Unlimit3d 8
Foreword
- This is a Squirmish papercraft game created by B&hammer40kun.
- Miniature templates have been created by James Bowen.
- Dark_Matter and Hats contributed to graphisms
- Dark_Matter, Indonesian Gentleman and SquashMonster contributed to fluff.
Fluff
Fluff is open for change, but there are a few rules that, as the control freak I am, I would like you to observe :
- Major corporations may recieve changes. Add stuff to existing coporations if you want, but I might edit your work. Discuss changes or deletions you'd like to be made on the discussion pages
- Minor corportaions and organisations can be added and edited with more freedom,
- Marginal organisations can be added as you want, and there are big chances what you'll do won't be edited, as long as it fits with the rest.
In addition, I'd like you to know that I'm French, so even though I've been learning english for 16 years now, it's still far from perfect, so if you spot any silly wording or poor tense choice, just let me know, or even correct my mistakes if you'd be so kind.
Thanks, B&Hammer40kun.
Setting
It is the fourth millennium, and the Earth is full. With humanity numbering over twenty billion, the planet can no longer sustain human civilization. For centuries man has been fleeing to space, hoping to find new life in asteroid mining colonies and solar farms . However, space travel was expensive, and no matter how much the world's governments dedicated themselves to offloading their surplus population, their efforts made no appreciable dent in Earth's massive overcrowding. That changed forty years ago with an event referred to as "The Encounter" - the discovery of a wrecked alien craft in the Oort cloud. One of the technologies reverse-engineered from the craft allowed for affordable, faster than light travel.
With this technology in hand, humanity's ability to take to the stars finally approached their desire to do so. Millions of Earth's citizens signed on to any contracts they could find that would get them into space. The promises of clean air, no matter how artificial, real food, and comparatively greater personal space were, for many, more than enough to accept spending the remainder of one's life performing dangerous, zero-gravity mining.
Now the Outer Frontier is being colonized rapidly by a group of corporations known as the Space Exploitation Assembly. These corporations compete with eachother, often using covert violence and a thin layer of plausible deniability, for the precious materials of the solar system. However, an increasing number of their colonies are rebelling and forming their own independent governments. Amongst these rebellions it is often hard to tell the difference, if there is one, between the liberator, the terrorist, the savior, the pirate, and the lunatic - out here, far from the Earth's governments and any authority beyond a corporation's hired military, there might not be such a difference.
Major Corporations
Space Exploitation Assembly
The space exploitation assembly is a group of corporation that rule over the solar system. As Earth governments have given up the idea of making law above their sky, this privilege was taken by the SEA, establishing the rules of trade, travel, security, unquestionned for almost two decades before the first syndicates emerged.
Nova Mind Trust
The history of the Nova Mind Trust begins with a different organization, the Church of the Exploding Sun. A powerful cult, the Church of the Exploding Sun built dozens of massive arks - slow-moving colony ships designed to last generations - and prepared them to other solar systems. The arks were to leave in waves, starting with scientists and engineers to create the infrastructure required to start new civilizations among the stars, then a wave of workers and colonists, and finally a wave housing the church's leadership. The Sunners (a derogatory but wildly popular nickname for the cult) believed that, once their exodus is completed, the sins of the nonbelievers will cause the sun to explode and cleanse the solar system.
The Church of the Exploding Sun's exodus never finished, for the commander of one of the first wave of arks, Uriah Hugel, decided to investigate an unexpected signal at the limits of the Oort Cloud and found the remains of an alien vessel. After analyzing the craft, Hugel decided to return to the Earth and present the church leaders with a gift: the ability to travel faster than light.
With this discovery, the Church of the Exploding Sun quickly became relevant to everyone, not just a large group of crazed cultists. To facilitate this, several higher-up officials founded a corporation separate from the church: the Nova Mind Trust.
The Nova Mind Trust is, officially, a non-religious entity. The fact that its upper management is predominantly comprised of members of the Church of the Exploding Sun is, according to the NMT, nothing more than a coincidence. Transparent that this lie may be, humanity is forced to depend on the NMT. Although Uriah Hagel eventually betrayed the organization and gave faster than light travel to everyone, the rest of the alien technology remains thoroughly in the Nova Mind Trust's hands, and anyone wishing to use it must deal with them.
Fondation for Outer Settlement
The Foundation for Outer Settlement styles itself as a non-profit organization with the goal of getting every individual that wants to live in space the opportunity to do so. However, this is just a marketing ploy, and as often as they like to imply a non-profit status, they never say it outright for fear of being barred from the Space Exploitation Assembly for false advertising.
The Foundation for Outer Settlement is, quite simply, a very unscrupulous corporation with a talented marketing department. When the FOS builds a colony, it is always highly-specialized, and never self-sufficient. Some colonies grow food, others mine water, others mass produce air. The FOS offers transport to their colonies for cheaper than any other corporation, and with no indentured servitude in their contracts. Once at their new home, however, colonists quickly discover that the FOS does not provide cheap transportation back to Earth, that the FOS is the only organization that ships food, water, and air to their colony, and that making the payments required by the FOS for these shipments requires constant, back-breaking labor. Those who refuse to work themselves to exhaustion are often killed by the other members of the colony to eliminate the dead weight. They are, in essence, slaves.
