Yesterday Blair, Mike and myself played the second game in our ongoing Flames of Orion three person campaign, this time playing a custom mission I wrote based on my own hype level around the board I had put together for the battle. You need to stay sane somehow and apparently this is how I do it – building tables for little dudes to battle over. It’s a simple life.
Yes I know it’s in a weird half painted/half not state, but such is life. If you look closely, there are even some of the dreaded enemy of all narrative gamers – L SHAPED BUILDINGS! As my Sun Rot terrain project earlier this year proved, I’m a sucker for terrain that provides a narrative before you even start rolling dice. This setup gave me big corporate research base with on site staff houses and after that rolled around in my brain for a good 12 hours, out popped a bit of lore for our corner of the Orion Sector, as well as a custom scenario that sees the players intercepting a distress call from this base and going to loot it for any shiny new tech they were researching. Real stand up folks, these mech pilots.
Oh, and did I mention that there are still AI controlled turrets still operational at the base, just waiting to shred potential looters? No? Well, yeah. If Hideo Kojima taught us anything, it’s that we need to watch out for autonomous weapons platforms, no matter where we might find ourselves.
This scenario also let me start incorporating some of the supplements that have been put out for Flames of Orion in the last couple months (get ’em here!) which means there gonna be some next level weapons on our table in a couple weeks. They’ll probably blow my mechs off the board by turn 2 – as is tradition around these parts – but I’m no less hyped. Going out in a blaze of glory is the name of the game in Flames.
Having these supplements come in the form of in-world corporate catalog pamphlets is one of my favorite new rule delivery systems I’ve seen this year. It’s just the right amount of light world building and immersion, not only through the words on the page but the form the page takes. I can just see some merc between missions sitting at a shitty bar in the lower decks of his companies transport ship, smoking endless death sticks and thumbing through one of these trying to find something new to give them the edge next battle.
Below is the lore and scenario for you to play and incorporate into your Flames of Orion games. If you do end up using it, let me know how it went either here or on instagram!
Scott (@brush_of_nihilus)
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Distress Signal
November 29, 2577
Jörmvinder Armaments R&D Base JV-28
Tech-Wastes of Jundis Prime
Orion Sector
The Jörmvinder Armaments R&D Facility, designated JV-28, is located in the acrid drifts of the JundisPrime Tech-Wastes. The base and the adjoining work town lie in ruin, the still smoking pre-fab habitatsand factories belching toxic fumes skyward. The Tech-Wastes are accurately, if not inelegantly named – a scarred desert where failed prototypes and forgotten war machines rot beneath a dead sun. Less than a 36 hours ago, JV-28 broadcast a fragmented distress signal consisting mostly of static, shouted orders and the staccato report of automatic gun fire. Among the noise, a single chilling message was clear enough to understand. A voice, yelling to be heard over the din.
“It’s loose. We must evacuate immedi…”. The broadcast cuts out after that.
Multiple combat units in the orbit of Jundis Prime now converge on the base to investigate in the hope they may recover classified tech. Preliminary orbital scans of JV-28 show no signs of hostile approach – no vehicle tracks, no incoming dropships, no signs of life. Whatever happened here did not come from the Wastes but from within the base itself.
Rumours have persisted for months that JV-28 was testing autonomous weapons platforms,
experimental AI-assisted neurotech interfaces and, if the most concerning rumours are to be believed – biomechanical hybrids developed under corporate classification protocols.
Now the base is dark, and the results of years of research lay scattered in the desert.
OBJECTIVE
Secure the classified tech
Set Up – Players take turns placing a total of d3+3 Loot Tokens. These Loot Tokens represent classified
technology being developed at the base. Players then take turns placing 1 AI Controlled Gun Turret per player.
Victory – The player who has the most models standing by the end of the 5th round is the winner.
Reward – Each player gains +1 Salvage Dice for each enemy model they take Out of Action.
Bonus Reward – For each Loot token secured the player gains+1 Salvage Dice. These Salvage Dice are rolled on the F00-02 or F00-03 catalog pamphlets and do not require any fees to be payed to make the rolls
SPECIAL RULES
EVAC – During a game models may EVAC to secure Loot and return to safety. To do so, the model
must be within 1” of a board edge and perform an EVAC Action. Immediately remove the model from
the board.
AI Controlled Turrets – Models within 10″ of a turret are targeted by a Medium weapon with a CS of 4+.
Drunk in a Space Hulk 