Futuristic ALIEN CONQUEST -- V2.0 -- "Battle for a changed Earth"

[Beckoncall]

The Transhumanist Revolution came and went. The world bears little resemblance to previous history and is mainly ruled by three factions -- each most shaped by their reaction to the Transhumanist movement. There are those that embraced the revolution completely, and have changed and adapted their forms freely, putting the constants of humanity behind -- there are the Technologists, who walk a line between purestrain humanity and cybernetics to preserve humanity as it was and could become, and there are the Consensus Collectives, cities and communities that embrace and reject different aspects of transhumanism as a sort of democratic process.

But you're here to end all that...

Alien Conquest -- This is a game where players are all Warlord conquerors enslaved to the evil "Mother Brain."

The Sleeper ship, newly arrived in the solar system, has only so much resources and has expended most of it's power simply traveling to earth -- Can you take what little resources are out of cold-storage and lead your handful of aliens towards becoming a true planetary invasion force capable of conquering the planet?

This new world of a changed earth lies before you and your fellow warlords -- carrying all the alien invaders and their forces... but raw materials and resources must be gathered to awaken more than a handful of troops and weapons -- at least to start. Players must cooperate and compete to conquer the most of territory and resources more covertly at first, but the invasion will escalate in stages to increasingly direct invasion. Biomass, Minerals, and Energy must be gathered to awaken facilities and ramp up the invasion... or the conquest will unravel before it can even begin. Should you be successful your initial abductions, cattle mutilations and resource acquisition will give way to world-wide invasion on a global scale!

This game is a group RP at it's heart with nation-builder aspects and will have a home on RPN as well as discord for some real-time chat or events and group discussion. (so if you don't use/like discord this game may be a bad fit for you.) IF YOU ARE NEW TO NATION BUILDERS or don't think you like them, I'd encourage you, if you like the concept to give it a try. Plenty of people including me the GM will be willing to help you with some of the crunchier elements. I think a lot of people are intimidated by nation builders or think they are very "Gamey" as RPs go -- (and they are) but if you're new or on the fence come dip your toe in and test the water!

Can you conquer worlds for the mother brain? Will you cast off your chains of bondage and become a free race once again? Will humanity be stamped out, prevail, or become an unexpected ally in the face of your subjugation? The future awaits!

___________________

This is just an interest check to see who might be excited or likely to participate in a concept like this... When we have enough people to start creating characters I will list criteria and guidelines for:

1) How to make/design your Alien Warlord
2) fleshing out your relationship to the mother brain and your forces backstory
3) Starting resources and technology
4) more about rules, mechanics, (and why you shouldn't be intimidated at all by the RP having such things)



If you are familiar with the "X-com" series of games -- this concept is basically a role reversal on that concept. Instead of being a terrestrial force repelling a mysterious alien invader, the players are mysterious alien invaders sent to overcome the terrestrial resistance of a future earth. Prior interest or experience with Xcom is neither needed nor encouraged, but if you're a fan of that source material this may be extra appealing.

Otherwise, let me know you're out there -- and lets start scheming to CONQUER THE EARTH!!!

-- Beck


PS -- if you've been in one of my roleplays before you probably have a good idea of what to expect. If you haven't been in one of my RPs before... HELLO! COME ON OVER AND LETS BE FRIENDS!

 

[Pat]

In ter est ed

 

[ThatWhichShouldBe]

Hmm yes interested

 

[Abstracty]

All hail the Mother Brain!

 

[Trektek]

We respond to The CALL

 

[Cosmo]

Over here! Pick me, M'lord.

Also, Dest

 

[Kent]

i n t e r e s t e d

 

[Dest]

Oh very much interested!

 

[Heyitsjiwon]

Interested!

 

[TipToeToast]

Do want

 

[Scatterbrain]

I'd be interested too.

