[interest check] Regency: A game of intrigue and politics.


Recruitment

Shadow Lodge

I am in the process of finalizing a set of rules for a new game.

The idea is to have a somewhat permanent game where every player controls a noble, ruling his own land, and participates in the game of diplomacy intrigue and backstabbing expected from people in that position.

The game would develop mainly on a discord server where people can give public announcements, and private chats where the players can plot with each other.

Every "Turn" the players will be able to send privately to the GM (me) the actions that they actually want to put forward and I would resolve them all in a predetermined end of turn date (I was thinking maybe twice a month, still have to decide).

In general the game would be always on, you will be always able to write letters or have meetings (secret or not) with other rulers, plot together, establish alliances, making promises etc.

I will publish a set of rules soon but for the most part they will be really simple.

The setting will be in part determined by all the players at character creation. You will be able to give inputs about the culture and style of your little domain. but as for the world it will be a low fantasy, mostly historical medieval with some unconfirmed rumors of the existence of some kind of supernatural creatures and some vague and non pervasive presence of occult practices, like alchemy, some folklore amulets and lucky charms. For the most part in peace and war kingdoms rely on the strength of the common man rather than harnessing any supernatural phenomenon.

Also the game will be set in a collapsing empire where the imperial line and a few worthy successor candidates just recently went extinct and all the little states and vassals under it (a.k.a. you) still have to figure out how to proceed from this point. Some might try to claim rights to the imperial thrones, other might just decide to forge their future as an independent nation, some might recreate a new system of vassals and lieges and start the formation of a new empire all together.

I would like to have a lot of players, by its nature this game would be more fun the more factions and the more shenanigans will be in the game.
Having to resolve the actions maybe twice a month would allow me to have no issues with handling a huge number of players.

I already have 3 or 4 interested, but I would like to have something more like 20+. I think that even having 50 players would not be out of the question for something like this.

The requirement for frequency is also extremely variable.
People that want to play 24/7 can do so freely.
People that just want to turn in their actions twice a month and be done with it, maybe just answer a couple of message while sending their actions for the turn, also work.

how many would be interested in a game like that?


Count me intrigued

Dark Archive

Definitely interested. Want to know more about the rule system, but I love political intrigue as a premise.


I for one would gladly participate.


Tentatively interested, pending character creation and setting.

Curious if this will be PF(at all) and if we as PCs will be fully barred from magic classes(even partial) or if you'll be using your own 'classes' and 'races'.

Shadow Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

@Monkeygod

No Pathfinder stuff, as for the classes and races, there will be no classes and the race will be human, will be somewhat unconfirmed if other races even exist.

ok a few info on the system.

I'll post what I wrote about the stats

Each Regent and each region have 5 stats
*Regent* *Region*
Diplomacy Loyalty
Stewardship Economy
Intrigue Security
Wisdom Knowledge
Marshalship Military

The stats of a regent and his region are correlated as they cover the same general area, as a rule of thumb actions taken by the regent himself use the regent stats while tests on his region resourcefulness rely on the region stats.
For example, a Regent with high wisdom would be a scholar and an intellectual, able to correctly interpret a lot of the situations presented to him, but if he rules a region with low Knowledge his subjects will still be for the most part ignorant, prone to superstition and obscurantism.

Following is a description of every stat.

Diplomacy
Diplomacy governs your regent ability of being well liked and his ability to convince others to comply with his requests. Is used both internally, as a regent to his subjects, or externally, towards foreign dignitaries. Any action towards people that could decide to comply with or refuse one of your requests are usually going to call for a roll in this stat. Also, even orders given to people that are in no position to refuse could call for this skill. The order will be executed, but in case of a controversial order a diplomacy roll could be the difference between passive acceptance and a growing resentment.

Loyalty
Loyalty is the Region equivalent of diplomacy. When your regent is not there to steer the will of his subjects is the innate loyalty of a subject to the regent that determines his actions. Loyal subjects will try to act in the regent best interest even when not prompted to unlike the average subjects who, unless specifically ordered, tend to be a bit more self serving. Subjects with dangerously low Loyalty may actually try to actively harm the interests of a regent at every occasion.

Stewardship
Stewardship represent the Regent capability in trade and business. Their ability to sort out a good deal, manage, acquire and make the best use of money and resources. Regents with high stewardship know how to best profit from the good times and how to stave off the worst ones, how to get the best of every opportunity. Regents with low stewardship tend to waste their resources and get taken advantage of.

