Norsehound

Now and again I think about doing one postcard wargames a month as an incentive for my Patreon, but I don't want to promise anything I can't commit to :(

Arlin is running a kickstarter now on crazy blades for your RPGs if you wanted them, a good chance to get some of their art to hold in your hands!

bsky.app/profile/arli...

I browse Pinterest now and again for ideas and cool visuals, and once again ran into one of @arlinortiz.bsky.social's amazingly simple maps. It's kind of an inspiration for the low-fi art of my recent style because Arlin proves you don't need to be fancy to be beautiful.

FedSector. It's been a day, after a few rough nights of sleep. Pushing onward, because I want this to be playable.

Tokens for things in space you have to deal with or encounter. Probably cards among three random event decks (Event, Incident, Crisis) can create them.

This is the only artwork I know of that depicts unit 0 with a mouth.

I-Is that a cloaking device room in the last shot?

FedSector. Still not sure I like locking off the two border hexes in this scheme with the stability tracker, but it does look good.

This is your fleet base location. Like TrekCaptains you'll always have a sector with a home base in play.

Earth won't be... at least until the expansion 👀

FedSector. That background I wrote for Grunge, of the Vaiar barely escaping extinction at the hands of their own creation the Urungs, is still going centuries later.

Sketches to redesign all the starships this morning

FedSector. A culmination of all the postcard games, a unified world, redesign and updates on all the major players from those games facing off against Earth.

It's a bit weird to use these symbols for the Vaiar and Gyr, but I decided to lean on typographical glyphs when I could. I'll roll with it.

My first thought was pulling an idea from TrekCaptains by having missions chain depending on the outcome.

And also that a large empire like the Bosar could be dimensional with how they are influenced. Perhaps the other departments could have a say too?

Also goes without saying how inspirational that is as a character. Far more significant than how pop culture remembers Jim Kirk.

Even Trek 2 ending on the upbeat "I feel young". Kirk always finds a way through, and that's why he's such a great character. You can't keep him down for long.

Already the intelligence officers working to inspect and edit crisis and event decks simulates well the need to be proactive in taking on soft threats. But I need to figure out how interstellar diplomacy works on this stage without making you out as a warlord cutting deals separately from your govt

Thing is FedSector doesn't try to have a conversation about discussions with these larger empires. You as players are regional managers, you don't speak for the whole of Earth's empire.

But that will have an effect on the game. So I need to decide what that looks like.

A thought this morning with an expansion of FedSector is not only marine detachments, but earth dealing with larger empires.

The conquering Bosar empire from pcg Sent and the empire in Epic are both still out there and poised to swallow earth up.

FedSector. Ended up with less time than I thought I'd have... got started onTokens

I was already following you for those very things! (Well, gaming about defense issues)

FedSector. The fleet of possible ships is filling out. Some ships are cross-department positions, since something like a courier is useful for Diplomatic envoys AND spies.

But this will mean politics of these entities will be a part of the game, and you're advancing the story to the next step since the Vaiar were conducting the desperate defense against extinction on Masira.

And that might mean you'll need the Marines to stop the Urungs or anyone from bullying others

Jury is out in whether I want to depict earth itself or not... I'm thinking not, because including it means many more responsibilities to manage home base that I'm okay keeping behind the curtain.

This isn't the settled borders post expansion period of TOS, this is a time in the games history when now Earth has to establish its own borders and identity least they become absorbed by one of the other bigger powers.

It's up to you to see if Earth determines its own destiny or not.

It is now about a century later with Earth having developed their own advanced interstellar navy and starting to claim their own territory. But those two empires are still out there, as well as the Pavar wanting to annex Earth into their own Federation. Vaiaris, Masira, and Gyr are also still there

Earth became an interstellar power when the Pavar gathered several interstellar powers to stop the Bosar empire from conquering this area of space (Sent). After, Earth had to resist the encroachment of another empire (Epic) dominating the region.

FedSector. On the matter of marines and conflicts and things, FedSector is building on the lore started in the postcard games "universe" which was loosely connected across the first three games (Grunge, Cast, Sent) and Epic. By the time we get to FedSector things have changed a little.

Another perk to being a fresh ip is that I could create antagonists and situations -worth- deploying a marine contingent for, but that also may depend on how poorly the diplomat does their job preventing these kinds of crises.

So FedSector's first expansion could bring this in for a Fleet marine player, though calling in the Marines is different from just adding in say, a medical player. The Marines need something to do when there isn't a crisis, and an active hostile situation which might need them is another game.

A variant of FedSector considered the last time I visited the game was one where you launched large scale multi-ship operations. It used the same equipment, but it focuses on creating a timetable, executing a plan, and overcoming problems that arose.

So I might pull them for now, but it gives me an idea for the first expansion for FedSector, something like interstellar ops.

Like TrekCaptains before it FedSector isnt concerned with being a wargame, so once again a marine transport might feel out of scope.

However, in terms of sector operations it might be a concern at a point. The Marines and the military do have a role to play.