One Small Step

[Lunaryon]

​

Space...Oh, who am I kidding. You've all heard this speech before. All of them. How space is the final frontier, how it is taken hold of the minds and dreams of mankind for generations. Of the ways that ancient civilizations took their storied heroes and the legendary gods and wrote them into the skies themselves. Of how Eclipses and Meteors can change the fates of men and women.

You've heard it all before, and you'll hear it all again. So why don't I just stop trying to impress the gradeiosity of space on you, and just let you look out into it's vastness yourself?

But before we can look into taking the first steps out into that great yonder... There are a few questions that need to be answered.

First and foremost...

Humanity had a moment, a frozen point in time when everything started to change. If someone were to look down upon that point from on high, they might call it a point of divergence, a time locked point.

A day unlike any other.

But there are many possible days, and each and every one is different, leading down strange and winding paths of time untold.

[ ] 1908: Tunguska Russia, Emperor Nicholas II, Empire of Russia: In the depths of the Russian Wilderness, a mysterious device of unknown origin exploded roughly 2.5 Km in the air. Strange and unknown technology has been recovered that is far more advanced than anything discovered up to this point. What it is and where it came from is a mystery, but one that may turn the fate of the Declining Empire around.

[ ] 1937: Antarctica, Grand Chancellor Adolf Hitler, National Socialist German Worker's Party: A scientific study being carried out by scientist's of the Nazi Party have discovered... something in the depths of the Antarctic wastes. They refuse to say what it is, only that the Grand Chancellor needs to see it as soon as possible. But scuttlebutt gets around, and the word is that whatever it was that was found is... Old. Older than old. Older than mankind itself. And that perhaps it is the secret to the creation of Ubermensch... But of course, that is simply the scuttlebutt.

[ ] 1969: The Moon, Richard Nixon, United States: Man has set foot on the moon, and millions watched what happened the world over. What they did not see however, was what Nixon saw. Hours after the original broadcast, a second broadcast was sent. This one showing an image of what appeared to be some sort of bunker set on the moon. An impossibility that cannot exist, yet does. What it means for the future is unknown.

[ ] 2014: England, Prime Minister David Cameron, United Kingdom: Following the development of a strange engine that doesn't appear to have any power source, A young woman attempts to see if she can create a power source that functions in the same way. While the original attempt does not work, it begins to reveal more new and strange properties of quantum mechanics. This begins a new race as scientists across the world try to harness this new power, and whether it will be used for good or ill has yet to be seen.

[ ] 2020: Japan, Player Generated, Japan: During a lab experiment, a team of researchers begin to find a strange interference with the experimental suite that was going to be installed in a communications satellite that was in development. Over the following months, they worked further with the device, trying to isolate and discover the source of the interference only to begin to realize that it was not interference, but that part of the new device allowed the suite to pick up a signal. Once the device is built and the satellite is launched, experiments begin to point to the device sending and receiving signals at a speed faster than light.

[ ] 2031: Australia, Player Generated, Australia: While studying the Sun as part of a PhD project, a young scientist develops a device which he believes will be able to record information about the sun far more accurately than currently used technologies. What he does record catches not just his attention, but soon after the attention of the world. While it is not visible to the naked eye, there appears to be a stream of... something. It is not matter, at least not in any form that has been discovered before. Quickly data is gathered as scientists attempt to prove or disprove the discovery, and the gathered telemetry shows that it is not one stream of whatever it is, but two. One moving away from the star towards another, and a second going from the other star to our own.

​

 

[Lunaryon]

Rules Screen
Certainly not taken almost in totality from Poptart's Terminus Quest​

The Basics

The CKII style of questing is derived from Paradox Interactive's, "Crusader Kings II," a grand strategy game about players controlling nobles in the European Middle Ages. It has proven to be a flexible and durable system well suited to quest adaptations. Play revolves around the main stats of the game's characters. Let's begin with an overview of the stats themselves.

Stats in CKII track characters' facility in various areas of governmental administration. The stats available are Martial, Diplomacy, Stewardship, Intrigue, and Learning. Some systems also include Piety.

