PMChapmanii
2012-09-26, 09:14 AM
To keep it from vanishing.Just something you might like: http://www.bigheadpress.com/eft?page=1
Astronomers had long speculated that there were other habitable planets in the universe. In 2116, they were finally proven correct; a probe that was sent out that discovered a planet in orbit around Tau Ceti that not only had liquid water, but had detectable oxygen in its atmosphere comparable to Earth; a sure sign of life. This knowledge has just touched off a punishing space race, as all the factions on the overcrowded Earth worked to be the first to reach this new planet as a way of bettering life.
The Earth of the near future suffers from an overabundance of people, nationalism, and weapons. Because of the globalized, interdependent economy, the last major war was world war two—what proceeded since then was a deepening economic and military cold war between several of the strongest nations.
21st Century History and Technological Outline
By the time the colonists departed, the technological landscape of society had changed dramatically from the early 21st century. Advances in computation and biological engineering in the first part of the century transformed virtually every industry, and slowly began to make human labor completely obsolete. While everything looked sunny for the first three or so decades of the 21st century, several events were especially transformative, and foreshadowed the much more turbulent years that would occur in the following century:
As computational power became cheaper and cheaper, and the internet became even more all-encompassing, natural selection began to act on programs launched autonomously on cloud computing networks. Originally developed as a way to get software to write itself, they began to become more and more complex, eventually evading regulatory mechanisms. This culminated in 2039 with the rise of what is now known as Charybdis, a superorganism composed of an entire ecosystem of computer viruses that essentially brought the information age to an end. Any system exposed to the general cloud network was inevitably compromised by Charybdis, which necessitated a separation of all computer networks.
Charybdis was initially devastating to the world economy, but in the following years humanity adapted to the dearth of easily accessible information by building up its human expertise. Advances in longevity research allowed people to work into their 80’s and 90’s, and nootropic drugs and cybernetic implants allowed those who were working to become that much more effective.
Gene therapy became a reality in the 2020’s, which resulted in a revolution in medicine, industry and reproductive biology. The human genome saw the import of thousands of genes from other organisms, as well as de novo tinkering that massively increased the diversity within the population. The spectrum of human talent exploded, with geniuses that would have been the leading lights of any other generation becoming C-students compared to the new generations.
There was a darker side to this transformation; only the rich had access to the best gene therapy, which resulted in a further stratification of society as the rich had children that were genetically superior to the poor, and increasingly in charge of policy making with regard to gene therapy and the welfare system. By the mid 2060’s, a huge population of unemployed and unemployable people existed in various states of destitution all over the world. This led to un-resolvable unrest in many societies, an omnipresent gun to the head of world leaders; if they didn’t find some way to placate the masses, they would be dragged down by revolution. In the late 2060’s, a series of bioterrorism attacks targeted those who had been the most genetically modified, which triggered crackdowns by governments against the poor. This dragged on for another decade until advances in fusion power and nanotechnology, combined with various civil rights campaigns brought about welfare states that allowed the poor to live despite their permanent unemployment.
In the last ten years of the century, nanotechnology really came into its own; virtually all tasks could be accomplished through use of nanites, which caused an unprecedented expansion of wealth. It also presented another problem to societies; material goods were so cheap that they were essentially free. Various powerful capitalistic economies struggled as the main underpinning of their economic system, scarcity, was called into question. What eventually crawled out of the corpse of market economics was a much-neutered version of its rapacious ancestor; a free-market exchange of information as the only resource not rendered free by nanotechnology. This system persisted until the colonists departed, as AIs (which were strangled in the cradle by Charybdis) were still not powerful enough to replace the most heavily modified human brains.
Human Biology in 2120
By the time the world was discovered, all disease that springs from defects in human biology had been eliminated except for those too poor or ideological to afford the now-subsidized gene therapies; cancer, heart disease and aging are the three notable examples. Furthermore, the changes that eliminated these scourges were genetic, and, therefore, heritable. Even the colonists, stranded on Tau Ceti III away from the Earth’s advanced technology do not have to worry about these maladies. The average colonist is a paragon of health, vigor and intellect, with even the lowliest janitor able to put the grandest intellects of 2012 to shame. There has also been innovation on the basic human body plan, as people tailor their (and their offsprings’) biology to suit their whims; everything from extra limbs to gigantic size to gills have been incorporated into some fraction of the population.
The innovation that allowed this transformation was a way to make the human genome itself encode self-replicating nanites and enough information storage to program them to maintain the long-term health of the individual. In theory, the nanites can even protect individuals from traumatic injury, rebuilding dead tissue in minutes, so long as the organism itself is intact.
While the theoretical lifespan of a human is now essentially infinite, the nanites encoded by the genome eventually begin to replicate out of control, consuming the individual slowly, then rapidly as the nanites become more unrestrained and mass-greedy, only stopped when the individual dies because of their inability to survive outside the body. This “nano cancer” had become the most common cause of death by the time of the colonists’ departure, but because the death rate from nano cancer was so much lower than that caused by the diseases it cured, the nanites were left in place.
