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EmperorGrimm

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Intrigue Of The Stars

Hello and welcome to Intrigue Of The Stars my political simulation set in a space opera setting and inspired by such games as Destiny Of The Republic and Power To The People. The game starts on August 9th, 2089 in a space opera universe based on subspace physics which is the source of our science and technology. In our alternative history the space race between the United States and Soviet Union accelerated with the discovery the subspace particle in the 1980s reigniting the fires driving the Cold War. The Space Age saw hundreds of colonies spring up through out the Solar System aligned with either the Northern Hemispheric Treaty Organization or Moscow Pact on Earth. Increased tensions led to the Solar War which devastated humankind and ended the old order. In its place rose the technocratic Federation Of Sol which unified humanity under a technocratic republic.

Intrigue Of the Stars follows the course that the Federation Of Sol takes in entering the interstellar age. The game mechanics are partially inspired by previously mentioned games but will not be attached to an actual video game. Players will create a character according to the guidelines below and will have influence in the game measured by Political Power (PP). Every player will choose a class corresponding to a population type of our civilization which determines how you acquire political power and how your character fits into the greater scheme of things. Your orders requires a certain amount of PP and will determine the course of the game and history of humankind if successful.

OOC communication will take place entirely on the coldfront.net room designated Cosmos_Primary.

IRC Channel: Coming Soon

Link: Coldfront
Channel: #Cosmos_Primary
Instructions:
1) Use the link provided above.
2) Choose the Flash app or the Java app.
3) Create a screen name; it’s recommended that you use your forum name, if available.
4) Close the #coldfront channel that opens automatically.
5) In the command box, type “/join #Cosmos_Primary” without the quotation marks.
6) You’re in the chat! Welcome!

The rules and other guidance for the game will be posted below.

Its never too late to join!
 
Rules Of The Game

Respect and Maturity

We all have taken events that come to past with these games personally at some point and in fact perhaps the perpetrators of disrespect did so purposefully. If this is the case I will personally see to it that these players are expelled from the game. If you have any issues with players or myself shoot me a PM or talk to me in the IRC channel instead of instigating conflict IC or midst the other players.

We’re all on here to have fun and it is important in facilitating our fun to have respect for one another and to be mature human beings who can accept that certain ambitions and orders did not play out as expected. We’re capable of handling personal disputes with self-control without allowing it to spill over into the actual game.

Finally remember that we all must adhere to the rules of the forum no matter what.


Classes And Political Power

Will you be a corporatist seeking to manipulate the political system to enrich yourself and your shareholders? Perhaps you’re member of the technocratic bureaucracy having earned legitimacy by rebuilding human civilization and now seek to continue your work as humankind expands into space. Or maybe you see a future thats radically different than the status quo and will attempt to ignite a grassroots movement to overthrow the current order. No matter what you decide to be you will be an influential member of Solarian civilization.

The government of the Federation is divided between the Assembly Of Technocrats and the Assembly Of Proles. You’re not expected to be part of either one but can be a member of one of them if you wish. Political Power represents how much you can sway votes in the two assemblies but in general if these assemblies come to not exist your political power will represent your sway on the ruling elites whoever that may be. Your political power is what truly influences the society and it might come to past that being a member of the government may be detrimental to your PP!

So with that established lets talk about the different classes you can choose from. There are six classes, Corporatist, Technocrat, Militarist, Prole Leader, Demagogue, and Culturalist. As you can see some of them closely correspond with the classes in Power To The People but there’s some original classes as well. Each class has Individual Powers which can be exercised by individual characters while Collective Powers must be exercised by more than one character in coordination or possibly by collective agreement of the entire class.

Classes split a pool of Political Power equally between one another based on certain modifiers for the whole of the Federation. So for example if you’re a Corporatist then a Private Sector score of 50 means that 2 corporatist characters will receive 25 each or if there’s 5 corporatist characters then 10 PP will be given to each character.

Character creation must follow these guidelines.

Name: Captain James T Kirk
Born: April 10th, 2051
Class: Militarist
Background: Born in a refugee colony on Mars to American parents who were part of the technocratic government. Excelled at the Naval Academy at Robinson City before receiving a commission as a lieutenant in the Solarian fleet. Assisted at the suppression of prole laborers in the asteroid belt. Supports the current government.

