Mars 2017 RPG - Worldbuilding

[Trot]

Some ideas I got floating around numbers are just place holders for the time being. This can be added to/ edited as we go.

Military Rules

In this setting players can buy and sell weapons to outfit men. In the begin Earth will keep tight control of the weapons flow and it will be impossible to buy any weapons unless through smugglers. Each weapons cash can outfit 100 men. Guns (small arms and munitions)- Cost 5000 Anti-Armor Weapons (hand held anti armor weapons)- Cost 10,000 Exoskeletons(armored suits that give a +2 to all combat roles for equip soldiers)- cost 20,000 Laser weapons(Powerful and experimental men armed with this get +2 to combat roles)- Cost 40,000 Small Armor(Jeeps and trucks for transport and outfitted with small batteries)- Cost 25,000 additional +1 to detection chance when smuggling Large Armor(Tanks)- Cost 50,000 +5 to detection chance when smuggling

Criminal Enterprise

All criminal enterprises are subject to a 2/20 role to determine if they are detected by the authorities and shut down. A bribe of 25,000 dollars can be paid instead to keep the place open to prevent the closer. Each Business you own requires you to also own one smuggling ship that provides it with the contraband needed to run. These ships are not subject to the failure rolls, but cannot be used to smuggle other contraband. Smuggling Smuggling ship cost 10,000- With a Smuggling ship you can purchase illicit substances 3 times a year, but each attempt to smuggle in something has a 2/20 chance of being detected and losing the cargo. Illicit Bar – cost 25,000 Yearly income 15,000 Illicit Drug Den- Cost 50,000 Yearly income 25,000 Illicit Casino Cost- 100,000 Yearly income 50,000

[Barry Goldwater]

Agreed Stuff

This is my understanding of things BF has already green lighted, so they can be regarded as set in stone. If I'm wrong on any count please let me know. - Oznerol's Map of Mars is to be the official game map. - Barry's UN vs SCO history is to be the official backstory. - Mars is initially administered by a megacorporation derived from the UN-controlled part of Earth, similar to how the East India Company used to rule India in the name of the British Empire. It operates its own government functions and military, and runs the Martian colony as a profit-orientated mining venture.

Attempts at fleshing out lore

The following is stuff I'd like to propose, it is not agreed as part of the story yet.

