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2014-03-20, 11:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Freljord
Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Finished the stuff I said I would, plus rules for Confederacies. Due to some tinkering done today with our internet, I will have to see if I can get it up soon with my desktop.
Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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2014-03-20, 11:16 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2012
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- Aldain
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Also folks, for those of you who haven't seen the announcement by the Giant, we might hit a kink in our posting, as on the 22nd, the forums will go down for a few days, perhaps a week. Just as an FYI. Bare with us when the forum comes back, as I'll have a lot of reworking the tables and such to do.
I'll leave Morph to figure out the real plan, I'm just running through like Paul Revere.Last edited by TheWombatOfDoom; 2014-03-20 at 11:18 AM.
Scientific Name: Wombous apocolypticus | Diet: Apocolypse Pie | Cuddly: Yes
World Building Projects:
Magic: The Stuff of Sentience | Fate: The Fabric of Physics | Luck: The Basis of Biology
Order of the Stick Projects:
Annotation of the Comic | Magic Compendium of the Comic | Transcription of the Comic
Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?
Extended Signature | My DeviantArt | Majora's Mask Point Race
(you can't take the sky from me)
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2014-03-20, 11:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2012
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- England. The northish bit
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Ehh, at least the gap gives us time to write epic fluff about our
inevitable victoryconflict with the Salterri in region 30. And there's always Skype.I'm also on the Bay12 Games forums under the same username.
The awesome Ceika made both my avatars! All hail!
Spoiler: Former avatar
Currently playing the parched and honourable Rabhid Dynasty in Empire2!
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2014-03-20, 11:34 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2010
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- Mt. Ebott
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Yeah, it does give some good breathing space for writing fluff. So atleast it's not all bad........
“I’m a Terrorist not an idiot.” - Me
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2014-03-20, 11:43 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2013
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
I look forward to seeing those
Hopefully it doesn't last too long, but it is Spring Break for me next week anyway so I probably won't have as much time as usual at a computer anyway so it's not all bad.
Good luck with the tables Wombat!
EDIT: Also, Pryonia has gunpowder so does that give a Tech bonus? I assume its out in the open now that they've made an action involving it at a place where everyone is.Last edited by QuintonBeck; 2014-03-20 at 11:45 AM.
Spoiler
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2014-03-20, 11:49 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Freljord
Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
I presume something Princess and the Frog-related.
I was amused with the idea of non-island fantasy Jamaicans, so I went with it. They miiiight not be trolls, though.
Depends on how long it'll be out. If it's up again by Monday, I'll give it another 24 hours and close on Tuesday. If it's up by Wednesday, I'll give it until Friday/Saturday, and then round 10 will just have an extra day. I will check who all has posted, and if all players have, I'll end the round and start the new one with just some extra time. Will probably PM those who haven't posted by then.
I might give it longer, to give us time to get the tables to the new coding.
Indeed.
For those who have Skype and would like to contact me/stay in touch over the few days out, my Skype is morpholomewy, showing name D. Right. I prefer not to have too many questions about Empire thrown at me over Skype, so keep that in mind. Make sure that in the message you send asking to be added to my contacts you mention who you are on GitP, otherwise I won't accept.Last edited by Morph Bark; 2014-03-20 at 11:51 AM.
Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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2014-03-20, 11:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2012
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- Aldain
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Scientific Name: Wombous apocolypticus | Diet: Apocolypse Pie | Cuddly: Yes
World Building Projects:
Magic: The Stuff of Sentience | Fate: The Fabric of Physics | Luck: The Basis of Biology
Order of the Stick Projects:
Annotation of the Comic | Magic Compendium of the Comic | Transcription of the Comic
Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?
Extended Signature | My DeviantArt | Majora's Mask Point Race
(you can't take the sky from me)
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2014-03-20, 11:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2013
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Spoiler
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2014-03-20, 11:59 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2008
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- Freljord
Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
New Player Tips and Advice!
Below I’ve put some tips and advice for new players (and old ones might want to check it too) that should really help you get along in the game and outside of it. These are all just guidelines and ideas that can help a lot, they are not hard and fast rules you should follow. Carve your own path and do things your own way, for that is how Empire continues to keep going!
