They've breached the walls, we –bzzt– hold out much longer. The garrison –bzzt– heavily depleted. Our forces are –bzzt– overpowered. There's no –bzzt– for the farms and factories. We have to evacuate –bzzt– on the shuttles. If we don't make it, then –bzzt– been an honour, sir.
— The last known transmission from an outpost in the Kallimari Civil War.
Influence is a measurement of a character’s or group of characters’ ability to affect change in the known galaxy. This may be by controlling powerful military assets, directing major research projects, being a prominent economic power, or simply by possessing important information that other characters want to get their hands on. It is a fully optional system, allowing those who want to play the game on a larger scale the chance to do so.
While large mega-corporations that control space stations, fleets, and intellectual property across the known galaxy can clearly benefit from Influence, It can also be useful to individuals. A lone explorer might hire a group of mercenaries to protect their craft from pirates. A researcher might discover a major breakthrough in hydroponics that would be worth a lot if they sold it to a planetary government.
While different players might use it for different things, it exists to help make clear the impact that your character can have on the world.
The system revolves around acquiring Assets. Some Assets have specific purposes, whereas other Assets can be used more generally. There is no one way to get into the system: while some Assets work well together and some are required for others, most of them work perfectly fine on their own!
Assets include:
Additional Assets are acquired with Expansion Points (EP). By default, players start out with 0 EP, although this can be increased with the Established Presence Quirk. 2 EP can be earned by spending a Major Action or a Goal Action to Expand Presence. Expansion Points can also be earned passively through certain Installations. Once acquired, they can either be spent in the same turn as part of the Influence section of your turnsheet, or be saved to be spent in later turns.
There are a few ways to get discounts on Assets (certain Academic Disciplines, and various Traits that you can apply). Unless specified otherwise, the minimum cost of any Asset cannot be reduced below 1 EP.
Influence is designed to be possible to play co-operatively. When building Installations, gathering Works, or building up forces, you can choose to specify a particular Faction that have access to the particular Asset. This can be an existing Faction, or your own! Within a Faction, different Academic Disciplines can enable people to fill specialised roles. You should be careful however, as you never know when a co-operative enterprise will turn cutthroat…
Factions can be created between player characters at character creation, or written into the Influence section of your turnsheet if established during the game.
While Assets will normally show on your own private user page, each Faction will also have their own page where Assets shared between members of that Faction are displayed. For anything that you create for the Faction, you can specify that you have primary ownership over it (meaning that, when given conflicting actions by different members of the Faction, your one is chosen), but this does not guarantee it will always be under your control. People from inside and outside your faction may have differing views about how it should be controlled.
By default, Faction pages are not public and are restricted only to Faction members. Other people might be able to find out about your Assets though, through directly travelling to the system, or through word of mouth.
Companies are small groups of people responsible for the day-to-day running of your various Installations and Squadrons. They are assigned to a particular Squadron or Installation, which is the place where they work.
| Base Cost | 1 EP | The cost to assemble a Company. |
A Company can move from their assigned Installation. For example, Soldiers assigned to a Barracks may be sent on a military mission elsewhere in the galaxy, or workers from an Extractor might leave to help clear debris elsewhere after a natural disaster. They also have memory of prior events: a company might need to be replaced or moved if subjected to consistently poor working conditions, and may be unwilling to work if not properly cared for.
Installations are static buildings that generally have a set purpose. They could include factories, massive farms, small research facilities, or hidden fortresses dug into a moon, and are able to be built terrestrially or in space. Installations are mostly used to generate resources or provide benefits to other Assets.
Each Installation has a Productivity. Installations require people to operate them: by default the Productivity is 0 (you're not doing anything if there's no one there to do it), and is increased by 1 for every Company stationed there (up to a total of the Maximum Productivity). This can be increased beyond the normal maximum by an Agent stationed at the Base.
For example, an Installation with a Maximum Productivity of 3, 3 Companies staffing it, and an Agent that increases the Productivity by 50% respectively would have an overall Productivity of 4 (rounded down from 4.5).
If the Maximum Productivity is listed as N/A, then only 1 Company is required for the Installation to operate fully.
