, which is probably alot more accurate.
Ok so i think this is mostly final but open to some slight tweaks yet. Provided no oddities or major adjustments, i'll have an idiots guide soon
City Growth/Management
Order: Increased by luxuries, buildings, low taxes and military units being used as police. Decreased by war, plague, unpopular decisions, certain goods, high crime and high taxes. If Order is less than the urban population of a region, the region suffers growth penalties and may face an uprising. If Order is high, it garners a growth bonus.
Policing: If units are employed as policemen, each unit of Strength increases Order by 1 point. Police states might not be terribly happy, but they are certainly orderly.
Contraband: Opiates, Arms and Slaves all reduce Order by 0.5 per unit imported into the general population (goods stored in warehouses or royal stores do not count) due to their negative effects on welfare, dissent and moral standing.
Alcoholism: If more than 3 units of any type of alcohol are consumed in a city, each additional unit reduces Order by 0.5. Take that, Soviet Union!
Luxuries: Each luxury used increases order by 2 points, but markets will only buy luxuries once their basic needs (food, staples and industrial goods) have been sated. A maximum of 1 luxury per population can be employed to improve order. It is perfectly valid to buy luxuries and give them to the populace for this effect, they will simply not buy their own.
Buildings: Certain buildings, such as temples (see below) and public buildings such as baths may have an Order improving (or reducing) effect. Having any sort of city wall or defence will provide a +1 to Order from the security.
Religion: If the dominant religion in the region is the same as the state religion, a +2 Order bonus is gained.
War & Plague: A province harbouring an enemy army of any size (excluding bandits) suffers a -2 penalty to Order. A province besieged by an army suffers a -3 penalty. A province subject to plague suffers a -4 Order penalty and a -4 penalty to Growth.
Starvation: Running out of food quickly causes a city to riot. For each unit of food short per season, a city suffers -2 to Order and Growth.
High Order: Provides growth bonuses (see growth).
Low Order: Provides growth penalties (see growth). If Order is more than 2 points lower than Urban Population, bandits or pirates will spawn at the end of the season (total strength = UP - Order). They will raid caravans/ships and if they grow powerful enough may make a play for power. Often they will cut supply lines to further create discontent in the region.
Disorder: If Urban Population is higher than 6 and Order is less than 50% of Population, full scale rebellion will occur. A populist army will total strength of (UP - Order) will rise and try to take the region at the cost of 1 UP per 3 strength (rounded down). If the army is successful it will disband, restoring UP at a rate of 1/3 strength (rounded down).
Urban Population: Provides 1d base tax/pop. Tax can be increased by policy or research. Urban population determines Business Potential (the limit of businesses in town) - businesses can be charged additional tax.
Urban Potential: The limit of population a city can support, determined by available land. If the population is below UP, it gains a growth bonus. If it is above UP it suffers a growth penalty.
Open Land: Plots of rural land providing a base tax of 2d/parcel (adjusted by tax or research). Nominally supports 1 rural population each. Converted from Wild Land at a 3:1 ratio.
Urban Land: Each 2 parcels of urban land raise Urban Potential by 1 (improvable by research). Converted from Open Land at a 2:1 ratio.
Business Potential: Determines the total size of all three business types in the region put together (Industrial, Commercial or Service). Equivalent to Urban Population x 5.
Markets: Annual tax as with urban population, but limited by Trade Potential. Follows the same Growth checks as Urban Population but only order and Trade Potential are factors (TP acts instead of UrPot in 'living space'). Include both ports and markets.
Trade Potential: Trade potential is variable and depends on the variety of goods traded through a port. For each type of good imported or exported, Trade Potential increases by 1. e.g. If a port exports Grain and imports Tools and Beer it will have a TP of 3. If a town exports Sheep, Pigs, Cattle and Cloth and imports Wool, Slaves, Pigs, Wine and Spirits it will have a TP of 8 (as pigs are both imported and exported). TP limits market growth as urban potential limits population growth.
