Gunstar Autochtonia: So how did you run it?

[Eltacolibre]

A bit curious about ST/players who ran Gunstar Autochtonia,Like what kind of storylines did you go for, How did you run your Mass space battles? How much fun did you have the daystar and the tyrant sun attacking the Gunstar? What kind of aliens/creatures from outter space did they encounter? etc...essentially curious, about your experiences.

[Dietaku]

I'm actually running a Gunstar game right now, right here on the PbP forum. I'm having the Circle be the leaders of the Gunstar fleet's first forays in taking back the Spiral, and while I haven't used either the Tyrant Sun or the Daystar, the Circle has encountered a number of aliens, from the sentient beasts of the monolith planet (Talking animals who all worshiped a bestial Titanic Exalt), the Watchers, (four eyed caveman giants inspired by the Giants of Gantz), and the Rusemin (Grey-skinned, horned amphibious humanoids created by Kimberry after Merela drove the Lintha to extinction by nuking their planet-daeva home).

I think my favorite moment was when the Circle was investigating the world-body of an unaffiliated infant Titan, and after meeting one of her third circle Daevas, a dapper chap I had imagined as a Sasquatch in a waistcoat, was labeled as "Willy Wonka Cookie Monster" by the Circle and the label kinda stuck.

[Robert Vance]

(follows intently)

[eggmansizzle]

This just reminded me, I need to get my Slayer caste Ravenous Lion commissionified (it's a word, I swear.) as a Sovereign caste, Triumphant Lion.

[Hand-of-Omega]

Sadly, I haven't run a campaign for the Gunstar, but I have thought a LOT about one, so I hope that's good enough...

I came up with quite a few NPCs, many of them canon ones that it was fun to see how living in this alternate reality changed them (Chejop, for ex, was little more than a mid-level librarian living on a sinecure, who never really amounted to anything!). I posted writeups for them on the old forum, and if I had realized the forum copy wasn't going to work, then I would have made sure to copy them here! Ah, well...

One of the ones I didn't share back then was Leviathan. In my Gunstar setting, he is THE Admiral, meaning the supreme commander of the space fleet. The Autochtonians built many "war manse" satellites, for something like the RDG; but the biggest one they made was essentially a man-made "moon" for Autochthon, a space station called Luthe, from which Admiral Leviathan commands the fleet. It's a combination of canon Luthe, a Titan skyship and Gethamane, in that it will serve as a secondary home for the Deliberative if Autochthon himself is ever compromised too badly...

Luthe is rarely near the Gunstar, usually scouting ahead and sending back reports on what it finds. Leviathan himself occasionally likes to leap out of it, changing into various ginormous "space whale" type creatures for various purposes...

[TitaniaZero]

I played in one. Short lived as it was. But I had a Malefactor who (planned it through the charagen side) would change sides eventually. She was to get caught and stuff. Anyway she invades the Gunstar near one city or another where two of the PC Alchies were guarding it keeping it safe. My hellstar crashed under it somewhere, and when some of the mortals got too close to it I had to launch one of the Nova's to collapse the passageway. Well that didn't turn out too well... Bad planning on my part destroyed a good chunk of land. Though I was mere moments from being caught and interrogated when the ST up and abandoned the game. XD

If I remember right another group was in space (which made the distraction that got my chara onboard), that space fight was rather intense, my Titanic Ally was doing his darndest to get the Solar that was hounding him.

I miss that chara and that story was perfect. Getting caught and changing sides after learning that not everything is as it appears, was quite the draw for me.

[Steel_in_sea]

We ran it taking allot of influence from battlestar glactica crossed with an game set in autochthonia.

Political intrigue with no one sure of whose is an potential infiltrator and who is actually just being a power-grabbing dick with lots of EVERY exalt has to serve on the gun line in there void fighter.

We've run it that void fighters are allot like piloting warstriders in that you can you allot of personal combat charms (that make sense) whilst controlling them. Adding in dodge, athletic, stealth, archery, ride and sail really mix things up in fighter combat.

Things i have learnt:
Ammoth city smiter is an ass.
Everyone ends up in Ma Ha Suchi "Flight Squad" at one point, no point fighting it. Just try and enjoy it.
The Magus is a force of nature, just stay away try not to piss him off (hes a vengeful bastard) and let high command sort it out.
The sidereal physic network connect to your fighters comms unit is a great excuse to be as annoying as possible to your flight adviser.
Your not playing the game properly is your not a hairs breadth away from being "grounded" or "taken off active duty" for reckless at least a few times in a session.
You literately CANNOT win them all, you are running away from an unbeatable enemy. Sometimes you will lose more than you win, find a way to deal with this mentally.

[eggmansizzle]

We ran it taking allot of influence from battlestar glactica crossed with an game set in autochthonia.

