Hello. Bought Afterverse during lockdown, really looking forward to running it soon with my group. First of all congrats on getting published, feels like a real labour of love. As my group has no prior knowledge of Afterverse I plan on starting in 2049 pre-invasion and then introduce the surprises quickly, keep them off balance as they find out the true goals of the occupation.
A couple of questions regarding the invasion, bar the orbital strikes what do the Bactrians use to militarily defeat Earth’s nations and enforce their laws before they can recruit collaborators? What are Bactrians equipped with if they are present on Earth’s surface at this time, and what, if anything, stops them being defeated by resistance fighters.
A last rule question, when using the learning by failure rule to buy specialisations what happens when there are prerequisite specialisations that the character doesn’t know, can the players buy the prerequisites all in one go or do they need to bought those previously?
Thank you.
Thanks for that. My first thought was that Bactarans do not have the weapons tech level for pulse laser in this era but upon reflection it made me think about how this is almost an act of desperation by the House of Moti. So getting weapons they can’t produce themselves highlights this all or nothing attitude.
I have already thought about doing some investigations scenario looking a bit X Files conspiracy type looking into activities before the invasion as part of the players learning about the Bactarans capabilities, think I will add to it by putting collaborators obstructing the players. Their characters will start as law enforcement types so would prefer them to edge towards the resistance activities.
Thanks for asking! And good questions, that aren't fully explored in the sourcebook. I do have a novel about half-written that would answer a few of them, if I ever finish it :) Between the pandemic cutting off most of my in-person gaming opportunities and a 5-month-old kiddo, I haven't had time in a while to put much work into Afterverse.
So, prior to 2050, there are a handful of Bactaran agents on Earth - learning about the planet, scouting out weaknesses, learning the language, etc. Some of these agents do manage to recruit some collaborators, some focusing on groups like alien cults, pretending to be sort of saviors from above. They remain in hiding until the invasion takes out the orbital defenses, at which point threat of annihilation from mass drivers is combined with the small number of collaborators and agents they do have to establish their foothold.
Bactaran weaponry is more advanced than Earth's at the time; the advanced firearms (pulse lasers) doesn't actually make a huge difference (guns already pretty much kill you dead), but their armor and camouflage technology does make them tough to kill.
For the rules question: In order to learn by failure you do need to have the ability to learn that specialization, so you'd need to have its prerequisites. On the occasions this has come up in my games, I've generally allowed players to sort of "bank" that learning-by-failure, and activate it when they eventually learn the prereqs.