In my last post, I mused that Battlecruiser would be a good minigame for a Star Wars take on Sam Sorenson's Cataphracts. This is exactly the kind of huge game that would be marvelous to play in and an ordeal to try to run, so I don't expect I would run anything like this in the forseeable future. But in part to try to manifest my desires if there are other people who wish to iterate on any ingredients in this recipe, and in part to generate some discourse on options for how to run a Cataphracts-like game, here are my thoughts on how to structure and run such a game. I call it Stellar Politics and Combat Emulator Supreme, or SPACE SUPREME for short.
Cataphract by HammkYou will notice these rules, setting notes, and plans are wildly uneven in what they cover and that they may not fit together right. This is the privilege of not being a real game. A lot of it will be idiosyncratic and catered to my taste, only some is intended as general advice.
SPACE SUPREME: the Game of Games
The Republic has about 7 constellations of planets. Each of these is run by a Constellation player, who is primarily playing a resource management game as they try to keep their people happy and their states effective. Constellations have Senators who represent their interests in the Galactic Senate. Constellations could direct their votes remotely, but more likely they will find some players to embody some of those Senators so as to gather information in the capital, make direct appeals for and against policies, and to free the Constellation from having to worry quite so much about what is going on in the Senate. Constellations would also need to find players to embody the Commanders of their navies and armies. Add in a player to run the bureaucracy of the Republic itself and a player who sits at the head of the Jedi Council. This would be a game ambitious in scale, with a minigame for determining fleet combat (Battlecruiser), and for planetary invasions (?), for resource collection and allocation (Cataphracts), and for personal action (GLoG?).
"Wait!" I hear you cry, "wouldn't such a game rapidly spin out of control, as it seems to require something like 50 players?". Well, perhaps it would. But here are my recommendations for simplifying Cataphracts-like procedures to yield something manageable enough that it could grow in size and still be managed.
- Bundling of time. Cataphracts is grounded in real world time and distance, a clear charm. A galactic sci-fi tale can't be that grounded even if it tried. In addition, the daily nature of Cataphracts makes it a clear grind for gamerunners. Sam Sorensen wrote that he did his best to attend to the game three times/day. It's not hard to imagine that taking an hour, often longer if players have questions, which is a lot to give up. The SPACE SUPREME proposal is to bundle time into twice weekly chunks, say (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday) and (Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday). Movements of ships and messages takes place in units of these time chucks (I'm tempted to call them "Parsecs". Fighting a battle takes one parsec. This way if the GM can't complete everything on Monday, they could get it done on Tuesday without leaving players at different timestamps. It's less pressure on players as well, who would be under no obligation to quickly respond to urgent messages, knowing any orders or missives sent in on Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday would be processed on Thursday.
- Bundling of space. Outer space is mostly void, a boon for simplification. If this Galactic Republic has, say, 100 major planets that we keep track of that will feel like a lot! And this is well short of the thousands of hexs one would expect from a real Cataphracts game.
- Simplification of mail delivery. That recipients are usually moving makes my head spin when I consider how letters get delivered in the Cataphracts game I am a part of. Suppose a further bundling of space to ease communications. I'm imagining the galactic core as two sectors, the hinterland as four sectors, and the outer rim as eight sectors. Communication can occur freely with anyone in your own sector. Remote messages are sent to a specific planet in another sector, for each sector between you it takes 1 parsec to arrive. If you're leaving a sector you can leave instructions like "forward any mail I receive to Sector C", such that any mail that arrives will be sent to the next sector, arriving after an appropriate delay. If the planet your mail is sent to is now in enemy hands, they now have access to your correspondence.
- Disincentives to raising up rivals. Sam Sorensen wrote that in his game subcommanders were fervently loyal to their commanders, by necessity clinging to the lifeboat of obedience in the stormy sea of uncertainty. Having more commanders gives access to a wider variety of commander traits, the potential to generate a younger duelist, as well as whatever advise and wisdom an additional player can provide. It is almost always in a character's interests for the player to bring in more commanders. This is, most certainly, not in the interest of the GM who now has another person to manage. Therefore, when bringing in a new player roll randomly on the Ulterior Motives table below. These range from non-issues to major subversions to being an active force for evil. Hopefully the very existence of this table will do much to sow mistrust.
- Bundling of armies. A typical navy in Battlecruiser is 5 warships. Having fewer detachable parts means fewer armies for the GM to manage.
- A panel of game masters. I've tried to write this outline such that different parts of the game can be siloed from each other, such that multiple GMs could run SPACE SUPREME as a team. I imagine the composition of the group thusly, with the understanding that one person could potentially fill in as multiple roles:
- Postmaster. Players have a special channel where they only send missives. They must use a certain format that specifies where they are when they are sending the message and where they are sending the message to. The Postmaster's only job is collecting these messages, delivering them to the proper planets after calculating the appropriate number of parsecs, and forwarding mail when appropriate.
- Warmaster. In charge of the map and moving armies and navies. Players have a special channel where they only send orders for the armies and navies under their command. The Warmaster's job is limited to mechanically processing these instructions and, when hostile forces meet, setting up channels for players to play Battlecruiser and answer any questions they have about how to do so.
- Accountant. There are probably spreadsheets for the resource extraction of the Constellation commanders, the accountant updates those every parsec with newly extracted or spent resources.
- Gamemaster SUPREME. This person has creative control over the world and for this reason they must also be in charge of the gamerunning team. They run NPCs, answer questions about the fiction of the world, and decide rulings.
- Optionally: a Parliamentarian to keep procedure in the Galactic Senate, but if I was running this game I'd be tempted to make the Chancellor handle it.
- Optionally: a dedicated person to run all the NPC factions if there are many of them.
As I've outlined it here, SPACE SUPREME is peculiar kind of game, large enough that possibly no one person understands everything that's going on within it. It's been my experience that beautiful things can happen when you reach a critical mass of approximately 15-20 people, when the political effect of known causes becomes wildly unpredictable. Even when the likely victor of a conflict is known, what they will have to give to whom to achieve that victory is wildly in flux. Grounding large group politics in the logistical specificity of Cataphracts is to me an intoxicating recipe.
Ulterior motives
1. Sith. Either a sith lord, one of their apprentices, or someone aligned with them. Seeks to do evil.
2. Separatist. Active sympathizer to a secessionist or autonomy-seeking system within their constellation.
3. Humanitarian. Will never do anything to disproportionately disadvantage a civilian population. Will never be the one to start a war. Will always give disadvantaged foes the chance to surrender.
4. Split loyalty to another constellation, roll randomly.
5. No ulterior motive! Truly loyal!
6. Cash, gold, overweening greed
7. Higher position for self and relatives
8. Glory-seeking, a strong need to have their ego flattered and seem as important as possible.
9. Blackmail victim. Another faction has evidence that could destroy their career.
10. In love with the wrong person
11. Crave personal fief.
12. Adrenaline junky, loves taking unnecessary risks
13. Droid Liberation
14. Vengeance against the specific people who wronged you.
15. Local ambition, seeks to displace their constellation leader and take their place.
16. Life debt to a problematic person
17. Martial honor if a military commander. Peacenik if not.
18. Survivor, won't take lethal risks, just wants to make it through this alive.
19. Cruelty. Indulges in unnecessary spite even to their own detriment.
20. Roll twice and combine.
