The Barracks Emperors
- Thread starter robject
- Start date
Great suggestion, Bill! After reading a short piece talking about Kingmaker's redesign, I think there are concepts that transfer well.
Kingmaker adapted to Traveller
Bullying nobles, treacherous royals, and cowardly megacorporate factors.
In particular, the concept of a local Moot as a place where diplomacy and hard bargaining appear. Implied is the list of titles held in the area, and how they are redistributed when nobles die or are deposed -- i.e. the presiding Duke sets out his appointments, and they are accepted or rejected by votes in the Moot. Thus, a faction with relatively weak holdings can still control a session of the Moot by holding the critical, tie-breaking votes. That's where the bargaining and diplomacy happens. Getting the Duke to transfer a title to your faction wins you a world and whatever fleet it owns. Controlling a county means controlling its colonial fleet.
Since power is relatively dispersed, worlds will retain appropriate system defense forces, and elements of interstellar navies.
Factions
The foundation of a faction is high nobility -- Counts and Dukes. The faction controls star systems, starship fleets, and defense fleets. Nobles are assigned to captain fleets and manage star systems. Members or fleets of a faction may enter any owned system freely. Systems owned by another faction may only be entered with permission, or by conquering it. Neutral systems may only be entered by first conquering them.
Nobles are named according to their fief and title. Assuming the Kaasu area yields a few titles of "high nobility":
</font>
Turn Phases
</font>
Events
</font>
Movement
</font>
Combat
Probably resolved similar to 5FW or similar. Nobility on the losing side is captured, along with their fleet assets.
Roll for nobility fatalities.
Seige
Mainworlds are captured by seige. Attackers must have enough nobles present to match the strength of the beseiged mainworld. Defending nobles present may add their strength to the defense. Also, up to one other faction's nobility may add their strength to the defense. Seiges are always successful and the mainworld plus all nobility inside are captured unless there is a "Delay" event. In this case, the star system is termed "under seige".
Roll for nobility fatalities.
Nobility and royalty may leave a beseiged system only if able to reduce the beseiging force's strength. Beseiged nobility may lead fleets to initiate or join combat against the beseiging forces.
A faction wishing to beseige or relieve a mainworld under seige must first defeat the beseiging force.
Any victorious noble must end his turn inside the mainworld.
A captured star system immediately becomes part of the victor's county.
Alliances
Alliances may be formed at any time, for the purpose of offense or defense. They may be terminated at any time as well. They must be openly declared.
The Moot
The player controlling the sole Duke has the privilege of summoning the Moot. If there are more than one Dukes, the Moot is summoned by the ranking Megacorporate Factor, assuming Events permit it.
1. The Duke or Factor occupies a star system which is to be the location of the Moot.
2. Nobles may immediately move to the Moot location without movement limitations.
3. Everyone present may vote. Votes are alloted to each faction based on the star systems in its county. Additional votes are granted to royalty.
4. Titles are dispensed in order by vote. In the event that there are two or more Dukes, the first title to be decided upon is for Duke.
The player summoning the Moot may propose one recipient for each remaining title. Rejected assignments pass down to the player with the largest faction. Those rejections pass to the next most powerful faction. Those rejections then pass to the county which controls the most star systems. (This means that a player may be able to propose recipients more than once).
5. The player summoning the Moot proposes candidates for Megacorporate factorates.
6. All nobles in the Moot may return to their home systems, ignoring all movement restrictions, immediately upon conclusion of the Moot.
Elevation
1. The senior surviving member of a noble house is elevated to Duke or Duchess.
2. The heir-apparent must occupy a megacorporate embassy with one or more nobles and two megacorporate factors.
When the above conditions are met the controlling player announces the elevation.
Victory Condition
When a Duke can obtain a majority vote in the Moot to support his campaign to Capital, he is declared the winner.
Kingmaker adapted to Traveller
Bullying nobles, treacherous royals, and cowardly megacorporate factors.
In particular, the concept of a local Moot as a place where diplomacy and hard bargaining appear. Implied is the list of titles held in the area, and how they are redistributed when nobles die or are deposed -- i.e. the presiding Duke sets out his appointments, and they are accepted or rejected by votes in the Moot. Thus, a faction with relatively weak holdings can still control a session of the Moot by holding the critical, tie-breaking votes. That's where the bargaining and diplomacy happens. Getting the Duke to transfer a title to your faction wins you a world and whatever fleet it owns. Controlling a county means controlling its colonial fleet.
Since power is relatively dispersed, worlds will retain appropriate system defense forces, and elements of interstellar navies.
Factions
The foundation of a faction is high nobility -- Counts and Dukes. The faction controls star systems, starship fleets, and defense fleets. Nobles are assigned to captain fleets and manage star systems. Members or fleets of a faction may enter any owned system freely. Systems owned by another faction may only be entered with permission, or by conquering it. Neutral systems may only be entered by first conquering them.
