NottheCrabs! story and quest idea pile

[NottheCrabs!]

I've been getting a lot of idea's recently, and while I don't have the time to build any more quests at the moment the ideas held within are still fascinating to me. So in order to prevent a deluge of my posts annoying people in the quest idea forum and to properly organize my ideas I'm going to be posting them here. For the moment I will just be reposting some stuff from the quest idea thread and my notes, but given at least some time maybe I'll be able to write something new.

an example of what I'll be posting here


.....


Our homeworld is harsh place

Eons ago, our ancestors travelled across the stars to the Gas Giant we now call home. We do not know our forbearers reasons, nor their history. They certainly didn't want us to find out. What has remained is myth, and the stations. Massive, Kilometre spanning ships capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people along with the electricity, industrial output, and hydroponics required to sustain them. Their construction only possible in the void we abandoned. For millennia we have been carried by these gardens of life, their irreplaceable engines our only protection from an eternal fall and the crushing death of gravity.

We adapted, the gasses that surround us were refined into fuel and materials, massive aircraft travelled between stations, bringing goods and ideas to the isolated cities. We built on the works of our ancestors, the stations sprawling ever outwards from their original design. Then methods of withstanding the pressure at lower altitudes were developed, allowing more and more resources to be pulled from the depths. Wealth, industry, exploration, war. In spite of our harsh world, we tamed it, and as the first orbital satellites seen in eons were sent out into the void we hoped that the stars could be tamed just as well.

Considering our origins it really shouldn't have been surprising when a sleek dagger of a ship appeared at the edge of our system. Soon the ship was orbiting our world, and the aliens broadcasted a simple question, almost sounded benevolent. "Kora! Var Ist Kel?" We replied in a dozen discordant voices full of excitement and fear and curiosity.

They shut down their broadcast, destroyed our satellites, and mere moments later the worst storm experienced in centuries wracked us, communications and navigation were down, the station barely withstanding the screeching wind and crackling thunder, for a month we withstood it, and once more in adversity we pulled through.

Now we find ourselves lost, the satellites we relied on for tracking destroyed and our station having been blown so far off course that our other tools are useless, we cannot contact anyone, nor do we know if the visitors still lie waiting in our orbit.

You are a station captain, our station captain, you led us through the storm, and it is you who will lead us in these troubling times.

Spite the stars, o captain.

What is your Station?

[ ] Syrelind: a Massive station with a large military and economy, Syrelind is one of the most powerful stations in the planet. Harnessing powerful Sky Titans, several sprawling factories that produce everything they need, a powerful air force, and a launch pad for space craft. The storm that assaulted you was harsher than anything you've ever faced, and even the strongest titan cannot last forever. Over a fifth of the stations ancient engines were disabled or outright destroyed as well as numerous lesser modern ones that had been added on with further expansion. Forcing you to throw over half your Sky Titans and even more Merchant Planes overboard to just stabilise the stations altitude. Syrelind has come out of the storm critically damaged and militarily weak. But with work, sweat, and hope its might will be restored once more.

Critical Damage: the station suffered much during the storm, and many engines have gone quiet, you are unable to change your altitude and each turn a Negative Terrain roll is made.​

Interstellar Entrepreneurs: begin with a Launch Pad and multiple space-based technologies unlocked.​

Military Juggernaut: industrial output required for the construction of Military Aircraft and Sky Titans is halved.​

Major Power: begin with two Modern Sky Titans, several squadrons of Modern Military Aircraft, a large industrial sector and multiple Docks.​

[ ] Hirragen: one of the "three siblings", a trio of stations with close cultural and diplomatic ties that travel through the endless clouds together. While each station was not a major power in its own right the alliance brought safety and power rivalling even the greatest stations. As the storm roared great gusts and failures in navigation equipment tore Hirragen away from its brother stations and although mostly unscathed by the billowing assault you have lost all contact with your allies. Now for the first time in your life you find yourself facing the skies alone.

Diplomatic Masters: increased chance of success for all diplomacy related roles.​

One of three: begin the game with two Allied stations somewhere in the world.​

Trade Experts: Reduces the chance of losing Merchant Planes due to poor weather, able to carry double the cargo on a single Merchant Plane.​

Secondary Power: begin with a single Outdated Sky Titan, a single Modern and several Outdated squadrons of Military Aircraft, and multiple Docks.​

[ ] New Rico: The People of New Rico are famous for their Knowledge, harnessing both a fully intact millennia old database and a near mythical knowledge of their station. While small in size compared to the major powers the Station has always been a leader in Tech, creating the first known Megaplanes and many of the refining methods in use today. While it was Syrelind that first launched a rocket into space, that very rocket was using designs and formulas created by New Rico Scientists. Unsurprisingly with your peoples skill you endured the storm without casualties, but you are under no illusion about how many of the other stations would have fared. Your predecessors risked their lives and the station to save the lives of others time and time again, you will not stop now.

