Archive through July 16, 2020
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board:
New Scenarios:
Orion Pirate Captain's Campaign:
Archive through July 16, 2020
Well, I will leave you guys to develop what you will. NOTE: I AM NOT TRYING TO SHUT YOU DOWN, I AM JUST LEAVING YOU TO WORK ON WHAT YOU HAVE TO SEE IF ANYTHING COMES OF IT.
I will honestly say that I am, personally, unimpressed with the concept as so far presented, and I, personally, would not play the campaign. But as there seems to be some support for it I am willing to let it be developed and see if we can get someone to playtest it. Just because I do not like it does not mean that I am right, only that I, personally, do not like the concept.
I will not be ignoring the topic, just avoiding commenting because I want to give you guys the chance to see if you can put something together.
David, I understand your point, but I wouldnt want to delete any of the listed scenarios unless there was a consensus that it is unbalanced.
I also want to point out that we need to fix up an economic system that is easy to use and understand that can be used for several purposes.
for example, what if 1 econ point=1 repair point (to repair 1 single engine box)=cargo box equals 1 BPV?
say that the "lease" for the initial LR is 1 econ point, until the pirate captain "buys out the mortgage" which is the total BPV of the LR.
Then, once the LR is "owned outright", it can be used as collateral in the purchase of a larger ship (or even towards the purchase of a second LR?)
If we go with such a system, then the point of the campaign is to "show a profit" by the capture and liquidation of cargo and sucessful completion of the other scenarios for "the payoff".
SPP is correct that a Small freighter captain wont want to play a duel against a LR captain ... but the Orion Captain must capture cargo to pay the mortgae else the cartels collectors will try to collect the past due mortage from the Orion pirate captain... with presumably fatal results.
The reason I am pulling for the small freighter encounters, is that a LR has such a small cargo capacity, that even if he has completed all of the 12 random encounters, at 1 Econ points for each cargo box will result in only 36 econ points...yet if the "lease" on the LR is 1 econ point, the total lease payment total 25 [points). (assuming each of the scenarios above is 1 month apart, and the mortgage is due every month...) the "profit" over the payments amounts to 9 econ points... which means some combination of 9 repairs, or 2 1/2 half replacement admin shuttles (at 2 Econ points per shuttle) or new Drone purchases of advanced types results in breaking even... neither profit or loss.
the Pirate captain must complete as many scenarios as profitably as he can or he will quickly find himself behind on the lease payments, repairs or having to not buy drones or replacement shuttles etc.
Heck, given the costs of ships (in BPV's) the Orion Captain needs to hit the "jack pot" at some point...
It might even get to the point where ne must attack a F-L with a LR knowing he might be out matched... as going back to the pirate base without the necessary cash is certain to have fatal results.
Jeff Wile:
Please do not misquote me. I said a small freighter captain would not want to tangle with a CA.
I have tangled with LRs in a small freighter, dependent on whether or not I could try to hold out for help, and whether or not the Orion had to function as a true pirate (avoid damage and get the loot) or not (Blow the Freighter to pieces, declare victory, and leave even if he had to double the engines two or three times to do it and collected not one scrap of cargo).
An LR that wants to avoid spending credits (i.e., not burning his engine boxes) is a far different thing than an LR that has no past, and no future.
By definition the demand for a "civilian morale check" is already there, i.e., if the player who is playing the civilian unit thinks he has no chance he will quit playing. And as noted, that is one of the flaws I see in Jeff Wile's scheme, he pretty much is setting it up that in most cases the Orion's Opponent has lost before the game begins (small freighter as target of CA), and thus has no reason to play. (And I would not care to play such a scenario as an Orion CA, knocking over one small freighter with a CA is massive overkill, the target of a CA is a Convoy with some sort of escort, and still a need to get out of dodge before the Fleet Heavy Cruiser arrives to rescue the convoy. If you set it up so the Orion has unlimited time to rob the freighter, there is no point in playing, game over.)
As to freighter self-destruction, I thought it obvious that the campaign would have to have a rule that did not allow Freighters to Self-Destruct. There is ample precedent in other scenarios for such things. Freighters should hold out if there is a reasonable expectation of rescue (accounted for in my campaign design that I again apologize that I lost), and thus the only scenarios involving them are the cases where such was possible. There is otherwise NO POINT in having a scenario where an Orion has an unlimited amount of time to loot a freighter. Given an unlimited amount of time even a Light Raider can take out most small freighters without taking damage. The RISK comes in the press of time. Take that out, and there is no risk.
Jeff: There are two issues to answer before getting to the nitty gritty of what scenarios each pirate should face:
- Are you representing EVERY encounter the pirate has this (month/year/week), or only those ones 'worth resolving with SFB'? If the former, you do need an economic system which has mortgage payments and so on, and you are probably going to have lots of boring scenarios to play.
If the latter, you can abstract out many things by saying 'You've covered the mortgage and other ship costs with your raids on isolated, friendless small freighters. We don't play those. THESE scenarios are high risk/high reward actions where you are earning the costs of repairs, new weapons or ship upgrades. Not every pirate engages in these high risk scenarios. Not every pirate succeeds when he does...'
- The second question is how many scenarios should the pirate play before 'upgrading'? 3? 6? 12? That will enable you to set the 'BPV per cargo box' exchange rate.
P.S. One idea for using your tables with different pirate ships might be 'For an LR roll for one freighter. For a CR roll for two. For a BR roll for three and again on the escort table' (or whatever makes sense). Forgive me if this is already present in your ideas, and I missed it.
