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[Haspen]

Okay so the last LoMK died from player sluggishness (I understand the reasons). But I won't be pushing this project aside, so I'm re-launching this game again, with various fixes, add-ons and whatnots integrated into the game text.

So yeah, recruitment open!

IC Thread is here!

Spoiler: The Beginning (click to show/hide)

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - Laozi
WELCOME to the Lords of the Middle Kingdom!

In this game you will take a seat as one of the Provincial Lords of the Middle Kingdom, a pseudo-alternate universe Ancient China.
Will you be a loyal retainer of the Emperor and fight the rebels, or do you dare to take the Imperial Seat for yourself?
Are you going to be a warlord who conquers those who oppose you, or weave a net of alliances and trade routes to ensure peace and prosperity for your people?

It is up to you!

CHARACTER CREATION:

To play Lords of the Middle Kingdom, you need to fill out the following:

Name: [surname + first name] of [province name].
Look Here and here for a nice amount of Chinese names and surnames to pick from.

Starting Province: One of the Five Provinces on the map
You can see the map by clicking this link.

Special Starting Bonus: one of the six available bonuses from the list below. Two Lords cannot have the same bonus!

Foodbasket of the Middle Kingdom: Your father's province, even before the civil war, was known for the food production. You start with Food Production lvl.2, and Game Meat will be replaced by randomly choosen crop (Rice included).
Child of the Merchant Lord: Your father was a great trader, and you inherited his merchantile holdings. You start with Marketplace and Mint already constructed.
Industrial Center: Your Province is known as one of the most productive provinces at the moment. You star with Crafts Production lvl.2; you also determine the type of Crafts you get from that extra level.
The Royal Guard: Your dying father managed to secure some loyal soldiers for you; you start with 2 Spearmen units instead of one and with Fortifications already built.
Friend of the Foreigners: Your father kept close relations with the neighbouring barbarians; if your border any Foreign Nations, they won't take any actions against you for 2 next years.
Emperor's Cousin: That's right - you're cousin of the NPC Emperor. This ensures that he will look at you more kindly during diplomatic and trading talks.

On Waitlist, succession rights and such things:

The Waitlist is there, the problem is that there might be a long, long wait before there's an opening.
New Player can join if:
-Provincial Lord dies/is removed and his player decides to not play as the successor/newly appointed Lord.
-Province splits into two; the new Player can assume the role of the Lord of the split-off state.
-There are of course some other events that can vacate a Provincial Lord's seat - watch the thread closely!

ON CENTRAL PROVINCE ZHOU:

The central province is governed by NPC Emperor (controlled by GM).
This province has special rules regarding trade.
Also, it starts with Food Production lvl.3, Crafts Production lvl.3 (Building Materials, Ceramics and Weapons), 6 Population and 9 Housing, 4 Spearmen armies, and Marketplace, Mint and Stone Castle already built.
It has the special building, 'Gold Mine', which produces 10 Gold.

GAME PROGRESSION:

Each game Year consists of 4 Seasons; Dark, Green, Fire and Rain Seasons. They do not have real impact on the gameplay on their own.
At the beginning of each Season, an Event might occur in Player Controlled Province; there are many kinds of events, some beneficial, some disasterous.
During each Season, every Provincial Lord has to manage his armies, construction projects, diplomacy and trading agreements.
The 'Season' continues as long as there's any need for interaction between Players and GM.

Ending the Game:
There's only one way to finish the game as a victorious Provincial Lord - conquer Central Province Zhou and eliminate at least 2 other Provinces from the map.
It might take few years of violent in-fighting; or maybe decades of plotting and friendships and betrayals.

'WHY DOES THIS LOOK FAMILIAR...?'

Oh, there are at least few reasons why this game might look familiar.
First of all, parts of the game mechanics evolved from my previous, very short-lived RTD called 'Far Eastern Provincial Lords' or something of that kind.
The game's cultural and historical aspects are based on 'Warring States' period of the Chinese Antiquity, when the Zhou Dynasty splintered into numerous provinces that fought with each other for dominance, before Lord of Qin united all the lands and became the first Emperor of China.
Furthermore, you might notice that Crafts and Food types come from an old city-building game, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom - in that game, there are several different crafts and food types (Ceramics, Bronzeware, Silk, Weapons / Cabbage, Millet, Rice); and like here, Spices and Jade are only obtainable from other places than your home city (most often foreigners).