Temples: Temples or churches of any size in a province provide tithes and a positive effect on Order. Temples of size 3 or above require 1 unit of Stone to construct or improve and temples of size 8 or above require 1 unit of Marble to construct or improve. Construction/improvement costs of temples are as for a service business and provide business benefits as a service business, with the added effect of providing a +1 bonus to Order per size. If the religion of said temple is actually prohibited within the province then the order bonus is inverted to become a penalty (the temple serves as a corrupting or destabilising influence).
Taxation: Kings may set land or urban tax to nil, low, normal, high or extortionate.
No Taxes: 0 tax/parcel or 0 tax/population. Either implementation raises Order by 2 points.
Low Taxes: 1d/parcel or 0.5d/population. (50% tax) Raises Order by 1 points.
Normal Tax: 2d/parcel or 1d/population.
High Taxes: 2.5d/parcel or 1.5d/population. (+0.5d tax) Order drops 2 points.
Extortionate: 3d/parcel or 2d/population. (+1d tax) Order drops by 4 points.
War Taxes: +0.5d/parcel or +1d/population. Order drops by 2 points, but if they are not lifted at the end of the war the Order penalty increases to 6 for as long as they are in play.
Rationing: The king can provide extra food for his citizens to improve his popularity and expand the population - not only does a food surplus encourage migration to towns but well-fed people are friskier. Conversely, the king can impose rations to keep the country afloat during a crisis.
Half Rations: Food requirements are reduced to 75% in the province (round down to a minimum of 1). -2 Order penalty. -2 Growth penalty.
Normal: People buy their own food and subsist accordingly without state aid.
Extra Rations: Food requirements 150% (round up). +1 Order. +2 Growth. The treasury must purchase all additional food supplies.
Double Rations: Food requirements 200%. +2 Order. +3 Growth. The treasury must purchase all additional food supplies.
Growth: Town growth is handled as a simple d6 + modifiers roll per season. The town loses 1 population per point below 2 (e.g. on a roll of 1 it loses 1 pop, on a roll of -2 it loses 3 pop). The town gains 1 population per point above 5 (e.g. it gains 1 pop on a roll of 6, 4 pop on a roll of 9). Growth cannot exceed Urban Potential of the nation.
Where fractional bonuses are given, total modifiers and round down (i.e. 1.5 = 1, -2.5 = -2, -0.5 = 0).
* Disorder: Each point of disorder in a province (Pop - Order < 0) gives a -1 penalty.
* Order: Each point of order (Order - Pop) gives a +0.5 penalty.
* Living Space: Lebensraum is important to expanding comfortably. Each point Population is above Urban Potential is a -1 penalty. Each point Urban Potential is above Population grants a +0.5 bonus.
* Rationing: Extra food has its benefits, as described in the Rationing section.
* Plague: -4 Order, -4 Growth. Plague is not good and is an event - use of sufficient Medicine may solve the problem, or simply massacring the infected population.
* Food Shortage: The population suffers Growth and Order penalties of -2 for each unit of population left un-fed, cummulative per season shorted. A government may deliberately take on and sell food stores in case of siege or poor harvest.
* Staple Shortage: Growth penalty of -1 per shortage of staple goods to a population. Cummulative per season shorted.
* Goods: See the resources section for details.
* Emancipation Policy: If the king adopts a policy of empancipating slaves, he may purchase slaves directly (the population will not buy them for this purpose) and free them for a bonus of 0.5 growth per unit freed. Dissent at having to adopt and house unwashed foreigners will cause an Order penalty of -0.5 per unit freed amongst the population.
New Unit Upgrade
Watchmen: Counts as +1 Str for the purposes of policing a city (i.e. raises Order by an additional point).
Upgrade Cost: 0.5d
Upkeep: 0.5d
Businesses
Industrial: Industrial businesses no longer produce a fixed income. Instead they produce goods for sale or export. Cost of production is nominally base price - 5 increments for a given good, or supply of materials plus 0.5d labour for manufactured goods (ie cloth from wool). A business may produce goods/season equal to its size, plus or minus modifiers from supply. A manufacturing business can only produce as many goods as it has materials for. Applying slaves (for primary industries - manufactories require skilled labour) or industrial goods will allow production of an additional number of goods/season equal to the tier of the goods employed.
