RP ThreadI'd like to interest check on a new game, and maybe take some sign-ups. This one's got a bit of the flavour of Vizier, in that it's a little more resource management-y and a little less the RPG that a certain old game of mine was.
It is the year 382a (ascension, the standard marking for the apotheosis of the Father of Suul). The Mirish Coast has become a hive of religious strife and discontent, as the Suulian Orthodoxy and Mounish Heterodoxy fight a cold war of heretic against heretic. Fringe faiths such as Cyclicism have been marginalised at best, actively stamped out at worst. Banditry, war and vicious politicking have driven the state of Miring apart, shattering it once again into its component states of Brighthall, Elbreth, Preston and Miring, with the Weylanders reasserting their independence to the north. The Trubaldsome heirs are at one another's throats, as tradition dictates, and the hands of Suul and Moun are evident throughout the struggle.
Meanwhile, across the Storm Coast, Suul has struck back against the Heterodoxy and the Grand Duchy of Vasir continues to grow in power and influence under the auspices of the dangerous and Machiavellian House of d'Avistral. Mercenaries fight in war after war amongst the scattered city states of the coast while Suulian Orthodoxy tries its best to stamp out the various religions of the Heterodoxy, such as the Thousand Gods of Samakhet. Worse still, the Grune Kingdom and the Dragon Empire are trying once again to exert their influence and dominance over the coast, and islands of peace and prosperity are few and far between.
It was amidst such chaos that news was brought back from a trade ship thought lost to the sea of the distant and much fabled land of Hatcur. Stories about the land had circulated the Mirish and Storm coasts for decades or more, a place of supposed plenty and danger. The crew had found the land plentiful and lush indeed, and also uninhabited by any human life. If the great sea could be but braved then bounty and peace might be found in a colony upon those distant shores.
That was five years ago. Brave souls did indeed venture forth, settling on these lush and verdant lands. Settlers and colonists continue to flee here in search of fortune and reprieve from war, and a town has sprung up to house them. These are the early days of the colony called New Sheepstead, and those who settled within it.In order to play this game, there is a gentleman's agreement you must consent to. Players will want to post secret orders and receive secret reports in this game - and that's perfectly fine. However, since mass PMs are a nightmare and I don't really have the tech to easily send secret reports, I will be placing confidential reports in spoilers marked with the recipient's name. Secret orders should be put in spoilers as well.
Additionally,
secret letters between characters should be spoilered with the recipient's name. Part of the reason for this is that
information security is not perfect - it is possible to have your letters spied on with sufficient infiltration. This is a feature designed to increase fun, not crush it, so please do respect the convention.
If you are a player in the game, only read your own secret reports and messages - anything spoilered marked for the public or not to a specific character or faction is fair game. Anything unspoilered is fair game. If you have infiltration that allows you to see private messages, still do not read the report - you will get a copy of any infiltration reports in your own secret reports.
If you are
not a player in the game - a spectator - feel free to read everything! Just remember player/character separation if you join later, and under no circumstances pass information on to a player they wouldn't already have. That's cheating and may get that player kicked. Fair warning.
Anyway, this is the gentleman's agreement - I won't read your secret reports if you won't read my secret reports, although possibly my secret reports might have your secret report in them.
Gold - Gold (or silver). Get it from taxes, trade or gold (or silver) mines. Use it to spend on things, such as soldiers. As a rule of thumb, ordinary taxes take 2 Gold per point of settlement Infrastructure. Unlike other Resources, Gold does not take up cargo space and is sent directly to the nearest settlement or to their owner (provided he is available) after production. Gold may be transferred freely and instantly without penalty. Units not paid their upkeep in gold may desert. Noble specialists can carry a purse like a character.
Gold carried by a character can be stolen if the character is captured. Gold sat in a settlement can be taken if the settlement is captured. Gold is a zero-sum resource, as well - gold can only enter the economy from gold mines and overseas trade, and pretty much only leave it through overseas trade as well. If towns get too poor in gold to pay taxes, they will stop paying taxes.
Resources - Primary resources produced by settlements from connected provinces.
Iron - More than just iron, iron represents various industrially and militarily important metals and minerals. Get it from mines. Needed by industry and for better troops. The maximum troops that can be trained per turn may be limited by Iron as well as training facilities. Can be turned into Goods by workshops.
