RP Galaxy: Brave New World

[The Clans]

(Formatting like bold text will come when it isn't 2 in the morning.)

Species constantly rise to great heights and are either snuffed out at their height or die the slow death of stagnancy. The cycle continues with chaotic indifference, a chaotic cacophony of events that end in the same two outcomes: an immediate or slow death.

The cycle has perpetuated itself for billions of years. With only so many planets in the galaxy the number of dead worlds rises as the cycle repeats itself. Empires that end suddenly and violently leave behind ruins destined to be reclaimed by the native flora, or end so catastrophically as to preserve them as inhospitable tomb worlds.

The galaxy exists divided between those who seek out fresher worlds to colonize and those who deem it less labor intensive to pick through the tomb worlds and starship graveyards of what has already come before. Will your people continue as they have, investing the resources into infrastructure to harvest the limited natural resources of “fresh” worlds, or go for the easier path and scavenge what came before as glorified junkers? Or do what you want, I'm not your boss.



Fledgling Empire: These puny races have only achieved unification and entered into space within the last few years. They're small fish in a dangerous ocean that could just as easily be gobbled up by a more established race, or allowed to grow into a big fish themselves.

One Planet and That is it, Mate.

Peaceful Expansionist: These species looked up to the stars and entered into an age of relative peace. An age of founding new colonies on newly discovered worlds without ever meeting another sentient being. Peaceful Expansionists have a considerable economy on their hands but lack the means to defend their holdings without a build up as they have never needed a military capable of doing anything else but suppressing separatist rebels.

High population
Large Economy
Limited Space-Based Military Assets
Possible Seditious Cells

Struggling Ascendant: The Struggling Ascendant was once one of the galaxy's significant power players, but has been bombed back into obscurity. Not quite a Fallen Empire as their former empire has been snuffed out before such stagnancy could be reached. Struggling Ascendants possess a greater tech pool and a few hyper advanced ships from their heyday they they may be able to maintain, but not produce as the knowledge and materials to do so have been lost. However, unlike Fallen Empires, there is nothing stopping a Struggling Ascendant from producing less powerful ships to reassert themselves into galactic politics.

Low population.
Small Economy
High tech base.
Few Powerful Artifact Starships That Cannot be Reproduced.

Space Borne: The entirety of the species lives aboard ships and/or space stations. Either as pirates or as space nomads. The Space Borne once came from a planetary home but is now either lost to them, taken over by another entity, rendered lifeless, or is untreadable holy ground. Space Borne exist within ancient ships that are difficult to for them to produce and replace. The lives of Space Borne are often consumed by a perpetual hunt for raw resources and scrap to keep their fleets powered and from falling apart. They may be unmatched in defensive naval operations, but may only possess ground based tech capable of limited EVA.

No Homeworld.
Entirety of Population Based in Ships and/or Stations
Unparalleled Defense When Attacked
Limited Surface Based Technology

This may be a little complicated to understand, not a whole lot, but I'm just going to be safe here and assume it is, so listen up!

Like in Aftermath, Empires get 15 points to distribute between Military, Economy, Technology, Diplomacy, and Culture(y). These points and the Traits that they're put into are representative of how much emphasis and effort your Empire puts into these aspects of its government. They aren't meant to be hard and crunchy, they're just a way to contextualize fluff at a glance.

Got that down? Right, underneath each of an Empire's Traits are two Aspects. You get an additional 6 points to distribute between these sections of the parent Trait. All this does is show how much your Empire might prioritize one Aspect over another or to show it prioritizes both equally with no real ill effect.

To give an example of how this works in practice, an Empire with Diplomacy 1, but an Understanding of 5 or 6 may be incredibly awkward for other species to be around and inadvertently remedy situations with a vulgar parody of what a more practiced diplomat would use, despite being well-intentioned. Likewise a Diplomacy of 1 and an Espionage of 5 or 6 would put the utmost effort into trying to weasel and/or steal information from others, but do so so blatantly that their efforts are ineffective.

Military
Naval: Star ships and defense installations.
Ground: Army units and planetary defense.

Economy
Industry: Production of raw or scavenged materials into finished products for the State.
Tertiary Goods: Production of civilian grade products and services.

Technology
Researched: Technology organically researched and developed.
Scavenged: Technology derived from examining and adapting the machines of other Empires, existing or not..

Diplomacy
Understanding: How much effort diplomats put into understanding other species and adapting to their unique needs.
Espionage: How much the Empire sees other species as living vaults of information to be exploited and infiltrated.

Culture
Internal Stability: How strong the Empire's national identity is.
Marketability: How alluring and infectious portions of the Empire's culture is to others, such as food, entertainment, and mind invading chants that turn others into cultists.

Additionally, Empires may have one Quirk that is either implied by their species' Traits, its Empire's Ethos, the Empires Traits and Aspects, or may not be accounted for by numbers. A Quirk can either have a benefit, a benefit and a drawback, or just a drawback. I'm not going to limit it, it's a way of conveying something that I'm not able to account for in this set up.

If there's anything that isn't understandable, I hope that my own Empire and Race sheet will be enough of an example to decipher how my words work in practice.

