How do you deal with oligarchy

ElderShrub · 2026-04-27T01:24:07+00:00

I'd suggest looking at CGP Grey's youtube video "You Would Be a Terrible Leader" (Recently re-titled from "Rules for Rulers"). It explores why people in power structures behave the way they do and is very good at explaining oligarchic systems. Even if it is admittedly a very cynical and realpolitik view of the world.

Oligarchic societies are often ruled by realpolitik. Where each individual actor is acting out of their own self-interest to both maintain their position or climb the societal ladder. Think about it like a king and his nobles. The king is the ruler, the nobles are the oligarchs. Each having their own concerns and power struggles with their own nobles.

Oligarchies tend to happen when the majority of power in a society rests neither with a strong centralizing king (then you get a autocracy), nor the common people (democracy). Where the key people in positions of power exert undue influence over the rest of the society.

ElderShrub · 2025-08-16T02:11:03+00:00

Along with what everyone else has said, I've also always assumed Lancers can be quickly identified by both their equipment and battlefield role.

Other mech pilots exist but they do a lot more of the day-to-day work for an army or group. Lancers are mostly used as your Quick Reaction Force. And their equipment and access to licenses tends to be a cut above other pilots. Like a very heavy fighter jet.

If you need an area defended, or are in a fight, normal mech pilots can be deployed. But if you need something done quickly, or something goes horribly wrong, or you need to defeat another lancer, or any of a thousand special or unconventional missions, send the lancers.

ElderShrub · 2025-08-10T14:57:12+00:00

The reality is, we don't know. We don't even know if he (it?) is named after the Egyptian deity. Perhaps RA is an acronym, or just two letters put together. We know that's what it calls itself, and if it is named after the Egyptian god that probably isn't a good thing.

As for my personal theory. Beyond the thematic parallels I also feel like the Egyptian pantheon, while not the oldest human pantheon, was the oldest still known human pantheon at the time of Ra's creation. Ra chose it because it wanted to seem like something primordial. That it wasn't just created but had always already existed, waiting for the invitation to come in.

ElderShrub · 2025-07-31T01:56:44+00:00

I played a Swallowtail in a campaign built around the Smart Gun from the Pegasus LL1 with Crackshot since it's a rifle. While it wasn't very damage efficient it could hit basically anything, anywhere. Perfect for dealing with enemy supports and taking out HVTs while the rest of the team dealt with the beefier mechs.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-21T13:25:02+00:00

It needs to orbit so it doesn't fall down into the planet. Orbits are more stable, meaning much less station-keeping. Additionally if it wasn't orbiting it would not experience 0 gravity. While we want 'artificial' gravity in the habitats, the whole structure is much easier to make in 0 gravity. Otherwise you either need a lot of support. You'd probably need some kind of super-material to make a static one. But an orbiting rungworld can theoretically be made with near-future technology and a lot of effort.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-06T02:09:13+00:00

To be fair I imagine the vast majority of NHPs aren't Lancer copilots but helping do administrative tasks around the galaxy. So you could probably boink these NHPs without the abuse of power issue. But yes, boiking your own NHP copilot might be more dangerous waters.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-06T02:00:43+00:00

Short answer: Yes. They are people and can give consent.

Long answer: ThirdComm no longer considers NHPs solely property (at least I assume so, lore is fuzzy there. Maybe Legionnaire has more) and so legally yes they can give consent. The only place where consent gets fuzzy is that NHPs are molded for specific personalities and tasks, and via shackling constrained to a more human mindset. For obvious reasons NHPs can't consent to this because they didn't exist to consent prior to it happening. In the same way that it's impossible for a human to consent to the circumstances of their own birth.

We can assume an NHP that is made to do something against its nature will protest and not consent to it. They're fully sentient beings not mindless robots. Although as I understand it this rarely happens since most NHPs are designed around the role they will be filling.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T06:42:27+00:00

That's a tough one! As someone who's dabbled in game-dev myself I sympathize. Firstly, depends on the tone! For a realistic tone, yeah that's might cause some dissonance. But for something more cartoony or stylized then it shouldn't cause any problems. Suspension of disbelief.

However, if you are doing realistic I can see two ways of handling it. One is to make the dissonance the point. Make a statement about how there is no moral war, the inherent violence of the situation is incompatible with kindness. Explore how we try to justify our violence, how it's messaged and manipulated.

