EMPIRE! The History of Norbayne
Map of Norbayne
The Rules of Empire
Starting: Creating a RegionIn EMPIRE! you start play as the ruler of a country, the head of their family that rules one of the regions. You perform actions to improve your ruler and country and their position in the world through alliances, trade, finding your children suitable spouses, researching new technology and waging war. Once your ruler dies of old age, disease, accident or murder, their heir takes over, becoming your new ruling character controlling the nation.
Describing Your Country:
When a new player enters the game, they first must claim a region and describe it in fluff. If there currently aren’t any claimable regions, or there are people on the waiting list, prospective new players are put on the waiting list to await their turn. Some regions are of a special type, which you can find below under "regions and region types."
Population: A new region starts with a population of 5,000 + (10d10 x 100). Underground regions start with 2,500 + (8d10 x 100). Polar regions start with 1,500 + (3d10 x 100). If you take over an existing country from a retiring player, you don’t have to reroll Population. Population is increased by the GM every few rounds. War decreases the amount population is increased by, while having variety in food resources (in your region and imported) increases the amount.
Terrain: Describe the physical features of your selected region, including three major landmarks—no more, no less.
People: Describe what the people in the region generally look like. You are free to throw in little details about their culture as well. What race are they? What do they do in their daily lives? It might be a good idea to see what your neighbours’ people are like, because yours and theirs are likely similar in some ways, or at least have some interesting interaction possibilities.
Resources: Describe three major resources that can be found in the region, as well as at least one resource the people will have to import from outside out of necessity or desire (for religious rituals or cultural reasons). It can prove hard to get it at first, but most things that are hard to acquire are very much worth it. These three resources start at [Good] quality. The import necessity will not be automatically satisfied; you have to strike a deal with a player who has it as a resource to trade it with you.
You can trade resources with other players. If a resource is Good you can trade it resource with up to 3 other players and if the resource is Great you can trade it with up to 6 other players. Effectively, this means a Good resource has 4 ‘stacks’ of that resource, whereas a Great resource has 7 ‘stacks’ of that resource that can be used in that round. If you trade with other players, you effectively give them one stack of your resources every round in return for one stack of one of their resources (or in return for a service). One of these stacks always remains in the region it originates from. You cannot stockpile resources for later rounds.
Besides these things, regions also have a list of Technologies available in the region. The technology level at the start of the game is roughly analogous to early Medieval times, so things like plate armour, book-presses and complex siege weapons don't exist yet. Players can introduce new technologies through their actions (see below, under Curiosity).
Region Types:The standard type of region is a land region. Land regions can have a large variety of terrain types and resources. Regions have a default limit of 4 resources per region, 2 of which can be Great resources. However, this can be expanded by using magic, a Great Project using a technology that could help with the resource you want to add or upgrade, or GM-adjudicated event.
A player can have no more than 5 regions under their direct control. To have more regions fall under their realm, they will have to put other realms into vassalage, which requires having a Great Kingdom.
Besides this standard region type there are several others:
Underground Regions:
Underground regions are regions that occupy the same area as a land region, but are situated below them. They are noted in the tables by adding "below", "belowground", "underground" or simply a "B" behind the number. Not all land regions have an underground region below them. Check the atlas and region name table listing to see which regions have a known underground region below them. Some land regions may have an underground region below them without it being known yet. You can send explorers to check if there is one.
Underground regions count as adjacent to adjacent underground regions and the region they are situated below, but not as adjacent to their aboveground companion region's neighbours. Underground regions have no hard restrictions on resources as of yet, though it makes more sense for them to more often have mined resources.
Island Regions
Island regions are easy to recognize from the map, as they are a region completely surrounded by sea (or near-completely, in case of a peninsula/island region combo). Island regions can be attacked and defended by any unit type (land, naval, aerial).
Polar Regions
Polar regions are regions that are in the north. Polar regions have a hard cap on the amount of resources they can have. Namely, they can have no more than two resources native to the region and food resources cannot rise above Good quality.