Timber - High quality timber, ideal not just for woodcraft but for the production of bows. Forested regions produce this. Needed to produce archers, and by industry. Can be turned into Goods by workshops. Also needed to produce Ships.
Horses - Strong and fast horses, necessary for war and work. Certain regions produce these. Needed to produce Cavalry, but can also be set to the fields to increase Grain production in a province. Also needed to produce Caravan units.
Wool - While not having much of a military use, Wool is exceptionally useful for industry. It can be converted to Goods by workshops.
Grain - More than just grain, grain represents edible foodstuffs of all kinds. Get it from provinces. Needed to support settlements and units. If a settlement runs short on Grain, Infrastructure will temporarily stop functioning as people turn to the fields for sustenance. As a general rule, each point of Infrastructure requires 1 Grain per turn to run. The settlement will pay 2 Gold for each Grain from its own pocket to the trader. Each military unit requires 1 Grain per turn or it will refuse to move and forage off the land for sustenance.
Goods - Various industrial and commercial goods needed for the running of settlements. Each point of a settlement's Infrastructure needs 1 type of Good per turn to run, otherwise it will not count towards production. The settlement will pay 5 Gold for each Good, from its own pocket (not from taxes) to the trader.
Tools - Goods required for the running of settlements. Each piece of Primary Infrastructure requires 1 Tool per turn to run, otherwise it will not count towards production.
Furniture - Goods required for the running of settlements. Each piece of Secondary Infrastructure requires 1 Furniture per turn to run, otherwise it will not count towards production.
Cloth - Goods required for the running of settlements. Each piece of Tertiary Infrastructure requires 1 Cloth per turn to run, otherwise it will not count towards production.
Resources may be stockpiled without penalty, but they must be stockpiled in a settlement - if that settlement is taken, the conquerors gain the goods. It takes 1 turn to move resources between settlements (happens at the start of the next turn).
Scholar - A man of learning. Can be used for special assignments. Build: 3 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold. (4 Move)
Priest - A man of the faith. Can be used for special assignments. Build: 3 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold. (4 Move)
Noble - A man of manners. Can be used for special assignments. May carry gold. Build: 3 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold. (4 Move)
Agent - A well paid spy, assassin or expert thief. Can be used for intelligence gathering, sabotage, assassination or theft. Can also serve as a scout to new regions. Paid in gold, but not grain. Build: 3 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold. (4 Move)
Captains - Produced at barracks at some cost. Provide a bonus to led armies, usually unit and/or phase specific. Bonus increases with experience. Captains can lead multiple units, but each unit can only be led by a single captain. Paid in gold. Build: 3 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold.
Lt. Infantry - No particular advantages or disadvantages. No special resource requirements. Build: 5 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Grain. 1/1/1 (2 Move)
Hvy. Infantry - No particular advantages or disadvantages. Requires Iron. Build: 10 Gold, 1 Iron. Upkeep: 2 Gold, 1 Grain. 2/2/2 (2 Move)
Pikemen - x2 vs Cavalry. Requires Iron. Build: 5 Gold, 1 Iron. Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Grain. 1/3/1 (2 Move)
Archers - x2 vs Pikemen. Archers strike first in Ranged combat. Requires Timber. Build: 5 Gold, 1 Timber. Upkeep: 1 Gold, 1 Grain. 3/1/1 (2 Move)
Cavalry - x2 vs Archers. Pure cavalry army moves at double speed. Cavalry strike first in Melee combat. Requires Horses. Build: 10 Gold, 1 Horses. Upkeep: 3 Gold, 2 Grain. 2/2/2 (4 Move)
Caravan - A train of baggage horses. Caravans can move up to 4 Resources a turn between settlements in either direction (e.g. 2 Goods and 2 Grain one way and 3 Iron and 1 Wool the other). Once established, a caravan will follow the same route until that route is cancelled. (The time taken is less than a turn, so simply sustaining a caravan will permit any goods being traded to arrive before the end of the turn - effectively counting them as being in the destination settlement for any book-keeping purposes.) Caravans pay for their own food along the way, but they do cost Gold to sustain. Build: 3 Gold. Upkeep: 1 Gold.
