The Prosperity Station Resident's Briefing StarDate 3202.075

The Story So Far. . .

The shift was just coming to an end. The duty operations officer yawned and stretched.
"Thank the Ideal this shift will soon be over" he said to his co-worker across the control room. "Fancy a drink after work, Joe?"
His co-worker did not respond.
"Joe?" He swivelled his command chair, intending to attract his friend’s attention.
Joe was sitting transfixed by the sight on his view screen.
From where he was sitting he could clearly see the eight very large blips on edge of the space traffic control radar. The blips were slowly getting closer.
"Are we expecting a visit?"
"No" said Joe, in a distant voice "you know it can’t be a company re-supply – the last one just left"
"Well what do you get when you ping their transponders?"
"No response."
"So that means…."
"Yes – we have a fight on our hands…"
Shaking himself out of shocked paralysis, the duty officer was galvanised into action, launching himself across the room towards the big red button marked EMERGENCY ONLY.
In seconds, the whole station was echoing to the sound of the alarm sirens.
Prosperity Station was about to go to war.

Introduction

Players in this game will be either the square-jawed honest asteroid miners defending their essential mining base, or teams of scruffy, dishonourable and ruthless space pirates.

The mining base is organised into teams with a variety of functional roles, some combat, some technical, some non-combat. All are essential to the running of the station and have their part to play.

The setting for the game is taken from The Universe (of Starship Marine), and you can find out far more about the background than you probably want to know by browsing the web pages associated with this on:  www.pastpers.co.uk/universe

The Teams

The Asteroid Miners ('Belters')

The belters as a class are of mostly ancient earth stock.

Their ancestors were the first to live and raise families in space in the asteroid belt of the home Solar System centuries ago - and they represent a very hard breed of humans.

Belters have spread throughout human space, and their expertise in asteroid mining and living and working in marginal environments is legendary.

It is said of the belters that they can 'eat rock and breathe vacuum'.

Prosperity Station Management

The station was built by, and is owned by, the Solar Mining Corporation. The Corporation's local managers are responsible to Head Office for the safety of the station and it's continued profitability.

Government Officials

Prosperity station is in a system controlled by the Martian Association. It therefore has to have official government representation to keep an eye on things. These are representatives of central government and the rule of law. They do not own the station, however, and have to work closely with the Station management.

‘Space Pirate’ Crews

The crew of the ‘independent traders’ – or perhaps more accurately, space pirates - are organised on a sort of functional basis.

Obviously, the Captain is the most influential member of the crew, but each of the officers has their own set of loyalists.

All Officers are represented by players, so a typical crew will be composed of 4 to 6 Officers. These are the scum of the spaceways - untrustworthy, violent and evil smelling. Avoid.

Game Control

The tactical game system will be the Starship Marine rules (see separate copy or the website)

The main role of game control is to keep the game moving.

The players will operate all the rules, referring only to Game Control when there are problems defining what can or cannot be seen, interpretation of the rules or generally when the players need help.

Game Control is the last word on interpretation.

Do not go around asking several Game Controllers until you get the interpretation you want.  This will be frowned upon.

Game Layout

This is a semi-closed game. The defenders of the station will be able to conceal the movement and location of their forces until such time as the pirates' figures can see them. Game control will advise in the event of doubt about what can or cannot be seen.

Pirates will be in view at all times (i.e. internal cameras and sensors give away their positions).

Each of the eight segments of the station will be on a separate table. The defenders will have smaller maps of each segment to mark on hidden movement.

To keep things manageable, all 'innocent civilians' will be placed on the maps in full view (i.e. their rescue transponders can be detected by both sides).

Game Timetable

Troop Types

For a more detailed explanation of equipment, see the Starship Marine rules, which explain the weapons and equipment in use.

Officer: This is the player’s personal figure. They will always have their own space armour and sidearm. The only officers are players – so if you want more officers on the team, you must somehow recruit more players.