Martial

Martial tracks a character's ability to command and run a military force. This is often also the character's personal facility in combat, but some games track this differently. This quest will only rarely have the PC directly take the field in combat, so the two will be conflated for convenience and reduced bookkeeping here. High-Martial characters make excellent generals, admirals, and commanders-in-chief.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy tracks a character's ability to organize and conduct diplomatic endeavors such as ceasefire agreements, trade negotiations, and alliance pacts. High-Diplomacy characters make excellent ambassadors, consuls, and politicians.

Stewardship

Stewardship tracks how financially-minded a character is. This includes all manners of finance, on any scale. Yes, this is one hell of an abstraction. High-Stewardship characters make excellent bankers, business executives, and merchants.

Intrigue

Intrigue is a measure of a character's facility in the arts of subterfuge. This would be things like intelligence, counter-intelligence, and...actually, that's about it. It's spy work and general skulduggery, in all of its applications. High-intrigue characters make excellent spymasters.

Learning

Learning is not an intelligence stat. Learning is the measure of a character's facility in the scientific and scholastic arts. It's Scholarship, essentially; how well they engage with scholarly fields. This includes technical fields. High-Learning characters make excellent scientists, engineers, and doctors.

Piety

Piety is a measure of a character's familiarity with and skill in addressing matters of faith. This stat is traditional to CKII games, but is usually abstracted to mean other things in sci-fi games. In this quest, it is defined as how skilled one is in addressing matters of faith; in other words, one's talent as a theologian. This stat may or may not be included, as per a vote to be offered in the next update. If taken, it will be represented by an official Ministry of Faith in the PC's government, thereby making the populace's religion a matter of state. If voted against, then Piety will not be considered a part of this game or an official matter of governance, and if it arises otherwise will be addressed through other kinds of actions. High-Piety characters make excellent theological scholars, priests, or religious heads.

Play is conducted in turns whose length vary depending on the particular nation that you select - America, Australia, and the United Kingdom have 6 month turns, while the others are likely going to be Yearly turns. The players have a variety of projects between which they may choose each turn in separate categories defined by the various stats. These categories represent your branches of government. For instance, in a game where Piety is not taken, the players will have five action categories every turn: Martial, Diplomacy, Stewardship, Intrigue, and Learning actions, representing Departments or Ministries responsible for the categories in question. Each category will have its own action economy, representing the capacity for action each branch of the PC's government has. The players may NOT elect to not take an action in a given category unless their action economy is depleted (in which case they are taking an action, just not any new ones). Actions each have a chance of success rolled against on a d100. The players gain a bonus on this check equal to half the relevant stat of the Minister for that category. Special Personal actions can allow them to add their full relevant PC stat as well. The chance of success translates to a DC which you most roll over -- having to roll under a value is an amusing gimmick, but it's counterintuitive and doesn't add much to a game.

How stats scale is largely arbitrary in CKII quests, so Poptart elected to include a scale here; this is your rough set of benchmarks for what these numbers mean. He tried to keep the scale roughly in line with the game's scale, but what they call, "masterful," (13+) isn't even consistent with their own mechanics. He has also expanded the scale upwards. Here's the scale:

0-4: Incompetent
5-8: Poor
9-12: Decent
13-16: Competent
17-20: Expert
21-24: Masterful
25-28: Legendary
29 and higher: Incomparable

Other than the action economy, the players will also have to track their budget. Depending on the Nation chosen the type of currency will vary. In this quest, the players' cash balance represents all of the financial assets which they can readily leverage. This represents the amount of liquid funds they have, yes, but also represents the local liquid value of any natural resources to which they have access. This is a grand simplification to reduce bookkeeping on my end, but I think it works. For instance, opening a mine to harvest warship-grade tungsten produces credits; not because you're just selling warship-grade tungsten -- although you probably are -- but because you now no longer have to buy it from traders two or three profit margins away from foreign producers. Thus, the credits you gain from the mine represent both profits from trade and savings on materials otherwise used.

