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 8.

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

• Adept Tech/Magic: Gain +2 to an Aptitude or Path of Magic. Related Unique Techs are also slightly stronger.
• 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.
• Knights the Sky: All of your Aerospace costs 2 FP extra (after all modifiers) but has an innate attachment equal to a unit of Elites. Moreover, these pilots have a resistance to dying in combat unless confronted by truly awful odds. Captured pilots are always bad news, however.
• 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.
• Night Witches: All your Aerospace costs 2 FP extra (after all modifiers) but has an innate attachment equal to a unit of Mages. Moreover, these pilots have a resistance to dying in combat unless confronted by truly awful odds. Captured pilots are always big deal, however.
• 'O Crown of Mine: The leader of your expedition is a King, an Emperor, a God. Your starship interiors (particularly your flagship) represent this in gilded opulence, and you have great stores full of useless yellow rocks and priceless cultural artifacts.
• 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.
• Space Hulk: Your flagship absorbs destroyed ships, like a gyre collecting floatsam. Provided you are able to linger on the battlefield, absorb 25% of all fleet casualties as free FP added to your ship. Combat damage has a tendency to shear these additions off, however.
• Sun-kissed: Upon your arrival, you are greeted by a pod of sunwhales. It is a good omen, and they will continue to show you favor. You may use the Sun as an Emergence point and more safely navigate the solar atmosphere and other near-Sol conditions.
• The Mighty: Through augmentation, superior genetics, occult enhancement or by your alien natures, your species is beyond standard humans in several useful ways. Provide a writeup of the ways your people are superior to human beings as though it were a Unique Tech, with a specific scope or set of adaptations in mind. This can be repurchased a second time for a second effect, and so on.
• 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

• A City At The End of the World: You arrived in the harbour of civilization, well-armed and already mired in its own internal disputes. The NPC you meet is scaled so that your first encounter can only ever result in an absolutely Pyrrhic victory (or equally gruelling defeat), should it be provoked to hostility.
• Boutique Engineering: You do not suffer cost increases from Overengineering or creating Combination units. However, no two units can ever be alike. You cannot even make replicas of lost or stolen units.
• 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. The vulnerability can be compensated for with tougher ships and careful design, but can never be fully overcome.
• Behind Enemy Lines: Your pilots have habit of surviving when it's incredibly inconvenient, and have no special abilities to compensate. On the bright side, rebuilding Aerospace units (and related Combination units) is 33% cheaper (rounding down).
• Dishonorable: You are a repulsive snake and nobody believes anything you say. In fact, people trust you more when you tell them they can't trust you. Atrocities and deception never hurt crew morale or indeed, your rock-bottom reputation. On the other hand, you may overestimate just how much people hate you.
• Gros Michaelship: Your flagship is larger and better-engineered than usual. You may trade 2 points of escorts for 1 extra point of mothership, and 'store' half its total mass in Support Ship FP.
• 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.
• 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.
• Poor Mariner's Hymn: Your supply ships produce 5 supply instead of 4, as your expedition is run spartan and often engages in corner-cutting. Your merchant marine are highly susceptible to infiltration.
• 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.
• Rival: Another expedition has come here and they are in your shit constantly. Treat as a peer that has a roughly 10% chance of showing up to anything you do, though the relationship is not completely hostile.
• We're All Trying To Find the Guy: Your diplomats are capable maintaining total kayfabe after the fruits of your schemes are revealed and you are clearly the perpetrator. While infuriating, it can cause a useful moment or so of doubt among affected NPCs.
• Whalers: Your weapons have tasted the flesh of the enigmatic sunwhales. You have discovered the valuable minerals within their bodies, but now bear their scorn and the hatred of superstitious spacers everywhere.
• Wormhunted: You have the scent of prey, or perhaps your soul bears a brand of sacrifice. The creatures that were born from the Leviathan's world-body are driven to hunt and devour you.

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: Military 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: Your homeland has befallen a terrible curse, perhaps a designer plague or an invading enemy. You must save it from the peril, or all this will be for nought. Every year the Doomsday Clock will tick up a random amount (reduced somewhat by the Reinforcements rating). Once it strikes Midnight, your entire fleet suffers a massive crisis of faith as your forlorn homeland dies gasping (or cursing you).
• Doomed Expedition: Perhaps this adventure was ill-fated after all. Choose one of the following:
  • An enemy who is 4x as strong.
  • An enemy who is 2x as strong and grows 2x as quickly.
  • An enemy who is 1x as strong and grows 4x as quickly.
  • An enemy who is trivially weak at a glance but will continue to hound and disrupt your efforts until the end of the game, requiring significant effort to overcome, or a similarly onerous inconvenience for the fleet.
• 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: Choose any 8 traits. Any factions that have these traits are automatically on your shit-list and you cannot cooperate with them or be seen to cooperate with their allies. With NPCs with is abstracted somewhat.
• Inept Tech/Magic: Choose one Aptitude or Path of Magic. Your starting cap in it is 0. Furthermore, the GM will design a unique tech representing your particular weaknesses in that field.
• Just Miners/It's A Cruise Ship!: Your initial warships cannot allocate more than 5% of their FP to Offence and 20% to Defence. At least 50% of your free allocation on any starting ship must be to the special Cargo (B) allocation, which works identically to Supply Ship FP. You may continue building ships with Cargo after game start.
• 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: Open source 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. Any transit other than STL has negative consequences for you and magic has worse effects: mere proximity causes some backlash and your hostile magic always hurts worse.
• Wormfodder: Everything relating to the Outer Leviathan is utter anathema to you and your destiny is to be meat. Troopers melt the moment the atmospheric locks on armor break, ship drives fail and gravity drags them to their doom against the cratered worldspine of the Leviathan.