As a safeguard against nano cancer, people born in the 30-40 years leading up to the expeditions’ departure didn’t express the nanites until some traumatic event caused them to be expressed, such as a heart attack or tumor. “Coming into your nanites” became a rite of passage, particularly in military cultures. This is important in modern militaries, because when the nanites initially come on, it takes hours to days before they can be effective; if the triggering event was a gunshot wound, that is far too long to save the soldier’s life. That’s why virtually all boot camps include a regimen that activates the soldiers’ latent nanites.
This game has two stages, 1st trying to get to the 'planet', and living on the planet when you get there
You could be an organization, a rich kid who wants to say he was the first one on the planet, or even to a group of pore people working together in hopes of a better life. Just think it up. What is important to remember is that most of your resources are tied up in other things.
What you start out with
Each player can choose 8 of the following (they can be chosen more than once and improve the next one):
-1 level 5 military tool (of 2120 tech level) plus if picked again that item is two level higher than this one.
-3 level 5 non-military tools (of 2120 tech level) pluses if picked again those items are two levels higher than these ones.
-1 additional PU and one less year to wait for pu point of first colonists, each pu starts with 20 xp that may be given to another pu if done before they are stated out. 4 years of not having to wait for pu points can be changed for a pu point, same other way.
-15 extra xp for all PUs that cannot be moved between pu's, each time this is picked it increases by 4 the next time it is picked. If you want to be able to move the xp between pu's then the xp gained is divided by half.
You will later be able to choose two more just before leaving, unless you want to leave early and get there a year early.
If you dedicate skill to only one of the 6 main areas until after you leave Sol then you will get an extra choice, this includes robots/AI's.
What you need to get off Sol
Suspended animation equipment (to hold PU's), level=number of Pu's and/or years less to gain pu points. (Will affect size of ship, giving space when cleared out= 2*level) Ex. level 7 will hold 3 pu's and 3 years of not having to wait, it could fit another pu or year of not having to wait (but where would the other go?), Alternatively it could fit 6 pu's and 1 year of not having to wait (switching 4 years for 1 pu).
A way to get there, the UN will take care of this if you are willing to give up the suspended animation equipment after getting there, naturally getting non-legal weapons over there would not be possible. Or you can get the Ramjet upgrade for you're suspended animation equipment to make it a colony ship, this does include basic communication and censor equipment with UN anti aggregation AI. Level does not make you faster but improves agility of ship and affects available space inside.
Someone/thing to perform actions/think. It is suggested to have at least 5 pu's. (which happens to equal out perfectly with only needing a level 5 Suspended animation equipment :smallbiggrin: )
It is ideal to have a way down to the planet, and to have brought some defensive/legal weapons. Since some one may have left early to get a tactical evaluation/advantage and attack you when you enter, :smallwink: , nudge nudge.
How the game is played
Turns
Turns: The game progresses in increments of one game year, which represents a week of real time. A turn consists of actions by the players, roll playing and diplomacy between players and between players and NPCs, and reactions of other players' actions.
Actions: During each turn, players submit a series of actions, which are performed by population units. Each population unit (PU), which represents 200 individuals,can perform 2 actions per turn. Actions are described qualitatively, and resolved by the game master. The extent of successor failure of an action will be modified by the abilities of the population unit performing it, the resources and facilities they use to perform it, the way the action is described (forexample,does it make sense, was there something especially clever that makes it more likelyto work, etc.), random chance, and opposing actions.
An action can be basically anything that could reasonably be expected to take roughly six months, spread out over a year. Some exampleactionsare below:
-My level 1 farmer hired natives work on the settlement's hydroponics farm using level 1 farming tools -My level 5 engineers build a consumer goods factory using the colony ship's level 3 construction module -The new population unit studies the colony's archives in the level 1 settlement school to get better at economics -My level 4 miners prospect for natural gas deposits in (map coordinates) using level 2 mining tools
There are five things that can modify the results of an action: -Skills of the PU performing the action -The tools the PU is using to perform the action -The facility used by the PU to perform the action -Miscellaneous modifiers,such as access to rare resources or hostile terrain -The player's description of the action
The modifiers of the relevant skills/tools/facilities can either apply fully (providing their full value), partially (providing at most half of their value, often less), or not at all (not providing their boni). This is determined by the GM.
skills
A skill represents an ability that a population unit has over and above any normal population unit. Skills are learned either through experience, or through study of the colony's archives. A skill can be as specific or as general as the player wants, though as a general rule a skill will apply its full bonus to fewer applications as it becomes more general.
Every time a skill is used and applies its full bonus toward an action, the PU gains one experience point or experience points equal to 25% of that skill, in that skill. This only works for one skill, if more than one skill gives a full bonus to something then pick one. When a PU has experience points equal to the skill's current level plus 2, it gains a level in the skill. Each action spent learning a skill through study provides one experience point base, plus the level of the school the study is taking place.
Science skills: There are 6 special skills that all other skills fall under. Because the science skills are so general, they never provide their full bonus to an action, so the only way to increase them is study at a school. When you are making something these skills can be important as without them what you make is capped by by its relevant skill that is in you're fraction. An example of this is if you had electrical engineering 6 and electrical engineering tools 3 you could only make an electrical system such as solar power at level 6 unless you had some one with economics above 6.