There are some restrictions on your characters. First, you cannot have multiple characters. Second, your characters must keep to the same class for at least 20 years in game time. Third, no anime characters or characters that do not resemble somebody who would live in our setting. There are no aristocrats in this setting, at least not yet and definitely not from the past. Fourth, you may not have a character that is the emperor of Pluto or somebody absurd.

Many prominent figures will be played by me until players take over top leadership positions.


Voting And Elections

Let me explain the basic system of governance in the Federation. The Assembly Of Technocrats (Upper Assembly) represents the bureaucratic system that manages the Federation. They are the governors, ministers, and what not of the state. The President of the Federation can only be elected from the Assembly Of Technocrats. The Assembly Of Proles (Lower Assembly) represent the rest of the population but cannot hold state offices and positions right now.

Both assemblies must approve legislation by a simple majority vote or in game terms, the side with the most Political Power will win votes and policy decisions. Technocrats are approved to be members of their respective assembly by a majority vote of approval by the Assembly Of Technocrats. Prole representatives are elected by a majority vote of the population of their respective administration. These elections to induct new members occur every ten years in game time for technocrats and every 5 years of game time for proles.

The President Of The Federation is elected every 3 years by the Assembly Of Technocrats from their own ranks.

I will make sure you all know when an election is coming up and any other necessary information when the time comes.


The President and the Government

The Federation is a technocratic republic meaning that technocrats hold the majority of the power although proles must also approve most legislation. The leader of the Federation is the President who is Commander-in-Chief of the military and represents the entire Federation in diplomatic situations. He/she must also approve legislation and proposals after both assemblies give their approval. Traditionally the president sets long term goals for the FoS and attempts to promote their vision alongside a budget to the assemblies.

The Assembly Of Technocrats is the legislative body of the technocratic bureaucrats that manage the projects and affairs of the Federation. They are governors, ministers, diplomats, and so forth. To be considered to join the assembly you must be a technocrat with many accomplishments, loyal, and someone of good character. Officially technocrats cannot belong to political parties but there is factionalism.

The Assembly Of Proles is the legislative body for the prole masses, also known as “the people”. They cannot serve in the government as they have not earned citizenship but must approve all legislation by the same rules of the technocrats. They are typically leaders of labor unions, owners of corporations, community organizers, or representatives of some ethnic or political party. Any class outside of Technocrat and Militarists can be part of the Assembly Of Proles.

The government may have players active in it but ultimately it acts on its own and has the power to introduce new taxes, declare wars, regulate the economy, and everything else a government typically does.

The Revolution System

Once again thank you to Thunderhawk for a wonder system to appropriate to my game.

The revolution system is how players can overthrow the entire political and social system of human civilization. Quite simply there will be a Revolution Threshold which determines how much Political Power your character and class as a while requires to initiate a revolution. Once a revolution is declared by a class or character they must state what they wish to replace the old system with before I implement the appropriate changes.

If more than one class or character declares a revolution then a civil war will occur between those classes. If the revolution threshold falls to zero then we will exist in a state of anarchy which is highly unlikely but possible.


Election Cycles

Just to go into a bit more detail after what was explained above. When the time comes for an election respective factions and political parties will publicly declare their intention to run for offices and to gain seats.

Each faction/political party must nominate a spokesman who will be responsible for posting candidates and platforms before the elections begin.
 
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Government Types

Technocratic Republic: political offices and positions can only be held by technocrats, the population however is democratically represented with some legislative power, +50% PP to technocrats and prole leaders

Technocratic Fascism: technocrats hold total power, no voting, +100% PP to technocrats

Interstellar Democracy: all classes have equal voting power and can hold political office, all policies and elections are determined by a mass vote of all the players and people altogether, +100% PP to all classes

Meritocratic Republic: a republican system exists but only citizens can be members of the government, citizenship is earned not given at birth, +20% PP to all classes

Interstellar Republic: a legislature exists with any class able to be elected as a representative, +50% PP to all classes

Corporate Oligarchy: rule by corporations, no voting, +100% to corporatist incomes and PP

Despotism: rule by a single individual through sheer force, -100% PP to all classes except militarists

Imperium: unlike a despotism the Imperium is essentially a feudalist system ruled by a hereditary monarchy. -100% PP to all non-ruling classes

Constitutional Monarchy:

Class Types

There are several classes to choose from in Precipice Of The Cosmos. Remember that your characters must stay as the same class for 20 consecutive years in game time.