David Crew, in essence, I think you have identified the issue that SPP and I were/are wrestling over...
I am not suggesting that the pirates have to play out every possible encounter... I am suggesting that it is unrealistic for anyone to expect that only "worth while encounters" will happen exactly on whatever schedule SPP or MCG or who ever wants to have happen.
In a sense, Orion Pirates are like hunters, seeking to make a "kill".
What the Pirates encounter is going to be limited to what's "out there"... not what is ideal for SPP's CA or MCG's Double Raider.
I'm sure that the "hunters" want the best kinds of kills (say in the real world, a better trophy is a 14 point Buck than a 10 pointer) but if the hunter passses up those tragets that are "too small" or "not right" in some manner, he eventually runs the risk of not getting anything at all.
A Pirate has to make a judgement call as to what target to hit... and if he doesnt hit any targets, he is not making any money... and he needs money to pay off his creditors, his crew and the cartel.
An Orion Pirate Captain who doesn't make mony is going to get replaced (eventually...) by one who produces.
P.S. I appreciate your suggestion about making the number of rolls dependent ont he size of the pirate ships.
I dont know if it is reasonable, (I'm, sure SPP or SPP will tell us one way or the other...
) but we could certainly ammend the tables with such a modification.
Again, I'm not claiming that I have presented a perfect solution, just making some ideas and maybe we can patch together something that will work.
Jeff
Ever thought of adding the "intellegence" gathering process to all of this. Say a Pirate is at base or just at one of those neutral places where the flotsam and Jetsam of space gather.
He decides to find out what rumors are about, he uses some of his economic points (I say use these because that is what the game is based on) to get "Rumors" on trade routes and ship manifests. The more he spends the more he gets.
Now he has a better chance to pick up the good cargo he needs to pay bill. What are he chances the rumors are false and will lead him into a trap?????? Well I guess he finds that out.
Part of this can also be obtaining patrol schedules for local coppers and which escorts are going with what freighters.
Can put a new wrinkle in what you are doing.
Well, I had considered some of those things, but decided that the "KISS" principle was more important... keep it simple is important since (as was noted earlier) every additional layer of rules and modifications makes it more complicated, and hence ends up with something not very much fun to play with.
I think that is what makes Petricks original concept so attractive, the use of a deck of playing cards to simulate a number of different factors in one finite set of options (the 53 playing cards, with the joker included.)
If we could combine the "public knowledge" part (say with the table that shows what is publicly known) the cards, (depending on how we determine what the values and the suits represent) could be used to simulate the "truth" from the "fiction".
The question we want to be in every Orion Pirates mind is "which one of those contacts is a Q ship? which one is the Armed Variant? do I really want to board a Small Freighter only to find out the sucker is a transport and now we have the 833rd Federation Marine Battalion coming aboard to to play pattycake with the captains ears?
Ok, I have picked up module R11, and find that (per rule R1.68, in year 165, just 10% of the freighters had a skid (or more than 1 skid) of one type or another. (that information was also in Captains Log#23, just repeated in module R11).
That changes some of what I was thinking about this topic.
So, lets look at this again with some changes... lets say the Year of this scenario is set in year 165, (since that is the clearest set of numbers available to us).
Lets further state that we don't use a table as I proposed.
Lets just use a deck of 52 playing cards plus a joker.
If we set up a system as SPP did originally, and add a different table to represent the potential skid types and other encounters.
for example, When a player Orion Captain seeks to determine what his target is, he flips a card.
That card determines what the hull type is.
The results can be a '1' (or an 'ace') to a king, or a Joker. What we need to do, is determin what the enounters represent, say Ace to 4 is a small freighter, 5 to 8 Larger Freighter, 9 & 10 a Free Trader, Jacks are APT, Queens are a small or Large Civilian Cruiser liner, and a King is a Fed Express.
Lets then say that the second card flip (unless it is a joker that represents a Q ship or armed ship variant) deterines if there is a Skid or duck tail or skid present. 1 card out of 52 represents about 0.0192307...so if we use results of 'Ace' to 5, that would represent about 9.6% (close to the 10% magic number were looking for (if we use 1 to 6 that amounts to just under 12%, which is too much).
if a skid is indicated, we could determine the chances of encountering any given skid or duck tail by a third card flip.
I propose that (for this discussion) that if there is a Skid indicated, that 90% would be either a General Skid or a LASH skid (see Captains log#23 page 11.) 10% chance of some other skid (as published in module R11).
We could do this by the simple expedient of saying (for the third card flip, any result of 'Ace' to 6 is a General Skid, 7 to Queen is a LASH skid, and any King is some other type skid (pick from list in module R11.)
for the Duck tail, we could determine a similar kind of process using the suits, (rather than force a fourth card flip.
Lets say there is a 50% chance of any ship equipped with a skid will have a duck tail also present. that means (in general) that if the suit is a Spade or Club, no duck tail present, and if it is a red suit(heart or diamond) there is a duck tail.
With three such card flips, we can determine the ship type, and the presence of of a duck tail and skid combo.
We can add other ideas like Reids Hidden knowledge with another card flip, and this approach would eliminate David Crews concern about having to generate ALL potential encounters for a specified time and region of space.
comments?
Hey Jeff remember there are 4 of each card so 1-6 equals about 48%.
I would suggest 1-5 of spades just under 10%
Reid, I'm open to suggestions, I look as this a as a "work in process".
I do not know what the chances of having any specific kind of ship type appearing is, so what I have posted needs to be taken with a grain of salt... there simply isnt the kind of data base available to point to for an example.
is the chance of any given encounter being a small freighter? heck if I know what it would be.