The six science skills are: Economics: A blanket term for a number of disciplines including the core of economics as well as industrial chemistry and business acumen, this branch focuses on improving the yields of factories, labs, power plants and farms. Example skills: Farming, Mining, Prospecting, Logistics, Robotics
Espionage: While not truly a science, it is suitably complex that it requires its own set of specialists. This encompasses nearly any action considered “blackops”. Example skills: Cryptography, Disguise, Sabotage, Counterespionage, Hacking
Fringe: Initially the xenobiology program, this branch of science opens a number of new possibilities, as scientists are inspired by concepts in the new system that are completely alien to old Earth. This branch includes the study of the life forms of Tau Ceti, as well as psionics, cybernetics, mind/machine interfaces and all sorts of weirdness. Example skills: Cybernetics, Xenobiology, Thought Control, AI
Liberal Arts: The study of how to run a society, how to make a culture flourish, and how to avoid making the mistakes of old Earth. This will also be useful for establishing productive interactions with the natives. Example skills: Diplomacy, Ceti culture, Human Resources, Propaganda, Governing
Medicine: The study of biology and medicine will be useful for improving population growth rates and food yields, as well as biotechnological applications. Example skills: Reproductive Cloning, Bioengineering, Virology, Gene Therapy
Physics: A branch of science with predominantly military applications, but also economic implications as it allows for the exploitation of space. Example skills: Nuclear Weapons Manufacturing, Piloting, Plasma physics
Education
The skill teach will only give you 25% bonus to educating someone, having skill in one of the six science skills will give a 50% bonus to teaching skills in that area, and having the skill will give a 100% bonus to that skill only. This is the same for educational facility's. Performing a teaching action does not give you points in teach, you have to actually study it or teach it to yourself. You can only use one facility and one person at a time for one skill though mega project's will be available to change that.
Tools
Tools are any object that aids in accomplishing the task at hand, from construction equipment to cutting lasers to F-22s. Tools can be built with an action, with relevant mods increasing the level of the resulting tool, but may only be used by one PU at a time-- for instance, if there were three farming actions in a turn, a single set of farming tools could apply to only two of them. A tool's level is determined by the skills of the PU making the tools, the facility where they're manufactured and any tools used in their construction. A single unit of tools (created at a relevant factory with an action) is enough of the tool in question for an entire PU. For example, a “Plasma rifle” tool would be enough plasma rifles and supporting equipment to outfit 200 soldiers. Depending on the tools, more than one tool may be required for an action; for example, if you wanted to have the plasma-rifle wielding soldiers attack a target on the other side of an ocean, they would need a boat or an aircraft in addition to the plasma rifles. Each tool would apply its bonus to each relevant check; for example, if someone else was trying to get their first, the level of the vehicle would become importation, whereas the plasma rifles would be more important for the fight itself (though the vehicle may contribute part of its bonus if it is combat-worthy).
Tool levels are capped at the highest level of the relevant science skill that any PU in the faction has. For example, if a PU with level 2 Tank Manufacturing skill was using a level 3 tank factory to produce a tank, but the highest Physics skill of the faction was 4, the tank would be level 4 (instead of 5). However if you had a different pu that had level 5 Tank Manufacturing then it would be at level 5
Many tools have requirements that must be met for them to be used. For example, almost all vehicles available from the start of the game require fuel.
Facility's
The buildings, factories, homes and defensive structures of your faction, these will improve the outcome of any action performed at them. Like tools, a facility can only be used by one PU at a time. Facilities are capped by the relevant science skill in the same way as tools. Facilities, like tools, have requirements that must be met in order to use them. For example, all facilities except for power plants require energy in order to operate.
Population Units
A Population Unit (PU) represents 200 people who work as a group. Each population unit has a set of skills, and a set of requirements that must be met in order for them to perform at full strength. Skills can be obtained through study, practice or chance, while requirements can change over time in response to skills, random events or other players' actions.
Requirements: If a population unit's requirements aren't met, it can only perform a single action per turn and doesn't contribute to population growth. Depending on the circumstances it may die, have morale problems, desert, or otherwise behave in unfavorable ways.
All population units require 1 unit of food per turn, and one unit of consumer goods for every 3 total skill ranks (always round up). This is not needed in the beginning well on Sol.
Every turn, each PU contributes one point of population growth. When a faction has 20 growth points, it gets a new PU that appears at a facility of its choice. Unless you bring children along it will take 15 turns till you gain PU points, a new pu must wait 15 turns till they develop PU points.
Resources
There are natural resources that can improve the outcome of certain actions, and increase the effective level of various facilities and tools. For example, rare earth metals would be a boon to the manufacturing industries of a faction that controlled a working mine, while petroleum deposits could ease early-game energy production a great deal.
Automation
Facilities and computer can be automated, so that they perform actions without human intervention. To automate a facility, such as a consumer goods factory, you will need:
1. Build the facility
2. Build robots for the facility at a factory of some kind (robotics factory, general-purpose factory)
3. A PU with the Robotics skill must install the robots at the facility. The level of the robots and level of Robotics skill of the installing PU, whichever is lower cap the level of the actions the factory will perform on its own. Initially, automating a facility doubles its power requirements, and robots can only use tools that are exactly right for the job (100% bonus to the action at hand); robots do not improvise.
