Idea for an Advanced RP Thread: Space Station 13
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Entry posted by Hazard Time
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Considering it's late at night and my anxiety is spiking from a combination of homework and politics, I thought I'd channel my energy into a more constructive creative outlet and outline an idea I've been bouncing around in my head. Unfortunately, I don't think it'll ever become a thing as I simply don't have the time or energy to GM a thread, but I still think it's an idea worth sharing.
As the title of this blog post would have hinted, this RP I have planned is based off of a very underrated round-based sandbox game called Space Station 13. What is Space Station 13, and what would it look like with ponies? Well...
Imagine that it's the distant future, and Equestria has colonized the stars. Corporations rule and fight over the galaxy, and all is what you would expect in a generic far-flung future science fiction setting. At the edge of pony controlled space, far away from the prying eyes of any princess, is Space Station 13, owned and operated by the Nanotrasen corporation.
Space Station 13 is a state-of-the-art research vessel that is (almost) entirely self-sufficient. Food is grown on board in the Hydroponics bay, resources are mined from the mineral-rich asteroid that the station orbits, and energy is collected from the carefully maintained singularity core and auxiliary solar panels. Before I get too ahead of myself and marvel over the station for several paragraphs, I should focus on the actual life: the crew members! For convenience's sake, instead of exhaustively listing out all the jobs and how they work, I'll simply be listing out the departments and their prime duties. My intention is to try and give as much room to creativity as I can with this RP, so a prospective player would simply just select a department and develop a role that their character would play in it:
Engineering
Arguably the most important department on the whole station, Engineering is directly responsible for ensuring the habitability of the station through maintaining power, hull integrity, and atmospherics (and could easily hold the entire station hostage if their demands for free pizza aren't met). At the heart of the department is the most likely cause of the station's future destruction: the singularity core. Literally a miniature (well, relatively small) black hole, it is kept penned within an energy barrier and bombarded by a particle accelerator. The result is a release of high-intensity radiation that is then collected and converted into power for the station. Special care must be taken to ensure that the energy barrier stays up and the singularity does not grow too large. In the event of a containment breach, Nanotrasen advises that all Engineering staff jump into the singularity as soon as possible, as any survivors will be lined up against the nearest wall upon arrival back at corporate headquarters.
Science
Unlike Engineering, the Science department is utterly pointless except for the fact that it is the entire point of the station. Eggheads hunch over their desks, performing experiments and expanding the cumulative knowledge of equines everywhere. What they do in there, not even Celestia knows, leading to quite a few paranoid theories from other crew-members: Stories abound of breeding strange, globular creatures with a penchant for glomping every living thing to death; ten foot tall suits of magical power armor with drills powerful enough to bore through half their height of solid rock in seconds; and even rumors of contact with other planes of existence! Of course, all of this is denied and everypony is kindly told to mind their own damn business and get back to work.
Medical
Murphy's General Law of Reality states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. In the event that something does go wrong and somepony gets hurt, the highly-trained medical staff are ready and available to handle anything that can come through those double doors. Fully equipped with state-of-the-art technology, internal damage can be sniffed out in a heartbeat and surgery takes no more than a few minutes. Should the cold bleakness of space get the better of you, there are also full-time psychiatrists and counselors on board ready to help you face any fears or neuroses you may have developed. Finally, in the event of an introduction of a pathogen aboard the station, there is also a microbiologist with enough equipment to create a vaccine and discern a cure in enough time to save (most of) the crew!
Security
In space, no one can hear you scream. Good thing you're on board Space Station 13, then, which is staffed by a fully armed security force! With as much money as Nanotrasen sank into this station, there are quite a few organizations with a vested interest in seeing it explode. Rogue changelings, saboteurs and strike teams from Nanotrasen's rivals, Nightmare Moon cultists, and hostile alien life forms are but a few things that the security team has to worry about each time they make their rounds. However, while they may say their prime directive is to Serve and Protect the crew, the station is much less replaceable than a few ponies. The contract each pony had to sign before they were allowed aboard may have given some leeway in having opinions that contradict the official narrative, but open sedition will not be tolerated. For those who would pose a threat to the general harmony of the crew and the station, there is a cold cell in the brig for waiting them.
Civilian
If Engineering is the heart of the station, and Science is the brain, and Medical is the...spleen, and Security is the...hell if I know, the point is that Civilians are the backbone of life aboard Space Station 13. The Civilian department includes all of the background roles that make civilized life possible for everypony else: Farmers to grow food, cooks to make it look appetizing, bartenders and musicians to provide entertainment, janitors to clean up the piles of puke left by the ponies the bartender got drunk, clowns to **** with everypony, and so on.
Logistics
Probably the smallest department on the station, Logistics is no less important. Their sole purpose is ensuring that every department gets what they need as soon as possible, whether that be resources, materials, or components ordered straight from Nanotrasen. For example, if Science places an order for more Uranium, the mining team is notified and Uranium is prioritized in the mining efforts aboard the neighboring asteroid. Another example would be if Medical asked for more surgical equipment to be ordered after somepony broke into the medbay and stole everything sharp that wasn't nailed down. Security is still working on the case, but they found a bike horn amongst the broken glass, so that narrows things down considerably.
Command
All of these ponies running around need direction, and that's where Command comes in. This department consists of the highest authority on the station, the Captain, and his/her advisors, the Heads of Staff of each department: the Chief Engineer, Chief Medical Officer, Research Director, Head of Personnel, Quartermaster and Head of Security. Each of the Heads of Staff have but one job, and that is to ensure that everyone in their department is doing their jobs, and their word is final.
AI
Space Station 13 is big. Like, really big. In previous Nanotrasen research stations, it has been proven time and again that more is needed to ensure the smooth operation of the ever more complicated technology employed. As such, Space Station 13 will be the first to have a fully functional AI with control over all of the basic systems. In addition, the AI also has under its command a cadre of specialized cyborgs able to fill a role in any department in the event of a loss of staff or hazardous conditions too dangerous for equines.
It is my intention to fill all the Command and AI roles so as to maintain control over the RP, but there's no need to fret about this possibly causing stagnation! During each in-game day (which will be arbitrarily decided), a new event will create a problem that the crew has to solve in one way or another. Steps will be taken to ensure that it is the crew members and not the Heads of Staff that play the largest roles in preserving the station.
Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better now, so I think I'm going to head off to bed. Feel free to comment with further ideas or suggestions down below! As I said before, I don't think I'll ever make this thread any time soon as it would involve way more commitment than I'm able to give at the moment, but a man can dream, can't he? 
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