Species Name:
Species Adjective:
Empire Name:
Empire Adjective:
Phenotype:
Traits:
Ethos:
Government:
Homeworld: Planet Type:

Short Description of Empire and History:

Military:
Naval:
Ground:

Economy:
Industry:
Tertiary Goods:

Technology:
Researched:
Scavenged:

Diplomacy:
Understanding:
Espionage:

Culture:
Internal Stability:
Marketability:

Quirk:

[The Clans]

Species Name: Yuxu
Species Adjective: Yuxun
Empire Name: Awakened Dreaming Clans
Empire Adjective: The Clans
Phenotype: Reptillian

Traits: Communal, Decadent, Resilient, Natural Sociologists
Ethos: Militarist, Collectivist, Spiritualist
Government: Divine Mandate
Homeworld: Yuxun
Planet type: Tombworld
Short Description of Species: 1-2 meter high bipedal reptiles whose scales are predominantly colored brown, but other rarer variants exist suggesting a more varied biosphere in the past.
Short Description of Empire and History:

Military: 4
Naval: 2 Lacking in water to float boats on, the concept of a navy is still new to the Yuxu. Though military doctrines and theory float around high command, the navy’s practical experience is in practice drills inspired by high speed ground vehicle combat. Ships are staffed by daredevil Unification War veterans who have survived jumping onto enemy vehicles, and hotshot fighter pilots looking for the challenge of flying in zero G.

Ground: 4 The Yuxu have known nothing but an eternal state of low-level tribal warfare for centuries with the occasional flare up in regional hostilities. The newly formed Colonial Corps is staffed by thousands of Unification War veterans and an entire generation brought up to fight in and continue the wars indefinitely, both looking to further test themselves in the fire of combat.

Economy: 3

Industry: 4 The sole reason the Yuxu have even lived long enough to exist in their former state of perpetual war was through the preservation and almost religious application of ancient engineering principles and the haphazard application of conventional scrapsmith know-how. Before dedicated manufactories were constructed by the short-lived nations and city states, near every clan had their own garages and workshops to fabricate the parts necessary for their war gear and aeroponic bays out of scrap. It has been known for some workshops to build new functioning vehicles out of the chassis of scrapped rigs.

Tertiary Goods: 2 Yuxun artisans are phenomenally skilled in their trades. Just like every other Dreamer, they pour themselves into their life’s calling. However, inefficient means of distribution (as gifts or by central clan planning and distribution) have left items that the Yuxu consider to be luxuries (anything not related to immediate survival) to only be exchanged as gifts to friends and to the powerful, or else traded for in low amounts for larger sums of more practical goods, leaving no incentive to produce any in any significant quantity.



Technology: 2
Researched: 1 New research only rarely happens, usually in response to new diseases and for marginally improving technology the Yuxu already possess. Space travel was only achieved through funding to maverick rocket scientists and the findings of rogue physicists.
Scavenged: 5 On Yuxun, it is simply more practical to scavenge and repurpose existing tech than it is to develop something new. The absence of easily exploitable raw materials means that anything and everything must be adapted from what is (relatively) more easily pulled out of the ruins.

Diplomacy: 3
Understanding: 2 The Yuxun clans are extremely paranoid about sitting at a negotiating table with someone they do not know. When forced to trade or otherwise do business with groups a clan may not know or inherently trust, it is done with both sides holding weapons to each others’ negotiators to ensure that the deal go through smoothly under the threat of mutually assured destruction. When dealing with a group on a more long term basis, diplomats will meet each other and get to know each other on a personal level and negotiate on behalf of their clan from a position of mutual trust. Foreigners willing to acquiesce to Yuxu customs will be expected to go through a long and either frustrating or relaxing series of meetings in the Yuxu’s home before it is acceptable to bring up even the most simplest of agreements. Any sign of outward or passive hostility has been known to make Yuxu diplomats brutally assault their counterparts, lest their hospitality and kindness be mistaken for weakness.

Espionage: 4 Once friends are made, they are then used and leveraged to procure secrets from their clan. If a Yuxu diplomat feels that they have been slighted they will hold no qualms about holding all future negotiations and continued peace hostage until their desire for state secrets has been sated. During the friendship building process, every meeting is another opportunity to gain potential blackmail material. Even if a diplomat has no ill will toward their diplomatic equal, their attendants will attempt to freely associate with their rivals’ to gather information.

When dealing with Yuxu, alien politicians expect to deal with simple minded barbarians. When they actually sit at the negotiating table they're surprised to see a well-dressed and sharp minded liaison that treats them with the utmost respect paid to a guest in their home. When bargaining with other races Yuxu will freely give gifts and companionship, but wait for the slightest excuse to be insulted and hint that they are not satisfied before escalating to apply more overt social pressure if they feel that negotiations are going southward. Not having a weapon doesn't stop a Yuxu Dreamer from brutalizing someone they truly believe to be insolent as a way of saving face and to send a message to others not to mistake their initial pleasantries for softness.

Cultural: 3
Internal Stability: 3 The network of diplomatic ties and personal friendships among the different clans and their members is almost impossible for an outsider to penetrate, let alone manipulate. Power currently hangs balanced, seemingly kept in check by the Empire’s Awakener through a near constant schedule of personal meetings with clan leaders, and the personal loyalties of the more junior clan members to the Awakener.

Marketability: 3 Buried within a maze of differing customs lies a rich storytelling tradition easily seen in Yuxu writing and films. The concept of the Hero’s Journey is almost completely foreign to them, as their stories are often as much about the supporting characters as they are the protagonist. Yuxu stories tend to involve themes of personal politics and intrigue from settings ranging from insulated clan compounds and homes to the front lines of a battle. No character is safe from the indifference of the chaotic universe, or the author’s pen.

Quirk: Due to their affinity for surviving on hostile worlds, adaptation to changing combat conditions, and the almost limited variety of customs and philosophies of the different clans, almost all Society technologies are easily within the empire’s grasp. However, due to a limited scientific tradition, any technology in the Engineering and Physics branches must be scavenged or traded for.

Quirk: Having no real concept of naval warfare, Clan ships will seek to use strike craft and boarding parties to turn naval engagements into space based urban warfare in enemy corridors.