For all who are looking here- This game is set in a Medieval, and possibly fantasy setting.
Short version:
It started with Aqizzar's
Up with FeudalismAnd turned into
Feudalism Paint AdventureThe GM left for ages, it kinda went dead, etc. etc.
Anyway, it prompted me to use the same map, to make a completely different style of game.
There is no long version. The long version is to read both of the threads.
With the death and/or general disappearance of the king, the entire kingdom has basically gone from 'whodunnit', to 'whatcanwegetfromthis'. Clever Aklyon has thrown in a steward, thrown around a rumor that there's an heir, thrown the sword at some degenerate castles and lords, and thrown down an execution warrant for any ruler dumb enough to start a civil war until this all gets sorted out. A number of new lords rise (that's you, players)- some through suspicious circumstances, some through sad circumstances, some through batshit crazy circumstances, and all unexpectedly. But all four of these schemes will only keep the potential kings occupied for a certain amount of time. Everyone can see through the ruses, and are secretly making their own plans. And soon enough, it's going to be who can get the crown, by killing the competition.
It's war, peoples. Initially war with all of the offline people on the map, but eventually, war with everyone else, until someone is the king. Alliances and ceasefires are encouraged to make, but there can only be one king, and sooner or later someone will have to stab a back or two. This is feudalism, after all. Your individual city stats will show how quickly your purse will fatten, or your soldiers will gain numbers or experience, but most of that will happen due to your decisions. All players will start with a mediocre allowance, a reasonable size militia, and a reletavely sceptical level of support among your people- after all, you're new to lording. But- this is feudalism, so you can afford to let your support get really far down before there's even a worry with rebellion. And then you can just kill the serfs. Uh... I digress. After the initial rise to power, everything is down to your imagination. Whatever you want in an army can be yours, if you're willing to spend the time to get them.
Anyway- Have at.
Basically, it's a rule of, 'if you tilt the scales one way, I'll work to tip them back'. As in, if you have an incredibly happy- and huge population of incredibly rich militarily bred citizens, they'll all die of plague. If they also have great hygene, they'll die of AIDS. I'm not particular- No infinibullets.
On a side note, if you make the worst possible place imaginable, I might give you a cookie, but you aren't going to find a SMG from the future, so don't go making your castle too degenerate. Just make what you'd like in a people, and it'll all work out.
1. Are you already on the map?
If yes, go straight to 2.
If no: Draw your castle up good and detailed-like, and send it to me, then go to 3.
2. PM me:
I know a lot of people have already put magnamonious lists and detail and etc. in the other threads, and, I've taken a bit of notes from what you've said there. Mostly I want a PM just so I know you're active and able to play. If you're active and would rather have nothing to do with the game, I guess PM me, but don't put in details, and tell me you're out. Maybe tell me what you want done with your NPC castle. I'm not particular.
3. In any case.
I'll need a list of settlement details, at least. Possibly a back-story, though keep in mind some things. All of your military is a militia- for now. If you have a private military, contractors, or a knighthood, create the order/orginization/cult/group in your first turn, and it'll grow as you grow. The more you tell me about your place, the more little notes I can jot down, and the more goodies you'll probably get in return. Emphasis on what the general population is like, public mindset/wealth, etc. Trade, yes, and all that fun stuff. If you don't feel like putting a huge detailed list of your settlement in, then obviously you don't find that stuff enjoyable, and therefore you should make a simpler Feudalism game to play.