Station Masters: you do not make a Negative Terrain roll unless you are both in a storm and at low altitude.​

Experienced Engineers: start the game with several Engineering technologies unlocked and receive a +10 bonus to any Engineering Research rolls.​

Benevolent History: no other station has an opinion of you below Irritated.​

Minor Power: begin with no Sky Titans, a few Outdated Squadrons of Military Aircraft, and a couple of Docks.​

 

[NottheCrabs!]

So, what would the mechanics of this quest be?


the rules

in this game, there are several altitudes you can set your station to, which will give certain buffs and debuffs, at the start of the game you only have three altitudes available.

1. High altitude
2. Standard altitude
3. Low altitude

being at lower altitude increases the chance of positive resource and research events, but falling to an altitude lower than your limit is a very long and painful death sentence.

As you're controlling a station, space is rather expensive, to construct additional buildings you would need to build additional supports and structures, these support structures and secondary engines are represented by the "space" stat, you run out of space, you can't build anything.

There are three major "buildings", Docks, Housing, and Industry. Docks are where you put your trade ships and Titans for resupply and maintenance, not enouge docks means fewer ships. Housing is a summary of all the food, housing, and other necessities required for your population, who work in the industrial buildings, are the people your supposed to protect and so on. Housing does not immediately increase the population, instead additional housing increases happiness and allows population to grow. Finally you have Industry, which produce Production. Everything you construct, from trade ships to fighters to station expansions requires production, and the only ways to permanently increase production is to either increase the workforce and build more industry for the workforce or researching technologies related to industry.

There are other more specialised buildings of course: Airbases to house your squadrons, Barracks for special forces, research labs, rocket launch pads and several others that you'll probably have at most two of, most of your space will be for the trifecta in the last paragraph.

Trading is simple, sometimes you'll meet other stations, as long as their in trading range with you you can trade with them, this gives stacking bonuses to happiness and industry, as well as the possibility of buying more specific items like military aircraft or technologies from them. You also can only do the most basic of diplomacy with a station unless your trading with them, as those trade ships are the only way to actually get diplomats onto the other station.

So what's the goal of the game?

Survive, beat the crap out of the aliens who are trying to kill you, and find out how to stop them from doing that storm thing ever again. Like I said, the premise is very XCOM. But I'm hoping the station mechanics and ascetics of living in a gas giant will give it some charm to readers (if I ever get to it)

 

[NottheCrabs!]

So recently I've been on a wh40k binge, and noticed a distinct lack of independent (not imperial or imperial rebels) human factions. Thought I'd create a battle engine (mostly narrative based, no hard attack numbers of anything like that.) for some quest. Thinking or setting it during the Macharian crusade or something, hence the name.


Stellar Commonwealth (name subject to change)

Drop troopers: Rapid Deployment, Immune to Terrain (conventional), Light Attack, Drop Assault.

Infantry: Stubborn.

Armoured: Linebreaker, Cumbersome, Armoured.

Armoured (Monoliths): Annihilator, Gigantic, Armoured.

Ork Warband: Stubborn, Battle Instinct.

Speed Freeks Band: Linebreaker, Scrap Heap, Battle Instinct.

Ork Armor: Cumbersome, Scrap Heap, Armoured, Battle Instinct.

Gargant mob: Annihilator, Scrap Heap, Inspire, Battle Instinct.



Stubborn: this army is excellent at holding the line and fighting defensively, it will take significant effort to force them out of a dug in position.

Rapid Deployment: this army can be deployed to another front without significant effort.

Light Attack: this army wields little anti-armour weaponry.

Drop Assault: this army attacks from the air, striking down on their foes. It can be deployed behind the enemy line, excellent for taking critical objectives in advance of the main assault.

Linebreaker: this army is excellent in an assault, with enough speed to turn a push into a breakthrough, and possibly an encirclement.

Cumbersome: this army's vehicles are large and difficult to manoeuvre in urban environments.

Armoured: this army has a large amount of armoured vehicles capable of ignoring most light weaponry.

Annihilator: this army is capable of truly devastating amounts of damage, with weapons powerful enough to destroy armies and sunder entire cities, only Hive cities or the most fortified of bastions stand a chance of holding against their assault.

Gigantic: this army uses war machines of such size that they are physically unable to entre Hives or cities.

Battle Instinct: these forces will attack the closest enemy force without regards to grander strategy unless the Warboss is giving it an order.

Scrap Heap: this army uses machines so poorly designed its questionable if they'll even work at all. Sabotage by special forces is extremely effective.




Scenario

Commonwealth defending against Ork WAAAAAGH!

Commonwealth forces

5 Infantry armies

2 Armoured armies

1 Drop Troop army

2 Special ops units

Ork WAAAAAAGH!

