Does your group use Stars of Inequity's rules to manage your colonies? If so, and you're using it RAW, how is it?

If not, how have you modified it?

Yes. No. Okay.

Growth is too rapid. PF, while it seems plausible for the scale, climbs too rapidly, along with the population. Resources deplete too rapidly if the explorers go the route of exploitation, with no new sources showing up. That seems unrealistic. The Earth has enough nickel-iron to build 1,000,000,000,000,000 dauntless light cruisers by mass, assuming someone can find a way to suck the nickel-iron out of the center of the planet without collapsing it, disrupting its rotation, destroying its magnetic field, etc, etc. With appropriate technology, mineral-rich worlds are not going to just run out of mineral resources, though availability might prove difficult and ecosystems would certainly die.

In our last campaign we kept strict track of the time, both shipboard time that had passed, and accounting for time shifts due to warp passage. Over nearly 3 years of play, and 57 sessions, the party played through over 5 years of shipboard time and over 30 years of time passing in the galaxy. Maybe that's enough time to complete a hive, one hive, maybe. We quickly deduced that SoI would allow them to complete entire hive planets and altered the growth checks to once per year, and only for colonies that had ships regularly stopping at them.

We came up with a more simple formula of determining PF potential from types of minerals available and magnitude of the find. They could search for more, too. We also made simple formulas for agricultural requirements, industry, and commerce. It worked okay but everyone thought it should have more meat to it, without overly complicating it.

The more I read the book, the more I dislike the rules.

The stars don't make much sense, though I understand they don't want to use the proper spectral types for the things. Resources deplete, as you said, way too quickly, and seems to ignore gases.

Food and water seem to be handwaved away, at least from what I've read. I found a planet with a crapton of animal life on it and plenty of clean, fresh water. I make it an Agricultural Colony with one Food Production and Distribution Infrastructure upgrade and that's it?

I thought there'd be more things to do with the colonies. What if I bring four Jericho pilgrim ships full of colonists to one of my foundling colonies? Does its size grow? Does everyone have a place to sleep or food to eat?

Much more importantly: how can I make more money off their labour? I'm being driven to create a set of House Rules for this too.

I also would have liked more in the way of defensive infrastructure. Wayfarer Stations aren't enough. I assumed they were the equivalent of a BFG Space Dock. Then my players wanted a full-on BFG Space Station, then orbital platforms, then ground-based silos, and a base camp, and...and...

And they had quite a good time planning their colonies, so I wound up granting lots of what they wanted, with lots of trips back and forth to various Calixis-Sector Forge Worlds.

I liked the rough ideas of Stars of Inequity, and I really did like the solar system generation rules. They're not exactly "realistic", but they fit the tone and feeling of 40k.

What I would like an entire book of though is artifact tables for more artifacts, more treasure, more strange things to be found in the dark...

The Stars of Inequity colony rules are a good starting point for managing colonies IMO, but the numbers will need adjusting (as most people point out, by default they grow far too quickly) and you'll need to houserule any additions that come up in the campaign (eg brining more colonists/infrastructure via cargo ships).

As far as the resource depletion issue goes- I think that the problem is one of terminology, not mechanics. I just think of it as the resource being exploited, not depleted. The resource is still there, but now there's a mining facility extracting it at a steady rate for processing. A bonus to Profit Factor represents an ongoing source of income, not a one-off injection of cash (one-off treasures that give a PF bonus I assume to be sold and the funds invested). So, in theory destroying the mine would reduce PF but give the resources back. How resource rich a world is shows how many mines (or whatever) it can support.

cool. thanks for all the input I want to get it someday. some of my group is really into nation building.

One thing that bothers me is that one cannot actually 'grow' a resource. I mean, who wouldn't be cultivating their unique biological compound rather than just trying to harvest it from nature? or in the grim darkness of the far future, have they forgotten what 'farming' was?

One thing that bothers me is that one cannot actually 'grow' a resource. I mean, who wouldn't be cultivating their unique biological compound rather than just trying to harvest it from nature? or in the grim darkness of the far future, have they forgotten what 'farming' was?

Even if you can't do it for every resource, biological resources should be "farmable" in some fashion. It'd probably require a bigger up-front investment, though. Some R&D to figure out the "how" and some infrastructure for the application.

The Stars of Inequity colony rules are a good starting point for managing colonies IMO, but the numbers will need adjusting (as most people point out, by default they grow far too quickly) and you'll need to houserule any additions that come up in the campaign (eg brining more colonists/infrastructure via cargo ships).

As far as the resource depletion issue goes- I think that the problem is one of terminology, not mechanics. I just think of it as the resource being exploited, not depleted. The resource is still there, but now there's a mining facility extracting it at a steady rate for processing. A bonus to Profit Factor represents an ongoing source of income, not a one-off injection of cash (one-off treasures that give a PF bonus I assume to be sold and the funds invested). So, in theory destroying the mine would reduce PF but give the resources back. How resource rich a world is shows how many mines (or whatever) it can support.

