Fun Campaign Rules

General Discussion
1

So Im about to embark on a fun new campaign after having my empire destroyed last game (It was fun). Each new adventure I try to come up with fun rules that both give me limits or tries to replicate some developments in a fictional setting. Now before I start my new one I wanted to post what I think im going to use as rules but I would love to hear from the community rules they have put into there game for inspiration.

Limited Ship Designs and Tonnage - So this is a bigger rule but a fun one. So before my empire gets into a war I can only design two type of warships. 5000 Tons and below patrol craft and up to 10000 Ton Destroyer. I have to have a 2 to one ratio of these untill I find a NPR that Im in a war with. The idea is if my empire is pretty peaceful it will lag behind in design and doctrine but once war kicks off I can start working on bigger ships.

Shipyard Limts - So as above I can on earth only have a max of one shipyard with 3 slips with a max 10000 tonage. I can get more if either war happens or I get more colonies. I can get another 1 if I have 6 colonies (This means populations) and another at 12. If war happens I can build up to two more shipyards. Tonnage on these can only increase if war happens.

Prototype Stage - So unless I’m in war each ship has a hard limit. When I create a new design I can build the first one (the prototype) after launch I have to wait a year to represent a year of working out design flaws and trails. After that year I can build the class fully. This can change though in war time as new designs get rushed out and also to help give me a fighting chance.

No Shields, No Lasers, No Plasma - Guns and missiles cause its fun.

Every 5 years military budget review - So betwen the Navy, Marines, Army there will be a review every 5 years who gets the priority for research, increase weapons, and other equipment. I’ll roll a d4 see who gets the higher priority. If a Branch gets the bottom slot 3 times in a row they start getting more cuts (Like Navy losing any new ship production or even losing ships)

Losing a War but alive - If I lose a war (where some how peace is achieved but i’m alive) a colony becomes a new rebellion NPR. They get some free gear (Small Shipyard) Some surviving ships to representt the start of a civil war.

I can’t stop exploring - Even if the universe is exploring I must make a attempt to have a exploration ship keep going out. This is to force new challenges but also even if I loss the game I can roleplay some new game.

No gen mods - Got to stay with baseline humans.

No Terraforming - Makes life more expensive but this tech is not allowed.

So here is some of the rules i’m doing but I would love to hear what rules you have or will put in.

3 Likes
2

A couple campaigns ago I started in the year 1800, and only researched new weapons and things like that once something related to that was discovered in real life. AS I recall, plasma carronades and high power microwaves were the earliest beam weapons.

I’ve also thought about doing a run where I only use fighter factories, or use them as much as possible. Survey craft, warships, freighters, tankers, and colony ships can all be done below 500 tons. But that might wait for the next version so I can go up to 1000 tons instead.

Are you sticking to to just one direct weapon type, or a few? I might try sticking to exactly one weapon type in my next game, one of the more niche ones like mesons or something.

1 Like
3

I played a campaign a year or two ago where I heavily relied on dice rolls to make choices across my empire simulating a senate, which included giving my ship designs designer problems.

When designing a new ship roll 1d10, if it’s even design the ship with a design malus. Roll 1d4, if even, the ship gets an additional malus.
Roll 1d8 and pick from this list for each malus:

  1. retain an old tech
  2. add an extra fire control
  3. paper thin armor
  4. too many sensors
  5. too many crew quarters
  6. high command limit ( senior CO checkbox)
  7. low command limit
  8. over-engineered in general.
5 Likes
4

I ran a Federation campaign a while ago with design rules

All major ships must include:

1) A jump (warp) drive

2) Geological survey sensors

3) Gravitational survey sensors

4) At least 3HS each for Active, Thermal and EM Sensors.

5) Hangar Bay of at least 5% ship size.

6) Phasers (Lasers)

7) Point Defence Phasers (Railguns)

8) Photon Torpedoes (short-range, high warhead missiles)

9) Shields

10) 36 months endurance

11) AUX, ENG, SCI

10 Likes
5

I’ve done conventional only and fighters only campaigns and I plan to repeat both again in the future. They can be great fun and a very different flavour of Aurora!

1 Like
6

My last campaign I was running with the idea of Romans in Space. I am thinking of restarting with some rules / limitations like these here.
Some I did try that seemed to limit things a bit:

  1. No gene modding (Humans Primacy)

  2. No “major” terraforming (removing a little or adding a little gas is ok. Up to your judgement what is acceptable)

  3. All ships must have emergency cryo, at least basic active sensors.

  4. All combat ships had full command stations (Aux, CIC, Engineer)
    Some things I will try for the next run.

  • Each System can only field a certain number of ships. (Legions)
  • Each minor colony can field limited auxiliary ships
  • Focus on heavy defense, each ship has a minimum armor and shield requirements.
  • Always war?
1 Like
7

Few role-play things I am doing in my current game:

  1. My salvage ships carry salvage team aboard - boarding trained infantry with either small logistic module (salvage equipment) or light personal weapons (security detachment)
  2. Planets with existing biosphere need xenological survey, I am using xenoarchaeology equipment for these units. I roll on how many months it take to catalogue the biosphere and then I decided if terraforming is allowed or how fast can it be done (do not really have rules for this yet, so I eyeball it), so we do not wipe out original biosphere.
  3. If the local biosphere is well developed, I create small ground units of Wildlife Rangers (Planetary Wildlife Response Corps) that monitor local biosphere and ensure that it is protected and also does not interfere with our colony.
2 Likes