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This is the Core Thread, for general discussion between people on different teams or not on any teams, rules, updates, contests and more. For actual game play or team-only talk, visit the appropriate team thread.
If you're new to Arms Races but are unfamiliar, read through the rules spoilers on the bottom, pick a team, and start participating in their thread; please don't read or otherwise participate in the other team's thread. Looking at their thread's OP to decide which team is okay, however.General IdeaUnlike many (all?) Arms Races, it is important to note this Arms Race is not strictly adversarial. Both sides exist within the same fortress, and the effects each side has on the health and well being of the fortress will affect the other side as well. If you smite your enemy with a giant meteor, that meteor will land on your head as well. As such, this not quite be a battle with sword and axe, but rather a battle for the hearts and minds of the fortresses worshiper.
Convince your fellow dwarves that your God can do the best for the fortress, with divine miracles, fancy cantrips and well timed rituals to take credit for random chance of even your opponents actions.
General Gameplay LoopEach turn consists out of 3 phases. The design and progress phase, the revision phase, and the worship phase. Absent special events, each side will receive 5 dice at the start of each turn. Both sides cycle through the 3 phases in sync, spending dice to start designs, revisions, and then carefully planning their worship in order to convince the population of the fortress to follow their side.
At the start of each turn (which lasts a month), each side's projects are advanced. In this phase, new projects are designed. All players can propose new designs, and every member of the team is allowed to vote.Each design requires the dedication of 3 dice, which means you can start multiple designs in the same turn if you have the requisite dice. Players can vote for as many designs as they want, though can not vote against any design, or vote for 1 design multiple times. In the case of confusion, my interpretation of the votes stands, so be clear with what you want. Include metavotes (example : only 1 design) as needed. For detailed instructions as to what can be designed, see the detailed section below.
During the revision phase, players can vote for any numbers of revisions to existing projects, miracles, rituals and so on. Each revision costs 1 dice. Revisions are best utilized to resolve issues with the original design, or to slightly tweak it in the phase of different circumstances. Straight up trying to improve the performance of a design with revisions will quickly result in diminishing returns.
In the Worship phase, no dice are spent. At the start of this phase, players are provided with what information they can gather (temporal as well as divinely) about the near future, as well as quick overview of how their chosen divinity currently views them. Calling upon the your God to bless the harvest when he's upset with your recent actions may not be the wisest action, while executing a ritual of warning about that group of Goblins you heard coming may be a stroke of genius. Keep in mind that your actions will have consequences. Claim that your god told you that the Elves are traitors, and you may well lead your fortress into a war.
Once that's finished, the events of the month are rolled, and the results are posted in the main thread. Hidden details (if any exist) are posted in the specific faction thread. After that, the cycle begins anew.
The Fortress and the worldThe Arms race is set in a Dwarf Fortress world, something that you should all be familiar with. For those who're not, Dwarf Fortress ( the game this forum is named after) is a generic fantasy world generator. Groups of Dwarves try to build mighty underground fortresses, fending of evil vampires, necromancers, goblins, and the occasional pretentious elves.
The specific world we'll be using here is one that has just emerged from the Age of Renewal, a cataclysmic and unexplained event where millions died, continents moved and the world was suddenly reshaped. The old Gods have fallen, disappeared without a trace, and mysterious monsters once thought to be legend now once again walk the land.
Gods and DomainsGods are capricious creatures. While you get to have enormous influence over what actions your God can take, you do not get to decide which actions they'll take, or when. So be careful with what miracles you design for them to use.
Each side's God has 2 associated meters, being Mood and Favor. The former determines their inclination to whether they will utilize punishing or blessed actions, the latter how likely they're to change their chosen actions based upon the rituals the priests utilize to plea for them to intervene. A vengeful God can be dissuaded, but you may have to sacrifice quite a bit.
In addition, Gods also have domains. These are acquired dynamically depending on what designs and actions you make. Design a harvest fertival, and you may get Harvest as a domain. Design a lightning strike smiting, and you'll get weather, stuff like that. Domains effect what form of worship your gods will desire, how powerful their actions and those of their clerics are, what kind of tribute they like, and what kind of actions they can take credit for. No one will believe that the God of Death, decay and destruction is responsible for a nice summer's day.
Dice in this arms race will have a result from 1 to 6, but will have a bell-shaped instead of a uniform distribution. Behind the scenes, this is accomplished by rolling 1d4+2d2-2. For designs, efficacy and cost are rolled separately. Revisions merely work on a single roll, but use the same distribution. What follows is a rough breakdown of the different rolls for prototypes.
