So, I note in your blog you’ve been considering the whole campaign thing.
I’ve a proposal. You might like this. How about - GSB2 - “Junkfleet Imperium” (working title)
As the captain of the last surviving fleet of one of your homeworld colonies, you’ve been tasked with the critical task of finding a habitable world for your people/the worst poem in the universe/exploding the idiots who exploded your planet/hosting one last awesome party, your task, should you choose (and you’ve been given no choice but to choose), is to fly your feel through dangerous space, fight gratuitous fleets, and brave terrible perils, all in the name of awesomeness!
How this works :
In effect, a bit like the Battlestar Galactica boardgame, but with several twists. You have to navigate eight sectors of perilous, hideous space, to make it to your destination, each sector is potentially full of battles, events and choices which you as the captain must decide upon. During the course of your journey, you will fight many battles, many gratuitous battles, and if you’re really lucky, you might, just might make it home.
Unlike in BSG, there are no traitors, however, your crew isn’t the worlds most competent lot, so instead their lack of competence initially limits the choices you’ll be able to make, with each sector jump you successfully make, you’ll be able to upgrade a crew member, this allows you to make more choices in a given area, and thus avoid the worst possible outcomes.
The beginning setup :
Player begins with : 5000 honour to spend on gratuitously wonderful ships, 10 supply, 10 civilian, 10 querkian drums (fuel), 10 race specific supply (for humans it’s Vivian mineral water, for the Kraugerisk it’s sacrifical virgins, Y’ooTan it’s Naffy Lite, for Zyrtari it’s staples).
They also begin with procedurally named officers with 2 competency, one Navigator, one Security officer, one Science officer, one Medical officer, one Chief Engineer, and one Chief Pilot. The Captain also is named at this point (by the player) and starts with two competency.
2 Competency means you’re allowed to draw two cards in an event that tests that respective field. For each field there’s also specific unlocks that affect fleet building:
Captain affects overall ship HP
Navigator competency applies a bonus to speed and manoeuvrability
Security officer applies bonuses to weapons
Medical officers increase crew capacity on ships
Engineers increase power output
Science officers increase shield and armour output
Chief pilot increases fighter and gunship performance
The player then builds their initial 5000 honour fleet, and the game begins.
THE CORE TURN
In each sector, the aim is to power up the jumpdrive to 10, in order to get to the next sector, in order to do that, the player must resolve crisis cards, each crisis card is worth 1-3 points depending on what it might involve. How many crisis cards a player gets to pick from is directly tied to the Captain’s competency - the higher the competency, the more options the player gets, for the first sector, the player can pick from two cards each time.
Let’s say they get the choice of two events : “Spillage on deck!” and “Raiders coming in fast!”, the first is a 1 point Engineering crisis, and the second is a 2 point Gratuitous Battle! card. If they take the first one, it’s a non-combat event :
Spillage on deck! - The engineer notices that the deck has a uniquely glossy look about it, odd, the cleaners haven’t been about today, the engineer looks up… oh dear, something is leaking…
The options presented are either in white (available) or in grey (unavailable) and are directly based on the competency of the officer. In this case:
- Panic - Grab the nearest towel, stuff it in the hole and then hold it in place! (-1 race supply, next battle has no engineering bonus)
- Quick - Plug the leak with some putty and hope nobody important slips and falls on the wet floor! ( -1 race supply, next battle results in one random ship warping in late)
- 3: Call in the crew and section off the corridor, it’ll take some time, and inconvenience everyone, but at least it’ll be done right ( -1 race supply)
- 4: Duct tape, the universal solution. ( No penalty )
The other card is a medium difficulty battle, and the raiders are configured to be broadly 75% of the players honour point score, at the end of the battle, scrap is recovered and added to the honour cap, and the player gets a chance to add to, and expand their fleet, presuming they were successful. Combat however, always uses up one supply and one quarkian drum.
Whichever card is taken, once the event is resolved, the value of the card is added to the jump drive, the deck is shuffled, two new events are drawn. This process is repeated until the jump drive hits ten, the fleet jumps and then the player gets the chance to jump to one of N sectors. N being the value of the Navigator’s competency. The first sector is always ‘nice’, no malus. However, from sector two on, sector cards may provide bonuses or penalties, either to shields, armour, weapons, classes of ships, or even restrict fleets to specific classes of ship entirely. Better Navigator competency means more choices.
Victory is attained when the player reaches the end of the eighth sector, and defeat happens when any one of the supplies hits zero, or if the players honour cap drops below a certain predefined limit (depending on difficulty setting)
Thoughts?
