I've fucked up /tg/.
I've designed a rather simple style of TTRPG where you control fleets of ships and colonize worlds in a sort of post-galactic war setting, d100 combat, etc etc.
Instead of levels or some-such, there's research for new gear, tech, and ships. And it's gotten out of hand.
Right now, mechanically speaking, the players are way more advanced than just "bump up the numbers" style of difficulty increases. They have weapons that ignore shields, shields that make conventional energy weapons useless, and fighters that can suicide into ships to board them.
There's two universe-stage warring races, and the players are caught in the galaxy equivalent of a factory for one of the races. Short of pitting the players along their lines of conflict, not much is really occurring.
I've run out of potential ideas for enemy fleets. I need encounters. Wacky shit that will push the envelope, and actually pose a threat, besides just potentially wiping out a ship here or there. Things that make their stats kind of useless without feeling ham-handed.
>>44062980
You've already thrown the Deathstar at them?
Any Star Trek plot built around a "subspace anomaly".
>>44063037
I've given them the "Junkstar".
Basically make a sapient Space Hulk, tack a slightly stupid AI on it with one directive. Gather more junk.
And then make every major faction in the galaxy drop ships and troops on its location to preserve military secrets and tech (which are a big deal in this setting.) The players have so far wiped every fleet sent at it without actually boarding it.
>>44063091
Subspace is actually a mechanic in this setting. Largely involves FTL travel, and some plot mumbo jumbo I'm not going to spill for fear of them lurking here.
self bump in desperation?
>>44062980
Giant, mindless space amoebas have mindlessly floated (at relativistic speeds) into the galaxy and are ingesting all matter they come into contact with. Would be a complete non issue if the giant, spherical, living mass (which should span the breadth of something like 4 dozen stars) wasn't on a collision course with *insert important city-world here*
Fighting them is pointless. The membranes that hold them together simply aren't affected by the weaponry they use. Fighters crash into them? They are now being digested. You've got energy shields? Hope they keep out digestive enzymes and fluids while you're being slowly encompassed and digested. Developing new weaponry might work, but will be extremely expensive and would require a very large amount of time and research into an area that would be otherwise useless.
The trick is figuring out how to divert the mass (rather than killing it) and turning it towards another galaxy devoid of sentient life or into the darkness of the void between all galaxies.
>>44063261
I... I like this...
>>44062980
Space plague!
Some sort of strange space-borne pathogen is infecting entire systems. Quarantines are having no apparent effect on containment and the plague is quickly becoming a threat to all galactic life.
It falls to the players to enforce the quarantines, suppress any riots and revolts, investigate how this strange disease is spreading, and/or develop and administer a cure.
>>44063415
I have that. In race form. They're kind of a pain seeing as they're masters of biology. I have focused less on the biology part lately though, so I probably will do something along those lines.
>>44063453
I could come up with more if I know what your setting has, what you've already done, and what topics you don't want to touch with a 10 ft. pole.
>>44062980
Do you have a doc with the rules? This sounds interesting.
>>44063583
>>44063512
I had a wholesplatoon-themedwebsite because I'ma faggot, but I need to pay the bill on hosting. I guess I should do that real quick. Gimme a sec to do so.
here we go.
http://squidkid.ink/
You're looking at the first section.
>>44063337
>ANOTHER
Well, lets see. This may be a bit cliche or old hat but...
A new cult is spreading like wildfire throughout the systems that the players call home. The cultists aren't violent and they aren't suicidal but rather are fervently pacifist?
The problem? The areas with the highest rates of converts is the military.
As governments at war are sent reeling as entire platoons of troops on both sides lay down arms and refuse to fight, the players find that many of their most trusted officers and lieutenants are handing in resignations as they can no longer continue to bring death to others, even indirectly.
The governments are declaring the cultists as traitors and cowards and are on the brink of rounding them up into camps. The players must decide first how to defuse the situation all while finding fresh recruits to fill the ever-growing vacancies.
>>44063512
the tl;dr on what I have done is follows:
>destroy homeworlds. All of them.
>infiltrated ships/colonies a la Heresy
>Assimilated races a la borg
Actually those two are the two races referenced here: >>44062980
>Group of people in the general fleet turn out to be basically the equivalent of Stazi crossed with Seal Team Six, and trying to eradicate the influence of the aforementioned super-races.
>They helped the only major native power to resist the invasion of the not!borg and saved their homeworld
>general colonization woes.