Starting: Creating Your First RulerAll player characters have the following attributes: Diplomacy, Military, Curiosity, Magic and Luck. When a new player starts, they roll 1d4 for each attribute, and then place them where they want. They may add 1 point to two of their attributes beyond that.
If you roll more than one 1, you may reroll any 1s beyond the first once. If you have more than two 1s after the reroll, those 1s become 2s (you are still left with two 1s).
Changing Rulers
Changing rulers is a non-action. If your current character dies or abdicates the throne, their heir takes their place. Usually this is the oldest child, but other succession laws may be in place (oldest son or oldest daughter, for instance). Roll 1d4 for their attributes, in order. They get a +1 in any attributes that their parent had a 4 or higher in; and a +2 in any attributes their parent had an 8 or higher in. Children who are adopted also receive these bonuses (children are always adopted at a young age and thus their new parent has a profound effect on their education).
If the new ruler is not a child of a previous ruler, they only get a +1 to two attribute scores (chosen freely), but may arrange the rolled scores freely, as with the first ruler of a new player. Regents who rule while the heir waits to come of age fall under this category as well. Regents cannot perform Special Actions. Regents can become legitimate rulers through a coup d'état and ridding themselves of the heir who would otherwise become the next legitimate ruler. This will enable regents to perform Special Actions.
If you change rulers during a round, use your former ruler’s attribute scores for this round. Effectively, their decrees and commands for the current period are still in effect. If you decide to change rulers before the round starts, you can change them at the start of the turn, in which case you will use your new ruler’s attribute scores. If you want to change rulers before a round starts, you must note in the post of the previous round that you will be switching rulers. You must do this before that round ends, because posts edited after that round has ended will not have their actions be counted.
The Rounds:Rounds go for a week in real time and cover approximately five years in-game. Each ruler has five (5) actions to spend in each round, and may spend these at any point over the round and over multiple posts. The effects of actions do not come into play until the end of the round. Armies raised in one round may not be used until the next one begins.
Projects
Some things may take more than one round to complete. These are called ‘projects’, and you need to spend one action per round on them. You cannot spend more than one action per round on a project. Some take only 2 rounds, like making the roads a little better between your cities. Some are Great Projects that take 5 rounds, like making a road network between all your towns, cities, fortresses and bordering countries, a Great Wall, an Underway or some amazing wondrous building.
Acquiring New Regions
New regions can be acquired and come under your control in several ways. Conquest is one of the simplest ones (detailed under Military below). Another is by marrying yourself or your heir to the heir of that region, as long as the marriage makes it so that they become part of your family (instead of your heir becoming part of theirs, which would mean game-over unless you change who your heir is). This might be easy with NPC-controlled regions, and likely impossible with player-controlled regions. Pressing a marriage claim, ancestral claim or land claim to a region is detailed under Diplomacy.
Another way is by exploring and finding other regions and colonizing them through conquest or diplomacy, setting up trading posts or puppet rulers under your control in those regions.
Increasing Attributes
Every turn a player has completed their actions, they list at the end of their post what attributes they increase. Players’ rulers get a +1 increase if they dedicate two actions to actions related to a particular attribute, so if you use two actions to raise army units you have spent two actions on Military actions, for example. This would mean you then increase your Military by +1 at the end of the round. Since you have five actions, you can therefore increase two scores by +1 or one score by +2 if you spend four actions doing things related to a single attribute.
Please note clearly at the end of your post in the IC thread which attributes you increase so that co-GM TheWombatOfDoom can clearly note it in his tables. Attribute scores are capped at 10 and each provides special kinds of actions at scores 5 and 10, some of which can only be performed once per ruling character.
What Attribute Does an Action Belong To?
Because it can often be unclear what attribute an action belongs to (and might increase), allow me to clarify.
General: Any action that requires an attribute roll belongs to that attribute. Attribute’s Special actions always belong to their attribute. Doing any actions specifically underlined under an attribute’s rules—such as setting up trade posts under Curiosity—belongs to that attribute.
Diplomacy: Forming alliances, arranging marriages or betrothals for your character or their relatives, dealing with religious orders, changing laws—unless those laws specifically apply to military or religious endeavours.
