Court Gossip & NPC factions

Court Gossip can be used by players to spread information – is disinformation – but it also is, as previously mentioned, the game’s rumor mill. Various Non-Player Characters (NPC) are in the game with spies and troops. They launch attacks and spread information. While players represent the leaders of various factions, fundamentally they only make up a fraction of the court, and maneuvering inside the court is mostly a test of a player’s skill at diplomacy and intrigue.

Every time something happens that can spread Court Gossip a roll is made on the Court Gossip table, listed below. These represent events that are so noteworthy people just can’t keep their lips sealed, and when the first gossip leaks out people begin investigating (or exaggerating) what happened.

Court Gossip Triggers
Successful Raids
Purchase or Transfer of any Rich Planet
A Winning Bid 3 times higher than Liquid value
An Assassination
Death of Warmaster
Moving Troops to Kaitain
Liquidating more than 6000 MS in a round
Military Attacks that had crushing results

The Defense against Court Gossip is Diplomacy and Intrigue. A Rumor has a base strength of 2d6, or an average of 7, the targeted player’s (DI) is subtracted from the result

1 or lower: No Gossip
2: Minor - Some Whispers
3: Moderate - Serious Gossip
4+: Severe - All the talk of the Court

So a Player with a DI of 5, from a Diplomacy and Intrigue of 3 and 2, is a fairly hard target against rumors, the majority of rumors have a strength of 7 or lower, this player can only have an event become the major item of court chatter on an 9 or higher, which happens about 28% of the time, and the No Gossip would occur about 40% of the time. A player with a DI of 4 (the minimum) actually has significantly higher odds, sever happens on a 8+ roll, or 40% of the time, and No Gossip just under 30% of the time. Rumors spread very little on people with a DI of 7 though, severe only 8% of the time, and No Gossip 70% of the time. Nobody is completely immune, even max scores of 5 in Intrigue and Diplomacy still means Minor Gossip can occur on a 12. Each type of Gossip Trigger generates a different result, use of the word ‘location’ still falls under the secret homeworld clause, if it list location and it took place on a Homeworld it just say’s ‘Jane’s Homeworld’ not ‘Caladan’.

Successful Raids - A Successful Raid occurs on a 0, or a battle score tie
Minor: Location revealed “Deneb has been raided”
Moderate: Location and Type Revealed “Ore Mine on Deneb has been raided”
Severe: Locaiton, Type, and Owner Revealed “Bob’s Ore Mine on Deneb has been Raided”

Purchase or Transfer of any Rich Planet
Minor: “Planet Name has a new Owner”
Moderate: “Planet Name is now owned by Bob”
Severe: “Planet Name, with an Income of X, is now owned by Bob”

A Winning Bid 3 times higher than Liquid value
Minor: Location Revealed
Moderate: Location and Owner revealed
Severe: Location, Owner, and any Militia present revealed

An Assassination
Minor: Name and Traits revealed – “Warmaster Duncan Idaho has died”
Moderate: As above, plus ‘assassinated’ and owner
Severe: As above, plus and location “Duncan Idaho, a Warmaster in Jane’s service, has been Assassinated on Vega Prime’
*Note that for an Elector who is killed, all results basically amount to whether or not the Owner is revealed, on minor they aren’t, major and severe they are. An elector’s death is always public.

Death of Warmaster
Same as assassination but ‘assassinated’ is replaced by Type of Attack and their involvement. So same result if a Warmaster is assassinated but twice as likely, otherwise “Died leading a Raid” or “Died defending from a Seizure”. As a reminder, Master of Assassins is also a Warmaster.

Moving Troops to Kaitain
Minor: “Someone moved troops through Kaitain”
Moderate: “Someone moved 3 Legions through Kaitain”
Severe: “John moved 3 Legion through Kaitain.”

Liquidating more than 6000 MS in a round
Minor: “Someone Liquidated a lot of resources this round”
Moderate: “Bob Liquidated a lot of resources this round”
Severe: “Bob Liquidated the following: List”

Military Attacks that had crushing results
As discussed in the Combat Section, victories or defeats on an epic scale (curb stomps) tend to be made public, these are listed below, described from the attacker’s point of view.