The formula i’ll be using to determine Political Power (PP) is (base political power + constant bonuses - constant penalties). Simpler than in Power to the People but I think it’ll work fine as some mechanics will be different of course.

I. Corporatists

Corporatists are wealthy individuals who control a corporation and own large businesses like a mining company in an asteroid belt or a space elevator. In this era corporations are very powerful but the central government has been able to maintain a balance with them. Are opposed ideologically by all other classes. Has a separate stat representing monetary wealth and every corporatist starts off with 100,000,000 platinum. Corporatist power will fluctuate depending on the success of the Technocratsin governing.

Base Political Power: Is split equally between corporatist characters. Determined by the total Private Sector score.

Individual Powers:

Capitalism: With your money you can start new private enterprises or buy ones that already exist. Since there’s no Victoria 2 game to tell you what you can actually build or buy that will be left up to you to provide IC which I will approve if I find it acceptable for the setting and realistic. With platinum you can build or buy companies increasing the overall Private Sector score. You can also buy PP at a rate of (10,000,000 platinum = 1 PP - Private Sector score as a %). You can also receive platinum and PP for being successful with your actions.

If a corporatist goes bankrupt their character can borrow platinum to restart their corporate empire or be killed off after five years game time.

Collective Power:

Mega-Incorporation: Corporatists may join together their corporations into megacorporations the great wielders of private power in the interstellar age. This will combine PP and financial resources together into one pool with the characters possessing equal power in the arrangement. A Corporate Chairman may be elected by the involved characters to represent the megacorporation and who is empowered to utilize the resources of the megacorp without a vote of some sort. CCs can be removed by a majority vote at any time but cannot halt any legitimate orders made by the CC beforehand.

Penalties: For every piece of social reform the corporatists loses 10% of their PP with a minimum of 50%. If a Meritocratic Republic is formed corporatist PP minimum is lowered to 0%.

II. Technocrats

Technocrats are part of the bureaucracy of the polity who manage the projects and programs designed and executed by the state. They are obsessed with efficiency and believe in the legitimacy of the current system of governance. They serve as governors, diplomats, and are elected to political office. Their power fluctuates based on the success the Federation has in governing.

Base Political Power: Technocrats equally split PP based on the (Public Sector score + # of developed worlds * as a % bonus of 10% equal to 1 developed world + diplomatic score)

Individual Powers:

Meritocracy: Technocrats are members of the society that have accomplished great things and succeeded in scientific or public projects. Their high level of talent means that when they succeed at actions they gain an additional 10% PP for successful orders when using Meritocracy.

Collective Powers:

Great Leap Forward: This can be used toward a great project by a collection of technocrats which if successful will garner a 50% bonus to typical PP gains for that specific order/action.

Penalties: The failure of actions gives an addition -10% PP.

III. Militarists

Militarists are military leaders who are officially detached from the political struggles of the society. They organize the defense of the polity, lead armies and fleets into battle, and conduct the wars of the polity. Their political power is attached to the military and its successes and failures.

Base Political Power: Militarists split political power equally based off the Federation’s military score.

Individual Abilities:

Military Commission: This allows a militarist to become a commissioned officer in the Federation’s military. Note that you cannot commission yourself higher than a Colonel or Captain initially and must earn rank from accumulated Prestige from victories. You can also receive penalties toward prestige through defeats.

Collective Abilities:

Fear Mongering: Militarists if the majority of them support this action can instigate war fervor within all classes which increases the militancy of the population by up to 50% meaning that support for a war is increased.

Penalties: For every point of war exhaustion the PP of militarists decreases by 10% to a minimum of 0%.

IV. Prole Leaders

Prole Leaders are the leaders of the Prole Assemblies which represent the interests of the prole underclass who rely on government rations if they can’t find regular work. In this age advanced robotics are replacing prole labor rapidly and the political power of the prole class is diminishing.

