PoliticoThis is a character-based large-scale roleplaying management game. It will feature characters with individual stats and traits, while at the same time allowing control over large populations and economic systems. If this at all piques your interest, I implore you to skim through the rules and sheets and, if at that point you are still interested, make a sheet. Keep in mind that this is in beta and the system has never been tested - if I notice some glaring flaws, I may end the game prematurely or change some stuff around mid-game. If the game fails to grab enough players, I may simply run it as a SG - bit reluctant to do so, however.
Game PacingThough the precise pacing is not set in stone, it will not likely be a quickly updated game. I estimate that Game Turns (one month intervals) will take between three days and two weeks, depending on the number of players, the amount of responsibilities they have regarding calculations, and how quickly they respond to turns. My ideal would be less than one week, though seeing as I have not attempted a game of this scale I am unsure.
Player OptionsPlayers have any number of options and choices regarding playstyle, and the way they play the game can change over time. For example, you may start as a single character but seize control of a province's government, transforming from a more sandbox adventure into an empire management game. I have no requirements or expectations regarding this, so go crazy (within the limits of the game). In general they have the options of starting as a GOVERNMENT (single province), BUSINESS, ADVISOR (or other character employed by a ruler), ORGANIZATION (non-business and non-government types, such as criminal organizations and political parties), or CHARACTER (lone character, starts with no employer and no organizations or holdings under their control).
Game RulesMartial: Command talent, personal combat, leadership. Nearly all battle and troop-related rolls.
Admin: Administrative ability, money management, running organizations and holdings.
Politics: Political aptitude, charisma, cunning. Nearly all non-combat personal rolls, as well as several large-scale rolls and modifiers.
Personal Combat: (Traits + [.25 x health] + [.5 x martial]). Your performance in personal combat, particularly in duels.
Health: Your character’s overall health, strength, and well-being.
Traits: Any traits your character may have, from birth traits (Attractive) to learned traits (Skilled Architect). Provides bonuses or negatives to stats and skills.
NOTE: Characters are responsible for their own sheet; it is advised they have one post, and update it as needed. I will link to all player sheets.
Characters have several choices when deciding what to do within a Game Turn (or month). They can:
1. Use the game turn to manage a province/organization, allowing them to take and respond to actions pertaining to the province/organization.
2. Use the game turn to take one or multiple character turns, or adventures. Heard rumours that Player B wanted a band of trolls dead? Going to hunt them down would be multiple character turns, and you could make multiple of these within a game turn.
3. Use the game turn to train, rest, or otherwise “idle”. Training can be useful to improve your stats and traits, resting is used to improve your health/heal wounds (which are just temporary negative traits), or you can do anything else that is neither management nor character turns - advising another player, for example.
Population: Provinces that have over 10,000 people use Population Points; one Population Point is equal to 10,000 people. Provinces below 10,000 people simply write down the number of people; these provinces have very little functionality. A province with 100,000, for example, would be a population of 10.000P (the P signifies Population Points).
Economy: The strength of a province’s economy fluctuates with time and policies; it is a flat number. A base economy would be 1.00. The Economy Size is equal to the Economy Modifier (1.00 for a base economy) multiplied by the Population Points of the province; a Province with 12P and an Economy of 1.30 would have an Economy Size of 15E (always round down).
Industry: Industry works the same way as Economy; take the Industrial Modifier and multiply it by the province’s Population Points to figure out the amount of Total Production.
Manpower: Manpower works the same way as Economy; take the Manpower Modifier (in most cases it is 1.00) and multiply it by the province’s Population Points to figure out the Total Manpower.
State Industry: The province’s total industrial output isn’t automatically controlled by the government; State Industry represents the amount of influence the government has on output through State-owned businesses, government contracts, and subsidies. The total production the government can use without cost is the percentage of State Industry; if the Total Production is 100I and you have 10% State Industry in the province, you can use 10I a turn without cost. You can also use 10% of any province’s (that you control) production in exchange for one wealth per production used. A strong State Industry allows you to produce much more, but is detrimental to the province’s Economy.