Political intrigue with no one sure of whose is an potential infiltrator and who is actually just being a power-grabbing dick with lots of EVERY exalt has to serve on the gun line in there void fighter.

We've run it that void fighters are allot like piloting warstriders in that you can you allot of personal combat charms (that make sense) whilst controlling them. Adding in dodge, athletic, stealth, archery, ride and sail really mix things up in fighter combat.

Things i have learnt:
Ammoth city smiter is an ass.
Everyone ends up in Ma Ha Suchi "Flight Squad" at one point, no point fighting it. Just try and enjoy it.
The Magus is a force of nature, just stay away try not to piss him off (hes a vengeful bastard) and let high command sort it out.
The sidereal physic network connect to your fighters comms unit is a great excuse to be as annoying as possible to your flight adviser.
Your not playing the game properly is your not a hairs breadth away from being "grounded" or "taken off active duty" for reckless at least a few times in a session.
You literately CANNOT win them all, you are running away from an unbeatable enemy. Sometimes you will lose more than you win, find a way to deal with this mentally.

I like this because of reasons.

[Robert Vance]

We ran it taking allot of influence from battlestar glactica crossed with an game set in autochthonia.

Political intrigue with no one sure of whose is an potential infiltrator and who is actually just being a power-grabbing dick with lots of EVERY exalt has to serve on the gun line in there void fighter.

We've run it that void fighters are allot like piloting warstriders in that you can you allot of personal combat charms (that make sense) whilst controlling them. Adding in dodge, athletic, stealth, archery, ride and sail really mix things up in fighter combat.

Things i have learnt:
Ammoth city smiter is an ass.
Everyone ends up in Ma Ha Suchi "Flight Squad" at one point, no point fighting it. Just try and enjoy it.
The Magus is a force of nature, just stay away try not to piss him off (hes a vengeful bastard) and let high command sort it out.
The sidereal physic network connect to your fighters comms unit is a great excuse to be as annoying as possible to your flight adviser.
Your not playing the game properly is your not a hairs breadth away from being "grounded" or "taken off active duty" for reckless at least a few times in a session.
You literately CANNOT win them all, you are running away from an unbeatable enemy. Sometimes you will lose more than you win, find a way to deal with this mentally.

*puppies with happiness*

[Saur Ops Specialist]

You literately CANNOT win them all, you are running away from an unbeatable enemy. Sometimes you will lose more than you win, find a way to deal with this mentally.

And hopefully without being served the pineapple salad.

[Steel_in_sea]

And hopefully without being served the pineapple salad.

Errrrm if you mean trying not to go crazy, a thing we've always had with all games in authothia is that the state mandates you must see a psychiatrist if under extreme mental strain.

This seemed the sane thing to do when your "champions" can run into difficulty losing there humanity to clarity.

At the moment we all have to visit him, my character was actually taken off duty and confined to a medical facility for a few day cause of one of his visits (hes out now but has had to join Ma Ha Suchi "Flight Squad" to get out)
The alchemical PC has to go to keep tabs on the state of his clarity level in case he flips out since his original city state was killed.
Our siderial flight officer had to take a few days leave because of stress as she had to accompany us on what ended up as a botched rescue mission
We've found it helps round out characters and really helps you get to know them, also really hammers in some of the consequences of your actions

[Valles]

Errrrm if you mean trying not to go crazy, a thing we've always had with all games in authothia is that the state mandates you must see a psychiatrist if under extreme mental strain.

It's a Macross reference. In the original series, a character by the name of Roy Fokker is promised a pineapple salad once he returns from a mission. He's injured on said flight, and, rather than having it treated at the hospital like a sane person, he buggers off to her cabin to meet her, and bleeds out on her couch before she gets home.

Thus, Pineapple Salad is the kiss of death.

[Winged Cat]

Running Abyssal, Infernal, and/or demon PCs in Gunstar, especially in the same party as most of the other splats, is tricky but doable. (On a related note, Devil Tigers are not primarily intended as Theion Chow.)

A voidfighter is really too small and limited a chassis for an E6 Alchemical. Even if it does pilot itself with its own drone body.

A Lunar, no matter how high Essence, who wishes to mate with the Sun's crown artifact to breed containers for Exaltations would do well not to get yandere against the entity that happens to be wearing said artifact.

Tricking Autochthon and his residents into strip-mining and generally exploiting every life-bearing planet they come across, with unstoppable force driven by their urgency, moving on once the Sun draws near, then dispatching demons to follow up with relief supplies, police, and "educators" works well as a way for Theion to steadily conquer what systems lie beyond his grasp. At least, it does until the Autochthonians notice the Sun holding back when they run into a planet that resists their resupply efforts.