2831. Mars. The city of New Hope is no more than a ghost town, streets are filled with empty cars, standing in an eternal traffic jam, still hoping to catch the last shuttle. Nothing moves.
Suddenly, a metallic bang. And another one. On the third, a rusty manhole cover jumps up a few inches. It is pushed aside, and a man in a lightweight space suit crawls out of the hole. He stands up, looks at his wristband, where a green symbol tells him the air is breathable, and he cautiously opens his helm. He takes a long breath, and another one. A soft, sad smile appears on his bearded face, and he can't help but think back a few years.
New Hope was the first colony on Mars, and most of its inhabitants were miners and scientists - people who had no choice but to go there, either because they had no money left on earth, or because they were forced by their contractors. The name was chosen by the investing companies, that had hoped for monster gains on Mars when nothing was left to mine on earth.
It worked, for ten years. Not long after other cities started to appear around more of the rich ore deposits mars had to offer, a terror attack changed the companies' dream into the miners' nightmare.
The main T3-Generator, that provided the whole city dome with breathable air and drinkable water, had been infiltrated by a radicalist faction, and it took only a few hours to reconfigure the whole thing. A few minutes later, the generator served not only to pump air, but also pottasium cyanide. It took the detectors a few seconds to analyze the problem, and a few milliseconds to send the signal to the sirens, evacuating the city, but it took most people several minutes to get to the emergency systems. A few minutes too long. 90% of the city suffocated, the rest escaped via shuttles. The bunkers, built before the city and in disuse, on the very edge of the dome, housed no more then 100 people each. A hundred people, lucky to be alive, lucky that the bunker had its own, old, T1 generator. A hundred people, cramped together for years, finally able to come out in the open again. A hundred people, who chose you as their commander.
This is a
turnbased strategy forum experiment. I want
3 players, who can post once every 48 hours, 24 if everyone agrees. The idea is to put you in charge of a band of survivors, that have to battle or negotiate for scarce resources - water and food, maybe even territory, or useful tools. Seeing as your group will have miners, you can expand your bunker to serve as HQ. Or you can set up camp in a building, or even venture outside the dome - if you dare.
RP is not strictly necessary. After all, this is an experiment, not an RP. However, [build X of Y - explore place Z] will do just that, while a few lines of elaboration combined with a good roll might grant you a bonus.
A word on the experiment part: the rules might very well have flaws or be inbalanced. If you spot something I have overlooked, please tell me. If one faction gets an advantage due to an unfair rule, I will change the rule and might give that faction a disadvantage to partially compensate the unfair advantage.
I want players that can accept setbacks, rule changes, and accidental unfairness.Every bunker starts with the following:
-3k units of water. (people use 1/day each, not counting the re-sanitized.)
-3k units of food. (people use 1/day each)
-100 units of scrap.
-100 people: at least 40 miners, 10 scientists, 10 crafters, 10 traders/diplomats. Rest (30) can be chosen freely.
-There are no other professions in the game.
-A functional water sanitation system, T1 Air Generator (now obsolte), basic furniture and appliances.
-10 lightweight space-suits, selfsustaining for 1 day without air. Food/water can be carried in it.
You need:
-A name. People living together either cling together, or throw a tantrum. Luckily for you, your people united in a clan, and have given it a name of your choice.
-A color to represent your bunker and people.
Too bad for you, your people all come from the outskirts of the city and thus only know the nearby lands. You will have to explore. I will add bunkers and their surroundings in ASCII when people sign up.
Every turn takes 1 day.
You can:
-Dig. Rolls d100, can have good or nasty side-effects. Increases your bunker with 1 square/10 miners. (That is, one square on the plan of your bunker, not on the city map.
-Explore. Rolls d100, has good, neutral or bad effects, mostly good. Walking unexplored (black) squares costs 1 day, and explores that tile.
-Walk. Rolls d100, can have side-effects. Costs 1 day/5 explored map tiles.
-Create rooms. Empty caverns are no good for a bunker, you have to set your crafters to work. A crafter can form a single, dug-out tile to a room of your choice in 1 day, using 5 scrap.
-Craft. Ask me to make a tool, a gun, an appliance, and I'll tell you how much manhours and scrap it costs. Can have side-effects, efficiency determined by d100.
-Salvage. Break down something you made, or something you have, for scrap. All electronic parts simply counts as more scrap. EG, a calculator-sized spring might be 1 scrap, a calculator 2.
-Use your imagination. Build a shed to work on a car? Occupy an office as HQ? Ally or attack others? No problem. Just ask me, and I will tell you costs, with help of my thrusty Urist McD100.
Your goal: survive. If that goes well, escape. To where-ever the other martian cities are, or maybe to earth?