Same with large freighters, APTs Fed Express boats or luxury liners.
And the heck of it is, the chances change as you move to different regions, based on trade routes, populations and commerce.
I gues what we need is a serise of charts that indicate what each "card Flip" represents in a series of such "card Flips".
Say the first is the ship type hull.
the second determines if there is a Skid/duck tail combination on the ship, the third determines what that skid duct tail combination is.
The revealing of a Joker indicates "surprise!" its a Q ship (and the Orion pirate captains day just got a whole lot worse!). May be that should be the 4th card flip... one more chance to show a Joker, and we then determine in detail if some other specialty ship was found (say a troop ship) or a repair ship or prison barge (waste of time unless the Orion pirate captain is going "recruiting" for volunteers?!?)
Lots of stuff we could do if we want to.
The problem is to fit it together in such a way that it works as a Orion Pirate Campaign.
et al:
Some rules about the pirate player...
I think the hook of a pirate campaign (along the lines of a T rule) would involve the pirate collecting various points and spending said points. The pirate collects most points for capturing vessels. The pirate would receive some points for capturing the contents of cargo boxes. The pirate also receives a few points for disengaging before any police or naval vessels arrive (on scenarios where such aid is applicable).
The pirate player starts in an LR. Each turn the pirate must pay his lease, or take on a new lease. The player might, for example, after accumulating several points trade-up to a CR, or the player might acquire an additional LR. Regardless of action, after each scenario is resolved (but before the next scenario is started), the pirate must pay his lease (or acquire a new lease) immediately. Let's call this ``Post Scenario Phase 1''. If the pirate does not have enough capital to maintain his current lease, he must involuntarily accept a cheaper lease. If the player cannot afford any lease then his game instantly ends, with the captain's life. Deficit spending is not allowed in this phase.
Following Post Scenario Phase 1, comes Post Scenario Phase 2. In this phase the pirate must pay for repairs. He must pay for full and complete repairs on all non-option boxes. This is the only phase where deficit spending is allowed, and deficit spending is required if that is the only means to meet the full repair on all non-option boxes requirement. If the pirate is still in the black, he may proceed to Post Scenario Phase 3, otherwise the next scenario is resolved.
It is in Post Scenario Phase 3 where the player may spend his remaining pointage on Option Mounts, shuttles, boarding parties, t-bombs, drones, et cetera. Deficit spending is not allowed. TAhere are no ``automatic reloads'' for any munition or shuttle. The player must purchase replacements or forgo replacements. Repairing a damaged option mount is performed in this phase, as is changing the contents of an option mount. An existing, undamaged option mount costs nothing to retain.
The pirate's lease selection should be limited to LR, BR, CR, and CA. The CA should have the restrictions discussed later. The pirate should start in an LR (unrefitted), and option mount selection limited to Ph-1, Barracks, Trac, or Tran. After completing the first scenario may the pirate select his options based on cartel affiliation and his funds.
The scenarios should be mostly balanced, as there would be no incentive for the national player to play. Scenarios should be more involving than rolling for sublight evasion. That being said, the early scenarios should be slightly weighted in favour of the the LR, growing more difficult (from his perspective) as they are resolved. The end of the campaign should be weighted in favour of the national player.
The national player's should have access to a prescribed list of police and naval vessels, which are irreplaceable in the time-scale of the campaign, with deployment limits based on the pirate's accumulated score (ignore any expenditures). In this way, if the pirate player is performing exceedingly well, the national player can bring in more reinforcements and escorts, and if the pirate player is having a difficult time with the campaign then the national player will be severely limited in his selection of escorts and reinforcements.
There are two bonus scenarios, consisting of pirate vs. pirate.
If the pirate player survives the campaign, and closes it with a CA, he is selected to perform an ``enforcement'' mission on behalf of the cartel. He must make an example of an LR and BR pair which are behind in their payments. The national player controls the bankrupt felons. If he wins, he is not required to pay his lease. If he loses (but survives) he must pay his lease (the boss sends a CA squadron while the player is in dock).
If the pirate player survives the first bonus mission (regardless of victory or defeat), attempts a take-over of his local sector (within the cartel, not attempting the whole cartel). In this event, he must fight against CA and BR. The cartel lieutenant is controlled by the national player.
These last two missions are the typical ``scenarios w/o history or future'', where the player may use standard duel tactics, whereas all the previous scenarios require the player to actually play like a pirate.
The schedule should be 12 (+2) scenarios. The pirate player, no matter how skilled, should be clearly out-matched in favour of the national player by #4. Provided the pirate player is doing well, he should be able to mount heavy weapons after the first scenario, upgrade his lease (trading ships, or acquiring a consort) at #3 or #4, and upgrading again at #9 or #10. A perfect score, w/o refits, repairs, or reloads, should cut those schedules in 1/2, and I consider the possibility academic.
I'm going to try to go over the numbers this weekend. Perhaps I'll offer something useful?
[double-post deleted]
Correction:
By scenario #4 the pirate player should be clearly out-matched if still in the LR.
By scenario #9 the pirate player should be clearly outmatched if still in the next better ship.
I'm hoping the pirate player has formed a two-ship squadron at #10, but an exceptionally good captain could do so earlier, and a poor captain might not even afford to do so by #12.
Scenario #12 should be tough even if in an unescorted CA.