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 18 Fleet Points.

Rank 1 (1 Point): A small expeditionary force. One flagship of up to 18 Fleet Points, and additional 100 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 2 (2 Points): A decent navy. One flagship of up to 20 Fleet Points, and an additional 250 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 3 (3 Points): A grand armada. One flagship of up to 30 Fleet Points, and an additional 450 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 4 (4 Points): A migrant fleet. One flagship of up to 40 Fleet Points, and an additional 700 Fleet Points in escorts.

Rank 5 (5 Points): A wagon train to the stars. One flagship of up to 200 Fleet Points, and an additional 1000 Fleet Points in escorts.

Ranks over 5 cost 1 Point each and add 50 FP to the flagship and 200 to the escort pool.

Expedition Support

Support skiffs, mobile spacedocks and bulk fuel transports. 1 FP 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): 0 Fleet Points of supply ships. Ouch.

Rank 1 (2 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 2 (4 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 3 (6 Points): 350 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 70 point of construction or supply 1400 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 4 (8 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.

Rank 5 (10 Points): 700 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 140 points of construction or supply 2800 points of ships for a year with a fuel source.

Rank 6 (12 Points): 1000 Fleet Points of supply ships, which can perform 200 points of construction or supply 4000 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. 2 Fleet Points in Auxiliaries, or 1 company.

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 (1 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 (3 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 have a degree in theoretical physics. That is to say, you theoretically have a degree in some physics. You cannot do research-type Logistics actions.

Rank 1 (1 Points): You understand fundamental forces and first principles. When you obtain a definite example of a superior technology (an artifact, salvage from a powerful enemy) you can devote research to increasing your Aptitudes or Paths.

Rank 2 (3 Points): You are able to unravel deeper mysteries. When you encounter a group willing to exchange secrets, you can conduct actions to increase your or their Aptitudes and Paths towards that of the more advanced party.

Rank 3 (6 Points): You are constantly learning. Increase the potential compatibility of tech bases limited by Divergent Advancement by 1. When you encounter any example of a technology unlike your own, you can conduct actions to increase your Aptitudes and Paths. You may also adept foreign methods to your own and gain new Unique Technologies.

Tech Praxis

Rank 0 (0 Points): Those who cannot do, teach. You can do neither. You cannot Overengineer or create Combination units beyond your starting fleet.

Rank 1 (1 Points): When you bang some rocks together and pray, sometimes sparks fly. New units obtained via Reinforcements can be Overengineered or Combination units.

Rank 2 (3 Points): It's a scientific fact that the red paint scheme makes it go three times faster. You can Overengineer or create Combination units after you arrive in Sol.

Rank 3 (6 Points): Built in the womb of a collapsed star or looted off a graveyard in Eurasia, a gun's a gun. Increase the potential compatibility of tech bases limited by Divergent Advancement by 1. When you refit foreign units, they are treated as having the best-of either faction's Aptitudes (theirs or yours) and any unique techs you want to share. Once per production cycle you can designate such a unit being a Masterwork, providing +10% free FP to spend on BODS allocations and a character shield.

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. 10% of your ground units can be Mages or related combination units.

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. 25% of your ground units can be Mages or related combination units.

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. 50% of your ground units can be Mages or related combination units.

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. 100% of your ground units can be Mages or related combination units.

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.

Step 3: Derived Attributes

Aptitudes

Aptitudes is the improvement your state has over the generally-accepted galactic baseline. (or, in some cases, inferiority relative to said!) While having more aptitudes does tend to correlate with being more 'advanced', aptitudes also represent habits, doctrines, lessons learned and the result of iterative design improvement as opposed to simply scientific advances. A nation with no aptitudes in a field may not actually be intrinsically bad at them, merely that they do (for example) do not normally fit large radar arrays to their battleships or high-angle dogfight missiles to their interceptors.

Aptitude is broken into various functional fields such as armor, propulsion, etc. Nations start with 0 aptitude levels in all fields and may spend Aptitude Points to increase these. Higher ranks have diminishing returns with every 2 ranks doubles the cost (so Rank 3-4 costs 2 points, Rank 5-6 costs 4 points, and so on). Stealth, Sensors, Control, Production and Mobility instead double every 4.

Aptitudes are coded using BODS from the ship design system to show dependencies, representing the various elements of unit design.

• Basic: Intrinsic, universal design elements such as engines, superstructure, life support, etc.
• Offensive
• Defensive
• Systems: Quality of life systems, sophisticated electronics, etc.

Melee Weaponry (O)

Melee Weaponry is a broad collection of ways to inflict harm up close. These range from the classic (laser) sword to hand grenades, shotguns and iron palm strikes on the level of individuals. On vehicles it more commonly takes the form of weapons optimized for extremely short ranges as opposed to literally touching distances, such as carronades, low-velocity demolition rockets, kinetic lances, high-intensity but rapidly dispersing cutting beams and the like. In aircraft, smaller caliber machineguns can also be considered melee, as they have ample magazines and shorter ranges. Melee aptitude can also be assumed to come with training in brutal, close-quarters fighting, such as urban or jungle battles. Finally, melee aptitude improves the ability to survive in up-close fights.