Keeping Up With The Game
Empire is a game bigger than most RPGs due to its larger scale, broad appeal and unique interest points that draw players in. One or two players has quit in the past due to finding it hard to keep up with the game. Therefore this tip: it’s much easier to keep up with the game if you only follow the things that are necessary, the things that are most relevant to your play and enjoyment of the game and keeping up with it.
In the Game
The players whose actions you really want to follow are those whose countries are next to yours. Check with the map where your country is and what regions are next to it, and check with the tables what players are there and what they have. Making alliances and trading with neighbours is much easier than someone far away, after all!
The Main Thread
The main Empire thread is also the OOC thread, and because of the great group we’ve got, there’s a lot of communication going on. Following the thread can offer some great fun bits, but if you don’t have a lot of time during a particular week and only want to see the bits that matter, CTRL+F search posts by “Morph Bark” or “TheWombatOfDoom”. While not all the GM’s and co-GM #1’s posts are filled with updates on IC goings-on and changes/additions to the rules and info tables, they’re there, and they’re very helpful to be aware of.
Alliances
Since Empire is a social game due to its role-play nature, even if it’s a world-building game, alliances and other relations with other players’ countries are a big part of it. Alliances usually have their own OOC thread where players talk about things specifically pertaining to their alliance, their agreements and bonds, and what they plan on doing next. It’s great to have such a thread to come up with new ideas, especially since alliances of more than two people get hard to keep in touch with if you only use PMs.
Subscribing
Not all members of GitP may know this, but at the top right of a thread, just above the first post of a page, there’s a button for thread tools where you can subscribe to a thread. You can ask for daily or weekly notifications by email if you wish, but that’s not necessary—at least not daily. Weekly could be handy if you might be off and on again during some periods. Be sure to confirm the subscription too. To find your subscribed threads, go to your PMs, then go to the left where you’ll find a link to ‘subscribed threads’. There should be a list of them there, showing the one with most recent posts at the top.
Temporary Inactivity is Not a Problem
Should you not be able to post for a week, it’s not a problem. The end and start time of the rounds, the rules and guidelines for inactive players, all ensure that it’s as little a problem as possible. If you know you will be inactive for a longer time several weeks into the future, it will help knowing that ahead of time, so that agreements made with you will still go through, and if you’re part of a Confederacy you won’t fall as far behind as you otherwise might. If you are quite busy around the time you wish to start, it’s probably wiser to simply subscribe to the main Empire thread and return later to join up when you have more time. New players don’t have that much of a disadvantage against old players as you might think, so returning later is no problem. Especially so since the GM takes into account your ‘new player’ status for the first two weeks with regards to round start events and NPC actions.
Fluffing
The first major step, and something that will continue to run as a red thread throughout the game, is fluffing your region. You create a description for the terrain features of your lands, the physical appearance of your people and their culture and religion, and put down what resources are available in that region.
For ideas and help you can check the Playgrounders' Guide to World-Building.
For discussion and help with ideas about world-building you can either ask in the main thread or go to the World-Building Talk Thread.
Strategies
There are some things that might be handy to do as a new player to increase your chances of success in the game, as well as your enjoyment of it.
Safeguard Your Position
To ensure your region won’t be overrun, there are several things you can do. First off, it’s wise to have at the very least one military unit in every region you have to defend it. Since you start with only one and losing it would mean you’d have to restart elsewhere or try to retake your region as a rebel, you probably want your first region (also known as your home region or your primary region) to be well-defended.
Alliances and Trade
Bonds with other players and their countries will greatly increase your overall success and your enjoyment of the game, whether this is through alliance threads, or simply having a safer position and more resources to work with. Having a fully isolationist policy doesn’t really work—interacting with neighbouring countries to some degree is expected, at least in the beginning.
Events
Occasionally, another country might host an event. An event is usually some social gathering of some sort, like a conference to discuss political matters, religious symposia, a ball or some other party, or competitions between characters. During most rounds at least one takes place, sometimes two, and attending these allows you to partake in role-play threads made for the event and put a lot of actions under just a single one. If you spend an action in the main IC thread on going to an event, you can put a lot of sub-actions under it that cover alliances, trade agreements, marriages, and other such agreements with other players’ characters and countries. Because of this ‘action-folding’, events can be very great to attend.
Creativity
Unique ideas build a unique world with unique characters. Being creative with plans and fluff can pan out really well for you, whether it’s just on a level of having fun and great fluff, or the GM rewarding you with in-game benefits (which may or may not have mechanics tied to them, at that time or later).