These challenges force the player to continue successes, because otherwise 1) he dies in too small of a ship, 2) the cartel boss kills him since he's no longer making money, 3) the better he does, the better a vessel he can command, where ``better'' as defined by the player (some might be skilled enough to be just fine in a tricked-out CR, whereas others will forgo reloads to afford a CA).
The player may only assume command of a CA once, and only once. If the player is required to down-grade from the CA because he cannot afford his lease, he may never again up-grade to it. He may retain it as long as he may afford to do so, but once it is destroyed or traded, he may never assume her command again.
The national player also accumulates points. The national player accumulates points for successfully shipping cargo. Perfect score would be no losses, no damages (to the freight and freighters; the police ships and naval ships are expendable for the national player's purposes). I'll set up a matrix for both the national player and the naval player this weekend and see what the feasible ranges are. Since this is a zero-sum game, and both players have some serious economic demands against them, there would be no chance for a draw; both players lose in that situation, and if one is winning then the other must be losing.
The biggest trick will be to make the payments such that a player could never ``skip'' an engagement and draw on his savings, while at the same time not making things so expensive he would need to maintain a perfect score just to stay in the game.
Look, honey! Operations Research really is an important mathematical discipline.
Timothy J Bruce:
We dont have a structure yet, so it would be possible to integrate a progression as you suggest in the "script" of the campaign.
Play testing will determine if the levels are right or need adjustment.
I'll have to look at Loren's econ system again. we might be at the point where we need to pull that part into this "thing".
An alternative method would be to simply calculate cargo points seized after subtracting out costs (power expended, repairs needed, and munitions launched). Since most of the actions could be completed quickly, it could provide a group with a competitive set of filler. (One player will be 15 minutes late; plenty of time for LRs to get their prizes.) Better play of the freighters would force the pirate to use up more resources and get a lower score. The freighters would be operated by other participants in the campaign.
Richard, Wells:
In a way, your post can be interpreted as taking us back the issue that David Crew pointed out... having to generate a series of encounters for the pirate captain to decide to "go after"... particularly if we have a "Police Player" or a "Merchant ship player" involved in the campaign.
The danger is linked to Loren Knights "accounting Nightmare" thing that forces the players to generate a huge amount of data, not all of which is needed are even particularly appropo to the Orion Pirates campaign.
SPP pointed out earlier, that such a campaign might not be very fun to play... and forcing a merchant player to paly an unending series of LR vs F-S battles is not a good way to entice some one to play the part of the freighter captain.
We need some kind of balance here, or its not going to work.
Jeff: The concept I have is that the freighter player is a competing Orion player. Purely hypothetical situation would have 6 players out of a gaming group trying to decide the best Orion. Each would play the same series of encounters. Competing players would operate the freighters; true, the freighter won't win but effective play could reduce the Orion's score making the freighter player's Orion more likely to win.
I expect that 6 scenarios would work best for comparisons: 3 encounters with a small freighter, 2 encounters with a large freighter and one encounter with a small Q-ship. (If using deck of cards, even cards result in small freighter; odd cards yield large freighters; and face cards produce the small q-ship.) Making the encounters the same reduces the effects of luck.
I did participate in a similar campaign structure. The games were spread out over weeks as various players had short openings in their schedule (players running late or early destruction). 12 encounters averaging 15 minutes each to play out over a time frame of 6 months. Not for every group to be sure.
Since this topic hasn't been used in a while, I'd like to throw something out for any comments that people would care to contribute.
Lets use some F&E information, and picture the situation near the WYN hex (F&E hex #0804).
Lets start with 3 police precinct/province commanders. Add 1 Orion WYN commander.
Assume there are 3 Orion Cartels (subsidiaries of the WYN SYSTEM...)
Police player #1 controls the Lyran province nearest the WYN Hex. his Cartel (actually the cartel operating in his province), consists of the WYN player, and the Kzinti and Klingon players. their mission is to destroy police players #1 economy and capture as much cargo boxes as possible for sale in the WYN system.
Police player #2 controls the Kzinti Province nearest the WYN Hex. his Cartel (again, the cartel actually operating in his province), consists of the WYN player, and the Lyran and Klingon players. Again, the mission is to destroy the police players #2 economy and capture as much cargo boxes as possible for sale in the WYN system.
Police Player #3 controls the Klingon Province nearest the WYN hex. and that cartel (again, actually operating inside the Klingon province) consists of the WYN player, the Lyran player and the Kzinti player.
In this way, each player wants to protect his police district/Province/Precinct, while savaging his enemies as much as he can to prevent them from winning the game outright.
Well, thats the bare structurer... I know it needs a lot of adjustment.
That gives us 4 players, and the object is (for the police player ) to win, he must destroy more Orion pirate ships than any other police player.
the object for the pirates (since its a committee) accumulate the most captured cargo boxes. (I suppose we could let player "sell" their pirate fleet at the end each BPV point worth 1 cargo box... highest score wins.
The WYN player would have no ships, but "earns" cargo boxes commission by selling captured loot and scoring 10% "agents fee".
The Order of battle would start out modest.
Lets say each Police province starts with 1 FLG, 3 standard police ships (say G2's or as similar as posible for various races.) and maybe a PTC (a prime trader variant police ship) appropriate to each race, and (just to make it interesting) 5 security skiffs (assigned 1 perhex at start.
The Orion players would have (just my thinking at this point...) 1 "hidden base" per player (location secret to all other players assume its a small ground base secreted in a "useful location" that is other wise uninhabited and off normal police patrol routes. 1 Modular Courier, earns 1 smuggling cargo box per turn, every turn it starts game turn at hidden base, and ends turn in WYN Hex. (-1 chance of success for esch hex traveled, -1 for each ship or security skiff it has to pass on the journey. (I imagine some other modifiers could be added... have to think about whats appropriate.