All Ground and Space Installations must be constructed at a Base. A Base might represent a collection of Faction-owned buildings in a given location, a single skyscraper of corporate offices, a newly-established colony, or a space station housing a number of modular facilities. Transportation of resources between Installations in the same Base can happen automatically, whereas transportation in-system or between systems requires a Squadron, and carries increased risks.
The first step when getting started with Influence Installations is to get an Extractor. This produces Raw Resources (RAW), which are used to operate many of the other Installations.
| Base Type | Cost (EP) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ground Base | FREE | Automatically constructed when you construct a Ground Installation on a habitable planet. |
| Outpost Core | 4 | Must be constructed before constructing any Space Installations at any location, or before setting up any Ground Installations on an inhospitable planet. |
A Base must have a Standard of Labour, which defines the conditions under which the workforce labours. This affects the Productivity, but also the people. Bases under a poor Standard of Labour are more likely to be face issues with groups concerned with workers' rights and liberties. Unless the Base is hidden well, a certain Standard of Labour may be enforced by local authorities.
The possible Standards of Labour are described below:
| Standard of Labour | Description | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Company Town | The facility includes worker accommodation, private police, and a company store, but they're… not great. It's run efficiently, but it's not fun for the workers, especially when there are better opportunities across the galaxy. | Increases the Maximum Productivity of all Installations by 1. |
| Quality Living | The workers are treated well, and are given guarantees of certain amenities by their contracts. A portion of management goes into ensuring this. | Reduces the Maximum Productivity of all Installations by 1. |
| Co-operative Enterprise | The workers are part owners, and share in the profit of the business. Most of the profits are reinvested, leading to a reasonably high productivity, but the workforce will have a say in how the produced value is spent. | No effect on Productivity. |
Individual Installations do not possess distinguishing Traits. Instead, these Traits are applied to the Base at which these Installations are located. Unless specified otherwise, each Trait can only be taken once.
| Base Trait | Cost (EP) | Description | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fortified | +2 | The Base is more defensible. This might represent a fortress wall around the Base, a minefield surrounding a space station, or a network of defensive turrets. | Increases the probability of success when a Base is attacked – from within or without. This trait can be taken any number of times, and its effect stacks. |
| Industrial Shanty Town | -1 | The facilities are shoddily made, and likely not following any regulation or good practice. | Incompatible with Luxurious Facilities. Increases the risk of accidents at this base. |
| Luxurious Facilities | +1 | The facilities are exceptional, down to the plush lumbar supports on the office chairs. | Incompatible with Industrial Shanty Town. Decreases the risk of accidents at this base. |
| Black Site | +2 | The base is concealed, in some way or another. This could be a space installation located past a system's asteropause, a fortress deep in an alien jungle, or an office surreptitiously hidden within a tower block on a maintenance floor. | The location of this base will not become public knowledge through word of mouth. |
| Installation | Cost (EP) | Type | Description | Maximum Productivity | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extractor | 1 | Ground/Space | A site where raw resources are extracted. It could be a loosely-established mining station in an asteroid field, or a large wheat monoculture on a colony world. | 2+ | Produces RAW equal to its Productivity. The Maximum Productivity depends on the availability of raw resources at the location it is being constructed. Information regarding sites of notable resource availability in all surveyed systems will be publicly available. |
| Factory | 3 | Ground | Converts RAW into goods which are sold at market, producing EP. | 2 | Requries 3 RAW to produce EP equal to its Productivity. |
| Construction Yard | 3 | Ground/Space | Produces starship components, converting RAW into resources for Squadrons. | N/A | Requires 2 RAW to be active. On any turn that it is active, any Squadrons built start out with one free Module. A Squadron can benefit from a maximum of 3 of these (within their Module limit). |
| Recruitment Hub | 3 | Ground/Space | Allows easier communication with Agents, converting RAW to recruit better ones. | N/A | Requires 2 RAW to be active. On any turn that it is active, any agents recruited will start out with a Good level in a skill of your choice for free. An Agent can benefit from a maximum of 3 of these. |
| Research Station | 2 | Ground/Space | Furthers the Research Culture or Research Technology Goal Actions, converting RAW into progress towards a research goal. | N/A | Doubles the effectiveness of any research Actions taken by the owner. |
| Fleet Relay | 1 | Space | Helps passing ships with a collection of navigational data, fuel tanks, and relief crew. | 5 | Refills a number of Jumps equal to its Productivity to passing Squadrons. |
| Long-range Telescope | 2 | Space | Can provide advanced information about distant systems, aiding in the execution of the System Survey Goal Action. | N/A | Doubles the effectiveness of any survey Actions taken by the owner. |
| Barracks | 3 | Ground/Space | Supplies and prepares the assigned Companies to be used as soldiers. | 3 | Companies stationed at the Barracks are supplied as soldiers, and will be massively more effective in combat than other Companies. |
For the Installations that provide a benefit to PC actions (Research Station, Long-range Telescope), one person can only benefit from 1 of each.