Ship - A ship for travel across the sea. Ships travel faster than land units if used in a military capacity, and each ship can carry up to 3 land units. If set to maintaining a trade route, however, a single ship can carry up to 10 Resources a turn between settlements in either direction (e.g. 6 Goods and 4 Grain one way and 7 Iron and 3 Wool the other). It will sustain a trade route as per a caravan. Ships require 1 Grain/turn to support, as well as gold. (4 move) Build: 15 Gold, 3 Timber. Upkeep: 3 Gold, 1Grain.
Provinces are fiefs, and their produce (Grain) is owned by the fief's owner, as are any revenues from its sale. Provinces produce a broadly set quantity of Grain each turn, which is automatically (and freely) taken to market in the province's connected settlement and sold, unless there is no market for it.
Infrastructure represents the size of a town and its facilities. The more infrastructure a town has, the more industry it supports. Each point of infrastructure requires 1 Good and 1 Grain in upkeep per turn - deprivation of either will cause it to simply not function that turn. It may be considered to equate, roughly, to 500 urban people (most of whom are farmers or labourers anyway).
Available Gold/Settlement Purse: As a rule of thumb, each point of Infrastructure starts with 10 Gold for 'spending'. This is used to buy Grain, Goods or their raw materials and pay taxes. If the total reserves in a settlement run out, they will either stop buying superfluous resources or start cheating on their taxes.
When units are trained and such, however, the training Gold does go into the settlement's spending purse (future upkeep gold to the unit's "home"). Thus a military settlement can continue to have enough money to function. Essentially, any and all spent Gold will go to at least some settlement, even if it's off the map.
NB: Gold is a semi-zero sum resource. It may be mined, or brought in from overseas, but spent gold always goes somewhere and it is possible to run out.
Religion: As each point of Infrastructure represents an urban population, it also represents the local faithful. Infrastructure will either follow a specific faith or remain neutral (in a sense, praising all the gods or a mix of faiths). Infrastructure that follows a faith will pay tithes to a temple of that faith. Neutral infrastructure will pay tithes to a temple of the settlement's official faith (the state religion).
With no priests in a settlement, it will default (one piece per turn) to neutral. A single priest (of any faith) will keep the faith and start bringing the neutrals into their fold. Each priest will convert one point of Infrastructure per turn to their faith. Where multiple priests clamour for a neutral piece, the chance of conversion is percentile, based on relative proportion of priests. If there are no free pieces to convert, faithful pieces of Infrastructure will convert based on how 'defended' they are and of the vulnerable who has the most faith in the settlement.
Infrastructure can be built by spending 20 Gold, 2 Tools, 2 Furniture and 1 Cloth, taking 1 turn per point of Infrastructure (after all, Rome wasn't built in a day). Simply creating Infrastructure in a free province establishes a settlement.
Each point of Infrastructure is specialised on creation, although by spending 5 Gold (and waiting a turn) it can be repurposed. The following specialisations are available.
Industrial
Workshops: Workshops convert Iron, Timber or Wool into Goods on a 1:1 basis. As a rule of thumb, each workshop will pay 2 Gold per raw resource and sell the finished product on for 5 Gold. Each workshop has a base production capacity of 3 units/turn, although a player manager can raise this with his or her speciality. If owned by a player, the money comes from his or her treasury instead of the communal purse. Each workshop increases the town's Furniture demand by 1.
Forge: A workshop that converts Iron into Tools.
Carpenter: A workshop that converts Timber into Furniture.
Textile Mill: A workshop that converts Wool into Cloth.
Primary Industries: Each of the primary industries below produce resources from connected provinces. Each primary industry increases the town's Tools demand by 1.
Stables: Stables produce Horses if a connected province has them as a resource. Each stable has a base production capacity of 3 units/turn, although a player manager can raise this with his or her specialty. One Stable may be built per province with Horses. Stables can also train Caravans.
Mines: Mines produce Iron if a connected province has it as a resource. Each mine has a base production capacity of 3 units/turn, although a player manager can raise this with his or her specialty. One Mine may be built per province with Iron.
