March Upon Sol

You have been called home.

The most ancient histories declare that humanity has been spacefaring for twenty-eight millennia, reaching the innermost folds and furthest reaches of the galaxy. They have been traders, conquerors, guides and slaves. Since a precipitous fall ten thousand years ago, no united human polity has existed. All imaginable governments have been tried, all evolutionary paths pursued. The human species is one with untold children. To some races, man is a reviled parasite, a despoiler, a slaver, to others a beloved friend and sworn ally. As many races have been shepherded to enlightenment and prosperity as were sent to oblivion through conquest and genocide.

That is the galaxy you left behind, still smouldering in this longest of nights.

The perilous journey towards a forgotten star, the long-dreamed of Urheimat of Mankind, has come to an end. Now the galaxy writhes in warp storms, and you are marooned in boneyards of humanity's rise to prominence. The system is strange, crowded with the detritus of thirty-six thousand years of history, aliens, technobarbarians and stranger things still hidden amid the ruins. The voice that called you to Sol has grown only stronger still, radiating out from the ruined third planet of the system.

The prize awaits.

March Upon Sol

March Upon Sol is a nation game that uses modified Nexus rules for nation creation.

The players take the roles of spacefaring fleets that have returned to a long-forgotten Sol, in a galaxy where FTL travel has become dangerous and unreliable.

Game Themes

• Technobarbarians: Lots
• Space Magic: Some and Dangerous
• Deep Lore/Metaplot
• Imperialism
• Madness: Max

Setting Details

Sol: What Was and Shall Be

Sol

The star burns brightly, yet undimmed. The ruins of various attempts to farm antimatter or weaponize solar light glitter in the heliosphere, slowly disintegrated by heat, radiation and the passage of time. The solar atmosphere brims with the sweet, sorrowful tones of whalesong.

Sol-1

Ancient Names

• E-NK
• Naboo
• Elmes
• Mrcvrivs
• Budha

Sol-1 was terraformed some time ago, but these efforts have been undone by a lack of maintenance and the solar shade that makes it livable is in a one-thousand year decaying orbit that will eventually end the experiment of life here. The planet is presently in a state of sustained desertfication, and is covered by long strip-mining channels. The locals are landlocked by vast orbital debris and likely fighting over diminishing water resources.

Sol-2

Ancient Names

• I-NNA
• Ishter
• Afrodite
• Vinvs
• Sukra

Sol-2 was successfully terraformed, but the various artificial ecosystems appear to have gone into overdrive. The borders between exotic engineered biomes are literal warzones, and there are signs this evolution is beginning to outpace human ability to adapt to respond to it. Technic ruins here are lavish and well-maintained, but besides a few very prominent cities civilization as a whole appears to be unsophisticated and a mix of hunter-gatherers and scavengers. Orbital debris are light and navigable.

Sol-3

Ancient Names

• Ur
• Land
• Gaya
• Terameter
• Prithvi

Sol-3 is currently in a long period of recovery after a nuclear winter, with competing introduced biomes and ecological devastation so severe it's impossible to tell what the planet's original biosphere was like. Vast technic ruins dot the surface, with entire continental cities in ruins stretching miles above and beneath the surface. Signs of warfare are continuous, with extremely well-armed locals. Orbital debris are severe but can be breached carefully.

Sol-3's moon is dotted in the ruins of massive cities, some of which appear to be occupied.

The signal came from here.

Sol-4

Ancient Names

• G-LANE
• Nergal
• Ars
• MⱯRS
• Mangala

A minimally terraformed world, cold, rocky and unpleasant, but covered in vast industrial works. The atmosphere is breathable and provides tolerable pressure but is mostly composed of industrial pollution. Appears to be in a continuous state of warfare between various polities. Orbital debris are severe, but the locals appear to have the capability to clear them themselves and are actively harvesting them for war materiel.

The Belt

A variety of polities thrive out here, surviving through the processing of the asteroid belts, comet capture as well as trade between the inner and outer system.

