Section 2: Actions
In this section, we discuss the nature of Actions, what they can do, how to use them and what affects them. This is the crunchy section of the rules.
Direct Actions
The game functions on actions which are received by a central database and stored until they are all executed simultaneously at the turn end. There are a variety of actions a government can undertake, and all actions can be undertaken with any National Asset. You can take as many Attack, Defend, Seize, Build, Dismantle, Probe, Conceal, Grant or research actions as you have points to spend from national assets.
Actions are directed at targets. For example, you can ‘Attack Planet X’ or ‘Defend Planet Y’ or ‘Seize Planet X’ or ‘Build Fleet’, ‘Probe X factions Fleet’. You can achieve a variety of effects by mixing the action and asset.
All actions are weighed in strength, by how many points you put in to them. If you ‘attack’ someone’s holdings, you would say ‘Attack X Faction’s Planet with 7pnts Fleet’. This will be weighed against the defenders present. Victory and scale thereof is dependent upon how large a margin of victory/defeat is present after all modifiers are applied.
Multi-Asset Actions
At some times in the game, a player will wish to utilize two kind of assets in the course of a single action. For example, if John wants to use both Military and Production to PROBE an Bob's system, he may if he follows the following rules:
- 1: A primary asset must be designated. The secondary asset may be no more than 1/2 the size, in point total, of the primary asset.
- 2: No boons may be used to modify the secondary asset.
- 3: The player must provide a reasonable explanation of how the assets are being used in conjunction with one another.
A dual-point action follows a different set of rules from a normal action.
- 1: The defending Infrastructure strength is the average of both applicable infrastructures. If Jon attacks with Military and Production, then Bob will defend with (System Defense+Economic Strength)/2.
- 2: The defending assets will be both applicable assets, not rounded or affected in any way. If Jon attacks with Military and Production, then Bob will augment his defense with Military and Production set to DEFEND in that system.
Damage applied to assets used in a dual action will be applied to the primary asset.
Action Types:
Defend
This bolsters a targets defense values, should they come under attack. Fleet will augment Planetary Defenses, Intelligence Assets augment Planetary Security and Production Capacity augments Economic Resources.
Attack
This allows you to target and destroy enemy infrastructure, boons, your own hardships, or any other attackable asset in the game. Military Strength actions will be defended by Planetary Defenses, Intelligence actions will be defended by Planetary Security and Production Capacity will be defended by Economic Resources, regardless of the target. Using Intelligence to attack the Garrison is defended by the Security, not the Garrison.
Attacking without Recon
If a player launches an attack on a system that he has no intelligence on, IE, has not probed or been given probe information for (Or been given bad probe info..), that player will suffer an undetermined penalty to his attack for the lack of information.
Attacking Assets
A player may elect to directly attack another players assets, rather than a star system or other more tangible location. This is allowable if the following conditions are met:
- 1: The attacking player must make an attack action designated as attacking ASSETS vs INFRASTRUCTURE and designate a system or location in which this is taking place. Hopefully, this system has ASSETS set to defend, build, conceal or other location specific actions.
- 2: If the system has ASSETS working inside it on a Defend action, then in order to be successful, the actor must overcome DEFEND+INFRASTRUCTURE. All damage, rather than applying to infrastructure, will be applied to the asset. Standard rate of recovery for supported or unsupported assets shall apply.
- 3: If the system does not have ASSETS set to defend, but the assets are on some other action, INFRASTRUCTURE alone shall be the defending statistic.
- 4: If there are no targeted assets in the system or environment, the proper Infrastructure will defend as per normal.
Seize
This allows, with a victory, to seize control of the target. Seizure may not be out right, and a large portion of the enemy garrison may remain active as a ‘hindrance’ until completely stamped out. To seize a target, you must at least double its defense value in your seizure action. Seizure actions are always the resolved after attack actions. A planet seized by Military forces is invaded. A planet sized with intelligence assets is sized by revolt. A planet seized with Production Capacity is outright purchased in a hostile take over.
Seizure can be quick, or it can be protracted, depending on the effort expended.
If the player seizing dedicates an amount of action points equal to more than twice the defending garrison ((defender*2)+1), then seizure is outright and with crushing force.
If the seizing player dedicates an amount of action points greater than the defending garrison (Defender+1), then the system shall be contested. While a system is Contested, neither the defending nor seizing player may utilize its resource traits, economic resources, or other aspects of the system as it is an active warzone. Assets lost in a contested seizure, supported or unsupported, will not return to active duty until the contention ceases. The state of contention can be ended in one of three ways.
- Defender scores two victories in defense against the seizing player. These victories need not be successive.
- The seizing player scores two victories in seizing against the defending player, with the initial attempt counted as the first. These victories need not be successive.
- Either player withdraws from the world.
Each turn a system is contested, a system may loose infrastructure based on the type of asset used in the action. The exact numbers involved for each type of Seizure are not for public consumption.
It is possible to use SEIZE to steal technological advancements, Non-cultural Boons or other benefits from rival players.
