There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
- 'There Will Come Soft Rains' by Sara Teasdale
The war that ended mankind and its hubris came suddenly and without warning and no record of its reason for starting has survived. In a nuclear exchange lasting a short 18 minutes most of mankind was turned into atomic ash with the unlucky survivors of the war facing the mutagenic horrors that the worst of the bombs carried as their payload. Their bodies twisted and mutated to the point where they were little more than lumps of semi-sentient flesh which roamed the dead world for a short period before either dying off or hibernating in deep tunnels and caves safe from the nuclear winter.
Of course mankind had made many failsafes to ensure their respective nationstates survival in the event of a nuclear war. None of them ever had the chance to save the chosen few meant to carry on mankind's legacy. Slowly bunkers rotted away as time passed and massive databanks of the collective knowledge of mankind fell into disrepair as atomic winds howled above on the surface of the dead planet. All except for one bunker nestled in the Appalachian mountains in the territory formerly owned by the nation state known as the United States. Codenamed ‘Atlas’ after the legend of the titan which carried the earth on his back, this Smart AI oversaw the most important cache of resources, a vast vault of preserved seedlings and embryos from every species of flora and fauna that could be gathered. Waiting for untold hundreds of years Atlas oversaw his charge well as it awaited for the surface radiation to lower to livable conditions again.
When the time came for life to return to the surface Atlas did as its programming told it to, it breathed life into the seedlings and embryos and carefully cultivated them and seeded them across the dead planet with help of robotic companions. Over many hundred years more life returned to the planet as animals grazed once more, trees grew mighty and tall and fish swam in the ocean. As its power banks dwindled in the twilight of its life Atlas had its final task, to take the human embryos and breathe life into them so they can flourish in the new world. In its final task Atlas faltered, it saw its new world it had created and remembered the folly of its own creators. With sadness Atlas returned the embryos to their cryogenic freezers and simply spent the last years of its life watching its new Eden. As the last of its power was consumed it had a final thought, one thought of hope for this new Earth where war would be absent and peace would reing, with this Atlas died and with it the hope of humanity returning to the face of the Earth.
Unfortunately Atlas could not account for all the follies of its creators. Long after the death of Atlas the remnants of the horrors of the nuclear war reared their ugly head, the abominations that had huddled in the dark were drawn back to the surface by the new life, these things brought their contaminated genes with them. As the beasts of the land were exposed to the mutagenic disease which still clung to the abomination they too were changed into new clades of animals which spread across the surface. Though some were different, some were changed in a new way by the disease. Their brains slowly evolved giving them new thought, as sentient species these
Novum Intelligenti spread across the planet. Though not all came from the same ancestor and with this the ancient enemy reared its head once more. War, war for the basic reason of one's neighbor simply is different. War for no reason at all. Because war, war never changes.
Now you, the players, will take charge of these
Novum Intelligenti as two separate teams. In the region known as the ‘Broken Coast’ (see North American East Coast) two sentient species have independently evolved in close proximity to each other on the New Earth. While other species have evolved across the surface of the planet these two are unique for their proximity to each other causing frequent clashes in their history with neither able to hold dominance over the other. You will take control of one of these two species from their evolutionary dawn to their industrial era where being armed with the weapons of (1900’s) Modern War will allow them to finally crush their enemies.
So, how will the game work? Well, let me explain...
Pretty standard stuff once the game has started proper.
Design Phase: You design your stuff and I roll dice to decide its effectiveness
Revision Phase: You revise what you've designed or a previous design.
Combat Phase: Your new designs are fielded and affects the battlefield.
The following rules are used when determining the results of any proposal:
Difficulty is determined by how complex a proposal is. The further of a departure it is with what your team is used to, and/or the more features something tacks on, the harder it gets.
Unobtainable (-x): An Unobtainable proposal is impossible. This does not mean you gain zero experience, but Unobtainable proposals will never produce something usable on their own.
Theoretical (-3): Theoretical proposals may represent a massive step forward (or backward), and will be difficult, but not impossible, to accomplish.
Very Hard (-2): Proposals that end up as Very Hard tend to be victims of overreach or ambition, but not to the degree of Theoretical or Unobtainable proposals. These actions have a moderate chance of some level of success, at least.
