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| Celistic Concept Art by Maxim Revin |
The pace of the first faction turn, with only one day separating each action from the next, worked fine to kick off the campaign but was never going to be sustainable in the long run. It didn't make sense with the game mechanics—Capital Fleets conceivably could bounce around the map going six hexes in a few days—and it would've meant a flood of background news too fast for the players to keep up with. Plus, it was a little too rigid.
My solution: roll a d4 after each faction's move and have that many days pass before the next one. A full faction turn now takes at least 12 and as many as 30 days, with an average of 21. It seemed, when I decided on this, that big cycles of astro-political events lasting about three weeks would work well with the pace of play; the PCs could make a whole 10-day interstellar voyage and not arrive at their destination feeling that history had passed them by while they cruised (or hurtled, or howled) through metaspace. As it happened, BQ's superlative piloting skills ended up drastically shortening the PCs' travel times, but this pace has worked nicely nevertheless.
So what's been happening across the Sector while the PCs cut a swath of criminal mayhem and destruction rude behavior and disorderly conduct across the Commonwealth of Free Worlds? (Consult this handy-dandy map as an aide-memoire.)
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I rolled for faction order and my d4-day gaps in between actions for the second turn. The dice decreed that the Morrovian Milieu would act first (followed by a one-day break), then the Commonwealth (plus three days), the New Terran Empire (plus one day), the Aureus Meridian (plus two days), the Kyran Directory (plus three days), and finally Seneschal Systems (plus a four-day break until the beginning of turn three). A 20-day turn, pretty close to the anticipated average.
The Milieu's starting goal was Inside Enemy Territory: “Have a number of stealthed assets on worlds with other planetary governments equal to your Cunning score.” (Their Secretive tag gives all of their assets stealth, so this seemed like a layup.) Accordingly, they choose to use their existing assets' abilities. Their new Harvesters gain them one extra FacCred (on top of their base income of three), and their Freighter Contract comes home to Morrow. They now have three stealthed assets in the Betharan system; when the Commonwealth accomplish their goal of annexing the planet, the Milieu will immediately be 75% of the way toward their own goal. If they buy a fourth asset next turn, they'll have all their ducks in a row—it seems like the leading families of the Milieu are unanimously betting on accommodating themselves to regime change rather than maneuvering to keep Morrow independent.
The Commonwealth draw their substantial income, including a little extra from Party Machines, and pay the burdensome maintenance on their mighty Capital Fleets. They too will use their assets, moving Capital Fleets and Tripwire Cells to Betharan (paying a FacCred for the latter with Extended Theater) and the slower Space Marines to Usil. At the end of the next turn, Morrow will join the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth will have achieved their faction goal. The players witness these movements firsthand, as Commonwealth warships head toward Morrow and begin establishing a defensive perimeter and intelligence operations, but they get a short news bulletin too:
In regional news, IPBC reports that advance elements of the Commonwealth Militia Navy are on their way to Betharan alongside representatives from the Ministry of External Relations. The task force, led by the battlecruisers Justice and Unity, will assess the security situation in the system and establish a formal embassy with the Pan-Morrovian Government as the process of Morrow's accession to the Commonwealth begins.
Next door to Betharan, in Penrose, the NTE find themselves in a precarious situation. Their Blockade Fleets don't have enough strength to knock out the Meridian's Demagogues, and those Demagogues and the Lawyers working alongside them pose a serious threat to the Fleets. Discretion, the NTE commander decides, is the better part of valor; the Blockade Fleets pull back to Arktos (Postech Industry in Tovuz also delivers an extra FacCred to the faction). These developments are days old at this point in the campaign—the PCs are on Opis, preparing to loot Nana Malik's country house—but because they took place three systems distant, the news is still a couple days away:
The latest development in the Penrose Crisis indicates a temporary lull in the violence, but portends a serious escalation to come: NTE forces have withdrawn from the system, returning to their bases in Arktos. They cite an untenable security situation on Temenos and the hostility of the “puppet regime” on Delphi, claiming that agents of the Meridian have launched an “undeclared war” against the Empire and vowing to respond in kind. Munda and Juma will reportedly move to a war footing, with the Archon promising to bolster the fleet and “root out the terrorists and saboteurs who infest Penrose.”
The Meridian's position in Penrose, by contrast, looks strong; they decide to press their advantage against the NTE, using their Covert Transit Net to move Psychic Assassins from Mondrian to Arktos in pursuit of the retreating Blockade Fleets. The NTE's Pirates faction tag imposes a one-FacCred tax on this movement; presumably, the Meridian's special operatives have arrived incognito via “smugglers and gray-market freighter captains,” but the latter still had to pay the usual fees and duties on whatever their registered cargo was. This, of course, would not seem to be newsworthy.