Tax Income: To calculate Tax Income, take the effective Tax Rate and multiply it by the Economy Size (tax rate of 10%, Economy Size of 100E, total income of 10W for the province’s controller). The effective tax rate is a simplistic average percentage of all taxes in the province; for the sake of my sanity, the different amount of taxes are going to be more roleplay-based and cause events rather than have mechanical effects. Keep in mind that any corporations inside the province must also pay the Tax Rate; higher tax rates may also drive down the Economy Value.
Public Order, Happiness, Education, Health: Are all roleplay attributes, meaning that they have no mechanical effect on the province. However, when these stats get very low or very high they may cause events - having a low Public Order may not seem too bad until you lose control of the province to an uprising!
Province Modifiers: Any province or empire-wide modifiers, temporary or permanent, that modify any of the province values (oftentimes will be -X/turn or +X/turn). Also note whether a river mouth or other Trade Center is in the province.
Terrain: The province’s dominant terrain type and whether a river is present.
Other: Any additional information regarding the province. If information in this category grows important or complicated, it can get its own section.
Market Shares and Corporations: Every single province has one hundred market shares. Businesses can acquire market shares to represent the amount of business they have in the province; one market share is one percent of the province’s economy. A business with one market share will earn one percent of the province’s economy size, rounded to the nearest whole number (10 shares, 100E. Business earns 10W modified by the tax rate). The government’s “Market Shares” are simply State Industry.
Name: _________ (province name is decided by controller)
Population: XX.XXXP (1.000P = 10,000 people)
Economy: X.XX [YY] (X.XX = Economy Modifier, YY = Economy Size (after multiplying by P))
Industry: X.XX [YY] (X.XX = Industry Modifier, YY = Total Production (after multiplying by P))
Manpower: X.XX [YY] (X.XX = Manpower Modifier, YY = Total Manpower (after multiplying by P))
Tax Income: XX% [YY] (XX = Tax Rate, YY = Tax Income (after multiplying by Economy Size))
State Industry: XX% [Y (+Z)] (XX = State Industry Percentage, Y = State Industry Total (State Industry * Total Production), Z = 10% of Total Production (amount of production that can be purchased with wealth per turn).
Population Growth: X.XX% (multiply by P each turn to gain new P).
Public Order: XX (minimum 0, max 100)
Happiness: XX (minimum 0, max 100)
Education: XX (minimum 0, max 100)
Health: XX (minimum 0, max 100)
Province Modifiers: Any province or empire-wide modifiers, temporary or permanent, that modify any of the province values (oftentimes will be -X/turn or +X/turn). Also note whether a river mouth or other Trade Center is in the province.
Terrain: ________ (plains, forest, hills, mountain). Also note whether a river is in the province.
Other: Any additional information regarding the province.
NOTE: The owner of the province is responsible for their sheet and calculations related to the province (Organizations are also responsible for their own sheets and calculations). I will give you the starting calculations and correct any you did wrong, but for the most part I'm leaving it to the players to run their own stuff. If you have any questions regarding mechanics, fire away - I'll try to keep them as transparent as possible.
A province runs whether or not anyone controls it, and whether or not anyone is managing it. However, managing it allows the province’s controller to perform actions (up to four per month per province) and respond to actions and events (for example, the uprising mentioned earlier). Managing it also grants bonuses to the province based on the manager’s stats; a high Management skill increases just about everything! Keep in mind, however, that in order to “increase” the province’s stats, the manager must do it as an “action”; for example, say: “Manager A spends an action gaining extra taxes in Province A.” One character can only manage one province per turn, and can take no additional actions in that turn.
A province that grows incredibly wealthy may spawn a major city, which acts as its own province and is, for all practical purposes, identical to provinces in every other way.
Recruitment: Recruiting a unit requires a “Template”, or predesigned unit. You can create templates as a free action. Simply spend the amount of manpower, production, and wealth required for the unit. Units represent one thousand soldiers. They are "tied" to the province they came from in regards to manpower upkeep and reinforcement.
Production: Producing things also requires a "Template" as well; these, however, require you to purchase the designs of others or invent your own. Coming up with new designs is incredibly pricey and time-consuming, however. At the beginning you start with no templates; you have to draw up plans, look for some in the general marketplace, or steal the actual thing in question and copy it.
