I know its in progress, and it's miles long, but I really need more players. The overarching plot: This is a satire of fantasy fiction. The universe as a whole is trying to preserve a plot of a few rebels defeating an immense empire. We’re based in Antarctica and have colonized/taken over Argentina. Our main piece of technology is a wormhole connecting these two places. The rebels want to destabilize this wormhole. They think this’ll just create a black hole, but actually it’ll just explode with the force of a nuclear bomb. The main theme of all this is that blind adherence to an ideology is extremely dangerous for all involved.
So most RPGs, and even most action fiction in general, feature a huge asymmetry between the protagonist and antagonist, right? The protagonists are a tiny, divided band of ill-equipped commoners. The antagonists are this huge organization with vast forces and technology and resources far above those that Our Heroes can bring to bear - but they lose because the protagonists are resilient, clever, driven, and special - and frankly, they're the good guys and this is a story.
Well, suppose we turned that around? Suppose we play as the big, evil empire, and try to save our own hides, having the full knowledge that our enemies hide in the shadows, steal all our plans, run circles around our troops - and that all our bullets tend to miss them?
Welcome to (SG) SPAMOVERLORD.
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To begin, let's have some background on this.
The time period is:A: Far past; think Greek or Roman stuff
B: Victorian era/Steampunk; horses, cars, and huge dresses are found in around equal numbers
C: Present day; the Internet and nuclear weapons control everything
D: Far future; most speculative tech has become reality, we have interplanetary and some interstellar colonies.
The character, the person you control, is the individual most responsible for the defence of an empire of questionable morality that holds the majority of the known human population subject.
Your position is:A: Commander in Chief; a brilliant tactician and military general.
B: Chief intelligence officer; tasked with keeping us in the loop and keeping them out
C: Scientist; creating weapons and technologies to give us an edge over those that wish to destroy us
D: The Emperor; if you want something done right, do it yourself, eh?
The primary weapon of the Empire is:A: An unstoppable army that crushes anything in it's path
B: A system of deception and control that prevents anyone from knowing they're enslaved a la Orwell
C: A huge technological advantage over anyone that challenges them
D: A solid and flexible bureaucracy that responds to any threat with stunning speed.
The most annoying part of your culture is:A: Mandatory and brutal military training
B: A rite of passage that involves betraying and being betrayed by your loved ones
C: A strict meritocracy where anyone that does not success is punished harshly
D: Arranged marriage and regular corrupt politicking
Also, come up with names for empire, character, and/or Emperor!
Explanations:
Nothing is without reason. I've organized the above choices in some detail.
My main idea was that there are 4 types of power:
Military
Informational
Scientific
Political
Each type of power also has a complement, a power that must get weaker if the first gets stronger.
Military’s complement is Informational (Dead men cannot report)
Informational's complement is Political (Keep people informed, and the government loses control)
Scientific's complement is Military (Fight smarter, not harder)
Political's complement is Scientific (Stupid lawmakers slow progress)
Now, the choice of position, weapon, and custom are a buff onto one power, as so:
A = the military choice
B = the informational choice
C = the scientific choice
D = the political choice
The time periods are in a different order:
Ancient past = debuff to Military (slow movement, bad equipment)
Victorian = debuff Political (royalty and aristocrats)
Present = debuff Informational (anyone can hide behind the Internet)
Future = debuff Scientific (anyone can make scientific discoveries)
For each idea you propose, I'll divide it into parts and categorize each part by one of these powers. I'll roll and sum two six-sided dice, then add a net buff or debuff based on your choices. The different Questions have different values of buff and sometimes debuff:
Time period: solid -1 to selected
Position: solid +2 to selected
Weapon: +3 selected, -1 complement
Culture: +1 selected, -3 complement
As an incentive to get diverse powers, I'll give you a game long debuff for every category you go negative in:
For negative military, the heroes get a military front rather than just sneaking around.
For negative informational, I'll occasionally give incomplete or delayed information.
For negative scientific, I'll frequently shoot down plans because “rigid thinking”
For negative political, each plan will have a 1/12 chance of spontaneously cancelling.
Also, for every turn and every category, I'll roll 2 dice and if the sum is strictly less than your net bonus the area, you get a favorable result in the area. You can never get a favorable result in a negative area.
Of course, your actions can aim to change these balances of power.
Stuff about me:
I'm somewhat infamous for coming up with really complicated and convoluted schemes and getting in way over my head, so this is likely to be more complex than other suggestion games. It's still easy to play - I'll just have a lot of complex systems in the background.
I have woefully limited experience with forum games, so there is likely to be much unbalance. I also have a busy life and not much time, but I'll try to get back to you once a day.
Please place any questions or comments below. Post to play!
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