The Mechanics' Guild: An RP(G) Community

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hmm. Looks swanky.

My first comment would be that it looks like two colony ships should be fine starting. The other would be, you should make it fairly easy to conduct interstellar trade of small degrees with minimal drawbacks - otherwise you’ll fall into the trap of non-interactive autarky which is bad for RPing longevity.

Finally, I’d also caution against exploration being too much of an infodump. Perhaps let each Explorer map, say, 2-3 Continents in a Turn on one world, to make there be a real opportunity cost decision between settling with what you find and waiting for years for an optimal outcome.

[Harkback Union]

Hmm. Looks swanky.

My first comment would be that it looks like two colony ships should be fine starting. The other would be, you should make it fairly easy to conduct interstellar trade of small degrees with minimal drawbacks - otherwise you’ll fall into the trap of non-interactive autarky which is bad for RPing longevity.

Finally, I’d also caution against exploration being too much of an infodump. Perhaps let each Explorer map, say, 2-3 Continents in a Turn on one world, to make there be a real opportunity cost decision between settling with what you find and waiting for years for an optimal outcome.

Hmmm, fair point.
Perhaps when you first arrive you can get a ghost image of a star system that only lists the base class of the planets and moons, and then you need a separate exploration action to see whats actually there in terms of continents and resources.

This would go well with the idea of having a really small amount of stars, about 3 per player. I'd rather not have the game end by players burning out from having dozens of planets to manage.

PS: I spent almost as much searching for images and text editing as writing.

[Harkback Union]

What y'all think of this:

LEADERSHIP

Each faction has a leader, or a character of importance. You may extend his or her lifespan to your liking, or get rid of him/her and replace with another character at any time. Perhaps have 2 or 3 different characters of importance and swap between them each turn. The point is, you are only allowed to use one of your characters each turn to perform an action.

The base available actions are:

- Coordinate Development: +2 C on his/her planet to be spent on building colonies.
- Independent Research: Attempt to discover a tier 1 technology. Same rules apply as to research colonies.
- Assist in Research: Allows a Research colony to roll twice in a row (2nd roll made with better odds).
- Oversee Terraforming Efforts[:/b] Double Terraforming speed.
- [b]Raise Militia: +1 Defense army on his/her planet which has no maintenance cost, but cannot be moved. Max 1 such defense army per colony.
- Command Defense Forces: -1 to invasion rolls. Repair 20% destruction per turn spread out across all colonies if being bombarded, 100% if not being bombarded.
- Command Invasion Forces: +1 to invasion rolls. 50% less transports lost to defenses.

You may also appoint characters to the rank of governors/captains/spymasters/. It takes an action to appoint them, but once appointed, they provide a passive bonus until removed from position. You can have a maximum of 2 appointed leaders.

- System Governor: +2 Harmony on his/her planet. +1 Harmony on all other planets in the system.
- Ambassador: Assigned to another faction, Required to conduct diplomacy.
- Starship Captain: Your character becomes attached to a spacecraft currently docked at a friendly spaceport (this costs an action, but you then gain a passive bonus for that ship. You may have no more then 2 characters leading crew).
Exploration vessels - Launch 2 expeditions per turn, without the risk of going M.I.A., choose anomaly response if you encounter one, Allows phase 1 withdrawal from space battles.
Colony Ship - Allows phase 1 withdrawal from space battles. Become System Governor when founding colony.
Destroyers/military craft - During battles, allows firing a weapon aboard twice each phase, or repairing 2 HP damage each phase. May repair all damage after a battle. Allows phase 1 withdrawal from battles.

Does it make sense? Should I try to phrase things differently? I really want to encourage players to write more characters instead of just general things happening, and I thought it might be good encouragement, or vice versa. Give some mechanics value to what your people do In Character.

[The GAmeTopians]

-snip-

I think you mean "actions", not "factions"
Otherwise good.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Those actions sound swanky. Offhand, I would also recommend some ideas like, oh:

Oversee Primitive Terraforming Efforts
Lead Prospecting Teams
Search for Anomaly Signatures
Coordinate Interplanetary Trade

as decent ideas for things people could do too.

[Harkback Union]

Thanks, gave me some ideas.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Thanks, gave me some ideas.

Terraforming in particular seems like it will take some time to be effective, and be very useful in the mid-game, so getting some early work in with your characters sounds pretty desirable.

[Harkback Union]

Thanks, gave me some ideas.

Terraforming in particular seems like it will take some time to be effective, and be very useful in the mid-game, so getting some early work in with your characters sounds pretty desirable.

True, but it also sounds like a little unrealistic for leadership alone to terraform a planet. I'd rather have some minimal investment boosted.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Terraforming in particular seems like it will take some time to be effective, and be very useful in the mid-game, so getting some early work in with your characters sounds pretty desirable.

True, but it also sounds like a little unrealistic for leadership alone to terraform a planet. I'd rather have some minimal investment boosted.

True, true. I was thinking of something along the lines of, like, creating a carbon pump to slowly thicken the atmosphere at like a quarter of the rate of a dedicated facility, or set off shaped charges in a volcanic region to dump heat into the environment by precipitating pyroclastic activity. Perhaps an action that requires specific planetary features or opportunities, rather than a generic terraforming ability.

[Harkback Union]

True, but it also sounds like a little unrealistic for leadership alone to terraform a planet. I'd rather have some minimal investment boosted.

True, true. I was thinking of something along the lines of, like, creating a carbon pump to slowly thicken the atmosphere at like a quarter of the rate of a dedicated facility, or set off shaped charges in a volcanic region to dump heat into the environment by precipitating pyroclastic activity. Perhaps an action that requires specific planetary features or opportunities, rather than a generic terraforming ability.

Hmmm.
I'll keep that in mind for anomalies.

[Harkback Union]

Also thinking of adding more dice rolls to battles on planets.

[The GAmeTopians]

Also thinking of adding more dice rolls to battles on planets.

