It's been almost a year since you were made a Captain in the Protagnet Federation Navy. You've served loyally and well since then, commanding your small ship through the meaningless routines of a nation at peace. There's been no call for you to fight, and you've kept your edge only through the simulations. It hasn't been quite as glorious as you might have imagined when you signed up, but there are bonuses to not being shot at you suppose.
Now you are reassigned, your ship making its way to a new squadron forming in the Alali system, a group of new officers to work with in the dull ceremonies of peace. But perhaps a border assignment will be something different. The Edajay Alliance isn't exactly large, or threatening, but they are one of a few small nations carved out on the borders of known space. Beyond in one direction lie the uncharted regions, unsettled systems of which only a handful have been explored. In the other direction lie the Antogan Union, a nation of similar size to the Federation.
The stage is set for the next phase of your career. Hopefully it will be a little more interesting than the last...
Welcome; ladies, gentlemen, immature teenagers, and young adults, to my newest AC: Amongst the Stars. In this you will play as the captains of a squadron of starships, and participate in an epic journey through space, navigating such hazards as interstellar navigation and spaceship combat in an attempt to...look can you please stop yelling 'Metherac'? I'm trying to introduce the setting here. You shall attempt to defend the Federation and it's people from whatever dangers lurk in the far reaches of space, be they from neighbouring humans, or out in the uncharted regions...
Basic Rules:
[Generic anti-troll rules]
As the GM I reserve the right to do anything in the game, up to and including throw players out for making paranoid accusations. Yes, I'm deceiving you about something, you can at least pretend not to know it.
This is an Action Chatroom Game. Most of you whole will join probably know what that is, but for those who don't I will explain now. You will create a character, using the Character creation stuff below. You will then come on the Chatroom at certain times and play as that character in missions, where you race across star systems trying to find the right thing to make die horribly. I used to say that it was tradition to say I would usually explain the situation beforehand, but I think we all know my saying otherwise is the new tradition by now, so no promises!
Now, lets get started on Character Creation:
As always, characters are created by filling in this handy character sheet. You can add additional details like age or appearance if you want, but those aren't really necessary.
Don't know what that was? All shall be explained in time. A very short period of time. Like right now:
So now that you have a character, lets get down to explaining ships. Shipping is where fans of a...Oh, yeah. Spaceships.
Spaceships come in several Different Classes, each with different Capacities and stats. The (playable) Classes are as follows:
But that is not the end, because you want to know about modifying your ships don't you? You want to know about all those little Extras:
Once you have enough Prestige to purchase a new ship, you have to get rid of your old one. Each ship sells for half its base cost, with an additional 200 prestige for every Extra that has been added to it.
And now you get a little bit of a run-down on everything I could think of that you might need to know.
Armour, Shields, Missiles, and Weapons:
Armour is the physical plating around a ships hull to prevent it being damaged by enemy weapons fire, although heavy fire will reduce the armour to so much scrap metal. Shields are projected around the ship to prevent enemy weapons from actually impacting, and will slowly restore over time when damaged. Missiles are long-range expendable weapons with a chance of bypassing enemy shields to strike the hull itself, but are dependant on the supply chain. Normal Weapons are the lasers, mass drivers, plasma cannons and other such things that warships use to engage enemies, which are shorter range than missiles but can be used as long as the ship itself is still functional, making them the main way of inflicting damage upon foes.
Crew, Marines, Shuttles, and Boarding:
Crew is a general term for the various enlisted personel and junior officers who engage in actually running the ship. You need a number of them to keep the ship operating correctly, and heavy losses may diminish combat performance. Marines are a type of crew tasked specifically with fighting boarding operations, and are more heavily armed, armoured, and trained for close combat operations. Shuttles are the means through which these crew members are transported off your ship, usually when boarding an orbital facility or damaged enemy ship. Each shuttle can carry 7 people, pilot included, and ships generally have enough shuttles to carry one third of their standard crew. Shuttles lack the armour to withstand heavy weapons, so using them against operational ships is almost always a hopeless plan.
Fuel, Heavy Munitions, and Supply Lines:
Fuel is what your ship uses to power around the battlefield, maneuovering and changing speed. This makes it a vital long term asset, since a ship that can't move is a ship that can't fight. Heavy Munitions are huge warheads used to engage targets on planetary surfaces, or in otherwise fixed locations. They are incredibly powerful, but useless against targets that can dodge, and their sheer size means that they rely on the supply chain for replacement. The supply chain determines what expendables: Fuel, Missiles, Heavy Munitions, Crew, Marines, and Shuttles are available to ships in the field. Often these will not be adequate to replace all losses and expenditures, so Captains will have to agree on how they are distributed, or run the risk of not distributing it at all.
Hull Integrity and Repair:
Hull integrity functions as this games Hit Points, being a measure of how much damage your ship can withstand before it loses enough combat ability to continue fighting effectively. On-spot repair is something your ship can do when damaged; instead of fighting or manoeuvring, your ship will drift along whilst your crew try to patch up some of the holes, Restoring 1 HI for every 9 remaining crewmen aboard your ship.
Manoeuvring, Hyperdrive, and Communications:
Manoeuvring as a stat indicates how easily a ship can turn and accelerate in combat, with more manoeuvrable ships having a great advantage at times. The Hyperdrive is a special engine that ships use to reach speeds many times in excess of the speed of light, allowing for regular travel between stars, although its use inside a star system is considered too dangerous and imprecise. Communications devices, whilst still having exceeded the speed of light, remain significantly slower, ensuring that physical courier ships are the fastest way to send messages across interstellar space.
Is that it? Is it all finally over? I think it is!
Oh right, now I have to actually run the game. Bother.
The Chatroom is Here.
[Anything I missed will be added here when I remember it.]
