The Glorious Stars Playtest

[gstano]

Tyrel,

Thanks for the detailed run-down. The various system stats and how they work and interact are not yet intuitive to myself. Seeing your description here helps show how things could evolve with not just this system, but others as well.

[nimrodd]

House Trask
Head: Prince Lucus Trask
Grand Senator: Baron Nikkolay Trask
Homeworld: Lacerta

House Trask led the settlement of one of the early worlds in the great diaspora from Mother Earth. It was a hard existence in the early days, leading to the current attitude of the inhabitants of Lacerta, who won't back down from a challenge. They are always looking to find ways to advance themselves, and believe that they are among the best of the New Earth Alliance. Everyone looks to find ways to better their station in life, whether that is in the military or in the government.

[Tyrel Lohr]

In my games of VBAM I've found that RAW 3+ systems are generally very useful because of their economic and industrial utility. RAW 5+ are in the "Give me the system. Now." category, and you're going to end up seeing wars of control over them. BIO 2+ are good for making sure you're at least food neutral, but they don't really become amazing until about BIO 4+ where you can be sure to generate enough food per Productivity to feed at least 2 Census, which even without the commerce income bonus discussed in the email thread is a very nice ability.

Carrying Capacity is the most nebulous of the three stats, mostly be it acts as a multiplier for the other two resources. High CAP plus high RAW/BIO means the system is extremely valuable, whereas Low CAP and high RAW/BIO is less optimal, but still good.

There were reasons in previous versions of the rules for players to want to have lots of Census in a system, but most of those concepts have filtered out of the rules over the last two or three revisions. Now it's back to mainly being tied to being able to operate more Productivity and giving you the best population growth.

Referring back to Epsilon Indi, I think it's most useful to a player as a major system that can be used as a jumping off point to feed future expansion down that star chain. Specifically, Once you get to 8-9 Census in the system you're going to be getting about 1 Census per campaign year (or, if the max Census, a free colony fleet). That is going to add up pretty fast and let you fuel your growth.

[nj_thrawn]

If you are still taking any play-testers.

House Darwin

Ruled over by the technocratic Council of the Ubermensch and the Philosopher Lord, the twin worlds of Nietzsche and Darwin are called home by the followers of the Eugenicist movement. In itself a misnomer, House Darwin is neither a family surname nor a title with pretenses of nobility. Rather a convenient moniker for people with smaller minds and more limited vocabularies to call upon in the halls of their lords.

The Eugenicists set forth to the far edges of known space during the early days of the Hegemony. An odd collection of extraordinarily gifted athletes and brilliant intellectuals, who felt alienated among their comparatively less talented peers. They held the mediocrity and complacency of their fellow men in contempt, feeling isolated by their own success. That loneliness and drive towards perfection prompted them to reach out to one another so that they might create a society founded upon shared principles. Financed primarily by the Khan, Bill and Melinda Gates-Noonien-Singh foundation, they departed Earth and the core worlds for the edge of known space in search of perfection.

This group holds true the tenants of Darwin's theory of evolution and Nietzsche's concept of the Ubermensch. Through genetic engineering, strict selective breeding, intensive and extensive education and physical training; a superior man may emerge. By removing the impediments to perfection, a truly utopian state of mental and corporeal perfection is possible. Traditional human failings such as poverty, inegalitarianim, crime and disease have been overcome. Crime in any definition is non-existent, with such negative traits genetically eliminated long ago. Moreover as all crimes carry an equally severe penalty of death, the perpetrator's genetically inferior stock is eliminated. Disease and poverty do not exist in any form, via advanced bio-medical technologies, an egalitarian distribution of necessary resources, and restrictions of unnecessary wealth.

All individuals are given a rating based on their own performance and the quality of their genetic stock. Should someone fail or be out-competed, than their ranking falls commensurate to that failure. Ones lot in life is quantitatively and qualitatively tied to their success and that of their ancestors. The top rated 1% of the population, or the Ubermensch rule the remaining 99% by the grace of their accomplishments and ability. The Philosopher Lord being the most perfect individual in Darwinian society, quite literally the perfect man. The current Philosopher King, Khan Bill Gates-Singh has ruled and guided the concept of perfection for House Darwin with the Ubermensch for the last 50 years. This is unheard of, as any mistake for a Philosopher Lord might be their last. If their ranking falls below that of another, they lose the legitimacy to govern and guide perfection. Should someones ranking fall below mediocrity at 51%, they are chemically castrated and relegated to what necessary menial and demeaning positions still exist in Darwinian society. Upward mobility and reversal of castration occur through positive modifications to ones score.

The planets Nietzsche and Darwin were chosen for their inhospitable biospheres, Darwin as a challenge for the mind to solve and tackle via multi-generational terraforming. Nietzsche as a physical challenge for Darwinians to overcome. All Darwinian youths between the ages of 12-26 are temporarily chemically castrated and attend school and battling for their lives, and subsequently their scores, against the environment and each other. (Out of Role: In an experience reminiscent to the Hunger Games or Battle Royale). The only time in a Darwinians life where crimes are not persecuted, only the strong and cunning survive. Serving to thin out the herd and those unsuitable for the pursuit of perfection. This harsh experience leaves an impact on all Darwinians, ingraining the desire to succeed and providing a positive evolutionary pressure.

[nimrodd]

I am just curious, on the GS_Systems spreadsheet, column G is listed as JMP. Is this Jump Lanes? The values listed do not seem to match the map.

What is this value?

[mwaschak]

I am just curious, on the GS_Systems spreadsheet, column G is listed as JMP. Is this Jump Lanes? The values listed do not seem to match the map.

What is this value?

You can ignore that. I was storing a jump lane stat there.

-Jay

[nimrodd]

I would like to make a proposal that might make some things simpler.

Can we get a Topic set up as "Glorius Stars Notes" or somesuch name, and make it a Sticky in the Second Edition Development, or down in the Private Campaign Forums. It would be locked so only Jay could post to it.
The first post should be the listing of the current players and their contact info, which Jay could update as changes happen. Being the first post and edited, it should be easy for us to find.

The next post would be the current map, with subsequent posts being the changed maps and maybe Jay's comments on what is happening in the New Earth Empire.

This way, pertinent information to the game would be easy to find instead of having to dig through e-mail or the forums and finding old outdated info.

[mwaschak]

Yeah, this works for me.

-Jay

[virtutis.umbra]

That's an excellent idea. How about that up-to-date first post (or a similarly edited-up-to-date second post) with the player/empire list also specifying the current diplomatic agreements active in-game? It'd be like a central Assembly registry for membership and relationships, both pretty crucial for understanding the state of play.