The Directory are nearly unassailable on their own territory (at least so long as the Commonwealth's Capital Fleets don't get involved), now have overwhelming superiority over Seneschal in Istanu, and even have a pretext for taking action against them—however thin a pretext “their Commodities Brokers tried to get our Lobbyists pushed out of Penrose” might be. They have everything to gain by attacking, and very little to lose…so they attack, and we finally have some real action on this turn. Kyran Venture Capital drops the Seneschal Base of Influence to three hit points, and the Directory's Strike Fleets easily finish it off, destroying the BoI and dealing a punishing 15 points of damage to the Seneschal faction (this brings the Directory one-sixth of the way to their goal).
What does an attack by Venture Capital and Strike Fleets on an undefended BoI look like? There are probably a few different ways to explain it, or at least a few different ways to order the events, but I think what makes the most sense is an all-out economic, legal, and administrative attack on Seneschal's operations and local subsidiaries—a wave of hostile takeovers, essentially—followed by an “anti-terror” campaign to knock out whatever actual (minor) military assets Seneschal had in the system and any locals sympathetic to Seneschal or hostile to their new Kyran overlords. As with events in Penrose, this has already happened by the time the PCs roll out into the hills beyond Sokhna, but the news is a few days away from Usil:
Conflicting stories are emerging from the Istanu system.
Per AKN, a number of Salafaian enterprises heretofore controlled by Khabaran corporations were recently acquired, in a routine and legal manner, by a Magonian venture-capital outfit; upon taking possession of these companies' operations, however, the new owners were reportedly subjected to a campaign of sabotage, intimidation, and terror by Khabaran mercenaries and stay-behind elements of Seneschal's security division. Local forces of the Kyran Armada had no choice but to intervene and disperse these hostile operatives in order to safeguard the life and property of the civilian population. The Directory's highest local authority, Lord Proprietor Ibrahim Smith of Seven Miracles Station, issued a statement condemning the violence. “Cloak-and-dagger operations carried out by private security contractors may be business as usual on Khabara,” he said, “but they will not be tolerated within the Directory's sphere of influence.”
In contrast, Durian News+ reports that the contested acquisitions—a coordinated wave of hostile takeovers—were illegal under Khabaran law; the Magonian “corporate raiders” acted surreptitiously via straw buyers who were not properly registered as agents of a foreign power. In accordance with the law and the directives of their supervisors, the staff of the enterprises in question refused to turn over their assets and operations. Far from being directed at criminals or saboteurs, the intervention by the Kyran Armada was to force the hands of these employees, who were merely fulfilling their duties to their rightful parent companies. The Khabaran Corporate Council decries the “brazen treachery” of the Armada and “repudiates any attempt by the Kyran Directory to extend its so-called sphere of influence into Istanu.”
Seneschal are in a tricky position. The wolves are suddenly at the door, right next to their home system, but their outlying Bases of Influence represent a major liability. Losing either the BoI on Mosylon or the one in Penrose would be fatal, causing the entire faction to collapse. There's nothing to do about Mosylon other than remain on the Commonwealth's good side; it seems improbable that the Directory or any other hostile faction would be able to march all the way across Commonwealth space without meeting lethal resistance. Penrose, though, is a real hornet's nest. If Seneschal pull their Commodities Brokers back to Khabara to shore up the homeworld's defenses, its Penrose BoI is at the mercy of the other factions. The Directory's Lobbyists can't damage it, but what if the Meridian pivot from their skirmish with the NTE to kick Seneschal while they're down?
Seneschal don't have a lot of firepower at home—only the Counterintel Units are even capable of attacking or counterattacking—but they do have a lot of hit points the Kyrans would have to chew through to get at the main BoI, giving Seneschal time to raise more combat units. The company decides to hold its ground in Penrose; rather than launching a preemptive attack on the Meridian, the Commodities Brokers will try again to knock out the Kyran Lobbyists. This time, they succeed handily (this brings Seneschal one-fifth of the way to their goal). This news will arrive several days behind the previous two reports (it actually hasn't even happened yet while the PCs are in Sohkna):
The violence in Penrose has abated, at least for the time being, but the war of words continues. Reversing a position it had defended in official statements just two weeks ago, the Delphean regime abruptly expelled all lobbyists representing Kyran corporations, including representatives of AKHI itself, from Mosa City. Shortly thereafter, Mariam Demir, the Armorers' Company delegate to the Temenoan Guild Council, voted to break the Council's weeks-long deadlock on the same matter: Kyran representatives will no longer be welcome at Council chambers. Spokespersons for Seneschal Systems and the New Terran Empire welcomed this development; the Kyran Directory lodged a protest regarding the “unfair and unequal” treatment of its representatives in comparison to those of Khabaran enterprises, while Eparch Yun Saeed, the Aureus Meridian's highest-ranking cleric on Delphi, blasted the “naked graft” they claim has set these developments in motion.
