This system is a complete ripoff of Sofinho's excellent Alone in the Wilderness, except for the parts that are a complete ripoff of Phlox's beautiful Ten Blade Demigod. This part one of 4 where I work through my previously identified problems with my Navigator spaceship-nomad domain game rules. Later parts will go over new rules and generators for the "islands" of the endless halls of Machine Space, new troupe play and character advancement, and a complete "second edition" rules document.
Navigators divide time into two seasons - the Blue, where their home cylinder of the Volume is filled with breathable air, and the Black, where it empties and Navigator sept-vessels spread out through the megastructure. Each of these seasons is then divided into two turns, the Waxing and Waning.
At the start of the turn, determine the amount of food foraged by your sept - in the Volume during Blue Season this is [population/6]d8, collected from the grasslands of the cylinder. In Machine Space this is [population/6]d4, from cracking water lines and looting transport rails. In the Volume during Black Season, this is [population/6]d2 - unsurvivable.
It is a bright day in the waxing half of Blue Season - under the linear sun, sept Certifier (population 36, so rolling 6d8) rolls 18 - really just startlingly bad.
Each member of your sept is assumed to eat 2 meals a day - this can be increased to 3, improving the morale of your sept and letting you roll sept members' HD twice and take the highest result when relevant. It can also be decreased to 1, granting disadvantage to HD rolls and leading to general whining and complaining.
Your sept's food consumption is also divided by 6, to fit with food production.
Certifier's population of 36 means they eat (36/6)*2 = 12 units of food by default. This leaves a surplus of 6.
Having a surplus means that your sept has time left over after collecting enough food for the group. This extra time can be spent on sept projects. Surplus time can be added to a project over multiple seasons - improvements do not need to be completed in a single turn.
Improve the Vessel's Holdings
- Sept-vessels have 4 stats, called "holdings": Weaponry, Trade Goods, Reliquaries, and the rare Mysteries. Starting sept-vessels have 1-3 points spread through these stats.
- The level of a holding can be increased by putting 15 points of time into the project per target level (15 to go from no holding to level 1, 30 from 1 to 2, et cetera).
- This can be halved if a relevant item is included in the construction of the holding (if you recover your ancestor's gold-plated skull you can stick it in your reliquary, and so on). Any single item may only be used for this purpose once.
- Improving the level of a Mystery requires use of a relevant item, and still costs the full price.
Build an Asset
- A catchall for the construction of other sept-vessel additions - gardens, spotlights, tow cables, et cetera.
- Asset prices are negotiated - they may gain a discount from, or require, access to a relevant item.
Craft a Treasure
- If you have a Mystery of at least level two, you can attempt to craft treasures based off of it at a cost of 15 surplus per property of the treasure.
- Each turn you put surplus into this action, roll 1d20 + the crafter's Intelligence + the level of your Mystery. If you roll below a 20, a complication arises that must be resolved before the treasure is completed.
- The cost of the treasure is decreased by 1 for relevant rare substances or valuable objects used in the crafting, and by 2 if the crafter has a relevant skill. The roll for complication gains an equal bonus.
Preserve
- By default, all surplus time is lost at the end of a season.
- 2 points of time can be spent to provide a free point of time on the next season, as your sept works to preserve food and lower the amount of forage needed.
- (i.e. if sept Certifier spent 6 surplus preserving food, next season they would roll 6d8+3 for forage.)
Host
- You may host a particular character, or choose to open your doors to any number of other septs. This is used for any type of hosting activity - political councils, weddings, et cetera.
- In the Blue Season, you may host another character in your assembly-ship instead of on your sept-vessel - this is seen as politely distant, while hosting on your own vessel is seen as extremely close.
- On weddings - remember that all weddings are political alliances, and that they are only permissible between left-handed and right-handed septs. You may be expected to host twice - once for the discussion of the spouse-prices and placements, and again for the marriage.
- Hosting costs at minimum 3 surplus, with increased spending striking awe in your guests.
Care
- Each wounded member of the sept costs 3 surplus to care for - if this is not spent, their wounds do not improve.
Work on the Assembly-Ship
- This can only be done while you have access to the assembly-ship (presumably this is in the Volume during the Blue Season, but if you move it or something I guess it's there now).
- Spend any amount of surplus, plus any amount of rare resources. Gain surplus/2+resources Glory and add that many points to the tally of your assembly. Someday it will be finished.
Attract Heroes
- Roll 1d6+[reliquaries] on my secret table of weird freak heroes. The rolled result will arrive for your next adventure, piloted by another player, and then wander away.
Adventure
- Sending characters out from the sept-vessel costs 1 surplus for each character sent. Adventuring NPCs are equipped as you choose, with available loadouts based on the Weapons level of your sept.
- Further rules for adventure in Machine Space will be presented in part 2.
Raid
- Sending characters out from the sept-vessel costs 1 surplus for each character sent. Adventuring NPCs are equipped as you choose, with available loadouts based on the Weapons level of your sept.
- Roll (1d20 - the target's weaponry - 1 for every raider you bring with you) / 3. This is the number of turns you have before the defender is able to organize a response.
- Further procedures for raiding are not relevant to the topic of this post. Hurt them and steal their things. You get it.
Sept Certifier chooses to spend all 6 of its surplus to Work on the Assembly-Ship, along with a beautiful set of malachite-and-cobalt plates they pulled from the Hanging Gardens. They gain 6/2+1 = 4 Glory and add 4 points to the tally of Assembly Elegiast.
The population of a sept-vessel comes from their Glory - acclaimed septs attract new marriages, adoptions, and hangers-on, while failing vessels soon split. At the end of each turn, Glory is tallied:
- +1 for each of a vessel's Reliquaries
- +1 if the sept defeated a significant enemy
- and another +1 for victory against all odds
- +1 if the sept befriended a significant character
- and another +1 if they were an enemy when the turn began
- +1 for succeeding in a raid despite making contact with the enemy
- +5 if a member of the sept was acclaimed Imperious
- +5 if a source of a rare resource is discovered and brought back to the assembly
- +∞ for the completion of your assembly-ship
- -2 for each death among the sept
Glory may also be lost as a consequence of raids, as part of weregild, or as a result of unpleasant events, general chaos, or other GM meddling. Glory begins at 0 - it can become negative.
At the end of a season, roll 1d10-(9-Glory) for the number of new sept members. This cannot be negative.
Sept Certifier's prior Glory was -3. They gain 1 for their Reliquary and another 4 from their work on the good ship Elegiast, bringing them to 2. They roll 8 on 1d10-7 - a single person comes to join the sept, bringing them to a total population of 37. Time ticks on in the endless structure.
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