Guidelines for Behaviour
Below are a few guidelines for how to act IC and OOC, particularly the latter.
Keep OOC Separate from IC
This should be reiterated, as it may be possible you come to learn of a plan someone has or had OOC. In such case, you shouldn’t act on that knowledge IC, because your characters and country don’t know of those things unless the other player tells you that you may know it IC due to his/her characters telling yours. If you think another player might be acting IC on OOC knowledge, don’t presume the worst and talk to them about it first. After all, any justice system should function on the basic principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’.
Furthermore, if you really want to do something for OOC reasons, try to think of a good reason why your characters would do that. Come up with something good instead of a flimsy reason, and you’re probably good to go with it.
Keep IC Separate from OOC
Don’t let IC drama and problems interfere with your OOC life and relations with other players. Bashing each other’s brains in and spreading propaganda IC is all fine and dandy, but it’s not OOC. For this reason, be clear when you’re being IC or OOC when outside of an RP thread or the main game’s actions thread. Generally speaking, alliance threads and the info therein can be considered IC, for instance, while nearly everything in the main thread is OOC unless stated otherwise.
If You Have a Problem OOC, Talk About It
If you have an OOC problem with something that happened IC, talk about it, otherwise it will not get fixed and it will only hamper your enjoyment of the game and by extension those that interact with you. Similarly, if there’s some personal thing that may affect the game, you do not have to tell everyone, but I’d appreciate it if you’d at least tell me so I can take it into account to the best of my ability.
Aside from these simple things, following the GitP board rules and being a generally decent human being will make everything go smoothly and make us all have a great time!
3
The stuff below are things currently being considered to be added to the rules, but have not yet been. These rules are currently up for discussion and a lot of change before something like this gets added to the OP.
Confederacies
Confederacies are a group of countries who band together to form one country, with the constituent countries becoming ‘states’. Each of these states functions the same as a non-confederated country played by any other player and can have colonies of their own.
Forming a Confederacy
Forming a Confederacy requires at least three participating players/countries, all of whose regions must be politically stable (due to being primary regions or through Diplomacy 5 Special actions). Each must set up a Great Project to create the Confederacy together, and the Confederacy isn’t created until all three (or more) Great Projects are finished. If another player wants to join the Confederacy, it is a small project (2 rounds) for them and a small project for one of the members of the Confederacy, thus making it harder and take more time to join a Confederacy than it would to join an alliance.
If one of the participants in the creation of a Confederacy is unable to post their actions during a week, they may count their Great Project as having continued that round regardless, if they do post the round after that and continue it. Unlike normal Great Projects, the forming or joining of a Confederacy cannot be assisted by others.
Maintaining a Confederacy
A Confederacy must be maintained. One of the rulers of the member countries takes seat as head of the Confederacy, usually titled President, First Consul or Lord of Lords or something similar. This position can be for a specified limited time (at least 2 rounds) or for life. The head of the Confederacy must have at least Diplomacy 5 to take position. If at the end of their term (or life) there is no replacement with Diplomacy 5, a ruler without Diplomacy 5 may take the position, but there will be revolts as results of unpopular decisions or points of view, or simply the new head of the Confederacy being viewed unfavourably.
Benefits of a Confederacy
The head of a Confederacy gets an extra action during their term. Furthermore, if one of the members of a Confederacy is unable to post during a week, half their actions (rounded down) may be decided by one of the other member countries whose primary region shares borders with their primary region.
Any alliances a member of a Confederacy makes can be with either only themselves, or with the Confederacy as a whole, though it may be viewed as treasonous for a member to form alliances without the Confederacy’s consent. Trade treaties are made by the states themselves, though the head of a Confederacy may make trade agreements on behalf of any Confederacy members, should the rules of the Confederacy allow for that, spending one of his own actions on it.
Downsides of a Confederacy
No member states of a Confederacy may be a Great Kingdom or form one. If an aspiring member state has a Great Kingdom, they must dissolve it before starting their project to create or join a Confederacy.
New military losses rules
The winning side will have 1d10 x 10% of the losses of the losing side (rounded down).
For each participant on one side beyond the first two, there’s a 50% of their side losing an additional 1000 troops in battle.
