THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

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THE SWARM SHEET
  • Informational
    • The Brood of Blades
    ​
    Cerebrate Prime: Samantha Clarke
    LEVEL: 5
    XP: 205/210
    TRAITS
    Strategic Genius: Once per structured encounter, Sam can create a piece of the environment that is in her favor as a sticky spark. Roll a d3 for its value.
    Empathetic: upon meeting an NPC, learn their motivation!
    Legendary Commander: Gain 4 Command sparks at the beginning of each mission/combat. Command sparks may be spent to give NPCs orders, which they may either obey or refuse to obey (doing nothing instead.) Command sparks may not be regained via skills or powers.
    Hunted: Something wants her - but for what? +1 Danger to all scenes​
    SKILLS
    CLOSE COMBAT (2): Brawling, Edged Weapons
    PERSONAL (2): Awareness, Resilience
    SOCIAL (4): Charm, Empathy, Leadership, Taunt​
    MASTERY
    ACU Pilot (2): Nanofabrication [Mass], ObSat Operations [Range]
    The Hilt (4): Biomorphic Spawning (People), Regeneration (Durability), Physical Perfection (Speed), Telepathic Dominion (Range)​

    POWERS
    The Living Swarm
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Gain 1 Living Swarm spark, +1 per vent reduction.​
    The Living Swarm: While this swarm exists, move in three dimensions and through anything smaller than a keyhole, reforming at will. You may expend these sparks to cause 3 Hit Sparks in a Area 2 radius.​
    Area Upgrade: +1 to Area Characteristic​

    Biomorphic Reinforcement
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Create 1 Biomorphic Reinforcement spark, +1 per vent reduction, which can be given out to anyone within Range 2, or to yourself
    Biomorphic Reinforcement: +1 to Damage or Mass characteristic for the purpose of raw physical strength/feats.

    Back to Back
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Choose 1 ally (+1 per vent reduction), within Range 1. Each can take one action using one of your skills, any of them that you wish. Once they have done so, you may make a free attack with your melee weapon, getting +1 to your skill per ally that acted.​

    Adaptation
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Create a number of sparks equal to the enemy's difficulty, narratively based on turning their abilities against them. Works on enemies of Diff 2>, +2 per vent reduction.​

    Just as Planned…
    Vent: 6-0
    Effect: Vent 6 heat and create 1 Planning Spark for her or an ally, +1 Spark per vent reduction.​
    Planning: The person holding this Spark can expend this to get +1 to a skill check as a free action. Using this Stack counts as you are helping for the purpose of relationships.​

    GEAR
    Zeratul's Psi-Blades
    Adds: +0 (Edged Weapons) | Characteristics: Damage [Speed] (4)[1]​
    Shadowstep (3): Can expend as a free action to move without crossing intervening space.
    Guarded Space (3): Can expend to use Damage as a secondary characteristic for Durability, reducing incoming Damage characteristics.​

    GALACTIC WAR
    Victory Points: 5    ​
    RESOURCES​
    TERRAN DOMINION [Background] (1)​
    The men and material of the Dominion - limited, but they're mustering as we speak. ​
    ALLIANCE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES [Mastery] (1)​
    While you have access to several ACUs of every faction, they lack economic and technological support to be fully effective. ​
    ZERG HIVE [Mastery] (1)​
    The scant few Zerg you control that are free of Amon's influence. Mostly Zerglings. ​
    AEON FLEET [Background] (1)​
    While half a dozen CZARs seem impressive, they're not actually well made for ship to ship combat. ​
    ALLIED COHESION [Motivation] (1)​
    The alliance is fragile and weak.​

    FRONTS​
    Trade Sector-34-51 [Pirate Activity]
    Pirates Raiding 6 (Supply Lines in Disarray 1)
    COMMAND: Jim Raynor | ARMY: Raynor's Raiders
    RESULTS: Pending

    Braxis [Zerg Invasion]
    Borealis Siege 6 (Zerg Rampage1)
    COMMAND: General Samantha Clarke | ARMY: Brood Clarke
    RESULTS: Pending

    Typhan II [Active Xel'Naga ACU]
    Typhan II Occupied 6 (Xel'Naga ACU Spotted 1)
    COMMAND: Lt. Colonel Mathew Horner | ARMY: UEF Armored Command Unit
    RESULTS: Pending