Sawmills: Sawmills produce Timber if a connected province has it as a resource. Each sawmill has a base production capacity of 3 units/turn, although a player manager can raise this with his or her specialty. One Sawmill may be built per province with Timber.
Looms: Looms produce Wool if a connected province has it as a resource. Each loom has a base production capacity of 3 units/turn, although a player manager can raise this with his or her specialty. One Loom may be built per province with Wool.
Gold Mines: Gold mines can only be built in settlements whose connected provinces have Gold as a resource. Each mine produces 5 Gold/turn, flat. One mine may be built per province with Gold.
Shipyards: A shipyard can only be constructed in a coastal settlement. Ships can be constructed at a shipyard with Timber and gold (which goes to the town purse), and the harbour also supports a small amount of local fishing - shipyards produce 1 Grain for free each turn. Shipyards demand 1 Furniture per turn.
Temple: - Temples are specific to a faith. Priests can be trained at a temple as if it were a monastery. While possible, Temples will also extract a tithe of 1 Gold per Infrastructure each turn (including itself), so long as the piece of Infrastructure is conducive to being tithed (i.e. it follows the faith or is neutral and the faith is the official religion of that town). Multiple Temples extract multiple tithes (from the same population), although since this is taken from the town purse there is only so much money to go around. Temples demand 1 Cloth per turn.
Military
Barracks - The garrison and training facilities for soldiers. Each barracks permits the training of a single military unit per turn. Multiple barracks stack (i.e. if you have 3 barracks you can produce 3 units each turn). Barracks demand 1 Cloth per turn.
Academy - Training facilities for officers and agents. Each Academy permits the training of a single captain, noble or agent per turn. Multiple academies stack. Academies demand 1 Cloth per turn.
Monastery - A place to train holy or learned men. Each Monastery permits the training of a single priest or scholar per turn. Scholars aren't faith-specific, priests are. Monasteries demand 1 Cloth per turn.
Castle - There is only one castle in a settlement, although it can be expanded. Each expansion to the castle permits an additional unit to be garrisoned there. Each garrisoned unit counts as having +3 strength in the melee phase while defending. Nobles may also be trained here as per an academy. Castles demand 1 Furniture per turn.
Walls - Each section of wall permits an additional unit to be garrisoned there. Each garrisoned unit counts as having +3 strength in the ranged phase while defending. Walls demand 1 Tools per turn.
Agents
Agents can be readily deployed to various nefarious ends.
Infiltrate: The standard activity for an agent, doubling as scouting for unexplored provinces. Agents sent into an uncontrolled province will gather basic information about it in the following order: terrain type; discovered resources and settlements; present units; present specialists (captains, agents, scholars and priests); and finally reports delivered to PCs in the province/settlement. If previous steps have been discovered, information gathering will skip ahead stages. Agents will present a report every 5 agent turns (so more agents progress faster), gathering detail at least one level deeper each report they are allowed to 'entrench'. So long as at least one agent remains, the entrenching will remain intact. If all agents leave, the process must start again.
NB: Foreign agents in a friendly province will not be spotted unless a friendly agent is 'infiltrated' to root out spies. Counter-espionage will not stop infiltration, but unless the foreign agent has backup he should be suitably vulnerable to repercussions.
Sabotage: Each agent in a settlement can 'deactivate' a single building. This will not destroy the building, but that piece of Infrastructure will provide no effect while an agent is sabotaging it (e.g. production, defensive bonuses). An agent must remain in the settlement for the whole turn for sabotage to be effective. Counter-espionage agents in the settlement will counter the effect of sabotage.
Assassinate: Each agent in a province may assassinate a single specialist (captain, agent, scholar or priest) in the course of a turn (he must remain in the same province as the specialist at the end). At the end of the turn, the specialist will be killed unless the assassination is prevented by a counter-espionage agent. An agent can only assassinate specialists in the same province or settlement, and only if they are aware of their specific existence.
NB: Since player characters have special abilities akin to captains or uberscholars, a successful assassination attempt on a player will instead injure the player character, deactivating their abilities for three turns. Players may be attacked as with normal specialists.
Theft: An agent in a settlement may steal a single resource per turn from the settlement's stores. The agent will do so at the end of the turn. Agents steal from warehouses, not production, so if there are no stockpiled goods/will be none after production and trade they will not get anything. Note that Gold does count, but only 1 Gold may be stolen at a time. This action may be countered by counter-espionage agents as usual.
