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[flabort]

Absolutely Absurd Abductee Arms Race
It's time for another Arms Race! This time, We start on an alien world in the year 10 AA (After Abduction). In the 10 years since your people were abducted from Earth and planted on a far off planet to be observed as you faff about and rebuild some form of civilization, you have found you've been divided into three groups, each taking very different views on what your goals should be, what the observing aliens want from you, and whether or not you'll even survive.

Whole villages and towns were uprooted by the aliens when they attacked, and were put down near the shores of a continent to form three main cities. You're not sure if more continents got forcibly resettled this way, but you know the people in the other cities are dumb as rocks and your ideas are better.

Some military equipment survived the transplant onto this world. Not much, and you figure the other cities have around the same amount, but there's enough that you can use the local resources to make more. So far, the leaders of your groups have kept peace between the cities, but it's due to collapse soon, not entirely because the others are arming up.

And no matter how pitched the fighting gets, you can't help but think of the soaring black tower that's always visible on the horizon that your abductors presumably watch from.

Rayleigh Confederation Thread
Federated Cities of Sujia Thread
Social Democracy of the Red Blossom Thread
Discord

Spoiler: Basics and Phases (click to show/hide)

For those not yet familiar with the Arms Race format, it's a suggestion game, where you join a side, and help decide and design new weapons, items, vehicles, and other things for the military of your faction. These designs will regularly be tested in the field of battle against your opponents, and sized up against their technology. The game is split into turns representing half a year apiece, which are further divided into phases, which are as follows:

• Design Phase: During this phase, players submit proposed designs to their teams, and vote for one (Except during the first 4 turns, in which 2 may be voted for) to be realized. The chosen design has some dice rolled (See: On Difficulties and Dice) to determine how well the R&D goes for that design. Its usefulness will be better with higher dice results. A design can be practically anything new for your military.
• Revision Phase: The Revision Phase is very similar to the Design phase. The main difference is that instead of making something entirely new, you propose variations, fixes, or improvements to existing designs. They should be revisions, and trying to make something entirely new will be harder than the Design Phase, even if it's made entirely of existing parts.
• Battle Phase: This is where your designs and revisions are measured up against each other. You may vote on special actions (such as choosing to focus more on one field of combat than another, to withdraw from one entirely, or various other opportunities that may arise), but generally little player input will be involved in this phase. At the end of the phase, you get the Combat Report, which details how your designs fared in the hands of your troops or at least against the enemy, how combat played out in different regions, what territory was gained or lost; and all of this depends on your designs. Different terrain will have different effects on how well your designs do, and you may have to adapt accordingly.
  

The areas your armies fight for are represented as Regions on the map (see below), which are different parts of the continent that are strategically important (for one reason or another). There are lanes in the map showing which region is next to another; to begin assaulting and taking over a region, you must have complete control over the adjacent region (Special note: This map has a special center area which requires control of two or more adjacent regions to assault, which you start with, but to begin assaulting this area requires your team to vote on doing so due to special circumstances). Each region is divided into 4 zones. Winning in a region advances your control over it by one zone, and once you control all 4 zones you may start exploiting the resources there.

Your starting cities (And the special center area) are special regions with only two zones. Loss of both of the zones in your city means your side loses the game.

Spoiler: Resources and Expenses (click to show/hide)

I take no shame in admitting I took this from Mad Arms Race wholesale - I didn't even edit this section

Most pieces of equipment have a resource cost, expressed in Ore and Oil. For examples see starting equipment, below. Ore represents the total amount of mining effort which an item costs, and oil represents its use of chemicals. If something is big, or uses rare metals, it will have a high ore cost. If something burns a lot of fuel, or uses very high-grade fuel, or uses exotic chemicals then it will have a high oil cost. Costs represent what is needed to supply a company's worth of men, or about 100 men. This means, that prices given might be for 100 rifles, 50 motorcycles with sidecars, or 5-10 tanks or planes, or even a single ship.

