Warmech - Homebrew Help

[Mr_Pleasington]

Actually, we're not keeping this to one solar system.

It's about 700 - 1000 years in the future, colony ships that left Earth landed and took control of planets far and wide in the galaxy.  As they began to colonize other nearby planets the societies grew closer and closer together until they could not expand anymore (at least in some directions) without conquering other planets.  

So there are boundaries based upon who owns which planets.  The largest factions control 100+ planets while the smaller ones can control anywhere from 1 to 30 or 40.

[Spriggan]

So Mr.P you said no aliens but what about alien tecnology?   I'm figureing one of the thing that makes my Merc group so good is that they discovered some long dead alien civilization.  From there they, some how, managed to incoperate that technology into their mecha.  It's no big deal if you don't want that.  My guys can allwayse be the best of the best type of thing.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Sorry Sprig, I'd like to keep aliens out of this, even just their anicent tech.

Your guys are just the best of the best...known and feared throughout Known Space

[Entsuropi]

Pope = spiritual (or not? How about pope as king for the RF?) head of the RF.

Hum... if it is 850 (average of 700 & 1000) years in the future, then my whole setup is going to be waay distant history. Almost mythical. So i might be looking at something similar to 40k's horus heresy legend with my stuff. I guess i should add in stuff about how the brits rode on chariots of pure fire and smote their enemies with blasts of righteous might. And we need to think about how space is divided then. Unless one of my factions got kicked off of earth, then they each only control parts of it. With space elevators above each factions main cities. And the other factions would presumably have their own embassies in each others space. So that means that either...
a) the AA and the RF are allied or at peace
b) one is not in Sol any more
c) earth is a warzone

Personally i favour the later. What says everyone else?

[Entsuropi]

And currently the focus of each faction looks like:

RF - numbers (i'll add fanaticism later on)
AA - bravery, economy (UK soldiers historically very brave)
Geekors - technology
asians - *shrug*
saints - valour, skill

[Mr_Pleasington]

And we need to think about how space is divided then. Unless one of my factions got kicked off of earth, then they each only control parts of it.  

As I mentioned earlier, as soon as we get a few more factions, we're not worrying about where you are.  Once we get a few more I'll make a map, randomly place you all and let you roleplay and expand.  You'll meet each other and deal with each other then.  Interactive setting creation.  So don't worry about the realations between factions yet, you'll get to do that through interaction.   Given the time span since people left Earth, your factions probably only know about some of the other colony ships that left earth...and most of those didn't make it.   And most factions have probably forgotten which others left since it was centuries ago.

As for Earth, I have a few ideas.  At first I wanted it to be kind of a holy hub like in 40K and Fading Suns, but the more I think about it the more I like to think this:

As centuries passed, Earth was completely stripped of resources to the point that it could no longer support human habitation at the industrial and technological level that humans had become accustomed to.  Thus, everyone left Earth except for a handful.  Oh, all this would have been well after your colony ships had left so don't worry about it.  Anyway, now its basically a strip-mined waste-land.   It still has a use though...it serves as an operational theatre when X faction/factions use trial of combat (big robot combat!) to settle disputes.

That, or none of the factions can find their way back to earth.  

I like the former better though.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I should also mention, after reading the entries again, that your factions don't necessarily need to be powerhouses on Earth.  They could have been a small group of political idealists that saw an opportunity to make a difference, bought a ship, and went out to colonize.

A pretty good example is the manner of how Europe colonized the Americas.  The Pilgirms were tired of persecution, bought a boat, and came over to start their own society, etc.

[Entsuropi]

Its your game and all, but since i kinda hijacked the setting by writing more than everyone else, meh.

I disagree with your ideas. Firstly, you say everyone abandons earth after its resources go...
a) There are _currently_ 7 billion on earth. Do you realise how _long_ it would take to move them? Not everyone would want to.
b) Why would we abandon earth? It's where all our religious, historical stuff is. The muslims would be against abandoning mecca for example. If all our infrastructure is here, all our population and all our institutions, then we would simply ship in supplies. Not run away. After all, london is a long way away from stuff like coal pits and what not, yet it has 8 million people out of 60 million brits. And in a space scenario, not much is different.

So i am voting for anything that involves earth remaining as centre of the map.

Plus, figureing out how the factions fit together is vital, in order to work out how they would have evolved, how they would equip their armies and so on. Nothing exists in isolation, and so we must, from the start, work out how the pieces fit together.

And its a damned tabletop game! How can the factions _not_ know about each other? They will face each other on the tabletop, and you can hardly make a table saying who can fight what.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Entropy, what we're doing now is set hundreds of years before the current timeline of the game.  The factions don't know each other when they left Earth hundreds of years ago (although some might).

But you'll meet as you expand and by the time present day comes around I'm sure we'll have all sorts of conflict based upon the histories that evolve from your interaction.  That's the whole point of this exercise...instead of us just coming up with stuff and jamming it together we will actually play our factions as they develop and see what interactions there are in present day.  

As for Earth...we're playing a sci-fi game with giant robots fighting.  How Earth was abandoned over the course of anywhere from 700 to 800 years is relatively unimportant.  I could come up with several reasons and methods that are fictionally sound.  

That said, I've come up with something even better for Earth, I think.  Earth and our solar system will be off limits during the time you all are expanding for reasons I'll explain later.

[Spriggan]

Entropy mentioning a Space Pope made me think of something, it may not be that original but here it is.  A planet that's a religious center to one or many different factions.  This planet as a whole is one big monastary/temple compound, think Vadacin City.  This city is completly nutral, but some factoins may want to control it for propoganda purposes.

This may not work as well as I had thought if factions are unaware of each other, but I;d figure the largest/main factions would all be aware of each other.  And not aware of the ones that broke off and went realy far away from the others.

Ok and another idea is since the factions are all spread out and in different star systems (solar system is actualy the unique name of our star system.  Since Sol is the name of our sun.), but we're stuck in the same galaxey (milky way).  If any of you have studied astronomy any you're probaly following me.  But for those of you who aren't a quick explination:  Galaxies are so far apart it make the distance from earth to the nearist star look like a few city blocks.  So that would give a good reason on why the factions can't expand anymore with out running into others.  They just don't have the technology to traverse galaxies.

[Spriggan]

Oh and I'm thinking of calling my faction "The Good Ol' Boys" and useing a modified Texas flag as thier symbol.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I definitely like the idea of neutral planet like that, Sprig.  I figure we'll still roleplay the factions 500-1000 years after they first contact each other so each is well established by gametime.  THis would give plenty of time for a neutral planet to be set up.

Your famed mercenary company won't likely be a faction, technically, since it will be rather small comparably.  However, I'm sure they'll be very important  once we start roleplaying as they will surely turn the tides of some major battles.  

Since the Good 'Ol Boys are kind of a subfaction, I was wondering if you would mind creating another, larger faction also.  If not, s'cool, but just wanted to put the offer out there.

That said, if the rest of you also want to create smaller sub-factions, feel free.  The role of most famous mercs is gone, but if you wanted to create more mercs they could be famed for their fast strike or recon abilities.  Religious fanatics, merchant guilds, and miners guilds are other examples of this.  

These won't play a huge role throughout history, but their names will pop up now and again.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Arg! Double Post!

[Spriggan]

I'll think about makeing an actualy faction.  After reading your setting info the mercs were the first thing to pop into my mind.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Any other submissions?

I'd really like some more factions!  C'mon...all those folks in AORP who don't get up here much seem pretty creative...