An agent may steal gold from a player's own purse, if he is in the same province as the player at the end of the turn. As usual, this may be countered by counter-espionage.
Counter-Espionage: Each counter-espionage agent in a settlement or province will automatically prevent a single assassination, sabotage or theft (with precedence given to assassinations, particularly of player characters, followed by sabotage and finally theft) against their target faction. Unless the assassins/saboteurs have already been spotted by a friendly infiltrator, the identity of the miscreant will not be revealed, only that their actions were prevented.
Scholars
Scholars are mostly deployed on special missions. However, they do have two standard purposes.
Prospect Resources: In a new province, a scholar may attempt to discern the province's special resource (if any) by spending five scholar turns to investigate it. Multiple scholars speed this process up accordingly (i.e. 3 scholars will finish in 2 turns, 5 scholars in 1).
Supervise Production: A scholar may be assigned to a single workshop or primary industry building (stable, mine, timber yard or loom). The scholar will then increase its production by 1 per turn. Only one scholar may be assigned per building.
Priests
With no priests in a settlement, it will default (one piece per turn) to neutral. A single priest (of any faith) will keep the faith and start bringing the neutrals into their fold. Each priest will convert one point of infrastructure per turn to their faith. Where multiple priests clamour for a neutral piece, the chance of conversion is percentile, based on relative proportion of priests. If there are no free pieces to convert, faithful pieces of Infrastructure will convert based on how 'defended' they are and of the vulnerable who has the most faith in the settlement.
Nobles
Nobles have a few actions they can use outside of special missions. In addition, they may (and perhaps should) carry a purse of Gold with them. This Gold will be captured if the specialist is killed or captured. The gold in the purse may be used for bribery or suborning.
Manage Estates: A single noble can be placed in a province. While present, he will increase Grain production by 1.
Bribe: A noble in the same province as another specialist can bribe them over to that noble's faction for 3 Gold. Each noble enforcing loyalty in a province increases the gold cost by 3. Unless spotted by an infiltrator, the bribed specialist will disappear with no clue as to who their loyalty switched to.
Suborn: A noble in the same province as a unit (or who moves into the army's province to execute this action) can bribe the unit to switch sides for 150% of their initial hiring cost in Gold (rounded up, ignoring any resource requirements). Each noble enforcing loyalty in the province increases the bribe cost by 50%. Unless there are no witnesses to the bribery (e.g. no units in the province or adjacent provinces and no infiltrating agents) the defection will be reported and the side the unit(s) defected to. If there are no witnesses, only the act of defection will be reported.
Purchase: A noble in a settlement can attempt to buy a piece of Infrastructure for 20 Gold. This amount is increased by 10 Gold for each noble enforcing loyalty that effects the Infrastructure in question. Note that this constitutes a legal purchase - you can illegally seize Infrastructure by having a military unit in the same settlement and declaring it 'yours'.
Enforce Loyalty: A noble in a province can be set to enforce loyalty. This raises the cost for rival nobles to bribe specialists (by 3 Gold) or suborn units (by 50% of unit hire cost). Unlike with agents, the effects of multiple nobles enforcing loyalty stack. e.g. If 3 nobles are enforcing loyalty in a province and 3 enemy nobles attempt to bribe 3 scholars, the price to bribe each scholar will be 12 gold (or 36 gold total).
Overland Strategy
Units may move a number of provinces equal to their Move score each turn. Allied units may stack. Units may attempt to pass through or even stack with neutral units - if those units allow them. Attempting to enter or pass through provinces held by enemy or impermissive neutral units will prompt a battle (but see Zones of Control below). Multiple units can be brought into a battle; any units on either side that have sufficient Move to enter the contested province.
An attacked unit may optionally retreat, if it has Move left and any legal escape position. If it cannot escape, a battle is forced. If it loses this battle (with no legal escape route) all trapped units will be destroyed.
If a defender loses a battle with Move left and a legal escape route, it will move one province toward the legal escape route. If an attacker loses a battle it will move one province back in the direction it approached from (if it began its attack from the same province as the defender, it will retreat/not retreat as a defender).
