Lincoln’s War

A rough draft of the barbarian invasion scenario is now up. Obviously, both scenarios need playtesting.

Rather than use the standard Triplanetary planet positions, which are static, there are variants that allow for orbital motion. Of course, since each turn is a day in the standard rules, the movement is not drastic.

Rather that use the same orientation for the planets, I found a useful solar system mapping tool. Now, we can really see what the solar system will look like when the barbarians begin their coreward invasion!

New Hampshire is poised to reject a proposed national ID system. Not that our Dear Leaders will pay any attention to such arrogant display of free thinking.

It appears that the Free State movement had a hand in this:

The bill had several co-sponsors in both major parties; among them was Rep. Winters, himself a Free-Stater! New Hampshire’s bill appears to be the strongest among the states that have passed similar legislation. It flatly refuses Real-ID. No amount of Federal dollars will fix the problem. Moreover, New Hampshire will not comply with any national identification card, period.

Will we see Federal troops sent into New Hampshire to enforce Federal law?

I’ve completed a rough draft of the first of 2 scenarios I want to play on the MegaPlanetary map.

In 2192, a horde of “barbarians” have smashed the approaches to the rich industrial Sol system! This barbarian fleet of FTL-capable ships slowly consumed the best worlds from the technologically advanced peoples. Despite desperate defenses the horde defeated all who stood in there way, darkening skies with their legion of invasion barges.

Finally, a battle-tested fleet has gathered at Sol. Here, the line is drawn. Here the United Defense Command (UDC) promises to break the invasion or die trying. There is no retreat! Victory or death!

The barbarian player has a large pool of resources to build the invasion force (IFOR). The barbarians are barely capable of FTL travel and their ships are rudimentary. What they lack in technological prowess they make up for with numbers. Essentially, the IFOR is made up of ships out of the Triplanetary rules booklet.

UDC ships are the last, best hope for the technologically advanced worlds coreward. They are capable of multi-fuel burns (borrowing from the “wear” concept), and are considered “torch” ships (they do not have to refuel, but they DO have to resupply). They are also very expensive. UDC gets one orbital fortress for free (probably in orbit above Terra).

The barbarian player can approach from any vector, using the FTL rules in “Endgame”. The UDC player may elect a vector as “coreward”, and that cannot be used for barbarian arrival. The UDC player then places its units as desired.

IFOR’s goal is to take as many worlds as possible by landing their invasion barges (use a liner or packet). Each invasion barge that lands deposits a ground unit. I’m going to have to have a very simple ground combat resolution system. Ships in orbit can suppress hex sides and enemy units, but cannot destroy those units. Besieged UDC units can hold out, but not forever. If enough units are landed, the fight will be brutal, but the outcome all but certain. UDC player may have options for purchasing ground units, but I’m not sure yet.

Terra is worth more points than, say, Mars. If IFOR takes Terra, that is a huge loss for the UDC. The UDC player must inflict enough damage to prevent this, but cannot afford to lose the fleet in the process.

Also, the IFOR will not use nuclear weapons on the planets they intend to invade. They will use them on extra-terrestrial targets, however.

Attacking Terra with a goal of destroying hex side bases (also known as “suppressing”) alone isn’t a compelling scenario. Instead, let’s assume that the attacking force (I’ll call them the Strike Force) can make one of 2 tactical choices:

1. Attack Terra with overwhelming firepower. Every ship carries a nuclear weapon capable of suppressing a hex side. The attack will be brutal and fast. There will be no rescue made for any disabled ship of the Strike Force.
2. Attack Terra with enough bombs hit the target, but conduct the raid so that the Strike Force can refuel and exit the system.

Hitting Terra yields the greatest rewards, but losing the Strike Force costs points. Sol Fleet gains a decisive victory if no hex side is hit, but can salvage a Pyrrhic victory by destroying the Strike Force. If all hex sides are hit but Strike Force is eliminated then the scenario is a draw.

I would like to have some interesting options for each side. Let’s assume that in order for their interstellar engines to function, each ship has to have a minimum velocity, say 5-10 hexes per turn. Strike Force ships may decide to maintain a a high velocity vector, and use Terra’s gravity to slingshot toward an escape. Otherwise they will have to maneuver and then rendevous with a tanker to refuel as needed.

Before the game starts, Sol Fleet will select 2 valid escape vectors. Strike Fleet picks a third vector. Strike Fleet ships may approach the system from any of these vectors. Sol Fleet has to guess which approach Strike Force will take on entry and exit. Once Sol Fleet has deployed their ships, Strike Fleets selects their approach for each ship.

Strike Fleet ships drop from interstellar travel at the minimum velocity toward Sol. The order of appearance depends on a slight randomization. Let’s say that for every ship, Strike Force rolls a die, and any “1″ means that ship is delayed 1 turn. This means that some ships may never make the trip in time for the raid, but it’s unlikely.