It's certainly a careful balance between RNG and strategy, because you want little enough RNG that planning is actually useful but enough RNG that the person with the bigger brain/strategic prowess doesn't necessarily always win. I leave it to you to work out where that balance is

[Plzen]

-snipped, because superceded-

[Harkback Union]

I would limit the amount of technologies giving +x bonuses to existing stuff to a minimum.
Its more exciting to have techs that unlock new mechanics.

[Plzen]

Its more exciting to have techs that unlock new mechanics.

True, but then the downside is that I have to integrate all of that stuff into the main mechanics.

Unlike many of my other ideas, this is very much a strategic RP. I want to keep everything streamlined except for military units and the combat mechanics, and that means trying to keep the number of buildings, etc. to a minimum. Ideally I’d like to streamline the entire population growth mechanic more as well... maybe simple linear growth.

That being said, if you have any suggestions for interesting mechanics to tie in to the technology tree that would not cost much administrative overhead, I would love to hear them.

I’ll definitely be rewriting the tech tree one way or another - your point has too much merit to ignore. Either add new mechanics, or at least reduce the number of techs to better fit the amount of content it actually delivers.

[Plzen]

Okay. So reviewing everything again, I think it would be best to just have a tiered technology system instead of a proper tech tree. Maybe 6 or 9 tech categories that each have several technologies, linearly arranged, giving incremental benefits. I simply don't have enough sub-systems, and thus enough potential bonuses, to flesh out a full tech tree with.

I think I will be re-introducing a resource system, though. If I want to differentiate "wide" sprawling player factions with "tall" developed player factions without having dozens of buildings that 4X games tend to have, that's probably the only way I can get about doing that unless I want to resort to just using a generic development value (which I don't). Faction per-capita industry and research output would then be dependent on how many types of appropriate resources a faction has access to.

I remain overloaded with my existing responsibilities, though, so these revisions on the mechanics will have to wait until at least the weekend.

[Harbertia]

APP:
#2424
Nation Name: Harbertia
Experience: D&D Basic, D&D 5th Edition, Gamma World 2nd Edition, Star Frontiers (Alpha Release), Champions, GURPS, d20 Star Wars, and TSR's Marvel Superheroes.
Preferred Level of Detail: Light enough to give the RP structure in order to prevent a situation I tend to come upon in text based RPs where players never have a character fail. I like the risk of failure as such builds investment in the action where as certain success does not. DnD Basic, Gamma World 2nd Edition, Star Frontiers (Alpha Release), and TSR's Marvel Superheroes are examples of the level of mechanics I enjoy.
Activity: I am capable of being on line from 4 PM-10 PM Mon-Fri EST with a range of 8 AM -12 PM Saturday-Sunday.
RP Example: Under the name Okonee I hosted some Gamma World RPs utilizing mechanics. One RP was called 'First Recontact' and another involved a sort of sci-fi dungeon crawl. Due to the time in which these took place I am unable to retrieve them however you can find Okonee in the boneyard. I've tried a few times recently to introduce another RP group to mechanic based RPs but have been unsuccessful and thus would like to join those of common interest. I do currently have one posted for enrollment however I did not want to include in my app a link to such as it may come across as advertisement. I do intend to post it here however; it's utilizing a modified version of the Star Frontiers ruleset- simplified a bit more. I could link to the Titans RP group's wiki to show the DnD, Gamma World, and Star Frontier content there but I'm also not sure if that is fitting.

[Dragos Bee]

Apologies for not posting here much.

[Plzen]

Alright. I finally had a few hours to myself today so I took the opportunity to get this revised. The technology system was simplified, with nine separate branches of four technologies each, and I folded the social policies system into the technology system, discarding ideologies entirely. I overhauled the population and production systems, because I felt the previous system was unnecessarily complex and because I got inspired by other sources. I also renamed a lot of things in the warfare section and made each type of attack much more distinct.

I don't have the time nor energy to run this at the moment (I have plenty of other responsibilities at the moment, on NationStates, elsewhere on the 'net, and in real life), but... maybe in a few days or a couple weeks.

If you see any obvious balance problems, inconsistent wording, or some other problem, I would greatly appreciate it if you point them out to me. I'd also like to know at this point whether anyone from this thread will be interested in participating if and when this does go live.

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The World

ONE THOUSAND YEARS have passed since the dawn of history, the great empires of steam and coal that, for all that their imprint on world history was great, was merely the harbinger of even greater things. It is said that in those ancient times before the Cataclysm, Man lived astride this world, worshipping the twin gods Speed and Scale under their Priest-Lord of Earthbank. It was a time of fantastical visions and ludicrous noises. A horse was slow and small, and to be slow and small was the highest sacrilege. Faster, bigger, a workshop of a thousand workers, bigger, faster, a tower that explodes its way to the moon, faster, bigger, a mechanical mind that can think faster than an entire city of humans, yet still bigger, still faster...

At the dawn of the nuclear age, in the wastelands of Aztlan, the long and fertile night between the twin gods birthed for human civilisation a new god, and her name was Destruction. It was a young god, at first, ignorant as to the way of the world and still limited in her capabilities. But with time, that changed. What good was an act of worship that only vapourised a hundred thousand souls in an instant, when one could do it to a million? Or ten millions? Or a hundred millions? Bigger! Faster! Bigger! Faster!

The ancients must have thought that it truly could have gone forever. But there are limits to all things. After the consummation of the long night, after humanity had already offered at the altar of Speed all things at a single instant and offered at the altar of Scale the planet itself, what more could satisfy the gods? What more could satisfy they who had everything?

So the child Destruction, no longer so innocent and no longer so young, visited this earth, gently treading upon the sacrifices upon sacrifices that mankind offered before the twin gods as a young prince walks upon a ballroom carpet. With a scythe built for her by humanity's ambition wielded by her arm braced by humanity's greed, she reaped, and reaped, and reaped, and reaped, until there was naught but ashes and ruins. The gods had no need for humanity anymore, for humanity had already given it all that it could offer. Leaving only their child Destruction and the Cataclysm she reaped as a final gift towards a race of loyal servants that have slaved on their behalf for so long, they left, perhaps to return one day, perhaps for good.