    Deep Space Sector 981 [Hive Fleet Identified]
    Zerg Hive Fleet Spotted 6 (Kerrigan? 1)
    COMMAND: Citizen-Commander Dostya | ARMY: CN Armored Command Unit
    RESULTS: Pending
    ​
    ENEMY ASSETS (Currently Known)
    ​
    THE GOLDEN ARMADA
    ACTIVITY: Unknown | Threat Level: 6​
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] Plan: Piss off, please

    I don't think we actually have a T2 factory? But it seems like little logistical concerns like that don't matter here, so might as well. I'd replace the Sky Boxer units with T2 Anti-Air Flak Artillery: Air Cleaner structures (buildable from the ACU since we presumably have the T3 Engineering Suite upgrade), but I don't think there's any mechanical improvement from doing so in this system.
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    One thing to remember is that for all that this system is deterministic mechanically, narrative matters a lot.

    Focusing too much on the numbers is a trap.
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    Sure, but logistics issues like what I mentioned aren't narrative either, they're mechanics from a different system (specifically, the Supreme Commander RTS system). If we ignore numbers like the build time and mass/energy cost to upgrade the factory to T2, having mobile AA is better than having static AA structures.
     
    notgreat said:
    Sure, but logistics issues like what I mentioned aren't narrative either, they're mechanics from a different system (specifically, the Supreme Commander RTS system). If we ignore numbers like the build time and mass/energy cost to upgrade the factory to T2, having mobile AA is better than having static AA structures.
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    Yeah, but I'd rather not rp turtling for 1-2 hours till I have big enough army to crush the enemy base.
     
    notgreat said:
    Sure, but logistics issues like what I mentioned aren't narrative either, they're mechanics from a different system (specifically, the Supreme Commander RTS system). If we ignore numbers like the build time and mass/energy cost to upgrade the factory to T2, having mobile AA is better than having static AA structures.
    Click to expand...
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    Also, the build time for stuff always felt like an arbitrary gate, along with locking off units for the very last part. And AA structures generally had much better hp, damage, and range than AA units (although t2 AA, especially flak, is leagues better than t1) at the cost of being immobile (and a bit pricy) thus being vulnerable to gunships & artillery.
     
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Oct 2, 2023 at 11:49 PM, finished with 52 posts and 11 votes.
    • [x] Operation: We Fight Different - use your Nanofabrication skill to build tier 1 AA guns nearby the engagement field (taking 1 heat to negate all 3 air cover), then use your Leadership skill and take 5 heat to convince the carrier to go back where it came from by demonstrating just how differently you fight - throw the fact no human has died in this fight, and you can just keep making things until they get the picture. Vent 4 heat to use Take Cover Men, and begin fabricating cover for the colonists as further demonstration of how the Protoss should just go.
      [X] Plan: Piss off, please
      - [x] Summary: Drive the protoss away without killing too many of them and leave us with a sticky spark of mobile AA. 2 heat net; imposing air cover deleted; carrier driven off without mass fatalities; scouts not touched, but refugees have one spark of Take Cover Men to hopefully keep them safe.
      - [x] Nanofabricate a platoon of Sky Boxers (Tier 2 mobile anti-air ground units) and delete the opposing air cover (Nanofab 2 + 1 heat to remove the "imposing air cover" spark.
      - [x] Smack the carrier around with the Sky Boxers to persuade them that we could kill them easily and they should piss off. (1 (second action) + 6 (carrier strength) - 2 (Leadership)) = 5 heat)
      - [x] Fab up some defences for the refugees. (Vent 4 heat to place "Take Cover Men" on the refugees)
      - [x] Summary: Drive the protoss away without killing too many of them and leave us with sticky sparks. 2 heat net; imposing air cover deleted; carrier driven off without mass fatalities; scouts not touched, but refugees have one spark of Take Cover Men to hopefully keep them safe.
      - [x] Nanofabricate a platoon of Sky Boxers (Tier 2 mobile anti-air ground units). Heat 6 to manufacture 8 sparks of AA nastiness
      - [x] Delete opposing air cover with a shitload of flak. 0 Heat? (1 (second action) + 3 (removing 3 opposing "Imposing air cover" sparks) - 2 (Leadership) - 2 (2 of the Sky Boxer sparks) = 0 => 0 heat?)
      - [x] Smack the carrier around with the Sky Boxers to persuade them that we could kill them easily and they should piss off. (2 (third action) + 6 (carrier strength) - 2 (Leadership) - 6 (6 of the Sky Boxer sparks) = 0 => 0 heat?)
    Click to expand...