The Red Planet Corporation

Established Lore The Red Planet Corporation, commonly referred to as "RPC" or "the RPC", is the governing authority on Mars. Established in the late 2000s by a consortium of western corporations as a joint venture to get humans to Mars, the company was instrumental in the early colonisation of Mars, quickly growing to become the dominant entity on the planet. Following a series of strikes and riots on Mars in the early 2100s and the confusing legal situation for putting perpetrators on trial for crimes, the RPC was granted a charter by the UN to operate as a formal government on the planet. The charter allowed the establishment of courts, a police force, prisons, and local government administration, and allowing the levying of certain taxes to fund this. The charter stipulated that any person convicted of a crime that carried a sentence longer than their intended stay on Mars would be sent back to Earth prisons. By the start of the 2200s this provision had become outdated, as Mars had grown enough that people were no longer coming to the planet on 3 or 5 year work contracts, but were instead settling there permanently, with the planet hosting an ever-growing population of "natives", including many who had been born there. The charter, however, did not change with the times, and the RPC was sending fewer and fewer convicts to Earth, as their "stay on Mars" was effectively indefinite. This freed the RPC of a lot of oversight, as Earth-based authorities would often raise complaints if they were sent prisoners convicted of crimes (or given sentences) that weren't valid under Earth laws: now these prisoners stayed on Mars, their plight unheard by UN authorities. Agitation for change was usually grounds for deportation. With no formal "Martian" citizenship established, the RPC would simply expel troublemakers from Mars back to their "home countries". In some cases this was a country the expelled person had never visited, being a born-and-raised Martian with an Earth citizenship inherited through parents or grandparents. This effectively stifled change, as the UN was more concerned with the growing global competition with the SCO, and was unwilling to alienate an entity as wealthy and powerful as the RPC, whose R&D Divisions were responsible for a great deal of the UN Navy's best technologies, and whose lobbyists held vast influence at both the UN Government and in the governments of powerful UN member states. Effective propaganda campaigns painted civil rights agitators on Mars as troublemakers trying to escape fair justice for what they'd been up to. Lore that depends on how Mars becomes independent Questions by me will be in [brackets]. If Earth is basically having WW3 between UN and SCO As the situation on Earth deteriorated, unrest on Mars grew in tandem. After the Battle of Venus left the SCO fleet in a dominant position in the Inner Solar System, the RCP found itself unable to easily expel troublemakers from Mars, as SCO warships would impound RCP vessels as UN-flagged shipping, or destroy them if they refused to be boarded. Unconfirmed reports suggested a "Martian Legion" formation had been formed within the SCO military, comprised of liberated deportees willing to fight the UN. Cut off from Earth, the RCP's efforts to maintain order became ever more heavy handed, and several makeshift prisons were opened after the main facility at [Location] filled up. An insurgency quickly took hold in the Noctis Labyrinthus, as the vast maze of both active and inactive mining tunnels made for excellent concealment, as well as in the underbelly of Olympus Mons, where vast complexes filled with mostly automated machinery important for the colony's operation also made for good concealment. The insurgency could also count on the support of segments of the colony populace, and on the silence of the vast majority of them if questioned by RCP authorities: in the latter stages of the uprising, large areas of certain habitation sectors were effectively no-go zones for RCP forces unless they deployed in strength. The RCP was left dealing with a war on two fronts: civil rights marches and agitation on one hand, and insurgents on the other. Armed with a combination of captured RCP equipment and common black market weaponry (rumoured to be supplied by SCO-sponsored gun runners), the insurgency was increasingly well supplied and was regularly capable of seizing poorly secured RCP installations in open assaults, though in the few occasions where the insurgency remained long enough the RCP to counter-attack they would invariably lose the pitched battle. If Earth isn't WW3ing it up [What is Earth doing?]

Rules Proposals

The Martian Assembly/Parliament/Congress/Soviet

Whatever the name, I'm using "Parliament" for the purposes of this post.

The majority of the game mechanics will be decided by players by passing laws, or I suppose by imposing their will upon the rest if they've got the strength to do so.

I would propose the following broad system, applied to every "settlement" on Oz's map.

Every settlement gets the following attributes:

- Size, how many people live there? Suggest arbitrary figure between 1-100, and Olympus Mons will probably need sub-divisions.
- Support (for a certain group/party/cause), which will decide levels of support in Parliament. Linked to size: a size 20 settlement will have 20 points of support. Mods will decide how it gets split up, using rolls, game events, what the party proposes, and what the settlement does.
- Income. Probably linked to support: how much income do the parties/groups get from these settlements? Suggest fractions: a size 20 settlement giving 10 support to the Martian Workers' Party gives them half the income value of the settlement.

Parliament gets a budget (set by votes) that players may or may not adhere to. If the Parliament sets taxes at, for example, 25%, then every Party/Faction is expected to give 25% of their income to the Parliament budget, and they can refuse or comply.

Parliament budget can go towards whatever purchases there are, and will net +support from the domes that benefit towards the parties in government.

Character Traits

Can be lifted from GoT/WOTR and tweaked.

Large Scale Combat

I propose a very simplistic system. Create a range of troop types (from untrained conscript is 1 point up to special forces-level troops at 10 points or something) and use a 3-5 round system where each round rolls a simple d20*[Points Value] to determine the winner. Casualties for the loser are [Winner's Troop Count]*d5, capped at 25% of the loser's total troops. Casualties for the winner are [Loser's Troop Count]*d5, capped at 10% of the winner's total troops. After the 3 or 5 rounds the winner of the engagement is whoever won most of the rounds. The "winner" then either takes what they were attacking or holds what they were defending, and the "loser" retreats (if possible) or surrenders.

This system can mean a small force inflicting relatively little casualties can still beat a large force that inflicted more casualties. It could mean someone rolling in with an all-10-point force is winning the Points Value rolls but is still killing very few enemy troops (since deaths are Troop Count*d5, not Points*d5). This would be taken ingame to represent something like a surprise strike that catches the larger enemy force out of position and defeats them through shock and speed instead of by killing loads of them.