Other actions or events may have results on the effect and/or outcome of the battle as well.Last edited by Morph Bark; 2014-03-21 at 08:07 AM.
Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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2014-03-20, 12:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Confederacy Rules Critiques and Review
I like the rules for creating and joining a confederacy, but it seems to be a very limited type of government coordination. There might be other ways nations would come together and this one seems to kind of force one way.
Also, only letting one player benefit (even if its rotational) from everyone having to spend actions seems kinda weak for the effort and the fact that Great Kingdoms are also taken away as a possibility along with that really makes it unappealing. Since Great Kingdoms can't be made by individual states anymore, perhaps there is a new thing say, a Great Confederacy that has a certain amount of regions under it's control (less than an Empire, more than a Great Kingdom so somewhere from 4-12. Maybe 8? 10?) and then if you establish a Great Confederacy every member nation gets an extra action.
The rules for maintaining a confederacy I like the idea of it, but as I'm suggesting a change in the lead up to it if changes were to be made this would have to be altered too. Perhaps more than half the member nations need to have 5s in diplomacy to keep the people happy.
Also, for allowing the confederacy to do things if power was chosen to be equally split I feel like any confederacy member should be able to make trade deals of resources of any other confederacy member (again, as you said it would be poor form to do this without permission) but again limiting the benefit of confederating to one player (even if its rotational) doesn't seem in the spirit of the idea behind joining like that.
Military Loss Rules
Are those going to be implemented this round or next?
Spoiler
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2014-03-20, 12:42 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
I don't think it's that weak really. It looks like you can have as many regions as you like.
So... A confederacy with two players who have 6 regions each has 10 actions for the confederacy.
Whereas a Great Empire only has 7 and the same number of regions.
If this is correct, allowing Great Kingdoms within confederacies as well would give the confederacy 12 actions which is a little silly.
I think it all looks good and we'll see whether it needs tweaking when we play. Uhh, you play.
All that aside, confederacies look cool.Last edited by Rain Dragon; 2014-03-20 at 12:43 PM.
I go by they/them/their or he/him/his pronouns
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2014-03-20, 12:54 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
But it isn't 10 actions (though it'd have to be 15 since confederacies require minimum 3 nations) for the Confederacy, it's however many individuals working on their own things and maybe some actions for the confederacy as a whole. An empire may get less actions but they get more control. Letting one member reap reward (an extra action) despite everyone putting in and being a part of it is kinda meh. If it's all about one player (even on rotation) getting the benefits then it's no better than straight up conquest cause then you can make a GK and control all the actions.
I don't think GKs should be allowed in confederacies, but allowing all the member nations to reap the benefits they would get if they did go out and conquer other people and establish GKs by choosing a diplomatic path of unison instead I don't think is so far fetched.
Spoiler
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2014-03-20, 01:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Wow, I'm actually tired for once so feel free to disregard quite a bit of my ramblings just now.
I think because of that, without good teamwork a confederacy is fairly weak but with good teamwork it can be very awesome.
Yes, that part was tired eyes misreading your stuff. /headdesk
Depending on how many players are a part of the confederacy though, that is a fair few bonus actions which is the catch I suppose. I'd have to see how well one works in action.
...after I get some sleep.
Oyeah, if anyone wants my Skype just to talk about random stuff lemme know.Last edited by Rain Dragon; 2014-03-20 at 01:16 PM.
I go by they/them/their or he/him/his pronouns
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2014-03-20, 01:22 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2013
Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
I have some complaints(the same as Quinton's really) about the Confederation rules, but maybe they could be explained by the fact that the Triumvirate is building into a federation, not a confederation.
1. Requiring Diplomacy 5 to rule suggests either that the confederation in question is democratic or that the nations in the confederation have a loose connection to each other.
- Right now many of our nations are monarchies and we have no rules saying a low Diplo score will offend the populace. So in order for a low score to be a problem something has to suggest that the whoever is selecting the head of the confederation is either fallible(ie. not an absolute monarch ), or does not have the authority to put that person in charge (still probably not a monarch)
- Also the way that's written each member still has full control of their own individual states, so I feel like any uprisings should only take place outside the head member's lands(ie. these guys are upset that your jackass of a king is in charge, but your guys are swelling with pride because their jackass of a king is in charge)
- In general we all run our nations in different ways, and a real confederation is usually formed to deal with outside threats (Greeks uniting to fight Persia, Italy uniting to keep from being carved up by the rest of Europe) So there is a certain amount of de facto confidence in a chosen leader, and they will likely be chosen for the task at hand. If we're at war nobody will care that he's awful at speeches so long as he wins battles.