    *building noises*
     
    ACT ONE, MISSION TWO: First Strike (0.3)
  • Threadmarks
    • Your home base's economy was thrumming nicely - which was good, because you had to start construction on some metal heavy, energy intensive projects. The first step was getting to the colony in question. "The enemy fighters shouldn't be able to blast through your armor quickly, but I still wouldn't want you to be at the center of their attention for long, General," Stukov said as you took the controls, then started to work your legs. The ACU's cockpit translated movement pretty effectively - the immense legs lifted, then stomped down, chewing up the kilometers as you clambered up and over the low, craggy hills between you and the colony. You crested and got a great view of the approaching alien airship. No.

    Not airship.

    "DeGalle would love this," you murmured softly.

    The vehicle was more angular than the golden hulled ships in the recordings, with black and red patterning giving it that Cybran appearance you were used to. You wondered if the Tal'darim had significant differences in technology, or if it was just aesthetics. Then you had no time for wondering because the carrier started to launch her fighter compliment. Hissing, buzzing, two pronged vehicles the same dark black as the main hull. They screamed over your surviving bots and Archers - and antiaircraft weaponry peppered the air. Missiles launched from the colony stopped coming up in a tearing hurry as the interceptors swooped on it, beams scything down. You winced, then frowned.

    So far, it seemed that these people didn't fight like the UEF did. This carrier hadn't been constructed in a factory - your obsats had made it quite clear.

    It had been teleported here.

    They didn't have the capabilities to build on the field. They had to use quantum tunneling and some factory facility elsewhere in the Sector - for all you knew, it was being beamed here from their homeworld.

    You aimed your fabricator at the ridge you had clustered. "Come on..." you whispered - and mass started to drain from your tanks almost as fast as the automated drone systems could drop it off from the extractors. Your nanolathe worked overtime, and within a few seconds, the first of the DA1s. Armed with two rapid fire railguns, the turret immediately swung, tracked, and targeted the nearest flight of alien fighters. They started to hammer away and a shield burst and popped before the interceptor plowed into the ground a few dozen meters away, leaving behind a streamer of red flames.

    The next DA1 went up, then the next, before the aliens even seemed to realize what was happening. The carrier started to slew away from the range of the guns - and her surviving interceptors swinging around to stop strafing the colony and instead come straight for your gunline. By then, you had finished the fourth DA1 and the railgun rounds slammed into the approaching interceptors. They didn't fly like they had any idea what self preservation was, and within a few moments, more than half were smoldering wreckage before your gunline. A beam slammed into your shoulder armor and yellow indicators flicked on across the ACU's hud. You flicked them away, then growled. "Stukov, think they'll hear me on broadband?"

    "I believe so, General. They did send us a communication, after all."

    "Good," you said, then tapped on the transmit. "Tal'darim starship. This is General Samantha Clarke of the United Earth Federation Expeditionary Force. I have technology the local human inhabitants don't have - and the capacity to wage war unlike anything you have seen here. My force has one human in it. Me. Everything else is robotic. Replaceable. And mass manufacturable. Your warriors bleed, Tal'darim. Mine do not. Take this into account before you continue this unprovoked aggression against these human colonists."

    You stomped forward, moving down the hill - your nanolathem aiming. Simple concrete bunkers were easy as hell to flash fab - and as they formed, your loudspeaker boomed out: "I'm building fortifications - if anyone's shelter has been destroyed, if your home has been destroyed, get in!"

    People started to run from smoldering wreckage, dragging wounded and injured, towards the bunkers as you created another DA1 overshadowing it, the tower aiming its gun at the carrier. The carrier remained floating there - and then the picture in picture of the alien captain appeared once more while the scouts that were providing escort swung around, maneuvering around to hover to the flanks of the carrier. His eyes blazed with a red light.

    You'd be scared, if you hadn't seen a similar special effect on half a dozen cheap holovids.

    "You will pay for this, Terran," the Tal'darim growled. "Initiate immediate dimensional recall."

    A glowing blue light flared in the center of the carrier formation - then swept outwards. The displaced air collapsed inwards with a WHOMP. Your ACU rattled and you breathed out a slow sigh, before saying: "Stukov - tell me they're off planet."

    "I am sorry, General, I cannot. They're several hundred kilometers away, at a significantly larger base," Stukov said. "Intelligence is somewhat unreliable - there are odd energy signatures, vehicles seem to appear and disappear...I believe they have some kind of stealth system...hmm..." The sound of typing came over the line, while you frowned - then noticed that the colonists were emerging. They remained distant, as your ACU towered over them, gaping up at you. An older man stepped away from the crowd - your magnification showing him to be weather beaten and tough looking.