'THIS GAME LOOKS FAIRLY COMPLEX...'

It does look like complex mostly because of amount of spoilers and text included, but!
Most of the accounting and number crunching and NPC work is done by GM, and in reality you will rarely have to do more than few posts per turn to cover every part of management of a province!

====

Spoiler: Economy (click to show/hide)

FOOD:

Each level produces 2 units of Food times the 'Foodstuff' modifier.
Food production have 5 levels. Each province starts at 1 level.

Food Modifiers represent the main source of food in the province. Each province have 2 Food Modifiers. Those two modifiers are added and this makes the value that multiplies the Food Production output.
Each province starts with Game Meat and one of the randomly choose crops from those that are naturally available in the province.

Game meat: x0.8
Cabbage: x1.2
Millet: x1.6
Wheat: x1.8
Rice: x2.0

Some crops are unavailable in certain Provinces; Game Meat is available everywhere.
Cabbage: All provinces except Qi
Millet: Western provinces (Qi, Han, Shu)
Wheat: Northern provinces (Qi, Han, Yen)
Rice: Wet provinces (Shu, Zhou, Wu)

Example: Your province has Food Production lvl.3, and it's main Foodstuffs are Game Meat and Wheat.
This means your province produces: (3x2)x(0.8+1. = 6x2.6 = 15.6 units of Food.

Each level of Population and each Army unit uses up 1 unit of Food.

Increasing level of Food Production takes four seasons. Changing one Food Modifier to another takes four seasons as well, except for Game Meat; you can change to it instantly.
You cannot have two Food Modifiers of the same kind (cabbage and cabbage, for example).

If you make less Food than your people and soldiers use up, you risk Uprising, equal to (10% x [Amount of starving Population])
Peasant Uprising destroys one Building or lowers a level of Crafts/Food Production, and the casualties consume one Population unit of the province.
---

CRAFTS:

Crafts production have 3 levels. Each province starts at 1 level.

There are several Crafts that can be produced; the amount of Crafts a province can make depends on the Crafts production level. Provinces start with randomly choosen Crafts type, either Building Materials, Ceramics or Weapons.
Each type of Crafts, when not sold abroad, generates passive profit in the province.
When needed, the Lord can order that the certain Crafts will be used for production purposes: this uses Special Effect, albeit during the time of such use, no passive Profit is generated.

Code: [Select]

Name Price Special Effect*
Build.Materials 1 Decreases time of Building construction and Siege Engines by one season.
Ceramics 2 Decreases time of Food Modifier changes and Food Production level upgrade by one season.
Spices** 2       Adds 1.0 to Food Modifier.
Weapons 2 Decreases time of Spearmen/Crossbowmen/Cavalry training by one season.
Bronzeware 3 -
Lacquerware*** 3 -
Carved Jade** 3       -
Silk Cloth 4 -
*Special Effects do not stack
**Barbarians only
***Can be produced after 'Lacqueware!' event
Increasing the Crafts Production takes four seasons, whilst re-specializing from one Crafts type to another takes only two seasons. Be wary that during re-specialization, you gain no Gold from that type of Crafts nor you can use them for their Special Effect or Trade them away.
Province CAN produce additional Crafts of the same type: Province producing 3x Silk and selling it away will be propably the most wealthy province in the game.

Reasons to specialize in Bronzeware&Silk Cloth:
Whilst those two types of Crafts do not have any special effect, they have some other uses: namely these are great sources of profit!
There are certain foreign lands, as well as Central Province, who are in need for exquisite Bronzeware and Silk, and they pay DOUBLE for them!

Carved Jade and Spices, what are those?:
Those two types of goods come from abroad;
Carved Jade is specialty of Mountain Dwellers and Islanders, while Spices come from Tigermen and Swampfolk.
Carved Jade is a high-price trade good, much like Spice - the latter also add 1.0 Food Modifier bonus to the province.