The Foundation for Outer Settlement is also a leader in human biological modification research: they can easily find volunteers for inhumane and dangerous procedures by offering the volunteers transport to colonies with less horrific conditions. Additionally, since the FOS is the only organization that the colonies can contact, it is extremely easy for the FOS to cover up any incident within the colony that leaves the outside of the colony unmarred. It is widely suspected, but never truly proven, that this has something to do with the FOS's wildly successful biological weapons research division.
Patrician Inestment Conglomerate
The Patrician Investment Conglomerate is, at its heart, a cartel of outstandingly wealthy investors who decided they needed a foothold in space. In addition to a moon-based palace-town that serves as a headquarters, the patricians have several colonies, massive freight ships, and small military organizations at their disposal. Each of these is fantastically well-equipped, and even more fantastically profitable. Patrician mining colonies inevitably end up mining the rarest minerals, Patrician freighters inevitably haul the most valuable cargoes, and Patrician militaries inevitably fight the most profitable wars.
The Patricians accomplish this partly through good business sense, more through an expensive ring of corporate spies amongst all their competitors, and even more importantly through the use of artificial intelligence. The Patricians are one of the most AI-tolerant organizations in the solar system, to the point that several patrician-owned companies have AI CEOs. Artificial intelligences are often considered to be too focused on the goals they are given to be trusted by a group whose goals involve subtlety and human factors, but the Patricians are openly motivated purely by their own profit.
Although those assets owned directly by the Patrician Investment Organization are the best-equipped in the solar system, they are few in number. The bulk of the Patricians' clout comes in the form of shares of other corporations and outstanding loans to corporations and governments.
Helion Peace Keeping Corporation
The Hellion Peace Keeping Corporation is a military agency financed by the Space Exploration Assembly as a whole. The Hellions exist to maintain peace and order, enforce the regulations created by the SEA, and to do the group's dirty work.
The Hellions have been forbidden to own colonies of their own since the treaty that allowed the Free Space Federation to join the SEA. Instead, their battleship-freighters constantly patrol areas deemed "sensitive" by the SEA, searching for outlaws and distributing supplies to other Hellions fighting one of the several SEA-sanctioned covert and guerrilla wars.
The Hellions, like many corporate-owned police forces throughout history, consider themselves legitimate officers more than hired thugs. The Hellion leadership encourages this viewpoint, and tries to avoid causing its members to think too much about who they're working for. Several Hellion divisions, especially those with covert and guerrilla roles, are comprised of those who view the job of the Hellions as a crusade rather than a corporate guard dog.
Free Space Federations
(HOW COMES I CAN LOSE SO MUCH MATERIAL DAMNIT !) (IG note: I remember them being the Sinn Fein to the SLF's IRA. Can we fill out stuff from there?)
Minor Corporations and Organisations
Space Liberation Front
An organization whose objective is to free the various colonies from the grasp of the SEA and the major corporations. Some time after its creation, a schist occured within its ranks. Some of SLA's members who are more diplomatically inclined decides to form the FSF, using diplomacy, politics and negotiations to free the colonies. Unfortunately this left the more radical and merciless members in control of SLA, which carried out vicious attacks against several major corporations. SLA was quickly branded as terrorists by most corporations.
They utilize various mechs, from construction mechs converted into fighting mechs to some battle-grade mech aquired from the black market. One of their most notorious attacks involve Arbeiter-type construction mechs strapped with heavy explosives, which devastated an entire fifty-story tower.
(IG note: this is what I remember from that post, although I added some flavor to it myself. Change what you will, B&hammerkun)
The Collective
The origins of the Collective is unclear, but what is known about it is that it is an advanced K-class combat AI. From the few encounters where there are survivors, it calls itself 'The Collective', and it uses remotely controlled mechs. We do not know why it keeps waging skirmishes in the Asteroid Belt, and always with a high human death count.
Marginal Corporations and Organisations
Banghuela's Corsairs
After the opening of the space as a ground of conquest, some Earth governments chose to indiscriminately send their prisoners, particulary the "political" kind, to pentitentiary colonies on Ceres, which has been fortified to prevent any assault aimed at freeing its particular residents. Problem was that the prisoners rebelled and took over the base, offering them a shelter the HPKC could not uproot. They count toward the most virulent members of the Space Liberation Front.
Meggido Brotherhood
A cult which believes the makers of the Xenotech as their gods. They devote themselves to keep the Xenotech 'pure' from human contamination, by seeking to 'liberate' the still-pure Xenotech. This made them at odds with Nova Mind Trust, and sometimes with other corporations too. Since they believed that in every mech there is some degree of Xenotech, they regard what mechs they have as shrines to their unknown gods. This is why a Meggido mech would be decorated with flashy, religious symbols or decorations. Since they operate in small cells, they are not considered to be a major threat.