    He held a com in his hand - and his voice came through your cockpit as scratchy, creaky and crackly. "Well, I'd say yer a sight for sore eyes, ma'am-" he pronounced it marm "-but I ain't got a damn where in Creation yer from, or what kind of tech that is. You make the Dominion's biggest toys look like...toys!"

    "I'm General Clarke, from the United Earth Federation," you said, crisply. "Our technology has some tricks you're not used too."

    "I can see that. I'm Clarence DeFree, former Confed Marine, current head of this here place." He paused. "You must be the friends that there Samir Duran said was coming to help."

    "You know him?" you asked, frowning. No sign of him yet.

    "He came by here a few days ago, said he was on the run from the Dominion. Not many of us old red and blue diehards left." he snorted. "Well, to be honest, ya'll can't call me a die hard. I never did fight hard for the Confederacy cause I particularly had a notion for it." He looked around. "Are you stuck up there in that them there robot, or can we at least give you a bit of a potluck, to thank you fer this?"

    You frowned. The alien threat was...for the moment...not present. And you had chosen this place for initial diplomacy.

    ---
    Current Heat: 2/6

    [ ] Sure! You want to check this place out. Some diplomacy might go well for these folks. (take an hour long RP break to reset heat to 0 - Protoss may get more dangerous.)
    [ ] Before you do, offer your services - what does this place need built?
    [ ] Build their basics utilities (no heat)​
    [ ] Built their basics and some defenses (1 heat)​
    [ ] build their basics, some defenses, and municipal structures the UEF citizens expect - civic center, library, clinic (3 heat)​
    [ ] Get economically stifled by your mass extractors suddenly and unexpectedly running dry as the minerals crap out (fail to reset heat to 0)​
    [ ] Apologize and say you need to deal with the Protoss permanently (start the Danger 15 attack)
    [ ] Apologize and say you need to find this Lt. Duran (gain 1 heat to succeed a Diff 3 awareness check)
    [ ] Write In
     
  • Threadmarks
    • How about....

    [ ] Sure! But, someone's going to need to keep watch. Tell Stukov to gear up and make ready to gate in.
    -[ ] You don't like the man or his job, but Tosh would be... helpful to have on hand to get a read on the locals and that Duran fellow. Have him catch a ride in with Stukov.
     
    [X] Plan: No Rest for the Wicked
    -[X] Apologize and say you need to deal with the Protoss permanently (start the Danger 15 attack)
    -[X] Deploy Tosh to gather intelligence here from Duran and the Confederates while you focus on the attack.

    General Clarke is an ACU commander. I think if there's one thing that an ACU Commander is going to be extremely reluctant to do under any circumstance, it's "let the enemy have a solid hour to regroup and prepare for whatever comes next" - it feels like something that would go against all of her training and experience as a commander.

    Tosh gathering intelligence makes sense because that's kind of his job, but I'm hesitant to deploy Stukov - we want an ace up our sleeve here, and someone else who isn't immediately engaged in battle managing the rest of the expedition.
     
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    [X] Plan: No Rest for the Wicked

    Also, based on their actions, we can conclude that the Tal'Darim seem to be an empire, with all that entails, and as such diplomacy that shows any compassion will be seen as a weakness.
     
    [X] Plan: Reading up for the Next Fight
    -[X] Sure! You want to check this place out. Some diplomacy might go well for these folks. (take an hour long RP break to reset heat to 0 - Protoss may get more dangerous.)
    -[X] Deploy Tosh to gather intelligence here from Duran and the Confederates while you focus on the attack.
    -[X] Before you do, offer your services - what does this place need built?
    --[X] Built their basics and some defenses (1 heat)

    Get more intel, set up some infrastructure, and reset heat.

    Edit:
    [X] Plan: Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number. Call me maybe?
     
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    Acatalepsy said:
    [X] Plan: No Rest for the Wicked
    -[X] Apologize and say you need to deal with the Protoss permanently (start the Danger 15 attack)
    -[X] Deploy Tosh to gather intelligence here from Duran and the Confederates while you focus on the attack.

    General Clarke is an ACU commander. I think if there's one thing that an ACU Commander is going to be extremely reluctant to do under any circumstance, it's "let the enemy have a solid hour to regroup and prepare for whatever comes next" - it feels like something that would go against all of her training and experience as a commander.

