Pre-Game Brief

DRAFT
Inspired by Battlestar Galactica, and the RPG Night Witches,
“The Enemy” are not Cylons. Maybe you’ll find out what they are.

Before

As the stories go, the Twelve Colonies were settled after an evacuation from an inhabited world. Three stars in close proximity support twelve habitable worlds. The game is set in the Helios Beta system, where Aries, Cancer and Gemini circle the sun. Aries is a highly productive world, with high population involved in farming and mining. Cancer is a small world with sources of rare metals, that have led to it being the source of the highest technologies and home to tech factories. Gemini is a small world settled by wealthy families and their retinues , a creator of arts and entertainment, and centre for commerce – a major importer of food, materials, and technologies – and home to the sector capital, Leda.

The colonial military are patriotic and protect the colonies from threats – the mysterious Enemy, who raid the edges of the Twelve Colonies from beyond; pirates – who raid ships and settlements; and political groups, such as the Nine Worlds Alliance, who seek to violently overthrow the current political system.

The Attack

No-one seems to know how The Enemy gained such a technological advantage so quickly. In a generation, they’ve gone from outcasts nibbling at the edges of known space, to an overwhelming force. No-one saw it coming.

Jump drives require massive capital ships, and won’t work inside planetary orbits – but small Enemy Raiders jumped right into the atmosphere of colony worlds, detonating anti-matter bombs over cities and military installations.  They jumped into the middle of Colony fleets, detonating bombs there that crippled resistance.

Then they landed troops on the Colony planets – mechanized armored soldiers, all but immune to our weapons.

Humanity is dying. The Enemy has won.

The last surviving battleship, Castor,  has passed the message, ship to ship. Gather survivors and supplies, meet at Ragnar Anchorage, and we’ll do whatever we can to stay alive.

The Mission

In the system Helios Beta, the colonies Aries, Cancer, and Gemini make up one quarter of the Twelve colonies.  Captain Fisk, of the ship Charys, has recruited pilots and crew for some new shuttles which he plans to use to gather as many survivors as possible while the Charys makes its way to Ragnar. Some are former military aviators – others are skilled civilians.

Its a hastily thrown together team, with some experimental equipment – but, for many people out there, you’re their last chance of surviving.

Equality/Diversity

This game explores social tensions between different groups, using “civilian vs military”, and “colony vs colony” to represent the prejudices that exist.

Characters are written to be of any gender, race, and sexuality as the player chooses – they are identified in the brief by surname, call-sign, or nickname. Discrimination, other than via the in-game metaphors listed above, has no place in the game – avoid gendered, sexuality-based, racist, religiously intolerant, and ableist insults in play. There is no sexual abuse or drug abuse written into the game, and players are requested not to add those themes in play. Romantic backstory is not written into the game, but players are free to determine details of how their characters connected, if they are linked in briefs.

No/minimal physical contact is needed. Characters may conflict physically, but systems allow this to be done without touch.

I’m committed to making changes to the game where possible to allow people to access the game, or if I’ve messed up somehow on inclusion and accessibility.

The Game – what to expect

Working as a team to achieve a common mission (saving as many people as possible), where individual and collective biases, and different interpretations of the mission make that difficult.

Its possible that one or more characters may actually be allied with the Enemy.

The game consists of three Acts, with an Initial Mission at the start of the game, and a Mission at the end of each Act. The Missions will be played very fast, using cards and pointing fingers – and really provide a context to the consequences for what happens during the Acts.

The bulk of the game is the social dynamics between the aviators and crew of the Charys, as they deal with the consequences of what has happened, decide which missions to undertake, and what their priorities for survival are.

Its unlikely, but possible for your character to die during a Mission. If you do, then I’ll give you one of the rescued survivors to play for the rest of the game.