Per Ardua Ad Astra
The Human Renaissance
It is the mid twenty-fourth century, and tensions in human space are once again on the rise. Fifty years ago, humanity's burgeoning space presence was nearly wiped from existence by the invading Ballakki aliens, who sought to wipe us from existence in the name of preserving the harmony of nature. World after world, system after system fell to the invaders, and our weapons were as stones and sticks against their technological might. We put aside our differences under the banner of the Terran Emergency Coalition, but even this was not enough. No, humanity's salvation would come in the form of defecting alien princes, embroiled with their compatriots in arcane religious disputes, who proffered their technology and their forces in exchange for a home to call their own. Together, humankind and the heretic aliens liberated our space and saved our people.
However, this moment of political unity proved short-lived. In the aftermath of the war, the Coalition fractured, with states who had managed to resist the alien onslaught taking advantage of the power vacuum and carving out new empires. The Allied Federation of Humankind, the last remnant of the Coalition, now faces off against the powerful Empire of Fortaleza, the greatest of the states that would not be brought to heel. And as tensions between the human great powers continue to rise, the Ballakki look on, facing their own grave problems as revisionists and revanchists challenge the legacy of the Heretic Princes. And across the Orion Arm, governments loyal to the three superpowers grow ambitious, seeking to take their place on the galactic stage at an opportune moment.
Welcome to the future.
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Welcome all! I'm your host, Scrapknight. On behalf of myself and my co-GM, aedan777, I welcome you to the world of Per Ardua Ad Astra, a nation game set in the Orion Arm three hundred years in our future. Humanity has fought off a seemingly unstoppable alien invasion by the skin of its teeth, and old tensions are beginning to re-emerge. Will you lead your nation to glory or ruin? There's only one way to find out.The Human Renaissance
It is the mid twenty-fourth century, and tensions in human space are once again on the rise. Fifty years ago, humanity's burgeoning space presence was nearly wiped from existence by the invading Ballakki aliens, who sought to wipe us from existence in the name of preserving the harmony of nature. World after world, system after system fell to the invaders, and our weapons were as stones and sticks against their technological might. We put aside our differences under the banner of the Terran Emergency Coalition, but even this was not enough. No, humanity's salvation would come in the form of defecting alien princes, embroiled with their compatriots in arcane religious disputes, who proffered their technology and their forces in exchange for a home to call their own. Together, humankind and the heretic aliens liberated our space and saved our people.
However, this moment of political unity proved short-lived. In the aftermath of the war, the Coalition fractured, with states who had managed to resist the alien onslaught taking advantage of the power vacuum and carving out new empires. The Allied Federation of Humankind, the last remnant of the Coalition, now faces off against the powerful Empire of Fortaleza, the greatest of the states that would not be brought to heel. And as tensions between the human great powers continue to rise, the Ballakki look on, facing their own grave problems as revisionists and revanchists challenge the legacy of the Heretic Princes. And across the Orion Arm, governments loyal to the three superpowers grow ambitious, seeking to take their place on the galactic stage at an opportune moment.
Welcome to the future.
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Inspired by games such as Master of the Galaxy, A Question of Power and of course my own The New Order, Per Ardua Ad Astra (hereafter PA3) puts you at the helm of one of the notable powers in the Orion Arm. You'll be sending orders, building fleets and waging war/peace/some combination of the two. This thread is just for signups, so the full rules and regulations will be expounded upon later. I will note a few specific rules that may be different from what you're used to.
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- Setting: PA3's setting was designed from the ground up to have a cohesive canon and timeline. You'll be able to make up anything that isn't specifically mentioned about your state, but that does mean that the look and feel of the setting is constant - there are only two known sapient races, and hard transhumanism is at most a controversial subject. This makes it easier for us to have a cohesive setting.
