General Discussion

Darkreaver, that's an awesome start to things. I'm probably going to need to read that two or three more times to pull everything out of it, but that's not a complaint at all!

Would it be a good idea to/would you be opposed to us also posting our history in our Factbook so that we can reference it?

I would not mind you doing that at all. I'm really only going to be using the first post just to keep track of basics. Anything else you think we should know, put in there.

I just read through the rules. In the section Primary Stats, is a line missing? It says

Each province that you control gives you approximately 50,000 people and 1 workforce.
Your capital produces three resources. Each other city you control gives you one resource.

A newly created nation has one province and a capital, so it starts with 3 population and 3 resources.

So for a newly created nation, its 1 province gives 1 workforce. But it doesn't say where the other 2 workforce (population) come from. I'm guessing the captial gives 2 workforce?

Im also a little confused on how we measure provinces.

As I understand it, we get to add a province either by expansion or development. (ie. writing). So we can make one every day. Mechanically it's just a number, and provides population and workforce. I assume if it's expansion the GM will colour it onto the map.

Noted, and understood.

Bedzone: The starting workorce is a typo (I also forgot to correct it from population to workforce). The line SHOULD read, "A newly created nation has one province and a capital, so it starts with 1 workforce and 3 resources." This has been corrected.

JackJack: Right now, the map isn't divided into provinces. It's divided into cells, and I'm going to be using 10 cells as a province (as long as there's room). I'll be making provinces on the fly as you expand: You tell me which direction you're going; I give you the most homogeneous shape possible in that direction.

Hi guys! Sorry for the wait. I’ll try to get something started tomorrow. Just a quick question, is anyone on the old lands? Would it have any impact/interest having at least a player there? Maybe it could create different diplomatic dynamics or something

I was wondering if it's mentioned anywhere how long ago the Covenant or the empire dissolved. That context would help with the crafting of the history of our nation.

I believe the going timeframe is "a few generations" so, 70-100 years?

Yeah, it's been over 50, but not long enough that a few people still living remember the empire. 75 years sounds good.

CESN: It would be fun to have someone there I think, but it's really up to you. We do have someone bordering.

Rune dropped out; his circumstances have changed. I am NOT removing his nation of Drakmar. I'm going to keep it as an NPC nation for the time being.

Also, don't forget, if you've already named your capital and given me your resource picks, I just need an intro post in the IC forum, along the same lines as the one that's already there.

So, just one intro post this week, for starters? And then we can build up a bit of momentum to begin our regular expansion posts next week? I've decided I'll adopt title headings to give my posts some structure along the way.

Just one intro post for now. Once everyone gets their intro posts in I'll start in on a regular week.

Okay, a couple things:

1) I need the intro posts by the end of this week. We've got two more joining us, so I'm going to hold off on anythingmechanical til they're settled in.

2) I've been discussing the rules with a couple people who are mechanics guys, and I've been taking feedback from some of you. End result: There are going to be tweaks, but they'll be ones that leave you with less to manage from week to week so you can focus on the RP.

3) I made factbooks for everyone, BUT they're not editable by you because I made them, so I would like everyone to make a factbook post of your own that contains the following:Once you've got that posted if I need to edit it, I can, but so can YOU.

I updated my post with the Council pictures to be my (mostly) complete factbook post.

Uh. I accidentally deleted two threads somehow. It was Melanqolia and someone else. I'm very sorry. I'm going to wait and let you create your factbook posts as requested before I try to go back and recreate everything.

oh nooooooo, unfortunate

there we go, fixed with additional detail, gonna put it in nation creation as well so, if it is deleted somehow again, it's backup-able

No worries, I've tried to reconstruct!

Finally, I can rest!

I need kadeton, silent, and Qralloq to post their intros. (I know some of you have already written up something, and just need to post it in the IC thread.) I'm going to try to give you all events for next week, but I want to see where exactly your focus is first.

That gosh darn lakewood! Time for some unequal treaties! They must trade!!!!!

Ah okay, sorry! I wasn't sure if I needed to post something there yet.

Talking of which... any gods of the old empire? I could probably mix them up with the nature spirits ;)

Note to self: don't look at the third deity

Intro post, eh? Okay the orcs invade in an hour or two.

hehe, yes. Now, let me expand on random things in my nation

Expect a major deities post before noon.

Tempted to fix up my IC post to be better...only the stuff before the Empire disappeared mainly

ahhhh, finding images is hard, but not as hard as names. Can you tell I basically smashed my keyboard?

The Hero of the Occupation has the word Star in their name TWICE (note: the second time is their entire last name, which is spanish for star)

I'm going to be posting the first minor events for you shortly. Between now and Sunday, you can gain up to three provinces by writing three RP posts. The first should be 300 words, the 2nd, 400, and the 3rd 500. YOU ONLY NEED TO WRITE ONE POST. The other two are optional.

Your events might tie in with other events in other nations. Optionally, you can discuss those events with the other nations before posting.

For each post, please tell me in the OOC Map Request thread which direction you wish to expand* (or toward which geological feature) or how you want to develop. Development will split your province in two, and it's up to you which way you want to split it, with the caveat that I will have to follow the pre-generated lines so it probably won't be perfectly straight.