Automating a computer to perform a mental action works much the same way:
1. Build a computerized facility
2. Write an AI for the computer, which can be accomplished on the personal computers that are a part of consumer goods requirements
3. A PU with the AI skill must install the AI, which caps the actions the computer takes in the same way that robots work.
Automating tools to perform actions on their own is a megaproject.
2120 AIs and Robots can have skills, a number of which up to 25% of their level. Their skills cap at 125% of their level. AIs and Robots taken on embark start with one skill of the same level they are.
Travel
PUs need vehicles in order to perform an action that is in a different hex; the range they can travel as part of an action will be noted in the vehicle's tool description. Human PUs can move around without a vehicle as a travel action; by spending a travel action they can move to anywhere on the same continent. Moving goods around, such as food, ammunition, and consumer goods will require appropriate vehicles.
Megaprojects, Epoch Transitions and Feasibility Studies
While increasing the level of science skills does advance technology, there are important milestones that are especially transformative, and will require special efforts in order to unlock. These technologies initially require a PU to perform a feasibility study action. Based on the relevant skills of the PU, the game master will send a list of the requirements (in terms of skill levels, tools and facilities) for making that epoch transition. These requirements will be different based on the skill of the PU that did the initial study, and may be under- or over-estimates; these will become apparent whenever another feasibility study is done on the project. This applies to major technological advances, such as the rediscovery of fusion power or nanotechnology, or the completion of a large project, such as building another colony ship, space elevator, ICBM defense network, or any comparably huge project.
Impossible actions
In general, the skills, tools and facilities at hand simply affect the quality of the result, but there are some actions that are actively impossible without the correct tools, skills or facilities. For example, you can't tell a bunch of captive natives with bone tools to make you a new interstellar spacecraft and expect them to make a level 1 ship. The GM will inform you when you've given an impossible order, and you may change your action within reason. This doesn't retcon the order though-- your people still got the nonsense order, which could affect morale.
Guidelines for energy production
If built before leaving Sol then it takes no energy.
If built by nanite Construction Modules or 'upgraded' they take 1/2 the energy of 2020, non if it only took 1 energy to begin with, and 1 for all pu's if it is housing.
2020 tech (prior to energy use reduction megaproject/epoch transition):
Farms: 1 energy/action
Housing: 1 energy/PU housed/year
Factories: 4 energy/action
Mines: 2 energy/action
Labs: 6 energy/action
Tools: Depends on what they're for; basic construction kits use no energy, but vehicles and tools intended for factory use typically use 2-3 energy/action
Renewable energy structures: 50% of level for no action or +mods for an action
Nonrenewable energy structures: Resource-dependent but typically around 75% as efficient as 2120 tech. For example, burning coal will produce 3 energy at 2020 tech level, and 4 energy at 2120 tech level.
HFOG
HFOG'd PUs (which I will just refer to as civilians from now on) will be more explicitly able to do things instead of actions, and if given a bit of infrastructure (a "Civilian Infrastructure" facility, which would support 1 Civilian PU/level) would only require energy (1/turn/PU) and 1 unit of Consumer Goods/turn.
In addition, each civilian would be able to occupy one "slot" in a civilian district facility. The civilian districts would be distinct from normal facilities in that any number of civilian PUs can occupy them in a turn, but they would only perform equal to 25% of their level (and 25% of their power requirements) per PU per turn. For example, a level 5 Consumer Goods Production District with 2 civilian PUs working it would produce 4 Consumer goods (5/4 = 2 * 2 = 4) and consume 2 energy (consumer goods factories take 4 energy/action, so 4/4 = 1 energy/PU) in a turn. A level 10 Consumer Goods Production District with 5 civilian PUs working it would produce 15 consumer goods (10/4 = 3 * 5 = 15) and use 5 energy, and so on. You could also make things like civilian laboratory districts (for doing research actions), education districts (to get experience points for the PUs working them; 25% of the district's level per PU per turn), power plant districts, specific factories (civilian aerospace factory district, for example), that would work in the same way. The civilian districts would still face the normal caps on product quality, though (so a tool made by civilians would still face the caps, even if the district's total bonus was way over the cap).
The idea being that the civilians would expand the district as necessary, and the 25% figure is what's left over after normal economic activity among the civilians. Factions don't have to spend their valuable non-HFOG'd actions building tons of infrastructure for civilians (because the districts can accommodate any number of PUs), but a bit of civilian infrastructure can actually help. Tools and skills would work at 25% of their normal levels. Civilian PUs however do not gain skill as what they are doing is spread to thin to specialize in a single skill, unless it is gained in an education district.
3) Consumer goods requirements are capped at 10, and Entertainment/Government/Religion/Thought Control CG-producing actions can be either HFOG points or CGs, player's choice.
Any pu's gained that where not taken with you from Sol are considered Civilian pu's unless you do a mega project make's them otherwise.
Points
PU HFOG points
1st 10
2nd 21
3rd 33
4th 46
5th 60
6th 75
7th 91
8th 108
9th 126
10th 145
11th 165
12th 186
13th 208
14th 231
15th 255
16th 280
17th 306
18th 333
19th 361
20th 390
For those who came from Seti Tau Ceti
Changed PU points, skill learning and gaining, HFOG.
