Lords of the Expanse

SG · Jun 6, 2017, 7:40 PM

Lords of the expanse diplomacy: Fall of the Republic.

Set in the Clone Wars era, players will play out the Clone Wars as members of the Nobles of Tapani, a wealthy sector whose sons and daughters run most aspects of the Galactic Republic.

Factions:

The Noble Houses:
House Barnaba
House Cadriaan
House Calipsa
House Mecetti
House Melantha
House Pelagia
House Reena
The Free Worlds
Imperials

The war’s game board takes place inside the Tapani sector, as whoever controls Tapani will control the fate of the galaxy.

The players grid will be upon Procopia, the neutral world of the Tapani Sector set up as a place where Noble houses can meet. Procopia has a formidable fleet with no Hyperdrive capability, and can withstand any assault. They do not allow any other warcraft inside they system. Any armed ship larger than a Corvette will be attacked and destroyed upon entry to the system.

Each player will have one Noble bit to represent the house of their choosing. They can rp on Procopia to participate in the diplomatic fortunes of their house. If a player is absent, the next highest ranking player of that faction will be able to make the houses’s move for the game turn. If no player from that House is available for the turn, their house is considered in Disarray, and their forces will hold for that turn.

Players can CG expendable ~~mooks~~clones for battles that they wish to play out. (On an FS3 based game)

If a House loses all of its territory, the players are then held as hostages to ensure the behavior of their subjects(IE they don’t die, they can play on Procopia as LOSERS).. They can pledge to another house if they wish, but will start at a the bottom rank within that house.
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This seems like it could be pretty quick to set up, I'd just need to bang out a grid with private TS negotiation chambres and House enclaves.

Questions:

Should mook PCs be able to influence the outcomes of battles? IE if the players mop the floor with the NPCs should fleet moves be cancelled?

How much assassination should take place on Procopia? Don't like a House superior? Gack them!

Ominous · Jun 6, 2017, 9:25 PM

Awesome! I was actually working out a similar idea only in a fantasy setting. My only nitpick is that it is in the Star Wars universe instead of DUNE or an original IP, but if everything else is awesome, it is an easy thing to swallow.

As to your questions. It depends on what you mean by having a mook PCs influence the outcomes of battles. If your goal is to allow players to RP their own fights and activities during a battle without it having any effect, then I would be fine with mooks not influencing battles, as long as that is made clear. however, if the battle is just a bunch of PCs, both mook and non-mook, in a room doing stuff, what points is there for the mooks being there if they have no agency in the outcome?

If you include assassination, it needs to be developed fully into the game mechanics. It needs to be something PCs expect and can take easy countermeasures against. Otherwise it just leads to grief.

SG · Jun 6, 2017, 11:41 PM

@Ominous Yeah, this is very much a lunch time fantasy at the moment. I just had another idea about using FS3 vehicles for napoleonic line battles somehow.

Lotherio · Jun 6, 2017, 11:53 PM

@SG http://musoapbox.net/topic/1593/fs3/118

It can especially with use of hit locations.

SG · Jun 7, 2017, 1:03 AM

@Lotherio oh awesome!

Lotherio · Jun 7, 2017, 1:04 AM

@SG I don't recall the code on passenger locations and gunners, but pretty sure you could be hit depending on location. Being in right flank while rolling for those troops could sustain an actual hit for being in that location. And spill damage. Center of troops with small chance of damage to nearby flank (vehicle was like engine hit could spill to cockpit). Or however you set it up. I'd love to see what you come up with either way.

SG · Jun 7, 2017, 1:06 AM

@Lotherio We'll see! Either way, it looks like a sharpe marathon coming up!

SG · Jun 7, 2017, 2:43 AM

@Lotherio I had a little line battle just now. If I statted things correctly, british majors driving Regular Line Infantry are much better than French lieutenants driving Green line infantry. I don't think I had the hit locations right, it was returning blank spaces.

I went with something like this (87 being the gear object):

&WEAPON_MUSKET #87=A Line Infantry Musket|Firearms|4|0|4|Ranged|Personal|0|10|0|50|0|Physical|0|0|1
&WEAPON_BAYONET #87=A Bayonet|Melee|Melee|-1|0|Melee|Personal Vehicle|0|0|0|0|0|Physical|0|0|0
&ARMOR_COMPANY #87=A formation of soldiers large enough to soak damage|Commander Right_Flank Left_Flank Centre|4|Vehicle

&VEHICLE_RLIS #87=Regular Line Squad|Command|4|1|0|MUSKET BAYONET|0
&VEHICLE_GLIS #87=Green Line Squad|Command-1|4|1|0|MUSKET BAYONET|0
&VEHICLE_VLIS #87=Veteran Line Squad|Command+1|4|1|0|MUSKET BAYONET|0
&VEHICLE_ELIS #87=Elite Line Squad|Command+2|4|1|0|MUSKET BAYONET|0

faraday · Jun 7, 2017, 3:12 AM

@SG said in Lords of the Expanse:

@Lotherio I had a little line battle just now. If I statted things correctly, british majors driving Regular Line Infantry are much better than French lieutenants driving Green line infantry. I don't think I had the hit locations right, it was returning blank spaces.

You'd need to set up a hit location table for "Company" . There are some instructions here.

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure the system doesn't handle a weapon skill like "Command-1". It's just expecting that to be an ability name.

ETA: The way to make the different vehicles superior/inferior to one another is to adjust their toughness and dodge ratings. You can also give them different armor types.

Oh....also 'Armor' in the vehicle stat needs to be an armor type. Right now you have it looking for armor type '1', which doesn't exist.

SG · Jun 7, 2017, 5:10 AM

@faraday oh cool, I'll tinker with that! Thanks!

Sweet, have everything working. Now all I need are cannons and cavalry!

Lotherio · Jun 7, 2017, 11:41 AM

@SG While you just need a base skill as @faraday mentioned, 'command', you can add a modifier to the npc or player rolling for the duration of the combat when prepping combat to represent things like better training (or just higher morale for good rp/William Wallace speech pre-engagement). Glad it's working for you.

SG · Jul 11, 2017, 6:07 PM

@Lotherio I was thinking about this hack for doing a hackers type scenario as well. Having a group of PCs driving their decks as they attack the SysOp running their Gibson has me very happy. Using floppies as ammo, taking cover in a directory tree as the ICE hunts them down..

Especially as I realize the vehicle code could have the computers blowing up star trek style and killing the users!

One of these days I'll get around to taking this seriously rather than working on my steam backlog.

Lotherio · Jul 12, 2017, 12:57 AM

@SG That would be awesome. Could make hit locations where a user is more susceptible to that damage. Armor could be virus protection. Lots of play room with vehicle weapons.

Toying with fortifications vs siege weapons currently. Had a turtle battering ram vs wall and archers battle. They had a medic on top just in case, who happened to take the worst hit.

Lots of potential. Hope the net working vr works out well for you.