And that does it for the second faction turn. The third will kick off on the 24th, but the PCs have a bunch of adventuring to do (or I have a bunch to recap, anyway) before we get there.
* * *
Amid all the faction news, I also dropped in some other items. Some were related to the PCs' backstories, some were related to the crew's jobs (or potential future work), and others were just a little set dressing. This one, for instance, which I actually shared while the PCs were still on Morrow, was mostly establishing info to set the scene on Opis, but it also related to events on Morrow and introduced the Commonwealth's legislature to the players (which might soon be relevant, given that they're about to loot an MPA's house):
Opis: PMG has received word that, following the successful evacuation of Faraskur earlier this week, debate in the Popular Assembly has turned once again to the matter of emigration. MPAs from the New Workers' Party and the Opisian Brotherhood have jointly proposed a fixed timetable for evacuating settlements in Red and Orange zones, arguing that a proactive strategy will be safer and ultimately more economical than waiting to respond to catastrophes like the Faraskur ashfall. Representatives from all four independent Rustamese parties and Jewel of Kazina spoke in opposition. Unity Party MPAs have yet not indicated their position. Other topics up for debate in the CPA in recent days have included the annexation of Morrow, in favor of which a consensus seems to be forming, and a formal end to the century-old State of Emergency, with MPAs from various minority parties still bitterly divided about whether the post-Emergency Militia should be reconstituted as a standing military, reduced in size, disbanded entirely, or otherwise.
This one, delivered around the same time, was basically pure fluff:
On Khabara, the Trilune Journal reports that public-relations agencies Zephyr and OSG have released dramatically divergent statements regarding the recent violence in Rio Claro. Zephyr claims that an accident at a Vaalbara Chemicals laboratory led to the release of an experimental gaseous psychoactive agent, driving several hundred Vaalbara employees and otherwise uninvolved civilians temporarily violently insane. OSG counters that the damage to the Vaalbara lab was the result of an attack by operatives from an unidentified PMC, and that most or all of the subsequent civilian casualties in the district were incurred by these mercenaries as they effected their escape from Vaalbara security by laying down a “reckless” volume of suppressive fire. A spokesperson for the KWC Bureau of Investigation promised a swift, unbiased investigation into these claims.
Amid the faction news above came some “Hey, remember that stuff you did a few sessions ago? It's still important!” reminders, plus a reference to an NPC from Mustang's past who might become important to the PCs way, way in the future:
In a public broadcast from their capital, Narawad, the Sylvan government calls on Prince Armand of Konyr to lay down arms. “The recognition of the People's Republic of Konyr by the Provisional Pan-Morrovian Government, and the recent invitation from the Commonwealth for the PPMG to form a permanent federal state and ratify the Commonwealth Charter,” says Narawad, “make it clear that the so-called Principality of Konyr is an illegitimate government, and furthermore that the continuance of the royalist insurrection threatens the stability and long-term prosperity of the entire planet.” The Sylvans invite Armand to abdicate, offer assurances of full amnesty for him and his enlisted troops, and guarantee fair trials to those of his officers accused of crimes and atrocities during the recent fighting. If he does not surrender, they warn, “it may be incumbent on the Republic of Sylva to conduct a police action to disperse the insurrectionists” in advance of the anticipated Pan-Morrovian Constitutional Convention.
In lighter news, from Alzuhr: Mere weeks after the conclusion of their grueling five-planet Avalanche of Annihilation tour, Kingsley is back in the studio working on the follow-up to Interred in Hyperborean Permafrost. Industry watchers hint at conflict in Kingsley's camp, however, with their producers pushing for them to double down on the melodic sound of smash hit “Crypts of Eternal Winter,” whereas the legendarily temperamental artist is reportedly determined to return to the grittier, more challenging sound of earlier albums like Banners on the Horizon and Cimmerian Desolation.
This was all probably a little too much, a little too fast, but I do think the players got a few things out of it, and it's all fun to write (reading these bulletins aloud in an old-timey newscaster voice helps on both counts). Slowing the pace of news alerts in sessions past this point in the campaign has helped them absorb a bit more of the worldbuilding and factional-conflict stuff, I think.