Natural Resources:
If a province has access to natural resources (IE LQ/HQ Lumber, Iron, etc) and funds the construction of an industry to harvest the resource, a 50% increase (rounded up) is provided to the nation. Size 1 industry would therefore produce 2 units, not 1. Size 3, 4 units, etc. The industry itself does not need to be state owned, but the surplus would likely be expected to be given to the nation as a form of tax.
A State owned industrial business would not pay production costs on the excess, however the base production would be paid from Common Funds, not the treasury. Goods produced this way would be auto-sold to a trade partner and/or auto-consumed by the nation per need/demand.
A private enterprise would pay for production per industrial business rules and would not pay for excess production from the resource.
Commercial and service goods produce fixed income as before, with the power to extend credit and loans (loan limit brought down to any size but only Size*2 value total loans) or produce specialists as before.
Resource Effects
Resources are produced by province industries (where the suitable resource exists) and are exported to other provinces or consumed locally. Each province has various demands for resources that must be supplied - in addition, certain units and buildings cannot be constructed without certain resources.
Food: Urban populations of any kind require food (rural populations subsist on their own). Food requirements are 1 tier of food per population (plus or minus any rationing effects) and failure to supply food regularly each season can result in terrible effects on your population. Food, like all goods, can be stockpiled in warehouses by traders or governments. Although it is not strictly accurate, 1 unit of pigs will feed 2 population just as well as 2 units of grain.
Staple Goods: After food, populations require general staple goods (any staple good on the resource list that is not food) to supply their daily needs, both urban and rural. Each urban population adds +1 to demand for these goods, which must be satisfied or suffer growth penalties.
Military Goods: High Quality Lumber, Stone, Horses, Iron, Copper and Tin may all be required for unit construction. Generally 1 good is required per unit built.
Construction Goods: Once Staple demands are satisfied, additional Low Quality Lumber and Stone (to a maximum of 4 units) can be accepted by the population, providing a bonus to Growth equal to +0.5/good.
Industrial Goods: Manufacturing industries may require certain goods supplied to even produce their wares at all - they will pay for these themselves. Other goods are considered 'general' industrial goods - an industrial business that purchases one of these goods gets a bonus to production equal to the good's tier. One unit may be used on a business per 4 Size.
Slaves: A particular type of industrial good, slaves can be 'spent' by primary industries to produce a +1/unit bonus to production. The purchase and use of slaves in this manner will contribute accordingly to disorder in the province. Slave expenditure is limited by size of industry. Slaves cannot be spent on Manufactured goods (ie Arms, cloth, etc) do to unskilled labor aspect.
Luxury Goods: Each luxury used increases order by 2 points, but markets will only buy luxuries once their basic needs (food, staples and industrial goods) have been sated. A maximum of 1 luxury per population can be employed to improve order. It is perfectly valid to buy luxuries and give them to the populace for this effect, they will simply not buy their own.
Naval Supplies: Ports demand naval supplies based on size/prosperity. For every 3 points of size, a port will demand 1 naval supply unit.
Trade Routes
Rather than individual merchant adventures, merchants now establish stable trade routes between provinces (by road or sea). These trade routes produce an income per season in line with the traded goods, minus costs and tax. A commercial business is no longer required to establish a merchant's first two trade routes, but must have 1 point of size per additional 2 trade routes thereafter due to management requirements. (e.g. 2 routes = no business. 4 routes = Size 1 commercial business. 8 routes = Size 3 commercial business.)
When defining a trade route, a merchant should decide (and pay for) caravans or ships, protection and where goods will be bought or sold along the route. The caravans and ships will rarely carry money, instead using credit notes issued by the merchant and their bank; thus bandits will not steal the caravan's purse but only their wares on a successful raid.
Once a merchant has made the inital journey along the whole of the trade route (or the ship/caravan has returned from an Off-Map trade route) and negotiated any difficulties along the way the trade route becomes automated and will bring in a seasonal profit according to the amount of goods it buys and sells.
Adjustments: Once the route has been established, ships/wagons and guards can be added to it and orders on purchase/sales changed freely, provided the physical route itself remains the same. Thus a route can be used to accomodate a one-off purchase of goods without having to engage in an additional merchant adventure.