Base Political Power: (500,000,000 population equals 1 PP +)(# of colonies * 10 = %)

Individual Abilities:

Demonstration: A demonstration is the organization of proles together to protest against a piece of legislation or any other actions they don't agree with. Increases prole discontent by 20%.

Collective Abilities:

Establish Party: this allows more than one prole leader to establish a political party pooling their PP together in all party based actions

Penalties: see government types and reform effects

V. Demagogues

Demagogues are rabble rousers, charismatic revolutionaries, and agitating populists. Their fortunes are tied to national discontent which gives them PP so that they can initiate changes from the ground up.

Base Political Power: demagogues split equally PP equal to Prole Discontent

Individual Abilities:

Charismatic Speech - this allows you to give a charismatic speech that moves the people, +20% PP if speech is successful

Collective Abilities:

Form Rebel Group - this allowed more than one demagogue to form a rebel group opposed to the ruling class, this makes the demagogues involved military leaders of sort and their armies accumulate half the normal rate of war exhaustion which is equal to prole discontent initially.

Penalties: Demagogues cannot participate in the government or the military, see reform effects, militancy dictates the limit of their PP despite the base political power formula

VI. Culturalists

These characters do not often involve themselves in politics directly but initiates culture movements like new religions, art movements, writes books on philosophy or fiction.

Base Political Power: 1 PP per 100,000,000 pop

Individual Abilities

Masterpiece - this can be a novel, book of philosophy, or piece of art that increase prole discontent by 20%, also sees a 10% gain of PP for 30 years if successful

Collective Abilities

Aesthetic Movement - more than one culturalist can initiate a culture movement which can be centered around art, philosophy, or literature, +50% PP for 10 years every year, increases prole discontent by 50%

Penalties - cannot serve in the government, if prole discontent goes below 20% then no PP can be earned until it goes over that threshold
 
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Interesting premise! I'll likely join in.

I'd like to suggest the option to build a career in colonial government, working towards independence.
 
I agree with Deghaidh on all points. I think I would play as a Corporatist myself.

I do have a few questions.

Penalties: For every piece of legislation passed by the Federation the Corporatists political power diminishes by 10% to a minimum of 50%.

Shouldn't this penalty only apply to legislation that harms Corporatists power directly (certain products being considered controlled/banned, or corporate taxes being increased)? It would be strange if Corporatists got the Federation to lower corporate taxes, or create laws opening up words for colonizing, and then be nailed 10% in PP for doing so. In addition, unless you plan on legislation being very difficult to pass, I think the hit for legislation should be changed from 10% to 5% to allow everyone more time to act.

My second question is that based on your current setup, corporations would be allowed to create and fund one or more parities in the Assembly of Proles, would they not? If so, how would would this be balanced?

EDIT: At this stage, are we allow to make characters?
 
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If this takes off, I'd consider culturalist. Seems to fit me. Also, I think LordMicheal has a point. Any law hurting corporatists wouldn't make much sense, should only be certain ones that would impact them, like regulations and the like, no?
 
Civilization Modifiers

Private Sector Score: represents the strength of the free markets
Public Sector Score: represents the strength of federally regulated/controlled markets
Diplomatic Score: represents the efficiency of our diplomats and our reputation with foreign entities
Militancy: represents the willingness of the general population to go to war
Prole Discontent: represents the disillusionment of the general population toward the society and government, if this stat is high enough demagogue and culturalist actions will earn more PP per action
Population: 12,500,000,000 sentients (12.5 POP/0.1 POP = 100,000,000)

Political Reform Effects

Upper Assembly

Upper Assembly represents how legislators in the upper assembly are selected.

Ruling Class/Party Only: only the class/party that is in power can serve in the government.

Appointed: selected by the leader of the government

By Administration: Five are elected from each administration.

By Population: this will merge the upper and lower houses together forming a unicameral legislature, ten are elected per 1,000,000 population.

Franchise

The Franchise determines who can vote for government officials.

Ruling Class: only the class in power can vote

Meritocratic: only individuals who have earned citizenship can vote

Universal: anybody can vote

Disenfranchisement: nobody can vote, usually under a despotism

Public Meetings

Not Allowed - Demonstrations can be broken up at reduced cost by the government, political parties are not allowed

Allowed - breaking up demonstrations increase’s prole discontent by 20%, political parties allowed

Press Rights

Represents the freedom of the press.