Astronomers had long speculated that there were other habitable planets in the universe. In 2116, they were finally proven correct; a probe that was sent out that discovered a planet in orbit around Tau Ceti that not only had liquid water, but had detectable oxygen in its atmosphere comparable to Earth; a sure sign of life. This knowledge has just touched off a punishing space race, as all the factions on the overcrowded Earth worked to be the first to reach this new planet as a way of bettering life.
The Earth of the near future suffers from an overabundance of people, nationalism, and weapons. Because of the globalized, interdependent economy, the last major war was world war two—what proceeded since then was a deepening economic and military cold war between several of the strongest nations.
21st Century History and Technological Outline
By the time the colonists departed, the technological landscape of society had changed dramatically from the early 21st century. Advances in computation and biological engineering in the first part of the century transformed virtually every industry, and slowly began to make human labor completely obsolete. While everything looked sunny for the first three or so decades of the 21st century, several events were especially transformative, and foreshadowed the much more turbulent years that would occur in the following century:
As computational power became cheaper and cheaper, and the internet became even more all-encompassing, natural selection began to act on programs launched autonomously on cloud computing networks. Originally developed as a way to get software to write itself, they began to become more and more complex, eventually evading regulatory mechanisms. This culminated in 2039 with the rise of what is now known as Charybdis, a superorganism composed of an entire ecosystem of computer viruses that essentially brought the information age to an end. Any system exposed to the general cloud network was inevitably compromised by Charybdis, which necessitated a separation of all computer networks.
Charybdis was initially devastating to the world economy, but in the following years humanity adapted to the dearth of easily accessible information by building up its human expertise. Advances in longevity research allowed people to work into their 80’s and 90’s, and nootropic drugs and cybernetic implants allowed those who were working to become that much more effective.
Gene therapy became a reality in the 2020’s, which resulted in a revolution in medicine, industry and reproductive biology. The human genome saw the import of thousands of genes from other organisms, as well as de novo tinkering that massively increased the diversity within the population. The spectrum of human talent exploded, with geniuses that would have been the leading lights of any other generation becoming C-students compared to the new generations.
There was a darker side to this transformation; only the rich had access to the best gene therapy, which resulted in a further stratification of society as the rich had children that were genetically superior to the poor, and increasingly in charge of policy making with regard to gene therapy and the welfare system. By the mid 2060’s, a huge population of unemployed and unemployable people existed in various states of destitution all over the world. This led to un-resolvable unrest in many societies, an omnipresent gun to the head of world leaders; if they didn’t find some way to placate the masses, they would be dragged down by revolution. In the late 2060’s, a series of bioterrorism attacks targeted those who had been the most genetically modified, which triggered crackdowns by governments against the poor. This dragged on for another decade until advances in fusion power and nanotechnology, combined with various civil rights campaigns brought about welfare states that allowed the poor to live despite their permanent unemployment.
In the last ten years of the century, nanotechnology really came into its own; virtually all tasks could be accomplished through use of nanites, which caused an unprecedented expansion of wealth. It also presented another problem to societies; material goods were so cheap that they were essentially free. Various powerful capitalistic economies struggled as the main underpinning of their economic system, scarcity, was called into question. What eventually crawled out of the corpse of market economics was a much-neutered version of its rapacious ancestor; a free-market exchange of information as the only resource not rendered free by nanotechnology. This system persisted until the colonists departed, as AIs (which were strangled in the cradle by Charybdis) were still not powerful enough to replace the most heavily modified human brains.
Human Biology in 2120
By the time the world was discovered, all disease that springs from defects in human biology had been eliminated except for those too poor or ideological to afford the now-subsidized gene therapies; cancer, heart disease and aging are the three notable examples. Furthermore, the changes that eliminated these scourges were genetic, and, therefore, heritable. Even the colonists, stranded on Tau Ceti III away from the Earth’s advanced technology do not have to worry about these maladies. The average colonist is a paragon of health, vigor and intellect, with even the lowliest janitor able to put the grandest intellects of 2012 to shame. There has also been innovation on the basic human body plan, as people tailor their (and their offsprings’) biology to suit their whims; everything from extra limbs to gigantic size to gills have been incorporated into some fraction of the population.
The innovation that allowed this transformation was a way to make the human genome itself encode self-replicating nanites and enough information storage to program them to maintain the long-term health of the individual. In theory, the nanites can even protect individuals from traumatic injury, rebuilding dead tissue in minutes, so long as the organism itself is intact.
While the theoretical lifespan of a human is now essentially infinite, the nanites encoded by the genome eventually begin to replicate out of control, consuming the individual slowly, then rapidly as the nanites become more unrestrained and mass-greedy, only stopped when the individual dies because of their inability to survive outside the body. This “nano cancer” had become the most common cause of death by the time of the colonists’ departure, but because the death rate from nano cancer was so much lower than that caused by the diseases it cured, the nanites were left in place.