Again, this is not strictly speaking how resource management works, but it makes things much easier on everybody's parts, and makes me far less likely to burn out due to bookkeeping. And, honestly, this is about as involved as the person running a planet should be in resource acquisition anyway. The PC does not need to be tracking every pound of warship-grade metallo-ceramics.

Now, if something like losing all access to a certain vital resource becomes a possible or present issue, then it'll come to the PC's notice. Think the Axis scrambling to get oil and rubber -- any oil and rubber -- during World War II.

Going into negative credits is possible. If your leader has a Stewardship of 13 or higher or your Stewardship Adviser has a Stewardship of 21 or higher, you can safely go into the negatives as long as your yearly income and any lump sums gained during the year swing you positive again by the start of next year. This represents gifted individuals managing to run the books on the knife's edge, timing project payments and resource allocations perfectly to coincide with new infusions.

However, lacking either of those individuals, or starting a year with a negative credit reserve, imposes penalties to all rolls that scale the deeper the debt goes and the longer you stay there. This is due to credits' nature as an abstraction for all available resources; at negative reserves you're running out of shit with which to fund your projects. I will not make these penalties explicit; not knowing how bad it'll get will scare you more.

The Particulars

Every CKII quest diverges from the standard formula in some way. Mine has a few mechanics that separate it as well.

Attention Mechanics

This mechanic is an addition on my part to represent how relevant various groups' interests said groups consider you to be. In general, this represents very broad divisions -- Primarily political and economic super powers that have the ability to act on a planetary scale as well as your neighbors. I abstract them this broadly to avoid bloating your Status Screen with too many contacts to track. Once you gain a certain amount of attention from a broad faction, I start simulating who precisely has taken an interest in you.

Attention is tracked on a scale from 0-100 for each tracked faction. At certain levels of Attention, factions begin taking action with regards to you, depending on how their relationship with you is. For instance, at 11 American Attention with a hostile opinion, the President issues diplomatic protests of your recent actions, increasing Attention with all other factions and dropping your opinion with any factions more friendly with the USA than with you. Reaching 100 Attention with any faction triggers drastic measures -- outright declarations of war, formal proposals of alliance or other such extreme results. Thus, Attention does not build up to those levels very quickly through the process of daily governance. Mind your Attention; knowing when to increase it and when to try to dump it is key.

Player Mandates and Elections

This Section is under construction

End Game

This Quest will end someday.

Paradox Interactive has another grand strategy game, this one called Stellaris and set in an original sci-fi universe. It doesn't adapt nearly as well as CKII does, but it does offer a series of ending conditions, the concept of which I've adopted.

Your aim is to bring your civilization to a certain level of galactic prominence in one of a few measures. I've chosen to break these up according to stats.

A Martial Victory is achieved by conquering the galaxy. No more, no less. You must be the only polity standing to achieve this victory. This is achievable with any form of government.

A Diplomacy Victory is achieved by having significant and enduring political influence with every other polity in the galaxy -- defined as being able to sway the politics of other nations with your influence alone.

A Stewardship Victory is achieved should you become capable of crashing the galactic economy, single-handedly, on demand. Simple as that.

An Intrigue Victory is achieved by having near-complete access to the highest levels of classified intelligence in the entire galaxy.

A Learning Victory is achieved by mastering your starting tech tree or making practical and competitive a completely different tech tree. Both of these options are of comparable difficulty.

A Piety Victory -- should it wind up being relevant -- is defined as successfully imposing your particular governmental policy of faith upon the entire galaxy, through whatever means are necessary.

The game ends when you have achieved any one of the above types of victory, and [REDACTED]

The game ends in a loss if your entire state is wiped out. Avoid this.

Combat Mechanics

My previous quest burned out due to mechanics weariness. I would like to avoid this ocurring. Here is how combat works in this quest, lifted directly from the update in which Poptart introduced it:

The new iteration of the battle system uses d50s and runs on degrees of success rather than the typical greater/critical success system. Each side rolls a d50 and adds the full martial score of its commanding officer. Victory margin by five or less (10% margin) is a single degree of success. Close-run thing, but the exchange is in your favor. Please note that a single corvette scoring a single degree of success against a full battle fleet just indicates that they meaningfully delay the battle fleet, not that they do serious damage. More than five and up to double the result of the losing side is two degrees of success. Solidly in your favor. In the prior example, the corvette actually damages something minor, also involving a fairly troublesome delay. More than double the result of the loser is three degrees of success. Very strongly in your favor. The corvette actually kills something before evaporating under massed firepower.