Sol-5

Ancient Names

• N-LLL
• Marduk
• Zos
• Dispater
• Brhaspati

The system's largest gas giant is a tempestuous ball of hard radiation, but its orbits are resource-rich and show generations of attempts to harvest fuel from the atmosphere. The moons are almost all inhabited by a variety of human and alien polities.

Sol-6

Ancient Names

• N-NRTA
• Korone
• Cistvrn
• Sani

The beautiful ringed gas giant is home to more sustainable fuel mining operations. The moons are all inhabited to one degree or another.

Sol-7

Ancient Names

• Ur-Novo
• Caelvs
• Mrtyu

Several potent alien polities have settled around Sol-7 for unknown purposes, scavenging the vast shipyards and fuel works built here. The moons are heavily settled and many of them have been terraformed to host alien ecologies.

Sol-8

Ancient Names

• Neptvn
• Poseidal
• Varuna

The cold, icy gas giant at the edge of the system is isolated by distance and shows little to no sign of habitation, though an abundance of technic ruins dot the orbits.

The Outer Leviathan

HAZARD WARNING

Scholars debate whether there was ever ninth planet in Sol, believed to have been named Hades, King Yama or JOKER if such histories were true. No sign of that planet exists now, after twenty-eight thousand years. In its place is the Leviathan, a segmented serpentine creature neither living nor dead, composed of stone and chitin and endless fields of churning, bubbling viscera, sustained by an unknown source of power- a biomechanical terror beyond comprehension. On an irregular orbit at the outer edge of the system, it occupies the path the lost ninth planet is believed to have one followed. Nose to tail it is around 140000 KM-long (nearly half a light second), and 6000 KM in diameter, writhing in legions of skittering horrors birthed from the dark crevices of its world-body.

The Leviathan is disinterested in anything beyond continuing its steady orbit, and the organisms it hosts lack the means to trouble the rest of the solar system.

So far, no expeditions have returned from the Outer Leviathan.

Nation Creation

Nation creation is slightly more complex than regular Nexus due to the smaller scope and need to break up statlines into more discrete units. Do not fret, it's all neatly laid out in a step by step guide.

Step 1: Basic Information and Traits

Players are asked to fill out basic information providing the answers to basic questions like who their state is, where they came from, what kind of government they have, etc.

Additionally every player begins with 2 Trait Points to spend on Positive Traits. Additional Trait Points may be acquired by taking on Negative Traits, to a maximum of 2. Players can take as many Neutral Traits as they like, but the total number of traits (Positive, Negative or Neutral) cannot exceed 6.

Basic Information

• Faction Name: The name of your group.
• Type: Are you a pirate band, an expeditionary group sent by a far-flung polity, the last exiles of dying race?
• Emergence Point: Where did your fleet leave FTL? It can be any location on the system atlas, except for Sol-3 for unknown reasons. Note this is also where reinforcements will arrive.