Combat Capable Civilian (3C): A civilian with some military training or experience capable of using ex-marine armour and weaponry, who has smuggled their own military-style kit aboard the station. The standard kit on all 3Cs consists of

• Armour
• SCA2
• 4 grenades
• 2 demo charges

There are not many of these, since the possession of military class combat armour and weaponry is technically illegal. On the whole Belters don’t trust the Government to protect them, so arming themselves, if possible, is a natural consequence.

Miner: These are the largest element of the population of Prosperity Station. They only have normal unarmoured spacesuits - but are very agile and tough fighters. Few have SCAs - these are generally frowned upon by the Authorities. All have access to mining equipment, tools, iron bars, gadgets etc. This makes them very dangerous in hand to hand combat.

Special Rules for Miners:

Miners are Unarmoured targets

Miners can move as fast as armoured marines, and count as marines in hand to hand combat.

Technicians (of various sorts): A specialist in their field (Armourer, Robot Tec, Medic etc). Standard equipment is a spacesuit and no weapon (all the suit’s hard points being taken up with equipment etc).

Shuttle Pilot: Actually flies a shuttle. Only pilots can fly shuttles. Pilots are hands-on flyers and can do things like planetary landing and take-off (PLATO) etc.

Standard equipment for a shuttle pilot is a Spacesuit and SCA1.

Mining Support Systems Robots

The MSS is a multi-purpose robot designed to operate a range of equipment in micro or zero-g environments. Like a combat robot it has limited (Loyal Pet Class) intelligence. These are all unarmoured non-humanoid robots.

MSS-C: Cargo and stores lifter - Treat as a TRUC robot (see SM rules)

MSS-B: Plasmatic Boring Device Carrier - Carries a PBD which can cut through anything (this means walls, hull, space pirates etc)

SPECIAL MSS-B RULES Anti-personnel - treat as an SCAIII, range up to 2" - must be in sight of a friend to work. Doors take one turn to destroy Walls take three turns to make a 1" wide hole (the other side will show indications from turn 2 onwards - glowing patch etc) Hull takes 10 turns to penetrate.

MSS-S: Surveyor - designed to take surface samples and act as a remote viewer. In tactical situation can be used to observe.

Combat Robots, TRUCs, and Close Support Robots are explained in the main rules. There are not many of these on Prosperity Station.

Start Situation

Each Player has a set of figures representing themselves and a number of people who they manage or lead.

This will vary slightly according to role.

In the case of the Station Officials and Station manager, this is pre-set by the scenario.

In the case of Miner foremen and Construction Foremen, there is some choice about the composition of your team.

Enthusiastic players might wish to bring their own personal figures.

If you do, please make sure that the different types can be clearly identified.

Special Rules for This Game

(Additional to Starship Marine)

Medic

May assess the condition of any downed person, and increase the chance of them being fit to continue fighting.

Roll 1d6 : If patient is armoured score 5 or 6 and the individual is fit to fight once more.

If unarmoured score 6 and the individual is fit to fight once more.

Roll once per figure only. Repeat rolls are not permitted.

However, if armoured the armour will need repair before they can go on fighting (see Armourer)

If the individual is deemed not fit, they can still be returned to an AutoDoc for further treatment (See below AutoDoc Medical Unit).

It takes an entire turn to assess and/or recover one figure.

Robot Tech

May repair downed robots and make them operational again.

Roll 1d6 : A damaged combat robot can be made operational again on a 5 or 6

A wrecked robot of any type can be repaired on a 6.

You may roll repeatedly for any given robot, on subsequent turns (the time taken to get a 6 reflecting variable repair time).

Successful repair also includes any weapons fitted.

It takes an entire turn to assess and/or repair one figure.

Armourer

Assesses and repairs the armour and weapons of downed combat crew.

