Shadow Race is currently on
Hiatus, and likely will not return.
The primary reason is that Shadow Race was a fair bit of experimentation regarding the mixing of "Espionage" and "Arms Race" and I believe that (for me) these are incompatible ideas for a forum game.
Arms Race is about the conflict between both sides' designs. Espionage is largely about avoiding conflict.
So you can ignore "Espionage" to go for Arms Race, or you can ignore "Arms Race" to go for a game where both sides compare their "Avoid Conflict" design to determine who wins.
Sorry! There might be a (much more straightforward) Arms Race game from me in the future. If anyone wants my notes regarding Shadow Race, to revive/continue it with the same sides, or anything about this please PM me.
Why yes, yet another Arms Race game!
This is the
Core thread - Where the rules and OOC discussion go. Any team-specific talk should be kept to its own thread.
Astria ThreadMerkan ThreadPlease pick a team and don't look at the other team's thread!Shadow Race DiscordThe year is 1953. The second World War has ended years ago. The world has largely been in chaos with the rapid spread of nuclear weaponry. The
Global League's attempts have been in vain as nation after nation develops their own nuclear program. War as its known is largely over, with everyone and their parents having access to both nuclear weapons and a
very itchy trigger finger.
The nations of Astria and Merkan used to be at constant war. Yet with the advent of nuclear weaponry quickly coming to the small landmass, war become unknown to their populaces just like it was forgotten by the rest of the world. Any military attack would ensure doom for both adjacent nations. Yet with their populaces and politicians salivating for the defeat of their enemies, they've turned to other means of warfare.
Espionage being one of them.
To further this end, each side created an espionage agency. Both had the same two tasks - to ensure the take-over of the other nation, and to prevent them from doing the same.
In order to gain access to the other government, an agency would have to secure control of a company closely related with that government. These companies with their strict hierarchies are better captured with more
explicit actions. Shadow wars in meeting spots, company extraction sites, disrupting the
less legal activities. All things better done with a hint of subtlety and more guns.
Human Power Inc., a company utilized by both sides to outsource employee training and acquisition, can often have their assets be located in dense urban population centers.
Singleton Arms, an arms company often contracted by both sides, has the majority of their locations in less-populated areas due to the security, pollution, industrial nature of their operation, and other factors. Both companies are still fairly similar in their security despite these notable differences, though.
With complete control of a company, an agency would be able to begin placing operatives into the other nation's government under the guise of commercial matters. Governments would require a mix of traditional spycraft and the more overt small-scale combat in order to fully capture.
The
Global League, while ultimately pointless for either agency's grand goal, remains a valuable resource. Having the Global League under one's domain, and thus most of the nations of the world, would secure some very valuable foreign aid. Of course, being under the eyes of nearly ever country to exist, only the most subtle of methods may be used to gain control of the Global League.
Rules & GameplayShadow Race is a standard Arms Race game, with its
gimmick twist being that instead of focusing on total war between two sides, the game instead focuses on the teams' espionage efforts. In a slightly cheesy over-the-top matter. The two teams design and develop ways of beating their opponents in an espionage shadow war. There are two sides, and anyone can join a side by just posting in that side's thread at any time, though looking/posting on the other thread is
highly discouraged and bad for the spirit of the game. The game is played via
Phases, and what you do in each phase is explained in the Phases section below.
These should represent the
latest rules and may not reflect rules in the early game. All rule changes will be announced in this thread.
- Victory - Victory is achieved via gaining total control of the opponent's government. In order to gain access to the other side's government, you must have complete control of at least one company first.
- Skill & Tech - In order to achieve victory, you must develop new tactics and technologies. Skills (also known as "Tactics") are strategies, plans, training, and similar matters to aid your operatives in the field; you could create a Skill which involves certain operatives hiding in bushes when potentially spotted, or a Skill to have your operatives make maximum use of new Tech. Tech are things developed via R&D to help your operatives in the field, whether it's a Ray Gun, a Doomsday Satellite, or a Mega Virus.
