Checking to see if I'd have any takers. - Strategy/RPG in space

So I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in trying something. Let me start by saying that I love games like Civilization and Master's of Orion, pretty much any grand strategy game is fun to me. I also love me some RPG's (hence I feel like I live on Roll20 sometimes.) I'd like to run a game along the lines of a strategy board game here on Roll20, but with RPG elements. Basically each week you would submit your turns to me and I'd update the map and info. I haven't decided just how complex I want things to be - that will probably depend on the players and what they want. The biggest thing is that I like the idea of the diplomacy being open to anything the players want to do. You want to do something that I didn't think of in the rules? We'll make it happen. I also think it would be fun to have each player also represented by a specific leader character that interact with each other. (That's the rpg element.) If you're interested message me here or PM me.

Good luck. I used to do this for money with ads out of Flagship magazine. it's a lot of work. that whole hand turns of empires motif got replaced with automated sheets orders processing, then replaced by PC strategy games and MMOs, but I miss those days. I'm in. The way to inject RP with it is to make it a diplomatic relations game where not everyone is at war, but could be. But they can also expand via exploration, or colonization. If you make it all war, war, rah rah, it becomes a grind of all combat, all the time, and typically fleets build fast (because who wants to do a build and it takes three turns to see something show up?) so in 10 turns you have moves for 50 to a hundred ships. and the battles for them. Old school diplomacy got this correct, just a few pieces, and the strategy is in support or not. But that game is a whole different animal all together. You could do a cut down system like savage worlds to do large scale battles. or a free kriegspiel deal where one ref just decides. I have pondered the idea of having a large scale world war 2 game, pacific theater, using axis & allies minis offline. For what you want to do, Most complex example of this is Twilight Imperium. Less complex is Eclipse. Interested to see what your scope and such of this project is, or will be.

I'd love a game of SFB (Star Fleet Battles), and campaign mode would give some minor scope for RP. It should stay a sidenote, though, or the strategic nutcases like me will drift off to just play something versus AI. Team in campaign mode would be best, but a massive lot of administration. But then again, any proper strategy game will have that. An alternative might be the Babylon V miniature space strategy game. I own the boxed set and a few extras here and there, and it being best known for the TV series might make it an easier match for some light RP - although introducing Star Trek elements into SFB is very easy of course. Of course, what I'm really looking for is Hearts of Iron IV, but that'll be next year...

Firefly > Babylon 5 > Star Trek > all other sci-fi > Star Wars, from the moment the first showing of "Phantom Menace" began.

Phnord Prephect said: Firefly > Babylon 5 > Star Trek > all other sci-fi > Star Wars, from the moment the first showing of "Phantom Menace" began. Entirely irrelevant. I mentioned SFB/Startrek because SFB is derived (in a convoluted way) from an alternative-history version of pre-Next Generation Star Trek. I couldn't care less what show it was derived from if it didn't have a strong strategic game to actually play, frankly. I'm a roleplayer, but that's a lot easier to juggle on the fly. A complicated strategy game has to work out of the box, so everything else (setting, RP etc) has to adjust to it for things to work out. Having said that, I love Firefly, but I have no problems enjoying other SF as well. Besides, Star Wars III was better than VI. *ducks*

I am highly intrigued with the concept of this game. I don't wish to join as of right now. But I hope all of the success for ya! But I agree about SW III being more enjoyable than VI.

I have considered this sort of thing in the past, and would be interested in seeing how you do it / playing. (I'm also a big fan of those sorts of games). When I was considering such an idea, it was as a more standard dnd game, but the PCs were the leaders of a newly founded civilization a la rise from erebus mod for civ 4.