I've resorted to semi-ripping Stargate episodes at this point.
>>44063674
This would work for everything but the one race that is pseudo hivemind. (even though in the rules it says no fucking hivemind. This is exactly why.) Even so, I'll see how it goes.
bump because I don't wanna keep ripping "Saving Michael Shanks" fics.
>>44062980
Have them fight the Hiigarans. If they can beat that, they deserve to rule the universe.
They'll be fighting an enemy that is capable of constructing entire battle fleets in a span of minutes. The time involved in most space engagements will be spent cranking out more ships that they can build out of rocks and interstellar dust.
>>44062980
Colossal "ship". They fire on it and destroy it. They fire up the barbecue to celebrate another win when the ship comes back. This time a little meaner than before. The ship is actually made up of nanobots capable of constructing more of themselves and learning. If they aren't all destroyed or contained they will be able to restructure themselves and escape to rebuild. In fact the previous encounters may only make things worse. If a large enough chunk is seperated by their ordinance and cast adrift it may be able to restructure and form a splinter which proceeds to harvest resources and rebuild to form a seperate ship. The challenge then is just fighting them, destroying one of a fleet of them is only a stopgap. They need to find a permanent solution or rally others to help them hold back this force while a solution is found.
>>44063982
Oh now this would be fun. There's a player who has made a race of sapient nanites. It'd be interesting to see how the players backlash against him for potentially creating them.
>>44063982
The challenge then ISN'T just fighting
>>44063790
What about some good old fashioned pime taradoxes?
NPC race starts firing missiles at empty space-docks and/or construction facilities but when the missiles explode there is no damage done. And then flagships just wink out of existence.
Anything that involves something that is either immovable in time or that swims actively against it can be fun, if not a bit fucky, to work with.
>>44063790
>This would work for everything but the one race that is pseudo hivemind. (even though in the rules it says no fucking hivemind. This is exactly why.) Even so, I'll see how it goes.
This can be easily rectified by making the pacifism hit this race especially hard. Every member of the race is suddenly extremely repulsed at the notion of taking any life, even things that are usually eaten, including plants.
This could be done by either being a dick (sometime necessary) or by inviting the player a rare chance to help actively shape the story the others are about to experience.
"Nutrition can be gained by mixing organic compounds in test tubes, why destroy life when it is made so thoroughly pointless?"
>A new species of beings beyond [Known species] understanging starts visiting your [Space where the game happens]
>They are made of energy and can barely interact with our more material one
>When they do they fuck up everything
>And i mean everything
>Their method of transportation is to teleport great distances randomly
Now your players must find out if this new species is friend or foe, what are their intentions? can they be reasoned with? Can they be destroyed?
Depending on how they deal with this situation they will end up with new awesome tech and weapons or maybe new friends that can be called to pay their enemies a visit from time to time.
I guess I can bump the thread with some stories from the group.
I'd like to preface by saying I'm a fan of the Enhanced Rule of Cool. If you can come up with a decent explanation, and the dice don't say no, it flies. This has made some wacky but awesome stuff happen, particularly the story of Grandma Margarine, Commander of the First Legion.
>Party is made up of 4-5 active players
>rules/plot/fluff/etc allow for a rotating cast of players, befitting a college schedule.
>the "Enemy" (not!Borg) has gotten frustrated with their new found colonies, and decided to invade.
>cue shits being flipped
To give a bit of backstory, the not!Borg has invaded the PC galaxy, wiping out their home-worlds and empires. They're more a force of nature than a real race at this point in the story.
>Preparations are being made, two or three turns of simply building defenses and cranking out fighters.
>Fleet arrives and splits up in system.
>One, heading towards the station in the middle of the system, where the Civilian fleet is housed. (NPCs and non-present players)
>The other, heading to the glassed planet that is inhabited by the Synthetic race of brainwashed AI, or not!Cravers.
>Player fleet splits up to handle the threat.
>The synthetic player is distressed at the lack of support he's getting from the other players.
>He has been the whipping boy of TPK scenarios, already lost two entire races.
>Mans up and launches his meager one battle-cruiser against a fleet of several ships, including two battle-cruisers.
>The "Party-Barge" Amoeba decide to take up arms in his defense
>slaughter ensues.
>The Amoeba's absence at the station gets attributed to the loss of the station and 75% of the civilian fleet.
>the orbital fleet is taken out successfully, but not before it drops 15 units of infantry and 5 armor units.
>Synthetic player has a "brilliant" idea.
