Infinite Horizons - Roles Guide

This guide is separated into 'Factions' and 'Roles'.

Factions are the various groups with their own interests and objectives, with each faction represented by a team. They are given a bit of detail here in case you want to sign yourself or your team up as a specific faction.

Roles are the different positions for the players within a team - with each role having a different responsibility and taking part in a different facet of the game's structure. Be sure to mention it in your reservation if you have a preference for a specific role - or if you are signing up as a team and you have individual role preferences, please include which roles should be given to which players.

Factions

Team Size: 5 players per faction (except Niwa Colony Council)

Global Interoperability Council

Built upon what was left of the European Union, the USA, Canada, Australia, India and a handful of other industrialised former-commonwealth countries, the GIC nations cling to notions of democratic freedom, capitalism and free markets. The GIC see the colonisation of Niwa as a chance to revitalise their once great nations.

Arabic League for Economic, Cultural and Scientific Development

A repurposing and expansion of an older cultural organisation for the modern world, the League is a loose collaboration between the African and Middle-Eastern Arabic nations. The League wishes to ensure that its religious and political ideology has its place on the new planet. They support scientific and environmental developments on Niwa.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Like the rest of the world, the Cooperative has plenty of problems – but unlike the other supranational groups, their main issues aren’t with overpopulation or energy scarcity. What they lack is the resources to keep up with the spiralling demands of an increasingly wealthy and educated population. Should the resources run dry and the tiger economies begin to starve, things could get ugly fast.

Wey-Tani Ind.

Simply wishing to meet the Earth’s growing demand for rare earth elements (REE) Wey-tani has the knowledge and drive to find and export REE as well as taking advantage of any other emerging industrial markets.

Cain Enterprises

At the heart of the Niwa colony project, Cain Enterprises are ready to exploit every opportunity that Niwa has to offer. With expertise in mining and industrial processes, they are ready to delve into the very heart of Niwa to expose its secrets.

Advanced Ventures

Certifiably the largest and most ambitious crowdfunding project to date, the Advanced Ventures project was a desperate gamble – one that paid off beyond all expectations. Its backers are dedicated to the idea of making a new and better life on this brave new world. They will not allow a repeat of humanity’s past mistakes… nor the sacrifice of Niwa for the sake of the planet they left behind.

Universal Banking Group

Very few banks survived the first half of the twenty first century in anything like a recognisable form… and those which did mostly managed it simply through being the biggest, nastiest shark in the tank. UBG's massive financial investment in the project means that the success of the colony is paramount to its own success. It will use all of its ability to make sure that it sees a return on its investments.

BET Pharmaceuticals

No other group have higher hopes for Niwa than BET - the sheer potential of the planet and its lifeforms was enough that they sold all their existing patents, along with drugs research that had been decades in the making, simply to raise the money to get involved in the project.

Losanna AgroEng

Losanna knows that the life on the new planet could radically change the human race for the better or worse. During the development of the project they continued to lobby for a ‘hands-off’ approach to Niwa and its resources, and have over time become the project’s self appointed guardians of scientific morality and environmental conservatism, a counterbalance to the exploitative forces of the nations and corporations who would exploit the planet’s resources through wholesale and damaging processes.

The Niwa Colony Council (team size: 6 people)

The Council of Niwa is an internationally diverse, expressly neutral body chosen from among the most scrupulously moral, most forward thinking individuals on Earth. They have one objective – to ensure the Niwa colony not only survives, but flourishes.

This is a unique team representing the neutral civic administration of the colony. The roles in this team represent the different key positions overseeing management of the colony as a whole.

Roles

The majority of players in this game represent the most senior roles in the major factions that influence the colony. Each team represents the overall leadership of one faction. The different roles are:

Leader (CEO, President, Premier, Managing Director, etc)

The leader’s primary role is to ensure the faction meets its objectives. To do this they must coordinate the team. They have the overview of the team’s assets and control the allocation of resources from the Faction's HQ. Ultimately they answer to the team’s Sponsor back on Earth but here on Niwa they are the voice of their faction and speak with its full authority.

Development Manager

As the colony grows as a whole, so too does each faction seek to expand their position in the colony and their knowledge of Niwa. The Development Manager is responsible for negotiating the placement of new buildings within the colony for their faction, and is also in charge of any scientific development in factions should they choose to take on their own research projects.

Director of Operations

The Director of Operations activates and controls the faction's units on the Niwa world map. They are the only player who may go to the world map. These units are used to explore Niwa, build new facilities out in its wilds and protect the faction's assets from threats. There is also an element of logistics and planning to ensure that remote facilities have the workers, resources and protection needed to operate.

Trade Representative

As the key negotiator, the Trade Representative must make trade deals with other factions and Earth. They must haggle for space on the twin cargo ships (Nut and Geb) to ensure resources are returned to their Sponsors and make any requests for supplies from Earth. They can bid for Council contracts to help the Council and will need to recruit workers from the labour pool. The Trade rep will find themselves to be an important link between all the other members of the team.

Assembly Member (GIC, Arabic League, and Shanghai Coop teams only)

This member of the team represents their faction at meetings of the colony’s legislative body, the Assembly. Representatives’ duties include dealing with crises, voting on new legislation to address the needs of the colony or debating land claims on Niwa. The Assembly is formed of three members from the national factions and a member of Niwa Colony Council (NCC).

Faction Lobbyist (Wey-Tani, Cain, Advanced Ventures, UBG, BET, and Losanna teams only)

Lobbyists represent their faction within the Assembly and the Council. Lobbyists have no direct powers within these political circles (unless elected to a position) but do hold lots of influence over sections of the colony’s population. They can use this influence as well as their faction’s resources to persuade and cajole the Assembly and the Council into making laws and legislation in their favour. They can use this influence to support or oppose Assembly actions.

In addition to the above, there are a few other teams and roles in the game that are not a part of the regular factions. These are outlined below.

Other Teams

Team Size: 2 players

There are a handful of other, less conventional groups with their own interests and influence on Niwa. These may be available as played teams if the game has enough players. These teams are best suited for experienced megagame players.

News Media

Team Size: 2 players

The News Media team will be learning of important events and broadcasting them to the rest of the game. These roles revolve around asking questions, learning about what's going on, and preparing announcements. They are primarily creative roles based around adding to the narrative of the game.

Control

A small team of players will be helping to run the game and manage certain parts of the experience. The Control Team are effectively a team of GMs ensuring that the rules are applied properly, and allowing players to interact with parts of the game that aren't established by existing mechanics. This role is best suited to people who have attended a megagame before or who are familiar with this sort of responsibility.