The Old gods have vanished, how and why no one can truly say, perhaps a ragnarok came from them but left the mortals behind or perhaps they simply left this world for another. All that is known for certain is that they left the mortal nations untouched in their departure, who continued on in their absence. Whatever turmoil the departure of the gods caused they weathered it, out of necessity if nothing else, and continued in their affairs. However in the wake of the Old god?s disappearance New gods are now arising, young and inexperienced but powerful and possessing great potential. Whether they realize it or not their arrival heralds a New Age for gods and mortals alike, an Age of Myth.
Hello fellow escapists, this is a rather ambitious RP idea I had a little while ago the basic premise of which being a combination of a Godgame RP and a Nation RP where some of the players play Nations whereas others play gods. The gods will need to convince the nations to worship them to grow in strength as the game progresses, and the nations in turn have their own concerns, ways to develop and expand many of which the gods could greatly aid or hinder. This will be a player driven RP and story, I will act as GM mainly to keep order and ensure the rules are followed/working but other than that I will have minimal influence on what happens, at most I might throw in a natural disaster or something similar to shake things up once in a while though even that is fairly unlikely.
Rules for Deities (Big thanks to Terratina for helping me work these out)
Rules for Nations (thanks to Emperor Zuma for helping me work these out)
Each player can be have a god or a nation but not both (if you want to submit a sheet for both that?s fine, but you?ll only be allowed to have one or the other in the game). Players will be accepted when their sheet has been approved by me, and nation players in particular are encouraged to put together shared backstory with other players once they have been accepted.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to let me know. The rules for nations in particular are still untested so if you see any problems with them, or ways to improve them, feel free to point them out.
Also if anyone wants to offer to be co-GM that would be appreciated, you wouldn't be required to do anything unless for some reason I can't post for a week or something like that. In addition if anyone wants to volunteer to draw a map of the world once the nations are all accepted I would appreciate that as well, if not then I'll draw one myself.
Hello fellow escapists, this is a rather ambitious RP idea I had a little while ago the basic premise of which being a combination of a Godgame RP and a Nation RP where some of the players play Nations whereas others play gods. The gods will need to convince the nations to worship them to grow in strength as the game progresses, and the nations in turn have their own concerns, ways to develop and expand many of which the gods could greatly aid or hinder. This will be a player driven RP and story, I will act as GM mainly to keep order and ensure the rules are followed/working but other than that I will have minimal influence on what happens, at most I might throw in a natural disaster or something similar to shake things up once in a while though even that is fairly unlikely.
-No godmodding, controlling other peoples characters, and so on. Be respectful of other players, it?s just a game so try not get angry or frustrated at other players when/if things don?t go your way.
-Posts should be of decent length, this shouldn?t be hard seeing as you will have either an entire nation to post for, or a deity.
-Consistent posting, I expect people to post at least once a week, if you don?t post for a week an event will happen to explain your nation/god?s inactivity and if you go another week without posting then you will be removed from the game. If you have a nation something will happen to destroy it, and if you have a god then they will fade away. If you know you aren?t going to be able to post for some reason then let me know and you won?t have to worry about such things befalling you.
-Please try your best to keep player and character knowledge separate, this will likely be especially difficult for nation players as they will have a lot of characters but just do your best.
-Posts should be of decent length, this shouldn?t be hard seeing as you will have either an entire nation to post for, or a deity.
-Consistent posting, I expect people to post at least once a week, if you don?t post for a week an event will happen to explain your nation/god?s inactivity and if you go another week without posting then you will be removed from the game. If you have a nation something will happen to destroy it, and if you have a god then they will fade away. If you know you aren?t going to be able to post for some reason then let me know and you won?t have to worry about such things befalling you.
-Please try your best to keep player and character knowledge separate, this will likely be especially difficult for nation players as they will have a lot of characters but just do your best.
Rules for Deities (Big thanks to Terratina for helping me work these out)
Overview
The system gods will use for character generation and resolution is Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ).
Standardized Divine Qualities
One of the biggest problems about a game of this type is that people will often place their qualities into categories and then proceed to completely disregard them. There are also catch-all qualities that, when looked at by some players, would suggest that they pretty much may as well be used damn the consequences.
A Dominion(s) or Domain(s) [+X] - This is what composes your deity. This is their primary reason for being in existence, and is a broad category type of quality.
Domains / Dominions
This is your deity's realm of expertise. While all gods can use their relevant domains to modify this thing we call existence, they will find it more difficult to try and use their domain in a way which it wasn't intended. (Indeed they may find that their efforts may backfire completely.) The following is a listing of a few domain categories and domains. This by all means is not an all-inclusive list! Some domains may even overlap such as the domain of "nature" and someone with a domain of "natural magic". Feel free to mix and match or come up with concepts of your own.