2. The listed benefits are effectively thus: a single bonus action for one member and general inactivity protection. These are nice, don't get me wrong, but quite marginal compared to the drawbacks otherwise incurred.
- If several large empires were to consider confederation (perhaps a strengthening of the Union of the North for example) they would actually be loosing out, since they've already just about got Great Kingdom status.
- It just doesn't scale well. You always have 5n+1 actions, where n is the number of players in the confederacy. That +1 just gets more and more negligible as you add members.
Edit/Addendum:With just 3 players using 5 actions a piece to form the Confederation this means you will break even on action economy 15 turns later. Add 4 more turns for each additional member nation. A large confederacy(many players) is very quickly not beneficial from a purely action economy standpoint.- You can work together without being in a confederacy already.
Expand it to allow additional bonuses according to the constitution(as ratified by GM) and it could be alright.
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2014-03-20, 01:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
What my two more eloquent compatriots said.
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2014-03-20, 01:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
I believe this is how the coding will be when the forum updates....
Spoiler: Ruler Table Coding (I think...)
Capital
RegionRegion NamePlayerRulerDiplomacyMilitaryCuriousityFaithLuckP2 Wenyavuk aspi Näiyop an Kal 3 3 7 3 6 01 Gunung Chacmon Topiltzin Aitah I 5 6 7 3 3 02
(above)Celero Logic Crown Regent Yasira of House Noth 5 7 8 4 3 04 Hurosha Empire WaylanderX Eienguard Nyllana Earthguard 6 5 5 2 2 05
(below)Eyrecradia NPC Weiss 7 6 7 1 5 06 Ignato Empire QuintonBeck Khan Owylt Ignato 7 8 2 4 4 07 Calorum Chief High Priest Vilindrae Divinorum 3 5 3 7 2 09 Genivana zabbarot Tendaji II 1 5 5 7 3 10 Hrathan-Tuor ImperatorV High Guildmaster Loki Ethmorl 4 10 3 2 2 11 Raaneka Zap Dynamic Lady Lomadi and Lord Ujval Devdano 4 5 8 2 4 12 Qarimos avr Prince Akali of the People of the Sea 4 5 9 1 4 13
(above)Serenden Protectorate TheWombatOfDoom Lady Lyra Serendel 5 4 10 4 6 13
(below)Razdis Silverbit Mormaer Razkai II 3 4 6 4 2 14 Guilder SamBurke Humperdink, Doge of Guilder 3 6 5 3 4 15
(below)Keldagrim Silver Ablaze High King Feldin Grimhammer 2 6 6 1 2 16 Pryonia Arutha Rogar Cardion 5 2 4 2 1 17 Empire of Sanctuary Rain Dragon High Prince Yuuhi 5 4 1 4 2 18 Sympolemou Tychris1 Duke Ironfang 2 6 5 3 3 19 Domhan Abhaile NPC Naomh Fionn Sheenan 5 3 4 6 2 20 Bordeux Lord_Burch Lord Cedrik Bordeux 5 5 4 1 3 21 Sulvan Primarchy NPC Primarch Hindal Greybeard 1 2 7 1 1 22 Kingdom of Ashenia Elemental Princess Regent Idrisa 5 7 7 1 2 24 Tar Aeternus Chief Talon Char 4 5 4 4 4 25 The Jeweled Cities lt_murgen Amber Grant 4 4 7 4 3 26 - - - - - - - - 27 Scla´ca Shnur Kach´tu, Chief of Scla´ca 6 3 4 8 1 29 Alydaxis moossabi King Apahulucta 6 7 8 3 3 30 - - - - - - - - 31 Grmanhil Slayerofundead Chieftain Orgnar Bangboom 5 5 5 1 1 45 United Lacertian Dominion Lorick Potentate Kelarth the Conqueror 2 6 4 6 2 50 Sycia HisHolyAngel High Priestess Fabula 5 2 3 6 2 51 Felitora Arkhosia ??? ? ? ? ? ? 52 GLWIH tortor Dutchess Alexia the Heron 4 2 4 2 3 59 Glazfell BladeofObliviom King Hroar the Hyperborean 2 3 4 5 3
Last edited by TheWombatOfDoom; 2014-03-31 at 10:14 AM.
