The Background:
Okay, so we completed our second manuever in the Suffer Not campaign. For the past two maneuvers I (as the GM) have been working toward gaining control of the Civilian Commune faction - a set of freeman in a slave society poised to incite revolution.
Now these freeman are important enough to the colony’s production that they wear industrial outfitted and decommisioned Iron to do their jobs laying and maintaining communication and power lines from domed city to domed city. Many of my building scenes were burning tech and using circles to set up the eventual hulling of the lineman. My first manuever was a successful Assess, bringing my non-vaylen FoN onboard against the Lineman, and my second manuever was a successful Take Action to activate them.
Now, of course, this did not net me any disposition this phase because they are 0-3-3. I am a little ahead (27:24) and decided to take advantage of that to bolster a weaker Usurpation position.
So I hulled an Iron Artificer that works on many of the Lineman’s gear and brought in a surgeon to heal him before the end of the manuever. One of the PCs asked the Iron Articifer to look at some of the repairs and modifications the Iron would need and he started working on it. In the process he installed a worm injection unit into the iron (complete with a +2 ob to repair and observation rolls to find the device). I successfully installed the equipment (automated surgeon exp 4 to utilize a prior injection unit I built last manuever, giving it a total of exp 6 Surgery for inserting the Naiven when the suit is donned).
The question:
Now that I have burned the equipment and successfully brought the Civilian Commune over to my side is it established that some of the Linemen are hulled? Or do I have to use building scenes for the injection units to see how badly the Linemen are hurt?
My suggestion was that several of the Linemen are probably hulled over the course of the next manuever as a side effect of my successful manuever roll and the players can use building scenes to discover it - interactions with changed men, mechanical inspection of the gear, etc.
It may be that the Lineman are hulled as color and I have to use either surgery rolls or circles rolls to bring them into the fold officially as Vaylen if I want them to act as Vaylen.
I’d like to hear other’s opinions on handling the situation.
Thanks,
That auto-hulling device is nasty and evil, and therefore cool.
I was thinking that the sequel is the best place to describe the depth of Vaylen infestation, too, so it’s good to see I’m on the right page.
Also, you set up an intent for the maneuver, right? So your intent for the Take Action to activate the faction would be something like, “I want to bring the commune over to my side by hulling the linemen.” Even if you fail to hull linemen in the maneuvers, in the sequel (if you are successful) you can describe some of the linemen getting hulled by various Vaylen agents, or the FoNs.
edit: That last bit was a question for those in the know.
Does Eruditus’s “successful Assess” allow him to Take Action against any other Faction on a subsequent Maneuver in this Phase, or does he have to Assess each Faction independently?
Is Eruditus correct in saying that having activated this Faction under his control in the current phase (Infiltration), it remains under his control for the remainder of the game and adds to his disposition for all the phases to come as well as the current phase?
Once you have successfully Assessed the Factions, the factions remain assessed for that Phase. So yes, he could now Take Action against any other faction without performing another Assess. However, to Take Action against the Disposition, he still needs to Assess the Disposition.
Color-wise, sure, whoever you placed in charge of that faction remains in charge until they are pushed out of power. However, the faction only gives you points for the particular phase in which you Took Action against it. In subsequent phases, that faction will be up for grabs again.
My understanding is that you’d have to successfully activate the faction before they become your toy to play with. So, if your stated maneuver intent is as you describe it but you failed your maneuver, well, it’s just like failing any other roll. I think.
That said, when you successfully Take Action on that faction, you could surely hull the lot of 'em. Which, if I understand the intent of taking over a faction, gives you a way to poison certain factions for the future two phases against the other side trying to take 'em.
Thanks folks. This was enlightening. I hadn’t caught on to important points here (only need assess for factions once and factions are only held onto for the phase).