Your nation has limited resources: A city (representing the area around it) starts with 2 ore, 1 oil, and plentiful wood. You can gain resources by taking certain sections of the map then holding them for one turn without losing ground, or from acquiring it from more powerful external nations. The map spoiler describes the resources available. If a design costs resources which you don't have, it becomes expensive, and can't be issued to everybody. The total amount of resources a design costs more than you have is called the Resource Deficit. A design with no resource deficit is Cheap, this means it can be issued to every soldier, or as often as your generals decide is tactically sensible. A resource deficit of up to 2 makes a design Expensive, meaning it can only be issued to officers, or 1 in 10 men. A resource deficit of 3-5 makes a design Very Expensive, available to only about 1 in 100 men. A resource deficit of 6-9 makes a design a National Effort, you can only field one at a time - so this is only worthwhile if it's something like an enormous battleship, a nuke, or mecha-godzilla. A resource deficit of 10 or more is Theoretical, and cannot actually be built. Some technologies are Complex, being new and difficult to manufacture, and designs featuring them become one level more expensive. Consider expenses when planning your designs! If you lose access to resources, any designs which become more expensive will immediately see the effects - equipment which doesn't have enough fuel and spare parts will need to be decommissioned.

There are also Special Resources. Currently, none exist, but as designs grow more and more outlandish, they may begin requiring newly-unearthed resources from the map or ones provided by designs/revisions with the intent of providing that resource. Your new death ray may end up requiring Applied Phlebotinum, a new resource. It may pop up as a resource in one of the regions, or it may require a design - like a Phlebotinum Fabricator - to be acquired.

You have a limited Transport Capacity (Note: You have 0 TC at the beginning) which determines how much resources you are capable of claiming from other territories you control. Your TC is given from the single vehicle each in air, ground, and water which gives the highest TC. Your homeland's resources do not consume transport capacity.

Spoiler: On Difficulties and Dice (click to show/hide)

This system is entirely taken from other Arms Race games, modified to suit my purposes.

When determining the results for a design or revision, I will judge how hard that is likely to be and assign a modifier (for the dice rolls described before). I will also likely use this for anything else that requires a degree of randomness.

• Trivial (+3 or more): You could probably already have this. There is no challenge, or you're just re-purposing practical knowledge to solve a problem you don't even have. Super easy stuff. I may even give a higher modifier based on how pathetically easy this should be.
• Very Easy (+2): There is likely only a small challenge to overcome, probably to do with human error and idiot-proofing. Sometimes something else.
• Easy (+1): You're not doing anything particularly new, especially considering your expertise in the field, but there is a small challenge.
• Normal (+0): You're not going to win any awards, because though the concepts involved may be novel, it's not going to advance you by an extreme rate.
• Difficult (-1): You have a solid grasp on what you're trying to do already, and you may learn something completely new, but this isn't groundbreaking stuff. A bit challenging, but not Hard still.
• Very Difficult (-2): At this point almost everything should be new or previously untested. You still likely have some knowledge that is applicable, probably in a related field, but you are making a breakthrough if you succeed.
• Hard (-3): Any existing knowledge you have in this field is going to help, because you really, really need it. You probably have enough idea what you're trying to do that with some help you can still pull it off, but I'm not throwing you a bone.
• Very Hard (-4): You don't have any directly related knowledge in this field. Probably in a related field, which will help somewhat, but these are untested waters.
• Extremely Hard (-5): You have no knowledge which will help with this. It should be possible, the math checks out, you could even still do well, but you're up a creek without a paddle here.
• Ludicrous (-6 or more): Boy howdy are you clueless here. You don't even know if what you're trying to do is possible - could be, but you can't be certain. The less likely this is as far as the GM understands physics/chem/whatever field, the worse the modifier.

Nothing is Impossible, in that I will never hand out a penalty higher than -15, so you can dream up whatever Absolutely Absurd designs you'd like, but your teammates are going to vote based on how they perceive how difficult something is, and how much they're willing to risk.

