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Star Wars: Galaxy in Flames - Arda Ship Design Bureau

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The second Death Star was destroyed with the Emperor aboard almost three years ago, and the Galaxy is aflame. Long simmering tensions have exploded into a storm of violence. All semblance of Imperial Authority has vanished as power hungry warlords make their own bids for power. Where there was once a thriving Galactic community now there are only squabbling micro-states, rarely larger than a half dozen systems in size.

Even the Rebel Alliance is not immune to this fracturing, as much of their leadership that survived the destruction of Yavin IV died during the assault on the second Death Star.

You are the newly promoted head of on Outer Rim world's Starship Design Bureau. Can you lead your team in bringing into existence a ship that can defend your home from the fires of war?
Threadmarks Apocrypha Informational Voting
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Introduction
  • Threadmarks
    • Jalinth

    Jalinth

    Location
    Canada
    Pronouns
    He/Him

    Arda Ship Design Bureau

    -
    Arda II, Arda System, Gordian Reach, Outer Rim
    41:07 - Seventh month of the Year 41 after the Great ReSynchronization

    It has been almost three years since the death of the Emperor and the collapse of Imperial rule. It has been a year and a half since the backwater world of Cimtar organised a massive joint fleet to liberate Arda and her neighbours from the genocidal occupation of the Stenax. The Stenax killed millions of people during the few months they controlled Arda. Without the aid of the Joint Fleet member worlds millions more would have died before basic services could be restored. Rebuilding Arda's shattered cities has been a continuing effort.

    On a personal level your place of employment with the Arda Ship Design Bureau was bombed and looted quite thoroughly by the Stenax. Arda's shipyards were once the pride of the Reach and one of the more productive ones in this part of the Outer Rim. Now they are but a broken shell, being laboriously restored by every worker that can be spared from essential reconstruction elsewhere.

    Many of your co-workers were killed during the massacres. It was only a month ago that the best and brightest survivors were reunited to start laying the groundwork for Arda's next warship. Then in a cruel twist of fate the newly reestablished team was nearly wiped out by a Stenax bomb that had lain undiscovered in a restaurant that you had been celebrating at.

    You were the senior most survivor, having stepped out to the fresher shortly before the bomb exploded. You were given a week's leave then were called back into the office to start rebuilding the Bureau again. The other two survivors will be released from hospital in a few days, leaving you with a great many positions to fill.

    Your work is going to be essential in the months to come. The galaxy is only growing more dangerous and Arda will not be able to rely on the Reach Pact to defend it from those threats. Only by restoring the Ekkaian (Arda's navy) to its former glory and beyond can a repeat of the recent horrors be prevented.


    What was your former job? Please only vote for 1 option. All options will have the same number of skill points, just split differently. The second and third place winners will be your two experienced subordinates.

    [][JOB] Administrator - You were the newly promoted assistant manager of the bureau. You have skill with keeping people on track, managing budgets, and talking to your political masters. You lack experience in your new role but have a proven track record at your previous positions.

    [][JOB] Starship Architect - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.

    [][JOB] Junior Reactor Engineer - You were the assistant to the former lead for starship reactor design, before he was consumed by a plasma explosion directly over his head. You might lack his years of experience but you are also not nearly so set in your ways. You have read exciting papers coming from universities around the Reach and are eager to put those concepts to work.

    [][JOB] Drive Systems Engineer - Speed is life. Life is Speed. For your entire career you have been driven by a singular obsession. Making drives that can make ships as fast as physics allows. You have been censured a time or two for over delivering on that aspect to the detriment of things like cost or service life. No matter, you know what is important.

    [][JOB] Sensor Scientist - You are no engineer, but rather a research scientist. You focus on the more theoretical side of ship design, specifically advanced sensor systems. The papers you have written have been transformed into a number of excellent systems by your (now sadly deceased) engineering counterparts. Keeping a bunch of engineers on track can't be much different from wrangling your undergraduates, can it?

    [][JOB] Janitor - Not technically a member of the bureau, you have been serving in the building for years. What you lack in formal education you make up for with a talent for translating between departments and conflict resolution. The situation is so desperate that you are now in charge of designing warships for the Ekkaian. The Force help you all.


