IC-ThreadHaving had a fill of Stellaris lately, i desperately wanted to get back into a Space Opera Game, but from previous Games i gmed i just noticed that the moment you went beyond a single empire, it just blows out of proportion to a point where it becomes almost impossible for a GM to manage without starting excel tables and boring himself to death with endless accountancy.
On the other hand i was rather tired of doing a Houses of the Fading Suns game again, since its horribly bound by players being consistently active, specifically the Emperor and the moment somebody goe sin active or drops out it rips a huge hole into ongoing conflicts. Beyond those i only had one type of game which lasted pretty long and those were always the Godgames. Pantheon and Godhood had most of the time been low-maintenance high-octane RP games and were massive fun for me as a GM.
So i fiddled around a bit and came up with this: The Cycle. Basically a Space Opera Game stealing heavily in terms of mechanics from Godhood/Earlier Pantheons.
So what exactly will be going on? We will start in an utterly virgin Galaxy, which hasn't been graced by any sentient life so far and thus a black canvas for us to ruin. Interested players will be allowed to create species which have just achieved space flight. That means one-planet civilizations barely out of the twentieth century in terms of technology.
However: You will not play those initial Empires. You don't play any individuals, any empires or anything tangible at all. Instead this will run more or less more like a weird sandbox type of thing. Each turn a player gets an action, which he can use on any Empire, that is not the one he created.
With that action he has a freedom of choice as to what to do with that Empire. Encourage a shift towards democracy? Promote Xenophobia? Encourage Research into Physics? Create a Great Person and give it a specific task? It pretty much is open to you. As it goes however an Empire is not limited to a single action, so in theory nine players could put their actions into a single empire if they felt like it.
Additionally there is a Golden or Gilded age each turn. Each turn a random Empire is selected to enter a Golden Age, said empires creator is then offered to use three actions that turn specifically on his creation, which he usually cannot influence. However should the creator not be interested, instead a Gilded Age begins and any player can offer to take his place and lavish two actions on said empire instead.
But what about those Empires who do not get any player attention? Those Empires basically enter Stagnation, during that time they don't expand and do not research any new technologies. If they were left alone in a rather overextended position they will try to consolidate and or stabilize.
The Fifth State an empire can enter (apart from Growing, Stagnating, Golden and Gilded Age) is a Decline. This happens if a Stagnating Empire is in a particularly bad place or a Golden or Gilded Age Empires ends its Age without achieving anything or if a Growing Empire is extremely negatively influenced through player Actions.
As the Game progresses and the Nations of the Galaxy reach a certain expanse and technological advancement, there are no great challanges left except for complete galactic domination perhaps. At this point i will call an End to the Cycle. The Galaxy will enter its final phase: the Race for Ascendancy. By whatever means possible the existing Empires will need to attempt to ascend beyond the means of their mere mortal shells. How long the Race lasts depends entirely on the progress of the Empires, after a timespan i deem sufficient i will call the End to the Cycle. All Empires who have ascended will leave the Galaxy in one way or other and leave behind only those who have failed. These Empires will turn into Fallen Empires, pretty similiar to Stellaris and will become unplayable.
As the new Cycle begins all players and newcomers will create new Empires to begin the Second Cycle. Similiar to Stellaris with the Second Cycle Fallen Empires might awaken and previously ascended entities might return to the galaxy in various capacities. Such entities and especially awakened Empires might then be taken over by their previous creators if i deem it practical.
And thats basically the general principle of the game. Each turn you will submit your actions in
bold as in any other game and i will resolve them at the end of the turn.
Empire Submission Sheet: Name of the Nation: Self-Explanatory
Government:
Refer to this lengthy list (its hidden behind a spoiler) This is to make things easier initially, if you want something particularly special, you can submit it but otherwise for the sake of common ground refer to this list. And yes you can take from the Non-Player Governments listed in there too
Ethics:
Refer to this list Ethics and Governments don't necessarily have to correlate but if they don't make sense at all together i need a good explanation as to the why's and how's. You can have up to three of them with one being allowed (widening your options considerably, so you may have: one ethic, one fanatic ethic, one ethic and fanatic ethic, two ethics, three ethics and one fanatic and two ethics) These will not give you bonuses but are more in general how your species is, so having more is not automatically better
Species: What Species (singular or plural) does your Empire consist of? Note that Robotic and Cyborg Empires will not be possible initially, though you can very well turn into them later.
Pre-History: The History of your Empire before it discovered spaceflight (note that you are among the very first species to exist in the galaxy so you can't have regressed from somewhere else)
For the Beginning i will accept ten players, let's see if this turns out to be a not terrible idea
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Topic: The Cycle - Space Opera/Godhood OOC-Thread (10/10) (Read 4485 times)