A Squadron generally consists of one larger ship, equipped with the apparatus to enable FTL travel, and a number of smaller ships that can dock within it as well as travel individually. A Squadron requires 1 Company to be assigned as a crew in order to operate.
FTL-capable ships can be used for a number of purposes within the galaxy: transporting Raw Resources, fleet combat, and transporting Companies or Agents. By default, a Squadron can only carry 1 Company (the crew) and 4 RAW, as well as an unlimited number of Agents.
The primary limitation in FTL travel is not travel time or is it fuel. Instead, the normal limiting factor is the time taken to calculate a path to the requisite degree of precision across such vast distances. As a result, FTL ships can Jump to any system in the galaxy, but may only perform two Jumps per turn by default. When a Squadron passes through a system with a Relay, the number of Jumps can be refilled.
Squadrons can be specialised or multi-purpose. By default, a Squadron may contain two Modules, and any number of Traits. Each Trait can only be taken once, whereas the same Module may be taken multiple times: You could equip a Squadron with Arms and Armour three times in order to create a powerful warship, or Additional Crew Bays three times in order to create a transport for people.
| Trait | Cost (EP) | Description | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Cost | 4 | The basic cost to assemble a Squadron. A Squadron represents a number of ships, including at least one FTL-capable carrier. | A base Squadron may Jump up to two times per turn, and can carry no more than 4 RAW at one time. |
| Well Made | +1 | The ships are made to high standards of craftsmanship. They'll hold up to more punishment if things get nasty, and can handle harsher manoeuvres more readily. | Incompatible with Shoddy Craftsmanship. |
| Shoddy Craftsmanship | -1 | The ships are made on the cheap. They'll do their job, hopefully. | Incompatible with Well Made. |
| Spacious | +2 | The ships are built to be spacious and comfortable. | The Squadron may include an additional Squadron Module. Incompatible with Space-limited. |
| Space-limited | -2 | These ships are not made to carry a lot. They can fit the crew and their equipment, but very little else. | The Squadron may include one fewer Squadron Module. Incompatible with Spacious. |
| Stolen | -1 | These ships were acquired illegally, bought on the black market or directly pried from the hands of their rightful owners. They work just as well as legitimately owned ships, but the small number of FTL-capable ships means they're likely to be identified – sooner or later. | |
| Module | Cost (EP) | Description | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arms and Armour | +2 | The ships are equipped with long-range weaponry and armoured plating to resist an attack. They'll be able to fight back if things get dangerous. | Can engage in combat increasingly more effectively. |
| Cargo Bays | +1 | The ships have bulky cargo bays, designed to carry large amounts of RAW across the galaxy. | Can hold an additional 2 RAW at any time. |
| Additional Crew Bays | +1 | The ships have compartments to take additional people on board for long periods of time. | Can transport an extra Company. |
| Bulky Fuel Tanks | +2 | The ships are equipped with larger fuel tanks. | Can perform one additional Jump per turn. |
A Squadron can be refitted with new Modules after it is constructed, if the required EP is spent.