Wow, this idea generated more interest than I thought it would (hooray!) I actually ran something like this a couple years ago with a couple friends and learned some lessons. The big one being that as awesome as it was for me to reveal all the moves and actions as a faux newspaper, it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much work to do it that way. I was very proud of my newspaper, but yeah when you've got almost a dozen players coming up with stories for all of their actions and then filling in the sides with extra bits to make it look like a proper newspaper...whew. That's not happening again. I thought I'd go ahead and put the rules (such as they are so far) up so you folks can see what we're working with. I'd be happy to hear any suggestions and thoughts you might have. :) "Remember that "Diplomacy in Space" play by e-mail game I ran a while back? Well I'm getting ready to give it a try again. Or at least something similar. I'm not quite ready to run it yet, but I thought if you're interested and you have any ideas for things you'd like to see in the game I can try and add them as options. ***** Edited to add in some more info. ***** My idea for this go around. This region of space was once controlled by a vast Empire, however it fell and technology levels plumeted. Each player controlls a single planet that has dragged itself up to be a spacfaring civilization once more. As before, any and all diplomatic ideas you have are awesome - you want an alliance, great! You only want to have a defensive pact! That's fine too. You want to not honor your treaties? Ok, but I bet people will remember! ***** more edits to come as I plan things out. I'll be using Roll20.net because that's an easy way for me to do the map and other info. (Don't worry, super easy to use and won't cost you anything or need to download anything.) ***** Sending in orders. - I'll probably make a handout for each player that only they can see for them to put their orders in. Orders should be sent in with the following format, to make things as easy as possible for me to resolve everything. Player name: System: Order Type: -Example Player name: Bart System:B2 Order Type: Move - entire fleet to A4 Remember - When doing a move order, you don't have to move all your units, but you may only place one order in a system. The Rules Orders will be due by Saturday midnight. The map should be updated by Monday sometime. If orders are not received then your forces just sit there. However resources will still build up. The main thing is that any and all diplomatic agreements are fair game in this. Alliances, Vassalage, Resource Trading, anything you can think of. If you're not sure if it will work in the game mechanics, e-mail me and I'll make a ruling. However, absolutely no agreement is binding. You can tell your "ally" that you are doing one thing, and then do another. Just remember that people do tend to remember when you betray them. There are 5 different units -Battleship Cost - 5 Power - 2 -Destroyer Cost - 3 Power - 1 Each Destroyer can carry 2 Ground Troops -Defense Satellite Cost - 2 Power - 1 -Colony Ship Cost - 5 -Ground Troop Cost - 1 Power - 1 Everyone will start with 1 Destroyer Planetary Facilities Factory Cost - 5 Increases colony production by 1. Fleet Logistics Center Cost - 5 Increases Ship limit by 2 Militia Barracks Cost - 5 Increases Troop limit by 5 Shipyard Cost - 10 Decreases the cost to produce of Ship and Satellites by 1. (Only in the system where it's built.) All moves are considered peaceful, unless a formal declaration or war has been issued or if you declare an attack rather than a move. Ships have a movement speed of 1 system per turn. Movement is only along warp connectors. Every colony produces 1 resource unit each turn. You may bank up to a total of 10 resources per colony. Every colony may support up to 3 Ships and 5 Ground troops. Defense satellites are unlimited, however each satellite lowers your empire's total production by .5. A colony ship may only colonize once, and then it is used up. Each colony may have 1 planetary facility. There are 6 different types of orders -attack/move/planetary assault X units attack/move from Y system into Z system. Or, Land X troops from orbit to attack/move onto a planet. -defend (all units defend automatically, however using this order increases their power while defending All units in Y system take defensive positions +2 bonus to defense of fleet -support All units in Y system support all attacks into Z system. Or, All units in Y system support units in Z system against attacks. -research Only in systems that have no orders. System must contain a colony. Player chooses an area of research (attack, defend, support) and then receives a 10% chance of receiving an extra order of that type available to them. Each failed attempt adds 10% to the success chance. Also, a system that is researching has no production that round. -Build Only in systems that have no orders. System must contain a colony. Player chooses to build 1 naval unit, Defense satellite, or 2 ground troops. May also build a planetary facility. Ships may not be built if hostile naval units are present in the system. You can also use this order to decommision any ships, troops, satellites, or buildings in this system instead of building. -Colonize Only in systems containing no colonies. Colony ship must be present. If more than one player attempts to colonize then the first message received by the moderator gets the colony. Players start with 2 attack/move/assault orders 1 Defend order 1 Support order Players also get 1 Colonize order for each Colony ship. And 1 Research and 1 Build order for each colony. Combat is relatively simple. You just count the attacker's power and compare it to the defender's power. Highest number wins. Supports are disrupted whenever they are directly attacked, and do not provide power in support. Also, supports may be used to support any players attack or defense if desired. Troop combat continues at the loss of 1 unit by the loosing side each round until one side no longer has troops. (Basically conquering a planet takes a ton of work and time.) A planet that is defending itself can have no orders placed on it. The loosing side in a combat looses 1 combat unit at random, and is forced to retreat towards the closest friendly system, or at random if the player has no friendly systems. Formal Allies count towards friendly systems. ***** Also, I'm not opposed to the idea of techs that improve things - better ships, more production, that sort of thing, but I've not decided just how that would work yet. In addition, I know more options for planetary facilities are needed, but it's almost midnight and my brain is fried." -copied from a facebook note on the subject.

P.S. - I keep debating putting Twilight Imperium on here, but it just seems like such a pain to scan everything in. But that's one of my favorite games that I never get to play.

You might want to look at Victory By Any Means. It has everything you want and more.

I'll have to check it out.

Holy. Freaking. Cow. VBAM is freaking awesome. And super complex. I'm sold. Although, it does look like I'll have to do considerable customization to make everything work the way I want it to. Worth it.

Bart said: Holy. Freaking. Cow. VBAM is freaking awesome. And super complex. I'm sold. Although, it does look like I'll have to do considerable customization to make everything work the way I want it to. Worth it. Yeah, I had the exact same reaction when I discovered it in the fall. "How the &$(#)# did I miss this?!!!" I own pretty much everything for it but would recommend the following: -Campaign Guide (duh) -Companion (lots of great stuff!) -Menagerie (great for the government rules alone) -Terran War (designed to be used with a tabletop ship combat system. But the internal politics rules are great.) The rest of the supplements are a bit niche and don't add much in the way of generic rules. Jovian Chronicles is good but it took me months to find a copy since the license expired. I have some excellent spreadsheets for calculations if you're interested.

I don't have the Terran War yet, I'll have to check that one out. I'd love to see anything you've come up with. My biggest concern so far is customizing the combat to be something that doesn't require any additional player input beyond the turn orders - I feel that although all the extra combat stuff would be awesome it would slow down a play-by-post game way to much.

It can work if it is kept at the level of strategy, (Not like say, War at Sea Minis, which is World war 2 naval tactical) when fleets engage with some orders, like attack if we have superiority, withdraw upon 50% casualties, etc then the GM just rolls it out, and the "Fleet commander" reports back. Especially in a game like Imperum, where the fleets are weeks away from Command central. Then the game is just okay this is what my subordinates are telling me via reports from whatever fronts.