Galactic map brainstorming, and bonus question about what is an elite character

[Lloyd Dupont]

Hi yall!
After months, nay years of mind block (and getting old and being chronically sick doesn't help, I guess 😮😅)
I am back productively on setting up my MoO world & game rules!
(meanwhile played fantasy brp and d&d adventures...)

Anyway so, I realize, I don't really have a clear question or a well formed story here, just looking for gut reaction.
Though, come to think of it, I have an additional bonus question, below the map.

So here to brainstorm about the galaxy map.

The "time period" I chose (as in the game phase in a MoO game when you played many of them) is when all empires have come into contact and have already started to push against each other as all the good and free stars system are all been colonized. Inspired by Master of Orion I have small 2D map. It doesn't really matter practically much that space is 3D not 2D, and this is much more easily manageable by human and pen and paper. 

The main point is I have an exhaustive (and not too long) list of planetary locations, instead of an humongously large and not well defined planetary locations. I.e unlike Star War games which often had those "mysterious planet" somewhere in the galaxy, that won't be happening here! And there are still room for plenty of mysterious asteroid, moonlet, secret space stations...

Legend Bulrathi, Sillicoid, Human, Gnolam, Psilon, Mrr’shan, Elerian sectors.

Bonus question time. 
Watching Matthew Colville on youtube I realized I was a little frustrated I never have "elite character" in my BRP games nor, come to think of it, am I sure what would make an "elite character"?
After some thinking, I believe a character with skill well beyond 100%+ and the malus that inflicts on its enemies would be a great elite when opposing rolls, causing competent opponent to fail where they usually succeed, while flawlessly hammering them will make perfect elite character. I never used elite character before. But I feel much more confident I can drop many of them in these trillions lives empire with highly competitive pressure and education, than in a medieval fantasy setting. Me think I might even drop some "lesser elite" guard every 3 or 4 guard group encounters! The question here, I guess, is how high above 100% would the score be? For the comparison, I plan to award 1~2 XP per session / week (with bonus on mission completion), and 1 XP grant 1 skill improvement roll.

So... what's your thoughts on "elite characters" and my take on it?

BTW I am also making a stunt table, but this is not an elite stunt table, anyone can get stunts. It just make the character more competent, not an opposition crusher.

 

[svensson]

On 'elite' characters.

These are hard to define in d100 games and almost impossible to define without magic.

At a guess, in a modern age game, an elite would be someone with 90%+ in their primary skills and 65-85% in the secondary skills of their trade. Obviously, an 'elite' lawyer is going to have different skills than an elite soldier.

In a RuneQuest sense, an Elite would be rather like Nameless or Queen Leika, people who have very high levels in their temporal skills and have a HeroQuest or three under their belts that provide skills and powers beyond the normal ones. But even they aren't in the same league as actual Heroes... Argrath, Cragspider, and Jar-eel. These worthies have several HeroQuests completed and have done multiple world-changing heroic deeds.

[g33k]

Quick-and-dirty, my ideas for "elite" (within their field) are:
100% (or over, if game-system allows) in all key skills
Exceptional raw stats -- 18's in STR/DEX/CON for fighty types, 18 INT/EDU for thinkers, etc.  Some over-18's if your system allows.
Extra resources -- friends in high (or low) places, items, heroquest-y rewards, etc.

RQ2 had an old combat mechanic you might repurpose --the "Defense" skill aka "the art of being where the blow isn't".  It was a skill whose score just flat subtracted from the melee-attack scores of all foes the Defender could see attacking.  It could get pretty crazy-potent, especially with "Shimmer" & similar magics added.

[Lloyd Dupont]

I mean, yes there is another way. Have a few select spell that are only disclosed to the worthy. But it's not really my favorite approach... In the past I gave my favorite spells to the characters right away... ouch...
But based on 100%+ skills... that's hard to imitate and deadly.. But had never used them because society didn't seem competitive and knowledgeable enough....

[Lloyd Dupont]

Oh I don't know the Runequest lore, such as  Nameless or Queen Leika,! 😕 

[Lloyd Dupont]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

RQ2 had an old combat mechanic you might repurpose --the "Defense" skill aka "the art of being where the blow isn't".  It was a skill whose score just flat subtracted from the melee-attack scores of all foes the Defender could see attacking.  It could get pretty crazy-potent, especially with "Shimmer" & similar magics added.

that give me an idea for one more stunt!

though .. at the moment, my stunt ideas.. is seriously limited in number.. about INT/2.... (and the INT is also used for other things.. forcing characters in specialization, on purpose)

Edited October 23, 2021 by Lloyd Dupont