    A/N - This is not going to be a full blown long term quest. Instead this is an experiment to get me some usable data for a future quest that I am in the very early stages of planning. I am intending to go through one or two design cycles to see how well it works. Beyond that I'm going to play it by ear.

    The exact results of this quest will not necessarily be fully canon for the main Galaxy in Flames quest, but I will work them in as best I can. If you want to know more about how the sitting diverges from any flavour of Star Wars canon then please check out the main quest.

    The primary thing to remember is that Yavin IV was destroyed by the Death Star seconds before Luke's torpedoes destroyed it.

    I have noticed that some design quest can get extremely heated. I am not going to tolerate that here. This quest is for fun. If people start hurling insults around I am perfectly willing to use the report button or just go back to focusing on the main quest.

    [EDIT - There is a Discord server. Feel free to join]
     
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    Character Sheet
  • Informational

    • Character Sheet


    Player Character

    Name: Lora Isarch
    Gender: Female
    Species: Zabrak
    Background: Janitor - Not technically a member of the bureau, you have been serving in the building for years. What you lack in formal education you make up for with a talent for translating between departments and conflict resolution. The situation is so desperate that you are now in charge of designing warships for the Ekkaian. The Force help you all.

    Skills:

    Administration Skills
    Bureaucracy - 2
    Finance - 3
    Sapient Resources - 3 (DOUBLE 9s)
    -Spec: Headhunting - 1 (4)
    Security - 1

    Technical Skills
    Support Systems - 1
    Biology - 1

    Janitor Skills
    Uncommon Sense - 3
    Technical Translation - 3
    Peacemaker - 2

    Traits:

    Advantages
    The Cleaning Force is Strong with this One (Janitor) - You are a Janitor Master. A bright Lord of the Clean. You no longer directly get your hands dirty, but your legacy lives on. The support staff at the ASDB is highly skilled and even more highly motivated.
    Proper Planning Prevents Particularly Poor Performance (6Ps) - Long experience has taught you that most accidents are anything but. Care taken ahead of time can prevent many of them. Once per turn you can transform a check you rolled a botch on into a simple failure.
    Talented: Sapient Resources - Double 9s apply to all Sapient Resources skill checks. (9s and 10s count as two successes)

    Drawbacks
    No Formal Education - You start with a maximum one die per technical skill.
    Scarred by War - The horrors of the Stenax's genocidal occupation have left marks on your mind and body. Overwork above the [-1] level double in penalties

    Important NPCs

    Name: Jaa Beruss
    Gender: Male
    Species: Human
    Background: Starship Architect - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.

    Skills:

    Administration Skills
    Bureaucracy - 2
    Security - 1

    Technical Skills
    Architecture - 3 (DOUBLE 9s)
    -Spec: Delicate Beauty - 2 (5)
    Structures - 3
    Chemistry - 3
    -Spec: Metallurgy - 1 (4)

    Traits:

    Advantages
    Talented: Architecture- Double 9s apply to all Architecture skill checks. (9s and 10s count as two successes)

    Drawbacks
    For the Art! - Your have a true love of the art of starship design. Everything coming from your drawing board must be a thing of beauty.
    Name: Sola Bibblie
    Gender: Female
    Species: Togruta
    Background: Junior Reactor Engineer - You were the assistant to the former lead for starship reactor design, before he was consumed by a plasma explosion directly over his head. You might lack his years of experience but you are also not nearly so set in your ways. You have read exciting papers coming from universities around the Reach and are eager to put those concepts to work.

    Skills:

    Administration Skills
    Bureaucracy - 1
    Security - 2

    Technical Skills
    Electronics - 1
    Power systems - 3
    -Spec: Compactness - 2 (5)
    Shields - 1
    Weapons - 1
    Physics - 3
    -Spec: Power Generation - 1 (4)

    Traits:

    Advantages
    Not Invented Here? No Problem! - You have no ego about using methods and techniques from others, evaluating them on an objective basis.