Scientific Name: Wombous apocolypticus | Diet: Apocolypse Pie | Cuddly: Yes
World Building Projects:
Magic: The Stuff of Sentience | Fate: The Fabric of Physics | Luck: The Basis of Biology
Order of the Stick Projects:
Annotation of the Comic | Magic Compendium of the Comic | Transcription of the Comic
Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?
Extended Signature | My DeviantArt | Majora's Mask Point Race
(you can't take the sky from me)
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2014-03-20, 02:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Yes. Just like that, and it's annoying to read before the HTML actually runs : | I think I have software to do this... Give me a bit and I'll check.
EDIT: I don't, and I'm wondering if it is worth it to write a find and replace or if I should just wait for one of the few that will inevitably be posted on the forum in the next 2 weeks. My brain says any version I don't make myself will find wonderful new ways to aggravate me, but my heart says take a nap.
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2014-03-20, 03:29 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Expanding further upon the Confederation concept (though as zab pointed out discussions of the Triumvirate which prompted this whole thing have shifted heavily in favor of federation so perhaps it ought to be renamed)
I agree with zab's point that the benefits are negligible (something I was trying to communicate but failed to put quite so succinctly) and more members makes it less worth it which is kind of the opposite of the point. Basically unification of governments is the Diplomacy version of conquering that nation except both sides get to live and I think there ought to be a solid challenge for that much like conquest is (which is covered in the all having to work on Great Projects thing) and similar rewards (which isn't covered by just one person at a time getting the benefit) Now, I see the worry in giving every member nation a bonus action as then it would make sense to get 3 nations to form a Confederacy and then add allied member states til everyone you're friends with has extra actions of perhaps a limit to the number of regions that can be members of a federation. Perhaps capping it at around 5 or so?
Also a suggestion might be that when you enter into such an alliance you're forced to have members "specialize" in one of the particular attributes meaning they'll have to use 2 of their extra actions each round on the attribute they've selected. Essentially, once you get to 10 in that score you won't be able to focus all 6 other actions on raising others, you'll have to keep working on that one with 2 actions with no bonuses. Actually, that kind of balances it out from a balance perspective I think. (and kind of adds a firm5(4 since you can't focus on luck) member cap to things) because that means the members won't be able to max out all their stats any more easily than if they were working together and they're still only getting +2 stats each round once their specialized stat is maxed.Last edited by QuintonBeck; 2014-03-20 at 03:31 PM.
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What do you mean by that exactly? The difference between federations and confederations that zabbarot highlighted?
Also, only letting one player benefit (even if its rotational) from everyone having to spend actions seems kinda weak for the effort and the fact that Great Kingdoms are also taken away as a possibility along with that really makes it unappealing. Since Great Kingdoms can't be made by individual states anymore, perhaps there is a new thing say, a Great Confederacy that has a certain amount of regions under it's control (less than an Empire, more than a Great Kingdom so somewhere from 4-12. Maybe 8? 10?) and then if you establish a Great Confederacy every member nation gets an extra action.
The idea of a Great Confederacy is not a bad one. I think I'd make the number of regions required based on the number of members, else once there would be a Great Confederacy a lot of people would be joining simply to get the extra action, which wouldn't make sense from the point of view that this is still a world with rather slow long-distance communication and varied ideas of culture, spirituality and ideals. I figure it's not a bad idea to tie big positive consequences and risks of negative consequences to the same things, both to prevent too much OOC reasoning slipping in and for actions to be something to be considered the pros and cons for.
Great Confederations could give one extra action to all members, but require that there are three regions per member state under its control. (Each member state doesn't need to control three regions, a single member state could control seven and two others could control one, for instance.)
The rules for maintaining a confederacy I like the idea of it, but as I'm suggesting a change in the lead up to it if changes were to be made this would have to be altered too. Perhaps more than half the member nations need to have 5s in diplomacy to keep the people happy.
Also, for allowing the confederacy to do things if power was chosen to be equally split I feel like any confederacy member should be able to make trade deals of resources of any other confederacy member (again, as you said it would be poor form to do this without permission) but again limiting the benefit of confederating to one player (even if its rotational) doesn't seem in the spirit of the idea behind joining like that.