Result 1: [6.25% Chance] Design are known for their SNAFU operation (if any), severe bugs run wild, or costs are through the roof.
Result 2: [18.75% Chance] Design function well below expected parameters, but kinda work. There is at least one severe bug, and likely a couple little ones. Costs are much higher than expected.
Result 3: [25% Chance] Design functions, perhaps with room for improvement. One severe or multiple minor bugs. Costs are a bit higher would be desired.
Result 4: [25% Chance] Design functions, meeting or slightly exceeding expections. No severe bugs, at least one minor bug. Costs are within expected parameters.
Result 5: [18.75% Chance] Design works very well, exceeding expected parameters. No more than a single minor bug, if any. Costs are considerably lower than expected.
Result 6: [6.25% Chance] Design works incredibly well, with some kind of added benefit. No bugs to report. Costs are trivial.
These results are generally independent of the difficulty of the project, which is reflected in the time it takes to actually complete a project (see Designs and Projects, below), and bonuses or penalties will usually only be applied as credits warrant.
Your designs can broadly be classified along 3 types, Miracles, Cantrips and Rituals.
Miracles are grand actions undertaken by your God. They're the most powerful depictions of magical power that can be seen, but come with the considerable drawback that your priesthood does not actually get to decide the actions of a god. The god will decide when to deploy his/her/it's chosen miracle, and your priesthood may need to scramble to take credit for it.
Cantrips are magical tricks and minor spells that can be done on demand by any of your priests. While these spells are no more powerful than that of any ordinary mage, they serve as easy tokens and signs of your chosen's favor, and can easily impress the common dwarf.
Rituals are non-magical ceremonies designed to impress an audience, to request actions from the divine, or to curry favor with grand sacrifices. These actions have the greatest effect on the populace's faith, but they can backfire. A harvest ritual is not well appreciated when said harvest fails.
Designs are the bread and butter of any arms race and require a minimum of three dice to start. Designs can be whatever you want, though most will fall in one of the 3 categories mentioned above.
Every project rolls dice for time, progress, and effectiveness when it is initiated. Time modifies a projects duration; in general, a project with a 1 in time will complete in half the time as the same project with a 6 in time. That being said, a project won't have a progress requirement lower than 3, and generally won't go too much higher than 35. The progress roll determines how much progress the priests will make in a turn without direct intervention or investment of dice; a 1 generates only 1 unit of progress per turn, a 2 or 3 provides two units of progress, a four or a five provides three units of progress, and a six provides 4 units of progress per turn. The effectiveness dice determines how good the result of the project is. You will recieve a description the moment you roll.
A project header for an ambitious new ritual looks something like this,
Ritual of the beheaded crab : 6/18 [2] | | Rushed 0 times | Ritual | Domain : Sea
Name, followed by current progress/total needed with the amount guaranteed per turn in brackets, the type, the number of times the project has been rushed, it's type, and the associated domain
Every round, during the design phase, a team can elect to spend any number of their dice on progressing projects. For every die you spend resources on, you can also elect to rush the project. This gives you an extra die that adds to project progress normally, but has a 33% chance to add a bug of random severity to the project or worsen an existing bug. It's not as bad as getting a -1 on your efficacy roll, but it can add up.
A project can be canceled at any time, and its resources re-allocated. When a project is canceled, the team gets 50% of the invested resources back at the end of the next turn, and a random number of dice back between 1 and the total number of dice invested, including the initial 3 dice used to start the project.
Setting Modifiers
The Age of Myth: The game starts in the Age of Myth. Forgotten Beasts roam the land, Titans, Collosi, Dragons, Demons can attack your fortress. The logic of Dwarf Fortress serves as a guideline, but is not strictly followed. Other magic besides necromancy exists, cool stuff can be done. Be inventive, but keep in mind that cool stuff still comes with a cost. Fundamentally however, this is a fantasy world. Don't try to kick start the industrial revolution.
Begin at your Beginnings: This game will have a special opening phase, two turns in length. During this period, the final phase of each turn is skipped- so there is no production, deployment and tactics. Instead, you are given ten dice per turn, and you will be asked to create the designs for most of your starting tech.
Losing is Fun: The world will not be content to leave your fortress alone. If your internecine strive places the fortress at the verge of a loyalty cascade while Goblins prepare to evade, the fortress, the cult and everyone in it may very well be slaughtered. Be careful, and don't forget the consequences of your actions.
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Topic: The Fortress : A Divine Arms Race (Read 1346 times)