Code: [Select]

Land Sells: Buys:
Swampfolk Spices Bronzeware
Mtn.Dwellers Carved Jade Bronzeware (replaced by Lacquerware*), Silk
Horse-Nomads - Silk
Tiger-Men Spices Bronzeware
Islanders Carved Jade, Silk Bronzeware, Spices
Central Province - Bronzeware (replaced by Lacquerware*), Silk, Spices, Carved Jade
*Can be produced after 'Lacquerware!' event
Look down to CRAFTS - TRADE for more info of how to handle Silk, Bronzeware, Spices and Carved Jade to bring you profit.
---

CRAFTS - GOLD PRODUCTION:

To sustain your army, you need Gold. You can obtain it by:

-Building a Mint.
-Making Crafts and let them passively create Profit (look above).
-Trade your Crafts with other Provinces in exchange for Gold (look into CRAFTS - TRADE section).
-You also gain Tax, equal to your Population divided by 2 (and rounded down).

Each unit of Spearmen, Cavalry, Crossbowmen and Siege Engines has upkeep of 1 Gold.
If you don't have enough gold for each Army, there's a chance of revolt equal to (20% x [Amount of un-paid Armies]).
Army Revolt disbands one excess army and destroys one level of Crafts Production or Marketplace/Mint. As all those generate gold, this might lead into a whole chain of rebellions, so keep an eye on your spendings!
---

CRAFTS - TRADE:

Trading with other Provinces is simple. There are two types of Trade; Food Trade and Crafts Trade.

Food Trade is when you sell Food for Gold. There, you transfer your excess Food to a neighbour and get Gold in exchange.
The customary amount is 2 Food units per 1 Gold, but the actual prices are set between the two Lords engaging in the trade.

Crafts Trade is when you sell your Crafts for Gold. For this type of trade, both Provinces need a Marketplace.
If you have a Trade Port, you can trade with other provinces that have Trade Ports, even if you're normally separated by other Provinces' lands.
If you sell Crafts to another Province, that Province gains the special effect of the Crafts, whilst you gain Gold from the Trade. Just remember that said Gold comes from the Lord's coffer!
As an additional bonus, whenever you sell Crafts abroad, you get 1 Gold generated 'from trade'. This bonus however does not apply during Trade with Imperial Capital and Barbarians (they already pay double for certain things anyway, you miser!)

For example:
You sell Ceramics to your neighbour.
This means that your neighbour gains 'Ceramics Special Effect' while you get 3 Gold as long as the trade is commencing (2 Gold from other Lord and 1 Gold from 'trade').

Be warned that during Siege, all Trade with the sieged Province stops immediatelly!

WAIT, is it possible to be a 'stop' between trading provinces?
Why, YES! That's quite a possibility, because if you're buying one type of Crafts, you basically 'create' them as long as trade route is managed.
This can be a boon if you're bordering the Imperial Capital and/or a Barbarian Land but you don't produce the type of Crafts those lands want.

The best way to explain will be through example:

Province Qi borders Horse-Nomads and Province Han. Horse-Nomads like Silk but Province Qi doesn't create Silk; Province Han does.
So, Province Qi opens trade for Silk with Province Han; Province Han gets 5 Gold (4 from Lord Qi, 1 from trade alone) from this trade, and coffers of the Lord Qi are burdened.
But then, Province Qi sells the Silk further to the Horse-Nomads and gains 8 Gold from this trade, not only covering the expenses for buying Silk from Province Han, but even managing to get 4 Gold of profit from it!
Of course, if the Han-Qi trade route is disrupted (by an event, or Imperial decree, or something else), the Qi-Nomads route is also disrupted.
---

'When the stables were burnt down, on returning from court Confucius said, "Was anyone hurt?" He did not ask about the horses.' - 'Analects', Confucius
POPULATION:

Population might be 'the' most important part of economy. It determines the amount of People who live in the Province. Default* Maximum Population Cap is 15 units, and each Province starts with 3 Population units and 6 Housing.
*Each Merger raises the cap; each Split lowers the cap.

Population influences several aspects of the Province:
-You cannot build Food or Crafts Production above the number of current Population.
-You cannot support more Armies than there's Population units in the Province.

At the end of each Year (after Dark Season), the Population will raise by 1, as long as there's enough Housing built for them.
---

BUILDINGS:

Besides creating army, you can Construct Buildings in your Province. Each Building requires certain amount of Seasons before it's construction is completed.
Remember that upgrading level of Food or Crafts production counts as Construction!

