Tutorials

How to play a Rogue

Playing a Rogue in OYW has historically been a very difficult process. More than half of the people who play Rogues in these games tend to either die very quickly, or feel that their character is somewhat useless and quit or change factions very quickly.

Of those who don't do one of the above things, many tend to just pick a side to roll with and end up basically as a Zeon or EF member who is playing a Rogue. There's nothing too terribly wrong with that, but it's not the only thing you can do as a successful Rogue, either.

So I have created this tutorial, explaining how to successfully play a Rogue. Do read it if you are considering playing as one.

Rogue Basics The important thing to remember about playing a Rogue is that if you screw up, you do not have the support network that Zeon and EF members have. Therefor, it is very important that you do not screw up.

EF and Zeon as sides make tens of thousands of SP per week just from weekly income, and send each other money all the time. If one of their fleets is destroyed in a battle gone wrong, they can easily rebuild the fleet within a week or two.

Rogue players can start with a lot of money, but after starting they do not get fresh money handed to them like EF and Zeon do. So if you build a base or a fleet as a Rogue and lose it, it is gone. You're likely not going to be able to get a new one for the rest of the game. Therefor, it is important that you do not buy things that you can't afford to lose, and do not fight battles that you think you have a chance of losing.

In exchange for this fragility, Rogue players have a lot of possible options that EF and Zeon players do not have:

A: You can start the game with both more VP and more money than EF/Zeon players.

B: You can change your personal mobile suit quickly and painlessly, customizing your character for specific battles.

C: You have access to the Hide action, making it nearly impossible for people to attack you, meaning you only have to fight battles when you want to.

D: You have access to every sides shop.

E: You can attack targets in ways that EF and Zeon players simply cannot, with use of things like infiltrating bases and terrorist services.

F: You get positive modifiers to essentially every die roll based thing in the game, such as evading patrols and scouting bases.

It's important when you play a Rogue that you play very carefully, planning out each attack in advance, and making use of your advantages to ensure that the attack will be successful. Because while you have all of these advantages, mistakes will hurt your character much more than EF or Zeon mistakes hurt theirs.

Types of Rogues There are an infinite number of ways to play a Rogue character in OYW. You should have a strong backstory for your character and intend to do a lot of RPing, because you cannot rely on the simple military backstory EF and Zeon can when playing the game. If you do not intend to roleplay at all, you should not play a Rogue. It will be too hard for staff members to write your battles and we'll end up ostricizing you because of it.

However, to help you along, I've grouped the things you can possibly do as a Rogue into four basic ideas. You are not restricted to picking one of these ideas, and it is easy to do a mix of all four. These are simply guideposts to help you along and give you some ideas.

Mercernaries Mercernaries are likely the simplest types of Rogues. Essentially what you will do is hire yourself off to either EF or Zeon, and fight their battles on their payroll. They gain the advantage of all the special abilities of a Rogue, and you gain the advantage of their money.

As a Mercernary, it is normally important that you pick one side or the other to fight for and stick with them. In past games, EF and Zeon members have been quick to paint Rogues as part of one side or the other, and do not hire Rogues that attacked them in an earlier part of the game. So if you are going to change sides, do it rarely and be careful about it. If you screw too many people over you'll find nobody will hire you.

There are no rules for how to hire a Rogue and there are no rules saying either side must do what they agreed to do. So you need to be very specific with your interaction with a side. Know exactly what your objectives are for each mission, exactly who is paying you, exactly how much they are paying you, etc. And when you say you'll do something, do it. A Rogue is only as good as their word in this game. Once people know you will go back on your word and backstab people, they will stop hiring you.

Generally as a Mercernary type Rogue you want to focus on having a good personal MS and high VP/CP, rather than own a lot of ships and NPC units. Ships can be attacked and NPC units can be destroyed, but your personal MS cannot be taken from you, and the higher your VP the more attractive you will seem to EF and Zeon. If you need backup units for a particular mission, let EF and Zeon buy them for you.

Your backstory and RPing can be very simple as a Mercernary. You're simply a non military or ex military guy with a gun or a giant robot who fights wars for money. You can make that as complicated as you want, but it doesn't really have to be very complicated.

It is not advised that you start with any Diplomacy score changes as a Mercernary, as it will force you into being hired by one side or the other, and cost starting points that you will need. Once you start working for one of the two sides of the war, your Diplomacy scores will quickly change anyway.

