New to VBAM

[TalosX]

Hello all. I purchased the VBAM campaign guide about a year ago, but have just recently gotten a chance to sit down and read over the material. Military life is full of surprises... like short notice deployments! Anyways I was considering setting up a campaign for some of my friends that are interested. I'm actually looking at loosely basing the campaign on the Mass Effect universe (seemed as good as any). The Mass Relays are the perfect plot device to fling you across the galaxy. Anyways, I was curious if anyone else had considered this and might have some tips. Any assistance for this newbie would be appreciated.

[Tyrel Lohr]

Hello all. I purchased the VBAM campaign guide about a year ago, but have just recently gotten a chance to sit down and read over the material. Military life is full of surprises... like short notice deployments! Anyways I was considering setting up a campaign for some of my friends that are interested. I'm actually looking at loosely basing the campaign on the Mass Effect universe (seemed as good as any). The Mass Relays are the perfect plot device to fling you across the galaxy. Anyways, I was curious if anyone else had considered this and might have some tips. Any assistance for this newbie would be appreciated.

Mass Effect has been a great source of inspiration for Second Edition (still under development, still being worked on... slowly, but it is getting there), and I think it would make a great setting for a VBAM campaign, especially if you use the custom species rules from the Menagerie in the game.

The best way to handle the Mass Relays in VBAM would be to have multiple star maps (analogous to the 2E sector maps) for each region of space, and then add pairs of Mass Relays to link these individual sectors together. That would simulate what we see in the two games, and allow for players to fight over control of individual regions while still being able to travel across the galaxy.

I think you could probably mine the various race codex entries for information on relative military strengths and weaknesses, as well as to calculate approximate starting force values. The universe seems to be non-specific enough about the ship tech that you have quite a bit of room to maneuver when creating stats for each faction's ships.

EDIT: You might also consider just creating baseline stats for all unit classes that you want each faction to have access to, and then modify the stats a bit for each empire. Thus the turian ships might be better at Anti-Ship, humans may be better at anti-fighter, and the asari better at Defense. It keeps everything more or less balanced, but still introduces some differences between the factions.

As for each of the alien species, a quick review of the Menagerie gives me the following ideas for Mass Effect racial traits:

Humans: Aggressive, Expansionist
Turians: Aggressive, Prejudiced (Human)
Asari: Empathic, Cultural Adopters, Gifted Negotiators
Salarian: Efficient Operatives, Expert Intelligence Network, Unremarkable Military
Elcor: High-Gravity Species
Krogan: Subterranean, Aggressive, Fearsome, Fast Gestation, Fast Population Growth, Physical Endurance, Prejudiced (Turian, Salarian), Xenophobic
Volus: Diminuitive, Mercantile
Hanar: Pacifist, Fanatical
Collectors: Hivemind, Repulsive
Geth: Hivemind, Incomprehensible Language, Robotic, Xenophobic

Those are the traits that immediately come to mind. The Krogan will be especially hard to balance, especially since you will probably have to end up choosing just a handful of truly appropriate abilities and limiting from there. Post-Genophage, too, the Krogans would actually end up with Slow Gestation and Slow Population Growth, the opposite of what they have now.

-Tyrel

[TalosX]

I didn't even think about the star clusters, was gonna add a mass relay for each system, but that becomes problematic with ridiculous numbers of relays. I like your star cluster (sectors) alot more. Each player will custom build there own race and ships. I was planning to add a few npc races as well. Probably the big 3: Asari, Salarian and Turian (if none of the players choose to use them), and maybe the Quarian, Geth, Volus, Batarian, and Krogan. The big 3 are obvious chooses. The Quarian migrant fleet would be interesting in annoying systems they pass through (straining the systems resources. The Volus are their as traders. The Batarian and Krogan acting more as pirates.

[Tyrel Lohr]

That is a nice option to have the quarian flotilla act as kind of a roving "random event." You could have it apply a -1 RAW penalty to whichever system it is in, with a random roll made each turn to determine if it is staying where it is or if it will move across a random jump lane. The presence of alien military units would probably increase the chance that the flotilla would move, however, which would allow the players to "herd" the quarians out of their territories if they end up somewhere they don't want them to be.

The geth would make a good CM-controlled bogeyman race, as you could have them roaming around harrying the players and keeping them on their toes.

Volus and hanar could exist as "neutral empires" as per the draft 2E empire rules that I've posted. That would allow them to sign trade agreements with the other players, but otherwise not act as full-on empires that the major players necessarily have to worry about.

Batarians and krogan are harder to fit into the picture, but you could have them act as pirates as you stated. It would also be fitting within the scope of that universe to have a few underworld empires running around, one for each major pirate faction. Say, batarian pirates, Blood Pack, Eclipse, etc. could all be underworld factions that would be vying for Corruption control, plus available for hire by the various parties to perform mercenary work. Each faction could begin with a certain amount of influence in their respective areas of space and expand outwards from there as the game progresses.

-Tyrel

[TalosX]

Yeah, I think the migrant fleet adds some fun flavor that could annoy players. At the same time its hard to deal with due to humanitarian concerns, combined with the fact that it is said to be the largest fleet in the galaxy. So its gonna be an annoyance regardless. I like it!

Both the Geth and Collectors would make great boogeymen. I'd probably stick more with the Geth though. Collectors are kinda... blaahh to me.

I haven't looked over whats written for 2E (was waiting on its release) so the Volus as a neutral empire might fit perfectly. Hadn't really considered the Hanar as I don't really see them around enough to influence anything.

Your idea on underworld empires is great (hope thats in 2E). That's exactly how I see the Batarians. I guess Krogan could act as a normal empire. Remove the genophage, and they become a serious threat for the players to deal with. Might even force some alliances for a bit. Till they get neutered.

We're looking to use the new Starmada rules for ship combat. This adds more of the flavor I see in the universe. Immense mass accelerators spinally-mounted in a dreadnought. Do not line up on its axis, or you'll lose a ship!

[Tyrel Lohr]

The Collectors would be hard to model in a strategic campaign, especially considering their motives in ME2. In a pre-ME2 scenario, I would say the best use for the Collectors would be effectively as "mission generators" that would offer X reward for Y goals being met. If the players meet the conditions, then they have secured the information or specimens that the Collectors were looking for and will receive some upgrade or bonus in return.

The hanar and drell would work good as their own small power, but probably just a few minor worlds that a player could hope to trade with to earn some extra money.

-Tyrel