Code: [Select]

Name Seasons Effect
Housing 1 Increases the maximum Population the Province can hold.
Marketplace 1 Allows Trade with neighbouring Provinces (4 Routes max).
Sea Port        2       Allow Sea Trade with Provinces with Sea Port, and Islanders (if discovered). Allows Fishing, which adds 1.0 to Food Modifier.
Mint 2 Generates 2 Gold.
Fortifications  3 +2 to Siege Defense.
Great Palace 4 Replaces Fortifications; +4 to Siege Defense (Fortifications required).
Stone Castle 8 Replaces Stone Keep; +6 to Siege Defense (Stone Walls required).---

ARMIES:

Province can train one Army unit at one given time, independently of current Construction in the Province. These units are Spearmen, Crossbowmen, Cavalry and Siege Engines. More on them in Warfare spoiler.
Each of those takes four seasons to train. Each has upkeep of 1 Food and 1 Gold.
You can create Armies as long as there's at least 1.0 of surplus Food Production.
---

ASSIMILATION/MERGER AND IMPACT ON ECONOMY:

When you Assimilate neighbouring Province, the caps on Food and Population changes.
New Population Cap is now equal to: (Population Cap of Your Province) + (Population Cap of Assimilated Province).
Food Production Level Cap raises by 2.

When your Province splits, the caps change as well.
You lose 5 of your current Population Cap, and 1 Food Production Level Cap.
---

====

Spoiler: Warfare (click to show/hide)

"The art of war is of vital importance to the State." - 'Art of War', Sun Tzu
ARMY UNITS AND THEIR SPECIFICS:

There are four Army Units: Spearmen, Crossbowmen, Cavalry and Siege Engines.
Of these four, Spearmen, Crossbowmen and Cavalry see action in real combat.

Spearmen get +2 dice roll bonus against Cavalry,
Cavalry gets +2 dice roll bonus against Crossbowmen,
Crossbowmen get +2 dice roll bonus against Spearmen.
---

ARMY TRANSPORTATION&MOVEMENT:

An Army can be garrisoned in Capital Province or stationed at the Border.

The longest route an Army can take is Home Capital -> Home Border near Enemy Province -> Enemy Border near Home Province -> Enemy Capital.
In one Season, singular Army can move two distances max; for example, it can leave Home Capital, go through Home Border and end its move at Enemy Borders.

Combat occurs whenever Armies of two different non-allied Provinces meet at any of the points of above route.
---

TYPES OF COMBAT:

There are two types of Combat: Open Field and Siege.
---
Open Field:

During Open Field Combat, each side of the battle takes turn, during which, a single unit of Army will seek the most advantageous combat opportunity - for example, Cavalry will seek enemy Crossbowmen to attack.
If advantegeous combat isn't possible, then the unit will seek combat with equals (Cavalry vs Cavalry, in example), and lacking those, will strike the unit it has clear disadvantage against.

The Combat Turn ends after each Side moves all it's Armies. When the new Turn comes, the leaders of the armies can decide if they want to continue fight, or surrender, or end the battle.
The battle continues in this manner until one side surrenders, both agree for end of the battle, or one side is completely destroyed.
---
Siege:

During Siege, the invading army besieges the Capital City and it's fortifications. If there are no Siege Defense building, even at least Fortifications, then the Siege instantly turns into Field Combat.
The defenders get a bonus; mere Fortifications grant +2 bonus, while the fully evolved Stone Castle gives a grand +6 bonus. But don't rely on the walls alone!

Each unit of Siege Engines the enemy possesses lowers your Siege Defense bonus by 1 point.
Also, during each season of the Siege, there's a chance for the invader to destroy part of the fortifications and lower the level of the Siege Defense Building (from Stone Castle to Great Palace).
That chance is equal to: (10% x [Number of Siege Engines in Invader's army])

Siege can progress in two ways:
The invading army sits around the city and waits until the enemy withers away from starvation, or
The invading army attempts to break into the Castle; if successful, Siege turns into Field Combat.
Of course, if the defenders open the gates and rush through, the Siege immediatelly turns into Field Combat.

If the invaders decide to starve the garrison, a seasonal countdown begins. At the beginning, the counter is equal to base Food Production level of the Province. After next season rolls on the calendar, the counter is lowered by 1 point.
After the countdown drops to zero, then next Season (and all seasons afterwards), one random Army Unit of the defenders will be disbanded whilst its soldiers starve and die.

