[GZG] Requesting a little help with a background (Revolt on Antares!)

7 posts · Mar 7 2009 to Mar 9 2009

Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 19:00:08 -0500

Subject: [GZG] Requesting a little help with a background (Revolt on Antares!)

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I think I mentioned when I first joined this list, one of the things that got
me to pull the trigger on the great GZG 15mm stuff was a desire to emulate the
old TSR minigame "Revolt on Antares." I'm not going to go
really in-depth in expanding the wonderfully sketchy background listed
in that game's teeny rulebook, but I would like to have a brief explanation of
what went down for my gaming buddies who've graciously agreed to run some of
these games with me. And there lies my problem... I've got one big plot issue
that I need to make sure I've got a good solid reason for, and I'd like to
bounce it off you all. Basically, the original game presumes a few basic
things:

1) Planet with stone-age indigenes and a few Precursor/Progenitor-style
relics is colonized by Earthlings; these original colonists eventually
stabilize into a seven large feudal houses (presumably centered around control
of these artifacts, as each house gets one in the original game) whose rulers
all have wierd psi powers (NB: this is why I love stuff from this era of
gaming!)

2) Overall rule of Terran space is in the hands of the traditional crumbling
Terran Empire; on Antares 9 the representative of the Empire (the Terran
Consul) has military forces with higher tech than the locals; the Terran
detachment is probably between 1.5-2x as strong as any single house

3) At the start of play, some of the colonial Houses rise up in revolt against
Terran authority; the indigenes and the other houses throw in with the Terrans

4) minor amounts of reinforcement can come in throughout the game, in the
form of off-planet mercs or a rather nebulously-defined process of
replacing a factions original chits (the locals can replace about 80% of their
troops over the game, the Terrans have enough to completely replace their
losses once)

Now, here's my mental block: I'm trying to figure out a backstory to explain
why the Terrans (crumbling empire or not) don't just smother the planet with
reinforcements (we assume no orbital bombardment for a seperate handwave,
although I could work it into the big explanation too). I've been working on a
few ideas, I'll throw them out here, but I could really use some feedback on
what I've got, or new ideas as well. The game (with the exception of the
recruited mercs, and the variant game where aliens invade) is all planetbound,
so there's no real explanation about how interstellar travel works in the
setting. Ideas:

1) mass interstellar travel requires some sort of stargate/wormhole
thing; control over this network is what makes the Empire the Empire. The
question is why don't the Terrans just swarm through this thing... 1a)
assuming the above, the Terran Consul pulls the plug on the gate. I need help
with a solid reason why he'd do this, however, as it seems to me
he's got more to gain by keeping it open for reinforcements/retreat.
Maybe the Empire is so weak that the rebellion would spread like wildfire?
Maybe the gates all share a main hub, and it's SOP that if a world goes
renegade the consul has to pull it out of the web so they don't rampage all
over the place? 1b) again assuming the above about interstellar travel, the
Rebels blow up the gate to prevent Impy reinforcements. More straightforward,
but it presumes a certain degree of incompetence on the part of the Consul,
which I'm not sure I like

Both of these have the benefit of allowing a big, plot-important moment;
either when the Terran Consul solemnly invokes his vow and disentangles the
quantum kajiggers that run the thing, or when the rebels bravely nuke the
thing

2) travel is by some more 'traditional' 80's sci-fi warp or jump drives,
with travel times to Antares being prohibitive, or at least long enough to be
less of a military consideration and more of a 'what do we do in a
century if/when the Terran reinforcements arrive.'  The mercs are all
local
to this part of space and have been doing spot-work on the unstable
planet
already, so when full-on war breaks out they're all in orbit taking bids
via radio. The downside of this one is that there's no big 'OMG' moment; the
upside is that it's probably more faithful to the 80's vibe of the setting.

Thoughts/feedback - again, either on these ideas, or if you've got some
oddball notion of your own. Again, I'm not trying to write a whole entire
background (not yet, at least), but I'd like to have the big picture figured
out so that if I gin up a campaign setting out of this it will be at least
internally consistent. Thanks in advance!

From: John Tailby <john_tailby@x...>

Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2009 15:18:46 +1100 (EST)