Traders Traders are an interesting sort of Rogue whose objective is not to fight battles, but rather to trade with all sides and make as much money as possible. In fact, it is quite important as a Trader to fight battles as little as possible.

There are two entities you can trade with in the game. NPC factions and PC players. There is a complicated system for trading with NPCs, for space, deep space and on Earth and Mars. The highest profit margin possible is actually deep space trading, but that comes with the least interaction with other players so can also be the least fun. The Earth Sphere is the next highest, Earth Surface comes after that, and Mars Surface trading has the lowest profits possible.

As a trader, you want to regularly be doing some sort of route to trade with NPC factions. This allows you to have a constant income source when you're not trading things to PCs. For example, you could buy Luna Titanium on Von Braun, and sell it in Earth Orbit, where you'll pick up Air & Water to sell on Von Braun. At any point in the game, you're always somewhere on your route between Von Braun and Luna II ferrying cargo.

There are also a number of things you can sell to player characters:

A: You can sell EF shop items to Zeon members, and vice versa. These can then be used by those players for sneak attacks and other black ops sort of stuff.

B: You can refit EF and Zeon ships using the special Rogue refits system.

C: You can purchase information and even side forum passwords using services, and then sell them to EF and Zeon. While EF and Zeon players have services to buy forum passwords as well, it is actually cheaper for them to buy them from a Rogue at a profit.

D: You can repair damaged EF and Zeon ships in the field for a fee.

E: You can sell WMDs to EF/Zeon members with nefarious schemes. While EF and Zeon players can buy nukes and such from their own shops, it is actually cheaper for them to buy them from a Rogue at a profit.

F: You can use your increased abilities to evade patrols to offer to transport lone EF/Zeon PCs on your ships across a patrol or blockade for a fee.

G: You can scout EF/Zeon bases with little possibility of being caught, and then sell the scouting reports to EF/Zeon. This is much more possible on Earth where there are bases everywhere than in space where you might have to travel 2-3 days just to get to the base to scout it.

When trading things with PCs, it is incredibly important that all your Diplomacy scores with ever faction stay as high as possible. An Unfriendly or Hostile score with a faction makes their shop items much more expensive, reducing the amount of trading you can effectively do.

Your Diplomacy scores with factions will slowly but surely go up as you trade and RP with their members, and will go up faster the more you roleplay out each individual transaction. They will ONLY go down if you back out on a deal or attack a faction personally. If you sell nukes to EF and EF attacks Zeon with them, your diplomacy with Zeon will not go down. But if you nuke Zeon yourself, it will.

So it actually becomes important to not fight battles as a trader whenever possible. You want all of your interactions with players to be peaceful and businesslike, and you don't want to screw over anybody. Once you make a deal, stick with it and make sure it gets done.

As a Trader you don't need to start with much VP, you want to start with a lot of money instead. You want to spend most of the RPG Hidden, so that other players (especially other Rogues who can steal your cargo and sell it) will not be able to attack your stuff. You likely want to be a ship captain of some sort so that you can Hide your personal ship. You CAN do most any sort of trading while Hidden.

Remember that you can only Hide yourself and your personal ship that you pilot. Upgrading from 1 ship to a fleet of ships can get you a lot more profit, but it also makes you open to being attacked, so at that point you must be able to defend yourself.

Roleplaying as a Trader is more complicated than a Mercernary. Your backstory can be pretty simple, but it is important that you RP regularly and often, because you won't be in battles hardly ever so staff will not be writing your character for you. The more you RP the faster your Diplomacy scores will go up and the better deals you'll be able to offer, and the more people read your RP threads the more they'll think about trading with you as well.

It's not advised that you start with any Diplomacy score changes as a Trader, because it's expensive to start friendly/allied with powers, and if you RP well and often your diplomacy scores will gradually increase for free anyway.

Idealists The third and most complicated sort of Rogues are the idealists, pioneers and terrorists who are military combatants, but do not as a rule fight for a particular side. If this is what you want to do you need to RP a lot and be very careful about every single action you make. You also likely do not want to do it alone, but rather do it as part of a Rogue Team so you have other Rogues to rely on.

It's important as an Idealist type that you pick a specific goal you are working towards. Some basic possible goals may be:

Controlling one specific area of the map. Maybe you are an African or Southeast Asian revolutionary, or out for the independence of Side 2. You'll attack any and everybody who moves through that area, and will eventually try to put a base there and control it yourself. You have options like Hideout type bases and the Hide action you can use to your advantage here, and fighting in one specific location repeatedly will gain you specializations that make you difficult to beat as long as you don't leave that area. An example Rogue group that had this sort of goal was Jonas Kellers Martian Independence Association in OYW4, out for the liberation of Mars.