Positive Traits

• Chosen One: Your group is led by/are the custodians of a paranormally gifted human being who led you to Sol, heeding the call to gather from Sol-3. This individual has plot armor and is a powerful exemplar of your strengths and weaknesses. The rest of your faction can be aliens, but the individual in question must be human.
• Far Traders: Your path to Sol led you across the galaxy, allowing you to build better maps of both the stars and galactic history. Once per budget turn, discover a 'secret' in your archives (i.e.: the GM will answer a lore question).
• Fleet of Fog: Relying on advanced mental models, you can build and crew ships without local recruits or reinforcements. Your ships also have the advantage of being hardy and limping away from most fights that aren't a decisive loss.
• Gene Army: Thanks to the vats and/or robot assembly bays, you can build ground units without access to local recruits or reinforcements.
• Hetaroi: Your leader's bodyguard unit are truly exceptional special forces, providing a layer of plot armor against assassinations and a tool for special missions.
• Kataphractoi: You have a select group of powerful warrior post-humans who represent the tip of the sphere in terms of leadership, boarding actions and ground combat. You may build Superelites.
• Macrofabricators: Starting Year 2, your newbuild ships build instantly when ordered. You still only benefit from that production cycle once per year, as normal.
• Mr Magoo Diplomacy: Your agents have a habit of blundering into adventures and getting kidnapped. Useful source of war justification.
• Mothership Cryo-Trays: You can freely raise ground and fleet assets without local recruits. On the other hand, losing your flagship would absolutely cripple morale.
• Navigators: Freely assign your starting forces between any location on the solar atlas. Furthermore, your future reinforcements can arrive at any location you have eyes on, not just your initial emergence point.
• Recall Point: You retain limited FTL capability even with the disruptions to travel, and are able to jump back to the last system on your trip to Sol. An empty red dwarf system with a small debris field, it provides a safe place to keep assets and for reinforcements to arrive.
• The Mighty: Through augmentation, superior genetics, occult enhancement or by your alien natures, your species is beyond standard humans in several useful ways. Treat some of your technological characteristics (General Advancement, Divergent Advancement, Unique Tech, Magic, etc.) as being always-on and define it in your write-up.
• Worm-kin: The Outer Leviathan does not see you as enemy, allowing you to safely navigate using it as an emergence point. The sentients it hosts may regard you differently, however.
• Warrior Cult: Your culture believes in the transformative power of war. When you win major engagements, turn 10% of your naval FP casualties (except for Supply Ships) and 25% of your ground FP casualties into new build units of a superior type.

Neutral Traits

• Bussard Scoops: Your supply ships do not produce supply and your ships don't need any to function. On the other hand, every vessel in your fleet is much more fragile due to the large vulnerable tanks full of volatile gasses.
• Honorable: You command and crew very admirably have exceptionally rigorous ethics, but perhaps fail to grasp the situation in the Urheimat. You can trust everyone you meet without any consequences, I promise.
• Realpolitik: You have an ideological axis (political economy, economic system or religion) that you see yourself as the natural gatekeeper of. Diplomacy with fellow travellers is more difficult, but your people tend to not mind (or are unable to express annoyance with) treaties with ideological enemies.
• Internationalism: You have an ideological axis (political economy, economic system or religion) that you have to perpetuate. Groups with a pre-existing affinity towards that ideology make natural allies, but you have trouble doing anything diplomatically besides proselytizing and bloc-building.

Negative Traits

• Blood Vendetta: Anyone who kills even a single one of your units, steals a claim or manages to tarnish your reputation becomes an enemy for life. Blood must be paid with blood.
• Brannigan's Wake: Initial intel reports will always lie, suggesting the enemy is much weaker than it really is. If you cooperate with other players, this penalty affects them so long as you work together.
• Creeping Paranoia: You will occasionally receive false intel reports of various threats.
• Doomed Homeland: In 5-10 years your reinforcements will be cut off completely. If you didn't take Reinforcements, the threat instead arrives for you in the Urheimat.
• Heart of Darkness: Units may occasionally Go Native. This is caused by units either being defeated without being destroyed or achieving a too-overwhelming victory. Your captains are much more vulnerable to having space madness whispered into their ears by spies.
• Intolerant: You cannot meaningfully cooperate with factions that do not share 50% or more of your exact Traits and intangible rankings (Advancement, Magic, etc). For NPCs, this is abstracted by the GM.
• Just Miners: None of your initial ships are armed beyond point-defense, and the technobarbarians will not respect you until you start earning some serious victories. If you have to fight a war, you'll have a lot of work to do.
• Lonesome Road: You never developed FTL, and arrived via slower-than-light relativistic ship, so-called 'lighthuggers'. Reinforcements always arrive via the outer system and may pass through the path of the Outer Leviathan.
• Mobile Pleasure Palace: Your ships are extra spacious and luxurious at the cost of combat effectiveness. The Fleet Points assigned to Structural allocation are increased by 10% (to 60% default).
• Nanofab DRM: Your supply ships cannot construct ships. You will have to capture or build infrastructure, or rely on reinforcements.
• On Strange Shores: The journey to Sol had few detours and you are displaced in time from the other arrivals. Start without translation protocols, a star chart of Sol or any 'common sense' regarding the Urheimat. Other players attempting to remedy your issues must commit considerable resources to do so.
• Trevelyan's Tax Ledger: Any territory you take control of will seem to be exceptionally productive. This is because of corner-cutting, onerous tariffs and abuses by your magistrates. Rebellions will be constant and natural disasters will be especially catastrophic.
• Scattering: Your emergence location is random and a percentage of your initial force will be sent to a second location. Worse, so is the emergence location of any potential reinforcements.
• Sneering Imperialists: Initial intel reports will always lie, suggesting the enemy's territory is inefficient, impoverished and mismanaged. If you cooperate with other players, this penalty affects them so long as you work together. Your diplomacy is also penalized since you have no respect for others.
• Warpburned: FTL, psychic phenomenon and other effects are anathema to you. You may still develop the relevant competencies but do so at your own peril.