    Drawbacks
    Kids these days - You are far to young for your post. You know it. Your bosses know it. Your team knows it. Yet you were one of the last ones standing when the previous team was killed. So you have seniority (although less then the janitor did apparently). Here's hoping you can meet expectations.
    Name: Ismini Prodromou
    Gender: Female
    Species: Human
    Background: Munitions Expert - Ismini was the lead engineer at Pyrkal. This company sprang up out of nowhere just over a year ago with a full production line for excellent anti-armour missiles and soon after anti-air missiles. It is clear that development had been progressing for some time in secret. She expressed some dissatisfaction with being passed up for a prestigious government position and has elected to move across the sector to Arda for some new challenges.

    Skills:

    Administration Skills
    Security - 3

    Technical Skills
    Sublight Drives - 1
    Weapons - 3
    -Spec: Missiles - 2 (5)
    -Spec: Point Defense - 1 (4)
    Chemistry - 3
    -Spec: Explosives - 1 (4)

    Traits:

    Advantages
    Friends in Distant Places - You have a number of friendly contacts with some surprisingly foreign people who owe you some favours. This will open doors for new options.

    Drawbacks
    TBD
    Name: Hador
    Gender: Male
    Species: Human
    Background: Sensor Scientist - They are not an engineer, but rather a research scientist. They focus on the more theoretical side of ship design, specifically advanced sensor systems. The papers they have written have been transformed into a number of excellent systems by some prominent firms.

    Skills:

    Administration Skills
    Bureaucracy - 1
    Finance - 1
    Security - 1

    Technical Skills

    Electronics - 3
    -Spec: Sensors - 2 (5)
    -Spec: ECCM - 1 (4)
    Physics - 3 (Double 9s)
    -Spec: Electromagnetic Spectrum - 2 (5)
    Chemistry - 1

    Traits:

    Advantages
    Talented: Physics - Double 9s apply to all Physics skill checks. (9s and 10s count as two successes)

    Drawbacks
    TBD

    Department Staff


    Administration - Skeleton crew - 1d
    Architecture - Short Staffed - 2d
    Electronics - Fully Staffed - 3d
    Hyperspace Drives - Short Staffed - 2d
    Power Systems - Short Staffed - 2d
    Shields - Fully Staffed - 3d
    Structure - Fully Staffed - 3d
    Sublight Drives - Fully Staffed - 3d
    Support Systems - Short Staffed - 2d
    Weapons - Fully Staffed - 3d
     
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  • Informational
    • Mechanics
  • Informational
    • System

    ASDB will be using a die system based on the Exalted 3rd edition. This involves rolling a pool of d10s and counting successes. Rolling a 7, 8, or 9 gives one success. Rolling a 10 gives you two successes. If you roll zero successes and at least a single 1 then you botch. Rolling a 1 does not cancel out successes, simply downgrades a failure to a botch.

    This gives you a 40% chance to get at least one success per die and on average you will get one success per two dice. Obviously there will be a great deal of variance, but you can use it as a rough guideline for planning.

    Simple tests count the number of successes from a single roll. Some tests will need more than one success to pass. This is the Difficulty. So a Difficulty 3 test would need you to get three successes to pass. Getting one or two would fail, but not trigger a botch.

    Extended tests are resolved over multiple roles or by rolls from multiple people. You will need to hit a higher number of successes then would generally be possible with a simple test. Extended tests can have Difficulty as well. For example a Difficulty 3 Extended test would need you to be able to get at least three successes to add to the total. If you rolled 7,7,7,6,6 on the dice you would add 1 success to your progress. Rolling 7,7,7,10,6 would be five successes and so give you 3 to add to your progress. 7,7,6,6,6 would fail to meet the difficulty and not advance your progress.

    There may be some special traits that change these basic rules. Exceptionally talented individuals might be able to double 9s or even 8s in a narrow field of speciality. Others might be able to re-roll some results. I will detail these if and when they come up.

    DOUBLE 8s or DOUBLE 9s - You treat that number or above as two successes on a roll.

    Skills

    Characters will have a number of skills that they will roll to overcome challenges. You can have up to three dice in a general skill and then have to take dice in specialties. For example you can have engineering of three but to improve further you need to take a specialty. That specialty might be reactor design or material sciences. I will use my judgement on when a specialty will apply. They need to be narrow enough that they will not come up with every roll of that skill.

    There are some situations where lacking a relevant specialty will increase the difficulty or make the attempt impossible. This most often will apply to science skills.