Alternatively, a goal could be to destroy or capture one specific target. Maybe a specific base that you want to destroy, or a specific named NPC like a Zabi that you want to assassinate, for some character backstory related reason. In that case you will likely travel around the map trading and mercing to make money, and once you have enough money to accomplish the destruction of your target, you'll backstab everybody and do it in one fell swoop. An example Rogue group that had this sort of goal was Samuel Rileys Black Rock Pirates in OYW5, out to capture a Jupiter Energy Fleet.

A third option might be to be a sort of pioneer, wanting to create a space station or colony in the far reaches of deep space. You'll start of as a trader or even a merc to make money, but will eventually set off to the stars on your great adventure.

Everything you do in the RPG should be somehow linked towards the ultimate conclusion of completing your goal. You'll likely have to make money somehow, so you'll have to do some merc'ing or some trading, or a little of both. This can get you income, but it can also gain you friendships with other players that can be used to complete your goal at a later date.

As this sort of a Rogue you have to be very careful, because you have even less leeway to mess up than other Rogues. As a Mercernary or Trader you are relying on EF and Zeon to keep you in business, but as this sort you are relying only on yourself. Once you play your hand and make your big move to accomplish whatever goal you've set, it is played. You may fail, and if you do it's likely you won't have another chance. The African Union in OYW5 attempted to liberate Africa from Zeon, and although they had a lot of early successes, they ultimately made too many mistakes and were never able to accomplish their goals the entire game.

As this sort of Rogue you want to balance the VP and money you start with. You need high VP because you will be fighting battles, but you also want money because you'll probably eventually need a big fleet or a base to accomplish whatever goal you've set.

You also need a very good backstory and good roleplaying to play this sort of character, because you are relying on your backstory to make your goal seem believable and plausible. If you plan on eventually backstabbing people, you need to RP in such a way that I know what you're doing and talking about and working towards, but other players do not, so that I can help you out in what webmastery ways I can but you don't tip off your eventual opponents.

You also likely need friends on board and to create a Rogue team. For Mercs and Traders teams are nice, but ultimately unnecessary. For Terrorists teams are almost required. You MUST have a team to control territory, and one person destroying a big fleet or base can be kind of hard.

As a Terrorist type, you might think about starting the game Unfriendly or Hostile with one power or another. If your eventual plan is to say, attack the JDEG, you will eventually be JDEG hostile, so why not get a few extra points for starting the game that way? This can easily work into your character backstory as well.

Minor Power Employees It is also possible to start the game as somebody under the employ of the CMC, LMC, Riah or JDEG, by starting the game Allied with one of those factions. This costs a hefty 10 starting points from your characters points pool, and furthermore requires that you start with that factions special rule rather than the Unaligned Rogue special rule, which is easily the best of the bunch. However, starting allied with a faction can allow for some fun roleplaying opportunities.

As an employee for a minor power you are out for the interests of that power, but can achieve those interests through one of the above concepts. Perhaps you are a JDEG trader who wants to build colonies in the Jupiter Sphere. Or perhaps you are a secret agent employed by Riah to clandestinely assist the war effort for either EF or Zeon (your choice there really).

Maybe you're the son of a wealthy JDEG trading family and you want to use your leverege to assist one power in the war, but you still have ties to the JDEG. Or maybe you're an officer aboard one of the Jupiter Energy Fleets.

Or perhaps you're a sanctioned CMC or LMC trader, or an LMC allied freedom fighter trying to kick the Zeon out of Granada. Or maybe a CMC beaurocrat on Mars trying to subjugate the Freemen. There are lots of options here.

Starting allied with a power does not give you all that many concrete bonuses for the number of points it costs at starting. It is more intended to give you that option as an RPing tool. It is hard to roleplay yourself as a Riah employee if you are not Riah allied at the start of the game.

Final Notes Anyway, it was a bit long, but I hope it's helped. Rogues are a very interesting and special part of OYW. Most Gundam PBEM games have "Rogues", but they don't work much differently than other factions. OYW Rogues are very different and add a lot of flavor to the game, and it's sad to see people want to play as them but ultimately fail because they didn't realize how hard it was. I'm hoping this guide will scare the players who are only halfhearted away from playing Rogues, and give the ones who are serious about doing it some ideas.

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