 

[Twist]

Hi . Interested

 

[Idea]

Well, haven't been able to get to RPIng lately, but this might be a good opportunity to try out one of your RPs. I'm quite intrigued by the concept, and with both RTS gaming worlds and invading alien-ish things in my mind lately, I think I might be really into this. I do have some questions though:

1. Getting the logistical stuff out of the way first, you didn't really specify any rules in the interest check. Will there be any post requirements, either in length or in frequency, and if so which? (Edit: Also, are there any other rules you usually implement one should be aware about? Beyond what's common decency of course)
2. I understand we will likely have a system of low resources (at first at least) but are the things we can make with those resources customizable or even make-your-own (of course, within what's reasonable)? If they are instead GM-made are they flexible in the sense of being able to request the kind of thing we want? Or is it more a menu approach (there's a pre-established set list of things, maybe expanding with time but not directed by player-GM communication) or even a scavenging approach? (we get what we can 'find' and nothing else)
3. There seems to be a simultaneous cooperative and competitive side to this. Must all characters necessarily be competing for the goal? Also is this the kind of competition where heavy PvP should be expected, or more of a race kind of thing, where it's possible to go after other player's but in-universe that's frowned upon?

I have a feeling I'm forgetting one, but I'll leave it at these three questions for now.

 

[Beckoncall]

Well, haven't been able to get to RPIng lately, but this might be a good opportunity to try out one of your RPs. I'm quite intrigued by the concept, and with both RTS gaming worlds and invading alien-ish things in my mind lately, I think I might be really into this. I do have some questions though:

1. Getting the logistical stuff out of the way first, you didn't really specify any rules in the interest check. Will there be any post requirements, either in length or in frequency, and if so which?
2. I understand we will likely have a system of low resources (at first at least) but are the things we can make with those resources customizable or even make-your-own (of course, within what's reasonable). If they are instead GM-made are they flexible in the sense of being able to request the kind of thing we want? Or is it more a menu approach (there's a pre-established set list of things, maybe expanding with time but not directed by player-GM communication) or even a scavenging approach? (we get what we can 'find' and nothing else)
3. There seems to be a simultaneous cooperative and competitive side to this. Must all characters necessarily be competing with the goal? Also is this the kind of competition where heavy PvP should be expected, or more of a race kind of thing, where it's possible to go after other player's but in-universe that's frowned upon?

I have a feeling I'm forgetting one, but I'll leave it at these three questions for now.

I would be honored if you actually joined one of my RPs. High time you did.

To answer your questions, at least loosely:

1. The game is played in turns. The composition of a turn may change, but for now I'm thinking each player's turn consists of 2-3 "units" of action. Gathering Resources might be one or more actions, depending on the scale, as would be an air and/or ground mission, building something, unlocking a technology or building/cloning one or more things... as well as the option for a "Scene" -- an event that is resolved in real time on discord or in greater detail on the forums than most other activities. This economy of actions ideally would keep the game moving (everyone posts orders and I process them as they come in or are all submitted and each player has an opportunity for a little more detail and attention to one of the things they want to do. This keeps the game moving trying to be fair to everyone about what all people can accomplish in the same amount of time.... though I can see some players, if cooperating, could get involved in each others scenes/endeavors. So everyone is expected to post actions every turn, but there should be adequate time between turns for there to be little pressure about that. If for any reason a player can't post turns they can go on autopilot or drop out as needed.

In short I'd LIKE to do about a turn a week, but it could go faster or slower as the aggregate of players (I'd like to have at least 10 and likely won't go above a number I think I can handle) and everyone will have the same opportunities on their turn with most actions being resolved with slight exposition but every turn there is at least one opportunity for something of greater color.

2. There are Three Resources: Biomass, Materials, and Energy. These are generalizations of a broad variety of stuff.... any fuel from coal to plasma cells could be converted to energy units for example, any useful minerals or resources would be converted to Materials, and anything "organic" can be converted to biomass. Troops require biomass to feed/clone/train, etc. Ships and weapons require materials (and often energy) to produce and maintain, Similar with Energy. Much of the stuff you do either gains or costs resources of one or more types... and to escalate the invasion it may cost allotments of all resources... making it a meaningful choice to save, spend, or pay resources to build stuff, conduct operations, gain victory points for giving resources to escalate the invasion, etc.

You might Abduct or harvest corpses for biomass, or scour biomass dense environments for that resource.

You might mine or steal Materials, or scavenge them from places you run successful operations.

You might do the same with Energy resources... find/harvest/steal/scavenge them....

With resources and successful operations it may even be possible to make facilities that produce resources... though I may not make this a thing. or be a later stage development.