As a safeguard against nano cancer, people born in the 30-40 years leading up to the expeditions’ departure didn’t express the nanites until some traumatic event caused them to be expressed, such as a heart attack or tumor. “Coming into your nanites” became a rite of passage, particularly in military cultures. This is important in modern militaries, because when the nanites initially come on, it takes hours to days before they can be effective; if the triggering event was a gunshot wound, that is far too long to save the soldier’s life. That’s why virtually all boot camps include a regimen that activates the soldiers’ latent nanites.
This game has two stages, 1st trying to get to the 'planet', and living on the planet when you get there
You could be an organization, a rich kid who wants to say he was the first one on the planet, or even to a group of pore people working together in hopes of a better life. Just think it up. What is important to remember is that most of your resources are tied up in other things.
What you start out with
Each player can choose 8 of the following (they can be chosen more than once and improve the next one):
-1 level 5 military tool (of 2120 tech level) plus if picked again that item is two level higher than this one.
-3 level 5 non-military tools (of 2120 tech level) pluses if picked again those items are two levels higher than these ones.
-1 additional PU and one less year to wait for pu point of first colonists, each pu starts with 20 xp that may be given to another pu if done before they are stated out. 4 years of not having to wait for pu points can be changed for a pu point, same other way.
-15 extra xp for all PUs that cannot be moved between pu's, each time this is picked it increases by 4 the next time it is picked. If you want to be able to move the xp between pu's then the xp gained is divided by half.
You will later be able to choose two more just before leaving, unless you want to leave early and get there a year early.
If you dedicate skill to only one of the 6 main areas until after you leave Sol then you will get an extra choice, this includes robots/AI's.
What you need to get off Sol
Suspended animation equipment (to hold PU's), level=number of Pu's and/or years less to gain pu points. (Will affect size of ship, giving space when cleared out= 2*level) Ex. level 7 will hold 3 pu's and 3 years of not having to wait, it could fit another pu or year of not having to wait (but where would the other go?), Alternatively it could fit 6 pu's and 1 year of not having to wait (switching 4 years for 1 pu).
A way to get there, the UN will take care of this if you are willing to give up the suspended animation equipment after getting there, naturally getting non-legal weapons over there would not be possible. Or you can get the Ramjet upgrade for you're suspended animation equipment to make it a colony ship, this does include basic communication and censor equipment with UN anti aggregation AI. Level does not make you faster but improves agility of ship and affects available space inside.
Someone/thing to perform actions/think. It is suggested to have at least 5 pu's. (which happens to equal out perfectly with only needing a level 5 Suspended animation equipment :smallbiggrin: )
It is ideal to have a way down to the planet, and to have brought some defensive/legal weapons. Since some one may have left early to get a tactical evaluation/advantage and attack you when you enter, :smallwink: , nudge nudge.
How the game is played
Turns
Turns: The game progresses in increments of one game year, which represents a week of real time. A turn consists of actions by the players, roll playing and diplomacy between players and between players and NPCs, and reactions of other players' actions.
Actions: During each turn, players submit a series of actions, which are performed by population units. Each population unit (PU), which represents 200 individuals,can perform 2 actions per turn. Actions are described qualitatively, and resolved by the game master. The extent of successor failure of an action will be modified by the abilities of the population unit performing it, the resources and facilities they use to perform it, the way the action is described (forexample,does it make sense, was there something especially clever that makes it more likelyto work, etc.), random chance, and opposing actions.
An action can be basically anything that could reasonably be expected to take roughly six months, spread out over a year. Some exampleactionsare below:
-My level 1 farmer hired natives work on the settlement's hydroponics farm using level 1 farming tools -My level 5 engineers build a consumer goods factory using the colony ship's level 3 construction module -The new population unit studies the colony's archives in the level 1 settlement school to get better at economics -My level 4 miners prospect for natural gas deposits in (map coordinates) using level 2 mining tools
There are five things that can modify the results of an action: -Skills of the PU performing the action -The tools the PU is using to perform the action -The facility used by the PU to perform the action -Miscellaneous modifiers,such as access to rare resources or hostile terrain -The player's description of the action
The modifiers of the relevant skills/tools/facilities can either apply fully (providing their full value), partially (providing at most half of their value, often less), or not at all (not providing their boni). This is determined by the GM.
skills
A skill represents an ability that a population unit has over and above any normal population unit. Skills are learned either through experience, or through study of the colony's archives. A skill can be as specific or as general as the player wants, though as a general rule a skill will apply its full bonus to fewer applications as it becomes more general.
Every time a skill is used and applies its full bonus toward an action, the PU gains one experience point or experience points equal to 25% of that skill, in that skill. This only works for one skill, if more than one skill gives a full bonus to something then pick one. When a PU has experience points equal to the skill's current level plus 2, it gains a level in the skill. Each action spent learning a skill through study provides one experience point base, plus the level of the school the study is taking place.
Science skills: There are 6 special skills that all other skills fall under. Because the science skills are so general, they never provide their full bonus to an action, so the only way to increase them is study at a school. When you are making something these skills can be important as without them what you make is capped by by its relevant skill that is in you're fraction. An example of this is if you had electrical engineering 6 and electrical engineering tools 3 you could only make an electrical system such as solar power at level 6 unless you had some one with economics above 6.