    Tosh gathering intelligence makes sense because that's kind of his job, but I'm hesitant to deploy Stukov - we want an ace up our sleeve here, and someone else who isn't immediately engaged in battle managing the rest of the expedition.
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    I approve this use of Tosh!
    Spart117MC said:
    How about....

    [ ] Sure! But, someone's going to need to keep watch. Tell Stukov to gear up and make ready to gate in.
    -[ ] You don't like the man or his job, but Tosh would be... helpful to have on hand to get a read on the locals and that Duran fellow. Have him catch a ride in with Stukov.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Since Stukov exists as an NPC but hasn't been promoted to a minion (as the others are), I'm going to disallow Stukov gating in at the moment - he's needed back home for management and HQ bullshit. I figure ACU's need a lot of support style.

    Spart117MC said:
    [X] Plan: Reading up for the Next Fight
    -[X] Sure! You want to check this place out. Some diplomacy might go well for these folks. (take an hour long RP break to reset heat to 0 - Protoss may get more dangerous.)
    -[X] Deploy Tosh to gather intelligence here from Duran and the Confederates while you focus on the attack.
    -[X] Before you do, offer your services - what does this place need built?
    --[X] Built their basics and some defenses (1 heat)

    Get more intel, set up some infrastructure, and reset heat.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    This is fine!
     
    [X] Plan: No Rest for the Wicked

    Acatalepsy said:
    I think if there's one thing that an ACU Commander is going to be extremely reluctant to do under any circumstance, it's "let the enemy have a solid hour to regroup and prepare for whatever comes next"
    Click to expand...
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    While outside of your ACU in an unsecured area, no less.

    ...Oh, right, and after hearing that the enemy has some kind of unknown stealth technology -- meaning that among other things, there might be a significant danger of assassination.
     
    It doesn't make sense to me to start attacking the Protoss after we just persuaded them to withdraw. We did it to avoid the needless bloodshed, no? And they're advanced and intelligent species we can communicate with, unlike Zerg. They also have capabilities to glass entire planets. So,

    [X] Plan: Forged Alliance
    - [X] Apologize and say you have more pressing tasks at the moment.
    - [X] Build what's needed to immediately start treating the wounded and injured.
    - [X] Secure additional minerals. Transitioning from the inflow rates based economy to the finite resources based one requires a serious paradigm shift.
    - [X] Build some sensors and scouts - let's see the big picture before we commit to something specific.
    - [X] Contact Relashem. You're not here to despoil the sacred place, you're here to save lives. You're not a Terrain, you're a new force to be reckoned with, but, unlike Zerg, you can be reasoned with. Would he rather have a powerful ally, or a fearsome enemy? If you're bad at diplomacy, patch in your HQ to help.

    Not sure what the heat allocation should be, so I'm leaving it up to the QM.
     
    [X] Plan: Forged Alliance

    I like this more and was one reason I wanted our PC clarke here for this mission. IC we don't know it won't work and, OOC, we know that the Tal'darim are not without their own honour codes and willingness to talk if they think it will serve them better than combat.
     
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    DragonCobolt said:
    How?

    It's just skill+roll from any other RPG, just you choose the value of the roll.
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    The sparks that we can place are much more open-ended than picking from a traditional list of skills and it's not often clear how what they can do or what the possibility space is. This is fine, and I'm sure that we'll get there with practice (and it would be easier in real-time with instant feedback from the GM on ideas and more players being engaged enough to pitch ideas).

    Specifically for this quest, we're narratively on an RTS exponential power-growth curve, but it's not clear to map that to HEAT where capabilities don't accumulate between turns in a clear way (which makes sense for action-heroics where the heroes' capabilities don't grow exponentially over a single combat).

    - the standard mechanical interpretation of exponential growth as us building the tools to build more tools doesn't seem to apply, because otherwise we'd be stacking up sparks of "economy" or building ever-larger army sparks each turn and maybe we'd turn those into "characteristic levels" every 6 sparks (and if we boost our "economy" characteristic from 1 to 2, do we need 6 or 36 sparks to get to 3?). But instead that seemed to be abstracted and we should just make our plans narratively bigger across each turn (but then what happens to existing task difficulties/enemy health, should that deflate too?)? I think mechanical clarity on this would help.

    - with both my and the winning plan, it's not clear what strength or utility the sticky sparks of AA units/structures would be, so it's not mechanically clear what the benefit is of building stuff to solve problems versus direct trouble-shooting.
     
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