The Glorious Stars Playtest

[mwaschak]

As discussed Tyrel and I are rebooting the playtest now that 2e nears completion. Our intention is to create a longer game with focus on playtesting the rules currently in development from VBAM Games Inc. To that end we are starting the GS playtest. I am looking for several senior playtesters to run the great houses of the inner worlds and others to run the upstart, and possibly crazier things, on the frontier.

Background: The massive Terran Hegemony oversaw the great expansion of mankind to the stars during the first few thousand years of successful space travel. Insignificant colonies would grow to become major production worlds in the Terran Hegemony. As this government aged, it decayed. Power slipped through the fingers of the Hegemony to the families who would soon form the great houses, chief among them House Raptor who was able to secure the seat of power from the Hegemony and with it earth and its massive resources. House Raptor delegated portions under the New Earth Empire to the great houses in exchange for peace, support, and trade. Presently House Raptor sits as the key Imperial House in control of the NEE congress.

How do I join? Well, you need to decide if you want to commit to a rather long game and invest in the story to come. We want comfortable and committed players to create their houses (and less experienced and new players can take a minor house). We are going to build this story together, so be ready to chat and scheme with your fellow players. So post on the forums or email me directly and we can go over the rest.

You will need a house name, then I will assign you several random adjectives to your house and your neighbors. Once this is done Tyrel is going to start releasing bits of the final version of 2e so we can build up our navies and ground forces.

There will be real diplomacy in this game, and voting power will be based on the census you control (unless you are the Imperial House, which means your votes are worth significantly more). Remember, darker things might be lurking in deep space and always be on the watch for new houses and their ambitions. I picture this to be a very dynamic game.

[Iron Sky]

I'm down.

What all do we need to do to create our house?

[mwaschak]

First, we are going to start with a house name. After that I am going to randomly generate a few descriptive words for your house and build a relationship chart with your house and the others.

House Raptor

House Raptors fore bearers were among the first sleeper ships to leave earth and the original human settlers of Caledonia. They consider themselves to be among the most noble and advanced of the Great Houses of the NEE and when the chance to seize the reigns of power they were quick to snap at their opportunity. With payoffs to the right folk most the Imperial armed forces quickly joined House Raptor, giving House Raptor a serious edge in state of the art Hegemonic weapons including the core carrier battle groups that were key to Hegemonic control.

During the fifty years of their reign, under the notable Emperor Marcel Raptor (currently aged 117 and not looking a day over 30) House Raptor proved they were unable to keep the other Great Houses in line. Schisms and conflicts have occurred, and many question if House Raptor can maintain the prosperity and peace of the days of the Great Hegemony.

[virtutis.umbra]

Ooooh, this sounds delightful.

Count me in for a minor upstart Rim colony; I'll recycle the Phoenix Republic moniker from past 2E playtests if that's alright.

[mwaschak]

House Phoenix:

Stoic, Corporate, Philanthropic

House crests are welcome.

Ooooh, this sounds delightful.

Count me in for a minor upstart Rim colony; I'll recycle the Phoenix Republic moniker from past 2E playtests if that's alright.

[mavikfelna]

I'd like in. A minor house would be fine.

House Far Stars

A rim house of religious freedom seekers trying to bring God and temperance back to the empire.

--Mav

[mwaschak]

I like it. Also, considered to be:

Wise
Combative
Outrageous

I'd like in. A minor house would be fine.

House Far Stars

A rim house of religious freedom seekers trying to bring God and temperance back to the empire.

--Mav

[OneMadOgre]

Even more than most of the rest of you I'm going to be a rookie. So small house is absolutely fine.

House Kestrel

[mwaschak]

Done! Build a history please.


House Kestrel

Numerous
Efficient
Enthusiastic

Even more than most of the rest of you I'm going to be a rookie. So small house is absolutely fine.

House Kestrel

[virtutis.umbra]

Good adjectives! I can run with that.

EDIT: This is all describing how the Incorporated Phoenix Republic works internally, while their place in the greater Empire is as a unified member House with the commensurate seat(s) on the Imperial Council or what-have-you; the actual individuals occupying said delegation would be elected public servants, probably diplomacy-minded scions of important Phoenix families.

The Incorporated Republic of Phoenix

"Facta Non Verba" : "Deeds Not Words"
Head of State: Executive President Declan Snodgrass
Power Center: Directorate Assembly Council
CORPORATE

The Phoenix Republic is a fully corporatized democracy, in which citizenship is proportional to shareholdership. Voting on matters of policy, legislation, and government action is open to all, but weighted according to shareholdership.

Persons descended from the original colonists have hereditary shares; beyond that, the corporate charter includes a proviso that increasing GDP shall be matched by the creation of additional shares, awarded in two ways: 50% of all new shares are awarded to citizens proportional to their existing shareholdership; 50% are awarded to government servants at all levels, ranging from low-ranking municipal clerks up to the Executive President.

PHILANTHROPIC

Voting in elections, however, is a "one person, one vote" affair - Elected officials serve at the whim of the popular votes of their districts, and in turn serve on various local or planetary executive and judicial bodies. In this way, the few powerful families with the most shares do not *necessarily* hold positions of power within the government unless they can convince the many families with fewer shares to vote for them; and any family that manages to win an election or two can see its stature improve.

As a result, visible, admirable public service is popular among the high and low within the Phoenix citizenry, as the surest way to win the favor of the public, obtain an elected office, be awarded new shares, and thus gain (or retain) a greater say in charting the destiny of the republic. The aim is a virtuous cycle wherein the wealthy and powerful put huge resources into improving the lives of their districts' constituents in order to win favor, maintain their shareholdership advantage, and retain control of government action.

STOIC

Fractious or criminal behavior is often penalized by revocation of shares, so dissent or bad behavior of any sort is extremely uncommon - rather, the majority of middle- and lower-class citizenship work quietly and diligently in a pseudo-feudalistic relationship to large-shareholding aristocratic families, hoping to better their station over the long term through purchasing shares from down-on-their-luck aristocratic families, and/or gaining enough popularity and admiration to win an elected position within the government.

[TangoTarheel]

I'll give it a shot.

House Thoth

House Thoth view themselves as priding information and quality over quantity. They are xenophilic and open minded, to the point that more conservative houses find them disconcerting. Their moto is "sæcula extrorsum" forever outwards.

If you read http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/th ... work_with/ these guys likely have practical experience working with that stuff.

So far I see a few points they'll connect:

House Far Stars: Temperance is only lack of imagination and responsibility.
House Phoenix: Appreciates the dynamic setup with the shareholder system.

The archetypical hero of Thoth is Indian Jones.

[mwaschak]

Nicely done Patrick!

House Thoth, you are in as well.

Once we get some things cemented here we can work on specific histories. I will be handing out some story hooks and we can build this universe.

[Iron Sky]

Stealing from my blog: House Echelon

[mwaschak]

Stealing from my blog: House Echelon

House Echelon
Strange
Quarrelsome
Graceful

Thank you.

Also, PM me your email address if you can. We will probably run the game here though.

[mwaschak]

We will sort out the histories once we have the players set, then move on to fleet construction.

-Jay