The six science skills are: Economics: A blanket term for a number of disciplines including the core of economics as well as industrial chemistry and business acumen, this branch focuses on improving the yields of factories, labs, power plants and farms. Example skills: Farming, Mining, Prospecting, Logistics, Robotics
Espionage: While not truly a science, it is suitably complex that it requires its own set of specialists. This encompasses nearly any action considered “blackops”. Example skills: Cryptography, Disguise, Sabotage, Counterespionage, Hacking
Fringe: Initially the xenobiology program, this branch of science opens a number of new possibilities, as scientists are inspired by concepts in the new system that are completely alien to old Earth. This branch includes the study of the life forms of Tau Ceti, as well as psionics, cybernetics, mind/machine interfaces and all sorts of weirdness. Example skills: Cybernetics, Xenobiology, Thought Control, AI
Liberal Arts: The study of how to run a society, how to make a culture flourish, and how to avoid making the mistakes of old Earth. This will also be useful for establishing productive interactions with the natives. Example skills: Diplomacy, Ceti culture, Human Resources, Propaganda, Governing
Medicine: The study of biology and medicine will be useful for improving population growth rates and food yields, as well as biotechnological applications. Example skills: Reproductive Cloning, Bioengineering, Virology, Gene Therapy
Physics: A branch of science with predominantly military applications, but also economic implications as it allows for the exploitation of space. Example skills: Nuclear Weapons Manufacturing, Piloting, Plasma physics
Education
The skill teach will only give you 25% bonus to educating someone, having skill in one of the six science skills will give a 50% bonus to teaching skills in that area, and having the skill will give a 100% bonus to that skill only. This is the same for educational facility's. Performing a teaching action does not give you points in teach, you have to actually study it or teach it to yourself. You can only use one facility and one person at a time for one skill though mega project's will be available to change that.
Tools
Tools are any object that aids in accomplishing the task at hand, from construction equipment to cutting lasers to F-22s. Tools can be built with an action, with relevant mods increasing the level of the resulting tool, but may only be used by one PU at a time-- for instance, if there were three farming actions in a turn, a single set of farming tools could apply to only two of them. A tool's level is determined by the skills of the PU making the tools, the facility where they're manufactured and any tools used in their construction. A single unit of tools (created at a relevant factory with an action) is enough of the tool in question for an entire PU. For example, a “Plasma rifle” tool would be enough plasma rifles and supporting equipment to outfit 200 soldiers. Depending on the tools, more than one tool may be required for an action; for example, if you wanted to have the plasma-rifle wielding soldiers attack a target on the other side of an ocean, they would need a boat or an aircraft in addition to the plasma rifles. Each tool would apply its bonus to each relevant check; for example, if someone else was trying to get their first, the level of the vehicle would become importation, whereas the plasma rifles would be more important for the fight itself (though the vehicle may contribute part of its bonus if it is combat-worthy).
Tool levels are capped at the highest level of the relevant science skill that any PU in the faction has. For example, if a PU with level 2 Tank Manufacturing skill was using a level 3 tank factory to produce a tank, but the highest Physics skill of the faction was 4, the tank would be level 4 (instead of 5). However if you had a different pu that had level 5 Tank Manufacturing then it would be at level 5
Many tools have requirements that must be met for them to be used. For example, almost all vehicles available from the start of the game require fuel.
Facility's
The buildings, factories, homes and defensive structures of your faction, these will improve the outcome of any action performed at them. Like tools, a facility can only be used by one PU at a time. Facilities are capped by the relevant science skill in the same way as tools. Facilities, like tools, have requirements that must be met in order to use them. For example, all facilities except for power plants require energy in order to operate.
Population Units
A Population Unit (PU) represents 200 people who work as a group. Each population unit has a set of skills, and a set of requirements that must be met in order for them to perform at full strength. Skills can be obtained through study, practice or chance, while requirements can change over time in response to skills, random events or other players' actions.
Requirements: If a population unit's requirements aren't met, it can only perform a single action per turn and doesn't contribute to population growth. Depending on the circumstances it may die, have morale problems, desert, or otherwise behave in unfavorable ways.
All population units require 1 unit of food per turn, and one unit of consumer goods for every 3 total skill ranks (always round up). This is not needed in the beginning well on Sol.
Every turn, each PU contributes one point of population growth. When a faction has 20 growth points, it gets a new PU that appears at a facility of its choice. Unless you bring children along it will take 15 turns till you gain PU points, a new pu must wait 15 turns till they develop PU points.
Resources
There are natural resources that can improve the outcome of certain actions, and increase the effective level of various facilities and tools. For example, rare earth metals would be a boon to the manufacturing industries of a faction that controlled a working mine, while petroleum deposits could ease early-game energy production a great deal.
Automation
Facilities and computer can be automated, so that they perform actions without human intervention. To automate a facility, such as a consumer goods factory, you will need:
1. Build the facility
2. Build robots for the facility at a factory of some kind (robotics factory, general-purpose factory)
3. A PU with the Robotics skill must install the robots at the facility. The level of the robots and level of Robotics skill of the installing PU, whichever is lower cap the level of the actions the factory will perform on its own. Initially, automating a facility doubles its power requirements, and robots can only use tools that are exactly right for the job (100% bonus to the action at hand); robots do not improvise.
