Forging Ahead (GURPS Interstellar Wars/Celestial Forge)

[SemiSaneAuthor]

Or said Empire Building Fics are set on easy mode, like a Commander Fic who can go, "Brutally Efficient, Self-Replicating, Mechanism of War," from the very beginning.

So question, does this fic need to be an Empire Building one? Or can you write it differently? And if it does need to be one, then has anyone written about Klaus in Pre Girl Genius canon founding his Empire? You know, take from the best of such an Empire and model it for your protag in a different world?

 

[Tili]

The Forge rewrote reality to ensure witnesses to her somehow amassing 7 doctorates from high school to now and continues to do so. It won't be a problem, but it is a waste of her time at the moment

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"I reject your reality and substitute my own!"
- The Forge

 

[SemiSaneAuthor]

To point out Empire Building in fiction then people use existing power bases to start off. Agatha from Girl Genius doesn't start her own Circus she joins one, and Mechanisburg was made by her ancestors.

Or let's take Voldemort as an example, he uses Parseltongue to make a power base in Slytherin, builds up during Hogwarts. Fucks off for a few years till he feels comfortably immortal, comes back, reestablishes his power base. Then goes to war to conquer Magical Britain. And when he does he uses the existing ministry for his Dark Magic and Magic Nazi state.

Or if I remember rightly Hiver once wrote a Goa'uld SI and had his initial powerbase as a minor Goa'uld to build off.

The Folios for Girl Genius don't show Klaus making the empire. And even then he was a Baron so he had an initial powerbase. So what inital power base is Sophia using? Where does she start Empire Building?

 

[Ultim@tePower]

Never wrote an empire building story but have you thought about the jump-3 ship misjumping and forcing Novak to a distant primitive human colony under attack by aliens or something to pressure her into building an empire quickly to rebuild the jump-3 so she can return her crew home? And saving the colony is also a very nice bonus

 

[Taliesin]

Okay, to set some reader expectations, the arc I was gelling just fell apart on the planning table. Again. Man, how do other people make these 'empire builder' fics look so easy? They are really not my strength it would seem.

Not abandoning shit this time, just waiting for lightning to strike again like it did for the last two chapters. But yeah, that's gonna be an indetermine wait. Maybe I'll try some other project in the interim to stay fresh and mentally loosen up, if I can think of one.

Sorry.

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As a suggestion, have you thought about using an LLM as a sounding board? Not to write for you, but to talk through any problems you're having with outline planning and work through solutions. I find that I usually don't like what the AI comes up with, but in analyzing it I come up with new ideas of my own that do work.

 

[The Unicorn]

Or said Empire Building Fics are set on easy mode, like a Commander Fic who can go, "Brutally Efficient, Self-Replicating, Mechanism of War," from the very beginning.

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I'd describe that as poor worldbuilding, and those stories also usually have no plot

So question, does this fic need to be an Empire Building one?

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Good question, given the setup the story will involve empire building, but since the MC hasn't shown any interest in either politics or military command (quite the opposite in fact) she could leave that to the experts and focus on other stuff. The question is, what would the plot be if it's not an empire builder?

I believe @cliffc999 plan was to use the quest into figuring out how the Villani actually work to hook the next plot arc, but her finding that sort of intelligence would mean she'd be deeply involved in the empire building. Given her role in developing the improved warp drive she won't be going on any dangerous expeditions, so what else could the story be about?