For the next five centuries, we plucked over the ruins of our ancestors, abandoned by all that the ancients thought that they knew. And now, it seems that even Destruction had eaten her fill, for the skies are clearing again. On these irradiated wastelands that cover the continents of our beloved home, under the thin remnants of an atmosphere that legends say was once naturally breathable, besides the oceans, slick with chemicals and ten centuries of industrial detritus, humanity finally has the wherewithal to push forwards with an agenda besides that of survival.

Yes... the Cataclysm is past, and the Age of Worship is upon us once more. But, abandoned by all that our ancestors once knew, what is there left to worship?

Factions

The thing that sets humans apart from the baser animals have always been their capacity to form dynamic organised collectives, and half a millennia after the Cataclysm that has never been more true. Factions represent the organised human polities, whether they admit their own statehood or continue to refer to themselves as guilds, churches, or some other type of organisation, with enough in the way of autonomy and sovereignty to control their own territory, their own citizens, and their own military. Each role-player will represent one faction in the world and guide their actions through these turbulent years.

Two factions are considered to be neighbouring each other if at least one site controlled by one faction is adjacent to at least one site controlled by the other. Vast airbourne empires supplying military forces across entire continents remain, alas, the stuff of ancient legends, and as such a faction may only go to war with neighbouring factions. If a faction possesses the appropriate social policy, a faction may also choose to temporarily refrain from going to war with a neighbouring faction in order to stab them in the back at a better opportunity.

Time

The scene is set exactly 500 years after the Cataclysm on 751 Nuclear Era, or 2695 Anno Domini as the Old World Cultists still insist on calling it. Time is divided into periods of three years, each of which will see orders issued, production take place, wars fought, and research conducted. Each such period of three years is called a cycle.

Regions

The world has changed dramatically since the Cataclysm. Five centuries of cleansing radiation stripped the Earth of much of its oceans, turning the continents into scorched and infertile deserts and dramatically lowering the sea level. That portion of the world far enough from the oceans, now mostly filled with rotting biomatter and industrial waste, to be at least vaguely human-habitable has been divided into regions, shown named and separated from each other and from the coasts with white borders on the world map.

Two regions are considered adjacent if they share a common border. The world, for all the changes that have been made to it, remains round, and so the map is cylindrical. Siberia is thus considered adjacent to Beringia, Zealandia with the Central Pacific, and Hyperion Superior with Hyperion Inferior. Because the large-scale destruction of infrastructure and the lack of open oceans on which to conduct international trade, the adjacency of regions is of critical importance in tying local economies together.

Sites

With the oceans largely stripped away and the natural cycle of precipitation in shambles, water is a very scarce resource. Sites represent the few corners of the world where naturally-occurring liquid water may still be found. Not all of them are of the same size and quality, but humanity is in no condition to be picky. Regions each contain a number of sites, which will be the locations where populations live and industrial or scientific activity takes place.

Sites may be controlled by a faction or filled with barbaric warlords ruling by legitimacy of force, in which case they are considered neutral. If a neutral site is effectively devoid of human activity, not having at least one full level of development, they are considered unsettled. Sites controlled by a faction will take orders from the faction and contribute to the faction's overall strength. Neutral sites will not conduct any useful activity, although their misguided militia, consisting of two defence per development level of the site, will generally resist against factions seeking to liberate them from the indignities of independence. Unsettled sites are, however, empty, and cannot be conventionally liberated. They must be settled by conscripted volunteers before they can be of any use.

Two sites are considered adjacent if they are located in the same region, or are located in regions which are adjacent. Sites are considered connected if one of two conditions are met. First, two sites are considered connected if they are both connected to the same third site. Second, two sites are considered connected if the two sites are adjacent, both sites are controlled by the same faction, and both sites are in regions that do not contain any landships of a different faction that has successfully maintained an aggressive stance.

The new world is not well-mapped and unknown, unclaimed sites continue to be discovered. Each faction that controls at least one site in the region will contribute one roll towards the discovery of more sites in that region. The odds of any given roll discovering a new site in a region is the inverse of the factorial of the number of sites already discovered in that region plus one (e.g. 50.0% to discover a second, 16.7% to discover a third, 4.2% to discover a fourth, etc). If there are no discovered sites in the region, one will be discovered when a landship moves into the region.

Newly-discovered sites will be neutral and contain some random level of development. Generally speaking, because human activity generally tends to be highly visible, in any given region sites with higher development will tend to be discovered first. When a site is discovered, four random values between 0.0 and 1.5, plus two more for each site already discovered in the region, will be generated and the sum of the lowest four will be the development of the discovered site (the expected values are thus 3.0, 2.1, 1.6, 1.3, and so on).

Sites may also contain intriguing and unusual features, which may aid or hinder any activity in that site.

---

Economics

Development

The glittering automated technologies of the Information Age have been lost in the sands. Once more the population of a site is the vital resource for any economic activity taking place in that site. Each site is rated with a development value, which reflects how overcrowded the site is and is tracked in units of 0.1.

A large population, however, does bring some downsides. A large and productive workforce requires maintenance, with the local economies of sites becoming less self-sufficient as sites grow in development. Sites will thus consume agricultural production equivalent to the full levels of development it has plus one multiplied by itself plus one. If this requirement is not met, famine and social disorder will occur. While the extensive emergency powers availed to factions' security forces can effectively ensure that the latter never becomes a problem no matter what the circumstance, no amount of beatings can make starving people healthy. As a result, if this basic need of the population is not being met, development will decline by 0.1 per cycle.

Wise and far-sighted leaders, as rare as they are in this new world, may also realise that a fattened pig is often more useful than an emaciated one and provide food in addition to what is necessary to the masses to encourage procreation. A site can be developed, raising its development by 0.1, by paying a cost in agricultural production equal to two raised to the power of the number of full levels of development the site has. A chart of all these values may be found in the appendix.

Sites can only be developed once per cycle, with the following exceptions. First, if one site is both adjacent and connected to another site that has more than two additional levels of development compared to the former, the former site may be developed one more time each cycle. If a site is an outpost, that is to say, has a development of less than 1.0, then it may be developed one additional time each cycle.

