Favor
Your Patrons favor is what keeps you in charge of a Ship and Crew, it is what buys you repairs and restocks. If you loose it, your Quest for Knowledge will find an ignoble end, as you are recalled to your homeworld, demoted to a different task and your ship is set to worthier endeavors.
You loose some favor every turn, representing the value your ship could have had for the Forgeworld on more conventional uses.
You gain favor primarily in three ways:
Send pieces of archeotech or rare Imperial technology back to your patron
Send blueprints of archeotech or rare Imperial technology back to your patron (you can create those through research-actions, mostly reconstructing found technology)
Send partial STCs you find back to your Patron
A rough estimation of Favor:
-A piece of rare Imperial Technology, or unusually efficient version of know Technology: 5-20 Favor (about 5 for a Volkite-pistol, about 20 for a working example of a Graian Anti-Gravity-Drive
-A piece of real Archeotech: 5-100 Favor (about 5 for a real Dark Age Coffee-machine, about 100 for an unknown Titan)
-Blueprints of the same: +50% base Favor
-Partial STC: 50-??? Favor
Character Stats
I'll be using a system similar to CKII-quests whereby most of your actions are governed by simple, broad-area stats.
Those are Martial, Diplomacy, Administration, Intrigue, Willpower and Prowess.
From those basic stats, Learning is omitted, as it is too vital to a Techpriest's works to leave as a single, undifferentiated stat.
You get access to the following Knowledge Skills:
- Motive Force: This is the lore that governs generators, ship-drives and non-projectile weapons from Lasguns to Power Weapons.
- Mechanical Movement: From the lever to the Macro-cannon, if it requires the interplay of moving parts, Mechanic plays a part.
- Spiritual Guidance: This knowledge covers a wide field from the creation of servitors, over the comprehension of Auspex to the placation of Machine Spirits. In any truly great project, such as ships or Titans, it is necessary to create harmony between the different mechanical components.
- Biological Comprehension: The perfection of the human form holds secrets even after countless millennia of study. This knowledge applies to medicine, human augmentation and discovering the weaknesses (and potentially useful strengths) of Xenos.
- Esoterica: This is, in a simple phrase "the rest". Understanding of the Warp goes here, as well as specific phenomena and technologies that don't or only partially fit under the four great ones.
Actions
Every turn will roughly represent a year (realtime) and you will be able to take 1 Expedition, 1 Contact the Locals and 2 Research actions.
- With Expeditions you will follow up on rumors that could lead you to worthwhile technology. These can be on the small side, such as scanning a planet that was supposed to have a long-abandoned colony somewhere, to the very involved, such as temporarily joining a a major military action to reclaim a lost world.
- Contact the Locals is your primary means of gaining more leads to potential caches of Archeotech or other interesting targets. It is also your way of networking with other forces in the Sector, potentially helping each other for future favors.
- Research is the action in which you either try to improve your fundamental understanding of known technologies, or dismantle found technology to be able to recreate it. Later on your advanced understanding of certain areas of technology might allow you to create improved versions of existing tech. Your research actions might also be used to solve local problems to gain favors or repay them.
The Ship
You as a Magos Explorator will have a ship of your own. This is mechanically relevant in two ways. Firstly, there will be Void-Combat, secondly your ship has Production.
Ship to Ship combat will be resolved by simple D100 rolls opposing each other, including any boni the ship might have, as well as the Captain's Martial stat. This will be resolved mostly narrativly as guided by those rolls, similar to regular CKII-Quest battles.
I might try for a proper combat-system later, but until then I'll try to incorporate relevant traits and upgrades in the descriptions and outcomes to the best of my abilities.
Example:
Sword Class Frigate "Glory"
Size: Escort (low total health, small crew)
Speed: High (+30 to attempts to dodge or escape)
Weapons: Macro Turrets (+0 on attacks, one of the weaker weapons in the game)
Armor: Low (+10 on resisting damage)
Your ship also has a capacity for Production.
This is used every turn to replenish or improve your Skitarii, to craft equipment for your Techpriests, to repair minor damage to your or other ships or to help others for Favors or Rumors.
Your ship's production-capacity will mostly depend on the class of ship you choose, though certain technology can improve it.
Ships have Four stages of damage:
Minor: Takes penalties in battle, can be fixed during normal operation by spending Production
Moderate: Takes large penalties in battle, you need a dock or station to make proper repairs, but you can still do it with your own Production
Major: Options in battle are limited to playing dead or sacrificing yourself with some last act. Requires proper facilities for repair, this usually requires either a Favor from a nearby Naval Base or Forgeworld, or to spend Patron's Favor on it.
Hulk: Your ship is incapable of travel or combat, it will likely take a rescue-ship to even tow you to the nearest dock. Repair options same as Major, but more costly.
Examples of Production-Costs:
1PP
Restore 5% of your army
2PP
Create a relic of a basic piece of equipment (includes a roll)
Create an advanced weapon or item
5PP
Complete a small civilian project, like a Generatorium or Water Filter sufficient for a town
Create a relic of an advanced item
10PP
Minor Repairs on an Escort
Build a wing of fighters
Build transports for 5% of your army
Civilian Project for a small hive
