PmWiki | LeftBeyond / Quest2Rules

The archive can be found at http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=left%20beyond

The current understanding of End Times prophecies can be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BlMOSEOxSihj1gdagq7yxCjONaRBgcdlRxnc68uWf0A/edit#gid=0

The datalinks (player-editable repository) can be found at Path:/pmwiki/pub/web/LeftBeyond.Quest2Datalinks.html

THE SCENARIO

"You" are the Foreman of the Custodial Arrangement of Telecommunication Systems, tasked by global Potentate Nicolae Carpatescu to maintain and improve telecom infrastructure across the Global Community.

Any rumor to the fact that Carpatescu is the Antichrist and the world will end in 7 years (84 months) is clearly seditious and should be disregarded.

You have enlisted the direct help of the best engineers, logisticians and managers that the end of the second millennium has to offer, and handle their actions directly on a month by month basis.

WORKGROUPS

Your underlings do most of the detail work and let you know who to assign, and how many workgroups to assign, to a job for it to be completed with certainty (barring obstacles or foreign intervention, which is always a possibility). Undermanning a job gives it a chance of failure. For example, a complexity 3 job can be assigned 2 workgroups for a 66.6% chance of success.

Each workgroup will require money to deploy. Money is calculated in BN (Bags of Nicks, the Nick being Nicolae Carpatescu's one-world currency); it does not represent simply cash, but also availability of support personnel, procurement effort, time spent, and so on.

Actions are listed by complexity. Each crew costs 1 bag of Nicks to deploy for incidental expenses, subcontractors and so on. Additional costs will be marked as needed.

Agents can deploy for free, but may require 1BN in incidental expenses should they find something interesting or need to get out of a jam.

Thanks to your youthful energy, you can deploy yourself on TWO actions in most cases. You can even risk your own life on a covert action, if you so choose!

Performing an action outside of your home territory will also require the availability of some fleet assets, OR increase complexity by the missing assets. For construction, you need as many fleet assets as the complexity of the action. For covert actions, you generally only need one fleet asset. And so on. Since you have completed the BOCHICA distributed logistics AI project, if you have more than 10 fleet assets in your inventory, the rule above is waived.

AGENTS

As you proceed, you will identify some exceptional individuals who can assist your workgroups.

Agents may be put on retainer (some will join for a monthly fee, some will join for a one-time payment, some will join for free) assigned to an operation to improve its chance. They will provide LARGE, MEDIUM, or SMALL bonuses to the dice roll regarding a job, and allow players to roleplay any interaction. Adding an Agent to a job that has a 100% chance of success will give it a chance of achieving extra results, and still allow the players to roleplay the interaction.

If more than one Agent is assigned to an operation, only the largest bonus applies, but their interaction will add to the roleplay possibilities and all their bonuses have a chance of showing up.

Agents have their own preferences about what operations to be on, but will go on all operations and do their best work regardless. If their (hidden) morale becomes low, they will tell the Foreman, rather than quit immediately.

At the start of the game, the only Agent is the Foreman him/herself.

FACTORIES

During the game, you may acquire automated factories, loyal populations who will work for you for a retainer, and similar situations. Each of these factories functions as one workgroup that can only conduct Construct actions. However, their labor is free.

MANDATES AND PROMISES

During the game, CATS may make a deal with another faction. In this case, your half of the deal will be posted on the main map, as a reminder. A broken deal is immediately null and void. Other factions will observe the value of your word and act consequently. Some deals can be broken without penalty; for example, if CATS is trading a portion of its budget in return for having an Agent on retainer, and puts the budget elsewhere, the Agent will become unavailable but no reputation loss will take place - the contract is considered to have ended. Some deals have a penalty. Some factions will terminate deals and/or betray the Foreman; this will generally happen when a faction goes through a change in leadership.

Mandates are deals between CATS and the Potentate; in that case, the implicit "deal" is that CATS must do as the Potentate asks, or be disbanded...

POTENTATE FAVOR

5 Carpatescu is impressed with your progress. Your budget increases significantly, although being on his radar so prominently may not be a good thing. Of course, he'll raise his expectations...
4 You are doing a good job! Since you can be trusted, your budget increases slightly.
3* You're doing an unremarkable job, as far as Carpatescu is concerned. Your budget will remain the same, and the other member organizations of the Global Community will pay less attention to you, since things "just work".
2 Your performance is spotty. Your budget is increased slightly so that you may compensate for these deficiencies, but that comes with the price of additional scrutiny.
1 Given your abysmal performance, your budget has been decreased. You risk being demoted or fired.
0 Nicolae Carpatescu has decided to replace CATS with a differently organized agency. Since it would not do to simply fire you, you will be targeted for assassination. The man is known for his twisted sense of humor: he just might let you keep the job if you survive that.

HQ SUBPOTENTATE FAVOR

5 Your landlord often uses your work as proof of his territory's economic efficiency. You can expect cooperation from the legslature in your overt operations, although since you have to keep a high public profile your covert operations suffer.
4 Your actions have brought some extra prosperity to your landlord's territory. You can expect the legislature to let you work with reduced red tape, since what you are doing is working well.
3* Your landlord tolerates you, more or less... let's go with more. No effect.
2 Your landlord tolerates you, more or less... let's go with less. No effect.
1 Your landlord thinks that CATS is a drain to either his economy or his prestige. Expect hostility from the legislature. However, your covert operators will find it easier to work with resistance groups and so on.
0 You have embarassed or humiliated your landlord, who will likely launch an assassination attempt against you, either out of pique or to avoid appearing weak.
OTHER SUBPOTENTATE FAVOR

5 This subpotentate is open to an alliance. Site surveys are more likely to result in extra resources. Deploying an agent in this subpotentate's territory is always free because their incidental expenses will be waived.
4 Deploying an agent in this subpotentate's territory is always free because their incidental expenses will be waived.
3* Normal relations.
2 Deploying an agent in this subpotentate's territory always costs 1BN because they will face red tape and obstruction.
1 Deploying an agent (other than yourself) in this subpotentate's territory will be risky; consider sending an escort with them. Deploying an agent in this subpotentate's territory always costs 1BN because they will face red tape and obstruction.
0 You have embarassed or humiliated this subpotentate, who will likely launch an assassination attempt against you, either out of pique or to avoid appearing weak. Deploying an agent in this subpotentate's territory will remain risky. Deploying an agent in this subpotentate's territory always costs 1BN because they will face red tape and obstruction.
You can ally yourself with ONE subpotentate. This will let you build a secondary HQ in their territory, and offer a unique bonus depending on that subpotentate's cultural preferences. They will impose a mandate upon you in return. Relations will remain at 5 unless you gravely offend them or break the mandate, in which case you will have ONE chance to make amends before breaking the alliance. A broken alliance will not be reestablished.

A note on the rules:

Most everything will be rolled with a d100. High numbers are good for you, low numbers are bad for you.

For example, let's say that you want to perform a complexity 3 action using 2 work teams. That gives you a 66% chance of success, so on a 33 or lower on a 1d100, you consume the resources but not much got done. If you assign an agent to an action, you get to "zoom in" and roleplay it! This can turn a failure into a success, negate resource expenses, capitalize on a success... or make things worse, depending on how you play it.