Military: Any action to raise troops or militia or utilize their services.
Curiosity: Anything that has to do with trade or investigation—unless said investigation specifically falls under a different attribute (for instance, by utilizing military forces or priests, which may alter the results).
Magic: Any action which has something to do with magic, or magical events.
Attributes:Diplomacy:A higher Diplomacy score decreases chances of riots and rebellions in any lands you hold and chances of finding a good spouse. It also increases the chances of NPCs agreeing to proposals you offer.
Actions
- Forming alliances, arranging a marriage or betrothal for your character or their children, changing laws.
Diplomacy 5 Special Action:
- If you have a score of 5 in Diplomacy, you can spend an action to stabilize a single region. This will prevent riots or rebellions from breaking out, which are common if you aren’t importing your people’s Import Necessity from another region, there are other claimants to the throne, the ruler is of a different religion than the people, or the country is being wrecked by natural disaster. The stability will last until the end of the ruler’s reign and may last beyond it if the region is treated well.
Diplomacy 10 Special Action:
- If you have a score of 10 in Diplomacy, you may combine stable regions that you control into a bigger one and claim a higher title.
•4 or more adjacent regions combine into a Great Kingdom, becoming a Great King. Great Kings have one bonus action per round. You lose the title if you ever control less than 4 adjacent regions.
•12 regions (including vassals) combine into an Empire, becoming an Emperor. You must already have a Great Kingdom. Emperors have two bonus actions per round. You lose the title if you ever control less than 12 regions.
If you attempt to form a Great Kingdom, it will be handy if you link to earlier posts where you performed the Diplomacy 5 action to stabilize any regions that are not your home region. This doesn't just help us see that you've done it for all of them, but it also gives you a double-check for yourself on each of the regions.
MilitaryMilitary actions are things that involve training or using armies, navies and aerial units in both offense and defence.
Actions
Raising a military unit (100 soldiers; whether it’s an army unit, naval unit or aerial unit), training militia, defending your land or invading another region, building fortifications.
Unit Types
There are three unit types: land units (army units), naval units and aerial units. Land units can attack land regions and underground regions. Naval units can attack coastal regions, and if they do they can also be attacked by land units. Naval units can be used in defence of a region only against attacks by naval units. The exception to this is island regions, which naval units can also defend against land units and aerial units. Aerial units can attack land regions, but if they do they can also be attacked by land units.
Units cannot go through countries that aren’t allied or don’t specifically allow it, so if you wish to attack a specific country that you can only reach by going through countries you aren’t allied with and that haven’t specifically allowed you to go through, then you’ll have to fight them first. If the regions you’d have to go through do not have units, you can just march on through with no resistance.
Training Military Units
You can raise 100 troops (one military unit) in one action. You must specify in this action whether they are land units (army), naval units (navy at sea) or aerial units. Also, if you have control over multiple regions, you must specify in which region you train them.
If you want to have naval units with boats, you need to have access to wood (at least as a minor resource). If you want to equip your armies with weapons, you need to have access to appropriate materials (wood, certain metals, etc). For aerial units, you need some method of flight (flying creatures, appropriate technology, magic, etc).
The maximum amount of troops you can raise from your capital region is 1000. The maximum amount of troops you can raise from other regions you control is 500. Armies can never be larger than 10% in any region you control, which means that if your capital region has less than 10000 inhabitants, or any other region you control has less than 5000, you cannot raise up to the maximum amount of troops.
Military units do not last indefinitely. Countries cannot maintain large standing armies, as many people will return to their towns, families and daily jobs after their term of service. A standing army of 300 troops in each region you have can be maintained indefinitely, but every few rounds (at least 3), armies will decay and some troops will become ordinary civilians again. The amount of units that disappear in your capital region equals 10 – ½ your Military score – 3 if you’ve been in a war since the last decay. If this would put the amount of military units below 300 in a region, the amount is instead set to 300. If you have multiple unit types in a region, aerial units decay first, then naval, then land, stopping with decay at 100 troops each.