3. Each player is their own warlord with their own invasion operation(s) to run. The most successful will be rewarded/recognized, the least successful could be ignored or punished.... the mother brain is an evil overlord after all. I'd consider the goals of the conquest to be a "race" of sorts, (all players in healthy competition) -- but players that welcome or seek PvP with each other may be able to do so. Subterfuge and sabotage of each others operations could become a thing, as could out-and-out fighting between warlords... as long as such conflict is additive and not subtractive from the RP, the story, and people's fun. The mother brain doesn't mind "healthy" competition and conflict -- if such conflict became detrimental to the invasion... (or the fun of the game) it could be discouraged or even punished.


Any and all questions are welcome, as they can only better advertise the game.


-Beck

 

[Crocodile]

Dives through window!

I'm in.

 

[Twist]

Can we choose our landing site/starting location? Or will it such things be determined by the invasion operations? And I'm guessing the operations are allocated to us rather than made up by us?

 

[Idea]

1. The game is played in turns. The composition of a turn may change, but for now I'm thinking each player's turn consists of 2-3 "units" of action. Gathering Resources might be one or more actions, depending on the scale, as would be an air and/or ground mission, building something, unlocking a technology or building/cloning one or more things... as well as the option for a "Scene" -- an event that is resolved in real time on discord or in greater detail on the forums than most other activities. This economy of actions ideally would keep the game moving (everyone posts orders and I process them as they come in or are all submitted and each player has an opportunity for a little more detail and attention to one of the things they want to do. This keeps the game moving trying to be fair to everyone about what all people can accomplish in the same amount of time.... though I can see some players, if cooperating, could get involved in each others scenes/endeavors. So everyone is expected to post actions every turn, but there should be adequate time between turns for there to be little pressure about that. If for any reason a player can't post turns they can go on autopilot or drop out as needed.

I see, I see. I'm not sure I'm fully grasping this just yet, but I'll likely be able to do so better once we have the info pages and a few posts to get used to it. I took the liberty of checking some of your previous group roleplays here to try to find examples, there were less than expected, but I guess it's akin to the way it's being done in the 40K RP you got there - a list of orders given, with optional narrative flavoring? Or is writing out the thing always considered a "scene"?

Either way, that kind of writing like that of a post in a regular (in this case meaning non-nation-building) is more what I was asking the rules for. From your response, I presume the answer to my question would be, in short, "Expect posts within a week, no length requirements, but you must provide your choices for your actions."

2. There are Three Resources: Biomass, Materials, and Energy. These are generalizations of a broad variety of stuff.... any fuel from coal to plasma cells could be converted to energy units for example, any useful minerals or resources would be converted to Materials, and anything "organic" can be converted to biomass. Troops require biomass to feed/clone/train, etc. Ships and weapons require materials (and often energy) to produce and maintain, Similar with Energy. Much of the stuff you do either gains or costs resources of one or more types... and to escalate the invasion it may cost allotments of all resources... making it a meaningful choice to save, spend, or pay resources to build stuff, conduct operations, gain victory points for giving resources to escalate the invasion, etc.

You might Abduct or harvest corpses for biomass, or scour biomass dense environments for that resource.

You might mine or steal Materials, or scavenge them from places you run successful operations.

You might do the same with Energy resources... find/harvest/steal/scavenge them....

With resources and successful operations it may even be possible to make facilities that produce resources... though I may not make this a thing. or be a later stage development.

Again, didn't really answer the question.... Yes, we have resources we need to acquire and we spend them for various purposes. I hear you loud and clear on that, pretty standard stuff. What I was asking was our freedom in defining the options we can spend resources on. Are we talking about something where there is a pre-defined set of options with no input from us? Or something where we can come up with out own things within reason? Or is there a predefined 'template' that we customize to our leisure, a broad category where we insert our own thing? Or is everything made by you but with out input in requesting what we'd like to have?

3. Each player is their own warlord with their own invasion operation(s) to run. The most successful will be rewarded/recognized, the least successful could be ignored or punished.... the mother brain is an evil overlord after all. I'd consider the goals of the conquest to be a "race" of sorts, (all players in healthy competition) -- but players that welcome or seek PvP with each other may be able to do so. Subterfuge and sabotage of each others operations could become a thing, as could out-and-out fighting between warlords... as long as such conflict is additive and not subtractive from the RP, the story, and people's fun. The mother brain doesn't mind "healthy" competition and conflict -- if such conflict became detrimental to the invasion... (or the fun of the game) it could be discouraged or even punished.