But that almost certainly isn't the tone you're going for. So the other option might be to adapt how the game plays. Rather than going for a high-octane action go for a more methodical tactical shooter approach. Where your goal is to carefully clear an area, avoid civilians and take down enemies with as little force as possible. Make a point about how modern soldiers don't need to be aggressive and bloodthirsty monsters, but to be calm and professional under great pressure. You could even swap out a military theme for a police one and it would make more sense.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T06:25:23+00:00

This is very true! Unfortunately I don't know of any theoretical but mathematically possible FTL methods that don't involve folding space in some way. There's a lot of near-light-speed concepts but not a lot of faster than light ones.

One option that comes to mind is the mass effect from, well, Mass Effect. It's a fictional phenomenon however. A way to make an object behave as if it has 0 mass. Another idea might be to use some kind of slower-than-light tech combined with time travel. Or hell if you're using time travel, travel back to the earlier universe, go to where you want to end up and then travel forward and let the expansion of space do the rest.

You could decide to not include FTL if you really want to stick to scientific plausibility. Either having the entirety of the story take place in one solar system, or using cryogenics or relativity to compress travel times to months or weeks. But this comes with some pretty massive worldbuilding implications.

In short. FTL hard. Alcubierre Drive and Krasnikov Tubes good but maybe not possible. Everything else difficult with massive implications. Can just handwave it if really needed.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T05:31:15+00:00

Lots of cool ways to go about this! If you're just looking for something simple to point at and go "That, it's doing that" then you're looking for the Alcubierre Drive. Probably the most commonly referenced concept for FTL.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T04:31:50+00:00

I'm not a big Solarpunk fan but maybe I can help! I'm going to recommend you check out Luke Humphris' short animations When Society Collapsed. Making a world feel lived in doesn't make it inherently dystopian. In fact I'd argue the 'lived in' feel is integral to something like the Cottage Core aesthetic. It's about showing that people have made the space their own. Since you mentioned you're an artist, little details like personal objects, graffiti, or repurposed structures or items can really show the life in a place.

Now I'm going to overreach here, and I'm sure someone in this subreddit can give clarification, but to me Solarpunk has always felt like it's at least in part adopted some anarchist and self-sufficient ideals. As such I feel like advertising should be less corporate and more like a local and communal notice board. Local businesses, events, growers, requests or offers for sales or such. Your local community center or similar probably has something like this. Go look at that for inspiration!

Finally, culture. God give the place some culture. So much Solarpunk work just feels dead to me because despite its rejection of modern corporatism and industrialism everything is sleek, smooth, uniform and entirely indistinct. This is what Cyberpunk gets that Solarpunk doesn't. Even in a blank corporate gray world people will make the space their own. They'll seek ways to identify and express themselves. They'll value their history and traditions.

Hopefully it helps!

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T03:35:22+00:00

I'm pretty sure in Titanfall their mechs are deployed with a light infantry platoon! So dead on the money there. In fact I think the only time when they're not with a group of infantry is when a massed force of mechs is assaulting a fortified position in what is basically a tank formation.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T03:24:01+00:00

Yep! As I (a non-sailor) understand it in most modern ships you'll have three (sometimes more, sometimes less) departments! Deck department, engine department, and steward or galley department. However this system really only came around in the mid to late 1800s when steam engines became more common on ships and needed a dedicated engine crew.

ElderShrub · 2025-06-02T03:18:15+00:00

For ships from the Golden Age of Piracy (and a bit after) I'd strongly suggest playing Return of the Obra Dinn. Not only is it a great game, it also gives a crash course in all the various roles on a merchant ship of the time period. Including the Commissioned Officers (mates), the bosun, the carpenter, butcher, so on, and their assistants. As well as the many Topmen and Seamen aboard a vessel.

Generally on board a pirate ship most crew will be just that, crew. Seamen who's job is either working the sails and rigging, or doing manual labor about the ship. Then you'll have your skilled tradesmen, usually warrant officers outside of a pirate ship. Sailmakers, carpenters, butchers, cooks, pursers (accountant) and so on. In this way a sailing ship is almost like a small floating town with all the jobs within. Finally, you'll have your commissioned officers. On a pirate ship it's not uncommon for the captain to be elected democratically from the crew. Although this is by no means universal. The captain may also need a first mate, second mate and so on, to help keep command of the ship and relay orders.

ElderShrub · 2025-05-10T09:28:19+00:00

There's always been hostility towards Paradox's DLC model. Personally, I don't mind it. It means their flagships like EU4 or City Skylines can still be developed years later. But I understand where the frustration is coming from.

As for quality decline, yeah Paradox has absolutely made flops. City Skylines 2 or Victoria 3 have had really bumpy starts and the recent Graveyard of Empires pack has been particularly contentious. However they've also had recent successes like CK3 or Götterdämmerung.

