, there are consequences. Even if it was an accident, these rules still apply. When a woman becomes pregnant, she is forced into retirement for the duration of it. After delivery, she is only allowed to come back to serve as a Ranger if she is married and her partner (male or female) have made the decision to care for the child full time. Otherwise if the woman is single, she is required to retire from her Ranger Team permanently. So long as she has served with the PPRA for at least five years, she will continue to be supported the same as if she had been injured and retired due to that. If, however, she has not served for five years, these are her options: She may take up a job on the PPRA grounds, acting as a Professor or some sort of Administrator/Counselor/etc. This will ensure she continues to be supported financially with a secure home. Otherwise, she will be required to relocate off the campus premises and released of her duties and ties to the Academy. Essentially we do not encourage pregnancies in the game, and it is hoped that this will not be a common happening. How do I teleport around? If you have a job, you are given a Teleportation Pass to get into town. It is given with the trust of the main office and is only to be used for the purpose of arriving on time for shifts and then to return to the campus grounds. As an Active Ranger, you have a permanent Teleportation Pass to get from the Academy grounds to whatever city you help patrol. Regardless of holding a job or being a Ranger/Professor/etc, anyone with intentions of getting to town may request a temporary Teleportation Pass in the main office building of the PPRA. All that is needed is the destination information, names of who are being teleported and the intent of the use of teleportation. Once teleportation is approved, the locations are programmed into your communicator and may be used by the wearer. How do character journals function in the game? Characters are allowed to use their journals as they please. They may post about their day, what they're thinking or the plans they're making with friends. All journals are connected through a system similar in fashion to Live Journal. All characters have sort of a "custom group" setting that is Academy specific, which simply means that only people who have access to the school grounds may access the entries. This includes anyone who works on PPRA grounds, goes to school there, lives there, teaches there, etc. Unless otherwise stated, all journal entries fall under this "locked" category and therefor concern does not need to be raised about secret identities and content. However, if one wishes to post so that their entries are "public" in character, there needs to be a label in the subject line. This also goes for posting entries that are "locked" to certain characters. A simple [locked to Daniel] or [open to public] will suffice, as long as it is stated clearly. Unless otherwise noted, all comments on said journal entries will fall under the same "locked" status as the original post indicates. What does the act of morphing do to my character's body? If you've ever seen the show, you have to be at least slightly familiar with the act of morphing. If you haven't, and even if you have, here's the exact run-down (or skinny) of what morphing entails. After a Ranger has completed his morph, he will notice immediate changes to his physical state. He will have a higher pain tolerance and ability to withstand long battles and lots of abuse. He will be stronger and lighter on his feet, quicker to leap into battle and out of it if needed. He will note any minor physical ailments fading away, momentarily "corrected" by the Grid and it's gifted powers. Things like asthma, vision problems, hand-eye coordination skills (aiding martial arts abilities) and other minor difficulties will be overcome for as long as the Ranger remains morphed. You can leap from the top of a roof to the cement ground. You can take on a hoard of men and do back-flips like nobody's business. This is Power Rangers. You're bad-ass. Not invincible, but bad-ass all the same. How do Day Changes work and why do we have them in this game? In games like this, it becomes necessary for the sake of story lines to have some control over the length of the in-character game days. Without them, too many important scenes get passed by and left incomplete. Things like monster battles and group discussions/parties get buried or abandoned in the scramble to keep up with "current events". Nobody wants to be lagging behind, playing a game day that has long since been passed. Therefor, in BTA!, there will be regular Day Change updates run by the mods. Every three-four days there will be a new time update, and one of the mods will post up the appropriate notice in warning twenty-four hours from when the actual Day Change will occur! The hope is that this way every player has the chance (if wanted) to participate with every character each game day. If you need to put up a placeholder for a scene you're working on but haven't had the chance to finish, go for it! That way when the day actually changes, you won't have lost the opportunity to post something on the appropriate day. If this does not make sense for some reason or if you're unfamiliar with the concept of day changes, please contact a moderator! We will be happy to answer any further questions. [ Note: If you feel like you still have questions, please leave them in the Drop Box for us and we'll answer them and then add them to the FAQ! ]