    When it comes time for tests the number of dice for the department will be added if applicable to the relevant skill for the department lead. If you don't have a character assigned to be the department lead then only the base department will be ruled.

    For example: Say you have the Department of Silly Walks with two dice. Professor Python leads the group and has base three dice in humour and two more dice in the specialty of Silly Walks. A test to make a very silly walk would be rolled on seven dice.

    On the other hand if the 1 die Department of Lethal Jokes needed to be working while Professor Python was busy with the Department of Silly Walks they are going to be in trouble. Remember the fewer dice you roll the higher the chance of a botch. Botches will never be game ending but they will also never be good.

    Example Specialties will be listed in [] after the skill description. This is not an exhaustive list, although any purchases must be approved by me.

    Administration Skills
    These are the skills for the less exciting facets of running an organisation.

    Bureaucracy - The skill for doing paperwork. A wide range of uses, from requesting authorization for something to covering your ass in the event of a screw up. [CYOA, Lobbying, Navy, Political]
    Finance - The skill for managing money. Useful for making your budgets go farther. In some cases can substitute for Bureaucracy for getting higher budget allocations. [ex. Forensics, Fraud, Cost-Cutting]
    Sapient Resources - The skill for managing people. Hiring them and making efficient use of them while keeping morale up. [ex. Headhunting, Teambuilding]
    Security - The skill for implementing policies and procedures that will help prevent sensitive data from being compromised without hindering the efforts of the organisation. [Compliance, Honey-traps]

    Technical Skills
    These skills are split into two subcategories. Engineering and Science.

    Engineering skills are for the applied side of starship design. How best to make use of the technologies you have. They are as follows.

    Architecture - The skill for taking the disparate engineering elements and making a cohesive whole. [Corvettes, Cruisers, Robustness, Flexibility, Minimalism]
    Electronics - The skill for systems that allow a ship to 'see' and 'hear', as well as prevent others in the area from doing the same. [Sensors, Communications, ECM, ECCM]
    Hyperspace drives - The skill for the systems that allow a ship to move between the stars. [Frigates, Efficiency, Speed]
    Power systems - The skill for systems that give the ship the energy it requires to run all its other systems. [Output, Robustness, Compactness]
    Shields - The skill for systems that prevent damage to the hull. [Corvettes, Directional, Regeneration]
    Structures - The skill for the bones and skin of a ship. [Armour, Minimalism, Hangers]
    Sublight drives - The skill to allow a ship to move within a star system. [Corvettes, Speed, Efficiency, Maneuverability]
    Support Systems - The skill for all the other systems of a ship. Ranging from plumbing, electrical wiring, living quarters, and beyond. [Comfort, Robustness, Cost Effectiveness]
    Weapons - The skill for systems that seek to damage other ships [Turbolasers, Missiles, Point Defence, Oddities]

    Science skills are for the more theoretical side of starship design. How to invent new technologies to use. There are less skills here but they are more sensitive to lacking a relevant specialty.

    Physics - The skill for technological advancement for topics centred around energy. [Lasers, Gravity]
    Chemistry - The skill for technological advancement for topics centred around material sciences. [Blaster Gasses, Metallurgy, Nebula]
    Biology - The skill for technological advancement for topics centred around living things. Life Support systems are the most common, but not the only ones. [Hydroponics, Medicine, Psychology]

    Janitor Skills
    These are unique skills unlocked thanks to your background. Unlike most skills these can be taken to 5 Dice without a specialty.

    Uncommon Sense - The skill for foreseeing problems that might catch others unaware.
    Technical Translation - The skill is used to support Extended tests that involve multiple departments.
    Peacemaker - The skill for settling disputes in a manner that leaves all sides, if not happy, then at least content.
     
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  • Informational
    • [X][JOB] Starship Architect - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.
     
    [X][JOB] Janitor

    I'm sure other choices would be more optimal, but I'm also sure all the choices are viable, and this one is the funniest to me.
     
    [X][JOB] Janitor

    Neat!

    Edit: swapped to Janitor, the Uncommon Sense, guarantee of no traps, and general hilarity of the option have won me over.
     
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    [X][JOB] Starship Architect - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.
     