The first bit is definitely something that should have been covered - who wouldn't try to bring in more resources/assets for the colony after the initial plant?

And the resource exploitation value instead of depletion ... that likely works a whole lot better. Might need to houserule trade permanent depletion for a bigger short term PF boost. And, since it's a bloody planet, the amount needed to permanently deplete a resource even a little bit would be substantial.

As written it's got some cool setup but some impossibly terrible back end mechanics so no it's not good I'll just leave it at that.

As with so many of the books, some great ideas but poor execution, especially in the end-game.

As with so many of the books, some great ideas but poor execution, especially in the end-game.

I had noticed this as well. While is certainly not unfixable it does need fixing! Someone posted some house rules for this in another thread that I can't find right now. they were very well done and dealt primarily with the output of manufactorums and the time/resources issues. I'd love to find them again as I need to download them again!

Going further than that, I certainly would allow players to take a more detailed approach to colony defenses! A little common sense easily allows certain starship components to be "converted" for colonial defence use. A Lathe pattern landing bay becomes an Airfield and can hold the same number of Aeronautica units (6) as the component of same name could. A Lance battery could of course be ground based etc. As a rule I would make the components one degree of availability easier to obtain since they do not require much of the extra equipment necessary to operate in a voidship and are not as space sensitive. (And this allows the player to "Own" some of those fabulous Mega-structures found in the 40k 'verse').

I'd definitely be interested in those rules. I've been working on my own stuff and have had to re-iterate a few times because I kept remembering things that weren't included in the book. Defenses is one of those things. Also how colonies grow and establish new colonies on the planet and any moons in orbit, stuff like that.

One way to go about that with minimal rules invention is to allow the colony, as an entity, to perform background endeavors (see Into the Storm). There's no reason why colonial leaders couldn't perform one or more background endeavors on the Rogue Trader Dynasty's behalf, so long as those endeavors do not require one to actually leave the system the colony is in. Expand is an obvious one, the equivalent of setting up a second colony on the planet over a different resource deposit/area.

One fix I was considering to the runaway growth issue, besides changing the check to once/year, was to add a size-check after the existing roll. This would simply be a d10 roll. If the colony is growing, but you roll equal to or under the colony size, the new population is insufficient to make a notable difference. If the colony is shrinking the target is reversed - if you roll equal or above the people departing are not enough to make a notable difference. Adding this roll would, naturally, both reduce the number of changes, as well as push the colonies to the middle resulting in most colonies stabilizing around the 4-6 range. (Note, this is all theoretical, I haven't tried this at all)

A lot of things, like colony defenses, can also be covered by acquisitions. Planetary torpedo bases are particularly popular with foundling colonies as they're reasonable to install, really cheap to maintain, and can pose a serious threat to an invading ship. Fighter garrisons are good for similar reasons, though with a higher maintenance cost.

The advantage of airbases over ground based torpedo Silo's is two fold: First and most importantly, Airbases are multi-usage area. Aircraft onsite can be used for planetary defense against ground forces as well as Starships. (According to BFG; Most Anti-ship fighter bases were based on orbital platforms because of fuel expended to reach orbit.) Ground based Aircraft were also available but were primarily for low orbit defence, along with; Torpedoes and lances. BFG seemed to infer that Gun batteries (Macro cannons) were not really viable for planetary defence. With the possible exception of the Sunsear Laser battery, I tend to agree.

Secondly, Airbases also act as convenient landing platforms for more Utilitarian shuttles and such.

Lastly, A true "Star port" would require the following "Components": Spacedock Piers (For voidships that can actually land). Some sort of landing "Bay" (For small craft), Salvage systems (For advanced repairs), A Small craft repair deck, and a Pilot's chamber (Known as a Pilot's lounge but more involved than current Airports).

Airbases are certainly better, (and many planets are likely to have one for commercial reasons, at the very least) its just a matter of cost-benefit ratios. The biggest issue with putting weapons on a planet is dealing with the atmosphere and gravity well. Atmosphere really hurts lances and (energy based) macrocannons, while the gravity well hurts torpedos and aircraft.

The advantages of building on the planet itself are cheaper construction, larger power grid, decentralized construction, and natural defense. The last two are particularly important for planet bound torpedo launchers, the first two for planet bound lances.

So few voidships land, I wouldn't really worry about the Spacedock piers. Indeed, the only times I've heard about voidships landing is for planets that don't have any kind of real stardock/station. Specifically : Once in regard to a planetary invasion, with the IG troop ship landing on the planet to form an "instant 1km long firebase" and once in regard to an agri-world where the transport landed and all the voidsmen send out to help with the harvest, then everyone loaded up . When it was finally full, like a month or two later, it launched and headed back to some hive world.

I've actually outlined two Colonial Endeavours: the Founding Endeavour, a rough sketch of the prerequisites and the actual building part; and the Colony Endeavour, an ongoing endeavour that cycles every year.