- Great Powers and Factions: There are twelve independent nations at game start. Three of these - the Allied Federation of Humankind, the Empire of Fortaleza and the Ballakki Quadrarchy - are considered to be "Great Powers." They are unique in that they have two players, one for each of the main two centers of power in the nation. One player serves as the dominant power, and has authority over the armed forces and the government in general. The opposition can help support the government, sabotage the government, or act on its own agenda. In addition, each of the Great Powers has its own mechanism for changing the dominant power - in the Federation, it is elections, in the Empire, it is measured by influence, and in the Quadrarchy, it relates to the state's pacifism. The dominant faction in the Great Powers each receive one extra order.
- Contested Space: In previous space games, a major focus of the game was colonization of virgin worlds. Here in PA3, virtually all habitable worlds in the Central Orion Arm have been settled already. However, in the borderlands between the major powers lie sectors occupied by system-states, subplanetary powers and even interstellar states that simply cannot compete with the great and secondary powers. Each player nation will receive Influence Points that can be budgeted between and spent in all the contested sectors it borders. The more influence you have in a sector, the greater percentage of its income you will receive. Eventually, if you spend enough influence in a sector, you can attempt to annex it diplomatically to expand your nation. The greater the gap between your nation's influence there and the influence of others, the more likely this is to succeed. However, this may anger the other powers, so be careful.
- Stats: We've gone for a much, much more simplified system than in TNO that focuses less on hard numbers and more on having a general idea of the state of your nation. This means both less micromanagement for us and more ability for you to focus on the interesting stuff rather than trying to come up with a new economic plan every turn. If it's cool and at least vaguely plausible, we'll try and make it work.
- Combat: We've generally agreed that land combat is something of a chore, creating a lot of extra work for both players and GMs without a lot of reward. Thus, in PA3, armies function solely as an attachment of navies. As you advance through an enemy nation, you'll have to leave some of your fleet behind at each stop along the way to secure the systems. In general, when you rout an enemy fleet in a system, you'll have a choice to invade or bombard the system. Invasion is costlier and requires cruiser-class ships and larger, but it leaves the planet's infrastructure and earnings potential relatively intact. Bombardment is cheaper and easier, but has extremely detrimental effects on system GDP.
- Events: Extremely popular in TNO, these Kaiserreich-style decisions will return in limited form for PA3. You'll be presented with extremely condensed updates with a variety of choices with actions to take. Unlike in TNO, their use will be more limited and not everyone will get some, but they should help move important events along and make the game more alive.
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A map, and brief descriptions of the nations:
Light Blue: Allied Federation of Humankind
Dark Red: Republic of Icarion
Dark Blue: Directorate of State Security
Gold: Federated Republic of New Vietnam
Dark Green: Fortalezan Empire
Turquoise: Empire of Great Lesotho
Lime Green: Hetmanate of Volga
Green: Bevuit Robotics Corporation
Beige: Ballakki Quadrarchy
Purple: Commonwealth of Nuovo Ragusa
Red: Federation of Syndicalist Council Republics
Pink: Tyranny of Heraklinos
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Allied Federation of Humankind: With a political lineage traceable to the United Nations of twenty-first century Earth and its successors, the United Earth Government and the Terran Emergency Coalition, the Allied Federation is the most powerful state in human space. Forged from the remnants of the United Earth Government and the loyal colonies in the aftermath of the Great Invasion, the Federation has remained relatively stable as it has rebuilt the outer worlds from the war's devastation. Being the ruler of Humanity's homeworld and her oldest colonies, the Federation contains unparalleled ethic and linguistic diversity; however, English, Chinese and Russian predominate, with speakers of Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Swahili, among other languages, also being prominent. Despite its massive bureaucracy and its confusing, convoluted structure, it is ultimately a democratic parliamentary republic. The Parliament of Humanity elects a Chancellor, who serves as Head of State and Head of Government of the Federation - there is no independent executive.A map, and brief descriptions of the nations:
Light Blue: Allied Federation of Humankind
Dark Red: Republic of Icarion
Dark Blue: Directorate of State Security
Gold: Federated Republic of New Vietnam
Dark Green: Fortalezan Empire
Turquoise: Empire of Great Lesotho
Lime Green: Hetmanate of Volga
Green: Bevuit Robotics Corporation
Beige: Ballakki Quadrarchy
Purple: Commonwealth of Nuovo Ragusa
Red: Federation of Syndicalist Council Republics
Pink: Tyranny of Heraklinos
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The Allied Federation's two main political parties, the ruling Federal Democratic Alliance and the Socialist Internationale, vie for political power along with a smorgasboard of minor party groups. In the Federation, elections are held every four years or when the Parliament is dissolved to determine the new ruling party.