Sol Fleet must prioritize which ships to investigate (all ships are unknown until they enter detection range) or to commit as targets for their ships and ordinance. Sol Fleet will not know which tactic the Strike Force has chosen, or which route they intend to take. They only know that Terra is the target.

It’s possible that Sol Fleet will remain close to Terra and try to intercept as the Strike Force converges. I don’t know if this strategy will work. I’d like to playtest it!

As far as starting fleets, I’m leaning towards Strike Force having a 20-30% edge in resources. Each side must decide between firepower and flexibility. Neither side will have prior knowledge of the other’s fleet until the game starts.

I found ChrisW’s Triplanetary Map Variants page. It’s not as slick as Winchell’s, but it is full of descriptions on how to setup things like “pocket” editions of the game.

I spent my lunch today finishing the trim on the 2 acetate overlays for my MegaPlanetary map. Kinkos actually printed the map at 50×36, so 4 inches on each overlay had to go.

Luckily, my wife has a wide array of fabric cutting and measurement tools, like this wicked rotary cutting blade. She warns me a lot about how sharp the thing is. I was super paranoid about the position of my hands when using it. I had to suppress all the mental imagery of me trying to drive to the hospital with my bloody index finger in an ice filled bag.

After cutting and trimming I lined one side with transparent packing tape to create a hinge. Within 10 minutes I had two panels of acetate that I can lift and reset as needed. The last thing I have to do is to create some templates for the planetary bodies and their detector zones, if needed.

I have a couple of scenarios I’d like to work up.

“Endgame” pits Sol Fleet against a hostile force trying to devastate Terra with either mass driver (like tugging a planetoid as a weapon) or nuclear weapons. I’d want a situation in which the closer the striking force got to earth, the more accurate and devastating the attack. In other words, I want to get the attackers to get as close as possible to Terra before launching the attack. Bonus points for having fuel leftover to escape the system. Meanwhile Sol Fleet can manage at victory if they prevent any weapons from reaching the planet.

In “The Fall of Earth” a defending fleet has to prevent an incoming, barbarian fleet from capturing planets. The barbarians gain a decisive victory if they capture Earth. The trick is that the defending fleet will be horribly outnumbered, but far more advanced in technology. Terra and Mars would be worth many more points that the moons of Jupiter or Venus. Some of the defenders ships would have the ability to change course by more than 1 hex per turn (or maybe even the graviton drives), and have better weapons. But the attackers would have many, many more “low-tech” ships. Attackers get points for getting their invasion barges into orbit and landing their troops. I’d have to cook up some planetary combat outcomes, perhaps based on how many troops land.

I saw this game posted on the Camp Nerdly planning pages and to be honest, it was the one event I looked forward to the most. The premise of the game is that the players are trying to gather enough victories from a pool of dice to indict a suspect in a series of murders.

This particular game was listed a playtest. Kat Miller ran the game along with Michael S. Miller and Alexander Newman. Earlier in the evening I was so uptight about not missing this game that I interrupted Alexander’s Nine Worlds game out of fear that the playtest began early.

Kat explained that the game design emerged from her frustration about how bad RPGs were at generating detective or mystery fiction. Serial begins with everyone creating parts of a victim profile and then creating victims that match that profile. Play continues with alternating series of investigation and victim vignettes.

Each player drives a victim vignette towards answering a simple question that each victim wants most in their life (”Will I get back together with my ex-wife?”). The result of these scenes, which is always a 50/50 chance of being “yes” or “no”, has no concrete effect on the mechanics of the game. None. But without them, I don’t think the game would have nearly the emotional weight that it ended dumping on my lap.

Although the victim I created ended up in a morgue, the post-investigation vignette answered the question I posed earlier, “Will I get custody of my kids?” (The victim profile specified divorced.) I narrated that the ex-wife is unpacking moving boxes, but instead of the cross-country move that other scenes established, it was in fact the old house that the victim lived in with his family before the divorce. I had the wife placing a picture of the victim on the mantle as the last “shot”.

I really didn’t grasp completely how each player can collect dice during an investigation scene. I’m sure after some study, they will become obvious. I did notice that the game rewards players for trying to create investigation details and linking them back to the victim profile and other player’s findings. I can imagine coupling these details with the investigation scenes, despite my muddled understanding of how to frame and narrate the action itself.

I found myself seeing the outcome in my head, but struggling to get them articulated. Michael S. and Alexander were smooth operators and injected several scene details and characterizations that supported my play.

I’d be curious to see if Kat adds a lot of rule illustrations through “faux” play examples. For someone like me, without the seeing it in action, I might not realize that playing out these scenes could as free-form and still get back to answering the victim’s question. My fogginess didn’t detract from the play overall, as far as I could tell. I enjoyed just about everything about the game.

I can’t wait to see this in print and all polished up. Kat has something cooking in the kitchen.

It’s home and ready for the acetate!

The map in the lower left-hand corner is the original map, for comparison. Now, I have to make and print some planetary body templates, as well as their detector zones.