Mods can grant +rolls to either the Points Value or Casualty rolls based on good RP, solid plans of attack or defence, having a good position, being on some sort of 'home turf', so on. Players who send massive sets of orders that attempt to cover every single scenario will be interpreted as being uncertain or unfocused and might have that count against them. Concise plans are the most likely to net benefits: soldiers in the heat of battle won't remember multiple paragraphs' worth of orders.

Buying Things

Suggest a purchase thread that contains the following sub-divisions:

- Structures, things like +income, +size, and things that enable or generate specific things, for example a barracks allows troops to be stationed, factories allow certain things to be built. Building things in settlements gives +support to the people who build them.
- Military, things like units of troops, tanks, aircraft, even warships. Used to fight other factions, or the UN/SCO, or pirates, or rebels, so on.
- Personal things, probably stuff giving +traits, or enabling certain things (eg you can't go to Earth unless you buy, or have access via someone who's bought, a spacecraft)

I approve of the RPC idea in general. I was thinking the world wouldn't be locked in WW3 right off the bat, though. To elaborate:

Mars without WW3, or with a WW3 in the distant past

If anything, WW3 either nearly or actually did happen in the past, but climate change (think storms or floods powerful enough to actually disrupt major military operations and kill hundreds or thousands of combatants on both sides) and the prospect of mutual nuclear annihilation resulted in cooler heads prevailing and signing an armistice before it either happened or escalated beyond the conventional stage. The uneasy truce that followed saw the UNE and SCO work together to do stuff like injecting the atmosphere with stuff to mitigate the destruction of the ozone layer and jointly support extensive colonization of the solar system with government-sponsored recruitment drives and/or the expulsion of Earth criminals who've demonstrated a capacity for remorse and working with others to their extraterrestrial 'fresh start', renewed funding for the RPC and other colonial projects, and joint research boards collaborating with the RPC to develop new spacefaring technologies in case their efforts to save Earth at the absolute last minute fail. This would've caused the first big population boom on Mars, and the first colony there grows out of the Olympus Caldera (or wherever the first settlement is built) to take in all the new climate-driven refugees from Earth. Of course, the two superpower blocs don't fail, and centuries after (I'd say this WW3/almost-WW3 would've happened in the late 2000s or early 2100s) the Earth has stabilized to a point where they're both growing comfortable at the prospect of blowing each other up again. With (natural) human extinction seemingly off the table as severe desertification, flooding and heating taper off - though in most places they have yet to be fully reversed - there's an uptick in hostilities all along the 'danger zones' of the UNE and SCO frontlines: errant shelling, skirmishes between patrols, rebel formations which totally aren't being supported by the other megabloc cropping up or re-emerging...and in space, their space fleets (both sides having long ago disregarded pretty much all but the 'no nukes in space' clause of the anti-space militarization treaties their predecessors had signed) have also been harassing each other's convoys and colonies. WW4 hasn't happened yet, but it's coming & everyone can see the signs have been building up for a few decades before the start of the game. It will probably officially break out in the first few turns of the Martian game, giving the players enough time to establish their characters and start building their rebel factions or doing other stuff. In the meantime, Mars (as a joint venture of all humanity) is either officially or de-facto neutral and there aren't many Martians who are particularly interested in dying for the sake of Earth nations they probably have never been to, but this is a stance that both the UNE and SCO hope to undermine for obvious reasons: the UNE wants Mars to cut off all trade with the SCO entirely and start militarily helping them, the SCO wants the opposite and Mars' independence from any UNE-linked structures - so that it can be absorbed into SCO-linked structures more fully, of course. On Mars... If Mars is still directly run by the RPC's corporate board, no elections or anything: The RPC is seeing Earthling investments decline even as both the UNE and SCO make increasingly aggressive demands for Martian resources, which can only be met by pushing workers in the mines and factories to their limits and stressing even the labor-bots there. The RPC's status as a UNE-chartered company with a significant number of SCO-based shareholders has resulted in Mars essentially becoming neutral in the showdown between the great powers, but that may well change as both the UNE and SCO keep pressuring the RPC's Martian administration to help their side more than the other. And amidst it all, internal tensions on Mars are spiking too, as the disenfranchised masses of Martians grow frustrated at the consequences of dwindling investment in their colony - less food, less electric power, projects being put on hold, and such - and their complete lack of representation in the day-to-day running of their colony. Since the RPC's security forces, now with even less Earthling oversight than ever before, generally treats their protests with either complete ignorance or a heavy hand that starts with rubber bullets and tear gas, more and more Martians are beginning to look towards armed struggle to free themselves from RPC control... If Mars is an autonomous colony with an at least partially elected assembly: Investment and support from Earth for Mars has still been dwindling over the past few decades as geopolitical tensions at home require the super-blocs to redirect their resources elsewhere, causing a significant economic slump. That has not stopped both the UNE and SCO from placing increasingly higher and higher demands for Martian resources anyway, stressing Martian workers to their limits for little to no increase in pay, or from pushing the partly/wholly elected governing assembly of Mars (gerrymandered and unrepresentative though it may be) to ditch their political neutrality and pick sides so as to gain an advantage over their adversary before WW4 explodes in earnest. Martian convoys exporting resources could also come under harassment by both powers' space fleets. Meanwhile, said assembly is having increasing trouble controlling its people, as the more powerful yet also unelected/elected but hopelessly gerrymandered and corrupt upper chamber doesn't really represent anyone but the upper crust of Martian society, the lower chamber is ineffective as always, and more Martians than ever before are turning to armed struggle or strikes to express their dissatisfaction with their unrepresentative government, dire economic straits and/or the notion that Mars isn't yet fully independent from Earth and its struggles, which they (having been identifying as Martians and not Americans or Russians or whatever for a good while now) feel they shouldn't be dragged into.