Templates require the following, though additional information may be added for more in-depth units:
Minimum Service Requirement: (the minimum amount of time a soldier must serve before leaving)
Voluntary Leave: Y/N (if yes, may leave the military upon request: note, this does not mean the entire unit may disappear, simply that individual soldiers may leave, thus increasing the manpower upkeep)
Wounded Leave: Y/N (if yes, may leave the military upon injury. Optionally state the minimum severity required in order to leave)
Selectiveness: How selective you are in choosing your men (scale of 1 to 10).
Other: Any special law or manpower effect.
Weapons: Quality of weapons from 0 to 5; 0 being the most basic of weapons, 5 being the most modern you can acquire.
Uniforms: The uniformity and quality of clothing; 0 being no uniforms provided, 5 being very high-quality and completely uniform.
Gear: The extent of gear provided to soldiers; 0 being no gear, with a 5 being anything they could possibly need (backpack, flashlight, climbing gear, binoculars, cold-weather supplies, etc.).
Other: Anything extra you provide your soldiers.
Training: Quality of training; 0 being no training provided, to 5 being the best instructors that money can buy. Also, how brutal is training? If very, manpower costs go up.
Wages: Wages provided; 0 being unpaid, to 5 being upper-class wages.
Services: Services such as healthcare, education, and pensions during and after service. 0 being none provided, to 5 being an extensive Veteran Service Agency which provides everything imaginable.
Supplies: How well-supplied you keep your troops. A 0 would be no supplies, while a 5 would be only the highest-quality food, ammunition, replacement gear, etc.
Manpower requirement is always at least 10, but the amount required until they are recruited can be more than that. Can get up to the hundreds for incredibly selective groups. The manpower cost (not amount needed) is always 10, outside of extenuating circumstances (brutal training, soldiers killed during it). In your template responses, you can simply put a number or a few sentences.
Manpower upkeep is a drain upon the unit’s home province; if unit 1 of Province 37 has a manpower upkeep of 3, you have 3 less manpower from Province 37 per turn.
Manpower: 10 [40 req] (affected by Selectiveness).
Production: 8 (affected by Weapons, Uniforms, Gear, Other).
Wealth: 5 (affected by Training, Wages, and Services).
Manpower Upkeep: 2 (affected by MSR, Voluntary Leave, and Wounded Leave).
Supply Upkeep: 5 (in production; only in effect during wartime, and may be drawn from any province’s production. Effected by Supplies).
Wealth Upkeep: 3 (this value is affected by Wages and Services).
I am responsible for processing Turns, checking up with mechanics, throwing events into the mix, and playing as NPCs. Players are responsible for their own sheets, roleplay interactions and responses (though do note that roleplaying is not a requirement to play; it is highly recommended, however), and trying to change game mechanics (forming a UN, for example). I do this because otherwise the game will simply be too large and complex for me to run.
Though you guys are encouraged to do your own thing and make your own template, here's a basic template for the lazy. Fill in roleplay stuff as needed.
Name: Character's name (and Organization name, if applicable).
Start: Government, Business, Organization, Advisor, Character, Other.
Stats: Most important, least important? RNG + weighted. Feel free to put "good at everything", some characters simply will be. Power-gaming is prohibited, however (Martial, Admin, Politics).
Potential Traits: Any traits you're leaning towards?
Associates: Other characters you may know/control. Family members, mercenaries, close friends, you name it.
Roleplay Stuff: However much you want. Give me atleast some basics, and feel free to make as many sections as you want. This is your sheet, not mine.
Ya, I really don't care how much stuff you put on it. I do want atleast some basic stuff though; it can be though out and filled in later as the game progresses, though.
TheLordOfHouseRiley, Organization
Taricus, Government
Sentient Bowtie, Organization
3man75, Organization
Kashyyk, Business
Rolepgeek, Organization
wipeout1024, Character
crazyabe, Character
Poll
3 (23.1%)
Author
Topic: Politico [Taking Players] (Read 4971 times)