Nobles are named according to their fief and title. Assuming the Kaasu area yields a few titles of "high nobility":
</font>
- Yopogirp - marquis</font>
- Drayne - duke</font>
- Formation - marquis</font>
- Shushaka - count</font>
- Kaasu - duke</font>
- Depot - marquis</font>
- Khukish - count</font>
- Shishkala - marquis</font>
- Naadi - duke</font>
- Lemish - count</font>
Turn Phases
</font>
- Event</font>
- Movement</font>
- Combat</font>
- Moot</font>
- Elevation</font>
Events
</font>
- System revolt - system turns neutral</font>
- Supply shortage - system does not provide resources this turn</font>
- Mercenaries go home</font>
- Vargr raids</font>
- Unexpected death of Count or Duke</font>
- Courier lost - courier and nobles on-board are lost</font>
- Moot - the Moot may be summoned by the Chancellor this turn, if possible</font>
Movement
</font>
- fleets and couriers move according to their jump characteristics.</font>
- Counts and Dukes cannot move unless captured or instructed to do so from a random event. Captured "high nobility" must be accompanied by nobles at all time.</font>
Combat
Probably resolved similar to 5FW or similar. Nobility on the losing side is captured, along with their fleet assets.
Roll for nobility fatalities.
Seige
Mainworlds are captured by seige. Attackers must have enough nobles present to match the strength of the beseiged mainworld. Defending nobles present may add their strength to the defense. Also, up to one other faction's nobility may add their strength to the defense. Seiges are always successful and the mainworld plus all nobility inside are captured unless there is a "Delay" event. In this case, the star system is termed "under seige".
Roll for nobility fatalities.
Nobility and royalty may leave a beseiged system only if able to reduce the beseiging force's strength. Beseiged nobility may lead fleets to initiate or join combat against the beseiging forces.
A faction wishing to beseige or relieve a mainworld under seige must first defeat the beseiging force.
Any victorious noble must end his turn inside the mainworld.
A captured star system immediately becomes part of the victor's county.
Alliances
Alliances may be formed at any time, for the purpose of offense or defense. They may be terminated at any time as well. They must be openly declared.
The Moot
The player controlling the sole Duke has the privilege of summoning the Moot. If there are more than one Dukes, the Moot is summoned by the ranking Megacorporate Factor, assuming Events permit it.
1. The Duke or Factor occupies a star system which is to be the location of the Moot.
2. Nobles may immediately move to the Moot location without movement limitations.
3. Everyone present may vote. Votes are alloted to each faction based on the star systems in its county. Additional votes are granted to royalty.
4. Titles are dispensed in order by vote. In the event that there are two or more Dukes, the first title to be decided upon is for Duke.
The player summoning the Moot may propose one recipient for each remaining title. Rejected assignments pass down to the player with the largest faction. Those rejections pass to the next most powerful faction. Those rejections then pass to the county which controls the most star systems. (This means that a player may be able to propose recipients more than once).
5. The player summoning the Moot proposes candidates for Megacorporate factorates.
6. All nobles in the Moot may return to their home systems, ignoring all movement restrictions, immediately upon conclusion of the Moot.
Elevation
1. The senior surviving member of a noble house is elevated to Duke or Duchess.
2. The heir-apparent must occupy a megacorporate embassy with one or more nobles and two megacorporate factors.
When the above conditions are met the controlling player announces the elevation.
Victory Condition
When a Duke can obtain a majority vote in the Moot to support his campaign to Capital, he is declared the winner.
I'd have to digest all that for a while. I certainly enjoyed playing Kingmaker. One thing I would put in, though, is proably non-canonical but it makes sense in a feudal empire. In Kingmaker, certain titles gave control of a set number of troops; the lowest titles had 10, viscounts 20; minor earls 30; and so on. In a Traveller setting, that might be implemented with starships & troops; i.e. a marquis might get a "personal" light cruiser of 2000 tons and a battalion of average quality "army" types.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
dibs on Shushaka. I will play the Countessa Khida Lunisha... details tonight!
Totally agree, Bill. In fact, a title of nobility is usually tied to a particular world, which also is a good indicator of the naval strength of that world.
In other words, a world worthy of a Count will have multiples of naval strength more than a world worthy of "just" a Marquis.
Reflecting on Kingmaker a bit, I think that Traveller will be somewhat less bloodthirsty, and perhaps more like Diplomacy (which I haven't ever played, but I'll brief myself with the rules to make sure).
Another facet of the Imperium that Kingmaker might not have is the concept of the Proxy: lower-ranking nobles permit their votes to be cast by proxy by a higher-ranking nobles. They give their votes "freely", generally in exchange for something of course (which means coercion is likely under certain circumstances).
So though the Barracks Emperors game really ought to have some smashing good naval battles, it also needs to make sure the focus is diplomatic in nature. I think.
Diplomacy for Traveller
In Diplomacy, up to seven players vie to gain control more than half of the supply centers in Europe, thereby controlling Europe.
Europe has 34 supply centers. Supply centers control the number of army and fleet units a player has.
