Update for the Week of August 20, 2021

(Covenant’s playtest rules are out! Download a copy now and tell us what you think! If you like what you see, think about becoming a patron!)

Featured Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We’ve finished the foreign policy for the company-states in the Archimedean Confederation! Find out more below the fold.

Here’s what we want to talk about this week:

• The Archimedean Confederation
• The game mechanic of the week, ties
• How to become a playtester

ARCHIMEDEAN CONFEDERATION

Short update this week. We finished the company-states’ foreign policy with the Covenant, Terran Federation, Old Empire, and Dominion this week. These includes their current status (cold war, hot war, trade partner, or uncertain) and details about their current relationship with and perception of each domain.

Unfortunately, there’s two Archimedean Confederations: the company-states and the “indigenous states”, or the governments that were already there when the company-states moved in. This is doubling our work in the Archimedean Confederation.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to finish up the indigenous states’ foreign policy and move on to military doctrine next week. Stay tuned for updates.

GAME MECHANIC OF THE WEEK: TIES

Your character uses discipline to make bids in Covenant. This brings up the question of where this discipline comes from.

To answer that, think about your own life. You get money from a job (maybe more), possibly a home from your parents, and emotional support from your family, friends, and beliefs. Lose any part of this support network, and suddenly your options narrow until you can repair or replace the loss.

The same is true with Covenant characters. We call this support network ties. A tie can be anything: family, friends, jobs, organizations, even beliefs or long-term goals. There’s only two requirements for a tie:

• It has to be something to which you have an intense emotional tie. It should affect you if you lose it.
• It has to be something that you can lose.

Each tie supplies your character with 100 discipline. If xi loses a tie, xi permanently loses this 100 discipline.

This gives your enemies an indirect way to attack your character. You have to maintain and protect your ties. If you don’t, your character will lose them and the advantage that they provide.

However, it also gives your character a way to attack powerful enemies. Frontal assaults aren’t always wise or even necessary. Instead, you can use politics or dirty tricks to attack an enemy’s power base to weaken them or draw them out.

BECOMING A PLAYTESTER

Have you downloaded Covenant’s playtest rules yet? Did we mention that they’re free? If not, do it now! They’re free! All we ask is that you tell us what you think about them. You can send your feedback in two ways:

• Email us at radiofreecovenant@gmail.com
• Join our Discord server

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That’s about it for now. Talk to you next Friday!