Rather than going with the time-tested and traditional 2d4 dice or 1d6 die, I will roll 2d10 and have a result on the following table. As with the rules used by NUKE9.13 and ChiefWaffles, using 2 dice leads to the extremes being less common, but having bigger dice means there is a larger range of outcomes which in turn means that the difficulty of a design is much less likely to matter.
2 or 3 (3%): Abject Failure. No explanation needed. You probably won't even learn from the trying.
4 (3%): Garbage. May as well toss it in the dump heap where it belongs.
5 (4%): Unacceptable. It sucks badly. Maybe usable, in niche circumstances.
6 (5%): Buggy Mess. It works... kinda. Best used as an example of where things went wrong.
7 (6%): Poor Performance. Can't expect it to stand up to the competition, but it's functional.
8 or 9 (15%): Below Average. You might find this kind of quality in a Red Apple or Giant Tiger store. Maybe even Walmart, on a bad day. Honestly, it's not bad but you could do better.
10 to 12 (28%): Average. Pretty much what you asked for.
13 or 14 (15%): Above Average. It's better than what you were looking for, but not by much.
15 (6%): Exceptional. This kind of quality is sought after, and it does it's job much better than something of lower quality.
16 (5%): Superior Craftsmanship. This just does it's job perfectly. It's highly reliable, and not many could claim to do better.
17 (4%): Masterpiece. This took a stroke of genius to make, and this will likely outlast you. It does it's job really, really, really well.
18 (3%): Unparalleled. You probably won't be able to improve on this, ever, it just works so well. It's the best at what it does.
19 or 20 (3%): Unexpected Boon. Not only is it perfect, it does more than you could have expected it to. If no 'bonus feature' makes sense, you'll just get experience in some related field.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Rayleigh: Located in lush pastures towards the temperate zone of the planet, this city enjoys scenic views and aggressive plains wildlife that is either highly energetic carnivores or massively armored herbivores, with a few scavengers thrown in. It's actually reminiscent of Africa or Australia, with alien fauna. [2/2 Rayligh, 2 Ore, 1 Oil]
Sujia: This region of small cities has a firm foundation on rocky cliffs, in a rather dry area. Signs that this area was terraformed to be this harsh are common, with great big gouges carved out of the landscape with intense heat, leaving glassy edges. The signs that this area was purposefully made harder to survive in indicate that the dryness is also artificially engineered somehow too. 2/2 Sujia, 2 Ore, 1 Oil]
Yūi: This city was put near the border of the planet's Antarctic circle. The sun shines much longer over the day during the first half of the year, leaving very little time for sleeping, and is only present for a couple hours each day during the latter half of the year. [2/2 SDRB, 2 Ore, 1 Oil]
The Alien Tower: Access is restricted to this tower by automated defenses that automatically attack anyone trying to cross the surrounding moat by sea or air. It's more like a small ocean than a moat, and the salt water attests to that. A laser grid surrounds the water, and deadly flying robot drones patrol the ground. Armaments, unknown. [2/2 Aliens] (control of any 2 of A, C, D, F, G, or I will allow access, albeit this is a risky attack route)
A: Prairies: Green and gold grasses sway back and forth in this rather straightforward area. Wild animals may be a threat, and there's nowhere to hide.[4/4 Rayleigh]
B: Desert: Hot days and dry weather makes this area inhospitable, but it has rich ore deposits just under the shifting surfaces. Windswept dunes may provide cover, but don't count on it. [2/4 Rayleigh,2/4 Sujia,1 Ore]
C: Outback: This area supports only hardy life, and venomous creatures lurk between the sparse but thriving flora. The ground is dried out and cracked, and may give way underfoot without warning. [4/4 Sujia, 1 Oil
D: Canyons: The boxy (and somewhat artificial) wide canyons make this area easy to march across but also easy to make an ambush in. [4/4 Sujia]
E: Mountains: The tall peaks here still aren't tall enough to block the view of the Alien Tower from the far shore. Treacherous footing and tight spaces are ideal for surprise tactics. [2/4 Sujia, 2/4 SDRB, 1 Ore]
F: Taiga: The forests here are almost permanently snowed over, moisture being carried east over the Tundra and stopped by the Mountains. The dense tree growth requires close quarters, but the trees are so nutrient absorbent as to actually pull oil out of the ground. [4/4 SDRB, 1 Oil]
G: Tundra Strong winds and snow storms make this area often have low visibility, but the gentle hills are fairly easy to get across. [4/4 SDRB]
H: Abyss A giant crack in the ground, which the adjacent oceans pour into with no sign of ever running out. Outcroppings of giant stone form islands large enough to support their own biospheres, but they are suspended in mid air. This area interferes with sensors, making it hard to navigate, but the islands are connected with sturdy and ancient alien metal bridges. [2/4 SDRB, 2/4 Rayleigh, 1 Ore]
I: Savannah The flora here ranges between sparse, and densely forested. Watering holes attract many species of fauna, which seem to have a peace agreement here, though once into the open areas all bets of safety are off.  [4/4 Rayleigh, 1 Oil]