The system gods will use for character generation and resolution is Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ).
Standardized Divine Qualities
One of the biggest problems about a game of this type is that people will often place their qualities into categories and then proceed to completely disregard them. There are also catch-all qualities that, when looked at by some players, would suggest that they pretty much may as well be used damn the consequences.
A Dominion(s) or Domain(s) [+X] - This is what composes your deity. This is their primary reason for being in existence, and is a broad category type of quality.
Domains / Dominions
This is your deity's realm of expertise. While all gods can use their relevant domains to modify this thing we call existence, they will find it more difficult to try and use their domain in a way which it wasn't intended. (Indeed they may find that their efforts may backfire completely.) The following is a listing of a few domain categories and domains. This by all means is not an all-inclusive list! Some domains may even overlap such as the domain of "nature" and someone with a domain of "natural magic". Feel free to mix and match or come up with concepts of your own.
FUNDAMENTAL FORCE: Life, Death, Creation, Destruction, Protection, Good, Evil, Light, Darkness, Order, Chaos, Law, Anarchy, Decay, Change
NATURE: Natural Phenomenon (Storms, Lightning, Volcanoes), Elemental (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, etc.), Natural (i.e. Forests, Deserts, Mountain God, Oceans), Cosmic/Celestial (Sun, moon, stars), Disease, Toxicity, Pollution, Evolution,
Generic: All of Nature
MAGIC: Shamanistic, Nature, Blood, Ritualistic, Runic, Lore, Hexes, Curses, Arcane
EMOTIONAL CONSTANT: Love, Hate, Strength, Compassion/Mercy, Justice, Vengeance, Sorrow, Joy, Pride, Corruption, Redemption
CIVILIZATION: War, Diplomacy, Architecture, Artistry/Arts/Inspiration, Education/Learning, Kings, Royalty, Government, invention
SPIRITUAL and MENTAL: Oracle, Wisdom, Knowledge, Secrets, Dreams, Insanity, Madness, Deception, Revelation
FUNCTION: Murder/Assassination, Hunters/Stalking, Trickery/Con-artistry, Thieves, Blacksmithing, Craftwork, Merchants, Strife, Corruption, Redemption, Chance, Luck
More examples:
A good domain description:
Death: There is an end to all that is living and it is the god of death, this domain ensures the natural end to all things.
A bad domain description:
"The Cat Drops the Kettle in Hay": Being of the only living cats and last of the nine lives gives catgod the power over "The Cat Drops the Kettle in Hay" and "feet paws at the head of a sick man" (GM thoughts: wtf, is this death?)
NATURE: Natural Phenomenon (Storms, Lightning, Volcanoes), Elemental (Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, etc.), Natural (i.e. Forests, Deserts, Mountain God, Oceans), Cosmic/Celestial (Sun, moon, stars), Disease, Toxicity, Pollution, Evolution,
Generic: All of Nature
MAGIC: Shamanistic, Nature, Blood, Ritualistic, Runic, Lore, Hexes, Curses, Arcane
EMOTIONAL CONSTANT: Love, Hate, Strength, Compassion/Mercy, Justice, Vengeance, Sorrow, Joy, Pride, Corruption, Redemption
CIVILIZATION: War, Diplomacy, Architecture, Artistry/Arts/Inspiration, Education/Learning, Kings, Royalty, Government, invention
SPIRITUAL and MENTAL: Oracle, Wisdom, Knowledge, Secrets, Dreams, Insanity, Madness, Deception, Revelation
FUNCTION: Murder/Assassination, Hunters/Stalking, Trickery/Con-artistry, Thieves, Blacksmithing, Craftwork, Merchants, Strife, Corruption, Redemption, Chance, Luck
More examples:
A good domain description:
Death: There is an end to all that is living and it is the god of death, this domain ensures the natural end to all things.
A bad domain description:
"The Cat Drops the Kettle in Hay": Being of the only living cats and last of the nine lives gives catgod the power over "The Cat Drops the Kettle in Hay" and "feet paws at the head of a sick man" (GM thoughts: wtf, is this death?)
This list comes to me from previous godgames, and contains various things that would simply be more trouble than they?re worth in a game.
Time - Too hard to keep up with and do well both for the GM and the Player. Also, it wouldn't do justice to the game or the player.
Inanimate Object-Style Domains - "I am a swordgod of godswords." - No one wants to worship a pet rock and it is just about as interesting.