Administrative Overclocking

Administrative Overclocking introduced two features found in some other iterations of the CKII quest system: Double Down, and Expedite. Here is how they work in this quest:

Once per year, you may opt to double down on or expedite one of your selected options. All project costs for that project are doubled (hits to income, even permanent hits, are only doubled for the duration of the option itself). In exchange, the project gains access to the following bonuses: for doubling down, the relevant Minister's bonus is not halved, but rather doubled from base (i.e., Shurna would grant +46 rather than +12); for expedited, the project, if successful, completes in half the time (mathematical rounding), but gains no bonuses towards its roll (thus, a five-year project would complete in three years, but gain no additional bonuses towards completion). You do not need to take either of these options in a given year, although you always may. In order to Double Down on or Expedite a given option, include, "Double Down," "DD," "Expedite," or "EX," as a sub-vote of the option in question, to whit:

[ ] Plan Name
-[ ] Option To Be Boosted
--[ ] Double Down/DD/Expedite/EX
-[ ] Option Not To Be Boosted
-[ ] Etc.

Voting Rules

By default for the regular year turns, voting is approval plan voting, with victory by plurality. You vote for any number of cohesive, "plans," of options, and the plan with the most votes, majority or not, is victorious. You need not vote for plans that do not contradict each other; feel free, in fact, to vote for any you find acceptable, even that number is one.

Sometimes, options selected during year posts are fiddly enough that they warrant further resolution in the form of event chains. These chains will by default be by tasked approval voting, with victory by plurality. I will divide the options into separate tasks where applicable, labeled like so: [ ][MARTIAL], or, [ ][INTRIGUE]. These tasks are counted separately from one another on my vote tally software, making them easier to count. You may vote for as many or as few of these tasks as you like, and within each task may select any of the options that you like, even mutually contradictory ones. Within each task, the single option with the most votes, even if it does not constitute a majority, wins.

I will occasionally use different voting schemes, when warranted. I will announce this when I do.

Year posts incorporate an automatic twelve-hour moratorium for the purposes of discussion, short- and long-term planning, and the proposal of write-ins for me to consider. Event chain posts will incorporate two- to three-hour moratoriums. All votes will be held open for at least twenty-four hours from the end of their moratorium, to ensure that all time zones get the chance to participate, unless an immediate and overwhelming consensus emerges, with one exception: even a unanimous consensus of voters larger than any other turnout in the history of the quest within an hour of the vote opening will not convince me to close year posts before a full twenty-four hours have passed. They are too important to the regular running of the quest.

Year votes in particular, but all votes in practice, will permit write-ins. I reserve the right to moderate these write-ins for how much of a load they impose on my end. This applies whether or not write-ins are explicitly listed among your options.

QM Availability

In general, I have time to write and work on updates during the evenings and on the weekends. Of course, I am also currently running a second quest and will splitting my time between the two of them.

 

[Lunaryon]

Spoiler: Imperial Flag

Spoiler: Lesser Coat of Arms

Polity: Russian Empire

Leader Title: Emperor

Government: Empire

Population: 125,640,021 people (50.2% female, 49.8% male; urban 16,828,395) As of 1897​

 

[Lunaryon]

Nicholas Alexandrovna The Second

Nicholas II of Russia
40 Years old
Current Player Avatar

Martial: -3:
Diplomacy: - 1 :
Stewardship: - 3:
Intrigue: - 3 :
Learning: - 2 :

Traits:

Advisers

These are the men and women who run the various ministries of your Empire.