Step 2: Rankings

Simply assign your points to each of the categories until you run out. That'll give you the basis around which to write up the details of your faction. You have 35 points to build your faction.

Expedition Size

Rank 0 (0 Points): They only sent you. One ship of up to 10 Fleet Points.

Rank 1 (1 Point): A small expeditionary force. One ship of up to 15 Fleet Points, an additional 50 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 2 (2 Points): A decent armada. One ship of up to 40 Fleet Points, an an additional 100 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 3 (3 Points): One flagship of up to 40 Fleet Points, an an additional 150 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 4 (4 Points): One flagship of up to 60 Fleet Points, an an additional 200 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 5 (5 Points): A migrant fleet. One flagship of up to 80 Fleet Points, an an additional 400 Fleet Points in escorts.

Ranks over 5 cost 1 Point each and add 10 FP to the flagship and 100 to the escort pool.

Expedition Support

Support skiffs, mobile spacedocks and bulk fuel transports. 1 FP can of supply ship can support 4 FP of ships for a whole year. Alternatively, 5 FP in support ships provides 1 construction point. Supply must be assigned one way or the other and the assignment must be made at the start of the year.

Rank 0 (0 Points): 25 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 5 point of construction or supply 100 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 1 (2 Points): 50 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 10 point of construction or supply 200 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 2 (4 Points): 100 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 20 point of construction or supply 400 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 3 (6 Points): 200 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 40 point of construction or supply 800 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 4 (8 Points): 350 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 70 points of construction or supply 1400 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 5 (10 Points): 500 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 100 points of construction or supply 2000 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Ranks over 5 cost 2 Points each and add 100 FP of supply ships.

Expeditionary Troops

Marines and specialty troops. Each comes with their own sturdy transports which can't really fight but won't immediately evaporate in combat. Every 2 Fleet Points in Expeditionary Troops translates to a full supported company of regular units or fewer numbers of elites and armor.

Rank 0 (0 Points): You have an away team available for the odd misadventure on a planet but nothing more. 0 Fleet Points in Auxiliaries.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You have a few brigades of marines. 20 Fleet Points in marines and their landing craft, or 10 companies.

Rank 2 (3 Points): You brought a legion. 200 Fleet Points in troops and their landing craft, or 100 companies.

Rank 3 (5 Points): You brought five legions. 1000 Fleet Points in troops and their landing craft, or 500 companies.

Ranks over 3 cost 5 Points each and add 1000 Fleet Points in troops.

Reinforcements

Reinforcements use the sum of the initial Expeditionary Fleet and Troops, but not Support Units.

Rank 0 (0 Points): You're it. Good luck.

Rank 1 (2 Points): Reinforcements are trickling in over time. You'll get 5% of your initial expedition or 10 Fleet Points every time the warp lanes clear up, whichever is bigger.