Being Multiple Beings or Constant Shifting - "I am a sentient dining room set, I am through states of being twins, I am a series or group of things. I am a baby then a man and then an old man." - It gets confusing! Stop it!
Opposites, Balance, Equilibrium - They're never done well and the players who pick these NEVER accomplish anything other than being annoying to the other players.
Plain Mindless or Mindless Destroyers - Gods without minds are like the pet rock example above. Mindless destroyers or destroyer gods more often or not simply destroy have no character. If you do submit a destroyer god MAKE IT GOOD!
Atheism - Really? In a GODgame?
Pacifism - Just more trouble than it's worth.
If you have an idea that you?re worried falls too close to these feel free to voice your concerns either in a PM or in the forum and I?ll let you know if I?ll allow it or not.
Time - Too hard to keep up with and do well both for the GM and the Player. Also, it wouldn't do justice to the game or the player.
Inanimate Object-Style Domains - "I am a swordgod of godswords." - No one wants to worship a pet rock and it is just about as interesting.
Being Multiple Beings or Constant Shifting - "I am a sentient dining room set, I am through states of being twins, I am a series or group of things. I am a baby then a man and then an old man." - It gets confusing! Stop it!
Opposites, Balance, Equilibrium - They're never done well and the players who pick these NEVER accomplish anything other than being annoying to the other players.
Plain Mindless or Mindless Destroyers - Gods without minds are like the pet rock example above. Mindless destroyers or destroyer gods more often or not simply destroy have no character. If you do submit a destroyer god MAKE IT GOOD!
Atheism - Really? In a GODgame?
Pacifism - Just more trouble than it's worth.
If you have an idea that you?re worried falls too close to these feel free to voice your concerns either in a PM or in the forum and I?ll let you know if I?ll allow it or not.
Name: Your god's name and title(s).
Picture: Worth a thousand words.
Bio: How did your god emerge into the world? Try to give a sense of who they are as a character as well.
Domain: +2 [Whatever] then a brief description of it. How would you use this domain to perform an action? To attack another ranked PC/NPC? To defend against another ranked PC/NPC. Keep in mind that the domain bonus will not apply to actions not related to it. You will be able to acquire new domains, or strengthen an existing domain as you gain worshippers.
Drawback: -2 [Whatever] Be careful of your wording.
Core Value: Optional. The most important thing to your god. It can relate to your domain or your drawback, though it does not have to. This is mostly there to help with character generation and direction.
What you want out of the game: Basically your intended playstyle and what you expect/want out of the game.
Picture: Worth a thousand words.
Bio: How did your god emerge into the world? Try to give a sense of who they are as a character as well.
Domain: +2 [Whatever] then a brief description of it. How would you use this domain to perform an action? To attack another ranked PC/NPC? To defend against another ranked PC/NPC. Keep in mind that the domain bonus will not apply to actions not related to it. You will be able to acquire new domains, or strengthen an existing domain as you gain worshippers.
Drawback: -2 [Whatever] Be careful of your wording.
Core Value: Optional. The most important thing to your god. It can relate to your domain or your drawback, though it does not have to. This is mostly there to help with character generation and direction.
What you want out of the game: Basically your intended playstyle and what you expect/want out of the game.
On gaining certain levels of worship a god will advance in power, gaining either a new +2 domain or improving an existing domain?s modifier by +2. A god can reach up to +10 in total bonuses overall, but if they lose enough worshippers then they will lose the power gained from them. The threshold for how much worship is needed to advance in power will be set after all sheets have been accepted.
Gods are allowed one major action each round, with a round ending either when all players have taken their action(s) or when a week has passed since the start of the round. A round begins with a GM post giving the results of actions taken.
Effortless: no roll, not counted as actions
-Conjure up a small quantity of anything
-Talk to someone
-Take on a physical avatar, gods may only have one avatar at a time
-Listen to mortal prayers
Difficulty: 5 Cost: 1AP
-Place or remove a blessing/curse on a single mortal for the term of his/her life.
-Creating a -2 or worse magic item.
-Identify a magic item in your possession.
-Scry an area the size of a large room.
Difficulty: 7 Cost: 2AP
- Place or remove a blessing/curse on a small group of mortals (less than 50) for their entire lives.
-Creating or altering a one-off living creature smaller than an elephant.
-Changing the weather temporarily (eg make it rain, cause a hurricane, etc).
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer minor benefits
-Find a mortal who is capable of hiding from you.
-Break a weak enchantment.
-Scry an area the size of a village or neighborhood.