Also, I proposed the following map for Earth yesterday, which has since been pinned on the Discord:

Earth map

Blue line = the UNE borders. (map's for a world where WW3 was averted. If it did occur, only thing I'd change is giving Kaliningrad to the EU in exchange for Russia hanging on to Crimea, no reason that exclave would be allowed to survive after a Third World War when even today the Russians are threatening to put nukes and missiles there - it'd be a huge dagger to the heart of Europe and it's completely surrounded anyway)

Rival super-blocs and their constituents

United Nations of Earth (UNE): Atlanto-Pacific Treaty Organization (blue): The Anglo-American-led super-bloc, comprised of North America + most of the Commonwealth and Caribbean + Israel + Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines (probably forming a third influential subfaction within its ranks). A militarily and economically integrated alliance of at least nominally sovereign democratic, capitalist/social-democratic nations headquartered in NYC, near the UNE's overall headquarters. Widely considered to be the 'face' of the UNE, if not a first-among-equals figure along with the EU. European Union (light blue): The super-bloc of European countries and their dependencies, such as French Guiana & Djibouti, as well as French-linked and heavily Maronite Lebanon. Possibly not actually one country yet, but certainly even more militarily and economically integrated than the EU of today with a President, Commission and Parliament in Brussels. Whether it's one country or a bunch though, it's still a generally democratic and ideologically diverse bunch where France & Germany are the big boys, with the Eastern Europeans being more socially conservative than the neoliberal Western Europeans. Southern Common Coalition (light green): AKA Coalición Común del Sur, or 'Cocosur'. This ideologically diverse South American bloc is dominated by regional rivals Argentina and Brazil with Colombia and Uruguay as secondary players, and is headquartered in Montevideo like its spiritual predecessor Mercosur. Likes to demand an equal place at the UNE's round table with the older APTO and EU. Great Shura Council (dark green): The Islamist MENA bloc. A league of Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Islamic republics where Sharia is law, Sunni religious majoritarianism (its adversaries would say 'tyranny of the majority') is the order of the day, and the voice of the Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood is heeded by everyone from the presidents and premiers down to the kebab-sellers on the streets. Headquartered in Cairo, and not keen on following the lead of the 'decadent westerners' whenever it can get away with such. Delhi Pact (brown): An alliance of some of the most severely climate-impacted nations of the world, founded and led by India. At this point in time, with the African members still poor and underdeveloped while Bangladesh and Indonesia suffer from severe flooding or have partially/entirely been submerged, it basically is just the 'Greater India and friends show'. Headquartered in Delhi, and not often willing to let the APTO or EU get in the way of its own agenda. African Union (yellow): The community of African countries that aren't affiliated with Delhi, the Shura or China. Climate change, chronic poverty & political instability in many regions, and the SCO bisecting it has made this bloc heavily dependent on the APTO and EU. Headquartered in Lagos, its largest city. Shanghai Pact (SP): Shanghai Co-operation Organization (red): The Chinese-led bloc within and stronger half of the SP headquartered in Shanghai, comprised of everything between Iraq and China itself and including considerable footholds on South America and Africa. China, as an authoritarian capitalist nation still masquerading as 'the world's last Communist', doesn't particularly care about ideology - just loyalty and economic power - which is why this bloc's members include the Shi'a Islamic Republic of Iran, more authoritarian capitalist states without the Communist pretensions in Singapore & that 'Lanfang Republic 2.0' occupying Malaysia, and left-wing republics in South America, among others. Commonwealth of Independent States (dark red): The Russian-led bloc within the SP, and its weaker half. A collection of authoritarian, extremely highly militarized (even by 'tense future' standards), chiefly resource-extracting or industrial states led by Moscow and headquartered in Minsk, now also part of Russia since its annexation of Belarus. Syria is an honorary member and its only Mediterranean outlet. A jealous rival of the superior SCO within the SP's broader framework.

