Embark on an epic journey of conquest and diplomacy in "Imperium Ascendant: Conquest of Earth," (name TBD, but that's what I am thinking)  a thrilling roleplaying game where you and six other players assume the roles of noble heads of the mighty Krellan Imperium. For millennia, the Imperium has stood as a beacon of power and dominance, and now it's time to expand its reach to the distant planet of Earth. However, upon awakening from 200 years of cold sleep, you find Earth more advanced than anticipated. Fear not, for your advanced weaponry and strategic prowess will surely pave the way for victory.

In "Imperium Ascendant," players will experience the challenges and triumphs of leading a vast interstellar empire on a quest for domination. As noble heads of the Krellan Imperium, you'll navigate intricate political landscapes, forge alliances, and engage in tactical warfare to subjugate Earth and its inhabitants. The game features a unique dice-less system and black box mechanics, ensuring that players can focus on strategy and roleplay without the burden of learning complex game mechanics.

With "Imperium Ascendant: Conquest of Earth," immerse yourself in a richly detailed universe where every decision shapes the fate of worlds. Will you lead with an iron fist, crushing all opposition in your path? Or will you employ cunning diplomacy to secure your dominance? The choice is yours in this gripping adventure where the destiny of galaxies hangs in the balance. Join us and claim your rightful place among the stars!


[*] The Basic idea [*]

In X-com you play the plucky human resistance fighting a last ditch attempt to stop the alien menace from conquering humanity.

What if instead...you got to play the aliens?

Instead of the X-com races, I'd use my own hybrid version/culture.

Krellans -Think of a combination of the Klingon and Orcs/hobgoblins. They are an honorable people who have ground dozens of worlds under heel as they expand in the stars. The player will have approximately 100 Krellan Nobles in their house to serve as officers and underlings.

The Krellan last had an emperor over 1,000 years ago. Since then, the homeworld has been run by a collective of noble houses. The command structure on your ship is much like that. Your house was chosen for this conquest and granted Earth as your demense. You aren't the most powerful house in the imperium, but on this ship, you and the other players word is law, you are the ultimate authority and you rule.

In addition, the Krellan have the concept of Kuve. Kuve is the Krellan word for "They Serve". They aren't quite slaves, but they aren't full citizens of the empire either

(These names are tentative)

Psilons - An ancient precursor race with an advanced intellect. They are largely docile people who were conquered long ago by the Krellan. They fill out the largely scientific, technical and engineering roles in the ship's crew. Psilon do have some telepathic abilities and are some of the most trusted Kuve in the Imperium. Without their contributions to the imperium in technology, it would never have expanded as it has. There are some Psilons who are aquatic in nature. They are what you might call "Sectoids" from X-com.


Ur-Quan The Ur-Quan fought the Krellan to a stand-still and are physically imposing shock-troops. They are trained from birth to be soldiers and make up the backbone of your Imperial Marines.


I could add a few more races. Initially, I thought there maybe about 30 other minor races, including one that is sort of an exotic musical faerie creature for lack of a better term, but have them play such minor roles in the crew that I do not track them or detail them initially. This gives me the freedom to add them later. I had briefly considered adding the "Mithilindir" - a drow like race that rivals the Imperium in a sort of alliance/equal footing as part of the campaign. However, I thought that may be too complex. I was just trying to do an homage/easter egg to the failed Drow game.

I also thought about adding a Canine race, or possibly some being that excels at Engineering and has an Enigmatic sort of approach to technology -where it is integrated into their bodies.


The players start with a large city-ship that took over 200 years to arrive here from the homeworld. The Scouts that visited Earth arrived around the 1300s and deployed a biological agent (The humans called it the black death). It was intended to hinder the humans and prevent them from advancing technologically before the arrival of an invasion ship.

When the Krell launched the city ship, It was the early 1800s and humans were still at a technology level that would make the invasion a simple matter. However, in the last 200 years Humans have advanced rapidly and the game begins in the year 2024.

The initial players will start in a "Chapter 0" where you make some choices about what you are bringing with you, and your executive command staff.

We'll skip the long cryosleep until you arrive in the Sol system. In Chapter 1, you'll establish your forward bases, make some decisions about reconnaissance of the Earth, and from there collectively go about establishing yourself as the Lords of this world. Confidence was high at Krellan Command that you would find this assignment rather easy and quickly establish a power base for your noble house. The wealth you extract would eventually be shipped back to the homeworld for the greater glory of the imperium.

In the meantime, cults may spring up that actively worship you and embrace you as divine arrivals, others will resist you with all their might. You'll be free to subvert and outright conquer the humans as you see fit. You'll direct your scientists to advance your technology or even adapt some of the human technology to your needs, etc.

System:

I'll have freeform threads for discussion around the operations center. I'll have event threads that I post that approximate table top play.

I was thinking this time, I'd take the approach of "Null system"


No stats - just sort of 'black box' everything for the players using natural language descriptors. You'll know your relative capabilities and you'll be given approximate odds of success by Psilon analysts for certain operations, but I'd do all the number crunching behind the curtain. Nothing to learn other than the very basic outline of Krellan culture that I will intentionally keep vague so that players could put their own mark on it.


As the game progresses, other advanced alien races could show up, including resupply from the homeworld.

thoughts?
This message was last edited by the user at 20:11, Wed 06 Mar.

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