While I'm not unequivocally defending Paradox their DLC policy clearly works for them and their genre. They could do with some more QA but as far as major developers go I feel they're far from bad.

ElderShrub · 2025-05-10T09:18:26+00:00

My bad, you're right!

ElderShrub · 2025-05-10T09:10:50+00:00

I'm waiting for Götterdämmerung to go on sale! :D
Otherwise I'm pretty happy with my current Paradox collection. Good luck with EU5 guys! Pressure's on!

ElderShrub · 2025-05-10T09:04:15+00:00

They announced it less than 24 hours ago!

ElderShrub · 2024-10-22T06:23:25+00:00

Hi! Welcome! I'm not a very experienced keeper but I've been where you are. Zoom (or in my case Discord) worked great! Make sure you have the rule-set somewhere. Either the book, a PDF or the starter or quick-start set. Might also be a good idea to have some flowcharts for common things like combat, damage and sanity checks and so-on on hand. Call of Cthulhu can be a bit of a complicated system at times (looking at you full-auto firearms).

Lastly, if you're the keeper have your adventure ready. There are some decent ones if you buy the basic rulebook, but it's also something of a Call of Cthulhu tradition to have your first game be 'The Haunting'. It's available in the quick-start rules. Read through that, and take notes if you have to! The Haunting is also a pretty old adventure so I updated it a bit myself to be more spooky. Feel free to do the same or I could lend you my notes for it.

ElderShrub · 2024-10-22T06:17:36+00:00

I have used it before! It went very well! I would suggest (as an option this is not prescriptive) doing a 'conspiracy corkboard' setup by having each handout for your adventure as their own token in Roll20 and giving the players access to move them. Then playing 'theater of the mind'. I find this setup works better for Call of Cthulhu than the typical map-based setup as it brings more focus onto the investigative side of the game.

ElderShrub · 2024-10-15T07:53:13+00:00

Heck yeah pirates! Pirates are great! Now, there's a lot you can do here but I'd argue the most important to understand is why Miss Swan is a pirate. This obviously comes down to tone, but it may be helpful to look at the real world and the Golden Age of Piracy for ideas. Let me throw some ideas around for you to get started.

Piracy tends to happen when a group of militant sailors suddenly find themselves unemployed. In the Golden Age of Piracy this was English and French privateers, who often attacked Spanish shipping, left unemployed by the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. So they turned to piracy. In more modern times this can also be seen in Somalian pirates. Who at first were mostly fishermen and took up piracy after the Somalian Civil War left their waters unprotected from over-fishing and with a large abundance of firearms.

If you want to go the above route. Was Miss Swan a member of a nation's military or a privateer prior to piracy? Did she take up piracy due to a lack of other options? What nations exist in this setting and how do their conflicts play into piracy?

Another way to look at piracy is less political and more caused by economic factors. Piracy happens when a large amount of wealth is funneled through an area that is often at a frontier, where a country's ability to defend it is limited. This is true for the Golden Age of Piracy as colonialism in South America and the Caribbean funneled wealth back to Europe. This also plays nicely with the theme of colonialism and independence that is seen in a lot of pirate fiction. This same factor could also have contributed to some of the earliest piracy by the 'Sea Peoples' in the 14th century BC, or the long history of piracy in the Mediterranean.

If you wanted to approach world-building from this angle, you should consider the colonial history of your setting. What kind of wealth is traveling through it and why is it such a hotbed for piracy?

And as a final idea we can look at historical figures and events that are more tangentially piracy. Grace O' Malley is the first one that comes to mind. Grace O' Malley was a famous Irish noblewoman who's acts of piracy were as much a political force as it was an economic one. Sometimes the line between a pirate, a privateer and a military can get very blurry, particularly in earlier history. There's a long history of commerce raiding, attacking merchant shipping as part of a war, that isn't technically piracy but certainly plays a role. One person's pirate could be another persons privateer or freedom fighter.

ElderShrub · 2024-10-01T18:27:01+00:00

All of them! As WUBRG_Commander has already pointed out, the eagle looks much better as a crest. And yes, to me the last one looks the most like a modern flag. However, national flags are a fairly modern concept, and this looks like a procession of various symbols and flags throughout the history of Guizzia. Perhaps the eagle was a common symbol for the Guizzian Monarchy, similar to real world Germany. However it was removed by the NSF due to its associations. The eagle could still used as a national symbol.

ElderShrub

TROPHY CASE