If the invaders attempt to break into Castle, a dice roll is made: the defenders get a bonus equal to Siege Defense level.
If the roll fails or ends in draw, the invaders lose one random Army during the breakthrough attempt.
If successful, the gates are broken through and the Siege turns into Field Combat.

The invading army can attempt up to 4 breakthroughs per Season, as long as they have any units left.
---

GOAL OF THE INVASION:

There are plethora of various goals a Lord can set for invading his neighbour.
The armies that win a Border Combat can destroy one level of Food or Crafts Production, or burn down one level of Housing along with one Population unit.
But, if the Capital Province falls, the victorious Lord can force the defeated to pay Tribute; the Tribute can be paid in either Food, or Gold, and can be of whatever amount the victorious Lord demands. Crafts can also be demanded; the defeated will supply his conqueror without receiving a single coin in return.
If the defeated feels strong enough one day, he can rebel against his conqueror, and refuse to pay Tribute anymore - but no one knows what might happen if the neighbour wins again...

If the victorious Lord has greater ambitions, he can assimilate the defeated Province into his own. Look into POLITICS Spoiler, MERGER AND ASSIMILATION OF PROVINCES section, for specifics on this event.
---

FOREIGN NATIONS AND THEIR ARMIES:

Not only your fellow neighbours can attack you; there are also Barbarians.

Swampfolk live on the north-eastern peninsula, in their cities build on swamps and lakes. They're short, stout neighbours of Yen Province.
Horse-Nomads live in the Northern Steppes, and are neighbouring the Qi and Yen Provinces, which they often raid for goods.
Mountain-Dwellers live in the stone cities of the Sunset Peaks, where they worship strange animalistic deities; because Sunset Mountains are quite vast, Qi, Han and Shu Provinces are all neighbours of the Mountain-Dwellers.
Tiger-Men live in the southern jungles, where they breed their fearsome War Elephants, and their only neighbours are the citizens of Shu Province.
Islanders live on the islands to the west - because of the distance between two lands, there's no military action with them.

Each Foreign Nation has different types of armies in their disposal:

Swampfolk:
Archers (Crossbowmen equivalent): halved bonus against Spearmen.
Swordsmen (Spearmen equivalent): no bonus against Cavalry.
Of those two, Swampfolk are known to use mostly Archers.

Horse-Nomads:
Mounted Archers (Cavalry equivalent): +2 bonus against Cavalry and Crossbowmen, negates Spearmen bonus of the enemy.
As you can guess, armies of the Horse-Nomads are comprised entirely of the Mounted Archers.

Mountain-Dwellers:
Archers (Crossbowmen equivalent): halved bonus against Spearmen.
Spearmen (same as PC Spearmen).
Siege Engines (...but what kind of Provincial Lord would allow barbarians to siege his Capital?)
Of those two, Mountain-Dwellers are often using more Spearmen than Archers.

Tiger-Men:
Javelineers (Crossbowmen equivalent): no bonus against Spearmen.
War Elephants (Cavalry equivalent): no bonus against Archers, +2 against Cavalry, and negates Spearmen bonus of the enemy.
Fortunately for the citizens of the Empire, Tiger-Men rarely have more than 1 unit of War Elephants in their armies.

Of those four Foreign Nations, the Tiger-Men and Horse-Nomads are the most aggressive, while Mountain-Dwellers and Swampfolk prefer to leave their neighbours alone, until an opportunity for profitable attack happens.
Because Islanders live far away, there can be no military action between them and the Provincial Lords.
---

ATTACKING THE BARBARIANS:

If you have nothing better to do, you're more than welcome to send armies against Barbarians.
You will never reach Capital City - they're too far and too well hidden to be found. This means you can neither assimilate nor demand tribute from the Barbarians.

However, battling the Barbarians in their own soil has a psychological effect on them:
If you win, they will recognize your might and leave you alone for some time.
If you lose, you basically gave them a reason to raid your Province and wreak havoc to the populace.
---

BARBARIANS AT YOUR GATES:

Barbarians don't attack as often as you might think. They will, however, harass your borders in an attempt to weaken you.
It depends on how wealthy and strong your province is; the barbarians won't bother attacking a province that offers nothing more than cheap food and worthless materials, and they will definitely think twice before attacking a wealthy province guarded by tens of thousands of veteran troops.

