[CrystalMud] Unfinished Specification

OK, folks, this is the (unfinished) specification for CrystalMud I
promised to have posted by today; suggestions are /more/ than welcome,
they're desired and actively solicited.

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                              CrystalMud
              (Blood and Intrigue in a Far-Future World)

The year: 3481.

The place: Planet X-56-Ymp6, known as "Kateline" to the local systems.

The substance: The rare ore, Bizarium, used by the Empire of Aleera in certain
rare and obscure industrial processes. Despite the relative
rarity of the processes, however, in a Galaxy-spanning Empire, there
exists an enormous rapacity for such a thing.

The players: The Imperium is not only controlled by Noble Houses, but also by
the Emperor and a widely diverse group of megacorporations, each with the
resources and power of what used to be planetary assemblies. And luckily so,
because the Imperium controlls the greatest power in the Galaxy; not that of
transportation, but
/communication/.  Only the Empire's tele-psis can effectively disperse
information from one side of the Empire to the other. The Noble Houses control
the hearts and minds of the people. The megacorps control the industrial and
material supplies of the entire economy. On such tripods are balances
constructed.

The reason: On Kateline, as in most other matters, the Empire has used devious
foresight to achieve the most gain for the least investment. Invitations went
out to the megacorps, inviting them to stake a claim on the planet and hold
it, trading the Bizarium they mine for funds to continue the process, expand
their holdings and supplies, hopefully with a large enough profit margin to
make the investors happy. Of course, the Imperium has made very clear that as
long as the profit comes pouring out of the planet, what happens on the
surface is none of their concern.

========================================================================
=

On CrystalMud (hereafter abbreviated to CM), the players will each play a dual
role. Their primary role is as an emmisary from a mining corporation who has
staked a claim on the planet Kateline, residing on the orbiting space station
FreeZone, where the deals are made and unmade and intrigue can crop up at any
moment. Secondarily, they each represent tactical expertise that each
corporation can make use of when fighting erupts on the planet below; each
player then becomes a participant in a tactical game of tanks, hover sleds and
mecha fighting it out on the surface, amongst the terrain and the mines.

On FreeZone, each player will generate a character using the OVER THE EDGE RPG
mechanics; these characters will be representing various factions and forces
from throughout the Aleeran Imperium. They might be rogue psis representing
Imperial interests or trying to avoid the Imperial eye. They could be rough
and tumble military experts from Hazelar, with a gleam in their eye at the
thought of destroying rivals once more in combat. They might be lean and
whimsical members of the Noble Houses, overseeing (or serving) the interests
of their House in the affairs of a corporation that is based in their domain.
They could be part of a megacorp's Diplomatic Corps, on FreeZone to negotiate
the contracts that make or break profit and loss.

[The one faction that Players cannot be a member of is the Empire of
Aleera; those posts are reserved for the Administration and specially picked
proxies. (Besides, the Empire is merely buying and selling on Kateline...
aren't they?)]

This might be a sample character:

===
Alix Rhodes, Megacorp (The Quantum Event Company) Mining Expert

Bizarium Mining, 4 dice, (Sign: wears mining guild pin on left lapel): Alix
was educated in the finest Terran academic facilities by TQEC in order to
oversee mining operations in remote places. Kateline is perfect. Alix is
familliar with most fields of mining operations and specializes in the
extraction and refinement of Bizarium crystals.

Imperial History, 3 dice, (Sign: occasionally makes references to `old
Imperial stardates'): Before his collegiate career, Alix was intrigued by the
Imperial development. He is very familliar with the old
records that speak of pre-Imperial society.

House Acklan's Geneology, 1 die, (Sign: bears the sigil of House Acklan
tattoo'd in his left wrist): Since birth Alix was told he was 376,635th in
line to the ascendency of House Acklan (the Noble House which rules Alix's
home system). Eventually, he dug through all the old records to find out for
himself.

Flaw: Bookworm, (Sign: almost unhealthy pallor): Since he has been immersed in
books and education most of his life, Alix takes a penalty die to most
strenuous activity (ie. a quick fistfight wouldn't count, but running from one
side of the station to the other world as would a
knock-down drag-out of more than three or four Turns).
===

Each of the megacorps vying for mining sites on the surface below is assumed
to have brought and continuously be brought standard, basic supplies; food,
water, basic mechanical repairs are all assumed to be either provided for by
the home corp or through mining other ores and refining them on Kateline for
base survival. Only extensive repairs, adding new facilities and buying
military hardware are required expenditures, and the only coin of that realm
are the loads of Bizarium crystals that the megacorps can trade to the Empire.