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of Melee Weaponry allocation by 50%.

Weaponry (O)

Weaponry is the general, all-purpose Make Things Explode Satisfyingly aptitude. Conventionally it covers 'guns' - kinetic or energy - ranging from lasguns to kinetic macrobatteries. Rockets and missiles sometimes fall under this category, but larger and more deadly ones are more typically better represented by Exotic Weaponry (see below).

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of Weaponry allocation by 50%.

Exotic Weaponry (O)

Exotic Weaponry are weapons that inseparably combine the virtue of devastating power with limited uses. While this may not be literally only two or three missiles on a ship, in practical terms they have sharply limited shots. They also tend to sidestep (eg: top attack) or simply ignore (eg: shield-piercing) more conventional forms of defenses, but are more vulnerable to disruption from other sources such as ECM. Exotic weapons have the most breadth when it comes to missiles, ranging from thermobaric RPGs to shipkiller missiles. Some forms of powerful energy weaponry (either self-destructive or requiring large capacitors/E-caps that cannot be meaningfully replenished during combat) would also apply, as does the common plasma torpedo, one of the most popular small-ship weapons. Even things like a selection of exotic munitions to slam into your tank cannon could count. All this said, it is also important to know that exotic weapons scale less significantly than other, more conventional weapons; a destroyer can fire a plasma torpedo just as powerful as a battleship, though the latter will have several backup plasma chambers so it can fire several more times. As exotic weapons are rather broader and more varied than convention pew-pew guns, it helps to show some specificity in what they are. (eg 'Plasma torpedoes' or 'Swarmer missiles' - different effects might apply!)

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of Exotic Weaponry allocation by 50%.

Armor (D)

Armor is the use of passive protection methods to improve survivability; this includes both actual physical armor to resist damaging penetration and clever design coupled with redundancy and internal subdivision to mitigate the damage done to internal systems and thus combat effectiveness. Due to the sheer mass of fitting significant armor along with the design compromises it forces – after all you want to poke as few holes as possible in your protective scheme – it is typical for armor to be concentrated on the most important sections or arcs of a unit, leaving other parts more lightly protected.

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of Armor allocation by 50%.

Shields (D)

Shields are the middle tier of defenses, wrapping the valuable object – be it a soldier or a superbattleship – in a boundary field of force. Shields work to dissipate energy strikes and decelerate physical projectiles, deflecting them away from actually striking the enemy’s target. Most shields are reactive of varying complexity and quality, pulling power from large capacitor banks to automatically reinforce themselves as they are penetrated. In many cases shields can also be angled, dynamically adjusting their angles to provide reinforced protection against likely impact vectors. By their nature shields are less effective at providing complete protection against weapon fire than armor, but shields can be used to protect external fittings like sensors and fire control.

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of Shields allocation by 50%.

ECM (D)

ECM is the third and final tier of defense, covering all forms of active defense ranging from various sophisticated jamming systems to decoys and chaff to short-range hard-kill systems. These all share the protective method of attempting to keep enemy fire from ever impacting. While not getting hit is the best way of surviving, ECM does nothing to protect a unit if it does get hit and generally needs some time/distance to function most effectively – not to mention warning. ECM is particularly effective against exotic weapons and essentially irrelevant in melee, and due to its disruptive effects is one of the better ways of protecting against strategic magic.

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of ECM allocation by 50%.

Sensors (S)

Sensors are the various technologies used to find and track things, often hostile things. While this has obvious application, sensors are also quite helpful in fire control, especially at long-range. Tactically, Sensors lower the target numbers of Weaponry and Exotic Weapons and ignore ECM and environmental penalties. Strategically, Sensors provide various insights when exploring and surveying and negate the strategic effect of Stealth at a 2-1 ratio if the player issues orders to picket or perform long-range scans in the direction of an observed fleet.

Every assigned rank improves the effectiveness of Sensor allocation by 50%.

Control (S)

Control is mostly your technical abilities in the various alphabet abilities; C3ISR etc etc. It covers both command and communication; essentially getting your orders where they need to in a timely manner. It does not necessarily make your troops more disciplined or more likely to follow orders, though a better OODA loop probably does mean your leaders will be giving a few less wrong orders. Tactically, every point of command provides a reroll to an unlucky dice. Strategically, it provides a hedge against orders being ignored or misunderstood by commanders and adds to espionage defence.

Stealth (S)

Stealth represents both doctrinal and technical dedication to avoiding detection. This ranges from techniques like burst communications and an emphasis on passive sensors to technologies like low probability of interceptor radars and radar-absorbing materials. Stealth's primary benefit is strategic, where it allows a certain amount of public movement to be concealed (this must be clarified in private orders), allowing 20% of the FP value assigned to be obscured or hidden (ships still require some amount of system mass assigned to Stealth to benefit). At Rank 5, people generally know what you're up to but never what you send to do it and at Rank 10 your concealment is so complete as to often even foil your allies.