Roll 1d6 : A damaged suit of combat armour can be made operational again on a roll of 6

Obviously, the crew inside will need medical attention before they can operate the repaired suit. (See Medic)

You may roll repeatedly for any given suit of armour on subsequent turns (reflecting variable repair time).

It takes an entire turn to assess and/or repair one figure.

Successful repair also includes any weapons fitted.

AutoDoc Medical Unit

Any casualty brought back to the AMU has a chance of recovering, even if a medic tried and failed to revive them earlier.

The AMU is represented by a flowchart and the figure being treated is moved around the chart until deemed recovered or unsavable by the Virtual Doctor™ software.

A standard AutoDoc can treat 2 casualties at once.

Identification Friend or Foe (IFF)

The armour and weaponry used by the combat crew is of a basic military specification. The military have systems built-in to the weaponry and armour that detects friendly troops and the weapon refuses to fire if targeted at a friend.

The IFF system uses a variable coding algorithm, which can be selected at the start of an action. Once selected, it can be switched off, but not altered (the re-coding process takes a while and needs an armourer).

The IFF system means that you may not fire on friendly troops with SCA or APGW. This isn't a choice - the weapons will simply not fire, no matter how hard or often you pull the trigger.

Grenades, on the other hand, are indiscriminate and are not limited by IFF.

The IFF is also used in the suit's retinal display system to tell the occupant who is a friend or not (since most fights are in the dark using radar and IR to 'see' and are usually very confused). If a friend turns off his or her IFF in action, their display icon changes immediately - in game terms this means you must announce the fact if you turn off your IFF. Once turned off, it cannot be restarted.

In the case of co-operative actions like this mission, teams may agree to have a common IFF algorithm - thus making 'accidental' kills from friendly fire less likely. Normally, all the crew of the same ship will have the same IFF code.

If it becomes necessary, crews may specify the code algorithm by selecting a number between 1 and 10,000, writing it down and handing it to game control.

Innocent Civilians

In addition to the collection of rough, tough spacefaring types, this station also has a lot of support services personnel who, if armed with an SCA would be more danger to themselves than an enemy.

These are Non-Player Civilians (NPCs if you like).

Unfortunately, as far as a pirate is concerned, they are just easy hostages or ransom-fodder.

The defenders of Prosperity Station have to take account of their safety.

The Station Authorities (Station Manager, Station Colonial Official or Chief COP) can issue Emergency Instructions over the StationNet to all personnel. These have to be simple, like "all personnel assemble in Hanger A for evacuation".

Complex conditional statements will confuse, and game control will take a judgement on the likely responses of NPCs.

Alternatively, any player can give them direct instructions.

These are most likely of the 'stay here' or 'follow me' variety.

Anything more complex will have to be ruled on by game control.

The response of each civilian must be diced for - depending on the player role:

Roll 1d6 for obedience.

Station Authorities, COPs or Marines 4+

Construction Workers 5+

Belter Miners 6+

Roll once per turn - the time taken to get them to do what you want reflect the fact that they NPCs are non-combatants, confused, stupid or not paying attention. Don’t expect them to react as fast as you seasoned fighters.

NPCs always have emergency spacesuits on (this is standard procedure, and they would have done this at the first sign of trouble long before the fighting starts).

In combat, NPCs count as unarmoured and non-tactical targets at all times.

They move at 4" maximum.

They are subject to morale rolls when under fire as well (whether or not they are being targeted).

If they encounter pirates and there are no friendly troops in sight they must roll for morale. A 'fight on' result means that they try and evade the pirates.

Mining Companies

There are two mining companies operating out of Prosperity Station:

Allied Space Industrial Asteroids - a subsidiary of a local Quadrant 7 interstellar shipping line.

Team 49 - a mining subsidiary of the powerful Disney Corporation.

There are many asteroids near Prosperity, so these two companies are not in direct competition, but they do indulge in a little 'friendly rivalry' now and again (usually after several drinks in one of the bars).

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© Jim Wallman 2002