Orion players could cooperate in an attack on another players province... say its 2 players using their ships (at start it would have to be modular couriers against a target of opportunity.
Now this is where we would add Steve Petricks Card idea (see archives above from 2+ years ago.
the police players have to pick 3 cards per turn, and depending on the results (which we would have to structure a mission chart for) they would have to assign the forces as best they can.
say one of the missions is to provide convoy escorts... if he sends police ships, that leaves sectors defended by a security skiff.
Say one of the missions is to picket a star system for revenue collections. that could be done by a security skiff or two... but that uncovers yet another sector (or two.
perhaps the third mission is a possible monster. without confirmation, the Navy will not send a cruiser... and a single police security skiff could be destroyed before it could make a report. might he send whats lfet of his "force".
means the pirate modular couriers could have a field day. lets say the pirates have their own "mission chart" that indicates possible targets (what do you mean there is an undefended small freighter?!? an early years freighter without a phaser 3?!?).
This way a small star fleet battles group could generate numerous police/pirate missions... and they could play out the most interesting ones during a face to face game session, and resolve the rest with a simple combat die roll to determine success / failure of the other missions not "played out"
not quite the scenario generator that I suspect SPP talked about a couple of yers ago, but it would let a group of 4+ players run their own "cops and robers" campaign.
comments?
This is the Orion Pirate captains campaign topic.
Ideas or suggestions should go here, otherwise anything posted else where might get lost in the shuffle.
I’ve taken a crack at the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game.
I’ve gone through the archives and read what’s been done already. From what I’ve seen I understand the requirements to be as follows:
Must haves
- Start as LR or similar small ship and then later upgrade to CR or CA
- Advance based on cargo stolen
- Diversity of freighters, APT, FDX, F-AL, F-AS, etc and of skids/ducktails to match current product availability
- No Overhauls! Repairs are priced in cargo
- Once promotion is gained, go through again with better class
- Uncertainty when conducting a raid, and risk management (Q-ships, unknown police arrival times)
Nice to haves
- Additional missions assigned by cartel
- Higher value targets are higher value cargo FDX>APT>F-S
- Some ships might be Q-ships based on card draw
Cannot have
- Capturing executives or other hostages (cargo only)
- Unnecessary 'dirt' (ie: complexity, bookkeeping, etc)
- Special scenario rules that hack in uncertainty based on information-gathering or similar systems
- Reliance on multiple Orion ships, this is a Captain’s game, not a Captains’ game.
Scenarios that should make an appearance
- Serve as a mercenary
- Raid a planet
- Enforcing your franchise against another Orion
- Defend a base
- Gather information on a monster
As I understand it, many of the previous proposals got bogged down in trying to procedurally generate the convoy raids. A problem here is that the original description of the campaign from 1985 seemed to be basically (as Jeff Wile smartly called it) a “ship encounter generator."
And what it seems SPP wants is something more like an iterable U2.0 Captain’s Game where raiding freighters is the main, but not the only attraction.
Those are my understandings and assumptions. If I’ve made mistakes so far they’ll be baked into the following proposal.
UX.X The Orion Pirate Captain’s Game
This is a campaign intended to be run multiple times with the same captain, and possibly the same ship. Running the ten scenarios takes five years of time. The campaign represents the career of an Orion pirate in five-year intervals. Some features carry over from five-year run to five-year run. Stop running the campaign when the Orion pirate loses, or accumulates enough wealth to retire on a pleasure colony somewhere out of the prying eyes of the law.
First, a year should be selected. The campaign can plausibly be set as early as Y130 and as late as the SFB setting goes with some adaptation, although it was designed to serve the period of Y140-Y180. Pick a year divisible by 5. Each time the Orion Pirate’s Game is run, it covers a five-year period.
Second, and only once during the entire Orion Pirate Captain’s Game (not a five-year run, the whole thing), the Orion pirate identifies his home cartel and three zones that he operates in. These operating zones must be within the territory of the cartel (for example; Lion Cartel, one zone within Kzinti territory, two within Federation territory. Another example; Hamilcar Cartel, one zone within Hydran territory, one within Klingon territory, and one within Federation territory). These operating zones form the basis of all piracy scenarios.
Third, the Orion Captain should select his starting ship. The intended progression of this campaign is to start as an LR, then purchase a CR and so on. For added challenge an Orion pirate captain could start with a weaker ship. For a player looking for more oomph from the get-go, they can pick a stronger ship.