State Press - Prole Discontent reduced by 20% permanently, classes not in power have penalties against political orders

Censored Press - Prole Discontent reduced by 10% perm, classes not in power have penalties against political orders

Free Press - normal prole discontent and order success

Xenosophont Policy

Represents how alien populations are treated within the Federation.

Exterminate - all alien population is eradicated as quickly as possible

Second Class - aliens are allowed to live but do not possess full rights

Full Acceptance - aliens are accepted and given the same rights as humans according to the prevailing social hierarchy

Mass Deportation - aliens are allowed to live but must leave the Federation

Path To Citizenship

Earned - one must serve the ruling class to receive citizenship

Universal - all are citizens

Prole Unions

Illegal - unions can be broken up at reduced cost and prole leaders have a 20% perm reduction to every PP gain

State Controlled - only certain unions favored by the state can exist, 10% perm reduction to every PP gain

All Allowed - no PP penalties for prole leaders, if a union is broken Prole Discontent increases by 30%

Social Reform Effects

Sentient Evolution

This represents how sentients evolve over time.

Forced Engineering - all pop are subject to genetic and mechanical augmentation to the will of the ruling class, +30% PP to ruling class

Self-Determination - individuals can choose to be augmented, +30% PP to all classes

Economic Philosophy

Free Market - little to no regulations, people are responsible for their own economic welfare, +30% PP to all classes, +50% PP to Corporatists

Mixed Economy - there is a balance of regulation and market freedom, welfare programs exist but are not universal, +15% PP, +25% PP to Corporatists

Communist - centralized command economy, +50% PP to prole leaders, - 100% to Corporatist

Cultural Dynamism

Restricted By State - culture is regulated and controlled by the state, -50% PP for demagogues, -25% PP for all other classes outside the ruling class

Limited Regulation - culture is mostly free but certain ideas are suppressed, -25% PP for demagogues, -10% PP for non-ruling classes

Free Development - culture is not regulated or controlled by the state

Diplomatic Stance

Isolationist - rejects contact with foreign entities, -100% diplomatic score, +50% PP for Militarists

Xenophobic - maintains diplomatic relations but does not sign agreements with foreign entities, -50% diplomatic score, +20% PP for Militarists

Open To Dialogue - normal, open acceptance of foreign contact
 
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Arend Van de Velde
Demagogue
Born: 12/24/2069


Arend Van de Velde was born to Dutch parents in 2069 in the city of New Amsterdam, on the planet known as Mars. As Arend was growing up, his father taught him how to read, and the first book he read was the Communist Manifesto. Arend's parents often said that 'The Technocrats are capitalistic scum, who value nothing but money'. Aren'ds mother, a talented public speaker, taught him how to make good speeches, and how to inspire people. Arend left home at the age of twenty, for the capital of the Federation to work as a welder at the New Gene Factory. After his boss smashed one of his worker's hands for no reason, Arend finally saw how flawed the Federation was. He left the New Gene Factory and rented out a tenant apartment in the slums of the Federation capital. Arend asked some of his friends from the New Gene Factory if they wanted to organize a discussion board, and they agreed. Before long, four dozen people were regularly showing up at Arend's meetings, so he established the Socialist Worker's Union, a communist party dedicated to building a better future for the working class.



confederation_of_nations_flag_by_rvbomally-d5kiyh5.png


The Socialist Worker's Union
Chairman: Arend Van de Velde
Deputy Chairman: Thomas O'Neil (NPC)
Representative of the People: Volodya Peshkov (NPC)​
 
Looks like we, the Corporatists, are going to have to bury the Communists under piles of money.

On a most serious note: EmperorGrimm, it seems like you're going to have one or more alien species involved in this game as well. If that's the case, how are you going to simulate all of that? If all the players are going to be in one area, then to throw in multiple alien races seems like that's going to be a lot of work. Story wise, is the reason the game starts on August 9th, 2089 because humanity meets aliens for the first time?
 