Supply and Demand: Provinces produce and demand goods at a given rate (described elsewhere) depending on their population and industries. This demand remains stable each season (except for seasonal variation) and trade routes will take from and add to stocks in each province.
Common Funds: The cash available in a province for buying or selling goods. Equivalent to 3d/urban population + 0.25d/open land. Any profits made by NPC businesses are added to this as well. Governments can purchase
Problems and Opportunities: At intervals of anywhere from a season to a year (depending on how long or well protected the trade route is), the route will be subject to a d6 roll as follows:
1-. A major problem has occurred with the route. A PC must travel to deal with the problem or the route may be shut down by sending an (NPC) agent (and claiming any goods). It must be re-established manually if shut down. If the problem is not solved before the next problem check (a season) the route will shut down at the loss of all goods and services.
2. A minor problem has occurred with the route. An (NPC) agent can be sent out to deal with it, but a policy decision is required from the merchant. This may cost money or require force. If the problem is not dealt with before the next problem check (usually a season) it will develop into a major problem.
3-4. Nothing happens, the route continues as normal.
5. An opportunity has arisen with the route. If pursued and dealt with (in person or by an NPC agent) it will provide a one-off boon or special conditions for the route. The opportunity expires after one season.
6+. An opportunity has arisen with the route, but pursuing it will have an associated cost. The merchant may determine if the opportunity is worth the cost, or let it pass by. The opportunity expires after one season.
The problem roll is automatically raised by 1 if the route is especially well protected (no or limited unrest/lawlessness across the whole route or equal military strength to the amount of cargo moved), or lowered by 1 if there is major bandit or pirate activity (or similar disruption) at any point along the route. The standard rolls take into account normal bandit activity.
If the trade route is by land, lacks military protection and is not travelling through completely lawful lands the entire route, the roll is lowered by 1 (cumulative with the major bandit activity penalty).
Tarriffs & Tolls: Rather than the previous sales tax on goods, tarriffs are now charged whenever a ship docks and tolls are charged when wagons pass into a new province. These tolls and tarriffs go directly to the government of the province - unless the goods are smuggled in or the authorities are bribed not to take them.
Tolls/Tarriffs are typically 0.1d/good. Governments may raise or lower these accordingly.
Off-Map Routes: Though the gameworld only encompasses the Storm Coast, it may become possible through diplomacy or expeditions to trade with distant nations such as the Empire of Hatcur or the Dragon Empire. If this happens, a GM will determine the distances and times involved in establishing trade rotues.
Carvan, ship and guard hire/purchase is as per the old ruleset
The region around the Kingdom of Elbreth (the original player kingdom) is culturally and technologically on the cusp of the Dark Ages. Gunpowder is unknown in this part of the world (or any other), but architecture, engineering and the natural sciences are closer to Western Renaissance levels. Culturally, a Western Medieval theme is considered appropriate.
Although this is a fantasy, high fantasy elements have been reined in to avoid the risk of Tolkeinism. The GM has ruled that there is only one other sapient species, the hatcuri, who live far off the map to the south. The GM has come up with a good reason for why this is the case. With the exception of one bloodline of particularly long-lived humans (sometimes called 'elves'), this is it as far as fantastic races go. No orcs, thankyouplease. You may only apply to join as a human or hatcuri.
Magic exists by common consent of the players, but is rare and forcibly balanced (albeit like a centrifuge) by the GMs. There are some fairly iron-cast rules regarding the use of magic that any would-be mages should read. Magic of any kind is rare and largely feared in this part of the world, and for damned good reason.
There are a number of religions in the world, and the area around Elbreth is split between semi-pantheistic folk religions and a small number of conflicting monotheistic religions. Monotheistic followings of note include Cyclicism and Suulian Orthodoxy, both of which preach the existence of a supreme deity but which differ in their precise teachings. Many characters will refer to 'the gods' rather than 'God' though, giving nod to the prevalence of the old folk faiths in much the same way as Real Life renaissance poets would often credit 'Jove' and other Saturnelian deities even in a Christian world.
Author
Topic: You Are King II.I: Tales of the Storm Coast (Summer 417a) (Read 110517 times)