Mobility (B)

Mobility represents the efficiency and performance of your propulsion systems, and doctrinal emphasis on agility and rapid deployment in ground combat. Mobility has two effects: tactically, it provides a single Maneuver per rank per engagement, so factions with 0 Mobility must simply accept fights at whatever range and tempo the opponent sets. Second, it divides all strategic distances by (rating +1), so a 2-week burn from Earth to Jupiter takes 1 week at Mobility 1, 5 days at Maneuver 2, etc.

Production (B)

Production represents efficiencies in unit production, interoperability of parts and economies of scale. Unlike the other Aptitudes, Production is straightforward. Every tier improves the output of Construction from any source (Supply Ships, built infrastructure, captured and converted shipyards, etc) by 10%.

Paths

Humanity has delved into the paranormal since before the dawn of spaceflight, practising theurgy and drawing on the names of long-forgotten gods to perform miracles, practising fortune telling, mind-reading and other minor feats. It was only well into mankind's first age of space colonization that these phenomenon became a verifiable scientific fact. Most forms of 'magic' draw on lower or higher planes, using sheer force of will to compel these alien energies to service the caster's will. With the warp storms disrupting FTL travel, the incidence of such individuals and their power has been steadily increasing, as have other forms of willworking such as sorcerous rituals, which turn the collective unconscious of the attendees into an ontological circuitboard to direct these arcane energies to the sorcerer's ends, and reality-defying artifice (so-called 'mad science').

Paths are the most common patterns for these practices, evoking specific behaviours. Each can furthermore be defined into Generalist and Specialist, the latter representing a thematic or elemental focus. Specialized Paths gain a +1 Rank or +33% effective Rank, whichever is higher.

The function of Magic Paths is further detailed in the magic section.

Life

The Path of Life is the primordial magic of humanity. For as long as humans have existed, there has been injury and disease and with that the prayers and herbal remedies of priests to cure it, the charms of wise women for good births and offerings to the gods for good harvests and fat cattle. While the technological god of industrialized agriculture and scientific medicine replaced these practices, they returned in force every time the light of civilization faded even a little.

To follow this Path is to control the stuff of life, healing injuries, commanding plagues and warping flesh with equal leisure.

Example Specialties

• Specific Organism
• Disease
• Transformation
• Mutation
• Healing

Example Combinations

• Mind: Second Wind
• Force: Superhuman Strength
• Matter: Create/Slay Cyborgs

Force

The Path of Force is the second-oldest magic. Warfare came about sometime after humanity separated from a single survivor band into many tribes and clades, their differences seemingly irreconcilable. For the tip of the spear to pierce flesh, the arrow to fly true, for lightning to strike dry August fields and steal away the enemy's harvest with fire, prayers onto gods of war and storms were often uttered. These miracles were eventually surpassed by the cannon, but the Long Night has seen the birth of new breeds of willworker who can surpass the greatest weapons with only their killing words.

Example Specialties

• Specific Force
• Destruction
• Protection
• Enhancement

Example Combinations

• Life: Bio-Lightning
• Matter: Create Exotic High-Energy Matter
• Space: Implosion

Mind

The Path of the Mind was developed as humans created more sophisticated societies. Language, images and stories became means to control and guide myriad human wills towards various purposes. Eras where individuality has been the dominant spirit in social organization have become rarer since mastery of the mind has been realized. Only the essential 'soul' remains unconquered by this discipline, should it truly exist.

Example Specialties

• Specific Organism
• Emotion
• Memory
• Control
• Insanity

Example Combinations

• Force: Telekinesis
• Life: Addiction
• Matter: Create Intelligent Constructs

Matter

The Path of Matter sprang into being as human civilization grew to truly staggering heights and people began to view the artifice around them with near-religious awe. Around that time, the ancient practice of alchemy became commonplace, as mystics attempted to transform common lead and other metals into noble substances such as gold. Now with the era of technological miracles long-passed, sorcerers aspire to recreate greater things than mere gold.

Example Specialties

• Specific Object or Material
• Constructs
• Reinforcement
• Reconstruction
• Transmutation

Example Combinations

• Life: Stone to Flesh/Flesh to Stone
• Space: Bag of Holding
• Force: (Magic) Missile

Space

The Path of Space was born when humans realized the terrifying vastness of the world they were born to. As civilization spread beyond a single city, and cities themselves became vast and divided by class, desire and yearning formed in the hearts of those first practitioners of the Path. Such innocent love is not the only conduit for the Path however, as the jealous gaze of paranormal stalkers and the covetous hoarding of sorcerers concealing their richest in long-forgotten pocket realms have fuelled equally great achievements.

Hate too drives innovation, for there is no greater yearning than the warrior who wishes his aim were only slightly more true the moment before he dies in battle.

Example Specialties

• Teleportation
• Scrying
• Propulsion
• Distortion
• Pocket Dimensions

Example Combinations

• Force: Affect Time
• Life: Enlarge/Shrink Life
• Matter: Enlarge/Shrink Object

Unique Technologies

Unique technologies are highly personal, situational bonuses that add flavor to the state. Each one is vetted by the GM but either adds a single use of a special action per single engagement, qualitative upgrades to ground or space units, a useful strategic action that can be used now and then or the equivalent to a +3 to a single Aptitude in a specific circumstance.