The following scenarios comprise the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game:
| Scenario Number | Scenario Name |
| UX1.0 | "Piracy" |
| UX1.0 | "Piracy" |
| UXX | Organised Crime Chart |
| UXX | Adventuring Chart |
| UX1.0 | "Piracy" |
| UX1.0 | "Piracy" |
| UXX | Organised Crime Chart |
| UXX | Adventuring Chart |
| UX1.0 | "Piracy" |
| UX1.0 | "Piracy" |
Organised Crime Chart
| Die Roll | Scenario Number | Scenario Name |
| 2 | SG7.0 | "The Pirates Go for Big Game" (you're the bait!) |
| 3 | SH49.0 | "The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing" |
| 4 | SH132.0 | "Operation Cutthroat" |
| 5 | SG55.0 | "Race to the Base" |
| 6 | SG7.0 | "The Pirates Go for Big Game" (you lay in ambush) |
| 7 | SG85.0 | "False Economics" |
| 8 | SH8.0 | "The Trojan Shuttle I" |
| 9 | SH131.0 | "Hijacked!" |
| 10 | SH58.0 | "Starhunt" |
| 11 | SH171.0 | "Death by Stoning" |
| 12 | SH67.0 | "Diplomatic Immunity" |
Adventuring Chart
| Die Roll | Scenario Number | Scenario Name |
| 2 | SG1.0 | "Duel" (vs Orion of same class) |
| 3 | SG35.0 | "A Question of Franchise" (vs Orion of same class) |
| 4 | SG6.0 | "Pursuit Into the Asteroids" |
| 5 | SH191.0 | "Returning to the Scene of the Crime" |
| 6 | SG28.0 | "Raid on a Survey Camp" |
| 7 | SH47.0 | "The Stasis Box" |
| 8 | SH35.0 | ”Into the Rings" |
| 9 | UXSX | "Rob a Space Bank" |
| 10 | SG1.0 | "Duel" (as a merc against a navy ship of similar BPV) |
| 11 | SH2.0 | "The Surprise Reversed" (as a merc) |
| 12 | SMX | Monster Scenario |
There are three components of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game. Piracy and adventuring are the two ways that the Orion Pirate makes his money. Organised crime represents the duties, commitments, and risks attendant to belonging to an Orion Cartel.
There are two scores that the Orion Pirate player must keep track of during his career as an Orion Pirate. The first is cash, which represents his liquid assets. The second is his cartel reputation. Every operating zone also has the property of “heat.”
Cash is used for everything. There are no free repairs between scenarios. Repairs conducted during a scenario are temporary (as per G17.1313). In between every scenario the Orion Pirate Captain can repair any system for its value on Annex 9 at a rate of 1 repair point per 1 unit of cash. Cash is also used to buy new ships in between five-year runs of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game.
Piracy
This is the mainstay of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game (and the Orion Pirate Captain’s lifestyle generally), and the main way that cash is generated.
The scenario is simple. The target ship is placed in hex 2215, and if the target is multiple ships, the additional ships are placed within two hexes of the target, but not in a hex containing another ship. On a turn (which turn is decided secretly) help in the form of a police ship (or ships) will arrive.
The determination of the target is done at random from a pre-arranged pool of ships.
This is how the pool of ships is generated:
At the beginning of the current five-year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game the Orion player, and the player running the campaign each select a number of ships based on the BPV of the pirate player’s ship.
| Pirate Ship BPV | Number of Ships Selected by Each Player | Expected Freighters per Raid |
| less than 90 | 5 | 1 |
| 90-100 | 10 | 2 |
| Over 100 | 15 | 3+ |
Skids and Ducktails
| Year | Skids? | Ducktails? |
| <Y140 | No Skids | No Ducktails |
| Y140-Y145 | 1 Skid or Ducktail | |
| Y145-Y-150 | 1 Skid | 1 Ducktail |
| Y150-Y160 | 1 Skid | and 1 more Skid or Ducktail |
| Y165-Y170 | 2 Skids | 1 Ducktail |
| Y170-Y175 | 4 Skids | 2 Ducktails |
| Y175-Y180 | 6 Skids | 3 Ducktails |
| Y180+ | 12 Skids | 6 Ducktails |
These ships can be any type of civilian ship that is capable of long-range spaceflight and that is available for entirety of the 5-year span. After the players make their choices add in an amount of basic F-S equal to the number of choices made by each player (five at pirate BPVs under 90). Then add a number of F-L equal to one fifth of that number. These ships (16 at BPVs under 90, 32 at BPVs between 90-100, 48 at BPVs over 100) form the pool from which the targets of piracy are pulled from.
Every time that the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game calls for a piracy mission, follow this procedure:
First, the Orion Pirate player identifies how many freighters he would like to raid in each of his operating zones (without knowledge of specifically which freighters he will be raiding). For example (and recommended for LR, OFT, DW and other small raiders) “one freighter in every operating zone.”
Second, the players then randomly select the required freighters from the freighter pool established earlier for this five-year period. These are revealed to all players. The method of random selection is up to the players, but here are some suggestions: Write the ships on pieces of paper and draw them from a hat, associate each ship with a playing card and deal the necessary number of cards, use a random number generator and a list.
Third, the pirate player then selects which of the three possible raids he would like to embark upon.
Fourth, the scenario is set up, the counters are put on the hex map, and the player operating the freighter(s) decides if this (or these) freighter(s) have skids, ducktails, or both. Consult the chart to determine how many skids and ducktails are available over the entirety of the five year period. Although with mutual consent any skid or ducktail combination could be chosen, to avoid every skid being an SDS1, it is recommended that for every SDS1 chosen in a given five-year period, one SDS2 must first be chosen, and for every SDS2, one SDS3 must first be chosen.
Fifth, deal a playing card for every level of heat (see below) in that operating zone. The playing cards indicate on which turn a police ship (appropriate to the local empire) will arrive. The police ship arrives on the opposite map edge that the pirate ship deployed on at the beginning of the scenario, speed 15, WS-III (unless it is an ace), heading the freighter player’s choice. The playing card is kept secret from the pirate player, and is revealed when its secrecy is no longer of consequence. A face card means “Turn 10,” and an ace means that the police ship arrives at turn 1 WS-II. The Jokers mean that the freighter is actually a Q-ship of the appropriate type (if that type of freighter doesn’t have a Q-ship version, or if the Q-ship version of that ship is not available yet due to the scenario year, then instead draw another card).