Difficulty: 9 Cost: 3AP
- Place or remove a blessing/curse on a large group of humans (several hundred) with permanent, ongoing effects.
-Creating or altering a one-off living creature bigger than a blue whale.
-Creating or altering a non-sentient species smaller than an elephant.
-Constructing a large building by divine hand.
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer moderate benefits
-Introduce a major change to the world's structure or its atmosphere without thought of the consequences (eg adding a new island or lowering sea levels, etc.)
-Break a moderate enchantment.
-Raise a small number of dead mortals (less than 50)
-Create a weak permanent enchantment (difficulty 7, immediate area of effect)
-Scry an area the size of a town or small city
Difficulty: 11 Cost: 4AP
-Creating or altering a sentient species roughly comparable to a human.
-Creating or altering a non-sentient species larger than an elephant.
-Causing major changes to the topography of a land.
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer significant benefits
-Grant transmittable immortality of a sort to a small group of humans (eg vampires; immortality with a major instant-kill weakness, basically)
-Grant genuine immortality and invulnerability to a single human. They will gain the quality Immortal +0 as long as their god still lives. This does not include superpowers (eg the ability to break out of a prison cell).
-Find a powerful entity which is capable of hiding from you.
-Create a moderate permanent enchantment (difficulty 9, immediate area of effect)
-Scry an area the side of a Large City or a town and surrounding countryside.
Difficulty: 13 Cost: 5AP
-Summon a volcano, rain of fire or other devastating land-focused event.
-Create a +0 magic item.
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer enormous benefits
-Break a strong enchantment.
-Scry an area of several cities/towns.
Note: all gods are aware of DC 15 and above actions
Difficulty: 15 Cost: 6AP
-Create a new rule, or disable one of the existing rules of the universe in a small area (eg gravity, existence of magic etc)
-Introduce a major change to the world's structure or its atmosphere without causing any lasting damage to the world (for example adding a new island)
-Scry a nation in its entirety.
-Create a +1 magic item
Difficulty: 17 Cost: 7AP
-Create a +2 magic item
-Create or alter a sentient species vastly superior to a human (GM and player to agree on any bonus/es, eg immunity to disease, invulnerable to certain types of weapons etc)
-Break an incredibly powerful enchantment.
-Create a strong enchantment (difficulty 13, immediate area of effect)
Difficulty: 19 Cost: 8AP
-Create an incredibly powerful enchantment (difficultly 17, immediate area of effect)
-Scry the entire realm
AP (Action Points)
Every god will start with 15 AP, and their AP will restore at the beginning of each new season, though this amount isn?t set in stone and may be adjusted to balance things as the RP goes on.
Effortless: no roll, not counted as actions
-Conjure up a small quantity of anything
-Talk to someone
-Take on a physical avatar, gods may only have one avatar at a time
-Listen to mortal prayers
Difficulty: 5 Cost: 1AP
-Place or remove a blessing/curse on a single mortal for the term of his/her life.
-Creating a -2 or worse magic item.
-Identify a magic item in your possession.
-Scry an area the size of a large room.
Difficulty: 7 Cost: 2AP
- Place or remove a blessing/curse on a small group of mortals (less than 50) for their entire lives.
-Creating or altering a one-off living creature smaller than an elephant.
-Changing the weather temporarily (eg make it rain, cause a hurricane, etc).
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer minor benefits
-Find a mortal who is capable of hiding from you.
-Break a weak enchantment.
-Scry an area the size of a village or neighborhood.
Difficulty: 9 Cost: 3AP
- Place or remove a blessing/curse on a large group of humans (several hundred) with permanent, ongoing effects.
-Creating or altering a one-off living creature bigger than a blue whale.
-Creating or altering a non-sentient species smaller than an elephant.
-Constructing a large building by divine hand.
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer moderate benefits
-Introduce a major change to the world's structure or its atmosphere without thought of the consequences (eg adding a new island or lowering sea levels, etc.)
-Break a moderate enchantment.
-Raise a small number of dead mortals (less than 50)
-Create a weak permanent enchantment (difficulty 7, immediate area of effect)
-Scry an area the size of a town or small city
Difficulty: 11 Cost: 4AP
-Creating or altering a sentient species roughly comparable to a human.
-Creating or altering a non-sentient species larger than an elephant.
-Causing major changes to the topography of a land.
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer significant benefits
-Grant transmittable immortality of a sort to a small group of humans (eg vampires; immortality with a major instant-kill weakness, basically)
-Grant genuine immortality and invulnerability to a single human. They will gain the quality Immortal +0 as long as their god still lives. This does not include superpowers (eg the ability to break out of a prison cell).