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    [X][JOB] Janitor - Not technically a member of the bureau, you have been serving in the building for years. What you lack in formal education you make up for with a talent for translating between departments and conflict resolution. The situation is so desperate that you are now in charge of designing warships for the Ekkaian. The Force help you all.
     
    Here are some relevant links from the main thread.
    Starships: Size Categories
    Starships: Construction

    I'll put together some more detailed informational threadmarks for this game as they become relevant, and I've had some sleep. The TL;DR of those two links is ship classifications are messy, even if you are restricting yourself to the real world interwar period while the Naval treaties were still being observed. So you need to pay attention to the details of the ship, not just see it's called a frigate and assume it's comparable to a Nebulon-B when it's actually a rival to a small Star Destroyer in size.

    I have put ships into a fairly set sized based set of categories that may not match what they are known as in setting.
     
    [X][JOB] Janitor - Not technically a member of the bureau, you have been serving in the building for years. What you lack in formal education you make up for with a talent for translating between departments and conflict resolution. The situation is so desperate that you are now in charge of designing warships for the Ekkaian. The Force help you all.

    Make it so that our janitor has mopped floors on Republic Clone Wars-era ships, Trade Federation vessels, Imperial Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari Battleships and even a brief stint on the first Death Star and was transferred away before it blew up!

    @Jalinth, go! :V
     
    One final post before I crash for the night. Because of janitor seems to be winning I will reveal one of the skills they start with.

    Uncommon Sense.
     
    Jalinth said:
    One final post before I crash for the night. Because of janitor seems to be winning I will reveal one of the skills they start with.

    Uncommon Sense.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    As a veteran RPG player, I can confidently state that Uncommon Sense is only 1 level below Rare Sense in terms of equipment value tiers. Eventually we can then upgrade to this and then Epic Sense, Legendary Sense, and finally, Mythic Sense. :V
     
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    Vote for third place
  • Threadmarks
    • Adhoc vote count started by Jalinth on Nov 24, 2023 at 8:42 AM, finished with 18 posts and 11 votes.
    • [X][JOB] Janitor
      [X][JOB] Starship Architect - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.
    Click to expand...


    Janitor seems to be a clear winner, with Starship Architect in second place. As there is no third place option I am reopening the vote and asking people to decide who they want as their second assistant.

    For character gen I'm going to be keeping things going pretty snappy rather than the very long vote cycles that I use for the main turns in Galaxy in Flames.

    [][JOB] Administrator - You were the newly promoted assistant manager of the bureau. You have skill with keeping people on track, managing budgets, and talking to your political masters. You lack experience in your new role but have a proven track record at your previous positions.

    [JOB] Starship Architect - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.

    [][JOB] Junior Reactor Engineer - You were the assistant to the former lead for starship reactor design, before he was consumed by a plasma explosion directly over his head. You might lack his years of experience but you are also not nearly so set in your ways. You have read exciting papers coming from universities around the Reach and are eager to put those concepts to work.

    [][JOB] Drive Systems Engineer - Speed is life. Life is Speed. For your entire career you have been driven by a singular obsession. Making drives that can make ships as fast as physics allows. You have been censured a time or two for over delivering on that aspect to the detriment of things like cost or service life. No matter, you know what is important.

    [][JOB] Sensor Scientist - You are no engineer, but rather a research scientist. You focus on the more theoretical side of ship design, specifically advanced sensor systems. The papers you have written have been transformed into a number of excellent systems by your (now sadly deceased) engineering counterparts. Keeping a bunch of engineers on track can't be much different from wrangling your undergraduates, can it?

    [JOB] Janitor - Not technically a member of the bureau, you have been serving in the building for years. What you lack in formal education you make up for with a talent for translating between departments and conflict resolution. The situation is so desperate that you are now in charge of designing warships for the Ekkaian. The Force help you all.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • So here me out, Administrator, so almost all our top guys don't have any direct experience in making ships, just working in a company
     
    - The form and void of a starship are your domain. You bring the components from all the other branches and unite them in a durasteel skin. You might not be able to understand exactly how a reactor or shield generator works but you are a master at finding ways of meeting all the conflicting needs that go into laying out those components.

    welp bit late for the main character since i was off reading a different quest before this one and didnt refresh, but i would still like this as a secondary then.

    Made a mistake but didnt want to edit to much so just removed the vote bit
     
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