10 Ork Warbands

4 Speed Freeks

2 Ork Armour

1 Basic Warboss (rank 3)

Objectives are to defend the three major cities and Hive on the continent until reinforcements arrive in 4 turns, but defeating the ork infusion is preferable. neither side has orbital support as space is still contested.


First is the Spec Ops unit action and Warboss actions

Spec ops decide to sabotage a couple units of Speed Freeks fuel supplies, hoping to remove the Linebreaker trait. Ork Warboss Spends three Leadership on removing Scrap Heap on three Speed Freaks.

Rolling for spec ops: 34, 58, Spec ops succeed on one but fail on the other, no major casualties though so both units are still active.

Stellar commonwealth have established a defensive line against the Ork Waagh. With Drop troops as an emergency reserve. They're allready outnumbered more than 2:1 so they need everything to have a chance of holding the orks.

Rolling for battlefield luck: 84, pretty good, but against a two to one advantage on open terrain it's not enough, they manage to prevent a breakthrough and inflict heavy casualties, but they've still been pushed back. 1 Ork Warband is combat ineffective.

Next turn, spec ops again target the Speed Freeks Linebreaker trait, this time the Ork
Warboss is removing the battle instincts trait and having three speed Freeks bands and ordering them to combine and target a weak part of the line.

Spec ops rolls: 59, 72, both pull through. And the push is weakened.

Battlefield rolls: 42, In spite of clever tactics the Commonwealth are finally facing the full force of the Ork onslaught, taking heavy casualties and receiving a breach in the line that is barely countered by the drop troopers. The Orks lose 1 warband, the Commonwealth lose 1 infantry army. Commonwealth command decides to cut their losses and start a fighting retreat, giving ground for time.

The spec ops take their actions, but this time it's General harrrasment, attempting to slow down the two Ork Armoured armies and prevent them from taking part in the battle. The Ork Warboss has had enough of this shit, and will attempt to personally deal with one of the Units.

Spec ops make their rolls: 34, 80. Fail, success. The spec ops unit halts an enemy armoured army and prevents them from pressing the retreat.

Ork Warboss rolls: 98, oof, that's a spec ops unit dead.

Battle roll: 67 the retreat is going worse than hoped, better than expected, staggered Defense lines and organised retreats prevent major casualties, but the Orks are gaining way to much ground, and the Drop troopers have been attrited protecting retreating units. By the end they're already at the cities outskirts. Commonwealth lose 1 Drop trooper army, Orks lose 1 generic warband.

Good news is they just need to hold one more turn, the commonwealth army is holding the line.
Bad new is the Ork Warboss is smart (or really likes loot) and is using two of his leadership to remove "cumbersome" from his armoured units. Letting them enter the city. He is also going to remove "battle instincts" from one of the war bands and have them follow up on any breakthroughs. The last spec ops unit attempts to remove Linebreaker from one of the Speed Freek bands. They roll 78, success.

Battle rolls: 15, the Ork Waaaagh! Successfully breaks througe at several points in the main line, some armies are encircled and crushed, others merely suffering heavy casualties, the Ork armour, having added more tracks and make-shift gun ports to fire in every direction in the urban warfare begin pushing the Commonwealths forces through the suburbs, then the city itself, fighting becomes a brutal as Commonwealth commanders refuse to surrender even an inch of ground in the city, leading to many deaths. In the end the Commonwealth holds about half of the city proper, has lost two infantry and one armoured, and the Orks have lost 1 basic warband. In all sense the Commonwealth line has collapsed.

However, reinforcements are now arriving, and the Orks now find themselves facing a foe of qual number. At the end of this scenario the Commonwealth has lost all but 1 Infantry army, 1 armoured army and 1 spec ops unit. But have held two (.and a half) cities and a hive. While the Orks have lost 4 Ork war bands, and did not completely destroy the commonwealth army or capture the continent. Overall a minor victory for the commonwealth, not bad bad for being outnumbered 2:1.

 

[NottheCrabs!]

In the grim darkness of the far future, the only truth is war. As much as the Imperium wishes it, they are not the only exsistance a human can hope for. In the borders of imperial space lie independent worlds and minor empires, whose people were abandoned as constant war and regular catastrophes forced the imperium to abandon its most inefficient and far-flung territories, they are born of the imperium, they are shaped by its religion and culture, and often are assimilated as the Imperium regains its power and seeks new conquests. Beyond them is the planets that have never seen imperial rule, but are still within the astronomicons sight, perhaps these human realms fought off the imperium, earning their independence through battle, others lie in such tumultuous warp lanes or hazardous galactic phenomena that any actual attempts at conquest would be doomed from the start, or maybe they simply have the good fortune of being so far from Imperial borders to have never truly faced the possibility of conquest. Then, finally, in the far reaches of the Galaxy where the astronomicons light fades entirely, and yet still humanity exists here, in independent planets that will likely never travel the warp.