Be warned, though! If you leave your Province extremely weak and helpless, the Barbarians might decide to not just harass but conquer your land.
Not only they will deal a powerful blow to all other provinces - they will lose a potential ally and trading partner, after all - but also the lost land will never be regained.

====

Spoiler: Politics (click to show/hide)

"To have friends come from afar is happiness, is it not?" - Confucius
DIPLOMACY:

There's no telling what kind of Diplomacy you might engage in.

You can establish trade routes, or simply send messages to the other Lords.
You can forge alliances against common foes and barbarians, or enlist the aid of one neighbour against other.
You can demand tribute for keeping your armies at bay, or you might offer your neighbour food in time of crisis.
Diplomacy is up to you and your imagination!

The only difference is interaction with the Emperor (Zhou Province):
He will never provide armies for any other goal than defense against Barbarians.
However, he will gladly accept trade agreements, especially when it concerns valuable commodities (look into CRAFTS - TRADE part of ECONOMY spoiler).
---

CHIEF ADVISOR:

Chief Advisor is the 'right-hand' of the Lord and provides a small boost to the provincial matters, as well as GM's advisory help in various matters of governing the province.
The usual term of Chief Advisor is basically as long as his Lord desires. Chief Advisor can be appointed at any time.
Note that if you don't pay your Advisor fairly or change him often might give you a bad reputation and future advisors might refuse to take up the post.
There is a catch, however - the Chief Advisor has certain degree of independence; he will try to prioritize certain things that might be in conflict with his Lord's desires.
And remember: Chief Advisor gets special monetary bonus from your coffers (1 Gold), and there can be only one Chief Advisor at a time in the Province!

There are several different officials that can become Chief Advisor:

Administrator of the Army:
Decreases recruitment times for all Units by 1; will attempt to prioritize recruitment and Army payment management.
Commissioner of Trade:
Increases maximum amount of Trade Routes by 1; will attempt to set up trade routes on his own.
Grand Architect:
Decreases building time for Level-type buildings by 1 (Food/Crafts production, fortifications); will try to prioritize construction over military affairs.
Minister of Agriculture:
Changes Food Production Multiplier from 2 to 2.5; will try to prioritize Food issues and food production upgrades.
Minister of Industry:
Decreases Crafts Level production/re-specialization by 1; will attempt to prioritize industry and effects of the crafts over passive selling.
Minister of Treasury:
Increases income from Taxes by 20%; will prioritize Gold production and expenses management.
---

SPLITTING OF THE PROVINCE:

This is a dire conclusion to a chain of Peasant Uprisings and/or Army Revolts.
If four such Uprisings/Revolts happen in succession, the population of all classes can decide that it will be better living without your *wise* guidance and leadership.
The initial chance for this, after the year of instability, is 10%; each next Season of Uprising/Revolt adds another 10%.

When the catastrophic split occurs, several things happen:
Foods, Crafts, Population and Armies are split in two (randomly in case of Armies (Siege Engines, however, stay with you)).
The new Lord of the newly-established Province is either a NPC, or, if there's a Player on the waitlist, said Player can become the new Lord.
Your Province on the map is split in such way that the 'split' Province have at least two Neighbours (PC Provinces and/or Barbarians), and takes up a randomly choosen name.
---

MERGER AND ASSIMILATION OF PROVINCES:

Assimilation:
Can occur when one Lord invades another and conquers Capital City; one of the choices is to Assimilate the Province and form a new, large land. This causes the population to throw a fit, similar to that which occurs when there's not enough food.
This special rebellion also counts as one 'Uprising/Revolt' (look into Section above), so if you might want to make sure that after the flames die out, you have everything under control.
As you can see, Assimilation can sometimes yield lesser profits in the long run than a simple Tribute.
Also, whilst rare, it isn't unknown for a weaker Lord to simply surrender his Province to stronger neighbour to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and damage.

Merger:
This is simpler part - if you conquer Capital City of a Province that formerly was part of your own (but broke off some time ago), it is added back to your own Province.
You gain Food Production, Crafts and Population of the ex-splitted Province. Armies died off during the siege, obviously.
---

"Hide a knife behind a smile" - 'Thirty-Six Stratagems', Tan Daoji
ESPIONAGE:

Espionage is to be conducted by PMing the GM about what you want to do! Do NOT post Espionage-related things in the Game Threads!