Economy
Economy is a region capability to generate wealth and resources. It represents riches and development: crops, mines, trade, roads, the size of the cities they all depend on a region’s economy. High economy cities have sprawling cities, well fed subjects, a network of trade routes and a healthy circulation of wealth. Low economy regions are squalid and destitute, with struggling subjects and prone to famine and plagues. The economy of a region directly contributes to the Regent coffers.

Intrigue
Intrigue is a measure of the cleverness and slyness of a regent. It regulates their skill in court intrigue, plotting and at discovering those same things when targeted at them. High intrigue regents can avoid scandals and engineer them with the same ease. They feel at ease in the company of high society as much as in the company of cutthroats and scoundrels. They possess the cold crafty mind necessary to smile at your enemies and put them at ease while hiding a knife behind your back and leading them to the slaughter. Low intrigue regents are more gullible, lacking the presence of mind to recognize the traps they fall in nor the craftiness to pull off the same stunts themselves.

Security
Security is how impervious your regional affairs are to hostile plots. Represents the network of spies that a regent can count in on the region, how protected his administrative secrets are, how impenetrable are his key assets and in general how much of what happens in the region reaches the ears of its Regent. Regent that control a high security region are in complete control of it, nothing happens in the region without him knowing and possibly having several options for countermeasure. Low security regions are a ticking bomb, where nests of hostile conspirators can unravel the kingdom from within, where all the regent plans are leaked to whoever has eyes and ears and where every secret meeting easily becomes public knowledge. The security of a Region allows a regent to create spy networks and determines their effectiveness.

Wisdom
Wisdom is a measure of how learned and cultured a regent is. It allows a regent to be a patron of arts and sciences and a scholar. The Regent knowledge of the world is based on this stat. Regents with a high wisdom are luminaries, able to recognize the world for what it is rather than what it seems or what gets reported to them. Regents with low wisdom are clueless and superstitious, stuck in their ways, prone to confuse natural phenomenon for portents and omens with misleading answers and viceversa.
Knowledge
Knowledge is very much the collective wisdom of your subjects in the region. Region with high knowledge are enlightened societies of learned scholars, artists, philosophers, where progress is valued and encouraged. Low knowledge regions are a haven for the ignorant and the superstitious. Where outdated traditions, misleading folklore and distrust for the erudite is the rule of the land.

Marshalship
Marshalship is the ability to command, organize and lead an armed force. It regulates all the interactions of a regent with matters of martial prowess. A high Marshalship regent can be a brilliant general on its own right and a martial and logistical genius. Able to raise, move and employ large forces with minimal effort and turn the most uneven of odds in a resounding victory in battle. Low Marshalship regents possess none of these abilities. They are clueless about how an army operates, how to better recruit them or provide armaments to them and even less how to employ them in the field of battle.

Military
Military is the measure in which a region is able to project martial strength. It regulates the level of fortification of a region, the means in which is able to recruit armies and provide them with weapons and train them. High Military regions are akin to giant fortresses, where the walls are high and impenetrable, the garrisons are full of able-bodied men and the forges produce top class weapons non stop. Low Military regions are ripe for the picking, undefended and undefendable hubs whose garrison forces are poorly manned, if manned at all. The military level of a region allows a regent to create military divisions and determines their effectiveness.


Looks like an excellent stat system. How much in-game time will each turn represent?


How would provinces be created? I could see some random rolls for the following...

How many cities does your province have? d3
Are you on the Coast? 1 yes, 2 no
Do you border another player? 1 yes, 2 no
What major resource do you have... 1 Gold, 2 Farmland, 3 Forest, 4 River, 5 Abundant Game, 6 Roll twice more.


Personally I would prefer more player choice in that regard, but I suppose random could be fun too.


Maybe random to help a player start and allow the player to flesh things out?


Agreed. But for game balance would the leaders be randomly generated or point buy? How would nations be determined? I do not want to start next to another player - I reset Civilization games when right next to another human.

I envision playing a leader who has just won a province by battle. Looking around at the resources within the province and the opportunities outside the border lead to non-military solutions.

Meanwhile, trying to find productive uses for the military force so they are not forced to disband. Such as exploring ruins within the province, secure trade routes to other mercantile inclined provinces, selling legion as a mercenary troop, annexing the forest inhabited by the supernatural creatures.


Given that the game is set in an existing (f collapsing) empire which seems to have established noble families and is supposed to be all about intrigue between players, I don't think it makes much sense to start out not bordering other players (unless you're on an island or something). And I certainly hope that at the very least the leaders are player-designed.

