Your the king!

[SoulsFury]

I haven't been through these boards in a while and most probably don't remember me or ever even saw me. I've been real busy with college, work, partying and my weekly gaming session. So, needing a change of pace, I got to thinking (we are studying the middle ages in Western Civ) so instead of taking notes, I started putting down some notes for a new game. Mainly based on DnD, but much simplier. The players start out as a Baron or Baroness, running a county made up of a few towns. Slowly they gain man power, wealth, friends, etc and can conquer other areas, or just fortify their own (or do anything else they can think of). Eventually if they conquered enough land they could become a Duke or duchess (a leader of a State or District), be a King or Queen, or even an Emperor. Of course they could always stay small. They can wheel and deal with local lords and fight with both PCs and NPCs for new territory. More of a roleplaying and somewhat strategic game than going into dungeons and saving the princess. I haven't worked out many of the details but I figure I'll probably run it where each player will send me what they want to do on their turn (send messages, move armies, have something built, etc). Each turn will probably be one game week and they'll be two turns per real week. Would there be a big interest in this? What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Nik

 

[pogre]

Birthright Setting?

This sounds similar to the Birthright setting to me, although obviously has more of a strategic game feel to it. You might want to check out the "WAR" (was it based in Greyhawk or FR? I forgot) board game TSR made a few years ago. Also check out Miniature Wargamer magazine for some campaign ideas and possible rule mechanics. They recently had an article on the English War of Succession that may be of interest.

 

[KingOfChaos]

Yes, yes I am..ack..sorry bout of meglomania there

I haven't ever played as royalty before, actually. So I really don't know how this would work out.

 

[Tonguez]

I once DM'd a game like this (not Birthright) - and I started with a single village- so I'd love to play and see how another person handles it

 

[Darkness]

I once DM'd a game like this (not Birthright) ...

Speaking of which - Birthright did that relatively well, no?

 

[Tonguez]

Speaking of which - Birthright did that relatively well, no?

yes it did - I actually created my system before I had discovered Birthright (I was playing GURPS) but since discovering it have greatly blended the two +Aria+D20...

 

[Darkness]

yes it did - I actually created my system before I had discovered Birthright (I was playing GURPS) but since discovering it have greatly blended the two +Aria+D20...

Áh, GURPS! Heh. Yeah, GURPS probably works very well for this. Reminds me that I have some old Pyramid magazines lying around, one of which has an article about this kind of thing...

 

[Azure Trance]

I tried making a somewhat similar system for a futuristic wargame strategy PBEM, with rules galore. Unfortunatly I came to the realization that unless I made this into a program where I can click and all the tables (tax, combat, supplies and more) are shown I would never be able to do this once a week every week since it would take too long.

I've been trying to 'minimalize' it. A really great PBEM I saw is War & Peace - Game of the Century. Bare rules, with many decisions left to the GM to decide what happens. There could be a revolt in this province, or that assault may fail, or a depression could come about ... or there won't be a revolt due to conflicting faiths, the attack goes as planned, etc. The way he immersed his players into the game though was by his digest. It was a clippings of articles from around the world showing the events that happened which gave the minor actions of the player gravity.

Unfortunatly, I'm not as skilled a writer to do that or be able to interpret outcomes for problems each week - but I still try to come up with a viable strategy gaming system nonetheless.

 

[Azure Trance]

Coincidentally, I wonder how games such as the Rokugan Industrial Revolution game operates at all. That would be an extremely indepth way to use as rules for the game, but I haven't a clue on how they figure mass combat (500 peasant levys vs 125 veteran spearmen) or characters (Does it make a difference if he's a 10th level fighter/5th level Wizard instead of 15th level fighter except for story terms?).

I would personally love something like Birthright. A domain with provinces you can upgrade. Due to a trade surplus, you have extra gold this season and decide to build a palace in your capital province - boom, bonus to diplomacy. Or border forts in a new region - perhaps a lesser chance for monsters and bandits?

If anyone here has played Medieval - Total War they have an interesting system of dividing all of Europe and part of Russia into historical provinces, each of which has (or might not have) a commodity or tradable resource, in addition to varying tax base and the fact that the land can be given to a general as reward.

A large problem, for me at least, would probably be the map itself. Without a graphical map an abstract system would have to take it's place (generic forests beyond the border; 12 star systems in the next sector).

 

[Azure Trance]

blah blah blah - it's 5:34 AM ;(

Just some quick, early (early) morning observations on a D&D strategy game:

• Ability scores might not matter anymore, but just levels as representation of power.
• A magical beast has decided to terrorize an outlying town, and as their overlord you send adventurers to deal with the problem. How could this be accomplished - rolling a die chart comparing the beast CR to the adventurers level, or something more indepth?
• Still not sure how to do mass combat. Birthright had something, but I'm not sure if I can extrapolate useful information from the warcards. Things such as, base unit of men (1 point = 10 men, 25, or 100?), morale, and quality / availability of differing weapons & armor. Not to mention magic on the battlefield, and if he starts to summon Cornugons or something.
• How much of the game should be board gameish (to ease play) compared to RPGish. Such as, building a certain building in a province nets a bonus or paying 3 gold bars for a divination spell to see where the archduke. Or a 10th level fighter has a bonus to recruiting and training army units while a 10th level wizard has a bonus in creating magic items and training apprentices.
• Instead of HP and character feats 'regional feats' could be chosen instead which affect the entire regional population - hardy in the woods, master fisherman skill focus, military tradition - who knows.