Moriz Orloff

Moriz Orloff

Martial: 7
Diplomacy: 14
Stewardship: 13
Intrigue: 18
Learning: 8

I know what I'm doing my Lord, please. Let me deal with this -- Nicholas's Martial -3

Egor Shuluv

Egor Shuluv

Martial: 9
Diplomacy: 9
Stewardship: 13
Intrigue: 16
Learning: 9

By the word of my Lord - Nicholas's Diplomacy -1

Denya Lukin

Denya Lukin

Martial: 15
Diplomacy: 13
Stewardship: 7
Intrigue: 15
Learning: 11

Leave the Bean counting to me my lord - Nicholas's Stewardship -3

Mikhail Sokolov

Mikhail Sokolov

Martial: 11
Diplomacy: 7
Stewardship: 16
Intrigue: 13
Learning: 15

Let me explain the Particulars my lord - Nicholas's Intrigue -3

Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin

Martial: 12
Diplomacy: 10
Stewardship: 12
Intrigue: 23
Learning: 8
A Healer of Men and Lords - Nicholas's Learning -2

 

[Lunaryon]

Lore and Thread Open

 

[Lunaryon]

History... It's a funny thing, really. The words of those who have came before, a measure of a world that once was. It sounds so clean and crisp when said like that.

Facts, lined out in their little lines that show how the world was. Words and facts that have been written down by the men and the women of their eras. But the men and women who came before were not perfect. Not by a long shot, and it is within that tiny facet of the world that our troubles begin.

For more than anything else, the truth of the matter is that History is written by the victors. By the ones who were left behind. Who lived on afterwords.

The funny thing is... that in one world, in one timeline... there are records and history that is written down. Words and stories that speak of a man who led Russian during the dark eve of the Russian Empire.

They called him a fool, an idiot who knew not what he did. They called him a failure of a leader.

Perchance they are correct.

Perchance that the stories are factual and the man called the last Emperor of Russia was incapable of leading a nation to save his life.

...

And yet...

There are whispers trailing at the edge of thought and time. Of a man who is not a fool. Not completely at least. A leader surrounded by carrion birds, each who have seen the way that winds turn. Five men who live a life of luxury as they lie, cheat, and steal to keep themselves on top. Parasites who have wrapped themselves tight in the folds of the royal family, even as they drag them into that long dark sleep.

So the question that remains.

Nicholas The Second, Emperor of all Russia.

Just who were you? What kind of a man were you, and what did you reach for?

Were you a man of Piety?

One who stood and held a ministry of Faith?

[ ] Yes
- You will gain a sixth adviser, this one for Faith. Specifically, Rasputin shall move from his position in the Ministry of Learning to being your adviser for the Ministry of Faith, and in addition the State Religion will be set as the Russian Orthodox Church. Later events may happen to allow that to change, but for now it will stay as Russian Orthodox. Also, you and all your advisers and heroes will gain a Piety stat.

[ ] No
- Faith is not something that you feel you need to control and master, and so you shall not have a ministry of Faith. Rasputin will stay as your Learning Adviser. If you choose this, than you and your advisers will not have a Piety stat.

Now that that question is settled, it is time to return to the question at hand.

Just who are you Nicholas, and what kinds of things were you interested in?

You have six different Attributes, and six different scores to allocate. Do so wisely. Those Attributes are as below.

Martial:
Diplomacy:
Stewardship:
Intrigue:
Learning:
Piety:

And you have six scores to split between them.

14, 18, 12, 16, 9, 9

Please use this format

[ ][PLAN] Make a plan and give it a name
- M [#]
- D [#]
- S [#]
- I [#]
- L [#]
- P[#]

---

NO MORATORIUM ON THIS VOTE
​

While I would have preferred to get the right to the actual update, I... well to be frank...

I had completely missed the fact that Nicholas the Second was apparently an idiot who was completely divorced from reality. And I was not fond of putting you guys in control of a guy whose skills would be sitting around the 6-8 range for all attributes. That's not cool.

So I had to make some changes, and that meant that I needed to set this up instead.

Which unfortunately means setting this up and slowing the first update by at least one whole day.
​

SPEAKING OF WHICH. It is 10:45 PM where I am at this moment. The votes will be open for Twenty-Four (24) Hours from the moment that I post this update. Tomorrow night at 10:45 the votes will close regardless of how the votes are. If there is a tie I will roll a die to decide which is the winner. ​