The INDEX Initiative: Not!XCOM Planquest

It is the year of 2015 and the world has had its first contact with extraterrestrial life forms several months ago in late September 2014. Unfortunately for all, this first contact has proven to be hostile as the unexpected alien spacecraft destroyed the International Space Station in an unprovoked attack. While no one aboard was recovered after the attack, it is unclear if the astronauts were killed or taken prisoner, though all signs indicate that the aliens took them with them, either alive or as corpses. Since then, the aliens have shown no sign of desiring peace or cooperation with Earth's native people.

The second appearance of alien presence was in the Pacific Ocean where an unknown flying object came down from the atmosphere to fly around for a few hours. The United States attempted to intercept them, but the UFO returned to orbit and disappeared before the interception could be made.

The third appearance was in Florida where the alien UFO landed and captured several civilians from a major road. Two USAF fighter jets were destroyed by the UFO when they attempted to show down the alien craft as it fled to orbit.

The fourth and fifth encounters were in the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean respectively, the latter setting the UFO targeting and destroying a fishing boat. In both cases, the UFO fled the scene before it could be intercepted. Later analysis of the fishing boat indicated that the aliens had taken the crew either dead or alive as no sign of their bodies could be found with the wreckage or in the general area.

The sixth encounter along the coastline of Angola where UFO did seemingly nothing of note before retreating to orbit. The seventh encounter was in Saudi Arabia where a UFO made a strafing run with unknown energy weapons in Mecca, killing several dozen individuals and leaving countless more injured. This event incited outrage and anger across the international Islamic community though little could be done about it.

In late December 2014, the eighth alien appearance took place and it was the first time that humanity struck back. Along the Welsh coastline, a UFO came down from orbit, but it was intercepted and destroyed by fighter jets before it could do anything of note. While nothing was able to be salvaged from the wreckage as it sank to the bottom of the ocean, it was nonetheless a celebrated victory as people around the globe praised humanity's first success at fighting back against the alien menace.

As 2014 came to a close, sixteen countries announced the INDEX Initiative where they would band together in face of this alien invasion. Forming the INDEX Council, these sixteen nations would work with each other and pool their resources to protect the Earth from these alien invaders.


Who is being appointed to manage the INDEX Initiative's finances?
[] Feng Zhang
Rising star in his home land, Feng Zhang believed that the future lies in a united Humanity and increased international cooperation even before the alien invasion began. Now that the world is coming together to face this mutual threat in the form of the INDEX Initiative, Feng Zhang wishes to be at the forefront of it to help ensure that it succeeds instead of failing. His candidacy is pushed by China with support from South Africa and Nigeria while Japan and India oppose their traditional rival's choice.

• Politician: Increased Political Support gains, reduced Political Support losses.
• Well-Connected: +2 Political Support per turn, +10 Resources per turn, +1 Die in each category.
• Civilian: -10 to Military Dice.
• Broad Focus: No more than three Dice can be assigned to one project in one turn.
• Support: China, South Africa, Nigeria.
• Opposition: Japan, India.

[] Arthur Davies
A senior officer in Her Majesty's Armed Forces, General Arthur Davies has become quite popular in the Anglosphere for his military achievements in the Middle East. With this new alien threat appearing, Arthur Davies wishes to serve his country and protect his people from it and between that and his military skill, he has expressed his desire to help lead INDEX. His candanicy is jointly pushed by the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia with tentative support from the United States. Opposing Arthur Davies' ascension is Russia, China and Argentina.

• Combat Veteran: +15 to Military Dice, +1 Military Die.
• Tactical Genius: Bonus to battle rolls.
• Military Lifer: -5 to Services Dice, -5 to Administration Dice.
• War Focus: All Military Dice must be used each turn.
• Support: United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia.
• Opposition: Russia, China, Argentina.

[] Farah Tariq
While she has found her success overseas as a highly successful businesswoman, Farah Tariq has never forgotten her Egyptian roots. Now her old home is championing her as their choice for a leadership position in INDEX, choosing her as someone palatable to both them and the other countries that make up the Council. Unfortunately for Farah, her faith has gotten her substantial negativity from the United States though that same negativity has won her support from Mexico.

• Businesswoman: +5 to Services Dice, +5 to Infrastructure Dice.
• Industrialist: +10 to Industry Dice, +1 Industry Die.
• Discriminated: -1 Political Support per turn.
• Support Focus: Take at least one action that raises Political Support each turn.
• Support: Egypt, Mexico.
• Opposition: United States.

New planquest and this one will be smaller in scope than my previous ones as it will just be covering the events of a single planet/solar system rather than an entire galaxy. This setting takes inspiration from a variety of things such as XCOM, Destiny, Halo, Mass Effect and Star Wars.

The current vote is your player character or at least your first one. This will be like most planquests though there will be a couple of differences. The first is that you can only put up to four dice on an individual project each turn so you can't just rush a high progress project in a single turn.

The second is that income is tied to support from each member of the Council. High support gets you more income to spend each turn and at the higher levels, it provides additional bonuses. Low support lowers your income and at the lowest levels, a Council member might leave to form its own alternative to you or, in the worst cases, decide to align themselves with the aliens.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to. Feel free to ask questions for more details and information.

Farah Tariq
While she has found her success overseas as a highly successful businesswoman, Farah Tariq has never forgotten her Egyptian roots. Now her old home is championing her as their choice for a leadership position in INDEX, choosing her as someone palatable to both them and the other countries that make up the Council. Unfortunately for Farah, her faith has gotten her substantial negativity from the United States though that same negativity has won her support from Mexico.

• Businesswoman: +5 to Services Dice, +5 to Infrastructure Dice.
• Industrialist: +10 to Industry Dice, +1 Industry Die.
• Discriminated: -1 Political Support per turn.
• Support Focus: Take at least one action that raises Political Support each turn.
• Support: Egypt, Mexico.
• Opposition: United States

Mechanics
The Quest uses a variation of the Planquest format as popularized by Ithillid's GDIQuest and Blackstar's VNKhQuest. Each turn readers create plans, allocating Dice and the required Resources to projects in a variety of categories. The number of Dice available in each category specified in the category header. Projects are divided into the following categories:
-Infrastructure
-Industry
-Services
-Research
-Military
-Administration

Sample Plan:
[ ]Plan XYZ
Infrastructure 3/3 Dice used, X+Y Resources
-[ ]Project A 2 Dice, X Resources
-[ ]Project B 1 Die, Y Resources
Industry 1/3 Dice used, Z Resources
-[ ]Project C 1 Dice, Z Resources

Total: X+Y+Z Resources

After closing the vote, I will roll the dice assigned to each project and the result, plus the per-dice roll bonus, is added to the projects progress bar. Only up to four dice may be assigned to each project per turn. A natural roll of 1 or 100 is either a critical failure or a critical success that will result in a malus or bonus of some kind. This Quest uses four year plans with four turns per year, representing one quarter each, for a total of 16 turns before Budget and Plan goals are negotiated again.

Certain projects either give or require Political Support, shortened to PS, which represent the amount of favours and goodwill you have with various countries that make up the INDEX Council. Having low PS is bad, but will not inherently lead to a game over. That said, getting too low on PS without some seriously good results can lead to your character getting replaced.

Resources will be given at the start of each plan. While you don't necessarily have to spend all of your Resources, you cannot spend more than you have and any plan that spends more Resources than you currently have will be invalid.

Philosophy
While this is a mechanics heavy quest, the numbers exist to support the narrative, not the other way around. The narrative is important, read it, make observations, don't just be satisfied with "number positive". The numbers I give are not perfect and are subject to in-character bias.

Reserved. Feel free to start posting.