Reach for the Stars: A 4X GSRPG

Reach the Stars is a GSPRG that is a mix of group story telling and strategy game. The ultimate goal is entirely in the eye of the beholder but the game itself will last ~1 RL year if things go as planned and no major flaws are found. The initial phase of the game will be a land grab while your home world remains hidden from potential enemies (unless you take the Drawback that removes this protection) for 6 turns. You will build a network of wormhole/jump point connected systems that will provide you with defense in depth when the inevitable invasion happens. It will be also the phase that leads to chance meetings between yourself and other powers, both NPC and PC, among the stars. Will you make friends or enemies? The initial phase of the game will be forcibly ended when the GM PC faction's pursuers (due to them taking Hostile Pursuit) arrive and begin invading basically everyone with varying degrees of interest. The faction(s) with the Hostile Pursuit trait will receive the majority of the interest, but the more of you that take that drawback the stronger and/or more pursuers will arrive to invade everybody. It also won't make sense to abandon those that took the Hostile Pursuit trait as, frankly, once they are all dead...the invaders will turn on the rest of you with the full force of the invasion fleets anyway. So begins the military-focused portion of the campaign. You are no longer wide-eyed explorers but desperate defenders fighting to keep your people safe. You could continue to explore, of course, but should you? Who knows what you might stumble upon. Precursor reliquaries granting you technologies to defend your borders? Or new enemies who will seek your destruction that you've foolishly shown a path to your worlds? Ultimately, victory is determined as it is in RL, by not dying prematurely. Good luck out there.

What is this game?
Reach the Stars is a GSPRG that is a mix of group story telling and strategy game. The ultimate goal is entirely in the eye of the beholder but the game itself will last ~1 RL year if things go as planned and no major flaws are found.

The initial phase of the game will be a land grab while your home world remains hidden from potential enemies (unless you take the Drawback that removes this protection) for 6 turns. You will build a network of wormhole/jump point connected systems that will provide you with defense in depth when the inevitable invasion happens. It will be also the phase that leads to chance meetings between yourself and other powers, both NPC and PC, among the stars.

Will you make friends or enemies?

The initial phase of the game will be forcibly ended when the GM PC faction's pursuers (due to them taking Hostile Pursuit) arrive and begin invading basically everyone with varying degrees of interest. The faction(s) with the Hostile Pursuit trait will receive the majority of the interest, but the more of you that take that drawback the stronger and/or more pursuers will arrive to invade everybody. It also won't make sense to abandon those that took the Hostile Pursuit trait as, frankly, once they are all dead...the invaders will turn on the rest of you with the full force of the invasion fleets anyway.

So begins the military-focused portion of the campaign. You are no longer wide-eyed explorers but desperate defenders fighting to keep your people safe. You could continue to explore, of course, but should you? Who knows what you might stumble upon. Precursor reliquaries granting you technologies to defend your borders? Or new enemies who will seek your destruction that you've foolishly shown a path to your worlds?

Ultimately, victory is determined as it is in RL, by not dying prematurely. Good luck out there.

Rules & Discord Invite
Homebrew Rules (First Draft)

Discord - Valid for 30 days from the post date

Please reply to this thread with an "I'm interested" kind of comment since if I can't even get 3 players to read the rules and be interested, this obviously won't get off the ground. I plan to launch this on Baldr assuming I get enough interest and we can agree on the rules.

Victory Condition
There is no singular "win condition" unlike a traditional 4X. Your goals should be as varied as the civilizations & players that decide to play the game.

Everyone who doesn't die to the GMPC's triggered Hostile Pursuit is considered a winner in the simplest sense.

Defeat Condition
Losing all your systems will end the game for you, whether due to PC or NPC activity. I debated about a permanent "homeworld shield" that keeps homeworlds invulnerable forever but it feels weird narrative wise. If people want it though, I'm down to have impossible to invade homeworlds unless you take the Botched First Contact drawback which only functions if you can be invaded on Turn 1.

Co-GMs Wanted (max 3)
Realistically, to have a large scale GSRPG, we need more than just me to moderate the game. Each GM will have a player faction being GM'd by yours truly to keep things roughly fair and to avoid issues. I intend to run this game with 0-3 Co-GMs since 3 is the max players I think I can realistically GM for with 3 week turns.

I'll probably hand off GMing of my player faction to another GM if one exists.

Co-GMs will be responsible for the overall storyline of the game in cooperation with me. Adding new faction types, long term plot lines, what the Hostile Pursuit factions do the general story when they arrive, etc.

Priority will go to people I've worked with/played with before but I'm open to anyone really.

Game Operation
This is an alpha test of the game rules and such the rules will be subject to change every 5 turns to handle balance issues and/or to add content that might be fun. So if you want a polished rule set this isn't it.

This is my second attempt at a 4X SciFi GSPRG.

The main issue with the first iteration was it was primarily a design sim for ships. The other issue was Espionage was too strong/easy to accomplish "big things" with. The last was it was too easy to form "big alliance blocs" that players needed to be in to be competitive technologically/militarily.

There was also the danger of things like Zerg rushes and other issues that I think these rules resolve. They weren't really an issue in the first game but will be in this one due to the number of fleet turns I'm imposing on alliance like behavior. (i.e. You need 5 positive relationship tags which will take 2-5 turns to accomplish of a dedicated diplo fleet of which you have limited fleets)

I think I've fixed that with the new rule set (very little if anything was transferred over if we are being honest). The design space has shifted to entire systems/fleets with minimal micromanagement of either. It also does away with the overly complex automated combat system so it is easier for people to understand.

The goal run time for this game is 45 weeks or 15 strategic turns (with rule iterating being done on Turn 5 and 10 respectively).

Each turn is meant to run for 3 weeks to give time for actions to resolve and diplomacy to happen. Despite a turn taking 3 weeks, you might be engaged in 5-6 conflicts that you'll need to complete during that time with rolls/tactical decisions.

As such, this game will be in dire need of Co-GMs and I'm capping it at 3 players per GM. That might not seem like alot but you need to keep in mind, each GM is going to need to maintain 2-6 plot lines per player (1 per fleet).

I'm not guaranteeing any of the above timelines either, its just my best guess of how long things will take to run/resolve. The goal is to run it for 15 strategic turns and complete it in ~1 year.