Example Unique Techs

• Anti-Beam Armor: Increased protection vs energy weapons only.
• Teleportation Packs: Ground units can teleport to the planetary surface without being contested by orbital defences.
• Psychic Bits: Energy-based Exotic Weaponry that has more ammo and all-range attack but can be destroyed by point-defense.
• Lightsabers: +3 Melee Weaponry for Mage/Superelite combo units only.

Step 4: Unit Design

Naval Units

From the smallest corvettes to the largest dreadnoughts, all ships in March Upon Sol are designed via the allocation system and BODS, which stands for 'Basic, Offensive, Defensive and Systems' as also described in the Aptitudes section, representing the four possible allocations for ship mass. When designing naval units, the size of the craft is based on their FP, with more FP equalling larger ships. 50% of the ship's FP is pre-assigned to structural and critical elements like reactors, engines, life support, point-defence screens and cargo space (the B in BODS) and the remaining FP can be divided between offence, defence and systems (the ODS). The effectiveness of these assignments corresponds to Aptitude ratings, as described in each section (i.e.: 10 points of Weaponry with 4 Weaponry Aptitude is equal to 20 points of basetech Weaponry), rounding up in the case of fractions. Certain allocations have special rules described in their own writeups.

Ships up to size 10 are bought in small groups called squadrons, which consist of four warships. Some of these warships may carry their own small (Size 0) vessels along with them, either because they're carriers or some form of omniship with its own fighter compliment.

Construction is done yearly, and unused construction points can be carried forward into subsequent years. A faction builds at its full construction up to its fleet support rating. Once it exceeds this rating, it's construction drops to 50% of normal. Once support is exceeded by more than double, all construction stops as all logistics shifts towards just barely keeping the lights on. Note that having more fleet than you can support is not recommended as it also causes spare parts shortages and a degradation of combat effectiveness.

Your starting fleet works just the same as ships built in game, but you have a number of points equal to your space fleet rating.

Construction Table

Fighters and fighter bombers, carrier launched aircraft. Cost: 0, if included in larger ships; Independent squadrons: 1

FTL capable single ships, Calions and large strategic bombers. Cost: 2

Very small combat starships: missile boats, torpedo boats or E-boats Cost: 4

Miniature multi-purpose combat starship: Corvettes or cutters Cost: 6

Small escorts: Modern Frigate. Cost: 8

Large escorts: Modern destroyers, Age of Sail Frigates Cost: 10

Medium Fleet Ship: a standard cruiser, a monitor Cost: 12

Heavy Fleet Ship: small ship of the line, heavy cruiser Cost: 14

Small Capital ship: Battle Cruiser/Fleet Carrier Cost: 16

Capital Ship: Battleship Cost: 18

Large Capital Ship: Super Carrier, Very large battleship Cost: 20

Very Large Capital Ship: Super dreadnought, Juggernaut Cost: 30

Mobile Base: Mother Carriers, City Ships Cost: 40

Battle Moons, Fortress Iserlohn. Cost: 200+

Allocation Types

Basic

• Structure: By default, 50% of the total FP cost of a ship must be pre-allocated to this type. This represents all of the essentials to make a ship space-worthy. If you start taking hits to Structure, people start dying and the engines go dark, very fast.
• Redundancy: Extra assignments to Redundancy give a ship extra resiliency. Not extra useful in combat, but can mean the difference between life and death when an anomaly pops and melts the bridge.
• Nacelles/Secondary Drives: Every 10% (or 1 FP, if the design is Size 14 or less) of FP assigned to Secondary Drives provides an additional Maneuver per engagement, and adds to the transit time reduction from the Mobility aptitude.

Offence

• Melee Weaponry: This represents everything from short-ranged laser bores, short-ranged batteries, to things like damaging plasma fields, ramming prows and boarding pods. Works best at Short range.
• Weaponry: Your bread and butter, consisting of any weapon that can engage at most ranges for the length of the battle.
• Exotic Weaponry: Highly damaging, limited-use weapons with additional nasty effects like shield-piercing, armor-piercing, radar disruption or setting off nuclear payloads in the ammo stores. Comes in two varieties:
  • Arrays: Fire once per engagement with the full force of your EW allocation. The Exotic Weapons aptitude bonus can either add extra shots per engagement (2 shots at EW2, 3 at EW4, etc) or extra damage (+50% per rank), choose one.
  • Batteries: Fire once per EW allocation, almost always hits harder than regular Weaponry. The Exotic Weapons aptitude bonus can either add extra shots per engagement (x2 shots at EW2, x3 at EW4, etc) or extra damage (+50% per rank), choose one.

Defence

• Armor: Absorbs hits before any other component is damaged.
• Shields: Provides damage mitigation before Armor and Structure are affected.
• ECM: Negates hits outright before damage mitigation and ablative HLs are burned through. Also provides some magical protection.

Systems

• Sensors: Provides a general bonus to surveys, science and other non-combat actions. Supports up to 10 points of Offensive allocation, reducing target numbers in combat and negating some ECM. Friendly ships in formation can picket for one another.
• Control: Allows the ship in question to benefit from the faction's Command (the Ranking) and Control (the Aptitude) benefits. By designating a flagship for a given group of naval units with Control allocation, it also allows for coordinated maneuvers, focused fire, screening and picketing. Extra Control allocation prevents your admiral from being sniped, sending the whole force into disarray.
• Stealth: Allows the ship to benefit from the faction's Stealth benefits. Minimum of 10% (or 1 FP, if the design is Size 14 or less) for full function.