If, for any reason, the development of a site falls below 0.0, it is set to 0.0 and becomes unsettled. All infrastructure and any stockpiled production on the site are lost.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure represents the various facilities and industries that keep the remnants of human civilisation alive and functional. Infrastructure improve the economic productivity of sites and facilitate military power as well as having more auxiliary functions. Infrastructure are constructed by paying the requisite cost in industrial production. The maximum number of infrastructure items that may exist in a site is equal to the levels of development that the site has; sites with less than one full level of development may not have any infrastructure built in it.

Because sites tend to be quite geographically constrained, new construction in sites that already contain sizable urban sprawls can often be very difficult. Thus, 20 industrial production is added to the cost of any new item of infrastructure for each item of infrastructure that already exist on that site.

If the development is not high enough for another infrastructure to be built, new infrastructure may still be built by replacing an existing one. One-half the cost of the infrastructure being replaced will be applied towards the cost of the new infrastructure, up to a maximum of one-half the cost of the new infrastructure. As the world slowly recovers from the post-Cataclysm dark age and the frontiers of technology continue to advance, replacing less productive infrastructure with more productive ones will be vital towards keeping a faction competitive in global politics.

The nature of the post-Cataclysm world is that sometimes people die in large numbers abruptly. If the development of a site declines to the point where it can no longer support the number of infrastructure that has been constructed on it, any surplus infrastructure must be destroyed.

Production

Production represent the goods and services extracted from the local economies of controlled sites. Production is categorised into three types: agricultural, industrial, and service. Each unit of site development above 1.0 generates 10 agricultural production per cycle. Each unit of site development above 3.0 generates 10 industrial production per cycle. Finally, each unit of site development above 5.0 generates 10 service production per cycle. Thus, for example, a site with development 4.5 will naturally generate 15 industrial production and 35 agricultural production per cycle, but no service production.

The economic productivity of sites may be heavily modified by infrastructure and technology. In all cases, all bonuses expressed as an absolute figure will apply first, before any bonuses expressed as a percentage are applied. For example, if a site has 50 agricultural production and two hydroponic farms, each of which provide +2 and +50% to agricultural production, the two +2 will apply first, to 54 agricultural production, and then the two +50% will apply, to 108 total agricultural production. Productivity is tracked in units of one, and any fractional figures in production are truncated to the next lower integer.

Sites may stockpile agricultural and industrial production equal to one cycle's production. Sites may use the agricultural and industrial production produced in any connected site, but any such imported production must be immediately used; that is to say, sites may not stockpile production that it receives from connected sites. If a site is captured by a hostile faction, any agricultural and industrial production stockpiled in the site are also transferred to the new controller.

Research

Pre-Cataclysm history tells us that the intellectual enlightenment of a nation is greatly enhanced by having large and prestigious urban centres that double as a nation's academic, and cultural heart. As such, service output will primarily come from the largest settlements, with sites below 5.0 development naturally producing none at all. While an expensive and time-consuming venture, creating highly-developed sites and nurturing their service sectors brings about a variety of benefits. The scientific, engineering, and cultural achievements that a faction might achieve by having a healthy service sector are collectively referred to as technologies.

Service production, unlike agricultural and industrial production, cannot be stored and must be immediately applied towards acquiring an eligible technology. A technology is eligible for research if it has not been acquired, but all lower technologies in that same branch have been acquired. When the service production applied towards acquiring a technology equals the cost of that technology, the technology is acquired and will provide its benefits from the following cycle.

It can often be a costly and difficult task to spread scientific and engineering knowledge to the far corners of a far-flung empire. Thus, the cost of all technologies are modified by +20% for each site that a faction controls. While espionage is not necessarily the most honourable acts, the unfortunate reality of the world is that factions that continue to conform to antiquated notions of honour and openness have a tendency to come down with an incurable case of acute nonexistence. The knowledge of neighbours are there to be plundered, and a faction may acquire a technology for 40% less if it is already known by a neighbouring faction; that is to say, it will negate the penalties from holding two additional sites. If, after these modifiers, the research cost has a fraction value, it is rounded up to the next integer.

Branches in social technologies are often not compatible with others. A faction that has acquired technologies in one branch may not apply service production towards the acquisition of technologies in any incompatible branches. It is possible to switch which branch of social technology a faction wishes to invest in, but a society revolutionising its overarching intellectual paradigm can often be quite a traumatic experience. All technologies in the branch being abandoned are lost and technologies in the branch being switched into are gained. The number of technologies gained is one less than the number of technologies lost and all service production will be suspended for a number of turns equal to the number of technologies lost as the aftermath of the revolution slowly sort themselves out.

Defence

While traditional armies have mostly been phased out of service due to the dominance of landships in the harsh terrain of the post-Cataclysm world, sometimes warm bodies are just the thing to make some cannon fodder out of in the defence of inhabited sites. Certain defensive infrastructure generate defence for a site. When a site with some defense is attacked, each unit of defense will be converted into an infantry units to join the defensive combat. Infantry units have 2 photonic, 3 kinetic, 1 particle beam attacks, 100 integrity, and no combat width. After the battle is over, surviving infantry will return to the defence of the settlement.

One of the big advantages of cannon fodder is their ease of replacement. If the defence of a site has been depleted to below that granted by infrastructure due to the result of a battle, it will recover back to its maximum value over the next cycle.

---

Warfare

Landships

Warfare five centuries after the Cataclysm is dominated by the reality of the vast wastelands that separate inhabited sites from each other. Conventional notions of frontlines have been made completely obsolete by the impossibility of maintaining a distributed force out in the wasteland. Instead, the core of post-Cataclysm armies is the landship. These vast mechatronic gliding fortresses, designed to shield its crew from the harsh nature as much as it is designed to shield them from enemy gunfire, drift from locale to locale laying waste to their enemies.

Landships are built as a set of components, which give the landship its capabilities. Components for a landship may be freely chosen, with two requirements: first, a landship must contain an engine, and second, the total mass of the landship is limited by the engine it contains.