- Progression - Shadow Race should be a bit cheesy! Think James Bond. While more realistic Tech & Skills are certainly useful and have their places, creating more interesting things that you'd likely see in a James Bond novel/movie or other Spy Fiction is encouraged (Not too outrageous, of course). What you're allowed to make is based heavily on what you've already made. You won't be able to make a Death Satellite from nothing, but if you happen to have a Satellite Tech and a Death Ray tech, then a Death Satellite would likely be achievable. The time period (1953) largely just plays a factor in your beginning Tech and the viability of new Tech that isn't based off of anything existing already owned.
- Challenges (and Credits) - Occasionally, at the end of an Operations Report, there may be a challenge issued. The challenges are unique in their exact compositions, but generally they pit both sides against each other in a nonstandard way in order to win some reward - usually a Credit. Design Credits give their side a free design, allowing them to effectively do two designs in one turn. Revision Credits are the same, but with revisions instead of designs. Expense Credits give their side the ability to lower the expense of a design for one Operations report. Research Credits allow the side to roll twice in one desired Design or Revision, with their result being chosen from the better of two rolls.
- Theatres - Theatres are the locations where the Shadow War is being waged. Each theatre is divided into a number of sections, and each Operations phase, the control of a section can go to the nation whose operatives are performing the best in that theatre. A nation completely controls a theatre when they control all of that theatre's sections. All non-nation theatres will give bonuses to any nation that completely controls them.
- Agents - Each theatre has 5 agents. Agents can be captured or killed, which will cause them to be unavailable for the next Operations phase. Captured agents can be interrogated by their capturers for temporary increased effectiveness next Operations phase or for intelligence regarding their agency's technology and skills.
- Expense - Both Tech and Skills are assigned an Expense, which ultimately represents the difficulty to field that thing. Skills' expense represents the difficulty of training operatives in that skill, while Techs' expense represents the difficulty of manufacturing and distributing that Tech. Expenses are expressed by a number - like "4x", "2x", etc. - with that number representing the number of agents per theatre that can use that design. A 2x design will only be able to be used by 2 agents per theatre. In special cases a design can get an expense of National Effort, which means only one agent in one theatre can use it.
This system is ripped off largely based off of NUKE9.13's Battle for Aljadid arms race game.The results of designs and revisions are decided by the use of two four-sided die (or "2d4") yielding in a result in the range of 2-8. This allows for a bit less common extremes, meaning you won't commonly have your designs become completely useless.
Roll (Probability): Result
2 (1/16): Utter failure. You get nothing except the knowledge of what not to do.
3 (1/8): Buggy mess. Whilst you managed to make something, it isn't really usable.
4 (3/16): Below average. It works. Not especially well, but it works.
5 (1/4): Average. You get what you asked for, more or less.
6 (3/16): Above average. It works, and somewhat better than might be expected. Not a lot better, mind.
7 (1/8): Superior craftsmanship. It does its job and it does it perfectly. Its performance is exceptional and it is as reliable as clockwork.
8 (1/16): Unexpected boon. Not only does it work, but it does things you never even expected it to. If no 'bonus features' make sense, then you just get experience with some related field.
Every design and revision is assigned a
Difficulty when they're rolled. Difficulties assign a modifier (+/- #) to the roll, changing the effective result. The following is a list of the difficulties, their modifiers, and when they
usually pop up. This is a very rough guide as the situations surrounding designs & revisions cannot be predicted.
- Trivial (+2): Actions where no notable challenges, small or big, are solved. Often assigned to actions based on using existing established (non-theoretical) knowledge in a new but not unusual way.
- Easy (+1): Actions where some minor challenge is found.[/b]
- Normal (+0): Actions often involving new concepts or technology and progress in the field, but no major breakthroughs are intended.
- Hard (-1): Actions often entirely involved in entirely novel concepts, but that have a decent foundation and basis in current knowledge.
