Grim Compact Bad (?) Discussion Thread

[Myphicbowser]

I wanna know what you, yes YOU THERE, dislike about the Grim Compact as it stands.

For those who don't know but would like to get involved, the Grim Compact is a minor piece of Unathi Lore, so you can find it on the Wiki underneath the Unathi tabs.

 

Or find it here: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Grim_Compact

Edited January 22, 2022 by Myphicbowser
Adding Link

[Marlon P.]

What do you think about them, myphicbowser?

[Myphicbowser]

1 minute ago, Marlon P. said:

What do you think about them, myphicbowser?

What I think about them is that they need some touching up but generally are fine, I'd like to see codified rules for playing ex-Grim Compact members and the issues that come with it.

 

I think they are a comical and slightly exaggerated yet plausible faction to exist, and they could do with an update to make them viable as character concepts and antag gimmicks, as the Hegemony is a good distance away from the Aurora and where where Horizon will first be launched.

[Marlon P.]

Good post. I played a former compacter for awhile. I think they are fun. I may be biased since i wrote them all though. Im glad you think they're plausible.

I think touching up could be good. In what way do you see it being touched up? I think people see theyre pirates and get thrown for a loop since they're not an antag-only faction. Branding is everything.

[Myphicbowser]

Mostly I'd like to say it is a branding issue, along with the fact that the name "Grim Compact" is a little heavy handed. But I'm not the expert on opinions here, that's what this post is for. I'm hoping to get solid community consensus and see what can be done with it in the form of a Lore Canonization Application, if not by me then at least a forum post would exist where people have said their piece on it and it could be referenced easily.

[TrainTN]

It doesn't feel very grounded or believable, and I have a difficult time taking it seriously. It reads like something from a 20th century sci-fi pulp magazine, and while I expect and want some of that from SS13 - we have robots and lizard-people and psychic powers and all sorts of other things - something about it strikes me as jarring, compared to the rest of the setting.

But this is only the opinion of someone who just now read the article for the first time and has never seen/noticed the lore used in practice.

[DeadLantern]

Main Problems:

Too hard to justify a pirate becoming a crew member. It plainly doesn't make sense and always requires suspension of disbelief. A rework would require making them state-backed privateers, acting within the confines of actual planetside Moghes law.

Not enough original lore. There is very little separating the culture between Moghes Unathi and Pirate Unathi. There are factions, people, even planets, but nothing on how these two group have diverged over the course of 30-40 years. This leads to people playing them like pirates of the carribean (bad) or just Unathi but in space (boring).

Needs diversification. I am fine with an Unathi space faction, but making them pirates is so narrow. There would theoretically be a large population of Unathi smuggled out of Moghes due to the Hegemony's expansion and the Contact War, and maybe raiding/stealing can be a thing they do, but they also need, like, food. Money. There needs to be more explanation on how these people live normally.

In my opinion, the Grim Compact need to be changed from the ground up.

[limette]

The main issue I have is that it's the Grim Compact; nobody goes to play pirates because they want to recreate a feudal system 1:1 and re-enact it but in space. There's essentially nothing differentiating this society from the society of the average Unathi on Moghes. It'd be likely a lot more interesting and a lot more attractive to players if it was a faction with actual distinctions in the organization of society and their worldviews, rather than needing to ignore the lore and fill in the blanks with stuff from IRL pirates lest you simply be a Hegemon Unathi But In Space.

I'd expect, if anything, a group of exiles outside of the feudal system to be the foundation of piracy lore. Otherwise, I'd honestly suggest that they be reduced to a section about privateers on another page, because without an independent society to speak of they don't really justify being their own faction all that well. Right now it's in an odd in-between where it re-enacts a lot of Moghes society, but in a way that it makes it distasteful to most people. It should, IMO, either be a dedicated faction with its own independent traits, or a part of Hegemony lore, rather than this position.

Edited January 22, 2022 by limette

[stev]

41 minutes ago, limette said:

The main issue I have is that it's the Grim Compact; nobody goes to play pirates because they want to recreate a feudal system 1:1 and re-enact it but in space. There's essentially nothing differentiating this society from the society of the average Unathi on Moghes. It'd be likely a lot more interesting and a lot more attractive to players if it was a faction with actual distinctions in the organization of society and their worldviews, rather than needing to ignore the lore and fill in the blanks with stuff from IRL pirates lest you simply be a Hegemon Unathi But In Space.

I'd expect, if anything, a group of exiles outside of the feudal system to be the foundation of piracy lore. Otherwise, I'd honestly suggest that they be reduced to a section about privateers on another page, because without an independent society to speak of they don't really justify being their own faction all that well. Right now it's in an odd in-between where it re-enacts a lot of Moghes society, but in a way that it makes it distasteful to most people. It should, IMO, either be a dedicated faction with its own independent traits, or a part of Hegemony lore, rather than this position.

Yeah, I highkey agree with this. We already have an issue in Unathi lore of almost every playable faction being subservient to the Izweski Hegemony in some way despite the Hegemony also being one of the spiciest, most divisive things to Unathi as a whole. Making the whole pirate faction subservient to the big government was kind of a mistake from the beginning imo, it sorta loses the flavour of piracy and replaces it mostly with a stripped-back standard feudal system. 

I'd love to see Unathi pirates as a whole being expanded as their own thing, though, given it's such a big part of their reputation with other species yet has surprisingly little lore outside this legalised, state-sanctioned version of it. Tho if wider Unathi piracy got a lore expansion it would be quite cool to see the Compact as a foil to the truly independent pirates, perhaps being privateers (and pirate hunters) themselves. 

[Boggle08]

I feel like the premise of the Grim Compact being a bunch of traditionalist refugees conveniently landing on a planet, then being led by a bunch of Hegemonic Nobles to be incongruous. The nobility wouldn't abandon their race's sole and most beneficiary power broker in the galaxy just to go play dishonorable bandit. As for the traditionalists, It just feels narratively convenient for them to all land on Ha'zana and then turn into pirates.

I feel like we need to ditch the nobles leading the Compact at the top in favor of a Hegemonic trading guild that was severely down on their luck, and getting consistently neglected by the rest of the Hegemony. So much so that they have to band together, start raiding, and disrupt Hegemonic trade so much that the government is forced to recognize them and integrate them as an irregular force in their navy/trading empire. Turn their creation into a caste shake-up that's a consequence of the changing times.

The Influx of traditionalists, wastelanders, and other weirdos shouldn't come from primarily from Ha'zana. I think the best way to do it instead is if the Compact literally flies down onto Moghes, and impresses wastelanders into service to replace their numbers. 

Ha'zana feels like a first draft or iteration of a planet right now. It could either use development, or removal. Either option is worth consideration. Giving the compact their very own private moon or planet would be a good way to showcase their power.

4 minutes ago, stev said:

I'd love to see Unathi pirates as a whole being expanded as their own thing, though, given it's such a big part of their reputation with other species yet has surprisingly little lore outside this legalised, state-sanctioned version of it. Tho if wider Unathi piracy got a lore expansion it would be quite cool to see the Compact as a foil to the truly independent pirates, perhaps being privateers (and pirate hunters) themselves. 

I agree with this, and the people in lore already have some ideas for general piracy expansion. The grim compact is intended to be a place where someone can reasonably pull out a character background. Having them turn into a rule-abiding, sanctioned trade fleet/privateers is a step in the right direction.