Landships are classed according to the weight of engine it has. Landships with light engines have 1 combat width and may have up to two other components, those with medium engines have 2 combat width and up to five other components, and those with heavy engines have 3 combat width and up to eight other components.

Combat

The performance of landships in combat are rated in several ways. First, there is integrity, which determines how much damage a landship can absorb before being destroyed. Second, there is armour and shielding, which nullifies certain types of damage. Next, there is photonic, kinetic, and particle beam attack, which determine how much damage a landship can inflict upon its opponents. Finally, there is combat width, which determines how many landships can engage in battle at a single location.

Certain types of weapons have certain advantages and disadvantages. Photonic weapons generally tend to have lower attack than kinetic weapons, but fire first in combat. Particle beam attacks both fire last and have the lowest damage, but also cannot be defended against. Photonic weapons are thus the weapon of choice for those seeking to end a battle against an inferior foe quickly or deter an invasion by a superior force, while kinetic may be more effective in a protracted battle between roughly even forces, and particle beams effective if the enemy is technologically superior and have insurmountable defences.

Battle occur in the following phases. First, photonic attacks are resolved. Second, photonic attacks are resolved and then kinetic weapons are resolved. Third, photonic, kinetic, and particle beam weapons alternate until the battle is complete.

In each phase resolution, the landships engaging in combat are chosen. Heavy landships may engage up to 6 combat width. Medium landships may then engage, up to a combined total of 12 combat width. Light landships then fill the rest of the battlefield, up to a combined total of 18 combat width. Landships that engaged in combat the previous phase are prioritised first, then new landships are prioritised in descending order of integrity. Each landship engaging in combat with weapons of the appropriate type will target landships of different factions participating in combat that phase with the targets weighed by their combat widths. Photonic attacks are defended against with shields and kinetic attacks are defended against with armour. The combined attack of the targeting landships is compared with the appropriate defence of the landship targeted. For each unit of attack below defence, the attack does one damage against the integrity of the target. For each unit of attack above defence, the attack does 10 damage.

Then, landships that have been reduced to below one-third of its integrity will fall into retreat. For the next three combat phases, the landship will not target any hostiles, but may continue to be targeted. After three combat phases, it is removed from battle. If landships of a combined combat width of 12 or half of that present at the start of the battle, whichever is lower, fall into retreat, the remaining landships of the faction will all fall into retreat.

If landships from only one faction remain on the battlefield, the battle is over. If there are adjacent regions or sites which do not contain hostile landships on aggressive stance to which they may normally move, they move to a random such location. If there are no eligible locations to retreat to, the defeated landships are all destroyed.

Military Orders

Although landships are produced in sites, once produced they are generally considered to be located in the region as a whole and are located at a particular site only in certain exceptions. Each cycle, landships may be given a stance and an order. Certain types of orders may only be given to landships with certain stances, but otherwise both the stance and the order of a landship may be adjusted freely every cycle.

Stances may be one of the following: aggressive, defensive, and passive. Landships in an aggressive stance will actively hunt down landships of different factions in the region that they are in. Any orders that they are given will be executed only after the region has been cleared of any hostile landships. Landships in a defensive stance will hold their positions, engaging only if engaged. Landships set to a passive stance will generally seek to avoid battle, cancelling their orders and fleeing to a friendly site or an adjacent region if pressed by an aggressive hostile landship.

Recall that landships set to an aggressive stance will disrupt site connectivity of other factions. Merely having landships set to an aggressive stance can be devastating against hostile factions that have highly developed sites that are not agriculturally self-sufficient.

The list of orders that may be given to landships are below. They will be processed in the order listed.

First, movement orders. Landships in a region may be ordered to move to a site in that region, if that site contains the appropriate infrastructure necessary to hold landships, or vice versa. Landships in a region may also be ordered to move to an adjacent region. Movement orders have first priority and may not be interrupted by anything. Without the appropriate component, landships may not move between two regions that both do not contain any friendly sites.

After movement orders have been processed, any landships set to an aggressive stance will then move to clear out opposition in the regions they are now in.

Second, explore region. If the landship contains the appropriate component, it may make one roll towards discovering new sites in the region it is currently located in.

Third, settle site. If the landship contains the appropriate component, the faction controlling the landship may gain control of an unsettled site in the region. This consumes the landship, which will then serve as the first habitation module of the newly-settled site.

Fourth, assault site. The landship will move to seize control of a site in the region that is currently neutral or controlled by a different faction, engaging the site's defenses and any landships harboured by the site in the process. If successful, the site will lose half a level of development and control of the site will be transferred. A landship set to assault a site must be set to an aggressive stance. The presence of hostile citadels may inhibit landships' ability to assault sites.

Fifth, bombard site. The landship will attack from range a site in the region that is currently neutral or controlled by a different faction. A landship prdered to bombard a site must be set to an aggressive stance. Each landship set to bombard a site will reduce the development of the target site by 0.1 over one cycle, but smaller ships are ineffective against larger targets; a light landship may only bombard targets up to 4.0 development and medium landships up to 7.0 development.

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Appendix

Listed are the agricultural production per cycle necessary to maintain a population and keep site development stable and the additional agricultural production that must be paid to raise a site's development by 0.1, by the current development of the site.
0.0 to 0.9 development: 2 for maintenance, +1 for growth
1.0 to 1.9 development: 6 for maintenance, +2 for growth
2.0 to 2.9 development: 12 for maintenance, +4 for growth
3.0 to 3.9 development: 20 for maintenance, +8 for growth
4.0 to 4.9 development: 30 for maintenance, +16 for growth
5.0 to 5.9 development: 42 for maintenance, +32 for growth
6.0 to 6.9 development: 56 for maintenance, +64 for growth
7.0 to 7.9 development: 72 for maintenance, +128 for growth
8.0 to 8.9 development: 90 for maintenance, +256 for growth
9.0 to 9.9 development: 110 for maintenance, +512 for growth

Listed are the infrastructure items and landship components that may be produced without acquiring any technologies.