Spoiler: Starter Designs (click to show/hide)

Each side starts with:
Transport Capacity: 0 (1 Oil available)
Resources: 2 Ore, 1 Oil (0/1 imported)
Weapons

• Makeshift Earth Rifle (Cheap): Based on designs from home, cobbled together from native materials with remaining architecture. Mediocre accuracy at Long Range, good Accuracy at Medium. 1 Ore
• Scrap Pulse Pistol (Cheap): Barely understood alien tech you were able to reconstruct after some difficulty. Firing modes basically break down into "Painful Burns", "Stun", and "Seriously Maim"; no "Kill" mode, though enough exposure to any of the three modes will do it. It's battery powered but the pulses of hot... stuff (maybe plasma?) use a lot of energy. Accurate up to short range, prone to malfunction. 2 Ore, 1 Oil

Other

• Standard Uniform: A plain uniform with very little decoration or utility. There is a space for rank insignia, and some colored markings but it's rather plain.

First four turns will have two designs per design phase and two designs per revision phase. The 5th turn (1st half of 12AA) will feature the first Combat phase.
I'm starting each team with 1 Research Credit (roll three dice instead of two and drop the worst one), and 1 Alien Credit (Can be used to reverse engineer Alien Tech for your design - you'll get some unexpected effects for using this credit on a design).
I'm also incentivising you to name your faction and city, and to write some lore about yourself. First team to agree with a conclusive vote on names for faction and city gets another Research Credit. The team with the best lore about life in the 10 years after abduction at the end of Turn 2 gets another Alien Credit, and the team with the best new lore about their faction after Turn 2 at the end of Turn 4 gets another Research Credit.

[TricMagic]

Side 3. [Battle Cry Redacted]

[m1895]

I'll go Side 1.

[frostgiant]

Well, 1st is the worst, second is best and third is the one with the wedding dress so I guess I'll join side 2.

[TheFantasticMsFox]

Side 3.

[Vostok]

Side 2
Side 1, actually.

[Man of Paper]

Well, 1st is the worst, second is best and third is the one with the wedding dress so I guess I'll join side 2.

Literally picked up the fiancee's wedding dress today, so I guess I'm team 3.

Wait uh looking at team composition it looks like side 1 is short some people. Side 1 it is, and that's totally the reason.

[VoidSlayer]

Side 2 for me

[Screech9791]

side 2 since

[flabort]

One player has confided in me that they posted in the wrong thread.

This is fine, this is still early game, the first phase hasn't even ended yet. There's still plenty of time if you're undecided, and they have been given the opportunity to correct this.

If you feel you picked the wrong side, or got assigned the wrong role in discord, I am available to approve your transfer between teams during this early part of the game. Later on, I will not be so forgiving.

[flabort]

Team names have been decided.

Reaching a decision between two names on August 20, ~8 PM, Team 1 becomes the Rayleigh Confederation out of the city of Rayleigh.

Getting a majority vote around 3 PM on August 20 (or August 18 around 9 PM depending on how you want to interpret the vote), Team 2 becomes the Federated Cities of Sujia.

And on August 17, around 10 AM, Team 3 becomes the Social Democracy of the Red Blossom, SDRB for short, with the capital city of Yūi.

Congrats to SDRB for winning the first extra RC. I will update the thread titles shortly.

It's also now the first Revision phase, as designs have been completed and I'm posting them to the threads as fast as bay12 will allow me to.

[Rockeater]

Well, I didn't notice this one.

[Craftsdwarf boi]

3 (SDRB)

[flabort]

So, SDRB really needs more players, for those interested in joining, especially on the Discord. Once that team has more players, Rayleigh is also a bit behind in quantity of activity.

In general, all teams really need more, but SDRB needs it the most, followed by Rayleigh; Sujia has the best advantage in terms of active players at the moment.

[TricMagic]

So, SDRB really needs more players, for those interested in joining, especially on the Discord. Once that team has more players, Rayleigh is also a bit behind in quantity of activity.

In general, all teams really need more, but SDRB needs it the most, followed by Rayleigh; Sujia has the best advantage in terms of active players at the moment.

Lore writers are welcome.