It's how you track the Profit Factor of the Colony, which isn't wholly dependent on Size. It also allows you to set certain kinds of Objectives. So the Colony can produce 2 excess Food/Water and 1 Capacity (Production - Upkeep), which can be converted into Achievement Points towards Growth or an Upgrade Objective. Growth was more predictable and was actually something you wanted to maintain.

I added Food, Water, Medicine, Culture, Defense, Upkeep, as base Colony Attributes then derived more attributes from them. Resources also generated Achievement Points, so that you can track other Objectives from your own Endeavours (or my Dynasty Fleet Operations... Operations). Deliver 300 Achievement Points' worth of Iron ore? No problemo! Just need 6 Resource Points, or maybe even just 3 if the Colony Upgrades were good. Then I added more infrastructure and split up Resources a bit and...

It got heavy and crunchy fast .

So I was thinking of simplifying it to just +/- Profit Factor and retain the Resource Point conversion for Endeavours.

I've been working on something for some months. I had your experience Marwynn, but having done game design in the past, that's my experience with the best sytems. You figure out the basics, complicate the crap out of it, then abstract everything you can back to simplicity.

You should pay a heavy starting investment, but not for all types of colonies. After that, though, you might just need colonists, and you can even charge them for passage and land. It really depends on the world type. If it's hostile and everything has to be done indoors, it gets expensive. And SoI doesn't allow for multiple manufactorums to increase PF; they just increase productivity and past a certain point, easily reached, there's no benefit to doing more, which just doesn't make sense.

In fact, I found that all the complexities were stuff my players added on their own anyway. You give them the parameters of the diffculties involved and they'll sit for a whole session and problem-solve and have fun doing it. We came up with some basic rules ourselves but in the end none of us were happy with what we had. It needed refining.

A successful colony system would involve risk, reward, actions, and (most of all) interesting decisions to make. And, in the end, all the defenses you might add to a colony aren't any fun if no one comes along for you to test them out on, and give you a run for your money. SoI has the first 2, but the actions were just acquisition rolls and trips back and forth to civilization, which isn't exactly exciting stuff, and the whole system was too mechanical, making the decisions less than interesting.

Airbases would be very good but I think you guys are selling planetary torpedos short.

The way I had it once was underground missile silos containing torpedos, what made it really brutal is that each of them is in it's own instance of silent running and they can be spread all over a world just one torpedo to a hole. When I did it the world in question was capable of firing up to three torpedos every turn and this wasn't some forge world or something it was just a colony whose owner was engaged in anti-Imperial activities and decided to bury about thirty topedos to bushwhack anyone who happened to find the system and enter orbit.

That's what I think makes planetary torpedos killer is that you can hide them really well and hopefully avoid letting their existence become common knowlege.

I'd be wary of putting any orbital defenses on a planet. Mostly because it'll invite bombardment in turn. The best defense against orbital threats is to deal with it in orbit.

That said, I do love me some attack craft. You can have bases practically anywhere on the planet and they're a continuous threat.

A macrobattery will require a dedicated gun crew, all the macro-scale maintenance, not to mention power plants and so on. If they're tapped into the civilian infrastructure, it's going to be a helluva drain. If not, it's a financial drain. It'll be useful of course, for the right colony and size. But a part of me would rather have those weapons in a void station or system monitors.

Of course, good defenses include orbital defense stations, minefields, system ships, small craft, and ground troops. It always becomes a matter of profitability. Being able to intercept and stop an invader in space is preferable, but also the most expensive to develop and maintain. Defenses will always be in proportion to the amount the Dynasty stands to lose if that colony is no longer theirs.

As with so many of the books, some great ideas but poor execution, especially in the end-game.

I had noticed this as well. While is certainly not unfixable it does need fixing! Someone posted some house rules for this in another thread that I can't find right now. they were very well done and dealt primarily with the output of manufactorums and the time/resources issues. I'd love to find them again as I need to download them again!

Going further than that, I certainly would allow players to take a more detailed approach to colony defenses! A little common sense easily allows certain starship components to be "converted" for colonial defence use. A Lathe pattern landing bay becomes an Airfield and can hold the same number of Aeronautica units (6) as the component of same name could. A Lance battery could of course be ground based etc. As a rule I would make the components one degree of availability easier to obtain since they do not require much of the extra equipment necessary to operate in a voidship and are not as space sensitive. (And this allows the player to "Own" some of those fabulous Mega-structures found in the 40k 'verse').

As with so many of the books, some great ideas but poor execution, especially in the end-game.

I had noticed this as well. While is certainly not unfixable it does need fixing! Someone posted some house rules for this in another thread that I can't find right now. they were very well done and dealt primarily with the output of manufactorums and the time/resources issues. I'd love to find them again as I need to download them again!

Found it! William asher posted house rules for SOI colonies. These cover a lot of the topics covered here!

https://drive.google...d3c&usp=sharing