-Find a powerful entity which is capable of hiding from you.
-Create a moderate permanent enchantment (difficulty 9, immediate area of effect)
-Scry an area the side of a Large City or a town and surrounding countryside.
Difficulty: 13 Cost: 5AP
-Summon a volcano, rain of fire or other devastating land-focused event.
-Create a +0 magic item.
-Teach a technology or system of thought to mortals that will offer enormous benefits
-Break a strong enchantment.
-Scry an area of several cities/towns.
Note: all gods are aware of DC 15 and above actions
Difficulty: 15 Cost: 6AP
-Create a new rule, or disable one of the existing rules of the universe in a small area (eg gravity, existence of magic etc)
-Introduce a major change to the world's structure or its atmosphere without causing any lasting damage to the world (for example adding a new island)
-Scry a nation in its entirety.
-Create a +1 magic item
Difficulty: 17 Cost: 7AP
-Create a +2 magic item
-Create or alter a sentient species vastly superior to a human (GM and player to agree on any bonus/es, eg immunity to disease, invulnerable to certain types of weapons etc)
-Break an incredibly powerful enchantment.
-Create a strong enchantment (difficulty 13, immediate area of effect)
Difficulty: 19 Cost: 8AP
-Create an incredibly powerful enchantment (difficultly 17, immediate area of effect)
-Scry the entire realm
AP (Action Points)
Every god will start with 15 AP, and their AP will restore at the beginning of each new season, though this amount isn?t set in stone and may be adjusted to balance things as the RP goes on.
Avatar: The physical form you manifest as. You may only take actions when in avatar form.
Bless- A lasting positive action performed on a mortal or group of mortals.
Create Race(non sentient)- Whether it be large medium or small, please be pretty clear about it's form and habits. Carnivorous rabbits or beetles the size of a T-Rex for example.
Create Race(Sentient)- A mortal race roughly equivalent to humans in intelligence and ability. It should be noted that a created species cannot provide worship.
Curse- A lasting negative action performed on a mortal or group of mortals.
Enchant: A sustained magical effect over an area. Break DC will always be 2 less than the DC used to create it. Can just be present or have a focal point like a physical object.
Forge Magic Item(Ranked 1-2): Through increasingly considerable costs and effort you forge a magic item capable of wielding a fraction of the power of the gods. Please think carefully about these. -2 to +0 magic items are magic items (along the lines of something you might see in D&D) that have useful power for mortals but not for gods.
Scry- To use divine senses and powers to search over an area.
Note: Please ask 1-4 clear, concise questions you hope to have answered by the scry.
Bless- A lasting positive action performed on a mortal or group of mortals.
Create Race(non sentient)- Whether it be large medium or small, please be pretty clear about it's form and habits. Carnivorous rabbits or beetles the size of a T-Rex for example.
Create Race(Sentient)- A mortal race roughly equivalent to humans in intelligence and ability. It should be noted that a created species cannot provide worship.
Curse- A lasting negative action performed on a mortal or group of mortals.
Enchant: A sustained magical effect over an area. Break DC will always be 2 less than the DC used to create it. Can just be present or have a focal point like a physical object.
Forge Magic Item(Ranked 1-2): Through increasingly considerable costs and effort you forge a magic item capable of wielding a fraction of the power of the gods. Please think carefully about these. -2 to +0 magic items are magic items (along the lines of something you might see in D&D) that have useful power for mortals but not for gods.
Scry- To use divine senses and powers to search over an area.
Note: Please ask 1-4 clear, concise questions you hope to have answered by the scry.
Should two gods wish to fight each other directly they will make opposing rolls and use the following rules to determine what happens to the loser. As with all conflict if the players involved want they can forgo rolling and simply discuss what would happen and agree on an outcome.
-As normal, the difference of the attack roll minus the defense roll equals the number of ranks lost.
-However, you cannot be destroyed outright by the outcome of a single skirmish. Instead, should a PC be dropped to 0 ranks they will lose all of the AP in their pool(basically out of play until the next age), the winner can choose to confer an additional drawback(to be discussed with opposing party and GM. Example: in D&D histories Corellon wounding Gruumsh's eye) if they wish.
-Attack/Defense for both sides will be resolved at the same time, so nobody has to jockey for attacking first.
Imprisonment: Should a god run afoul of many others, if the opposition should so choose they can imprison the target in a demiplane(DC19 action, the likely overwhelmed defender gets a free opposing roll or normal cost final action). This effectively ends a character's run and is kind of a big deal.
