Nationbuilder in Space

SpaceBuilder Version 0.3

NATIONBuilder IN SPACE By Kalmuk


Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. How to Play 3. Creating Empires 4. Systems 5. Exploration 6. Diplomacy 7. Espionage 8. Colonization 9. Secession 10. War 11. Random effects 12. Random events list 13. Final notes


Introduction

Welcome to SpaceBuilder, a NationBuilder in SPESS! This NationBuilder allows players to make their own unique empires on a galactic hex map, expanding, trading, colonizing and doing everything people love about sci-fi. For the expanded specific rules, please download this PDF: and ask me about anything you don’t know. Sessions start when at least three players are onboard. Most sessions are once a week on a Saturday but if real life interferes I will try to do a session on Friday. Join the IRC at http://cbe003.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23Nation&server=irc.mibbit.net, that is #Nation at mibbit.com (shared with the Unnamed and Bobski’s NationBuilders). This is for the main chat, official diplomatic declarations (as well as rebuttals, that is the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to a deal) have to be posted in thread so that everyone knows what’s going on and important stuff is not missed. Also! NEW PLAYERS ARE WELCOME ALL THE TIME, ALLDAY ERRYDAY EVERY SESSION!


How to play In every turn, you have 4 actions, that is ‘dice+4d20’ in the email field. For example, Player A chooses to: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Build a Fleet Research Hyperdrive Colonize System Explore north

If the roll for the action was 11 or higher, it has succeeded! A natural 1 is a disaster, a natural 20 is a miracle. During the course of the game, you receive BONUSES. Bonuses are permanent until they are lost through dice rolls or by SPENDING them, doubling their value for an action. Example of bonus use: 1. Build a Fleet (+2 orbital drydock) Player A rolls a 9 but with the bonus it becomes an 11, meaning the action succeeded. When posting your action, please tell me which colour and location your empire has so I can be 100% sure when I post about your results.

Creating Empires Race Name & Home System Name: (It is heartily encouraged that your own unique aliens are created – though if you want to play CHINA IN SPESS, ORKS IN SPESS OR TERRAN MARINES that’s cool with me) Color on Map: (Cannot be white or black) Government Type:(Autocratic or democratic? Over the course of the game you will have to decide how much freedom you will allow your colonies) Ideology: (This is an important factor for diplomacy – research empires and trading empires will find more common ground with each other than a militaristic or demonic empire.) Location: (Which part of the galaxy, the centre or the rim? North or South? ) Fluff: (optional)


Systems System Color Scheme: Light Red – Basic System, 1 habitable planet Dark Red – Good System, 2 habitable planets Yellow – Excellent System, 3 habitable planets Green/Purple – Paradise System, 4 habitable planets Grey – Exterminated/Dead system (though you can still station fleets or build starbases here) Blue – Mystery System - When colonized 1d6 for planets, 1d10 for random effect. A blue planet cannot have the same result as a previous one, if same number rolled then lower number chosen. If you choose any of the above colors as your empires color, then a slightly different color will be chosen if it conflicts with the above colour code. For example, Empire X chose yellow as its color. When Empire X colonizes a yellow system, dark yellow will represent Empire X on the hex map. White and black cannot be chosen as colours for your empire due to exploration colour scheme, however you can still choose grey! All systems give out bonuses when colonized, with the quality of the system raising the quality and amount of a bonus. For example, a light red system gives out one +1 bonus, a dark red gives two +2 bonuses and so on.

Exploration Before systems can be colonized, they have to be explored. Exploration raises the fog of war in all tiles around the system you choose and means that your empire claims empty hexes in the exploration teams way. Systems you encounter have to be COLONIZED and the hex will be white. Systems you find through exploration have to be named by the player who found them. Natural 20’s means 2 layers of hexes around the system you choose are revealed and something nice happens. Exploration is an action roll. Natural 1’s means something bad happens.

Diplomacy It is assumed that communication technologies are refined enough to allow contact between all empires in the universe (no ‘You gotta find me first’). This is for the purpose of speeding up the game. Technology knowledge can be traded with no bounds. However, trade routes have to be built and relevant hexes explored between empires.


Technology There is no rigid tech-tree, as players basically open up their own tech trees, but traditional 4X tech tress will be used as my guidance for advancing your empire technologically. All empires start off with the ability to construct ships and colonize systems, militarily all empires have basic (crappy) weapons – guns and nukes (missiles). Keep in mind that this game is not hard sci-fi so all sorts of wacky research is allowed. Magic is allowed in the form it is found in sci-fi – The Force, The Warp and others. Do keep in mind that magic by itself will not win you the game but still, feel free to make your Stellar Wizard Empire.

Espionage Espionage has its own level, like fleets. Basically, you have to build up your intelligence network through actions like you would fleets. Then, once the level of your espionage is equal to that of a different empires bonus AND IS HIGHER THAN THAT EMPIRES ESPIONAGE LEVEL, you can steal that bonus. In the process, the espionage points are spent and that empire will be invulnerable to espionage for the next three turns. The result? You get the bonus! Do keep in mind however that actions are worth their weight in gold and every action you spend at espionage will mean one less action dedicated to fleet building and colonizing.