In terms of rules, one thing I discussed on Discord was how the Martian government was set up. Either it's just an RPC corporate board-run thing, or we have some sort of autonomous elected assembly. In the case of the latter is taken, which would also allow media-type players to have a greater role in covering elections and enable the existence of Fox News/MSNBC/what have you-esque conglomerates competing for people's minds on the waves, I suggested that Mars would have heavy electoral corruption as another bit of fuel for the fire of rebellion: hopelessly gerrymandered districts with ridiculous and nonsensical borders (here are some examples) to maximize the pro-status quo, 'established interests' vote while minimizing the voice of the poor and reform-inclined - imagine the rich neighborhoods getting chopped up into a dozen tiny electoral districts while the poor shantytowns are condensed into one or two oversized divisions, and each electoral district still sends one congressman (or whatever we call these political representatives) to the Martian assembly.

Rotten boroughs, areas (ex. run-down domes that have been abandoned to squatters and criminals) where as few as one or two legitimate registered voters live but which still have seats in the colonial assembly, could be a thing too. And if the assembly is divided in two chambers, the more powerful upper chamber could be comprised of unelected RPC-appointed members or be even more heavily gerrymandered than the lower chamber. In any case, the end result would be a de-facto unrepresentative government overtly tied to and dependent on Earth/megacorp interests that realistically cannot be voted out without a huge change in Mars' voting and districting laws at a minimum. Cue the protests, revolution, etc.

In terms of actual election rules, to keep things simple I think it'd be best if player characters just campaigned for entire parties rather than individual seats, and then it's assumed that they just got seats in the assembly along with the rest of their party when the election comes to an end. Moderator-overseen debates + media appearances and propaganda campaigns (spamming campaign posters, paying celebrities to say nice things about you, etc.) targeted at individual districts, with rolls being done to determine their impact, would be the way to bump up your party's polling in a given district. Certain structural advantages for the 'establishment' party/parties could be represented by said parties starting with much larger vote shares in the gerrymandered districts and other parties' attempts to break through in said districts getting penalties to diminish the results of their own campaigns there. Thoughts?

[Poach]

I'll run with "no WW3 yet" scenario and flesh out the RCP part that will describe Mars up to the present day, with the RCP increasingly caught between the rival super-blocs in an attempt to stay both neutral and profitable, at the expense of the Martian people themselves.

[Dirty Chai]

I believe we should start with the non-democratic system - i.e. no player has representation, it's just a bureaucratic apparatus. Gives more urgency and desire to change status quo and doesn't pre-define a democratic tradition that we have to build off of; as in, it becomes more sandbox with possibilities.