Training Militia
You can train militia members to defend against invasions. With one action you can raise all your potential militias in all your regions. Your potential militias are equal to one 20% of your total population minus your amount of military troops in that region. If you are being invaded at the moment you try to train militia, a lot of people will be too occupied with getting their families to safety, so you will only be able to raise half the amount of people that would otherwise be available as militia. Every 2 units of militia (so every 200 militia members) give a +1 bonus to Military rolls, making them only half as effective as normal military units. Militias only remain active until the end of the next round. For example, if you trained militia in round 4, they would remain active until the end of round 5. Like all actions, militias only come into effect at the end of the round and thus only function during the one round that comes after the round they’ve been trained in.
Using Military Units
You can use a single action in a round to direct the movement of all of your troops--from which regions they move and to which regions they move.
When one of your armies clashes with that of another player or those of an NPC, both sides roll 2d10 and add their leader’s Military score and the armies’ size (+1 per unit of 100). The controller of the region may get a bonus based on defensible terrain in the region. Either side may get a bonus if they have technology that the enemy does not if that technology can be practically used in war.
Allies can help attack or defend a region they have army units in. If a battle takes place between more than two armies, allies only use the highest Military score available to them (or whichever player’s ruler leads the army). However, all sides must take an action to partake in the battle. The players who lead the armies must each make a Military check (2d10+their Military score+number of units under their command in that region+applicable bonuses).
If you have multiple battles going on at the same time, you have to decide which one your ruler is leading. All other battles your country is involved in, but your ruler is not leading personally, only get half the ruler's Military score as a bonus.
If you win two battles in a row (one in one round, the second in the next) against the same opponent in the same region, you drive them out of that region or rout their forces. If you are the invader, that means you seize control over that region. In the next round, you will probably have to spend the Diplomacy 5 Special Action on that region to stabilize it.
Calculating Losses
The loser of a battle loses an amount of units equal to half the difference in roll results, rounded up. If the results were 11 and 6, that means the loser loses [{11 – 6}/2, rounded up] units, so 3 units. The winning side will have 1d4 x 10% of the base losses of the losing side (rounded down). The leaders of the battle (those supplying the Military scores and/or Winning Tactics) have a 50% chance of losing an additional 100 troops, unless they were the only participant on their side of the battle. Each participant on either side (including leaders) that sends 200 troops or more has a 50% chance of losing an additional 100 troops. If no units remain on one side, their leaders are captured by the other side.
Tactical Manoeuvring
You can use an action to perform tactical manoeuvring. One tactical manoeuvring action only affects a single battle in one region and is a Military check (2d6+Military). If both an attacking player and a defending player in the same region do this, the one with the higher result decides which part of that region the battle takes place in. Check a region's Terrain description to see what sort of terrain is available that a Winning Tactic might apply to, or provide some solid reasoning based on the map. Not all types of terrain are available in any of the regions.
Military 5 Special Action
If you have a Military score of 5, you can introduce agents. Agents are special operatives with specialized skills. Use one word to describe a profession or skillset. You will receive a +2 bonus on any rolls in which agents are involved and the particular action requires extensive use of that skillset.
To train agents and use a Military 5 Special action to create them, you must either have a resource in any of your regions that is a particular kind of people (like ‘Craftsmen’ or ‘Athletes’) or you must have a finished Great Project in the form of a school. This makes agents perfect for a specific type of job and often useful as spies or for secret actions.
You can have only one type of agent at any time. Introducing a new type with a different set of skills based on a different resource or Great Project school makes it replace the old one.
Military 10 Special Action
If you have a Military score of 10, you can introduce a Winning Tactic. A Winning Tactic gives you a +4 bonus to all Military rolls in one specific kind of terrain.
Winning Tactics apply to one type of area only, as determined at the time the player introduces their Winning Tactic or until they change it with a new Military 10 action. They can only be utilized in regions that actually have the type of area. The following area types are examples of possibilities:
•Mountains
•Hills
•Plains
•Desert (hot and dry; does not include arctic desert)
•Forest (includes underground [mushroom] forests)
•Swamp
•Inland Waters (lakes, rivers, etc.)