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Empire of Fortaleza: Forged out of a republic that itself was the result of a war of independence against the Brazilian government in the mid-21st century, the Fortalezan Empire is the primary challenger to the Allied Federation's dominance. Essentially untouched by the Ballakki invasion, the Empire managed to absorb several devastated colonies in the immediate postwar, and quickly challenged the authority of the United Earth Government in its area of space. In the postwar chaos, the Empire was able to launch a lightning campaign of expansion, propping up regimes such as Great Lesotho to ensure its security. While the Empire has large Chinese, West African and Indian populations that combined outnumber the Brazilian upper class, Portuguese is the sole official language of the Empire. The Empire has varied in its degree of constitutional versus absolute monarchy, given fairly frequent coups, but at present it is a semi-constitutional monarchy where both the Crown and the Parliament, dominated by merchant lords, fight for influence.
The Imperial Crown and the Imperial Parliament both have power over the Fortalezan bureaucracy, which is where much of the real work gets done. Which among these is dominant varies based on their influence, which tends to rise with successful orders and falls with failed ones. At present, with a conniving Prime Minister and an Emperor of average gifts at best, it is anyone's game, so to speak.
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Republic of Icarion: An essentially one-party state centered on the world of Icarion, which was settled by colonists from the southern United States of America who thought their way of life was being threatened by the formation of the United States of North America in the late 2000s. Icarion is something of a simulacrum of the early-to-mid 21st century American south, preserving both its particular dialect of English as well as some of its prominent political dynasties, such as the Romney, Bush and Underwood families. Long at the frontier of human settlement, the Icarionites built an expansionist state that was taken over early in its history by its military, who were then themselves overthrown in a counter-coup by revolutionaries that soon turned into an able replacement for its shaky military juntas. The Whig Party dominates Icarion, balancing the interests of the President, the Senate and the military.
As one of the first areas occupied by the Ballakki aliens and the last to be liberated by human forces, the Icarions have long memories of the Ballakki jackboot. As such, their jingoistic anti-alien policies, not to mention their unstable dictatorship, is something of an embarassment to their Federal allies.
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((more to come, here's the design document for more info and to tide you over))
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Signups
As you may know, some players have already spoken to me on IRC about which nations they want and their design. Thus, countries that have already been claimed will have a player name and an asterisk by them. These players will need to post in-thread to confirm their spots. Other players may request those countries, but must also include a backup choice. In the meantime, feel free to start posting lore about your country and so forth.Signups
Allied Federation - Federal Democratic Alliance* (jeeshadow)
Allied Federation - Socialist Internationale* (TJDS)
Republic of Icarion* (alexander23)
Federated Republic of New Vietnam* (aedan777) (1)
Directorate of State Security* (Lochlan)
Empire of Fortaleza - Imperial Crown
Empire of Fortaleza - Imperial Parliament* (Terraferma)
Empire of Great Lesotho
Hetmanate of Volga* (Mikkel Glahder)
Bevuit Robotics Corporation
Ballakki Quadrarchy - Heretic Princes
Ballakki Quadrarchy - Orthodox Princes
Commonwealth of Nuovo Ragusa* (sealy300)
Federation of Syndicalist Council Republics
Tyranny of Heraklinos
(1) Aedan will not be responsible for any updates regarding his own country.
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IRC
IRC is not required to play the game, but it is very helpful. Our channel is #PA3_Main.IRC
Detailed instructions will be up shortly.
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Miscellaneous
Flag of the Allied Federation
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Flag of the Fortalezan Empire
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Flag of the Ballakki Quadrarchy
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Great Seal of the Federation
Miscellaneous
Flag of the Allied Federation
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Flag of the Fortalezan Empire
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Flag of the Ballakki Quadrarchy
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Great Seal of the Federation
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