Automating a computer to perform a mental action works much the same way:
1. Build a computerized facility
2. Write an AI for the computer, which can be accomplished on the personal computers that are a part of consumer goods requirements
3. A PU with the AI skill must install the AI, which caps the actions the computer takes in the same way that robots work.
Automating tools to perform actions on their own is a megaproject.
2120 AIs and Robots can have skills, a number of which up to 25% of their level. Their skills cap at 125% of their level. AIs and Robots taken on embark start with one skill of the same level they are.
Travel
PUs need vehicles in order to perform an action that is in a different hex; the range they can travel as part of an action will be noted in the vehicle's tool description. Human PUs can move around without a vehicle as a travel action; by spending a travel action they can move to anywhere on the same continent. Moving goods around, such as food, ammunition, and consumer goods will require appropriate vehicles.
Megaprojects, Epoch Transitions and Feasibility Studies
While increasing the level of science skills does advance technology, there are important milestones that are especially transformative, and will require special efforts in order to unlock. These technologies initially require a PU to perform a feasibility study action. Based on the relevant skills of the PU, the game master will send a list of the requirements (in terms of skill levels, tools and facilities) for making that epoch transition. These requirements will be different based on the skill of the PU that did the initial study, and may be under- or over-estimates; these will become apparent whenever another feasibility study is done on the project. This applies to major technological advances, such as the rediscovery of fusion power or nanotechnology, or the completion of a large project, such as building another colony ship, space elevator, ICBM defense network, or any comparably huge project.
Impossible actions
In general, the skills, tools and facilities at hand simply affect the quality of the result, but there are some actions that are actively impossible without the correct tools, skills or facilities. For example, you can't tell a bunch of captive natives with bone tools to make you a new interstellar spacecraft and expect them to make a level 1 ship. The GM will inform you when you've given an impossible order, and you may change your action within reason. This doesn't retcon the order though-- your people still got the nonsense order, which could affect morale.
Guidelines for energy production
If built before leaving Sol then it takes no energy.
If built by nanite Construction Modules or 'upgraded' they take 1/2 the energy of 2020, non if it only took 1 energy to begin with, and 1 for all pu's if it is housing.
2020 tech (prior to energy use reduction megaproject/epoch transition):
Farms: 1 energy/action
Housing: 1 energy/PU housed/year
Factories: 4 energy/action
Mines: 2 energy/action
Labs: 6 energy/action
Tools: Depends on what they're for; basic construction kits use no energy, but vehicles and tools intended for factory use typically use 2-3 energy/action
Renewable energy structures: 50% of level for no action or +mods for an action
Nonrenewable energy structures: Resource-dependent but typically around 75% as efficient as 2120 tech. For example, burning coal will produce 3 energy at 2020 tech level, and 4 energy at 2120 tech level.
HFOG
HFOG'd PUs (which I will just refer to as civilians from now on) will be more explicitly able to do things instead of actions, and if given a bit of infrastructure (a "Civilian Infrastructure" facility, which would support 1 Civilian PU/level) would only require energy (1/turn/PU) and 1 unit of Consumer Goods/turn.
In addition, each civilian would be able to occupy one "slot" in a civilian district facility. The civilian districts would be distinct from normal facilities in that any number of civilian PUs can occupy them in a turn, but they would only perform equal to 25% of their level (and 25% of their power requirements) per PU per turn. For example, a level 5 Consumer Goods Production District with 2 civilian PUs working it would produce 4 Consumer goods (5/4 = 2 * 2 = 4) and consume 2 energy (consumer goods factories take 4 energy/action, so 4/4 = 1 energy/PU) in a turn. A level 10 Consumer Goods Production District with 5 civilian PUs working it would produce 15 consumer goods (10/4 = 3 * 5 = 15) and use 5 energy, and so on. You could also make things like civilian laboratory districts (for doing research actions), education districts (to get experience points for the PUs working them; 25% of the district's level per PU per turn), power plant districts, specific factories (civilian aerospace factory district, for example), that would work in the same way. The civilian districts would still face the normal caps on product quality, though (so a tool made by civilians would still face the caps, even if the district's total bonus was way over the cap).
The idea being that the civilians would expand the district as necessary, and the 25% figure is what's left over after normal economic activity among the civilians. Factions don't have to spend their valuable non-HFOG'd actions building tons of infrastructure for civilians (because the districts can accommodate any number of PUs), but a bit of civilian infrastructure can actually help. Tools and skills would work at 25% of their normal levels. Civilian PUs however do not gain skill as what they are doing is spread to thin to specialize in a single skill, unless it is gained in an education district.
3) Consumer goods requirements are capped at 10, and Entertainment/Government/Religion/Thought Control CG-producing actions can be either HFOG points or CGs, player's choice.
Any pu's gained that where not taken with you from Sol are considered Civilian pu's unless you do a mega project make's them otherwise.
Points
PU HFOG points
1st 10
2nd 21
3rd 33
4th 46
5th 60
6th 75
7th 91
8th 108
9th 126
10th 145
11th 165
12th 186
13th 208
14th 231
15th 255
16th 280
17th 306
18th 333
19th 361
20th 390
For those who came from Seti Tau Ceti
Changed PU points, skill learning and gaining, HFOG.