-As normal, the difference of the attack roll minus the defense roll equals the number of ranks lost.
-However, you cannot be destroyed outright by the outcome of a single skirmish. Instead, should a PC be dropped to 0 ranks they will lose all of the AP in their pool(basically out of play until the next age), the winner can choose to confer an additional drawback(to be discussed with opposing party and GM. Example: in D&D histories Corellon wounding Gruumsh's eye) if they wish.
-Attack/Defense for both sides will be resolved at the same time, so nobody has to jockey for attacking first.
Imprisonment: Should a god run afoul of many others, if the opposition should so choose they can imprison the target in a demiplane(DC19 action, the likely overwhelmed defender gets a free opposing roll or normal cost final action). This effectively ends a character's run and is kind of a big deal.
Rules for Nations (thanks to Emperor Zuma for helping me work these out)
Nation Name:
Capitol Name:
Territory description: (What the geography looks like, desert, plains, forest, ocean etc.)
Nation Perks: (Up to 2 perks)
Nation Flaws: (Must have the same number of these as perks)
Short History:
___________________________________________________________________________
Race Name: (This is optional, should you choose to have your nation be composed of a nonhuman race)
Race Description: (Include as much detail as possible on the race in your nation. Appearance,
biology, society, etc)
Race perks/flaws: (up to 2 positive perks, must have equivalent number of negative flaws. Remember humans are considered the baseline when creating a new race. These are mostly for the purposes of fluff, and more distinctly indicating how your race differs from humans, but its possible they might come up in a more substantial way as well.)
___________________________________________________________________________
Social Values (Social engineering of your kingdom. Go into detail about it.)
Government: (What type of government do you have?)
Economy: (What kind of economy do you have? Free market? Planned? Green?)
Religion: (What religious beliefs did your nation hold before the old gods vanished, and what do they hold now?)
Military: (What is the predominant method of military thinking of your nation?)
Ideology: (What are the significant cultural values of your nation? Wealth? Power? Asceticism?
Honor? Feel free to mention competing ideologies within your nation as well, if they exist)
___________________________________________________________________________
Major Characters: (For leaders, heroes or other viewpoint characters you might use. You can make new viewpoint characters as the game progresses, but you should have a few to start with)
Name:
Race:
Personality:
Short History:
Capitol Name:
Territory description: (What the geography looks like, desert, plains, forest, ocean etc.)
Nation Perks: (Up to 2 perks)
Nation Flaws: (Must have the same number of these as perks)
Short History:
___________________________________________________________________________
Race Name: (This is optional, should you choose to have your nation be composed of a nonhuman race)
Race Description: (Include as much detail as possible on the race in your nation. Appearance,
biology, society, etc)
Race perks/flaws: (up to 2 positive perks, must have equivalent number of negative flaws. Remember humans are considered the baseline when creating a new race. These are mostly for the purposes of fluff, and more distinctly indicating how your race differs from humans, but its possible they might come up in a more substantial way as well.)
___________________________________________________________________________
Social Values (Social engineering of your kingdom. Go into detail about it.)
Government: (What type of government do you have?)
Economy: (What kind of economy do you have? Free market? Planned? Green?)
Religion: (What religious beliefs did your nation hold before the old gods vanished, and what do they hold now?)
Military: (What is the predominant method of military thinking of your nation?)
Ideology: (What are the significant cultural values of your nation? Wealth? Power? Asceticism?
Honor? Feel free to mention competing ideologies within your nation as well, if they exist)
___________________________________________________________________________
Major Characters: (For leaders, heroes or other viewpoint characters you might use. You can make new viewpoint characters as the game progresses, but you should have a few to start with)
Name:
Race:
Personality:
Short History:
Each round each nation can take three actions. A round ends when either every player has taken their actions or after a week has passed since the round started. A round begins with a GM post giving the results of actions taken.
Espionage
-Counter-espionage, uncover a foreign agent
-infiltrate another nation; put an agent into place (needed to perform the espionage actions below)
-Spy on another nation, learn or steal their secrets
-Sabotage their progress in another area
-Attempt an assassination
Military
-Launch an attack
-Lay siege to a city, or attempt to break a siege
-Reinforce or garrison a location (may cost wealth depending on how you're fortifying the location)
-scout an area (to gain an advantage on an attack, or to make it safer to settle)
Diplomacy
-Hire mercenaries (would cost wealth, and would help with military actions for a time)
-Send a diplomat (yes your diplomat could also be a spy, though you still need to spend an action for infiltrating as well as sending the diplomat)
-Trade with another nation (at least one side needs to have a diplomat in place for this or the lower action to take place)
-Form a formal treaty (could be anything from a long standing trade agreement to an alliance. You can have an alliance without this, this just serves to make it official.)