In a given turn, there's first a period of wheeling and dealing, then each player writes "stand, move, or support" for each unit.
Then conflicts are resolved using a few powerful rules. More support = you get to move. Less support = you have to retreat. Support is cut when someone attacks the region your support is in. Etc.
One interesting twist to the rules is that player units are adjusted to match the number of supply centers once every four turns, rather than every turn. This means by the end of turn four there could be very few armies on the board. It also means that a player can't steamroll over the playing field in a pillaging frenzy.
All factions start with three supply centers, with the exception of Russia (who has 4).
Analysis
Diplomacy has the feel of Trillion Credit Squadron about it, though at a higher level of course.
In Diplomacy, up to seven players vie to gain control more than half of the supply centers in Europe, thereby controlling Europe.
Europe has 34 supply centers. Supply centers control the number of army and fleet units a player has.
In a given turn, there's first a period of wheeling and dealing, then each player writes "stand, move, or support" for each unit.
Then conflicts are resolved using a few powerful rules. More support = you get to move. Less support = you have to retreat. Support is cut when someone attacks the region your support is in. Etc.
One interesting twist to the rules is that player units are adjusted to match the number of supply centers once every four turns, rather than every turn. This means by the end of turn four there could be very few armies on the board. It also means that a player can't steamroll over the playing field in a pillaging frenzy.
All factions start with three supply centers, with the exception of Russia (who has 4).
Analysis
Diplomacy has the feel of Trillion Credit Squadron about it, though at a higher level of course.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
This may be taken as madness, so please pardon my mumblings... I suggest Axis and Allies (1984). 
It is fast, uses d6, and is very fun. We could adapt units with attack and defense values based on 2d6 resolution... all basic rules are online, and I can bust out flat 2d map units like crazy.
It could be applied to hex by hex mass ground combat as well as mass space combat.
(dives for cover)
It is fast, uses d6, and is very fun. We could adapt units with attack and defense values based on 2d6 resolution... all basic rules are online, and I can bust out flat 2d map units like crazy.It could be applied to hex by hex mass ground combat as well as mass space combat.
(dives for cover)
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
http://becontessa.blogspot.com/
Background data to follow...
Two mistakes...
"Dictatorial Control over Shushaka" is wrong.
"TL13 verset laser" = TL13 Vari-Laser (design to follow)
Background data to follow...
Two mistakes...
"Dictatorial Control over Shushaka" is wrong.
"TL13 verset laser" = TL13 Vari-Laser (design to follow)
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
According to Supplement 8, I will also need to be Patented one or two other Worlds to complete Shushaka County...
Robject,
Are you familar with Avalon Hill's Kingmaker? It cover the War of the Roses period in English history.
The game includes tax 'harvesting', political manipulation, and simple but not simplistic combat.
Have fun,
Bill
P.S. Never mind. I should read the entire thread.
Are you familar with Avalon Hill's Kingmaker? It cover the War of the Roses period in English history.
The game includes tax 'harvesting', political manipulation, and simple but not simplistic combat.
Have fun,
Bill
P.S. Never mind. I should read the entire thread.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
Sort of like Risk, yes, but it is abstract enough to get clear results. Tis only a suggestion, I'm in if we resolve conflict by playing "uno"
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/98
I own two sets already, but this has everything on it to make whatever you want...
I own two sets already, but this has everything on it to make whatever you want...
The Oz
SOC-14 1K
Another possibility for combat resolution would be to use a modified version of the Abstract Combat System from Mercenary (LBB4) and my naval adapation of that system. This would potentially create battles that could be covered quickly and yet take a fair amount of "game time" to resolve.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
I'm up for checking that out , too! Sounds pretty cool.
I suggested A&A as it also incorporates industrial production, where territory controlled = resource points to make new units with, etc.
It also has a technological development thing which we could modifiy to get pretty nasty... who's team would be first to develop FGMPs ?
I suggested A&A as it also incorporates industrial production, where territory controlled = resource points to make new units with, etc.
It also has a technological development thing which we could modifiy to get pretty nasty... who's team would be first to develop FGMPs ?
Oz, I'm totally on-board with that. I've always liked Mercenary's abstract combat system, and I remember the topic about adapting it for abstract fleet battles on COTI.
I don't see this game as being like Trillion Credit Squadron at all; I'm thinking of something higher level. On the other hand, I'm sure there are a dozen different levels that a setting like this could be played at, representing a dozen different games.
I don't see this game as being like Trillion Credit Squadron at all; I'm thinking of something higher level. On the other hand, I'm sure there are a dozen different levels that a setting like this could be played at, representing a dozen different games.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
http://becontessa.blogspot.com/
Added: Heraldry, Unit Types, A web Banner rough
Next is Starships and Astrogation. I think Shushaka on its own is powerful enough to be a County of one, no need for other worlds. Is that ok?
Added: Heraldry, Unit Types, A web Banner rough
Next is Starships and Astrogation. I think Shushaka on its own is powerful enough to be a County of one, no need for other worlds. Is that ok?