Reserving a spot.
hipster-beard-styles.jpg

Name: Dirk van Oranje-Nassau
Born: October 13th, 2060
Place of Birth : Royal Palace,New Amsterdam,New Netherlands, Mars colony
Position : CEO of GEC
Class: Corporatists
Background:


Dirk was raised as the grandson of King William-Alexander of the Netherlands, his father being the yougest child and only son of the King.He lived his first few years in great wealth, worthy of one of such noble blood as his.He graduated in Economy and Geography, being inspired by the terraforming and colonisation of the solar system.In 2085,he started, funded with loans and his own personal royal fortune, his Terraforming company Garden of Eden Creation .In 4 years, he quickly came to dominate the business, and now has a monopoly on Terraforming.He is eager , as companies as Apple, Google , and Microsoft before him, to expand his business to other markets.


Garden of Eden Creation Co
png-gec1.png
 
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Never took part in a game on the forum but it sure looks interesting :)

I'll reserve this post for later. I think I'm going to play a demagogue or culturalist, don't really know which one yet.
 
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Name: Thomas O'Neil; Deputy Chairman of The Socialist Worker's Union.
Born: 7th November, 2055.
Class: Leader of the Proletariat
Background: Born in the city of old Glasgow in what used to be the Scottish Republic, he first found out about the wave of new "Euro-socialists" <sidenote> Eurosocialism which developed during the 2nd Eurozone crisis of 2019, when 4 socialist governments in the south ( Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal ) All simultaneously declared themselves socialist states and nationalised all foreign and private assets, during this era various new forms of government were tried out and experimented with, this started the "4th phase of socialism", the first 3 begin: French Utopians/Revolutionaries, Marxism and Lenin and the Soviet model.</sidenote> Although he did not find about them 'till the Riots of '72 all over the British Isles; where the people protested about corporate exploitation and the rapid mechanisation of labour, which both were direct affronts to Marx's ideals. He was sentenced to five years hard labour on Mars, however one thing the government did not realise was his oratory skills and soon there was a rebellion. He now leads a rebel group known Simply as "The Red Faction".

latest

The Red Faction: Equality or Revolution.
 
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images
Name: Victor R. Layman, CEO of Infinity Solutions
Born: June 2nd, 2059 (Age: 30)
Class: Corporatists
Background: Victor R. Layman became the fourth CEO of Infinity Solutions one week ago with the death of his father Baxter Layman on August 2nd. Even though Victor is one of the youngest, if not the youngest CEO of a major corporation in the Federation at the present time, he has worked at Infinity Solutions at a variety of management positions for the last seven years and was trained to take over control of the company since he was young.

Victor is married to his wife Catherine, and has two children. The oldest is his five year-old son Michael; the youngest is his one year-old daughter Leia.



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Infinity Solutions

Infinity Solutions was founded in 1980, before the groundbreaking scientific breakthrough that would allow feasible space colonization, by Alexander Scott Layman; Victor R. Layman’s great-grandfather. Infinity Solutions began as nothing more than a company that provided business advice to help solve the increasing complex problems businesses faced as a result of the modern world. A decade later, Alexander Scott Layman would see a chance to break into the rapidly growing space industry.

In 1990, Alexander spent every dollar he earned to become one of several dozen investors in a space elevator project. Through shrewd business tactics, Alexander obtained a majority stake in the space elevator by 1994. This allowed him to remove the remaining stakeholders via a vote and gain the entirety of the space elevator, and all its profits, for himself. Alexander then merged the separate space elevator project into his original company, Infinity Solutions. By the time of Alexander Scott Layman’s retirement as CEO of Infinity Solutions in 2005, the company owned and operated seven different space elevators on Earth. Alexander’s successors would rapidly increase the number of space elevators owned and operated by the company, spreading them on every inhabited planet in the solar system, in addition to countless numbers of moons.

As the Infinity Solutions reaches its 109th birthday, the company has not only become the largest owner of space elevators, by far, in the Federation, but also a real estate magnet interested in controlling and renting out the valuable land that surrounds the space elevators it operates. Infinity Solutions still provides business planning as a nod to its past, of course that line of work is nowhere near as profitable as the space elevator industry. In addition, Infinity Solutions entered the space station construction industry twenty years ago. The company accepts contracts for the construction of any type of space station be it for civilian occupancy, scientific research, or military bases.
 
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