[Poach]

Democracy

Ruleset

Every settlement on Mars will have a vote share equal to its size to begin with. This represents a basic "universal suffrage" assumption, with player interactions able to change this as the game progresses. No settlement will ever hold a vote share higher than its size, but settlements may lose vote share (eg restricting suffrage to landowners might mean mining settlements lose most of their voting power).

For example, a size 20 settlement will have 20 "votes". This isn't implying an Electoral College system, it's simply a way to better manage the popular vote. All 20 votes don't need to go to one Party or Faction (unless the players decide to implement a First Past the Post system or something to that effect).

Elections will be decided via a combination of Mod judgement and rolls. Each Party/Faction competing for votes will have their philsophy/manifesto assigned a value to different settlement types. For example, a strongly socialist manifesto might find more support in mining settlements, where most of the population are poor and employed in manual labour, while a strongly free market manifesto might find more support in farming settlements, where most of the population will be wealthier hydroponic farm owners, more concerned with being able to sell their produce.

In an election, mods will roll d100 for each competing faction for each settlement. Factions will gain +rolls in certain settlements based on their manifesto (see above: socialists might expect good +rolls in mining settlements, free marketeers in farming settlements, both might see modest gains in manufacturing settlements, etc).

Every faction's roll will then be combined, and each faction's roll divided by that total. For example, if ten factions roll and their rolls amount to 673 points total, and the Socialists rolled 93, their support in the settlement is 93/673 = 13.8%. If the settlement has 20 "votes", the Socialist share is 2.76 votes.

The final stage is applying the electoral method the players decided on. If First Past the Post is used, for example, the settlement might give all their votes to whatever faction got the highest vote share in that settlement.

Work to be done to make this ruleset work

- Every settlement on Oznerol's map needs to be given a size. This can be subdivisions if you want (eg, Olympus Mons might be better divided into districts considering how many people live there compared to the rest of the planet).

- Some sort of agreement must be reached on how different settlements react to broad political philosophies. Players aren't expected to produce real world manifestos, they'd only be expected to outline a general philosophy.

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

[Poach]

​Red Planet Corporation

The Red Planet Corporation, commonly referred to as "RPC" or "the RPC", is the governing authority on Mars. Established in the late 2000s by a consortium of western corporations as a joint venture to get humans to Mars, the company was instrumental in the early colonisation of Mars, quickly growing to become the dominant entity on the planet.

Following a series of strikes and riots on Mars in the early 2100s and the confusing legal situation for putting perpetrators on trial for crimes, the RPC was granted a charter by the UN to operate as a formal government on the planet. The charter allowed the establishment of courts, a police force, prisons, and local government administration, and allowing the levying of certain taxes to fund this. The charter stipulated that any person convicted of a crime that carried a sentence longer than their intended stay on Mars would be sent back to Earth prisons.

By the start of the 2200s this provision had become outdated, as Mars had grown enough that people were no longer coming to the planet on 3 or 5 year work contracts, but were instead settling there permanently, with the planet hosting an ever-growing population of "natives", including many who had been born there. The charter, however, did not change with the times, and the RPC was sending fewer and fewer convicts to Earth, as their "stay on Mars" was effectively indefinite. This freed the RPC of a lot of oversight, as Earth-based authorities would often raise complaints if they were sent prisoners convicted of crimes (or given sentences) that weren't valid under Earth laws: now these prisoners stayed on Mars, their plight unheard by UN authorities.

Agitation for change was usually grounds for deportation. With no formal "Martian" citizenship established, the RPC would simply expel troublemakers from Mars back to their "home countries". In some cases this was a country the expelled person had never visited, being a born-and-raised Martian with an Earth citizenship inherited through parents or grandparents. This effectively stifled change, as the UN was more concerned with the growing global competition with the SCO, and was unwilling to alienate an entity as wealthy and powerful as the RPC, whose R&D Divisions were responsible for a great deal of the UN Navy's best technologies, and whose lobbyists held vast influence at both the UN Government and in the governments of powerful UN member states. Effective propaganda campaigns painted civil rights agitators on Mars as troublemakers trying to escape fair justice for what they'd been up to.