The piracy scenarios are not scored in the normal sense. The pirate player’s goal is to accumulate as many cargo units as possible (see G25.0). Cargo is converted into cash at a rate of 1:1 (cargo:cash) from most freighters. Any ships of the “Priority Transport,” “Free Trader,” “Prime Trader,” and “Fast Naval Transport” varieties have their cargo converted to cash at a rate of 1:2, and any ships of the “Federation Express” variety have their cargo converted to cash at a rate of 1:3. Armed Freighters, and any other ships capable of disengagement by acceleration, have their cargo converted to cash at the rate of 2:3.
If the pirate player is bold enough to actually capture a ship and successfully disengage with it, multiply that ship’s Economic BPV by five, and then convert that number into cash. Subtract from this the cost to repair every damaged box on the captured ship. Then, increase the heat level of that operating zone by 1 permanently (this does not go away at the end of a five year run).
Organised Crime
Participating in organised crime is (part) of the price of living a life of crime protected by a cartel. These scenarios do not pay any cash (so don’t bother capturing cargo, that’s someone else’s cargo to steal). They represent raids and such organised by higher-ranking Orion Pirates that you are obliged to participate in. The goal of these missions is to survive while expending the least amount of personal effort possible to secure victory. A successful scenario (defined by any level of victory) gives the player +1 cartel reputation (max 3). A scenario that ends in a draw gives the player -1 cartel reputation. A scenario that ends in a loss gives the player -2 cartel reputation. If a player’s cartel reputation ever reaches -3, the Orion cartel ejects him from the cartel, probably through an airlock.
Organised Crime scenarios take place in one of your operating zones at random. This can increase your heat level in that zone (if a ship is captured), and it will determine your opponent’s empire in many cases.
Do not draw cards from the deck to randomise police ship arrival or Q-ship presence for organised crime scenarios.
SG7.0 "The Pirates Go for Big Game" (you're the bait!)
Play SG7.0. You’re the ship in hex 2219. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/275)x125.
SH49.0 "The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing"
Play SH49.0. You’re the ship that most closely resembles your current ship. Keep the total BPV of the pirate forces the same.
SH132.0 "Operation Cutthroat"
Play SH132.0. You’re the ship that most closely resembles your current ship. Keep the total BPV of the pirate forces the same. Adjust the navy ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV.
SG55.0 "Race to the Base"
Play SG55.0. You’re one of the two pirate ships. Adjust the navy ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the fleet escort ship’s BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/185)x116.
SG7.0"The Pirates Go for Big Game" (you lay in ambush)
Play SG7.0. You’re any pirate ship other than the ship in hex 2219. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/275)x125.
SG85.0 "False Economics"
Play SG85.0. If the year is before the defending empire acquires workboats, use the suggested variant in SG85.61.
SH8.0"The Trojan Shuttle I"
Play SH8.0. You’re the ship that most closely resembles your current ship. Keep the total BPV of the pirate forces the same. Adjust the BS according to the empire operating in this zone.
SH131.0 "Hijacked!"
Play SH131.0. You’re one of the two pirate ships. Adjust the police escorts according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the fleet escort ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/136)x100.
SH58.0 "Starhunt"
Play SH58.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the police ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the police ships’ BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/68)x100.
SH171.0 "Death by Stoning"
Play SH171.0. You’re the ship that most closely resembles your current ship. Keep the total BPV of the pirate forces the same. Adjust the Jindarian ships according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the Jindarian fleet BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/860)x600.
SH67.0 "Diplomatic Immunity"
Play SH67.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([total pirate BPV]/92)x137.
Adventuring
Adventuring is a catch-all term for the sorts of business opportunities, good-luck, bad luck, high-risk ventures, and general swashbuckling that pirates get up to that don’t easily fit into the categories of piracy or organised crime.
Adventures don’t cause you to gain heat.
Adventures don’t cause you to lose or gain cartel reputation unless specified in the descriptions below.
Some adventures can lead to you earning mountains of cash, others are merely losing propositions.
SG1.0 "Duel" (vs Orion of same class)
Play SG1.0 against a ship of your class. This pirate is a rival of yours, and is poaching your territory. Disengagement is an option, but it will cause you to gain -1 cartel reputation. There’s little to gain here, maybe you can capture and sell his ship?
SG35.0 "A Question of Franchise" (vs Orion of same class)
Play SG35.0 against a ship of your class. This pirate is a rival of yours, and is poaching your territory. Disengagement is an option, but it will cause you to gain -1 cartel reputation. The freighter and its cargo are up for grabs.
SG6.0 "Pursuit Into the Asteroids"
Play SG6.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([pirate ship BPV]/92)x125. Disengagement is not an option. There’s little to gain here, maybe you can capture and sell his ship?
SH191.0 "Returning to the Scene of the Crime"
Play SH191.0. You’re the pirate ship. If you’re flying a CR or something stronger add a second POL within 3 hexes of 2215 heading at the navy player’s option, WS-II.
SG28.0 "Raid on a Survey Camp"
Play SG28.0. You’re the attacking ship. The survey site has ten cargo boxes that can be robbed. If it’s prior to Y160 then replace the F-ES with a F-L. Use the card mechanic from the piracy missions to determine when a police ship arrives to save the day, only instead draw three cards and use the highest number. Ignore jokers.
SH47.0 "The Stasis Box"
Play SH47.0. The opposing ship is any ship of equivalent BPV that is either Orion or of an empire within the entire cartel’s operating territory. Each stasis box recovered is worth 100 cash. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.