>conscript ALL of his population into militia.
>>44062980
A star awakens.
Through breakthroughs made in recent technologies the players discover that a random star in the far corner of the galaxy has gained sentience. There is no telling how long the star has been sentient and the star itself seems to be unaware of the sentience of the players or other races. But there is no doubt, the star is communicating with something else. But all scans show no signs of any matter at where these "star signals" are being sent.
>>44064189
Milita are basically unspecialized infantry with shit tier stats, used to fluff up existing armies.
If they die, you lose 250 population (population is counted in units of 2500, where 2500 pop = 1d100 planetary action)
>Enemy infantry have significantly higher stats
>the infantry make them pay for the loss of their orbital fleets
>pants are shat at the rolls, 4 crits in the first round on the Enemy's part.
>4500 population lost in the first round
>roughly 1000 population left
>fuckfuckfuck.avi
>Amoeba steps in with a solution
>evac survivors, nuke it from orbit, only way to be sure.
>militia make retreat rolls
>failures, all of them.
>Except for one unit.
>100
Infantry that crit during combat become veterans if they survive combat, 100s creates hero units.
>Group proceeds to roleplay for the Synthetic Player the tale of Grandma Margarine, armed with her Giant Frying Wok, and a Glock 18
>Her and her squad charges headlong into the enemy forces trying to cut their retreat path
>picking up small children out of harms way while she mows down shock troops.
>GET TO THE CHOPPA
>except the choppa is a half wrecked skiff full of miscellaneous parts and equipment due to resupply the orbital station
>group escapes successfully
>watches the beautiful show of a Thermal Lance cutting across the planet.
>Glassing it a second time.
>a small child asks Grandma, "Will we ever go home?"
>the Grandmother just shakes her head and says "Some day. Some day we'll all go home."
Since then she's done little short of blasting her way through enemy forces with the singular goal of letting all her children get home safely.
Literally a 75+ year old mecha woman with a Glock. Killing Borg.
>tl;dr grannie don't fuck around when she has her gat out.
>>44064270
Thanks to the guy in our player group who smokes way too much goddamn weed, we have a race that can speak to stars, and whose homeworld was just on the edge of the habitable zone, leading them to PRAISE THE SUN.
>>44062980
What kind of scale are we talking about here?
Cluster of star systems, one galaxy, two nearby galaxies, entire universe?
>>44064505
Singular Galaxy
>>44064542
The universe is a fabric upon which all galaxies are sewn. This is common knowledge. Something has shifted the great cosmic blanket and a nearby galaxy which was due to collide with ours sometime within the next 5 epochs is already in the process of colliding with our own. Systems on the borders of both galaxies are colliding with one another and wiping out all life contained therein. Some systems are being flung out into cold void by the strange effects gravity is having. Perhaps more startling is the fact that our galaxy's spin has increased as the core's gravity is being magnified by the startling and sudden amount of new mass. If the problem is unchecked the entire galaxy may collapse into a super-massive black hole.Based on reality by the way.
>>44064723
Maybe as an endgame event. Currently the way galactic politics are situated, that would wipe out the presence of one of the super-races, so I could see how that would be a fair tactic.
The more I think about it, the more I realize it would be a good self-destruct button for the other race.
>>44064138
They do derive their food source from agriculture, and then converting it into biomass. The issue I see then is that it's not a traditional hivemind, but more, as he's named it, and "Evolved and Devolved" relationship. Think Hive Queen & Formics instead of unified consciousness.
Just make a fight about mechanics rather than ignoring the mechanics you implemented to give them power. Giving the players a stronger weapon to smash a hard enemy with only steepens the power curve to the point where you get to broly levels mary sue and you gotta write in a bullshit excuse to why your PCs can beat the enemy or make SSJ God which is also stupid.
Why even have shields if you give the players weapons that can ignore them? Something like that should be incredibly unique and rare.
send a pod of energy devouring space whales after them and them only, being attracted to the "smell" of the energy it gives off. the space whales exist in another dimension and aren't affected by attacks in this one, and in the end the whales are constructs of a higher being fucking around in a lower dimension so their attacks can't even hurt it.
>>44062980
A third race that comes onto the scene with tech that makes the other races look like steam engines. It can either engage both races at the same time and force a team-up which the players get caught in, or the players can try to subvert the species before it engages and dominates the other races.
The players' advanced tech can ends up just allowing them to get by or they're forced to adapt the new guys' tech to suit themselves.