Special Rules

Overengineering

Ships may be built with FP in excess of their apparent size. Basic FP must still be allocated as normal, but half of this surcharge is treated as Redundancy rather than Structure. For example a corvette overbuilt to 8 FP has 3 Structure and 1 Redundancy instead of 4 Structure. The cost for overengineering increases 100% every double of the apparent FP base, so a Corvette with 3 times the 'stuff' in it would cost a total of 4 times the Construction, 4x overengineering would cost 6 times, and so on.

Marine Ships

By default, Expeditionary Troops fly around in their own transports. Players may attach ground unit FP to warships and make them into landing ships, battle barges and the like. While this has the advantage of protecting vulnerable ground troops in transit, it prevents the ship from doing anything else but support and coordinate the ground force. If separated from their mothership, marine units of this type suffer serious maluses in performance.

Aerospace Craft

Fighter craft have a single BODS assignment on them to represent their specialization. Melee, Weaponry, Exotic Weaponry and Stealth are self-evident, while Armor, Redundency and Shields produce heavy fighters that hold up in combat but are only armed with point-defence. ECM, Sensors and Command make for EWACs planes. Finally, Additional Drives produces particular fast, fragile craft like interceptors. Aerospace units can be Overengineered as normal naval units.

Hangars (B)

By default, aerospace rules assume single flights of independently operating superfighters. For real carrier-based craft, ships may assign Hangar (B) allocations which house a single 1FP-fighter equivalent. While limited in their complexity, the likes of drone fighters, soldier cosmobees or cheaply nanofabricated craft crewed by disposable meatbags, their attached flights refresh (read: regen without being paid for) after the engagement as long as the carrier survived, making them a useful support to elites. Hangars are also mostly empty and tool-accessible, valuable real-estate for a variety of other missions.

Example Ships

Magmotor-class Corvette [Standard Corvette]: A hardy ship suited to this little dark age.

Size: 6

Cost: 6

3 Structure

1 Weaponry

2 Armor

Verizon-class Battleship [Overbuilt Heavy Battleship]: Mythic vessels from a by-gone era, when man first began to unearth the tombs of long-extinct races.

Size: 60 [Base 20]

Cost: 80

20 Structure

10 Redundancy

11 Weaponry [Dainslef Railgun]

3 Exotic Battery [Silencer Missile, 6 shots, does not break Stealth]

1 Exotic Array [Ragnarok Siege Railgun, 1 shot, ignores Armor]

2 Armor

3 Shields

1 ECM

3 Command

3 Sensors

3 Stealth

Cormorant-class Strike Cruiser [Marine Cruiser]: A vessel designed by a disgraced shipbuilder, the ship is various described as 'rotund', 'stately' and having too few bathrooms.

Size: 16

Cost: 16 +6

8 Structure

2 Weaponry [Plasma Macrobatteries]

2 Armor

2 Command

2 Sensors

3 Marines Squads [Superelites]

Ground Units

Ground units in March Upon Sol are relatively easy to design and come in 5 standard varieties. 2 troop FP provides one military unit, chosen from one of the options below.

Regulars

Size: ~Battalion

Ordinary men and women with mass produced equipment and enough training to be competent. Good for holding ground and necessary for taking it, at some costs.

Veterans:

Size: ~Company

The backbone of an army, consisting of experienced troops and specialists. Your do-anything types.

Elites

Size: ~Platoon

Special forces and recon troops, armed with the best equipment. Your go-anywhere types.

Armor

Size: ~Varies

Practically speaking armor can consist of anything from well-organized columns of MBTs to armored hover SPGs to battlemechs or 20-meter tall plasma spitting bugs, even cyborg tyrannosaurs with shoulder-mounted plasma chainguns. Good at breaking lines and defending clear, open terrain.

Mages

Size: ~Varies

Psi-corps erasure squads, mystical martial artists or sorcerous cabals leading throngs of pleading thrall-mages or even singular elite mages of exceptional power. In addition to being able to one-person death squads, they also allow for the use of big-M magic in engagements and provide options in non-combat scenarios.

Special Units

Superelites [Requires Kataphractoi]

Size: ~Squad

These superhumans are rarely trained, but made, often raised from birth or put through such tortuous processes as all hints of their previous selves are erased. Armed with the very finest gear possible (often to the detriment of the rank and file), these posthuman (or alien) warriors are unparalleled in their ferocity, resilience and determination but must be used as the tip of the spear as part of a larger campaign.

Aerospace

Size: ~Flight

Air units can supplement ground engagements. See naval rules for aerospace design.

Combination Units

While simple ground units provide plenty of utility to the aspiring commander, thirty-six thousand years of doctrinal evolution has yielded all manner of designs over the years, from sophisticated mechanized infantry to mutant war psychics led by a telepathic commander, or even combined aerospace warmechs capable of functioning equally well in space as on land. Combination units combine any two or more units desired into a single template. The cost scales additively after the first combination however, so 3-unit combinations cost 4 times the FP, and 4-unit combinations cost 7 times as much, and so on.

Combination units with aerospace components (representing troop gunships or transatmospheric mecha) can be paid for from any combination of ground or naval FP. For the sake of simplicity any Aerospace additions, including multiple stacking Aerospace allocations in the style of Overengineered craft described in the Naval section, are treated as an additional ground template for cost purposes. Combination units which incorporate aerospace may further forgo their landing craft support, halving their cost in exchange for bring particularly brittle in transit and being slower to repair without magic, unique technology or some sort of support ship or infrastructure present.

