The end is nigh. The question is not "How can we win?", but "How long can we forestall the inevitable?"
Oh, sure. The Empire is vast. The Empire is rich. The Empire is strong, advanced, and respected. The Barbarian nations beyond its borders are all small, poor, weak, backwards, and insignificant.
But the Empire is also stagnant, corrupt, and arrogant. Meanwhile, the Barbarians are energetic, focused, and innovative.
Few in the Empire recognise this. Those of us who do are powerless to change the views of those who do not. If we do nothing, the Barbarians will overtake us in a matter of decades, and the Empire will fall into ruin.
So, our task, as humble servants of the Emperor, is to delay the collapse for as long as possible. Sacrifices are not optional- it is literally impossible to maintain the Empire in its current form. But perhaps clever thinking will let us slow the descent, and maintain some semblance of civilisation for another century or two.
TURN OVERVIEW:Each turn represents 4 years, and follows the following structure:
-Random stat decrease. Any disasters that happen are described.
-Players decide on an action.
-Action results are described.
-Players decide on a followup action, and choose a stat to decrease manually.
-Followup results are described. Turn ends.
STATS:The Empire has five key stats:
-Population
-Wealth
-Military
-Technology
-Reputation
All five start at 8 (in theory stats can go as high as 10).
Every turn, a semi-randomly selected stat will decrease by 1. Additionally, you must choose a stat to decrease by 1 yourselves.
If any stat reaches 0, the game ends- the Empire is destroyed.
Needless to say, the stats are more than just a countdown.
As they decrease, disasters may be triggered that challenge the empire in unpredictable ways.
If the stats become overly unbalanced, other disasters may occur. (Disasters may also occur for other reasons)
They are also currency that you can spend on actions (see below).
Stats can increase as a result of your actions, though this will generally come at a price.
ACTIONS:You get two actions per turn (in separate phases). What can you use an action for? Well, almost anything you can think of, really. Actions are freeform. Generally, though, the sort of things you would
want to do fall into three categories:
-Stat Swaps: Decrease one (or more) stats to increase one (or more) other stats (the two totals do not
have to be equal). Some sort of fluff justification is desired, but not technically necessary (eg you could just say "Swap 1 Reputation for 1 Population", but saying "Persuade people to immigrate into the empire, even if it makes us look less prestigious" is better)
-Disaster Relief: (Try to) resolve an ongoing disaster. Depending on the severity, you might want to spend some resources, but this isn't always necessary. Regardless, the method used is more important.
-Enact Reform: Proactively try to change the Empire in some way, potentially increasing stats, making future disasters less severe, or simply paving the way for other, more advanced reforms. What needs to and can be reformed is initially somewhat vague- but action results (good or bad) will often hint at things that could use a reform.
In the extreme case that someone proposes an invalid action, I'll let you know.
The results of an action may not be what you intended. Simple, unambitious actions will generally do what you expect, but the more complex and ambitious you get, the higher the risks. I may use dice, but you will not be told what those dice are. Instead, action results are prefaced with one of four tags: [Expected], meaning no randomness was involved, and [Lucky]/[Average]/[Unlucky], which should be self-explanatory.
Increase Conscription
We need more soldiers, now. Draft more peasants to join the army. (-1 Population, +1 Military)
Swords to plowshares
Disband some of the army, letting them go back to the fields, and sell the equipment. (-1 Military, +1 Population, +1 Wealth)
Ration Grain
To prevent starvation in areas affected by the famine, grain supplies will be rationed across the empire. Grain will be redistributed from regions with a surplus to regions with a shortage.
Scorched Earth
All regions in the path of the barbarian invasion are to be evacuated. Crops are to be burned, wells are to be poisoned. While this will undoubtedly cause some collateral damage (-1 Population), the invaders should be weakened to the point that they can be defeated in battle.
Revised Bureaucratic Standards
Too often our attempts at reform or disaster relief have been stymied by the unwieldy bureaucracy and incompetent or corrupt bureaucrats. Let us change the selection criteria for new bureaucrats, allowing in more qualified commoners and excluding the most incompetent nobles. A code of conduct will be enforced by a new agency (with hand-picked staff) in order to root out corruption, while those who perform well will receive rewards.
And those are all the rules. Yup, there's no victory condition. Definitely not. It's just a matter of forestalling the inevitable. There certainly aren't special reforms that will permanently stop a stat from decreasing randomly. And even if there were, it would be impossible to enact them all, since they'd each require at least three foundational reforms to be enacted first- and there's no way you people will manage to survive long enough to enact 20+ reforms.
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Topic: COLLAPSE: A structured suggestion game about forestalling the inevitable (Read 5008 times)