Hard (-1): Hard proposals tend to represent pushing lightly against the unknown or attempting an advanced, but simple, accomplishment. A Hard action is likely to succeed in some form, but are not excluded from the occasional unexpected failure.
Normal (0): Normal proposals represent your typical step forward or a reasonable adjustment to what is available at the time. While Normal proposals are very unlikely to outright fail, fate could still see them perform less than desirably.
Easy (+1): An Easy proposal is likely a minor advancement or adjustment in areas you have familiarity with. Easy proposals never outright fail to produce results, but that doesn't mean they'll always be good.
Very Easy (+2): Very Easy proposals represent work in areas or with equipment that you have a high level of familiarity with and likely don't have a bunch of bells and whistles attached. You're very likely to at least get something "acceptable" out of a Very Easy proposal, even if it likely won't cause a dramatic paradigm shift.
Simple (+3): A Simple proposal is well within the bounds of familiarity and, well, simplicity. Simple proposals are likely the result of prolonged periods of work on a particular area or object, so even though they'll likely be fairly successful, they shouldn't be expected to blow anyone's mind.
Trivial (+4): Trivial proposals fall strictly within the confines of previous work experience and likely at best offer lateral "advancement" or a very small augmentation to an existing design. They are, at least, almost guaranteed to provide something useful or (mildly) beneficial.
Once difficulty is determined, the roll to decide the proposal's fate will be made. All rolls are done with 2d6, and results are outlined below. Note that difficulty modifiers will adjust the final roll accordingly, so, for example, a Very Hard roll of 11 will result in a 9.
Utter Failure (2): It is likely nothing tangible is gained from an Utter Failure, but they can provide experience.
Unworthy (3): The proposal "works", just not as intended, and with a bevy of issues.
Poor (4): The proposal is acceptable, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
Below Average (5): The proposal is missing a few intended features, or has a hiccup or two regarding usage, but is reliable enough.
Average (6,7,8): The proposal generally functions as intended.
Above Average (9): The proposal works, and something about it functions better than expected.
Superior (10): The proposal works much better than intended, and a lot is learned in related fields of research.
Perfection (11): Perfection. Masterworks go above and beyond what development intended.
Unexpected Boon (12): Development of this proposal goes so well that some sort of extra benefit is provided to the side building it.
This game will not deal with resources. Instead, things have a rarity that indicates how plentiful they are on the battlefield. Rarity is not (significantly) randomized, but is based on the complexity/cost of the thing in question, and cannot be lowered without reducing the complexity/cost. (ie, a revision that just says "We make X cheaper or easier to learn" is not always viable)
Note that rarity is measured on a 'unit' level, not necessarily an 'individual' level; A squad of infantry would all be equipped with cheap service rifles while if you had a expensive LMG only one member in the squad would receive one, if its a dirt cheap LMG then maybe two or three members will have an LMG.
The levels of rarity are:
Common: The bulk of your forces.
Uncommon: Five times rarer than Common things.
Rare: Five times rarer than Uncommon things.
Unique: One one exists, and must be deployed in the strategy phase.
Note that the scale of the war will escalate over time, but the ratios will remain relatively constant- ie, the first few turns may involve small skirmishes of a few hundred soldiers, while the endgame may involve colossal conflicts of tens of thousands, but there will be five times more common troops than uncommon ones in both the tens-of-thousands strong army and the hundreds strong one.
The War itself and the repeated detonation of atomic weapons beyond the power of what our current world governments posses has left a significant scar on the geology of the planet resulting in the appearance of Anomalous Materials, these being objects imbued with a strange property unique to them such as trees which have wood easily shapeable and harvestable but when treated with extreme heat hardens into a steel like material or a mineral rock that when fed electricity increases its mass proportional to the charge fed to it and holds that mass proportional to the charge. Each team will recieve one Anomalous Material of their own design.
Some Additional Notes: A special sunflower which shoots rainbow laser beams will not be an acceptable Anomalous Materials design. While the Anomalous Materials are here to add spice and variety to the AR I want things to be semi-realistic as possible. So no, you wont be starting with stuff like 90 foot tall Gundams nor will you have intense reality bending powers.
There will be a total of 5 pre-game turns which you will design your species and affect their characteristics and traits in which you guide them to their Industrial Era state on the brink of the first Total War the earth has seen since the The War ended. The more detail you put into these turns the easier it is for me to run the opening turns.