Example Combination Units:

• Terminators: [Superelites + Armor], Cost: 4FP
• Airmechs: [Armor + Aerospace (Additional Drives)]: Cost 4FP
• Sorcerer Lord: [Superelites + Mages], Cost: 4FP
• Mobile Infantry: [Veterans + Aerospace (Armor)]: Cost 4FP
• Necromancer w/ Zombie Horde: [Mage + Regulars + Regulars + Regulars + Regulars + Regulars]: Cost: 44FP
• WW2/Cold War Paratroopers: [Veterans + Aerospace (Redundancy), no Landing Ship]: Cost: 2FP

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Spend any GM freebies given, add some flavor text to units, prebuild any formations.

When designing any military unit, it's generally highly recommended (and looked upon favourably by the GM) to add a little blurb about what it is and what it does, and the perceived strengths and weaknesses of every unit. Not only does this make GMing a breeze, but it also adds a little unique flavor to each design!

Actions, Economy and the Action Economy

All action points provided by faction ranks are expended when assigned and last until the intended mission completes, or the player cancels it. After the action is assigned, the GM tells the player how long it will take and how much is already completed (usually just 1 turn by the time the initial report gets back). There are no refunds for stopping a mission half-way through.

Supply Ships and Infrastructure

Supply ships and built infrastructure can be structure arbitrarily. Outside of target consolidation and gateway travel, there is no difference between a 500-point supply ship and 500 1-point supply ships. The same goes for built or captured infrastructure. Extremely outdated, malfunctioning or DRM-locked infrastructure may occasionally have arbitrary limits set on its production. This is specific to the structure in question and will be outlined in the specific writeup. Players are encouraged to maintain an up-to-date ledger of their construction assets in the same manner as they have an up-to-date OOB, tracking their location and size as appropriate.

Free Actions

By default players can conduct most of the behaviours expected in a story debate: war, diplomacy, building new ships, securing new resources, etc. A player does not have to pay any points to attempt any of the actions listed in the subsections below, but will need some kind of a) clever plan b) significant resources assigned.

Command

Command represents the expedition's superb flag officers, their abilities as field commanders, administrators and project leaders. Command 'actions' are called Objectives.

The rewards for successful Command Objectives include things like newly discovered territory, decisive military wins, well-administered territory or the gratitude of others.

Example Command Objectives

• Lead an effective survey of a target region, chosen by planetary zone or a specific discovered location.
• Provide a force of units with a particularly skilled strategist, enhancing their effectiveness.
• Organize the political and economic restructuring of captured territory.
• Help train an ally's special forces.
• Enhance security during a peace conference.
• Conduct R&R to improve expedition morale.
• Root out spies and other infiltrators.

Logistics

Represents the expedition's engineers, quartermasters and other underappreciated problem-solvers. Logistics 'actions' are called Tasks.

The rewards for completed Logistics Tasks are very material: new infrastructure, new ships, new technology.

Example Logistics Tasks

• Conduct research as your various traits permit, increasing an Aptitude or Magic Path.
• Assist research, increasing the ratings of friendly states.
• Build infrastructure or other useful structures, which can be held by the expedition or given as a gift to a local power.
• Excavate ruins, looking for secrets or artifacts of power.
• Exploit resources, ensuring supply ships are highly productive.
• Lay down new ships. Yields are semi-random and depend on your baseline industry, access to resources.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is, of course, a measure of the expedition's diplomatic corps, merchants (if any), entertainers, as well as unsavoury contacts like fixers and smugglers. Diplomatic 'actions' are called Missions.

The rewards for well-executed Diplomatic Missions are usually useful intangibles like healthy relations with Sol powers, mutually beneficial trade deals or secrets obtained via intelligence.

Example Diplomatic Missions

• Perform diplomacy, understanding and befriending local powers.
• Decipher unknown language/teach language.
• Trade missions: put some resources or materiel up for grabs and see if that can be parleyed into useful supplies and connections.
• Conduct covert ops, create spies, obtain OSINT and horse trade with other schemers.
• Spread your incomprehensible space religion/adopt the local incomprehensible space religion.
• Put on a good show for the locals (nonviolent) to demonstrate the glory of your culture.
• Recruit volunteers to crew your ships and serve in your ground troops.
• Hire mercenaries. Semi-random, will have varying tech traits.

Travel Times

Major disruptions to FTL mean that all ships have to conduct normal burns between planetary bodies, stations and other places of interest. By default travel times assume a 'safe' .1G burn or equivalent. Factions with higher Mobility aptitude naturally can cut down on these times as described in the relevant section, as can relevant magics and unique techs.

Travel Time Table

• Inter-Inner System (Mercury <-> Mars): 2 Weeks
• Inner System to Belt or Jupiter: 3 Weeks
• Belt or Jupiter to Saturn: 3 Weeks
• Inter Jovian Space (Belt <-> Saturn): 4 Weeks
• Belt or Jupiter to Outer System (Uranus <-> Neptune): 5 Weeks
• Saturn to Outer System: 3 Weeks
• Inter-Outer System: 6 Weeks
• Outer System to Leviathan: 9 Weeks

Faster than Light (FTL) Travel

The ongoing calamity in much of the Milky Way prevents the cheap, easy faster-than-light travel that was the basis of previous eras of civilization. As a rule, FTL is now either expensive, dangerous or unreliable, though mercifully rarely all three at once.

