Chancellor’s Challenge

“Ah, greetings… I shall get right to the point. In all the recent turmoil I’ve barely been able to keep up on my duties, and now a new problem has emerged. The Guild has reported numerous pirate attacks and something must be done about it, but the Emperor’s own forces are otherwise occupied and frankly I do not have the time. I think that if you deal with this problem it can only boost your statures in the eyes of the Landsdraad, and as these matters normally are the responsibility of the Chancellor I can offer hefty rewards for success.”

Pursing his lips he regards the Guild representative. “Three pirate bands in particular have come to our attention as extremely aggressive, but I do not know who they are. The Guild knows but their neutrality prevents them from disclosing details, as these pirates have not attacked them. I have been able to determine that these pirates are known to you, or some of you. I want their names, I want their locations, and I want them destroyed. The Landsdraad will dispense one billion solaris to each of you for each pirate faction named, for each one of their bases you locate, and for each base that is captured. Complete all of these tasks and you will each receive an additional four billion solaris. Should you accept this challenge, I will immediately authorize you two billion solaris to cover your initial expenses. Lords and ladies, good hunting.” And with that he waves a hand in dismissal.

The officer exits with you. “I’m afraid I can task no forces or spies to assist you, on the Chancellor’s orders, only to confirm for him the validity of anything you uncover. For now I will refer to these pirates as Pirate Alpha, Pirate Beta, and Pirate Gamma. According to the Guild you already know their names. I will investigate and confirm anything the majority of you tell the chancellor and if true you’ll receive your compensation, same with any location you give, we’ll obviously know when you capture a base.

How this works: Each pirate factions has a name, players must submit it in title of a message, once a majority of players has done this the AG (beetnemesis) can post it just like a player vote, a consensus will have been reached among you as to the pirate’s name. Use this format in your title:

If the majority of you post that, and the AG submits it, and it is the name of a pirate faction, the faction (Alpha, Beta, or Gamma) will be formally renamed ‘Big Buccaneers’ and players will receive 1000 MS each.

Once a faction is named, you must find out it’s location, note that ‘Gather Intel on Player’ works on named NPC factions, such as these pirates, the same as players. Players must submit the location using the same method to receive the funds, using “Faction: Location” in the title:

Once the location is found, they must be eradicated. There is no need to report the destruction, however players should keep in mind that multi-player assaults on the same location in a round can turn bloody, but can also weaken a defender for each successive assault. The locations must be seized… they are all planets that generate income.

In order to continue with the challenge, first players must decide to accept it, it is an Optional Crisis. This is done by a majority Player Vote to “Accept Chancellor’s Challenge” and when and if this occurs, each player will receive 2000 MS. It is anticipated that completing this ‘quest’ will take a few rounds.

Uncover Pirate Alpha’s Name: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Uncover Pirate Beta’s Name: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Uncover Pirate Gamma’s Name: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Discover Pirate Alpha’s Location: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Discover Pirate Beta’s Location: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Discover Pirate Gamma’s Location: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Seize Pirate Alpha’s Location: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Seize Pirate Beta’s Location: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Seize Pirate Gamma’s Location: Incomplete (1000 MS per Player)

Complete all 9 tasks: Incomplete (4000 MS per Player)

Should a majority of players submit an incorrect name or location, 250 MS will be deducted from that reward. Perfect spelling is not necessary, either from the individual player’s or the Ag’s submission. The first named faction is Alpha, the second Beta and the third Gamma by default.

As mentioned, all three pirate faction names are known to you. This quest is offering some 105,000 MS amongst the players, and you may find it best to think of it as a pool, though when rewarded each player receives their payment it may be in the players best interest to devise an award the pay as a group (see Transfer and Transfer Funds Actions) for whoever actually provides the vital info or result. This strikes me as a good way to kill three birds with one stone, dispense the additional funds I wanted in play, practice some Intel abilities, and get people talking to each other. There is no time limit to the quest but money rather inflates as the game continues and 1000 MS isn’t as big a deal when your income is 15,000 MS around as opposed to 6000.

As extra icing on the cake, the pirate bases, while hardly luxury planets, are planets with incomes. Once this quest is complete, assuming it is accepted, additional quests may become available, hopefully I’d be able to present two or three options as opposed to just one by then, I rather like the idea of over-arching multi-round ‘Optional Crises’ to add onto the regular one per round. They also give people something to discuss between phase pauses for calculations, there is no night phase, players can keep posting in a thread until a new one opens, regardless of if a vote report has already come out.

Now as to how to go about this, I will say the pirates obviously have fairly decent Combat and Intrigue scores, raids being nothing but that, and it may take more than one attack to bring down their garrisons to seize the world. You may wish to coordinate your resources and offer a bounty amongst yourselves. Remember, a majority of players must submit the same name, you can obviously post more than one at once per player, same with location, though don’t waste time on random guesses. The trio of factions are known to players. That is all you need, once accepted they will become the only pirates factions conducting random attacks on the players and will keep up their current tempo until eradicated. If properly coordinated it should be possible to complete all the tasks by the end of Round 3… good luck.