An Agent is a highly proficient Non-Player Character who works for your organisation. This may be as an employee, as an independent contractor, or even as a member of a different organisation who's struck a deal to give you a particular service. Agents are likely not to be available to interact with during uptime, but may be in some circumstances. Agents will always be available to interact with in emails – both to your organisation, and to any others who seek to poach them. Agents are significantly more proficient than general members of a Company: they are hired for high levels of expertise in a field. Typically an Agent is assigned to a specific task or location, being deployed where they are most useful.
An Agent may be skilled or lack skill in a range of Fields, listed below:
| Field | Description | Effect of Poor | Effect of Adequate | Effect of Good |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Combat | Engaging in combat of any sort. Helpful for staging an assassination, fending off hungry wildlife, or fighting their way out of a hostile base. | Equivalent to a PC with the Ineptitude Quirk in combat. | Equivalent to a PC with no Quirks. | Equivalent to a PC with the Prowess Quirk in combat. |
| Espionage | Uncovering the secrets of others. Used to spy on rival factions or to protect the secrets of your own. | Equivalent to a PC with the Ineptitude Quirk in espionage. | Equivalent to a PC with no Quirks. | Equivalent to a PC with the Prowess Quirk in espionage. |
| Research | Uncovering the secrets of the universe. Used primarily for research and identification of things relevant to a specific field of research (e.g., injury severity for a pharmacologist, metal composition for a metallurgist). | Cannot meaningfully contribute. | Equivalent to a PC with no Quirks. | Equivalent to a PC with the Academic Discipline Quirk. |
| Command | Skill in inspiring their subordinates, and making decisions under pressure (e.g., being attacked by pirates, stopping a fire from spreading). | Cannot meaningfully contribute. | Equivalent to a PC with no Quirks. Increases the Productivity of a Barracks they are assigned to by 50% (rounded down). | Equivalent to a PC with the Prowess Quirk in leadership. Increases the Productivity of a Barracks they are assigned to by 100%. |
| Business | Managing Assets on behalf of your organisation, and understanding the world of business. | Cannot meaningfully contribute. | Increases the Productivity of an Installation they are assigned to by 50% (rounded down). | Increases the Productivity of an Installation they are assigned to by 100%. |
| Exploration | Mapping the cosmos and charting alien worlds. | Cannot meaningfully contribute. | As effective as a normal PC surveying systems. | Twice as effective as a normal PC surveying systems. |
When recruiting an Agent, you may modify their skills according to the costs below:
| Agent Skills | Cost (EP) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 4 | The baseline and minimum cost to recruit an Agent. At this baseline cost, an Agent's skill in all fields is Adequate. |
| Field of Expertise | +3 | The agent will perform at a Good level in a skill of your choice. |
| Weakness | -1 | The agent will perform at a Poor level in a skill of your choice. |
Since Agents are special NPCs and to limit the amount that can be created, you cannot reduce the cost below 4 EP by giving them Weaknesses. The cost can still be reduced below 4 with a relevant Academic Discipline. After recruitment, they can be trained to a Good level by spending the required EP (4 if starting from Poor, 3 if starting from Adequate).
Agents are individuals, and have their own personalities and histories. They might be a dedicated researcher but unwilling to go anywhere near a barracks. They might be an expert with finance, but perhaps a little too cutthroat. They might be a trained soldier, willing to follow your orders until the end. When recruiting an Agent, you will be informed of some their traits, but they may be unwilling to give you the full picture (in which case, it is possible to investigate further IC).
For Agents created with the Established Presence Quirk you can suggest their traits and backstory, but this will be subject to GM approval.
Influence Works are things such as intellectual property, sensitive secrets, or private research data. These can be acquired over the course of gameplay, but cannot be directly purchased for Expansion Points.
Throughout the game, new technologies may be invented, and new ways of doing things discovered. NPCs and PCs alike may have secrets that would radically alter industry if they were made public. Many of these may present significant upgrades to Assets and for an enterprising company they could be an excellent way of accelerating growth. More Assets may become available over the course of the game.
Informally, PCs can agree to barter their intellectual property for other things: Equipment, RAW, or potentially even entire Assets, if the information is valuable enough. If done in this way, you can note exchanges in the Influence section of your turnsheet.