When ships conduct FTL transit, they bypass travel times and instantly arrive at their destination. In the process they must pay ONE penalty, selected from below:

• 10% of the total FP mass being moved must be paid in unspent Supply.
• The flotilla must spend the entire bypassed transit time in an uncharted subdimension, during which it may be assaulted by unknowns and unknowables. If it survives, it arrives 'on time' at the desired destination.
• The flotilla must conduct a difficult Sensors + Control test to arrive at the correct destination. Failure could result in misjumps to hostile locations, damage or outright ship loss.

There are four exceptions to these rules:

• Recall Point powers can always move to and from their red dwarf star. They pay no costs or penalties to do so.
• Navigator powers only suffer one-quarter of their FTL hazard (i.e.: pay 2.5% mass to travel, spend 1/4 of time in dangerous subspace, have a 1/4 as hard navigation test).
• Gateways can be found throughout Sol, inert and unfueled but often repairable if the owner has a matched pair. They are always designed in pairs and allow any number of ships to move between locations for a lump sum (25 Supply per Size allowed, per year, i.e.: a gate that allows large battleships to pass would cost 500 per year to operate). Some gateways lead to far-off corners of the Oort Cloud, to places best forgotten...
• During periods of relative warp stability (i.e. when reinforcements arrive), FTL is even cheaper. It costs a mere 1% of FP in supply to transit, uncharted subspace is mostly harmless and navigation is trivial. Gates often flicker to life automatically, reactivating on reserve power.

Tactical teleportation is unaffected by these rules. If you're in orbit, you're basically there.

Combat

Combat backend is hidden. Players can provide orders to guide resolution, and certain traits provide additional benefits.

Combat takes place in STEPS as follows:

• STEP 1: Attacker and defender conduct recon. Objects in environment can be located (such as Soft/Hard Cover) or created via relevant effects. If the defender critically succeeds on recon and the attacker fails, skip to STEP 3 on the defender's preferred terms.
• STEP 2: Attacker declares their expected initial combat range (Close, Medium, Long) and attempt to engage at that band. This does not consume Maneuvers.
• STEP 3: Combat begins at the range chosen (success in STEP 2) by the attacker or the one favourable to the defender (failure).
• STEP 4: Both sides declare Maneuvers.
• STEP 5: Both sides then declare combat actions (shooting, deploying ECM, space magic, etc). All damage and other effects resolve simultaneously.
• STEP 6: Repeat from Step 4, Step 1 if a major disruptive event (nukes, space magic, etc) went off.

Assume the following:

• Melee is the best offensive aptitude at close combat.
• ECM is the best defensive aptitude in long-ranged combat.
• Sensors help to-hit numbers, reconnaissance and quality of ongoing combat intel.
• You always need some Control to benefit from complex tactics. For ground combat, landing ships provide intrinsic C3.
• Bigger targets are easier to hit.

By default combat ends by gentleman's agreement, when one side is able to withdraw, or when all but one side are completely defeated.

Maneuvers

By default, engagements begin and end at the location where the two (or more) participants locate one another. Players begin with a set number of Maneuvers per engagement equal to their Mobility aptitude, which can be expended to shift the spatial relationship between the combatants. Certain upgrades may provide additional Maneuvers. Maneuvers are resolved round by round before players take any other actions, in an auction, winner-take-all approach. If one player declares intent to Close Distance and another to Extend Range, both have to bid Maneuver points, with the most points contributed being the effective maneuver. For diametrically opposing movements (like Close Distance vs Extend Range), matching bids results in status quo.

If multiple groups are in combat, all movement actions relate to the nebulously defined battlespace rather than any specific player.

Example Maneuvers List:

• Close Distance: Move to Close range, increasing effectiveness of Melee and weakening ECM.
• Extend Range: Move to Long range, increasing effectiveness of ECM and weakening Melee.
• Use Soft Cover: Including debris fields, gas fields, etc, located during the initial recon phase. Increase difficulty to hit.
• Use Hard Cover: Includes megastructures, asteroids, anything much larger than the unit in question (includes particularly large ships). Limits what can hit the target to weapons logically capable of doing so (hyperpenetrating beams, missiles, etc).
• Screen: Make less damaged/tougher/cheaper ships take hits for more important ones.
• Combat Boarding: Hard to execute without a teleportarium or specialist troops, but potentially effective with high Melee. 'Locks' the affected ship to Close range.
• Delousing: If at Close range, attempt to shake off an ongoing boarding attempt by doing a high-G burn.
• Disengage: If at Long range, withdraw from a fight.
• The list of example maneuvers is not exhaustive, and are simple recommendations. Other actions may be allowed by unique technology or a clever plan.

When writing orders, players can specify where they want their ships to be and how many Maneuvers they can expend to get there. Additionally they can reserve Maneuvers for conditionals like Delousing, escape from unfavourable combat, etc.

Rerolls

Every point of Control provides a reroll, represent error-checking, good instincts and command experience among leadership.

When writing orders, players can either trust local commander initiative or specify what maneuvers they absolutely need to succeed (assigning X rerolls to it, for example).