Raid Crushing Loss
Minor: Attacker Name and Attack Type
Moderate: Attacker Name and Attack Type and Result Listed
Severe: Attacker Name and Attack Type and Result Listed, along with Locations troops came from.
So getting hammered during a raid will tell everyone you got hammered during a raid, and possibly what your casualties were, and for severe it will list the locations the troops came from.

Raid Crushing Victory
Minor: Location revealed “Deneb has been raided”
Moderate: Location and Type Revealed “Ore Mine on Deneb has been raided”
Severe: Locaiton, Type, and Owner Revealed “Bob’s Ore Mine on Deneb has been Raided”
*Same table as a successful raid, essentially just doubles the odds of Gossip occurring,

Seizure Crushing Loss
Minor: Attacker Name and Attack Type
Moderate: Attacker Name and Attack Type and Result Listed
Severe: Attacker Name and Attack Type and Result Listed, along with Locations troops came from.

Seizure Crushing Victory
All Results for Seizure simply list the prior owner and their casualties

House Raid Crushing Loss
Minor: Attacker Revealed
Moderate: Attacker and Casualties Revealed
Severe: Attacker and Casualties Revealed and Point of Origin Revealed

House Raid Crushing Victory
Minor: Defending Player revealed
Moderate: Defender’s casualties revealed
Severe: Defender’s casualties and amount of Damage Revealed

Although Random Attacks by NPC’s is covered elsewhere, the material is repeated here with additional commentary.

Random Attacks
NPC Houses and pirates can attack locations, and are much more likely to attack locations which are ungarrisoned. These are usually raids, but occasionally seizures (or House Raids). When a NPC faction successfully attacks a location they often generate Court Gossip revealing that location. "We just raided a Gem Mine on Deneb, and it was unguarded" being the norm, basically bragging about it, whereas they won't brag about an attack which failed. So while moving troops somewhere to guard a location increases the odds another player will discover the location, an unguarded facility is very likely to be attacked and in addition to the lost income (or outright annexation - they will typically put it up for Auction within a couple rounds too) there is a very high chance everyone in the game will suddenly find out what and where the asset is and that its owner wasn't guarding it strongly. That said, players shouldn't over-garrison, legions cost money and you can only own so many of them. Players with high diplomacy scores are less likely to be attacked, players with more Locations are more likely to be attacked.

Table Modifiers
+1: Every 5 Locations (Including Homeworld and Electors) Round down
-1: Every point in Diplomacy
+1: Currently Round 1 or 2

Take Modifiers and add 1d6
0-: No attacks
1-2: 1 attack
3-4: 2 attacks
5-6: 3 attacks
7-8: 4 attacks
9-10: 5 attacks
11+: 6 Attacks

Attack Type: 1d6
1-4: Raid Attack on a Random Location
5: Seizure Attack on a Random Location
6: House Raid
The Battle Score of an attack is 1d6+2 for Raids
The Battle Score of an attack is 1d6+4 for Seizures
The Battle Score of an attack is 1d6+5 for House Raids

Fundamentally this is perhaps the most important part use of diplomacy. You can’t attack or be attacked by players unless a Location is known (except for House Raids). The primary route to find locations as a player is to monitor other people’s troop movements, but if they never move troops somewhere you can’t see them move and you never know where anything is, meaning they have no reason to move troops. This would rather eliminate combat from the game. As things stand, players are very likely to be raided, and very likely to lose on a Raid and have their Location revealed. Having a Location revealed is probably worse than losing a raid, since raids just damage income (or votes) temporarily whereas an open location is an invitation to attack for a militant player. Since initial attributes are evenly distributed, players who are good at combat are less good at the other things, they defend better against attacks, but if they have a low diplomacy they get attacked more and are more likely to suffer Court Gossip. The most common form of attack is the raid, and you only need a 0 for Court Gossip to occur, at 1d6+2 a player needs a 9 on battle score at a location to be totally safe from Court Gossip, but a player with a CI of 5 (fairly average), and 1 garrison, would have a 7 and only a 1 in 3 of a Random Raid being Successful with no Chance of a Crushing Defeat, a pretty good incentive to move troops to a Location to defend it.