- Very Hard (-2): Actions where you have some idea of what you're doing, but are largely attempting to play with things you don't understand.
- Ludicrous (-3): Actions where you have no idea what you're doing but that are theoretically possible given your current knowledge.
Impossible is another difficulty which means failure no matter what the roll is. High rolls on an Impossible design
may result in experience towards whatever you were trying to do.
- Design - Design new Skill or Tech. Players vote on a new Tech or Skill for their single design this phase. The Design represents a year-worth of serious R&D and is the most common way of advancing your knowledgebase.
- Revision - Revise both a Skill and a Tech. You may not Revise something from the same category twice, only two different categories. Players vote on two revisions - modifications; one on one Tech, and one on one Skill. The two revisions are done simultaneously and may not be done sequentially.
- Operations - The final phase before the Operations Report, the Operations Phase is where a single plan is decided that lists the Skills and Tech assigned to the agents in each theatre, and is where submissions for Challenges are given if there are any.
TheatresTheatres are where the shadow war is waged. Each nation automatically sends their resources to every available theatre. The Companies and Global League are always available for infiltration, but the infiltration of the opposing nation requires complete control of a Company beforehand. If a nation is currently being infiltrated, they must regain full control of the nation before beginning to infiltrate any companies under complete control of the other side. Though they can still fight to gain control of other theatres as long as they have a foothold in that particular theatre.
Generally, no theatres
nullify a Skill/Tech. While a company may be better done with aggressive methods, stealth and subterfuge will still work well here. The Global League doesn't completely make combat useless - you just have to be smart about avoiding attention. Etc. etc.
Companies favor a
slightly more aggressive approach, but stealth is still of extreme priority.
Human Power Inc. has their sites and assets placed in the middle of population centers; often urban. Objectives are often in office buildings, city environments, and more. There are a lot of civilians present, and the police - which would be a
very bad thing for any agents caught - are always nearby and ready to respond to any disturbances. Operations here can often involve more than just one location, and can bring agents to various sites across cities.
Singleton Arms on the other hand places their facilities in more isolated areas. Open spaces, fields, large rooms with lots of machinery, and the like are all things to expect here. Employees can and are still present, but not in the quantiy of Human Power. The police still respond to disturbances here, but will take longer to respond. Singleton facilities, thanks to their location, are sprawling indoor places with multiple levels of security and numerous - but not many - floors.
Global League possess large facilities filled with people. The League's own security forces are
very close and
very quick to respond. Practically anything done in a Global League facility is in sight of others.
Nations can take place in
many different places, often in government sites. While they matter importantly in
all theatres, the defensive measures (Techs or Skills) of the defending nation will be more significant here thanks to their authority within their own government.
Companies
- Human Power Inc. [A: 2/4; M: 2/4] (Can assign +1 agent to one theatre. Re-assignable.)
- Singleton Arms [A: 2/4; M: 2/4] (Can assign +1x expense to one design. Re-assignable.)
Governments
- Astria [A: 5/5; M: 0/5]
- Merkan [A: 0/5; M: 5/5]
Global League [A: 2/4; M: 2/4] (Can bypass type-restriction on Revisions.)
...
"Another Arms Race? These miscreants are polluting my dear Bay12 forums!"
- In my defense, I was totally going to post this before Cult Race. And really, Arms Race games are the way of the future. Embrace it!
"Hey! I'm noticing elements suspiciously similar to [Insert Arms Race Game Here]!"
- I prefer to call it paying tribute to inspirations among the Arms Race genre.
"I have no idea how to play an Arms Race game but it looks fun; especially one from someone of your groundbreaking GMing caliber!"
- Please feel free to drop into one of the faction's thread; just PM me or post here in the core thread if you have any questions.
"I have a complaint in your running of the game!"
- Please post it either here in the core thread or in a PM once, be polite about the whole thing, and respect my judgement. I do want to make this game fun for as many people as possible, after all.
Author
Topic: Shadow Race: Tactical Espionage Arms Race (Read 2894 times)