A Solar Revolution (new campign, 1st time CM...)

Campaign Diaries & After Action Reports (AARs)
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XSiberia
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A Solar Revolution (new campign, 1st time CM...)

Post by XSiberia »

...and a crappy, totally working title, even if punny.

This post reflects a PBeM/PBF game that is coming together. I’ve got about half my players recruited and some ideas, and that’s about it. I wanted to post a bit of background that will give context to some rules questions/ideas I plan to put into the R&D forum.

INSPIRATION: The setting draws heavily on “The Algabreist” by Ian M. Banks.

GEOGRAPHY: The solar system. Our solar system, as represented by the Jovian Chronicles map.

SETTING: Far future. Faster than light travel is not conventionally possible except by the use of wormholes: wormholes that must be created and then carried to their destination at sub c speeds. Our solar system has been connected to the larger galactic community by an advanced alien species who brought a hub-connecting wormhole, as well as many advanced technologies that have allowed the human race to develop into a [dys?]topian post-scarcity society of near-immortals—but always subject to their benevolent [indifferent?] alien overlords.

Fast forward. An as-yet-undetermined (AYU) faction has successfully executed a terrorist-like attack on the wormhole gate, destroying it. The survivors can no doubt expect that a new gate is already on its way, along with some pretty pissed off galactic FBI agents—but in the meantime what to do with the power vacuum? Immigrant alien communities, native humans, pan-galactic loyalists and radical revolutionaries have an AYU number of years before the police show up to make a choice.

FACTIONS:
(1) At least one alien race has been generated by a player as xenophobic, completely alien and speaking an incomprehensible language. This will likely become the brilliant but enigmatic ‘builder’ race used by the pan-galactic uber-culture to design and build their feats of technology. This faction will simply want to survive until relief arrives . Likely my Jovian or Venusian faction.

(2) At least one faction of ‘racial nationalist’ [?] humans will want to purge the solar system of all alien species [or enslave them?]. This faction knows that it is under a hammer but will have some reason to believe that it has an alternative to wormholes for FTL travel in the not too distant future. Perhaps this faction is responsible for eliminating the wormhole.

So far (2) seems a bit clichéd, and I would like to give it more depth. I also don’t know yet what my other factions will be or what their motivations will be. I hope that as my players build their species I will be inspired, and I am open to ideas from you all.

SPECIAL RULES
Still sifting through the various expansions to decide what published rules I want to add to the core rules. Of my own dabbling:
-TRAITORS: Each faction will receive a set hand of characters with VBAM abilities tied to RP background and motivations. Some of these will be traitors to other factions, but the PC will not start out knowing who.
(1) Perhaps a faction can spend X starting resources in order to ‘buy’ additional traitors.
(2) Traitor characters will report via the CM what they are assigned to work on each turn to the faction they are secretly loyal to. This might be modified by intel maintained by the owning faction at the location where the traitor character is, intel spent by the controlling faction, and other factors.
-STRATAGEMS: I am considering implementing a sort of ‘draw deck’ that would provide a source for both ‘random events’ as well as stratagem cards to be held in hand by the player and used at the PC’s discretion to affect the game (increase readiness, affect diplomacy, etc.). I might borrow a bit from Avalon Hill’s Dune game to make this a little more interesting (potentially with PC insight into the draw deck and some sort of auction for the ‘cards’). On the other hand, stratagems may be a fixed allotment for each faction rather than random draws.
-TACTICS: I am considering rules for tactical doctrines that will allow players to each tailor fleet composition (via rarity rules borrowed from Escalation Wars), or to modify CR/CC values for specific classes of ships, or to give readiness +/- in specific encounter scenarios, vary use of lightning strike or other alternative ship dispositions in CSCR, or a combination of the above.
-CULTURE: Vague ideas here, but would like to see culture play a role in more than war weariness and recession. More to come. Inspired by my own musings on how the US military has and has not changed in the last 60 years as American culture has re-invented itself over and over again…
-SECRET OBJECTIVES: Tied to faction background/motivations.
-FTL: No non-loyalist faction can win unless it also gets FTL. Perhaps an exotic resource that must be cornered can play a part, or a certain scientific character who must be controlled/protected for a certain length of time, etc…

Just some thoughts. Any comments welcome, especially faction ideas.
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