The RCP was able to deal with the bubbling unrest on the planet with relative ease while the political situation on Earth remained stable. Though nominally divided between two megablocs (the United Nations of Earth and Shanghai Pact), Earth had been largely peaceful and cooperative as the human race united against climate change and the need to become multi-planetary.

With the effects of climate change mostly halted (though at the expense of large areas of Africa, the Middle East, the central United States, and central Asia becoming desert and many coastal cities having become artificial islands protected entirely by flood defence systems or having been lost to the sea entirely) and Humanity established on countless space stations, asteroid stations, on Mars, and on moons around many of the other planets, the danger of extinction had passed.

The two megablocs saw relations cool and tensions mount over a number of issues, primarily access to dwindling resources and leftover refugee problems from climate change. A number of global flashpoints exist:

- In the Himalayan mountains, the Chinese and Indians are in competition for control over what remains of the mountain glaciers.
- Much of the Middle East has been rendered uninhabitable, with human populations existing mainly in climate controlled arcologies or along the coasts. Shia insurgencies in the Saudi, Iraqi, and Syrian deserts cause significant trouble to both Shanghai Pact forces in Iraq and Syria and UNE forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia, with each side blaming the other for arming them. The truth is both sides covertly arm various competing factions.
- The border zones of Africa experience similar insurgent activity, as well as increasing competition for control of remaining rainforest resources, which both sides are attempting to rebuild.
- Though largely peaceful, the EU-Russia border is highly militarised in what many media outlets call a new Iron Curtain. Barriers, both concrete and fence, line the border, along with minefields, watchposts, and other military installations.

As both sides increasingly lost trust in each other and increasingly militarised themselves, the RCP saw ever greater demands for resources placed upon it. The nominally-UN based corporation had significant interests in both SP and UNE-aligned nations worldwide, and expended a great amount of time and effort attempting to appear totally neutral.

The burden for this appearance fell increasingly on the Martian people, who saw their production quotas increase and restrictions upon them tightened as the RCP sought to favour neither side, but was also reluctant to refuse contracts lest one side or another accuse them of favouritism.

A combination of overworked people, political difficulty on Earth, and military equipment becoming harder to both purchase and move off-planet in the face of increasingly nervous UNE and SP navies, mean that Mars is a society on the brink. Police commanders are reporting to the RCP masters that the mood on the streets is delicate, with widespread resentment and anger present in many segments, and with instances of rioting, fighting with police, poor worker discipline, and outright attacks on RCP property and personnel all on the rise. One report, dismissed as alarmist by senior RCP staff, suggested the populace were on the verge of a general uprising, and that the RCP should be prepared to fight a conventional counter-insurgency campaign very soon.

The report was not without merit. Weapons, stolen, built, or acquired via the black market, are being stockpiled by several groups, extremist and otherwise, in safehouses within sympathetic districts of the colony, or within hideaways deep inside the vast mining networks in the Noctis Labyrinthus.

Mars is, indeed, on the verge of revolution.

[Dirty Chai]

I'd also recommend (lore wise) a "roadmap to revolution" prologue history of recent events.

Event referencing suggestions:
- Great Railroad Strike of 1877
- Ludlow Massacre
- Bloody Sunday
- Murder of Victor Noir
- Intolerable Acts
- Tenentismo
- Estates General of 1789

[Poach]

Military

Battle Rolls

Battles are fought in a 3-5 round system where each round rolls a simple d20*[Points Value] (with modifiers per Mod discretion) to determine the winner. Casualties for the loser are [Winner's Troop Count]*d5, capped at 25% of the loser's total troops. Casualties for the winner are [Loser's Troop Count]*d5, capped at 10% of the winner's total troops. After the 3 or 5 rounds the winner of the engagement is whoever won most of the rounds. The "winner" then either takes what they were attacking or holds what they were defending, and the "loser" retreats (if possible) or surrenders.