>> Command Centre, infrastructure. Cannot be built, but always exists in a faction's capital site. +10 agriculture, +10 industry, +5 service, and +6 defence.
>> Hydroponic Farm, infrastructure. Cost 20 industrial production. +3 agricultural production, +50% agricultural production in this site.
>> Manufacturing Plant, infrastructure. Cost 30 industrial production. +2 industrial production, +75% industrial production in this site.
>> Data Centre, infrastructure. Cost 40 industrial production. +1 service production, +100% service production in this site.

>> Basic Light Engine, landship component. Cost 50 industrial production. +160 integrity. Landships with this engine may contain two more components.
>> Mass Driver, landship component. Cost 30 industrial production. +14 kinetic attack.
>> Plasteel Armour, landship component. Cost 30 industrial production. +14 armour, +20 integrity.

Armaments Branch
Energy Weapons (150 service)
>> Lasers, landship component. Cost 30 industrial production. +8 photonic attack.
>> Particle Beam, landship component. Cost 30 industrial production. +4 particle beam attack.
Armament Refinements (300 service)
>> Railgun, landship component. Cost 60 industrial production. +21 kinetic attack.
>> Pulse Laser, landship component. Cost 60 industrial production. +12 photonic attack.
>> Disintegration Ray, landship component. Cost 60 industrial production. +6 particle beam attack.
Special Ammunition (600 service)
>> Depleted Uranium Armoury, infrastructure. Cost 600 industrial production. Must be built in a site with a Nuclear Landfill feature. +20% kinetic attack, +20% armour for all landships. Effect does not stack.
>> Neutron Well, infrastructure. Cost 600 industrial production. Must be built in a site with a Particle Accelerator feature. +20% photonic and particle beam attack, +20% shields for all landships. Effect does not stack.
Nuclear-Powered Guns (1,200 service)
>> Gauss Cannon, landship component. Cost 100 industrial production, +28 kinetic attack.
>> Photon Lance, landship component. Cost 100 industrial production, +16 photonic attack.
>> Death Ray, landship component. Cost 100 industrial production, +8 particle beam attack.

Landship Construction Branch
Powered Engineering (150 service)
>> Shipyard, infrastructure. Cost 200 industrial production. Allows the production of medium landships. -10% cost to landships built in this site.
>> Advanced Light Engine, landship component. Cost 75 industrial production. +200 integrity. Landships with this engine may retreat in two combat phases instead of three.
>> Basic Medium Engine, landship component. Cost 100 industrial production. +320 integrity. Must be built in a site with a Shipyard.
>> Mesh Shields, landship component. Cost 30 industrial production, +8 shields, +20 integrity.
Survivability (300 service)
>> Duranium Armour, landship component. Cost 60 industrial production, +21 armour, +30 integrity.
>> Deflector Shields, landship component. Cost 60 industrial production, +12 shields, +30 integrity.
Open-Air Manufacturing (600 service)
>> Assembling Plant, infrastructure. Cost 600 industrial production. Allows the production of heavy landships. -10% cost to landships built in this site.
>> Advanced Medium Engine, landship component. Cost 150 industrial production. +400 integrity. Must be built in a site with a Shipyard. Landships with this engine may retreat in two combat phases instead of three.
>> Heavy Landship Engine, landship component. Cost 150 industrial production, +480 integrity. Must be built in a site with an Assembling Plant.
Advanced Defensive Systems (1,200 service)
>> Neutronium Armour, landship component. Cost 100 industrial production, +28 armour, +40 integrity.
>> Spectral Shields, landship component. Cost 100 industrial production, +16 shields, +40 integrity.

Strategic Defence Branch
Conscripted Militias (150 service)
>> Recruiting Centre, infrastructure. Cost 75 industrial production. +1 defence in the site per full level of development.
>> Maintenance Facilities, infrastructure. Cost 100 industrial production. Friendly landships may enter this site. Repairs +10 integrity to all damaged friendly landships in this site per cycle.
Fortifications (300 service)
>> Citadel, infrastructure. Cost 150 industrial production. +1 defence in the site per full level of development. Friendly sites in the same region that do not have a Citadel may not be assaulted.
>> Central Police Station, infrastructure. Cost 400 industrial production. +1 defence per full level of development. Effect is shared with all connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.
>> +20% all attacks, shields, and armour to friendly landships and infrastructure when in battle in a friendly site.
Rapid Counterattack (600 service)
>> Repair Facilities, infrastructure. Cost 300 industrial production. Repairs +15 integrity to all damaged friendly landships in this site or this region per cycle.
>> Hostile landships may not move from a region that contains a friendly site with a citadel to another region where there are friendly sites, unless the owner of the landship also controls sites in the destination region.
Strategic Flexibility (1,200 service)
>> Command and Control, infrastructure. Cost 800 industrial production. +20% all attacks, shields, and armour to friendly landships and infrastructure in all connected sites.
>> In-Situ Refueling Station, infrastructure. Cost 300 industrial production. Friendly landships moving to this region in any given cycle may execute another movement order.

Resource Exploitation Branch
Wasteland Prospecting (150 service)
>> Water Pump, infrastructure. Cost 200 industrial production. Must be built in a site with a Natural Oasis feature. +5 agriculture per development over 1.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but does not stack.
>> Fuel Refinery, infrastructure. Cost 200 industrial production. Must be built in a site with a Hydrium feature. +5 industry per development over 3.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but does not stack.
Cottage Industries (300 service)
>> +5 industrial production per cycle to all sites with 1.0 development or higher.
Old World Scavenging (600 service)
>> Scavenging Post, infrastructure. Cost 600 industrial production. Must be built in a site with a Junkyard feature. +5 industry per development over 3.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but does not stack.
>> Archaeotech Lab, infrastructure. Cost 600 industrial production. Must be built in a site with a City Ruins feature. +5 service per development over 5.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but does not stack.
Non-Renewable Resource Management (1,200 service)
>> Each additional copy of Water Pump, Fuel Refinery, Scavenging Post, and Archaeotech Lab beyond the first will increase the bonus given by an additional +2 production per development over the threshhold.