Perhaps these minor empires and independent systems are doomed to fall, the Imperiums archives and propaganda hold many a tale of rebelling planets achieving their independence only to collapse as chaos overtakes the new government, or independent empires that refuse the imperiums "assistance" being overwhelmed by some greater threat. But these people still exist without the Imperium, and many continue existing without the Imperium.

This is not a tale of two great empires, of clashing giants of both military might and cruelty. This is the tale of the Stellar Commonwealth, one of the many small independent empires, and it's never ending struggle against those very giants. For in the 41st millennium, there is only war.

 

[NottheCrabs!]

The stellar commonwealth has lasted for over a thousand years, a major milestone for a minor power in the 41st millennium, especially to one born of alliance and cooperation instead of conquest.

But storms are brewing in the immaterium. Nomadic fleets flee for the expanse beyond the Galaxy, increasing numbers of refugees flood from the coreward regions, and cultists of the dark gods grow increasingly desperate, all tell the same tale: an unstoppable force under the two headed eagle, and their never ending conquest.

You are a general of the stellar commonwealth, and you must lead your armies against the Macharian crusade. Will you fall to his forces like the others, or earn the ire of Macharius himself?

 

[NottheCrabs!]

Ork presence in Corama system reduced, estimated seventy percent of fleet has left in WAAAAGH! migration, location unknown. -Transmission from listening post Venturi

fifteen ships, belonging to the nomadic spacefareing "Yulang" have passed througe within the last decade, increasing from the 3-10 ships common in the last two centuries, Yulang are hesitant to explain their apparent exodus from the coreward regions, but a leaked government meeting with one of the ships suggest a human supremacist empire has made the region hostile to these Crustacean wanderers. Whatever the reasons President Faruan Tewodros has welcomed the Wanderers with open arms, promising them safety during their voyage

"THE EAGLE COMES! ITS TALONS COVERED IN BLOOD, ITS FACE CONTEMPTUOUS OF ANY HOPE. IT HAS NO PITY, NO REMORSE. ONLY THE MERCY OF THE GODS CAN SAVE US NOW!" - Daruman, leader of Ravens Eye cult. Recorded before assassination.

The Imperium? Unlikely. the worst we've ever seen is the odd Explorer and trader, they don't send their fleets out this far. For now our focus should be on helping the refugees. -First Minister Ren Zhu, on the Yulang exodus

For a thousand years the Stellar Commonwealth has stood. Born from the humble alliance of five disparate planets against an overwhelming Ork Waaaagh, the Stellar Commonwealth now represents over a hundred worlds. They are the shallow, halting breaths of hope in this era of endless war. They exist only by the sacrifice of a million soldiers, and the veil of obscurity that their location provides.

Yet exsist they do. Every day the Commonwealth continues to exsist. Every day diplomats seek understanding and common ground with their neighbours. Every day scientists make new discoveries. Every day people are allowed to experiance something similar to peace in this age of only war.

Every day a single fact remains, if one of the great giants of the galaxy noticed, if they took a moment between their eternal battles to look at the insects scurrying around them, the last flickers of humanities hope would be snuffed out.

The golden eagle is looking down with sunken, hungry eyes.


The Stellar commonwealths army has a long history , and you are as much a part of this history as any commander, one particular event has shaped you into the person you are now.

[ ] The Botched Landing: You were part of a landing on an Ork world. Whether due to the machinations of some Ork warboss, poor intel, or sheer bad luck the landing zone was right next to a major Ork warcamp. Aircraft crashed to the ground with their cargo still inside, Those transports that managed to land were often ripped open and swarmed by the hulking green brutes. You were the highest commanding officer still on the ground by the end of the first hour of fighting. You organised what disparate forces you had, and in spite of being outnumbered five to one managed to stall the Orks and withdraw in good order. You turned what in all rights should have been a slaughter into merely a surprising defeat. Managing to salvage the campaign in the process.

[ ] The Steel Net: You had been fighting an Ork Waaaagh attempting to conquer one of the border worlds for the last month, with commonwealth forces successfully containing the Waaagh to its initial landing site. Fighting since then however was a series of stalemates, with the orks unable to breach the net and the Commonwealth unable to squeeze the orks out of it attrition was starting to set in. You found a weakness in the enemy line during one of their assaults, and led the charge in person with your command tank in a rush of action turned their attempted breakthrough into an encirclement. Your quick reaction and initiative managed to turn a gruelling stalemate into a one sided victory.

[ ] The long siege: You had been fighting Ultranationalist rebels, or at least what seemed like ultranationalists. The fighting had been hard,

in your long service in the military, you have commanded many different units. But we all have our expertise, and for you its.

[ ] Armour

[ ] Infantry

[ ] Drop Troopers

[ ] Sieges

[ ] Logistics