Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus
'"Human behaviour is economic behaviour. The particulars may vary but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed has followed us to the stars and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse." Morgan Nwabudike, CEO of Planetary Resources Inc, 2155.
"What do I think of Earth? They're the skeletal grip of a corpse’s hand around eggs trying to hatch" James O'Neill, leader of the Ceres Coalition, 2192.
Mankind has made the leap to the stars, carrying all the baggage of five thousands years of history with them. As Earth emerges from a century of turmoil caused by the climate crisis it has reached out ever deeper into the outer system, exploiting the resources to feed it's starving industries.
Shrike has allowed me to use the rules he wrote for Nexus in this SD in a modified form. (10 years ago for another SD but i'll take it)
ALL NUMBERS ARE PLACEHOLDER.
Making A Sol Invictus nation
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 nation. Starts are not symmetrical, whilst Earth and Mars are not far off in capabilities, the belt is significantly weaker.
Choose a rank of nation to play and the spend the points they provide.
State of Play
- Rank 1: A smaller polity, located in the belt or beyond, 20 points
- Rank 2: An emerging Martian superpower, start with 40 points
- Rank 3: One of the Great Powers of the Old World, start with 50 points
Industrial Capacity
- Rank 1 (1 point): +100
- Rank 2 (2 points): +200
- Rank 3 (3 points): +300
- Rank 4 (4 points): +400
- Rank 5 (5 points): +500
Administrative Capacity
- Rank 1 (1 point): +100
- Rank 2 (2 points): +200
- Rank 3 (3 points): +300
- Rank 4 (4 points): +400
- Rank 5 (5 points): +500
Volatiles Resource Extraction
- Rank 1 (1 point): 1 node producing 100 volatiles
- Rank 2 (2 points): 2 node producing 200 volatiles
- Rank 3 (3 points): 3 node producing 400 volatiles
- Rank 4 (4 points): 4 node producing 400 volatiles
- Rank 5 (5 points): 5 node producing 500 volatiles
- Every Rank past 5 adds +1 node producing 100 volatiles
Metals Resource Extraction
- Rank 1 (1 point): 1 node producing 100 metals
- Rank 2 (2 points): 2 node producing 200 metals
- Rank 3 (3 points): 3 node producing 300 metals
- Rank 4 (4 points): 4 node producing 400 metals
- Rank 5 (5 points): 5 node producing 500 metals
- Every Rank past 5 adds +1 node producing 100 metals
Military
- Rank 1 (1 point): 100 military points
- Rank 2 (2 points): 200 military points
- Rank 3 (3 points): 300 military points
- Rank 4 (4 points): 400 military points
- Rank 5 (5 points): 500 military points
- Every Rank past 5 adds +100 military points
Starting Tech
Sol Invictus Economics
Capacities (Rules adapted from Berzerker Ruins 2 concept)
Capacities in Sol Invictus don’t represent specific amounts of currency or time. Rather, they measure the carrying power of an economy, the ability of the nation or group to maintain a certain amount of ‘nonproductive’ assets - like warships, army battalions, and gangs of intrepid explorers - at the specified level of taxation and government economic control.
Industrial Capacity (Industry)
Industry represents mining, factory work, and refined materials dedicated to the creation and upkeep of government assets. Industry is most heavily used in the context of large industrial projects; spaceships, fortresses, exploiting new Resource Nodes and Heavy planetary units typically require more Industry than Administration.
Each point of Industrial Capacity requires a point of volatiles and metals to fully function, otherwise its output is reduced to 25%.
Example: 100 Industrial Capacity without access to resources, would effectively only be worth 25.
Administrative Capacity (Administration)
Administration represents human time and labor spent in creating and maintaining government assets. Administration is most heavily used in the context of large bodies of people carrying out government-specified projects; research, forming Colonies on livable planets, and Light planetary units typically require more Administration than Industry.
Caps and Economic Growth Rates
Capacities are defined by a numerical cap and a growth rate, expressed as a percentage. The cap defines the maximum value of that resource that can be expended at any given time; the growth rate defines the percentage by which the cap will increase at the beginning of each consecutive year.
Example: Space Romania is a small nation, with a limited population but significant heavy industry. It currently has an Industry cap of 500 and an Administration cap of 300; this means that, at the current time, Space Romania can only have units and structures worth up to 500 Industry and 300 Administration in play. It is not allowed to exceed those values, and if it does the player will be required to eliminate units until it falls back under both caps.
Fortunately, Space Romania has a growth rate of 8% in both Industry and Administration, so at the start of next year, its Industry cap will increase to 540 and its Administration cap will increase to 324.
Resources
Terrestrial resource extraction is no longer competitive with extra-terrestrial sources and the industries of both Earth and Mars are mostly reliant on resource extraction from the belt.
Metals
From Iron to Palladium, there are a variety of metals required for industrial production.
Volatiles
Volatiles include helium, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and other gaseous or organic compounds, vital for production of fuels and the maintenance of space based industries.
Resource Nodes
Resource nodes are locations where resources can be mined or manufactured. Resource nodes require both industrial capacity and administrative capacity to be explioted.
A Resource Node is a location where a Resource can be mined or manufactured. Resource Nodes are either bought during nation generation - in which case they exist in your home system - or discovered through exploration. In order to generate and use the Resource associated with the Node, it must be 1. discovered, and 2. exploited. Exploiting a Resource Node requires industrial capacity to bring online and then administrative capacity to maintain.
These points represent physically extant resources; they must be transported through space, can be stockpiled over multiple years, and are spent individually. Importantly, they can also be stolen. If pirates or privateers interdict the line of travel between a Resource Node and your homeworld, then the resources being sent back for your use may be raided away. Consider deploying naval assets to protect your resource convoys.