Shadow Lodge

The game will have an hex map and people will pick their land. It will be 3 hexes as a base and in the character building phase it will be possible to buy more.
The leaders will absolutely be player designed and among other things that are purchaseable at creation there are titles or how close a bloodtie if any your dynasty has to the collapsed imperial line, giving you different levels of legitimacy should you pursue an empire restoration.

At the same time there are flaws that give extra points in the same way, like for example being a Bastard, having recently usurped your title, or having other pretenders with a legitimate claim to your title.

Glad to see there is interest in this. I will focus on having a readable manual completed soon and open up the actual recruitment next week. Meanwhile keep dotting for interest or asking questions.


Also with so many players in mind can some of them serve other players? As in being vassals of them. Controling land within their boarders?


Glad to hear that there's a map and robust character creation. What level of technology will be present? Also, how long in-game will each turn be?

(Randomly curious: have you played a grand strategy game called Crusader Kings II? The stats and general concept of this game are quite reminiscent of it.)


Oh god I love CKII!
I try to get every expansion they put out. Of curse I'm still behind on them.

Shadow Lodge

Yes, players can be vassals of other players. There will just not be any of such arrangements on game start.
And if course I played crusader kings. I think is easily the most played game of my steam library.

On how long will be a turn in game I think a month. Which would make the ratio of real time to game time a mere 1:2

As for the level of technology, it will vary based on the level of knowlegde of the region. I would say the lower and upper limits are from early middle ages to the Renaissance. So a region with very high knowledge might get to develop thing like printing presses and telescopes. Also not being tied to earth timeline and culture you might get to have 1600 islamic levels of medicine instead of european dark ages ones.


Makes sense. :)


I'm already getting little ideas! I've even build a small base for the noble house I'm thinking of playing. Might not care too much about the Empire but have a strong military presence.


Dotting for interest.

*sees CK2 play*

Ah, good taste!

Shadow Lodge

Getting close to a finalized Manual for the game, but also having a few busy days lately, I will come soon with an actual recruitment topic and character creation rules.


Marvelous! I look forward to seeing the complete ruleset.


I'm very interested as long as it remains rules lite.

I'll be checking in here!

Liberty's Edge

I would also be potentially interested in this game. What has been shown about it so far has piqued my interest, but I will have to see what the finalized system looks like.


This reminds to the Houses of the Blooded. I'm interested, and if I have the chance will throw an app if I can.

Shadow Lodge

I finally made the manual. You can find it on google drive

I will open (and link here) the actual recruitment post soon.
I will have to give you a very brief background of the world we actually play in.

As for the character creation in the recruitment phase I would require more of a declaration of intent than a full character creation process.

This is the map that I have prepared for the game

The actual character creation process will be held on discord after the players are selected. that's because I would like for the various players to have the chance to discuss tied and borders and things like that instead of having each player build their regent and demesne by himself.

I want to take as many players as possible so the selection will not be hard but I would really like to see that people are actually able to roleplay in a compelling way so, I would love to see some actual roleplay that you did on these forums or anything else you might think that lets me know that yes, you can build and roleplay interesting characters.

I would also like to find online a nice coat of arms generator so that you can all create your own heraldry. if anyone has suggestions in that sense please let me know.


Nice! The test system is particularly good. Quite flexible and not too complicated.

Does a Region correspond to a single hex on the map?

Shadow Lodge

Yes, 1 region = 1 hex


I'm sold. This looks highly thought out and very exciting to play.

I have a question as well, about the Merit selection. Is there a way in game we can gain points to buy merits? For example, if I want to expand my region, is there a way to do this? Extension is a merit, but I don't quite think Development/developing a nation is quite the right way to go about that.

Also, if you haven't already, try myblazon.com. It's pretty neat, upload a set of characteristics for a generated emblem, or create your own if that's not up to snuff. I liked it, at least.


I'm definitely interested in this, and will throw in an app once the recruitment post is made.

Shadow Lodge

there is no gaining merits in game, but some merits can be obtained during gameplay.
If someone becomes emperor and you marry your daughter to them... Free Imperial ties
You conquer a new hex, free extension.
In general all the things you pick at creation have the potential to change during game.

Liberty's Edge

I am still very interested, simply waiting for the application thread.

Shadow Lodge

the recruitment post is up
You can find it here


Very interested! I played a game like this before many years ago with 3.5 dnd called Nobles of the Realm and it culminated in the kingdom basically exiling my noble cause I told the king things he didn't want to hear and then created my own kingdom in the north as an undead lich.

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