Got it, thank you. To follow-up (and bring back the part of the question that wasn't really answered), would a warlord that isn't so focused on 'winning' the competition be something that could be done? I'm thinking of a character that might have other goals and purposes - one that would happily let others take the win, and contribute to the invasion by supporting the rest rather than just acting on their own.

 

[Pat]

How outdated is our intelligence on Earth? Would we more or less know about Earth stuff of say, the 1960s, 1980s, ect, but be completely ignorant of how it is in the present day?

Or is Earth completely new to us?

 

[Pat]

I see, I see. I'm not sure I'm fully grasping this just yet, but I'll likely be able to do so better once we have the info pages and a few posts to get used to it. I took the liberty of checking some of your previous group roleplays here to try to find examples, there were less than expected, but I guess it's akin to the way it's being done in the 40K RP you got there - a list of orders given, with optional narrative flavoring? Or is writing out the thing always considered a "scene"?

Either way, that kind of writing like that of a post in a regular (in this case meaning non-nation-building) is more what I was asking the rules for. From your response, I presume the answer to my question would be, in short, "Expect posts within a week, no length requirements, but you must provide your choices for your actions."





Again, didn't really answer the question.... Yes, we have resources we need to acquire and we spend them for various purposes. I hear you loud and clear on that, pretty standard stuff. What I was asking was our freedom in defining the options we can spend resources on. Are we talking about something where there is a pre-defined set of options with no input from us? Or something where we can come up with out own things within reason? Or is there a predefined 'template' that we customize to our leisure, a broad category where we insert our own thing? Or is everything made by you but with out input in requesting what we'd like to have?




Got it, thank you. To follow-up (and bring back the part of the question that wasn't really answered), would a warlord that isn't so focused on 'winning' the competition be something that could be done? I'm thinking of a character that might have other goals and purposes - one that would happily let others take the win, and contribute to the invasion by supporting the rest rather than just acting on their own.

Beck might have a more informative or eloquent answer, but from my experience...

It's collaborative what we spend things on. Beck will likely present a few options or ideas, and players can ask, is this scifi weapon or tool or upgrade possible (like better shields or cloaking tech, missiles, blasters, ect), and he'll come up with the cost and together you'll likely figure out how effective that tech is within the setting.

Alternative goals are likely possible but can come with their own challenges. Beck's most recent (and ongoing but soon ending) RP has had several players pursue goals that weren't given to them.

For the lore of this RP, I imagine the motherbrain doesn't care what you do so long as you contribute and aren't a detriment.

 

[Beckoncall]

Can we choose our landing site/starting location? Or will it such things be determined by the invasion operations? And I'm guessing the operations are allocated to us rather than made up by us?

There will be a bunch of listed missions as "suggested" operations, at least at first. Here's an example which will probably be bigger depending on how many players we have:
1) Make contact with sympathetic UFO cult
2) Raid a Farm for Commodities
3) Scan Moon and orbit for points of interest
4) Capture a terrestrial sea vessel
5) Down Major Air Traffic/Challenge Interceptors
6) Low level operation to recover Materials, Biomass, or Energy
7) Infiltrate monitor station
8) Abduction of civilians reporting probe sightings
9) Elimination of VIP (Key Scientist, Military Official, Head Engineer)
10) To Be Determined by Faction


I'll probably also give google earth information with some missions to add extra flavor, for example:

TRANSMISSION DATA:

Google Earth

earth.google.com

Sentier de la Loire, France: Unknown how accomplished, but a research center here has acquired some of our plasma pistols. Keep our tech out of the hands of the Natives!

Using google earth sometimes and real places will give that "Geoscape" Feel and an added layer of immersion I think.

As you can see above most of the suggestions are generic in nature so any number of players could do them and they'd be different (or maybe there's a chance they'd wind up in the same place!) but there will also be missions of more specific nature or greater urgency in specific parts of the world. If multiple players choose those missions, they will likely cooperate, or perhaps compete, to achieve their objectives.

"To be determined by Faction" Allows players to make up their own objectives.

I'm so glad you asked.

__________

As for starting location/landing site -- see above for small scale operations, but as far as taking territory, building installations, etc... the player can decide or may receive orders to do so... It may be a while before you'll actually have the resources to make your own bases, and have more than a listening post!