Military Loss Rules
Are those going to be implemented this round or next?
Well, not yet.
Noted. I knew of these two things, but to be honest, I never really got the difference between the two.
1. Requiring Diplomacy 5 to rule suggests either that the confederation in question is democratic or that the nations in the confederation have a loose connection to each other.
- Right now many of our nations are monarchies and we have no rules saying a low Diplo score will offend the populace. So in order for a low score to be a problem something has to suggest that the whoever is selecting the head of the confederation is either fallible(ie. not an absolute monarch ), or does not have the authority to put that person in charge (still probably not a monarch)
- Also the way that's written each member still has full control of their own individual states, so I feel like any uprisings should only take place outside the head member's lands(ie. these guys are upset that your jackass of a king is in charge, but your guys are swelling with pride because their jackass of a king is in charge)
- In general we all run our nations in different ways, and a real confederation is usually formed to deal with outside threats (Greeks uniting to fight Persia, Italy uniting to keep from being carved up by the rest of Europe) So there is a certain amount of de facto confidence in a chosen leader, and they will likely be chosen for the task at hand. If we're at war nobody will care that he's awful at speeches so long as he wins battles.
2. The listed benefits are effectively thus: a single bonus action for one member and general inactivity protection. These are nice, don't get me wrong, but quite marginal compared to the drawbacks otherwise incurred.
- If several large empires were to consider confederation (perhaps a strengthening of the Union of the North for example) they would actually be loosing out, since they've already just about got Great Kingdom status.
- It just doesn't scale well. You always have 5n+1 actions, where n is the number of Players in the confederacy. That +1 just gets more and more negligible as you add members.
- You can work together without being in a confederacy already.
This last point is also true, but that would mean it'd be better not to add in rules for working together, because it's already possible and thus creating rules for it would mean wasted work.
Expand it to allow additional bonuses according to the constitution(as ratified by GM) and it could be alright.Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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Posted right before you with some additional ideas but on the note of not wanting lots of people to join: Lots of people don't usually last in something that would be as tightly run as an imagined confederacy/other unified government the US being a rather glaring exception in real world history and honestly the Civil War kind of proved the idea didn't work without extreme intervention on an unconstitutional scale.
Quick and dirty on Federation Confederation differences: Confederation the individual states hold most of the power but are united in a national government a Federation gives most of the power to the national government but lets the states decide things not covered by them. (In this case the Triumvirate/Empire has been tossed around as becoming the Federal government over all the current territories with the three member nations picking up aspects of governance. Hence my suggestion for specialization requirements which puts a stringent on development while giving that bonus action around)
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Well, that's the real world stuff, and in a game it'd have to be abstracted, such as with the idea of people possibly revolting if a less popular president comes to power with decisions they don't like. (Dip4 or lower; while there aren't yet many negative effects for low scores other than in opposed checks, that is with the basic set-up, rather than something you create during the game. Plus I figure I should start getting in some negative stuff for the real low scores of 1 and 2.)
In the game, time would have to prove whether that'd hold true as well. The idea of each member specializing on something is a decent one (kind of like having ministers or a council with different specific jobs), and I can also see people wanting to get out to stop having to specialize. I'd first like to hear thoughts on my ideas and suggestions to change or expand the concept as I put forth in my previous post before I continue on with ideas and end up having to nix it instead.
The Con/Federation difference seems pretty clear to me now. I think the GC and the Union of the North, being as tight as they are, are prettymuch confederations as they are, with the alliance threads effectively being the central government of sorts. Heck, the Wiki page even gives an alternate name: League, and guess what the name of the third major alliance includes?
Federations it is then, for the name.Homebrewer's Signature | Avatar by Strawberries
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I'd like to offer a bit of perspective from someone who joined later in the game: If you give too high bonuses (meaning multiple additional actions per round) to large Empires / Federations it will likely make large empires too big to fail, as they already have the benefit of larger army sizes. It will then be very difficult for new players to start or for players that lost their territory to restart. Since large Empires and Federations require a higher administrative effort (especially in the case of multiple self governed states), I feel it is reasonable that there is not a large number of bonus actions.