When players first start on CrystalMud, they are assumed to group together in
threes and fours and then apply for a Company to be created in their names.
Each Company will be checked to make sure each of them have a Char Sheet (for
FreeZone), and then they are allocated a mine and a value in Bizarium to buy
their basic equipment with; its suggested that they purchase a number of cargo
vehicles (of whatever type they like) in order to transport the crystal from
the
mine to the Launcher, the immense orbital-velocity railgun built to
send loads of specially marked Bizarium-containers into orbit for
pickup. Launchers are shared by multiple mines (and thus, companies,
usually), though the Empire enforces a strict no-fire/no-agression
zone around the site. Sometimes, however, a corp will take the risk of being
caught to disable or destroy another corp's cargo of crystal. Repercussions
vary, from a simple fine to the intervention of Imperial Legionnaires. [This
is an excellent opportunity to `arrange' for the Empire to be looking the
other way, or to bring charges of sabotage against another corp in FreeZone.]

[There will be a fair number of additions to the DIRTSIDE II rules
which haven't all been felt out yet. One of the major ones will be to
linearly scale the movement-type multipliers so that one can buy
vehicles that are less than maximally efficent. Why invest in a fast tank when
you are fighting a defensive entrenchment? On the other
hand, it won't do much good to protect your convoy of slow-wheeled
cargo trucks.]

One typical cargo truck follows:

Standard low-speed cargo transport:

Equipment Item VSP: BVP Spc Cost
V-3                 15 : 0       15    15
  [MEDIUM sized truck]
A-0                 15 : 15      15    15
  [Soft-skinned vehicle, no armour]
P-CFE               15 : 15      15    18
  [Chemically fueled, good ol' internal combustion]
APSW-1              15 : 15      15    18
  [.50cal electric cannon mounted on the top of the cab]
M-LMW               15 : 15      15    20
  [Slow, in order to keep costs down; does best on roads]

TOTAL:		    15 : 15	 15    20
  [Can carry up to 3 "loads" of Bizarium, at 4 Spc/Load]

Or, for more expense one can have a vehicle that is a little better protected
and better maneuvering:

Half-track cargo transport:

Equipment Item VSP: BVP Spc Cost
V-3                 15 : 0       15    15
  [Again, MEDIUM sized]
A-1                 15 : 18      15    18
  [Light ceramoplate armour]
P-CFE               15 : 18      15    22
M-ST                15 : 18      15    26
  [Slow-tracked, gives superior off-road capability]

TOTAL:		    15 : 18	 15    26
  [3x loads Bizarium]

Now, if you really want to pour the money into a transport with high mobility
over clear terrain:

High-speed hover transport:

Equipment Item VSP: BVP Spc Cost
V-3                 15 : 0       15    15
  [MEDIUM]
A-0                 15 : 15      15    15
  [Unarmoured, we don't need that kind of cost increase]
P-HMT               15 : 15      15    21
  [We want to go /zip/ by anyone that gets in our way, so the fast GEV
requires that we go to HMT]
M-FGEV              15 : 15      15    30
  [Fast GEV]

TOTAL:		    15 : 15	 15    30
  [3x loads Bizarium]

And for the /ultimate/ in cargo transport over rough terrain:

Hex-legged cargo transport:

Equipment Item VSP: BVP Spc Cost
V-2                 10 : 0       10    10
  [SMALL frame, representing the rather spindly nature of the beast]
A-0                 10 : 10      10    10
  [No armour, like most of the other transport elements]
P-FGP               10 : 10      10    16
  [Necessary for walker-movement]
ST-1                10 : 10      10    56
  [Cutting down the signature through changing the slope of the
   transport and adding some occlusion electronics is /expensive/]
M-TW                10 : 10      10    64
  [Transport Walker; you can carry cargo through anything]

TOTAL:		    10 : 10	 10    64
  [2x loads of Bizarium]

The typical sort of thing one could be assured of seeing closely escorting
cargo convoys might be:

Low-speed Escort Tank:

Equipment Item VSP: BVP Spc Cost
V-2                 10 : 0       10    10
  [SMALL frame, to keep signature down]
A-1                 10 : 12      10    12
  [1pt Armour to keep small-arms fire off]
MW-1xSLAM/3-PT      10 : 12       1    48
  [SLAM rocket pod in 180o firing turret for effective fire at range
and close]
P-CFE               10 : 12       1    50
  [Internal Combustion to keep costs down]
APSW-1              10 : 12       1    50
  [Anti-personel electric cannon]
FCON-B              10 : 12       1    56
  [BASIC FireCon]
M-ST                10 : 12       1    58
  [Slow-tracked movement, to go off-road if necessary]

TOTAL:		    10 : 12	  1    58

A standard convoy Unit might have the following Elements:

   3x Standard low-speed cargo transports
   2x Low-speed Escort Tanks

A typical Combat Group involving a convoy in transit might include:

2x Standard Convoy Units
   2x High-Speed Flanker Units
   1x CCC Unit