Development (some technologies will cost wealth to implement once they have been successfully researched)
-Research a new technology (you have to declare specifically what is being researched)
-Improve an existing technology (you have to declare specifically what is being researched)
-Establish a settlement/colony (this would require enough spare people to form the settlement, as well as cost wealth and food)
Culture (culture actions are free and do not cost an action, many of them are fluff actions you could use to show the flavor of your nation, with the exception of worshiping a god which is rather significant)
-Encourage or discourage the worship of a god
-Celebrate a holiday or festival
-Commission a work of culture (art, food, music, etc)
-Record something (a myth, history, etc)
Espionage
-Counter-espionage, uncover a foreign agent
-infiltrate another nation; put an agent into place (needed to perform the espionage actions below)
-Spy on another nation, learn or steal their secrets
-Sabotage their progress in another area
-Attempt an assassination
Military
-Launch an attack
-Lay siege to a city, or attempt to break a siege
-Reinforce or garrison a location (may cost wealth depending on how you're fortifying the location)
-scout an area (to gain an advantage on an attack, or to make it safer to settle)
Diplomacy
-Hire mercenaries (would cost wealth, and would help with military actions for a time)
-Send a diplomat (yes your diplomat could also be a spy, though you still need to spend an action for infiltrating as well as sending the diplomat)
-Trade with another nation (at least one side needs to have a diplomat in place for this or the lower action to take place)
-Form a formal treaty (could be anything from a long standing trade agreement to an alliance. You can have an alliance without this, this just serves to make it official.)
Development (some technologies will cost wealth to implement once they have been successfully researched)
-Research a new technology (you have to declare specifically what is being researched)
-Improve an existing technology (you have to declare specifically what is being researched)
-Establish a settlement/colony (this would require enough spare people to form the settlement, as well as cost wealth and food)
Culture (culture actions are free and do not cost an action, many of them are fluff actions you could use to show the flavor of your nation, with the exception of worshiping a god which is rather significant)
-Encourage or discourage the worship of a god
-Celebrate a holiday or festival
-Commission a work of culture (art, food, music, etc)
-Record something (a myth, history, etc)
There are four main resources nation players have to handle, each is very abstracted too keep the system simple and easy to manage. All these resources can be traded in different ways, and such trades are a diplomatic action players can agree on. The levels of starting resources will be assigned at the start of the game, and can be affected by your nations perks/flaws, though keep in mind the nations will start relatively small to begin with so they have plenty of room to grow over the course of the game.
Population: This represents how many people are in your nation, though the exact number will never be stated (a pop of 10 might mean around 10,000 people for instance but it?s not an exact count). Population determines how much worship your nation can offer, and affects other resources in different ways. It increases at the start of each spring by 20% (this percent can be increased by different things) provided you have enough food to allow expansion.
Wealth: This resource indicates not just the amount of money a nation has at its disposal but general resources. Wealth is needed to perform a variety of actions, and you gain more wealth from territory.
Food: This resource represents food production and the ability to feed your people, not simply a giant pile of food your nation holds. If your food is equal to your population come spring then your population expands, if it is less then your population does not expand and some of your people are going hungry which if not addressed may begin to lower your population and makes some actions more difficult in the meantime. If your food is greater than your population then your population will grow faster. Each spring your stock of food is set to a number determined by your territory. Finally food is required for certain actions.
Territory: This represents the area you control, as well as the value of that area (so a large area of desert might equate to a smaller area of more hospitable land), and is increased primarily through gaining settlements either through making them or through conquering an existing one. Territory controlled determines how much wealth you gain, and what your food sets itself to each spring. The maximum amount of territory you can control will be determined by your population.
Population: This represents how many people are in your nation, though the exact number will never be stated (a pop of 10 might mean around 10,000 people for instance but it?s not an exact count). Population determines how much worship your nation can offer, and affects other resources in different ways. It increases at the start of each spring by 20% (this percent can be increased by different things) provided you have enough food to allow expansion.
Wealth: This resource indicates not just the amount of money a nation has at its disposal but general resources. Wealth is needed to perform a variety of actions, and you gain more wealth from territory.
Food: This resource represents food production and the ability to feed your people, not simply a giant pile of food your nation holds. If your food is equal to your population come spring then your population expands, if it is less then your population does not expand and some of your people are going hungry which if not addressed may begin to lower your population and makes some actions more difficult in the meantime. If your food is greater than your population then your population will grow faster. Each spring your stock of food is set to a number determined by your territory. Finally food is required for certain actions.