Rank 2 (8 Points): The homeland takes this operation very seriously. You'll get 10% of your initial expedition or 40 Fleet Points every time the warp lanes clear up, whichever is bigger.

Command

Rank 0 (0 Points): Your ships operate more or less independently, as do any potential conquests.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You can set 1 Command Objective per Turn.

Rank 2 (3 Points): You can set 2 Command Objectives per Turn.

Rank 3 (6 Points): You can set 3 Command Objectives per Turn.

Rank 4 (12 Points): You can set 4 Command Objectives per Turn.

Logistics

Rank 0 (0 Points): No infrastructure except for what you conquer.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You can set 1 Logistics Task per Turn.

Rank 2 (3 Points): You can set 2 Logistics Tasks per Turn.

Rank 3 (6 Points): You can set 3 Logistics Tasks per Turn.

Rank 4 (12 Points): You can set 4 Logistics Tasks per Turn.

Diplomacy

Rank 0 (0 Points): No diplomacy except for threats and what people send your way.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You can set 1 Diplomatic Mission per Turn.

Rank 2 (3 Points): You can set 2 Diplomatic Missions per Turn.

Rank 3 (6 Points): You can set 3 Diplomatic Missions per Turn.

Rank 4 (12 Points): You can set 4 Diplomatic Missions per Turn.

General Advancement

General Advancement represents broad-base mastery of mass and energy, and general performance. Units built with only General Advancement will typically be 'vanilla humantech' designs, with railguns, lasers, missiles, solid armor and kinetic or laser-based PDW to intercept projectiles. Every point of General Advancement also grants 5 points of Aptitudes (see Derived Stats).

Rank 0 (0 Points): Kardashev Type 0 civilization, primitive technology just barely capable of interplanetary flight.

Rank 1 (1 Points): Kardashev Type I civilization, the basic level of technology over much of the Milky Way.

Rank 2 (3 Points): Kardashev Type I+ civilization, planetary mastery of mass and energy with the ability to travel faster than light.

Rank 3 (6 Points): Kardashev Type II civilization, the height enjoyed for much of human civilization. Planets were transformed into glittering city-worlds and terraformed into paradises, whole stars were harnessed to power the demands of human enterprise.

Rank 4 (9 Points): Kardashev Type II+ civilization, the peak of human civilization before the Long Night and the Age of Strife. Humanity had begun to transform planets into vast engines of industry and computation, bent space-time to small but useful ends and had laid the foundations of megastructures which now seem impossible.

Divergent Advancement

Divergent Advancement represents a departure from purely numerical superiority to more specific qualitative ones, combining emergent technologies like nanomachinery, exotic biology, psychic crystals or paranormal but not particularly miraculous capabilities. As opposed to the Magic trait, 'mystical' divergent advancements are highly repeatable and mass-produced. Each point of Divergent Advancement provides 5 points that can be allocated towards Aptitudes, which stacks with General Advancement but also restricts interoperability. States with Divergent Advancement can only service, repair or reuse equipment produced by states within 1 deviation of their Rank (i.e.: a DA3 state can repair eq. DA2 or DA4 equipment).

Rank 0 (0 Points): No deviations from the historical galactic norm.

Rank 1 (1 Points): Some sideways developments from the standard paradigm, nanoswarms or bio-engineered organisms as tools, or exotic materials to bypass certain engineering constraints.

Rank 2 (2 Points): Exotic particle physics, ontological weaponry (bullets inscribed with killing curses), bio-engineered organisms acting as battlefield actors or vehicles, resurrection via mind-engram consciousness transfer.

Rank 3 (4 Points): Ubiquitous biotech, outright incorporation of stable esoterica into industry (gatling guns made of so-called 'magic wands' fixed on a rotary mount, runic energy shields), extradimensional energy sources and entities (so-called daemons).

Rank 4 (8 Points): Battleship hulls made of the remains of undying worm-gods, acausal weaponry (guns that invert the target's entropy and cause them to disintegrate in agony as their particles drift backwards in time towards the Big Bang), outright resurrection of an 'essential' self without concern for continuity of consciousness.

