The Mechanics of Toppling an Interplanetary Empire

Seneschal · 10-07-2016, 05:13 PM

I'm currently working on a space opera campaign that's going to need a bit more than just the Basic Set rules. The PCs will be leading a rebellion against a tyrannical regime and, while we'll be starting small, they'll probably end up in charge of a steadily growing paramilitary organization that engages in espionage, sabotage, resource collection, assassination and guerilla warfare, all the while trying to win the hearts and minds of the populace. I was wondering whether there was a crunchy GURPS supplement that covers the mechanics of leading such an organization. Something like Mass Combat, but without the... err, combat - the rebellion in question isn't expected to reach actual army status until very late in the campaign.

I've found Boardroom and Curia, but the preview PDF didn't quite convince me that it would be a good fit for my campaign. I need something that allows mechanical interaction with an organization, or at least a good framework for the kind of feeling you get in Dragon Age: Inquisition or Metal Gear Solid V. Has anyone here made use of the B&C rules? How well do they extend to stuff like clandestine operations and conflict between two or more organizations? Can organizations be weakened or destroyed?

Aside from that, I'd appreciate suggestions from people who have run or participated in similar campaigns in the past. My group has mostly played tightly plotted, character-focused campaigns, so this large-scope sandbox thing is new to us, and I'm not sure what the pace and structure should look like. What are the pitfalls that I should look out for? I figured we should start cautiously, so that the amount of options doesn't overwhelm the players. Thus, I set up the campaign as a conservative, safe-tech TL10, like if conservationists had the run of Transhuman Space, and assumed very slow and realistic development: no superscience, no FTL, no magical nanomachines, etc. I don't intend it to be hard sci-fi, though - we've opted for a very pulpy feel, hard-boiled heroes, jazzy overtones, and prohibition-era gangster-movie cliches (plus, there's a smidgen of functional ritual magic, but that's besides the point).

Right now, I've set the scope to one quadruple star system. This seems big enough to have several dozens of diverse places to visit, and allows the Big Bad STL Empire to be decentralized and slowly toppled in discrete chunks, one fief at a time. It's also small enough to allow me to "stat" every chunk of the Empire and define what it produces, how it's defended, etc. Is this a misstep? I'm not sure if I should just present the players with a system map in the first session and tell them to go crazy, or if we should avoid grand-scale strategy and start more locally, and then escalate.

10-07-2016, 05:13 PM	#1
Seneschal Join Date: Jul 2009	The Mechanics of Toppling an Interplanetary Empire I'm currently working on a space opera campaign that's going to need a bit more than just the Basic Set rules. The PCs will be leading a rebellion against a tyrannical regime and, while we'll be starting small, they'll probably end up in charge of a steadily growing paramilitary organization that engages in espionage, sabotage, resource collection, assassination and guerilla warfare, all the while trying to win the hearts and minds of the populace. I was wondering whether there was a crunchy GURPS supplement that covers the mechanics of leading such an organization. Something like Mass Combat, but without the... err, combat - the rebellion in question isn't expected to reach actual army status until very late in the campaign. I've found Boardroom and Curia, but the preview PDF didn't quite convince me that it would be a good fit for my campaign. I need something that allows mechanical interaction with an organization, or at least a good framework for the kind of feeling you get in Dragon Age: Inquisition or Metal Gear Solid V. Has anyone here made use of the B&C rules? How well do they extend to stuff like clandestine operations and conflict between two or more organizations? Can organizations be weakened or destroyed? Aside from that, I'd appreciate suggestions from people who have run or participated in similar campaigns in the past. My group has mostly played tightly plotted, character-focused campaigns, so this large-scope sandbox thing is new to us, and I'm not sure what the pace and structure should look like. What are the pitfalls that I should look out for? I figured we should start cautiously, so that the amount of options doesn't overwhelm the players. Thus, I set up the campaign as a conservative, safe-tech TL10, like if conservationists had the run of Transhuman Space, and assumed very slow and realistic development: no superscience, no FTL, no magical nanomachines, etc. I don't intend it to be hard sci-fi, though - we've opted for a very pulpy feel, hard-boiled heroes, jazzy overtones, and prohibition-era gangster-movie cliches (plus, there's a smidgen of functional ritual magic, but that's besides the point). Right now, I've set the scope to one quadruple star system. This seems big enough to have several dozens of diverse places to visit, and allows the Big Bad STL Empire to be decentralized and slowly toppled in discrete chunks, one fief at a time. It's also small enough to allow me to "stat" every chunk of the Empire and define what it produces, how it's defended, etc. Is this a misstep? I'm not sure if I should just present the players with a system map in the first session and tell them to go crazy, or if we should avoid grand-scale strategy and start more locally, and then escalate.