Crunch
Once again, discussion, criticism, comments and advices are very welcome, so don't hesitate to quote and comment anything that seems to be wrong.
Beginning the game
There are two kinds of maps in Unlimit3d 8 : the meta-map and the territorial maps. The Meta-Map is a map where all the territories are noted. A Territorial Map is a map where the buildings of each territory is noted. At the beginning of a campaign, 1000 Stelar Credits (SC) and one territory of the meta-map is awarded to each player. It comes with a Station, Command center, Power plant, Radar, Landing pad and Living quarters. Once the players have noted on their territory map the place of each building, they can begin their first turn.
Strategic turn
Commercial phase
In the commercial phase you can ship ressources to the mining cooperatives to earn money, . This will allow you to gather Stellar Credits you will be able to spend later. In this phase you can also trade ressources or services with your different opponents.
You can also purchase Buildings, Equipment, Vehicles, Weapons, and hire Operatives. The Buildings may appear in any territory you own. The other elements may only appear in a territory with a landing pad.
Activity phase
In the activity phase, you have to chose chich buildings are active, and which aren't. Each active building consumes energy, and you can't use more buildings than you can put power in.
If active :
- Your mineshaft will produce minerals
- Your foundries and refineries will be able to produce refined minerals
- Your factories will produce goods
- Your turrets will be able to fight invasion
- Your forcefileds will be active
No Ressource can be produced if there is no room in the Warehouses of the territory where the ressources are being produced. This is also the phase when you can fit weapons and equipments on vehicles or remove them, at the only condition that the weapons and equipments are on the same territory as the vehicles. Move phase
Move phase
In the move phase, any of your units can move to any of your territories, or any territory adjascent to yours, the only restriction being that the unit has to travel through territories control, meaning that if for any reasons one of several of your territories were to be separated from the others, none of your units can travel from the first to the later freely, and reciprocally. The moves you decide are to be kept secret from your oponent, and only revealed at the beginning of the Tactical phase. This means you have to decide where each unit will be at the end of this turn, and list your moves in an approrpiate fashion.
A player can grant passage over his territories to another, in which case they must define which territories the opponent may consider theirs for deplacement purpose. Of course, betrayal is always an option, and the passing player can then attack. Any territory adjascent to the territories where they were granted the right of passage. You only have to tell on which territories you move if your units finish their move on a territory that isn't yours, and don't have to reveal which are the units you moved until they meet with ennemy units In this phase, any two pilots in the same group of territories can exchange equipment.
Tactical phase
If a unit or a group of units move to a territory where no ennemy unit is present, they take possession of said territory. If a unit or a group of units move to a territory where there are ennemy units, they engage into battle until all the units of one side are either destroyed or retreated to an adjascent territory. You can only retreat to a territory you control. If for any reason there could be no possibility of retreat for the either of the retreating units, the would disappear until next move phase, at which point they would reappear on any of the territories controled by the player than own them, but wouldn't be able to change equipment or pilot. When all the battle are resolved, the next Strategic Turn begins.
Territorial maps
The territorial map records what's being built on the territories each player owns. They are divided in 16 x 16 squares, each square representing 2 by 2 squares on the gaming board.
The unit card
The unit card displays every useful information about the
units you’ll play.
Pilot and vehicles have certain particularities that aren‘t
directly handy in combat. The card sums it all up for you.
- A - Unit and Name : keeps track of who pilots what, and
what is the pilot level.
- B - Unit logo : A recognisable symbol, or a number should be
placed on every model to make an immediate link between the card and the miniature.
- C - Size and Weight class depend on the vehicle
- D - Base Defense depend on Size, Weight class and pilot skill
- E - Move and Max move depend on the vehicle propulsion,
weight, and driver’s piloting skill. They determine how fast a vehicle can move
- F - When noting the damages, tick half of them (rounded up) with a cross, the other half with a slash. The damages ticked
with a cross can’t be repaired, and the damages with a slash can.
- G - Armor depends on the vehicle, it absorbs damages.
- H - Skills depend on the driver level. The seven columns are the skill scores multiplied by 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5
respectively. Halves are rounded down
- I : Weapons stats depend on the weapon base statline . Cooldown is the weapon base minus the pilot initiative.
Making a roll
To roll, you need three eight-faced dice :
- A hot-coloured die, the active dice (most often used for damages)
- A cold-coloured die, the passive die (used to trigger special effects)
- A wierd-coloured die, the nemesis die (used for critical hit and miss)
- Add up the three dice and find the sum on the J row of the unit card.
- Read the result on the according collumn for the skill you rolled.
- Then compare this result to the difficulty your rolled against. If your score is equal or above the difficulty, it’s a success.
- Take the active die : it will determine the effectiveness of the action.
- Take the passive die : it will determine if a passive effect occurs.
- Take the nemesis die : it will determine if something special happens.