•Coastal
•Open Sea
•Deep Ocean (underwater)
•Underground (excluding underground forests and waters)
•Arctic
•Sky (requires aerial units)
Attacks with naval units on a region can be coastal battles or take place in an area immediately adjacent to the coast or part of the coast. Coastal cliffs, for example, count as mountains in such a scenario, though from a land attack they wouldn't.
Underground regions can benefit greatly from an Underground Winning Tactic, but underground battles can also take place in underground forests or near underground lakes or rivers.
CuriosityA lot of people are naturally inquisitive. Some like inventing things, other like exploring things for the sake of knowledge, some others find new ways to improve doing things people do every day. Curiosity is basically how a character handles things like science and economics. Creating new things, such as buildings, roads, fleets, mines and so on, takes time and effort. Clever people know ways to make it easier, quicker, and better. However, creating defensive structures or building things with the army is a Military endeavour rather than a Curious one.
Actions
Searching for new resources, inventing new things, searching for new knowledge, investigation, changing education systems, building schools.
Acquiring Technology
You can get new technologies three ways: invent it with a Curiosity 10 Special Action, get it from a friendly realm, or steal it.
If another region that you don't control has access to technology that you don't, you can send people to acquire that technology for you, either by force or by diplomatic agreement with the other player. They can just give it to you, but otherwise you can make an opposed Curiosity check, rolling 2d6+your Curiosity against 2d6+their Curiosity. If you roll higher, you acquire the technology (but only one kind of technology per action).
Investigation
There are two types of investigations: investigating new ways to acquire or apply knowledge, doing little projects to fluff furthering the knowledge of your country, essentially furthering science in ways that don’t require the invention of new technologies; and investigating things relating to GM-introduced events. The latter is generally what the head GM responds to, as the former is purely fluff—though it can be used as IC justification for why and how your people could have the necessary knowledge base to create a new technology in the future.
Investigation requires a Curiosity check (2d6+Curiosity), with a TN set beforehand that can differ wildly depending on what is being investigated. You can have great success with it, moderate success, or no outcome at all depending on the results of the check.
Curiosity 5 Special Action
If you have a Curiosity score of 5, you become able to introduce a new resource in one of your regions (either previously unknown or only a Minor Resource) or upgrade existing Good Resource to a Great Resource. A Good Resource can be traded to up to 3 other regions. A Great Resource can be traded to up to 6 other regions. You can find unique resources in your region, but you must be able to reasonably justify it. Such special resources require you to research technology to really utilize it. This action can only be done once per ruler.
When a new resource comes into play, the head GM will decide whether it is a special resource that requires getting a technology upgrade (Curiosity 10 Special Action) first to start meaningfully using it, like for things like the military. Aerial unit creation always requires a technology, for instance. Using the special abilities of supernatural creatures also requires a technology to create the appropriate training programs.
Curiosity 10 Special Action
If you have a Curiosity score of 10, you become able to introduce a new technology in your regions. This requires that you already have prerequisite technologies and any resources that are necessary either through trade or as a Good or Great Resource in one of your regions. This action can only be done once per ruler.
Be sure to check if any other players already have technologies you might use to help you, either because it's exactly what you want, or because it's a step in the right direction to help you make the technology you want.
MagicYour ruler's magical power and attunement to the ways of magic are indicated by your Magic score.
Actions
Gaining magical education, creating and finding magical artefacts, investigating magical occurrences, building places of study.
Magic 5 Special Action
If you have a Magic score of 5, you are able to provide a magical resource to your lands. This resource is considered to be of the [Poor] variety to begin with but may be grown with further actions. These resources can be anything from healers to battlemages.
Magic 10 Special Action
You may perform a Greater Ritual. Rituals can destabilize enemy regions, help win battles, uncover new or increase existing resources (from Poor or non-existent to Good, or from Good to Great), and so on. The GM makes the call on what actually happens (and it will not have happened until the start of the next round), but you are free to request nearly anything.