There is however one bonus I feel such federations should have - a better communication within. I mean, what is that initial great project for? The establishing of a communication structure of course. So why not allow federations to make treaties and trade deals with other members of the federation at no cost? This essentially amounts to a free diplomacy action for each state that must be spent on an assembly meeting. The president can then use his one additional action to speak in unison for all states. This would effectively "legalize" such OOC discussions as in the current round about how to deal with the Salterri and shift it IC where it should belong - heated senate discussions about going to war or not should be fun to play out.Last edited by aspi; 2014-03-20 at 04:13 PM.
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That... is a pretty darn good idea, actually! Rather than give a full extra action, simply make one type of action be free. It's simple and elegant. I don't think I could so easily have come up with it myself.
I'm pretty glad to have you as a player now.
In the meantime, I haven't received critique on or suggestions for the player tips and advice further up on this page with the confederacy/federation rule ideas. Anyone?Last edited by Morph Bark; 2014-03-20 at 04:29 PM.
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Quoted for emphasis. Rising in power is part of the fun of roleplaying games, but the more opportunity you give to someone to increase that power, the more power creep you're going to deal with. If everyone's equal that's not so big a deal, but this is not a game where everyone is equal.
I hadn't planned on chiming in, but I really, *really* like the idea of free communication between federation members. I've often thought that trading with neighbors should be easier than, say, trading with someone halfway across the world. A free Diplomacy action to be spent trading (or what have you) between members of a federation would reflect this. Like aspi said, this would give legitimacy to the various discussion threads we've got going, and would be a nice addition to the "leader gets a free action" clause.
EDIT: I like the new player advice. A typo here and there, but generally great!Last edited by Zap Dynamic; 2014-03-20 at 04:37 PM.
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2014-03-20, 04:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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Aspi basically gets straight to the sort of bonuses I was thinking of.
Automatic internal trade for one. The second is that since we now act as the Federal Government we each technically rule every region within the federation. So I could use actions to build temples in Woodwind for example, or ImperatorV could raise troops from Genivana. We could use Curiosity 5 to add a resource to any of our regions, etc.
The extra action isn't even needed in my opinion. The ability for all players in the federation to effectively use the whole nation as a single great kingdom is a greater benefit in my opinion. But extra actions by region count (exactly the same as Great Kingdoms) would make sense. 1 bonus action to the group for great kingdom size, not per player. Was there a point where it becomes 2 bonus actions for a number of regions? If so at that point it could be 2 to the group, so 1 to 2 players or 2 for one if needed. Delegation comes down to the players, so it'd probably rotate since most of the players in this entire game are pretty diplomatic OOC.
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
I like Lyradis, but you know... I also like winning.
In any case, you did better than Orin, so that's something.
Yeah... I tried, but the results were so terrible I decided not to insult every living Jamaican.
Alternatively, it would be safe, and indeed logical, to assume that they have their own language in addition to the common tongue which is likely only spoken by learned individuals such as The Wise and priests, etc., and even then only when talking to foreigners. As for why their native tongue bears similarities to a Jamaican accent, I have no idea.
Of course they're not trolls. I'm too lazy to write fluff for a fantasy race.
Except, with the jurisdictional issues that keep popping up in countries that have been united as one for centuries (looking at you America), I don't think that would work out. Technically, we can already build things in and for other countries, we just need to ask permission, and I think people should continue to have to ask permission, even if they're federated.Last edited by Elemental; 2014-03-20 at 05:06 PM.
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Glad you guys like it. Part of the honor should go to 37 Days, which gave me the idea and is not that bad as far as history dramas go...
Looks good to me, sure would have liked that two weeks ago
Maybe put in a sentence about militias for emergency defense before you have a large army?Inuit avatar withcherrybanana on top by Yanisa
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There, all RP threads taken care of again.
I think that could be left to the federations' respective constitutional agreements between members on what they can and cannot do for one another.
I'll see if I can find that one then to check out.
A note on militia is not a bad idea. They're a bit unwieldy, but if you're expecting attack they can be very handy if you anticipate it right. Plus they're indeed more useful for those with no or a small standing army.Last edited by Morph Bark; 2014-03-20 at 06:08 PM.
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Re: EMPIRE! Community World-Building Game III: Prepare Your Inbox! (Messages Are Comi
Would there be time to negotiate a trade deal in the army camp before the battle? I'd like to lump one into the action if I can.
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