When the Frost came, nobody was prepared. In a matter of mere months, all the great powers of the world were brought to their knees, as poor and rich alike froze in their homes. Our forefathers decided to leave their homes, to head North across the seas, so that we might somehow find a place untouched by the endless winters.
We roamed for weeks, months, leaving behind all we had once believed had made us. We never found an escape from the endless winter, forced to stop due to dwindling supplies. As we managed to scrounge up the bare necessary supplies to survive, we found that we were not alone. Others, from another land, had settled near us, sucking up the resources we needed to survive. Tensions have only risen since we first met them, and now it's time that we rightfully take back all they have stolen from us. There isn't enough room for the both of us on this island.
Frost Race takes place in an alternate-history version of Earth that was hit by a second ice age sometime in the late 1800s. As the climate grew colder and colder, the remains of the great nations sent out expeditions to explore what remained of the ravaged earth, but most vanished into the endless storms. The starting tech level is roughly that of the mid industrial revolution, advanced about halfway to being steampunk.
In the first five turns, each nation will be provided a prompt for an invention that helped define their development before they first butted heads with one another. After this period, each nation will be given a "kit" of weaponry roughly on-par with the other, which will be influenced by the direction each nation has taken over the course of the intro. Additionally, all development rolls of 2 will be re-rolled during these turns so that neither team gets crippled prematurely.
There are three main resources available to both nations at the start:
Metal, which represents the cost of an item in common minerals and the machinery required to dig it up from the earth.
Wood, which represents the cost of an item in lumber.
Coal, which represents the fuel required to power steam engines and equipment.
Because of the nature of the setting, coal is an especially valuable resource, without which most cities will freeze to death in a matter of days. Therefore, each city your nation controls reduces the amount of coal you have available by 1. Additionally, for every five points below 0 on the temperature gauge (see below), each nation's coal output will be reduced by 1.
Each city on the map, represented by a circle, can produce up to three resource points for it's controller. At the start of each strategy phase (see below), a nation may develop one of these notes to produce a certain type of resource, or change it to another resource.
Each side is capable of developing new resources for particularly complex or ground-breaking work. Examples of unique resources include but are not limited to: metal alloys with special properties, chemicals with unique effects, and particularly rare or hazardous minerals such as uranium or crystals.
How much of a specific design is able to be wielded depends on how much of it's component resources are available:
Abundant (All resource requirements met): This item can be easily fielded by all soldiers.
Expensive (2-3 resource deficit): This item can be fielded in limited numbers, or is restricted to officers.
Very Expensive (4-6 resource deficit): This item is rarely fielded, with no more than a dozen active at any one time.
National Effort (7-9 resource deficit): This item is so expensive to make that only one can be fielded at any one time.
Theoretical (10+ resource deficit): This item only exists in theory and will not be built until that changes.
Finally, certain extremely complex designs will require Steam Cores. Steam Cores are essentially portable power sources, and only a finite number of them exist. Each steam core included in a design will increase the rarity of the design by one
Each side's capital city will start out with no empty nodes and a production of 7 coal, 2 wood, and 2 metal.
Side Note: There is no transport capacity to worry about. It is assumed that if you have it, you can use it.
The first phase of every turn is the design phase, where ideas are proposed and voted on. Only the design with the most votes at the end of a turn will be implemented, with ties decided on with a die roll. Results are based off of a 2d6 roll, modified depending on the difficulty of the design. The possible results are:
Complete Failure [2]: Nothing is learned besides the knowledge of how not to do it next time.
Failure [3]: The design functions, but only barely.
Poor [4]: The design can be trusted to work without seriously wounding the wielder, but not much more than that.
Below Average [5]: The design works, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Average [6-8]: The design is functional. Nothing is explicitly faulty, but there's nothing special about it either.
Above Average [9]: The design works, and much better than intended to boot!
Superior [10]: The design works, and much is learned in related fields of research as a result of development.
Exceptional [11]: This design is near-perfect in almost every way.
Masterwork [12]: The design is perfect. So perfect in fact, that it gives a benefit to the side fielding it.
In addition, I will assign the design a difficulty, based on how much you know of the technology and how complex the design is. These range from -4 (Impossible) to +4 (Trivial).
Each player is allowed to vote for two different designs. More complex designs are only functional in the temperature range of the year it was invented in minus 4 and above (See below).
The second phase is the revision phase, which is identical to the design phase except that sides will only be allowed to modify existing designs. Doing so will also update the temperature range the design is functional in on a 6 or higher.
The third phase is the strategy phase. Each side will choose two lines to attack and one city to defend. Cities which aren't chosen as a point of attack will have their defense slightly boosted, while the city that is being defended will have their defense significantly boosted. The strategy phase is also when the sides will be allowed to develop nodes and to resolve any special events.
The final phase is the combat phase. This is where all the magic happens! Just sit back and see what goes down.
As time goes on, the temperature of the island will drop, reducing the functionality of equipment and requiring additional resources to be allocated to keeping the cities warm. This is represented by the temperature value, which starts at 0.
At the start of every round, there will be a forecast which will indicate how the temperature will change the following turn. The forecast is decided by rolling a d6 and applying it to the following table.
A Glimmer of Sunlight [1]: The temperature changes by +1
A Temporary Respite [2-4]: No change
A Winter Storm [5-6]: The temperature changes by -2
To recap how temperature effects the game:
Complex equipment is only functional in or around the temperature level it was invented in. After the temperature drops to a level more than 4 below the equipment was invented or last revised, is will be non-functional.
For every 5 units the temperature drops below 0, an additional coal will be required to power the generators of the cities to keep everyone warm. This will effectively reduce each side's coal resource by 1.
Expense Credit: Can be used to reduce a design's cost by one level for a single turn.
Espionage Credit: Allows a number of things such as theft or sabotage of a design or various other acts of subterfuge.
Research Credit: Allows an extra 2d6 roll on a design or revision, with the highest one used for the result.
Design/Revision Credit: Grants an extra Design/Revision.
Resource Credit: Grants an extra Resource point without taking up a sector node.
The Frozen City is an old, abandoned city that has been present since before either nation arrived on the island. Strangely, the space it occupies is in a perpetual blizzard, keeping all but the most foolhardy of souls out. The frozen city has a few unique traits that make it both a boon and a curse to the nation that controls it.
Positives:
The controlling nation has a small chance to earn a random credit each turn they hold the frozen city.
The controlling nation will gain access to special events unique to the city.
Negatives:
The city counts as being at a temperature 10 below the temperature of the rest of the island. Most equipment used to attack or defend the city will be non-functional unless the island is experiencing a warm spell or a nation has equipment specifically designed for use in extremely low temperatures.
The city requires 6 coal to operate instead of 1.
There are rumors that the Frozen City contains ancient technology from before the fall, advanced enough that the less educated would call it magic. However, any attempt to get at it would certainly require a herculean amount of effort and resources.
Feel free to ask me any questions either here or in the discord server.
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Topic: Frost Race: Core Thread (Prelude Turn 3/5: Revision Phase) (Read 2119 times)