I want more crunch in the endeavor rules!

It's pretty cool so far, but I want a far more boardgamey system to simulate the vast army of NPCs of my RT fleet trying to get various endeavors done.

Almost all of the pieces are in place, but there doesn't seem to be any specific rules on how you resolve endeavors that are being handled by NPCs and not by PCs.

Of course the GM could just hand wave whatever is needed for the story, fine, but if you want to play a more sandbox type of game then it needs "simulator" rules.

I want to see a full blown ameritrash/euro hybrid boardgame that simulates a whole campaign of endeavors snaking out into a region of space, detailing all sorts of nuances like stable warp routes, pirates and rebellions, trade routes and embargoes, etc.

I know it's not going to happen, because it would be clearly awesome, and while FF is all about awesomeness it can't go that far.

Anyway, it seems simple enough to just use the test mechanics with their modifiers and then have a "crew rating" of say, 5 to 25 to represent various levels of crew competency and the other support resources going into an endeavor to make it happen.

But I want to have to sit there making strategic decisions with the profit value, gambling certain amounts to boost this or that endeavor and then deciding within a certain metric of time which endeavors we'll play out as PCs to more reliably resolve them.

Rogue Trader: Administratum

Immediately springs to mind.

The entire point is that it is the Rogue Trader and his crew doing it, not the "vast army of NPCs". This all assumes that your RT has multiple ships, otherwise that idea is dead in the water from the start. Even is he does have many ships, I think they would be busy keeping your Profit Factor steady as it is (since otherwise it could go down due to you (the RT and crew) going around on adventures rather than trading). NPCs wouldn't make the PF go up, they would keep it from going down.

There does however still need to be rules to resolve NPC endeavors, they are mentioned in the rules. However the rulebook, as far as I can tell, doesn't tell you how to do it.

MILLANDSON said:

Not really. The real point is succeeding at an Endeavor. Look on pg 279 under the heading "Running Endevours". There you will see a good two paragraphs talking about running an endeavor "in the background" with NPC's handling all the nitty-gritty of it with only the barest of direction (if that) from the PC's. It even mentions them being run by the "faceless legions of a PC's dynasty". This is what the OP is talking about.

In that section of the book, it states tat NPC's (the faceless legions of the PC's dynasty) can do all the work on an endeavor (usually between game sessions) and, upon succeeding, the PC's profit factor will indeed go up. However, it goes on to mention that such endeavors will take longer to complete, be more problematic, and less profitable then if the PC's had been involved personally. It, however, doesn't give any guidelines as to how much longer it might take, how much less profit it would net, and what these additional problems would be or what impact they would have on the PC's who weren't involved with it in the first place. As it is, these factors are left solely up to the GM and the OP is wishing fore a more fleshed out system for handling such without GM fiat nor is their any mentionings of if the NPC's can screw it up and how, beyond fiat, a GM would decide they totally borked the whole endeavor up.

Incidentally, these mentionings of the faceless legions of the PC's dynasty and their ability to engage and complete endeavors without the PC's really being involved is one of the reasons I mentioned that the PC's dynasty probably dose have a fleet of ships in one of those threads where-by someone was wondering where the RT's fleet of ships were. They're usualy out doing other things, but, apparently, if the PC's so desire, they can put them to work colonizing worlds and what have you. They just won't be as awesome (or terrible as the case might be) at such as the PC's would be. Hell, technically speaking, the PC's could have 4 endeavors going at once, several being done by NPC's while they shoot off to complete another one themselves. The only real cap on how many endeavors that can be done, I reckon, is stickily up to the GM and what he or she thinks the dynasty firing on all cylinders can get done.