Territory: This represents the area you control, as well as the value of that area (so a large area of desert might equate to a smaller area of more hospitable land), and is increased primarily through gaining settlements either through making them or through conquering an existing one. Territory controlled determines how much wealth you gain, and what your food sets itself to each spring. The maximum amount of territory you can control will be determined by your population.
When an action is taken that requires a roll the player taking it will roll a number of D6s, the default being 2d6. Any roll that is a 5 or 6 is counted as a success, though some actions may take multiple successes to succeed. Anything that makes the action easier, be it improved technology, a nation perk, an god action assisting, and so on can add extra dice to roll. Things that make an action more difficult would either add another success to the number needed, or reduce the number of die allowed (in the case of opposing rolls). In instances where players are rolling against each other the one with the most successes wins, the number of successes they have over the other player determining how much they succeed by. In the event of any opposed action the players can instead discuss and write out what happens without rolling if they want, though both have to agree to how it works out in such a case.
Warfare- Warfare is a particular example of opposing rolls, smaller battles like skirmishes will be a case of a single roll, but larger affairs may take multiple actions/rounds to be concluded. It should be noted that if a player attacks with their army the defending player does not need to spend an action to defend. While in general warfare will be handled somewhat on a case by case basis it should be noted that resources of all types can be gained through combat, in particular capturing a city will gain some of every resource (though if your nation decides not to take slaves they won't gain any population from it).
Technology- Developing/improving technology is a special case, as some developments might take multiple rolls to finish, but previous successes are counted towards the number needed. Advancing technology is one way to gain additional dice, but in the case of opposed rolls if both sides have equivalent tech neither gets an extra die for it.
Warfare- Warfare is a particular example of opposing rolls, smaller battles like skirmishes will be a case of a single roll, but larger affairs may take multiple actions/rounds to be concluded. It should be noted that if a player attacks with their army the defending player does not need to spend an action to defend. While in general warfare will be handled somewhat on a case by case basis it should be noted that resources of all types can be gained through combat, in particular capturing a city will gain some of every resource (though if your nation decides not to take slaves they won't gain any population from it).
Technology- Developing/improving technology is a special case, as some developments might take multiple rolls to finish, but previous successes are counted towards the number needed. Advancing technology is one way to gain additional dice, but in the case of opposed rolls if both sides have equivalent tech neither gets an extra die for it.
Magic: Magic is the province of the gods alone, and as such there are no mages and while a race may have a magical aspect to them it can?t be very strong. Of course it is entirely possible that by the actions of one of the new gods a race might gain some magical power, the specifics of which would be determined by the action taken to grant them such. The magical workings of the old gods have all but faded, so any workings of theirs upon a race or location would be either gone or left extremely weak.
Technology: The starting level of technology is roughly that of the Ancient Greeks. Bronze is the metal of the day, medicine is not very advanced, ships, horses and roads all exist to facilitate transportation, and so on. If you need more information about a specific technology feel free to ask.
Technology: The starting level of technology is roughly that of the Ancient Greeks. Bronze is the metal of the day, medicine is not very advanced, ships, horses and roads all exist to facilitate transportation, and so on. If you need more information about a specific technology feel free to ask.
Every four rounds the season will change, for the purposes of this summer and spring are lumped into one season, and winter and fall are lumped together into another. Winter makes certain actions more difficult, in particular military efforts. While spring on the other hand comes with population growth among other changes, every season change Gods get their AP restored and nations gain wealth.
The amount of population a nation has determines how much worship it can create for a god, or multiple gods. If a nation decides to worship more than one god then the worship is divided evenly among the gods they worship. In addition multiple nations can worship the same god, though such a thing could eventually create conflicts of interest. The thresholds of how much worship is required to advance in power will be set once all players have been accepted.
Each player can be have a god or a nation but not both (if you want to submit a sheet for both that?s fine, but you?ll only be allowed to have one or the other in the game). Players will be accepted when their sheet has been approved by me, and nation players in particular are encouraged to put together shared backstory with other players once they have been accepted.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to let me know. The rules for nations in particular are still untested so if you see any problems with them, or ways to improve them, feel free to point them out.
Also if anyone wants to offer to be co-GM that would be appreciated, you wouldn't be required to do anything unless for some reason I can't post for a week or something like that. In addition if anyone wants to volunteer to draw a map of the world once the nations are all accepted I would appreciate that as well, if not then I'll draw one myself.