Ok, because there is an absolutely huge array of actions that can be performed, I'm going to make each turn a standard length. I don't know how long it'll be, I guess it's up to my discretion, but we'll call it one Turn, until I find out how long it probably should be. In any case- how I want turns set out, is for you to put in three sets of commands. You can't make any more than 5 commands in a turn, and you can't guess how long a command will take, other than how I'm going to tell you right now. In your top row is tiny commands. Things that would take Days, or less. They'll all go into your next turns as no-features at the beginning. Sending messages also is included in this- although you could just PM. The second line is things that would take weeks or months, and the way I'll set them out, is to review each individual turn, and put a (x turns left) after it. But that'll probably be a general guideline early on, because turn sizes are still loose. And the last line will be things that will take close to a year, over a year, or many years. My involvement will be to review, and put (x% completed) after it. Any large schemes that you want to put in place and cease later can also go here. All that will happen is if you're, say, training soldiers indefinately, I'll put (x% until next skill level) or something like that.
Once one of your larger commands are completed, I'll put in a paragraph telling you pretty much how it went and what you've got.
Ok, so you've recruited yourself a few henpeckers, given them a quick lesson in which is the pointy end of the stick, and sent them on their merry way. And they got fucking trumped by a single guy with a Scimitar, an eyepatch, and biceps like Thor himself. Here's why:
Every man in a unit has his own Combat Effectiveness, or sometimes referred to as Attack Value. This is the sum total of all of his armor, weapons, training experience, and combat experience. Be aware that nothing will change your combat effectiveness straight up- Equipping your soldiers with pointy sticks which do, let's say, double damage to walruses, won't make their weapon value double. That comes in later. Anyway, a short demonstration.
So we've got your piss-poor army.
Armor- Clothes. (0)
Weapons- Pointy sticks. (1)
Training- Rabble (1)
Combat experience - Fresh (1)
So they have a CE of 3.
Now take biceps-man.
Armor- Loincloth! (0)
Weapons - Scimitar (10)
Training - Unit (16)
Combat experience - Hero (20)
Who has a CE of 46.
So already you can see that this guy is going to be worth 15 of your soldiers - but that's not of consequence.
Next we add up troop amounts. There's only one biceps guy, so that's pretty easy, his ACE (Army Combat Effectiveness) stays at 46. However, you have... let's say... 20 troops, giving you an ACE of 60.
Next we throw in Multipliers, which are gotten by having happy little bonuses (or penalties) you may pick up along the way. This can happen due to new equipment, your soldiers learning something awesome, a certain weapon, being in terrain which suits your race, being in terrain that doesn't suit your race, being an ambushing party, etcetera, etcetera. These multipliers go on top of your ACE.
So- let's say Thorceps has a 1.25x multiplier against armies with less than Squad training, and 2x effectiveness against armies with less than Veteran combat experience. Then we say- his scimitar gives him 1.10x effectiveness against non-desertous armies, due to it's different attack style. Throw in a 0.75 due to his blind spot, and he comes out with a CE of 94(.875)
And let's say your recruits pointy sticks have a 0.50 effectiveness against both metal armor and metal weapons. The hercules is only wearing a loincloth, which makes things better, but it still cuts down your ACE to 30.
All I do now is some simple mathsuspokus.
94(.875)
- 30
= 64(.875).
With a bigger army, this would then have it's multipliers and CE divided back to reveal the amount of troops which survived. All decimal points indicate a wound on a person. Obviously wounds will be spread around a few people, with some rolls to show how many people to divide the wounds amongst depending on your armor level, skill, certain bonuses, etc. Nevertheless, having a person who is, say, 80% dead, will definately slow your army down while travelling, and won't be able to participate in battles until he's healed- unless you'd prefer to take more... *ahem*, callous measures.
So, seeing as it's just one hero, we'll still take the time to see how much there is left of him.
Blah Blah maths- and if I'm right, he's 0.595.
So he's more or less just under half dead.
... Anyway- That's more or less how combat works. The ranks of training and combat experience are stock standard, but you can equip your soldiers with whatever the hell you want. Give me your ideas, I'll give it an attack value and a bonus. If you don't like it, switch your weapons or armor. Keep in mind, though, that certain weapons and armor will give a penalty. Extra-shiny steel armor isn't going to help with ambushing, or fighting in water.