Each Season, you can send a Spy to one other Province and instruct him to do... something.
You can order him to lower the Population somehow - or maybe burn up some of those Crafts workshops?
Or you can send him to blow up the Fortifications so your army can sweep into unprotected Capital City?
Or maybe he is on mission to hire some bandits and disrupt trade route of your neighbour with the Imperial Province of Zhou, so you can grab that profitable silk trade for yourself?
Or you can keep your Spy in your Province and let him hunt foreign spies - after all, a little bit of paranoia never killed anyone, he he.

There's no telling what your Spies can accomplish - just like with Diplomacy, it's up to you and your (insidious) mind.

The only actions that you cannot perform is to assasinate the Emperor or any other Lord; the security is simply too tight.

The espionage actions follow a simple roll: Anything between 2 to 4 is failure, while 5 and 6 is a success. If your Spy rolls a 1, he is exposed, captured, and tortured - and your target surely won't sit idly knowing you tried to disrupt his rule.

[Taricus]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Caican Wang
Province: Wu
Special Starting Bonus: Industrial Center (Bonus good-Silk)

[scapheap]

Name: Kwang Tian of Yen.

Starting Province: Yen

Special Starting Bonus: Child of the Merchant Lord

[Nerjin]

Posting to watch.

[mastahcheese]

Was I one of those sluggish players?

If I was, PTW, otherwise I'll retake Qi and Friend of the Foreigners.

[escaped lurker]

Name: Hu Léi of Shu
Province: Shu
Special Starting Bonus: Foodbasket of the Middle Kingdom

Judging from what I saw from the first round, this should get interesting.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I'd like to express interest and will submit a character sheet shortly(?).

[Haspen]

@mastahcheese: Kinda, you just seem to have an alien timezone that lets you post when I'm in deep sleep

@GWG: Sure, I will add ya in the morning v:

[GreatWyrmGold]

Spoiler: House Chin (click to show/hide)

Han Province

House Chin is lead by Chin Long, who is the Emperor's Cousin and has a taste for alchemy and the occult. He doesn't rule very harshly, or actually care that much about his province so long as it doesn't have any major problems.

[mastahcheese]

@mastahcheese: Kinda, you just seem to have an alien timezone that lets you post when I'm in deep sleep

I don't have an alien timezone, I just can never got on the computer until it's 11 PM where I'm at.

Oh, and GWG, I already got Qi.

[escaped lurker]

After reading it a bit more carefully - mainly what I would think changes or additions to the first version - here some questions of mine;

The Sea Port;
Do Han and and Qui fish and trade on their rivers - wich would undoubtely be big enough to do so - or is there a malus for them involved? It bears the name "Sea" Port, and talks about "Sea" Trade afterall - but I would have been unable to find any ruling that clearly states Inland-Provinces to be out of that picture.

Advisors;
The talk about them is quite ambigious - does their focus mean that they only will try to stirr our opinions into that direction, or would they sometimes "sabotage" our efforts to fit their own agendas? As in, our Architects changing the order for fields to ordering housing - or something to a similiar effect.

[Haspen]

@Sea Port:

No, Han and Qi do not have access to Sea Port building and its benefits.

@Advisors:

They won't change something that's already being constructed, but the Lord might find himself in situation where an Advisor already ordered a construction/recruitment to take place on his own.

[Haspen]

Spoiler: House Aurem (click to show/hide)

Qi Province

House Aurem is lead by Magnum Aurem, who is the Emperor's Cousin and has a taste for alchemy and the occult. He doesn't rule very harshly, or actually care that much about his province so long as it doesn't have any major problems.

Please pick Chinese names, not Latin ones

EDIT: Also, mastahcheese already took Qi province.

@mastahcheese: Get your name, too

[GreatWyrmGold]

Oh, and GWG, I already got Qi.

Dangit. What provinces are left?

Please pick Chinese names, not Latin ones

Alright, I'll need to look some up.

[Haspen]

The only province left is Han.

There are two links in 'The Beginning' spoiler which contain articles on surnames and male names.