 

[Beckoncall]

Idea :

Above all, I'm going to ask you to follow along and most critically to trust me that despite many of my RPs being very detailed and crunchy -- even complete noobs, if they will accept help, can participate. The 40K Imperial guard RP is a bad comparison for this RP, and you're not getting the whole picture of a RPN/Discord Hybrid RP without seeing both halves.

____________

As far as spending resources -- I'll give people an idea/examples of how much it costs to generate units, ships, and some other items (which will grow as tech is awakened/unlocked) but you can also propose what you want to do/build with resources and we can work together to determine a cost. For example, in many of my fantasy RPs I use "The wealth Unit" -- a wealth unit is an abstraction representing a large amount of money, but I don't like too much beancounting or math in my games so we deal with smaller numbers of units that represent large amounts. A single wealth point is defined as sufficient money to buy one (extremely impressive) sea vessel and 3 wealth is enough to build a formidable castle. With these guiderails you get an idea of what you can make with what, or you ask and we determine together.

In this game, generating a squad of aliens soldiers will probably cost 1-2 unit(s) of biomass (adjusted for their size and power)
with basic equipment costing an energy point and armor or a support weapon/vehicle costing a unit of mateirial -- with better/more advanced versions of all of these costing more as improvements are unlocked.

A Scout probe might cost 1 material and 1 energy, while a small scout vessel would cost 3 material and 1 energy.

As Pat said, a small menu will exist from the beginning, but this menu will grow as instances pop up, and unique instances will be priced by the GM.

____________

Lastly, as you have agency creating WHO your warlord is, your victory conditions or motives may differ accordingly. A Warlord that doesn't care for personal ambitions or status but instead supports the invasion as a whole is VERY viable, and dare I say, Likely to be valued/rewarded by the mother brain if they are successful in this endeavor just as front-runners and glory seekers might be...

 

[Beckoncall]

How outdated is our intelligence on Earth? Would we more or less know about Earth stuff of say, the 1960s, 1980s, ect, but be completely ignorant of how it is in the present day?

Or is Earth completely new to us?

Since we're likely using google earth, the information the aliens have is likely from pre-Transhumanist Revolution. Some areas will be more or less developed than information implies, and what faction(s)/type(s) of humans live there will either be pre-determined or determined randomly before a mission or will develop as intel gets filled in.

Conducting abductions and engaging the natives or studying them will give you an idea of their capabilities.

Also... the history of Earth and it's relationship to mother brain is a mystery you may or may not seek to resolve. (heh-heh) ... but the seed-ship knew just where to go to find earth. I wonder why that is?

 

[Idea]

Above all, I'm going to ask you to follow along and most critically to trust me that despite many of my RPs being very detailed and crunchy -- even complete noobs, if they will accept help, can participate. The 40K Imperial guard RP is a bad comparison for this RP, and you're not getting the whole picture of a RPN/Discord Hybrid RP without seeing both halves.

Trust like that is something I have a hard time giving... but alright. Considering your answers, I think in the end of the day I would like to give it a shot, if you'll have me!


Edit: One more question: Are Warlords all of the same species? Or is it more of a collection of alien race subjugated to the mother brain?

 

[Pat]

Since we're likely using google earth, the information the aliens have is likely from pre-Transhumanist Revolution. Some areas will be more or less developed than information implies, and what faction(s)/type(s) of humans live there will either be pre-determined or determined randomly before a mission or will develop as intel gets filled in.

Conducting abductions and engaging the natives or studying them will give you an idea of their capabilities.

Also... the history of Earth and it's relationship to mother brain is a mystery you may or may not seek to resolve. (heh-heh) ... but the seed-ship knew just where to go to find earth. I wonder why that is?

I'll assume that our idea of what earth is would be shaped by the present then? So like, circa 2023, and since then, it's anyone's guess?

Also, what time of year do we arrive? Season-wise, like spring or fall, summer or winter?

 

[Beckoncall]

Pat : Yes, 2023 or a bit into the future would be a safe speculation on what information you have, but it's a given that technology and Transhumanism has changed/advanced the natives in the relatively recent upheaval.

And like any good invasion, I'd like to say we start in the spring -- though different seasons take place in different parts of the world depending on northern/southern hemisphere. For simplicity, we'll just say it's Spring in Year 1 of the invasion to start.

Keeping it simple!