For any questions, quieries, or to show where I might have fucked up or how I can improve it, send me a PM.
Below your turns and such will be another screen, detailing the size, disposition, CE, and location of all of your armies. Obviously you can't have too many armies, but you've GOTTA have more than one, right? Anyway, if your army is currently on the move, there'll be a banner on the main map - IF, they're either in view of a castle, army or village, or if they're travelling through open fields. If you travel via the mountains or such in order to not be seen, the going will be slower, and there may be other consequences.
1. Your army will move a certain distance per turn. If you put 'send army to High Port', then depending on your army's discipline, and any bonuses or penalties, I'll mark them at a certain point next turn, and also put the (x turns left) after the command.
2. You can send an army straight from one place to another- They don't have to return to your castle immediately after every war, and they don't have to go anywhere, really. If you want them to camp in the gutted carcass of the castle they razed, then so be it.
3. An army travelling through extreme conditions- either desert, Uh, cold, or possibly jungle (even though there isn't any on the map) will, of course, have some soldiers die. It's an inevitable fact of life, and you'll just have to be happy knowing the price was worth it at the end. Each normal soldier will roll for a certain amount to decide whether they live, or die in the cold/heat. Successive turns spent moving in the area will, of course, increase that percentage. Having winter gear, or desert-wear will decrease that percentage.
Oh, and certain races are more succeptible. Your average human doesn't have a very high chance of dying on the first day tromping through the snow, but don't go sending norsemen to the desert. It's not going to be pretty.
4. Training armies will always be more effective at a fief. They'll also heal faster, too. They'll heal and train slightly faster from being in your territory, and, if under a certain combat experience, will heal and train far slower away from your territory, due to nervousness.
A bows-only army will, of course, fight in a slightly different manner to your standard fighters. For one instance, a few hundred bowmen could quite easily take out a squad of 10 soldiers without a single loss, if they weren't useless, or suicidal, homocidal, or anything else along those lines. Anyway:
The way that archer combat works is off a brand new thing called Accuracy. Of course, it isn't all off how well they can aim. For instance, shooting at enemies who; a) are wearing heavy armor and shields. b) Can pull off a ripping testudo formation, or c) Are jumpy enough to hear a bow twang from 400 meters off, and dodge, block, or otherwise Catch It.- Will decrease your accuracy. More mundane things like wearing encumbering armor while firing, firing a crappy bow, or firing from an extremely long, or extremely short distance will also hamper your accuracy. (short because generally that means they're charging at you).
Anyway, the way Accuracy works, is that each soldier will firing will take a roll of 100- Before combat begins. Basically, if you roll favourably, a single enemy dies - unless they're a hero. If you roll VERY favourably, your soldier will get another shot. If you roll unfavourably, your soldier will miss, if you roll Very unfavourably, your arrow will go sideways, or backwards, with disastorous results. Because everyone has 'one of those days'. In any case. Having an Accuracy score above a certain point will increase your chances of a favourable shot. Accuracy Under a certain point will increase your chances of a non-favourable shot.
After this calculation, the actual battle will begin, and their soldiers can begin to haphazardly slaughter your archers.
Some other things to note:
When ambushing, Archers will NOT gain an increase to their ACE multiplier once in battle, but instead will gain a bonus to Accuracy.
Equipping large weapons will decrease your archer's accuracy. Likewise, equipping bows on your melee-soldiers will decrease their combat effectiveness. Just be warned that if you choose to make a unit proficient in both, they won't stack up to a unit of the same skill which specialises in one or the other.
Keep in mind that for other special units- Wizards, Cavalry, Balrogs, Bronze Collosus, ninjas, zombies- whatever you decide to use, will have their own combat mechanics agreed on by the GM.
Additional rules will come when needed.
Also, could anyone playing please send me an MSPaint banner, Sigil, Flag or otherwise that symbolises their fief/people. This will basically be used to show your armies on the map, as well as be something to know your fief by.