Captains, Scholars and Priests are subject to Zone of Control and may not move through provinces held by hostile armies (although they may pass through neutral territory unharmed). Agents are invisible and ignore Zone of Control, passing freely into and through hostile held provinces. Nobles move as Captains, Scholars and Priests, except that they move into a hostile province in order to bribe, subvert or buy a target.
Battles
Battles take place over three phases, during which the units of both sides engage. In each phase, the units use their strength for that phase - e.g. Archers have 3 strength in the Ranged phase, but 1 in Melee and Flight. The first phase, the Ranged phase, typically lasts 3 rounds but may last more or less depending on captains. The second, Melee, phase lasts until one side flees or is destroyed. If there are any survivors, the final Flight phase covers one side hunting down the routing forces. The Flight phase will nominally last 3 rounds.
Each unit of a side will pick another unit and attack with its strength. It will pick the weakest enemy unit unless instructed otherwise. If the attacker's strength equals or is less than the defenders, it has no effect. If the attack strength is higher than the defence strength, but not double or more, the defending army takes 1 Morale damage. If the attack strength is double or greater than the defending strength, the defending unit is destroyed outright.
Where units on the attack outnumber the defenders, attackers gang up on defender units. When determining attack strength, the total strength of all attackers on a single unit is counted.
When the Morale damage of an army exceeds its current units, the broken army will rout, starting the Flight phase. If the other army is not similarly broken, the victors will then pursue and attack the routers. In this phase, simply exceeding defender strength is enough to destroy a unit outright (routs can get brutal). The routers may not counter-attack.
Under normal circumstances, the province defender's units will attack first in a phase. Units that strike first in their phase will go before any other units. If both sides have units that strike first, the defenders go with their first strike units, followed by the attackers, and then defender normal units followed by attacker normal units.
Zone of Control
While moving through hostile territory, settlements exert a zone of control that prevents you from moving through provinces. i.e. You may move into or out of a hostile province, but you may not move from one hostile province to another, except in order to attack an enemy unit. (It is assumed that skirmishers are harassing your baggage train, preventing further movement.) Destroying all defenders in a settlement will remove the zone of control effect. A settlement with no defenders to begin with will project no zone of control.
The default zone of control is the settlement's province and all surrounding (contiguous) provinces.
Levy Units vs Professional Units
Professional military units are always active, always alert and require full pay and food, or half pay and full food if garrisoned. That's it.
Levy units work a little differently. When active, levy units demand the pay and food of a professional unit. However, they can be put in a resting state, where they will lay down their spears and take up the scythe. A unit can be turned into a levy, wherein it will remain dormant in a province acting as ordinary labourers and farmers, costing neither gold nor food. When required, a summons can be put out and the levy soldiers will rise up for service once again.
There are a few caveats.
1. Each province can only support one levy, so only one unit can be 'rested' there.
2. Levy units take one full turn to go from resting to active, creating a delay. There is no delay in resting them.
3. Levy units accrue no experience - or more accurately, they accrue experience but will lose it when sent to rest again.
Experience
Each battle a unit survives, it will gain 1 point of experience. Each unit a unit defeats (or destroys), the victor gains 1 point of experience - except for units slain during the rout. At 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 and so on points of experience, the unit will randomly gain a +1 bonus to one of its phase strengths.
Captains (and players) can gain experience, unlike other specialists. This increases their native bonus to all led units.
Name:
Description:
Background:
Reason for Emigrating:
Specialism: Military / Mercantile (A military specialism allows you to lead armies as if you were a Captain. A mercantile specialism will grant a bonus to any industries of its type you own or run in a city, so long as you are resident there.)
Starting Package: *
*You start with a small amount of resources.**
Wealth: 20 Gold, 10 Goods, 10 Grain, 2 Caravans.
Might: 12 Gold, 6 Grain, 2 Heavy Infantry, 1 Captain.
Knowledge: 12 Gold, 1 Priest, 1 Scholar, 1 Agent, 1 Noble. (+2 extra specialists of choice)
** Four of the accepted characters (GM's discretion) will represent the original colonists of New Sheepstead. They will start with land as well.
Author
Topic: Colony [OOC] (Read 7813 times)