Manufacturing Branch
Mass Production (150 service)
>> Industrial Complex, infrastructure. Cost 200 industrial production. +5 industry per development over 3.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.
Electrification (300 service)
>> Power Station, infrastructure. Cost 400 industrial production. +3 industry per development over 3.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.
>> Scientific Equipment Workshop, infrastructure. Cost 400 industrial production. +3 service per development over 5.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but does not stack.
Scientific-Industrial Complex(600 service)
>> Increases the bonus granted by the Power Station by an additional +2 industry per development, to a total of +5.
>> Increases the bonus granted by the Scientific Equipment Workshop from by an additional +2 service per development, to a total of +5.
Automated Systems (1,200 service)
>> Robotic Facility, infrastructure. Cost 800 industrial production. +5 industry per development over 5.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.

Biology and Chemistry Branch
Genetically-Modified Crops (150 service)
>> National Seedback, infrastructure. Cost 200 industrial production. +3 agricultural production per development over 1.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.
>> Drought-Resistant Agriculture, infrastructure. Cost 200 industrial production. +3 agricultural production. Effect is shared with connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.
Cybernetic Implants (300 service)
>> +60 integrity to infantry units.
>> Industrial production may be used as agricultural production when developing sites, at a ratio of 5 industrial production to 2 agricultural production. Note: population maintenance should still be paid in agriculture.
>> Settler Pod, landship component. 30 industrial production. Allows the landship to settle an unsettled site.
Human Cloning (600 service)
>> All sites may be developed one additional time per cycle, if the necessary agricultural production is available.
>> Hibernating Pod, landship component. 60 industrial production. Allows the landship to settle an unsettled site, and instantly develop it to 2.0 development.
Algae Paste (1,200 service)
>> All sites may be developed one additional time per cycle, if the necessary agricultural production is available.
>> Algae Farms, infrastructure. Cost 800 industrial production. +2 agricultural production per development over 1.0. Effect is shared with connected sites, but multiple copies do not stack.

Politics Branch - Totalitarianism (mutually exclusive with the other Politics branches)
Centralised Bureaucracy (150 service)
>> Command Post receives an additional +5 agriculture, +5 industry, and +10 service, to a total of +15 each.
Divide and Conquer (300 service)
>> If more than two factions have landships on an aggressive stance in the same region, those of factions without this technology will fight first before those of factions with this technology join the fight.
Concrete Jungle (600 service)
>> Infrastructure in the region that contains the capital site may be built for 25% cheaper.
Bonded Labour (1,200 service)
>> Labour Camp, infrastructure. 50 industrial production. Capital site gains 20 industrial production per development in this site. -0.5 development per cycle. CANNOT BE REPLACED.

Politics Branch - Pluralism (mutually exclusive with the other Politics branches)
Local Autonomy (150 service)
>> In regions where there are more than one friendly sites, each additional site in the region beyond the first only contributes a +10%, not a +20%, penalty to research cost.
International Diplomacy (300 service)
>> Allows establishing non-aggression pacts with other factions. Each faction may move landships as if they were of the other faction, using their sites to move and ignoring their citadels, and will not fire on each other.
Civil Engineering (600 service)
>> If a copy of some infrastructure item already exists in this or another friendly site, more copies of that infrastructure item may be built for 25% cheaper.
National Mobilisation (1,200 service)
>> If a site has been conquered by another faction, all sites produce triple industrial production for one cycle afterwards. This effect does not stack if multiple sites were conquered in one cycle.

Politics Branch - Fundamentalism (mutually exclusive with the other Politics branches)
Regional Cultures (150 service)
>> Regional Capital, infrastructure. Costs 75 industrial production. Only one may be built in each region. +5 agriculture, +5 industry, +3 service.
Crusading Outreach (300 service)
>> Fuel Cells, landship component. Costs 100 industrial production. This landship and other friendly landships in the same location may move even if there are no friendly sites in either the origin or destination regions.
Enslavement of Nature (600 service)
>> +10 production to the highest-development friendly site in each region.
Closed Society (1,200 service)
>> Garrison State, infrastructure. Costs 225 industrial production. -100% industrial production, -100% service production, but +2 defence per full level of development to all friendly sites in the same region.

Economics Branch - Free Market (mutually exclusive with the other Economics branches)
Market Optimisation (150 service)
>> +1 industrial production from Data Centres.
Entrepreneurial Prospectors (300 service)
>> Surveying Equipment, a landship component. 60 industrial production, plus 60 more for each copy of this component the faction already possesses. Allows this landship to explore regions.
Tourist Industry (600 service)
>> All sites with three or more different types of infrastructure receive +2 service.
Small Businesses (1,200 service)
>> Service is produced earlier, starting from 4.0 development instead of 5.0. This affects all sources of service production, not just natural production.

Economics Branch - Planned (mutually exclusive with the other Economics branches)
Collectivisation (150 service)
>> +1 agricultural production from Manufacturing Plants.
Concentrated Development (300 service)
>> Cartographer's Office, an infrastructure. 60 industrial production. Each faction may only build one. Contributes three rolls towards discovering new sites in this region each cycle.
Public Higher Education (600 service)
>> All friendly sites with at least 1.0 development receive +1 service.
Developmental State (1,200 service)
>> Industrial is produced earlier, starting from 2.0 development instead of 3.0. This affects all sources of industrial production, not just natural production.

Economics Branch - Green (mutually exclusive with the other Economics branches)
Scientific Management (150 service)
>> +1 service production from Hydroponic Farms.
Arcadian Affinity (300 service)
>> +1 roll per cycle towards discovering new sites in all regions where there is at least one friendly site.
Earth Science (600 service)
>> All friendly sites with special features also generate +10 service.
Green Belts (1,200 service)
>> Agricultural is produced earlier, starting from 0.0 development instead of 1.0. This affects all sources of agricultural production, not just natural production.

Ideology Branch - Power (mutually exclusive with the other Ideology branches)
Domination (150 service)
>> -20% cost to all military technologies
Spoils of Victory (300 service)
>> When winning a battle, receive one-quarter of the industry production cost of all destroyed hostile landships in the capital site.
Superior Firepower (600 service)
>> Medium landships may be built with one additional component (6 total) and heavy landships may be built with two additional components (8 total).
Unification Transcendence (1,200 service)
>> If landships of the faction successfully remain on an aggressive stance in twenty different regions in a single cycle, the faction has been liberated from the eternal war. The long future awaits.