Tech Theory

Rank 0 (0 Points): You do not understand your own tech base, you can only reproduce what you already have. Reinforcements have to be copies of your initial designs. If the last example of something you have is destroyed, it becomes Lostech.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You have a good understanding of your own tech base, and are never at risk of permanently losing access to it. Your reinforcements can be of any design you are capable of.

Rank 2 (3 Points): Where others have forgotten secrets in the Long Night, you continue to learn. Gain a point of Aptitude every year you make a promising find. Particularly dramatic discoveries may result in 2.

Rank 3 (6 Points): The enemy is using ion cannons, (beat) we are now capable of deploying ion cannons. You can copy units that you recover intact, and restore salvaged examples and conduct research (via Logistics Tasks) to turn them into Unique Techs to exceed your General/Divergent Advancement rating.

Tech Praxis

Rank 0 (0 Points): You do not understand technology that isn't native to your tech base. You can't use salvage or teach NPCs how to use your designs.

Rank 1 (2 Points): You can reliable use and maintain recovered artifacts and purchased goods, as normal. You can teach NPCs within 1 Rank of your Divergent Advancement how to use sold equipment.

Rank 2 (4 Points): As above, but increase the limit to 2 Ranks. Furthermore, you can conduct Logistics Tasks to permanently raise the General Advancement, Divergent Advancements, Unique Technology or Aptitudes of NPCs 1 step closer to your own rating, if higher.

Unique Technology

Provides unique advantages in excess of what is provided by General/Divergent Advancements. These can be situational bonuses to a specific action (ECM that specifically jams long-range targeting and inhibit radio transmissions) or systems that provide somewhat intangible benefits (psychic-controlled attack drones).

Rank 0 (0 Points): Nothing special beyond what's implied by your Advancement ranks.

Rank 1 (1 Point): 1 unique tech.

Rank 2 (2 Points): 2 unique techs.

Rank 3 (3 Points): 3 unique techs.

Rank 4 (5 Points): 4 unique techs.

Every Rank over 4 costs 2 Points and grants 1 extra Unique Tech.

Magic

Every point of Magic also provides 5 points of to assign in Magic Paths, which represent specific highly specific disciplines that you have reliable access to.

Rank 0 (0 Points): No magic rests at your call.

Rank 1 (1 Point): This is fairly small-time stuff like Jedi Mind tricks and similar cantrips, or the presence of just a (literal) handful of more talented individuals. Some of it may even be ‘scientific’; cyberpunk mind-reading, memetic engineering or the like.

Rank 2 (2 Points): More powerful and more systemic paranormal powers are present in your nation. You may have a psy-corp or other telepathic group.

Rank 3 (4 Points): Your force is accompanied by a powerful organization of sorcerers capable of wielding supernatural power above and beyond what is normal.

Rank 4 (6 Points): The people of your nation have evolved or somehow manifest nearly ubiquitous ‘magic’, and may even use it on a large scale, capable of attacking starships and turning the course of entire battles.

Occult Lore

Rank 0 (0 Points): Your powers may be great, but lack context. You know nothing of the paranormal other than your own capabilities.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You have accumulated some occult lore. At this stage you can broadly identify differences between the origins and sources of occult power, and with some effort conduct appropriate countermeasures.

Rank 2 (2 Points): Your library is well-stocked and smells of rich mahogany. If you ever suffer a magical effect, you always identify it in hindsight and get some hints as to countermeasures. You can tech NPCs within 1 Rank of your Magic rating how to perform rituals and powers of the same sort as yours, and borrow theirs as well.

Rank 3 (4 Points): You leave the matters of the occult to top men. As above, but increase the limit to 2 Ranks. Furthermore, you can conduct Diplomatic Missions to permanently raise the Divergent Advancements, Magic or Paths of NPCs 1 step closer to your own rating, if higher.