This system can mean a small force inflicting relatively little casualties can still beat a large force that inflicted more casualties. It could mean someone rolling in with an all-10-point force is winning the Points Value rolls but is still killing very few enemy troops (since deaths are Troop Count*d5, not Points*d5). This would be taken ingame to represent something like a surprise strike that catches the larger enemy force out of position and defeats them through shock and speed instead of by killing loads of them.

Mods can grant +rolls to either the Points Value or Casualty rolls based on good RP, solid plans of attack or defence, having a good position, being on some sort of 'home turf', so on. Players who send massive sets of orders that attempt to cover every single scenario will be interpreted as being uncertain or unfocused and might have that count against them. Concise plans are the most likely to net benefits: soldiers in the heat of battle won't remember multiple paragraphs' worth of orders.

Military Units

Military Units are purchased in Platoons of 30 men, and are assigned a points value based on their skill and experience.

After every battle, all surviving soldiers are upgraded 1 "Tier" (eg from Conscript to Militia), to represent the accumulation of combat experience.

Purchasable Units

These units may be purchased for use by players. Conscript Platoon - Armed volunteers with minimal training and equipment. Points: 30 (1 point per soldier) Cost: TBC Militia Platoon - Troops with some degree of training and access to better equipment. Poins: 45 (1.5 points per soldier) Cost: TBC Infantry Platoon - Full time soldiers armed to a fair standard, able to retain cohesion even in heavy combat. Points: 90 (3 points per soldier) Cost: TBC Requirements: TBC (access to certain buildings/supplies?)

Veteran Units

These units cannot be purchased: rather, they are created by purchasing weaker units and exposing them to battles. Units that survive a battle are promoted up one tier to the next level of soldier. Experienced Infantry - These troops have been through the trial of combat and have emerged harder for it. Points: 4 points per soldier Hardened Infantry - Repeated exposure to combat has created a battle-hardened soldier that is far better at remaining calm and motivated during combat situations. Points: 5 points per soldier Veteran Infantry - The soldier is now no stranger to combat, having routinely experienced action against enemy forces. Points: 6 points per soldier

Force Multipliers

These are purchases that can be used to augment basic infantry forces, increasing their firepower and effectiveness. Armoured Transports - Armoured vehicles that can transport infantry forces into combat situations. Mounted with heavy weaponry, they are able to support the troops in battle. Points: 10 Bonus: Movement speed? Casualty reduction? Cost: TBC Battle Suits - A heavily automated frame piloted by a soldier, capable of mounting heavy weaponry. - This effectively creates a new class of soldier with the prefix "Battle Suit", eg "Battle Suit Militia" which would be worth 6.5 points (1.5 Militia, 5 Battle Suit). Each Battle Suit Soldier that survives a battle upgrades as normal (eg from Battle Suit Militia to Battle Suit Infantry). Points: +5 per soldier equipped Cost: TBC More?

[The Mad Skylord]

Now, military is great and all. Unfortunately, we need to breath. Therefore, my fellow Revolutionary Comrades, I have designed a basic set of rules for air.

Oxygen Rules

Each Dome has an air generation system (obviously). As Mars has an atmosphere consisting of 95% Carbon Dioxide, these Air Generators function by converting the Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen - very much like a tree, except in vaster quantities. Each dome has a central generator and 3 smaller generators arranged around it - these generators are housed in smaller domes atop the main dome. Usually, the main generator would supply the vast majority of the air supply, with the other 3 acting as auxiliaries and back ups - needless to say, if the main generator is captured and deactivated it is only a matter of time until the oxygen runs out. The Air supply can obviously be rationed - though that brings dangers of its own. Generator Survival Time (Should the Main Generator go off) + Riot Risks Full Ration of Air - 3 Days- 2/20 Riot Risk 3 Quarter Ration of Air - 4 Days - 6/20 Riot Risk Half Ration of Air - 5 Days - 12/20 Riot Risk Minimum Ration of Air - 6 Days - 18/2- Riot Risk It is also possible to use the air supply system to flood the dome with something more... sinister than air. This obviously speeds up the process of murdering the entire dome (it is considerably easier than defending air generators for several days against a horde of angry residents. Sadly, gassing a dome is considered such an evil action that it should be a last resort - or conveniently pinned on somebody who isn't you!