Tag: lets

#Stellaris / #Cthulhu / #roleplay Our Background Situation and the House Rules for Roleplaying!

Due to the rather strict house rules, the mostly inimical AIs and me being new to the game we are playing the game on normal.

Galaxy: 4 Arms (resembling tentacles ;-)) 1000 Stars, 40 AIs, 10 Advanced Starts, 33 “Homemade” races of the Cthulhu Myth – most of the applicable races you can find on Yog-Sothoth.com
http://yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Cthulhu_Mythos#Non-human_species_of_the_mythos

The most known of them are probably the Star Spawn of Cthulhu, the Elder Things (from the Mountains of Madness), the Flying Polyps, the Deep Ones, the Great Race of Yith (Great because they had mastered time travel), the Moon-Beasts and the Voormis.

Mankind had just mastered space travel and is curious whom to meet out there, in space. They have had their experiences with alien beings on earth, but most of them which were seemingly dangerous have either disappeared or have – at least on the surface – been controlled. So mankind has kept its rather xenophile attitude towards other lifeforms.

The Arkham Humans, under their momentary chancellor Anatoly Antonov (Direct Democracy), want to be the good guys – “we” believe in the power of individuals, in science and in the good in all life – so we are Individualist, Xenophile and Materialist. Our Background is Nomadic, from mankind’s past, and also Communal, because we like each other and respect each other well. :)

Momentary House Rules (they keep getting expanded and straightened by ideas from viewers and myself as well as by gaining experience in the game):
– We have a positive attitude towards alien life and will never attack alien life until provoked massively or attacked
– Due to our Individualism, our scientists will, if possible, always research the technologies in their specialty field – and may trade places with their colleagues for doing so. If there is no such specialty tech accessible, we will go for the easiest technology available (the one not costing much) as they are not confident enough to take on more unknown and difficult fields outside of their specialties
– We will respect the Individualism of Species added to our Empire
– Non-spacefaring species will be supported to reach the space age (Enlightenment) and will be incorporated when they are vessels if they at least like us some (we want to form a multicultural, universal and peace bringing state)
– We will never use slavery

House rules which have been added already:
– Free elections: After a while it occurred to our old chancellor Thelma Ward that, in a direct democracy, elections should not be influenced at all – so whoever wins the popular vote is chancellor
– Will of the people: The chancellor was elected under a special agenda. We will do our utmost to fulfill this agenda. If a separatist chancellor is elected and wants to remove planets from the empire, then it will be done as well! :D
– Government Focus: The chancellor has special attributes and will concentrate their politics and policies on using them (this reflects his/her personality)

More coming in the following days :) Hope you like the story’s “structure” so far!

Happy Gaming,

Immanuel Can

Picture By Howard Phillips Lovecraft (d. 1937) – http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb197/F-N-S/Misc/65129807_dadbb202a6_o.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19564000

Let’s Play Stellaris: The Cthulhu Myth – a Roleplay and Survive Adventure!

Hi there, fellow Startravellers :)

Stellaris is just too awesome to stay a lurker. So, started a LP with the following background:

Trying to survive as the Arkham Humans: We have recreated the strange world of the Cthulhu Myth in Stellaris by adding all of the Races of the Lovecraft / Smith / Derleth / etc. cycle to the game. Now it is full of strange, slave-holding, mind-controlling abominations – out to get mankind! We are playing the Arkham Humans, trying to survive this Maelstrom of Madness :) This is a Huge Galaxy with quite some advanced starts, so it may be impossible to survive while roleplaying our Diplomats. We will see…

We are roleplaying the intentions of a slightly naive, friendly, xenophile nation, so non-optimal gameplay choices are sometimes made – intentionally. In a universe made mainly of the cruel killers of the Cthulhu Myth mankind still wants to look at itself and say “we are the good guys!”.
We are also roleplaying the ingame Characters, so their preferences will be preferred (for example the specialty fields of researchers will mostly be chosen in research choices; or the personality traits of admirals will also be considered).

After meeting the Cthulhu Mythos empires, I’ll always give a short introduction into their culture and motivation in the Cthulhu / Lovecraft cycles and their connections to other races. And now started, after getting more experienced in the game, to add little quests and stories to it which will be included in later episodes.

The Playlist starts here with over 50 Episodes currently. Adding new ones daily at the moment as the game has hooked me!

Intro

First Gameplay Video

So, I’d appreciate any new contacts, people to talk/write with and also of course feedback (made a curious intro together with my wife which should be really atmospheric to watch, though it’s rather technically simple :-D) and, if you’re a fan of Lovecraftian backgrounds and the whole Cthulhu myth, you will probably enjoy watching it! Also improving it steadily after viewer suggestions and new ideas :)

Also open for modding suggestions.. like to write stories and events, as I’m an experienced dungeon master. So if anyone up there is already working on a Cthulhu mod or wants to start one… I’m here :)

At the moment, I’m house-ruling quite much of the game into making it more difficult: As individualists, we cater the empire to the suggestions of the individuals in charge – scientists will always research their specialty fields for example, if accessible – and much more. It adds even more personality to the already great game!

See you and maybe have fun watching!
When really notable changes happen, like forming a federation or an alliance, I’ll come back with a detailed post.

Sincerely yours,
Immanuel Can from Thoughtful Gaming

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