DT
Gonna go to Space
Now you are reassigned, your ship making its way to a new squadron forming in the Alali system, a group of new officers to work with in the dull ceremonies of peace. But perhaps a border assignment will be something different. The Edajay Alliance isn't exactly large, or threatening, but they are one of a few small nations carved out on the borders of known space. Beyond in one direction lie the uncharted regions, unsettled systems of which only a handful have been explored. In the other direction lie the Antogan Union, a nation of similar size to the Federation.
The stage is set for the next phase of your career. Hopefully it will be a little more interesting than the last...
Welcome; ladies, gentlemen, immature teenagers, and young adults, to my newest AC: Amongst the Stars. In this you will play as the captains of a squadron of starships, and participate in an epic journey through space, navigating such hazards as interstellar navigation and spaceship combat in an attempt to...look can you please stop yelling 'Metherac'? I'm trying to introduce the setting here. You shall attempt to defend the Federation and it's people from whatever dangers lurk in the far reaches of space, be they from neighbouring humans, or out in the uncharted regions...
Basic Rules:
[Generic anti-troll rules]
As the GM I reserve the right to do anything in the game, up to and including throw players out for making paranoid accusations. Yes, I'm deceiving you about something, you can at least pretend not to know it.
This is an Action Chatroom Game. Most of you whole will join probably know what that is, but for those who don't I will explain now. You will create a character, using the Character creation stuff below. You will then come on the Chatroom at certain times and play as that character in missions, where you race across star systems trying to find the right thing to make die horribly. I used to say that it was tradition to say I would usually explain the situation beforehand, but I think we all know my saying otherwise is the new tradition by now, so no promises!
Now, lets get started on Character Creation:
As always, characters are created by filling in this handy character sheet. You can add additional details like age or appearance if you want, but those aren't really necessary.
Spoiler A handy Character Sheet :
Don't know what that was? All shall be explained in time. A very short period of time. Like right now:
Spoiler The Explanation of All :
So now that you have a character, lets get down to explaining ships. Shipping is where fans of a...Oh, yeah. Spaceships.
Spaceships come in several Different Classes, each with different Capacities and stats. The (playable) Classes are as follows:
Spoiler Ship Classes :
But that is not the end, because you want to know about modifying your ships don't you? You want to know about all those little Extras:
Spoiler Extras :
Once you have enough Prestige to purchase a new ship, you have to get rid of your old one. Each ship sells for half its base cost, with an additional 200 prestige for every Extra that has been added to it.
And now you get a little bit of a run-down on everything I could think of that you might need to know.
Armour, Shields, Missiles, and Weapons:
Armour is the physical plating around a ships hull to prevent it being damaged by enemy weapons fire, although heavy fire will reduce the armour to so much scrap metal. Shields are projected around the ship to prevent enemy weapons from actually impacting, and will slowly restore over time when damaged. Missiles are long-range expendable weapons with a chance of bypassing enemy shields to strike the hull itself, but are dependant on the supply chain. Normal Weapons are the lasers, mass drivers, plasma cannons and other such things that warships use to engage enemies, which are shorter range than missiles but can be used as long as the ship itself is still functional, making them the main way of inflicting damage upon foes.
Crew, Marines, Shuttles, and Boarding:
Crew is a general term for the various enlisted personel and junior officers who engage in actually running the ship. You need a number of them to keep the ship operating correctly, and heavy losses may diminish combat performance. Marines are a type of crew tasked specifically with fighting boarding operations, and are more heavily armed, armoured, and trained for close combat operations. Shuttles are the means through which these crew members are transported off your ship, usually when boarding an orbital facility or damaged enemy ship. Each shuttle can carry 7 people, pilot included, and ships generally have enough shuttles to carry one third of their standard crew. Shuttles lack the armour to withstand heavy weapons, so using them against operational ships is almost always a hopeless plan.
Fuel, Heavy Munitions, and Supply Lines:
Fuel is what your ship uses to power around the battlefield, maneuovering and changing speed. This makes it a vital long term asset, since a ship that can't move is a ship that can't fight. Heavy Munitions are huge warheads used to engage targets on planetary surfaces, or in otherwise fixed locations. They are incredibly powerful, but useless against targets that can dodge, and their sheer size means that they rely on the supply chain for replacement. The supply chain determines what expendables: Fuel, Missiles, Heavy Munitions, Crew, Marines, and Shuttles are available to ships in the field. Often these will not be adequate to replace all losses and expenditures, so Captains will have to agree on how they are distributed, or run the risk of not distributing it at all.
Hull Integrity and Repair:
Hull integrity functions as this games Hit Points, being a measure of how much damage your ship can withstand before it loses enough combat ability to continue fighting effectively. On-spot repair is something your ship can do when damaged; instead of fighting or manoeuvring, your ship will drift along whilst your crew try to patch up some of the holes, Restoring 1 HI for every 9 remaining crewmen aboard your ship.
Manoeuvring, Hyperdrive, and Communications:
Manoeuvring as a stat indicates how easily a ship can turn and accelerate in combat, with more manoeuvrable ships having a great advantage at times. The Hyperdrive is a special engine that ships use to reach speeds many times in excess of the speed of light, allowing for regular travel between stars, although its use inside a star system is considered too dangerous and imprecise. Communications devices, whilst still having exceeded the speed of light, remain significantly slower, ensuring that physical courier ships are the fastest way to send messages across interstellar space.
Is that it? Is it all finally over? I think it is!
Oh right, now I have to actually run the game. Bother.
The Chatroom is Here.
[Anything I missed will be added here when I remember it.]
DT
Gonna go to Space
) have a few players I'm going to run a starting mission on Wednesday if enough people can be there then at 5 EST. 