Ideology Branch - Wealth (mutually exclusive with the other Ideology branches)
Reindustrialisation (150 service)
>> -20% cost to all industrial technologies.
Constant Innovation (300 service)
>> When replacing an infrastructure item with another one, the full cost, not half, of the infrastructure replaced is applied towards the new infrastructure.
>> The penalty to infrastructure cost from the number of existing infrastructure items is halved, to +10 per instead of +20 per.
Defence in Depth (600 service)
>> The rate at which Maintenance Facilities and Repair Facilities repair damaged friendly landships is increased by a further +5 integrity per cycle.
Renaissance Transcendence (1,200 service)
>> If the faction develops a site to a population of ten billions, 10.0 development, the faction has fully recovered from the aftermath of the Cataclysm. The long future awaits.

Ideology Branch - Knowledge (mutually exclusive with the other Ideology branches)
Enlightenment (150 service)
>> -20% cost to all social technologies
Bleeding Edge (300 service)
>> Known technologies will not provide the -40% technology cost bonus to any neighbouring factions also seeking to acquire that technology.
Information Warfare (600 service)
>> When fighting a battle in a friendly site or a region with at least one friendly site, receive +3% to all attack, armour, and shields per technology acquired that has not been acquired by the enemy.
Transhumanist Transcendence (1,200 service)
>> If all technologies have been acquired and the faction has a service sector twice as large as any other faction, the faction becomes something better than human. The long future awaits.

All factions begin with the following: a single site, in the starting region of the player's choice, with 5.5 development, Command Centre, a Hydroponic Farm, a Manufacturing Plant, and a Data Centre.

In addition, a faction may choose two of the following starting bonuses:

Post-Cataclysm Military: two light landships, composed of a light landship engine, a mass driver, and a plasteel armour.
Sprawling Capital: an additional half a level of development in the capital site.
Regional Development: an additional site in the starting region, with a randomly-chosen development between 4.5 and 4.9, with no infrastructure.
Early Imperialism: two additional sites in adjacent regions of the player's choice, both between 3.0 and 3.9 development and with no infrastructure.
Technological Superiority: two Data Centres in the capital instead of the Hydroponic Farm, and two 150-cost technologies of the player's choice.
Developed Industry: an additional Manufacturing Plant in the capital

The development of a site is the logarithm base 10 of its population - that is to say, for each level of development the population of a site increases tenfold. This exists purely for roleplaying purposes and the population of a site has no mechanical effect. If a calculator is not handy, refer to the chart below (for example, a site at development 3.4 has 2,510 inhabitants):

Dev. -- Pop.
X.0 -- *1.00
X.1 -- *1.26
X.2 -- *1.58
X.3 -- *2.00
X.4 -- *2.51
X.5 -- *3.16
X.6 -- *3.98
X.7 -- *5.01
X.8 -- *6.31
X.9 -- *7.94

---

Application

Notes: remove all remarks in brackets. Instead of a separate RP sample, your roleplaying ability will be judged from how well-written your history section is.

Code: Select all

[align=center][size=150][b](insert faction name here)[/b][/size]
[i]Application[/i][/align]
[b]Location:[/b] (the map region in which the capital site of the faction is located)
[b]Bonuses:[/b] (the bonuses the faction starts out with, from the list at Appendix F; if Early Imperialism is chosen, list the regions in which the secondary sites are located)
[b]Leader:[/b] (current leader; delete this section if the faction has no clear leader)
[b]Ideology:[/b] (the official reason for the existence of the faction; delete this section if there is none)
[b]History:[/b] (the past history of the faction; starting with the Cataclysm in 2195, if the faction can draw its lineage that far, or from whenever the faction was founded)

[G-Tech Corporation]

Mmm.. that tech tree... I'm salivating.

In other news: just put together a cheap and fast but hopefully fun dice RP for the lads.
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=483165

[Plzen]

Mmm.. that tech tree... I'm salivating.

It's a bunch of completely linear branches, though. :p Literally the simplest thing I could get away with calling a "tech tree".

Nice to hear the interest, though! I recall you tend to play these mechanical roleplays fairly aggressively, which is absolutely perfect for this setting.

In other news: just put together a cheap and fast but hopefully fun dice RP for the lads.
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=483165

I would say that I don't have any free time, but I didn't have any free time two RP applications ago...

[G-Tech Corporation]

Nice to hear the interest, though! I recall you tend to play these mechanical roleplays fairly aggressively, which is absolutely perfect for this setting.

Actually I usually try to play as a builder/technologist... but most RPGs are designed in such a way that aggression is the only way to expand past the midgame, and it isn't uncommon for me to have teched hard enough to be able to begin expansion before anyone else has a military.

[Plzen]

Actually I usually try to play as a builder/technologist... but most RPGs are designed in such a way that aggression is the only way to expand past the midgame, and it isn't uncommon for me to have teched hard enough to be able to begin expansion before anyone else has a military.

I mean, even in mechanical roleplays that offer lacklustre options for building "tall", a lot of players have a tendency to turtle up and surround themselves with people they're more or less fine with... I very much tried to discourage a "tall" strategy with how I designed this RP; as I'm sure you've noticed, unlike in many other roleplay mechanics, in this one getting additional technologies does not help very much in developing already well-developed sites... hopefully, the only reason why anyone would want to put down the 2,500 agriculture it takes to turn a 8.0-dev site into a 9.0-dev one is if they're aiming for the wealth victory.

In any case, I very much look forwards to the usual G-Tech steamroller. :p This is probably as close an opportunity you're going to get to play the Imperium other than an actual 40k roleplay...

[Plzen]

It is now up.

[G-Tech Corporation]

So! I'm considering refurbishing an old RP, Corporate Cosmos. Anyone have interest? Thoughts on what you liked? Thoughts on what you didn't?

I'll likely be subdividing territories more to allow for greater environmental degradation and enhancement, and limiting players from running multiple entities.