SH35.0 "Into the Rings"
Play SH35.0. You’re the pirate ship. Adjust the navy ship according to availability by year, empire, and BPV. Use this formula for the navy ship’s BPV = ([pirate ship BPV]/68)x116. Each probe canister recovered is worth 65 cash. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.
UXSX "Rob a Space Bank"
A class M planet is in hex 2215. On facing A there is a “space bank” that is an unlimited store of cargo boxes that payout at the rate of FDXs. Facing A also has a GBD2. Use the card mechanic from the piracy scenarios to determine when police ships will arrive. Ignore Jokers. Treat this as a Heat 3 operating zone.
SG1.0 "Duel" (as a merc against a navy ship of similar BPV)
Play SG1.0 against a any ship of equivalent BPV that is either Orion or of an empire within the entire cartel’s operating territory. This is a paid hit. You get paid 150 cash for killing your target. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.
SH2.0 "The Surprise Reversed" (as a merc)
Play SH2.0 as the attacker against a fleet of no more than five ships totalling 420 BPV that are either Orion or of an empire within the entire cartel’s operating territory. This is a paid hit. You get paid 100 cash for killing each target. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.
SMX Monster Scenario
Roll a die. Play the corresponding scenario:
1 = SM2.0 “The Space Amoeba”
2 = SM4.0 “The Cosmic Cloud”
3 = SM5.0 “The Sunsnake”
4 = SM6.0 “The Mind Monster”
5 = SM7.0 “Space Dragon”
6 = SM11.0 “Escape from the Energy Monster”
You are under contract to observe the monster and collect scientific information. Every point of scientific information is worth 1 point of cash, but you will not be paid if you collect less than 50 points. “Losing” this scenario has no meaning whatsoever.
Cash
Cash is used for many things. These are what they are:
Repairing your ship: 1 cash is worth 1 point of repair in Annex 9 between scenarios. This is the only way that your ship can be repaired.
Buying weapons: Orion ships have option mounts, and weapons for these mounts are purchased in cash. Use the value of the weapon in Annex 9, this is how much it costs in cash to buy. If the weapon is native to the home territory of the cartel, there is no modifier. If it is native to the operating zone of the cartel, then it costs twice as much as the listed value. A weapon neither from the home territory, nor from the operating zone of the cartel costs five times this price.
Refits: A refit becomes available in the year that it is normally available, and costs ten times its BPV
Upgrading your ship: A new ship costs ten times its Economic BPV in cash (or ten times its BPV if the ship doesn’t have a listed Economic BPV)
Trading in ships: Your old ship (or captured ships) are worth five times their Economic BPV (or five times its BPV if the ship doesn’t have a listed Economic BPV) Subtract from this the cost to repair every damaged box on the ship first.
Shuttles, fighters, and PFs: These cost ten times their BPV in cash.
Cash is persistent across every five year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game.
Cartel Reputation
Your cartel reputation starts at zero. Every Organised Crime scenario that you win increases your cartel reputation by +1. Every Organised Crime scenario that ends in a draw causes you to gain -1 cartel reputation. Every Organised Crime scenario that ends in a loss causes you to gain -2 cartel reputation. Some Adventuring scenarios affect your reputation as well. The maximum cartel reputation you can ever have at any time is +3, and when it reaches -3 your Orion Pirate Captain’s Game ends in a loss. Cartel Reputation is persistent across every five year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game.
Heat
Heat is a property of each of your three operating zones and each operating zone tracks its heat separately. Heat cannot drop below 1, and is persistent across every five year run of the Orion Pirate Captain’s Game. It never goes down.
So, that’s my attempt. I invite everybody to tear it apart with as much brutality as they can muster, I’m not shy, and I’m not easily offended. Hopefully this will provide a reasonable starting place for something publishable.
Shuttles, fighters, and PFs: These cost ten times their BPV in cash.
Specify Economic PV for these units.
@Douglas Lampert
Yep, that should for sure be specified. It was an oversight on my part. All cash-to-BPV prices should use the same value, Economic PV.
I also totally neglected drones, T-bombs, commander's options, and other expendables. I'm not sure what their price should be. I think that'll be borne out through playtesting, and the playtesting should wait until it passes the initial SPP smell test.
You'll also need to decide when commander's options are chosen and how much replacement crew and BP cost. Crew and BP should be expensive.
You also don't have an operating cost. Probably should declare that at the end of each 5 year mission you need to pay your ship's EPV in maintenance and pay 1 cash per crew unit. Or you could say that colony raids not represented in the game pay all that.
All that said, it looks nice.
I didn't give enough thought to commander's options, but I'd want them to be purchasable between each scenario (when repairs and whatnot are taking place). It seems like a bad idea to make someone ration drones while sitting on a mountain of cash.
I also didn't give much thought as to when the purchasing should take place. I just sort of assumed that it would be whenever you wanted between scenarios, but also at other times thought of upgrading your ship only taking place at the end of a five-year run. I didn't really think of an answer. I held two inconsistent ideas in my head at once without realising it when designing this.
I think maintenance costs are exactly antithetical to the goal of campaign. They add bookkeeping and "dirt" that I purposely tried to minimise. Even if they're "realistic" they seem to go against what I understood that SPP was looking for.
But, my version of the OPCG is now out in the world and no longer mine to tyrannically control and design. It'll be up to SPP and others to make those calls. Assuming it passes muster.
Shawn, Check the (U1.32) and (U1.33) Campaign Game General Rules on replenishing ammo and drones between scenarios. That should give you a good idea of how to handle that.