Colonization A natural 20 means 2 systems are colonized. 11+ roll at a colonization action means that the system has been colonized. Systems have one ‘capital’ planet and a subset of auxiliary planets dedicated to their own special fields. You, the player, choose the fields for these planets – this provides bonuses! This is why systems with more than one planet in them are valuable. E.g. Player A colonized Hymmonia, a system with two planets. One planet can be ‘specialed’ – Player A chooses espionage, giving a +4 espionage bonus.


Secession Through random events, INACTIVITY or pacts forced upon a defeated foe, systems can become independent. Due to lack of leadership from the mother Empire, they will stagnate, though if threatened will produce fleets. These independent systems are colour-coded white in the hex map. New players are welcome to take control over such systems and create their own empire from them. If you cannot play for a certain period of time (2 weeks or more) send an email to: [email protected]. This way, your empire is preserved, though due to you being AFK it is treated as having entered a period of isolation and stagnation. These kind of empires cannot be attacked before a AFK’s players consent (by email or chat). In that case, during a war I roll for that nations fleet recruitment and war. You can choose a friendly nation to do such actions for you, if you prefer.

War Players can build fleets to increase their military. There are no ‘armies’ as in other NationBuilders but it is still worth researching land tech – this provides land combat bonuses! War is calculated by rolling a xd10+B, where x is the number of fleets you have and B is the total of relevant bonuses. So you can either spam fleets or concentrate on bonuses. Both sides lose a fleet when they roll a 1 in their combat roll and the side with a smaller overall roll loses fleets for every ten points difference. If the difference was marginal, that is ten or below, both sides lose a fleet but the winner forces the loser out of the system. These kind of battles are called FLEET BATTLES. When fighting multiple enemies, you have to choose which fleets to send against a given enemy. For example, you cannot send your 12 fleets against two separate enemies twice – you have to split up your forces for that (e.g. two forces of 6 fleets). This makes diplomacy important so that you don’t get gangbanged! There are two parts to attacking other empires – the fleet battle and the system battle. You choose the system you want to attack, the other player responds, you have a fleet battle. If you win, you can dedicate your remaining forces to a system battle. Fleet battles and system battles happen in the same turn, stay tuned to my updates on the battles! When attacking systems, the attacking force must choose between INVASION or EXTERMINATION. In both cases, the attacking force rolls Xd10, where X is the number of fleets they wish to dedicate to the attack. The defending player rolls Xd10, where X is the number of planets in a system. When INVADING, land combat bonuses apply. When EXTERMINATING, space combat bonuses apply. When a system is EXTERMINATED, it is made uninhabitable for the rest of the game, though a space station or fleet can still be stationed there. These kind of battles are called SYSTEM BATTLES. When a system is successfully INVADED the conqueror gets one +1 bonus.


Random Effects During the course of the game, random events will be rolled, at random times. They will either provide glorious bonuses to you or screw you over. In the early game, random events will not be rolled so as not to screw you over right when you start. Beginning from session 3, random events will happen. Each session has a general theme, from the following generator: http://videogamena.me/. This represents new movements, subcultures, religions and other social events that transcend empires. Blue systems harbor terrible threats that will definitely ravage the galaxy, but when harnessed, will provide glorious bonuses. It’s advised that you refrain from colonizing blue systems until you have a strong military. IF YOU ARE INACTIVE FOR A LONG TIME (AT LEAST THREE WEEKS) AND DO NOT INFORM ME BEFOREHAND, YOUR EMPIRE WILL COLLAPSE – THIS MEANS THAT ALL SYSTEMS BECOME INDEPENDENT AND NEW PLAYERS CAN TAKE THEM OVER!!! Now onwards, the galaxy awaits!

Random events list

20 – Golden Age – All empires in the galaxy now experience a golden age of economic prosperity and scientific discovery! (+3 to rolls for next two turns, +3 to research actions. If you haven’t done much research before now is your chance to catch up!) 18,19 – Land Grab – Citizens of empires in the galaxy have decided, in a patriotic fervor, to colonize systems out of their own pockets! 16,17 – Economic boom – Galactic economies grow and billions of jobs are gained! (+1 to roll for next two turns) 8-15 – Nothing important happens, life goes on as usual. 6,7 – Recession – Galactic economies contract and billions lose their jobs. (-1 to roll for next two turns) 4,5 – Galactic Discontent – Discontent among empires has made some systems declare independence! (New players are welcome to take over those systems). If this happens early in the game then this just means that fleets have to take a military roll or else empires suffer a -2 to rolls for the next turn. 2,3 – Warp Storm – A warp storm has manifested itself! A new (blue) system has appeared, however there may be terrible threats in the system, waiting for unlucky explorers! 1 – Disaster!


Final Notes For a future run of this game, there might be more of a randomization process – exploration roll deciding whether you encounter a system or not. This could also appease players who wish to be placed in a particular part of the map and treat everyone fairly. For the first game I had a map with all systems on it in an even ratio, with rims having less systems but more overall quality of the systems and the centre having many low quality systems. Any improvements suggested in threads and through chat/email will be put here, so as to improve the system. Finally, if there are any good, free hex-map creation software I would be very grateful for providing links to them. Most of all, I want my players to have fun and remember this fondly. So, if there is anything you are not happy with, feel free to tell me. Finally, thank you for taking the time to read this PDF!

Nationbuilder in Space

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