Seizing without Recon
If a player launches a Seizure on a system that he has no intelligence on, IE, has not probed or been given probe information for (Or been given bad probe info..), that player will suffer an undetermined penalty to his action for the lack of information.
Build
This action is Production Capacity only. Using resources and action points, this allows you to build your infrastructure and assets.
To build, spend (2*Current level) in Production Action points to upgrade a System Infrastructure or National Asset. These points, unlike any other action (aside from research) can be ‘banked’ from turn to turn, allowing you to amortize, spreading out the cost over several game turns.
Economics and the BUILD action
When you want to build something, it will require resources. Resources are produced by planets. A planet will produce one each of its stated resource types per turn. These must be used in the turn produced or they will be consumed by the economy. Build actions require both of the following:
1: Action points available to be spent
2: Resources of the required nature and quantity for the desired level of build.
Resources:
- Labor: Dudes with shovels.
- Materials: Iron, Titanium, Alloys, composites and such as the like.
- Energy: Oil, Plutonium, solar arrays.
- Technology: Technological goods such as computers and fusion cores
- Liquid Resources: Cash, gold, diamonds.
- Industrial Goods: Heavy machinery and so forth
| Building Project | Required Resource |
|---|---|
| Planetary Security | Energy |
| Planetary Defense | Materials |
| Economic Resources | Liquid Resources |
| Military Strength | Industrial |
| Intelligence Assets | Technology |
| Industrial Capacity | Labor |
Every player may make one build action per turn, that does not require any resources be spent or present. This is marked on turn reports as 'aided by free-build'. This is considered to be standard economic growth and is an avenue for players to build things they would not normally be able to build.
Additional build actions in a turn require access to and expenditure of the above resources. For every one build action made, you will need to have at one trait of each required resource on hand. If you make two build actions and designate them as 'Planetary Security', you will need two Energy available to fund that build. If you make three build actions and designate them as 'Planetary Security', you will need three energy. This will sometimes require trade deals to be set up the turn before the build action. If a player only has limited access to a given material, his ability to build will be hampered unless he makes trade pacts with other nations and they are willing to grant resources.
If a player has excess resources, he may place them on the TRADING MARKET in return for other resources, influence, asset grants or good will as he or she desires..
Dismantle
This action costs only one Action point and targets the infrastructure of a world you control. When taking this action, declare how many points you are removing from the target worlds infrastructure totals. Every 3 infrastructure points removed are transformed in to 1 asset point that may be applied to the National Assets at the start of the next turn.
Dismantle actions are ALWAYS the last actions resolved in a turn. Any successful attack or or seizure will result in the dismantle being successful, but no asset points applied to your National Assets.
Probe
Probe actions may be used to investigate any particular place or thing. Probes can be sent to planets to determine infrastructure levels, to track fleet movements or to possibly or determine technology levels of the enemy. A well informed force is a powerful force.
A probe is successful if the probing player commits ((Planetary Security/2)+1) in action points. A simple success results in one trait of information being randomly returned. For every point committed to the action above this minimum, an extra trait can be recovered.
Some possible traits:
- Resource Traits
- Defense Strength
- Security Strength
- Economic Resources
- Hardships or Boons
Conceal
Sometimes, you want to do things and not be seen doing it. This is what conceal is for. This action is a compliment to other actions. You can spend action points attacking, then spend action points concealing. If your conceal action is not defeated, the enemy will not know who has attacked them. Truly spectacular or powerful conceal actions can sometimes make it look like a different person attacked the target all together.
Grant
This is the basic tool of diplomacy with NPC powers and your allied PC powers. This allows players to transfer resources and action points to other powers.
Research
This action is, like the Build action, able to be ‘banked’ from turn to turn. Every few turns a check will be made based on your investment in research and your labors have a chance of being rewarded with technological breakthroughs that may aide your star-nation. These discovered technologies can be traded to other star nations through the ‘grant’ action.
Action submission
Actions are submitted each round and are processed together. Each round, players submit one or more Action Statements via the PHP/JAVA interface, using points in Military Strength, Industrial Capacity or Intelligence Assets. Actions should be constructed in the following way. :
[Action] [Target] with [x number] [Asset] aided by [Boon]
Simple Action Statements include only one Action and one Asset (including Boons or Hardships). Edges also affect the outcome of any Action by modifying Assets.
Example: House Abrades has 5 points in Military Might and has a special contract with Apollo Incorporated, a spacer’s guild unit (Boon). The Abrades player wishes to seize the planet Huttons Lament from House Barkonan after launching a series of intelligence based attacks to lower its defenses. The Action Statement should look like this:
[Seize] [Huttons Lament] with [5]pts [Military Strength] aided by the [Apollo Contract].
Special Actions
Some actions will simply not be able to be covered in the scope of the simulation and will require staff adjudication. These sorts of actions cannot be foreseen ahead of time and so a special action window will be available, with a text box for explanation of what you are trying to do. Do not expect a fast answer on this as your action is likely to be subject to a lot of talking about how it affects balance.
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