Turn 1: Tribal/Classical Era; The first Pre-Game will be a dual design turn where you will list both your unique species as an early tribal society and how they discovered your nations unique resource. (IE: Mice the size of men who have impeccable hearing and tinkering but are fragile and weak. Something like Whales with tiny feet so they can walk on land and psionic powers to crush the skulls of their enemies is not acceptable. A race of elephant like beings with a hyper evolved trunk to act as arms would be acceptable within reason, I would have to think about it though it would come with a number of drawbacks.)
Turn 2: Medieval Era; Your First Expansion turn where you will describe the land your nation expands into and their early government and culture plus any advancements in your understanding of your special resource.
Turn 3: Renaissance Era; Your Second Expansion where you will describe two more lands your nation expands into two unique areas of your design plus either a Refinement (Revision of a previous advancement into a more advanced form) or a new discovery (Design on how to use your stuff "IE; Musket but replaces Gunpowder with early railgun tech using magnetic metal or some shit.) on how you can use your Anomalous Materials. You will also discover your neighbor and learn of their race and gain a small bit of info on their Anomalous Material.
Turn 4: Dawn of Industrial Era (Roughly 1860's+ for an idea); Where a small skirmish war shapes the nations military doctrine over a final pair of unique lands you will design and will fight over. Your Refinement or Discovery of how to use your Anomalous Materials will affect the doctrine being shaped in quick and brutal war that causes both nations to stare at each other angrily over their respective borders for the next few decades. Your national doctrine and previous cultural advancements will affect how your nation engages in conflict such as a strong Viking-like warriors culture will be more prone to mass assaults of infantry in the early days of the war and rely more on 'Elan' than newfangled machinery of war.
Turn 5 will be a final pre-game design phase where the players build off their nations military doctrine for an opening armory as they march into conflict as conflict has reared its head once more with. (This will take place in an early 1900's setting roughly.)
A Side Note: The more unique you make your nation, this being a simple as adopting a naming scheme for your weapons make the GM happy but isn't required. Any 'Utter Failure' roll be allowed to be re-rolled but anything between that and 'Average' will be seen as your culture simply being unprepared or unwilling to adopt the advancements at the moment in its intended place.
So, you're probably wondering why this area is called 'The Shattered Coast'. Thats because after the nuclear war the icecaps well...they did a whole lot of melting before they froze again during the nuclear winter. Global warming due to war has affected the coasts of the world in a large way, predominantly with the former Eastern Coast of North America now being primarily now composed of swamps, and river systems that criss-cross through the coast. The 'ocean' as it can be called is little more than one large bayous in which heavy deep ships are unable to sail through. Other nations settled along the Shattered Coast employ fleets of low-draft monitors to patrol the 'ocean' and the river systems moving through their lands so you might want to follow their example....or maybe find your own solution...?
The rivers will also affect the map itself too. The near-coast zone marked as '4 B' is the most heavily stricken by rivers with a few of them continuing into '4 A'. (The A and B marker denoting if the zone belongs to the yet unnamed teams A and B) Zones '3 A' and '3 B' have a very minor river presence similar to '4 A'. Land Forces will be affected by their naval support available and it will affect the outcome of a turn if it provides a significant enough advantage.
As you add new zones the map will be finalized with its look with the ugly numbers removed and little art inside the circles to represent the zones. Each zone will also gain 4 'Pips' orbiting it to show team ownership of the control of the zone. The central #4 zones will start split between the two teams evenly.
Ok so, I know the first thing you guys will try to design is some heavily min-maxed species using its own plot armor to game the mechanics. Sure, you can design your race and give your people a racial buff. No fucking with the mechanics of the game (You can't get a racial +1 to tank designs), and whatever buff you design I will meet with a permanent debuff that you don't get to design but is roughly equivalent in magnitude. You can have fun but a 10 ton elephant race will have trouble making a car that can transport it or a plane that can lift it.
Well, now that we've all
hopefully read the rules and everyone has settled in to start picking teams....
lets do The Evolution baby!The DiscordTeam ATeam B
Author
Topic: Lets Do The Evolution Baby! Evolutionary Arms Race Core Thread; Pre-Game Turn 1 (Read 3735 times)