* SAMPLE MAP REQUEST POST
I'm going to develop once, split my main province north/south. I'm also going to expand twice, north and northeast.
Posts:
[url=https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/13742/?p=625959#p625959]1[.url]
[url=https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/13742/?p=624041#p624041]2[.url]
[url=https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/13742/?p=626133#p626133]3[.url]

Someting like that, doesn't need to be exact.

oooh, okey

How many armies are in unowned territory

The amount of military you need to spend is based on the distance from your capital. Count the number of provinces between your capital and the province you're expanding into, and add one. You need to send that number of military units into the new province. If you do not, you still gain the province, but it generates a number of unrest a week equal to the number of soldiers it needs, but does not have.

Right now, no matter which way you expend, there is only going to be one between: Capital > Unowned Province. So 1+1 is 2. You can either send two military in OR send one and generate one Unrest. One Unrest can be offset by one Culture. If you can't generate sufficient military or culture, it's probably a good idea to develop your current territory instead.

Minor point, but I actually don't mind knowing what year, month, week it is currently. Just flavour details in writing.

I completely forgot about the calendar. I had one made up too. I'll post it soon. That being said, I don't expect it to be universally used, since ours isn't even now in the real world.

Just a thought, mostly because, as has been evidenced several times recently, my brain doesn't like to do its job...

If you haven't already, make a character sheet for your nation. You don't have to move all your data there, just grab it so you can post as your nation. That way I don't get confused as to who's who.

Sheet submitted

same here :D

Question: Do our events need separate posts or can we implement them in the development posts?

Submitted

same

By the way... I have a question about the resources. Do they accumulate each week or do they renew at the end of the week. More specifically, will I have 1 or 2 Gems next week?

Resources renew each week. The only things that don't renew are Unrest and Wealth.

The events are things for you to address during your normal posts. You don't absolutely have to if you have some larger story you're telling, but unresolved events resolve in the manner I pick, or carry over to be resolved next week depending on which seems more reasonable for said event.

Ok, just to make sure I understood that, all the resources I didn’t use will be wasted them? Like gems and precious metals in my case? (That’s kind of how I was thinking now)

If you don't use them, yes (although I'm not sure I'd call them wasted, because you'll never run out). What you could do though is turn them into jewelry, and then gain the 3 culture from them. One use of Culture is gaining Wealth, and Wealth does carry over.

Does Culture carry over, or does it reset also? I.e. should we always be converting any "unused" culture into wealth, or can it accumulate?

Convert it to wealth.

Following from there, can wealth be used to gain culture? Or does it have to be used to buy something that generates culture for the one off bonus?

Right now, it's just to purchase goods with, but I'm open to ideas.

Question on game balance:

Alcohol requires 2 resources, and generates 1 Culture (which is equal to 1 Wealth)
Currency requires 3 resources, and generates 2 Wealth
Jewelry requires 2 resources, and generates 3 Culture (which is equal to 3 Wealth)

Seems that Jewelry making is way overpowered compared to the other two in terms of making Wealth, since by using only 2 resources, you can buy 3 resources of items.

Another implications of generating 3 Culture just using 2 resources, is that you can generate -3 Unrest every week, ouch.

The reason for the difference is that a component of alcohol is food, which means that you can switch to feeding your nation to reduce unrest very easily if you can make alcohol. I might lower the other to 2 though. However, yes, generating that much unrest is intended.

I'll be updating the maps today. I'm going to give you new events this week, but I'm going to leave them for two weeks this time, to give time to expand on them (if you want) or to do new stories of your own.

In which case you could reduce unrest via Jewelry even more easily. 1 Alcohol reduces 1 Unrest (using 2 Workforce, 1 to make Container, 1 to make Alcohol, 1 Jewelry reduces 3 Unrest (using 3 Culture and 1 Workforce only).

Moral of the story, instead of keeping your population drunk, just give them expensive pretty things! ;)

Btw, nice calendar!

Yes, but 1 food can offset 10 hungry provinces, whereas it would take 3 jewelry to do 9. Otherwise yes, there are some shortcuts. I'm inclined to leave it as it is unless it becomes problematic. However, as this is almost totally RP-based, I think we'll be okay.

RE: Calendar, thanks!

The main map, btw, is comment-able, so if there's small pieces of info that you want to make known to others, you can do it there. Just highlight the section of the map in question and type in your comment.

I was wondering what software you use to generate the maps?

Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator

Time to screenshot all current information on my nation so I can access it on the car ride tonight.

I have a lot of stuff going on IRL for the next 6 to 8 weeks. I am sure I won't have the time to do anything close to what I want to do for this game. Frankly, the setting deserves more than I can give.
I think a wild fire has swept through the Sea of Grass.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Keep up the great work everyone.

Should have a post up tomorrow, trying to get as much done as possible

IMSOFRICKINGSLOWATWRITING

Ahah, quickly type 1200 random words and post them. Then claim you need to do some editing and spend a week trying to make sense of them ;)

ICANTQUICKLYTYPE1200WORDS

Okay. A couple of questions...

1) Where is a current map?

2) Do I start from week one?

the current map is on the top post here. It's linked to the map that is updated everywhere.

I'm not sure how Falcon is doing it for new players, but he did allow for some people to re-take week 2. Maybe you can ask to be allowed 4 posts per week until you catch up? I don't think there is a major problem starting at week 3, since PvP is kind of "forbidden" at the moment and it is a more narrative game anyway (for all I know you can even just ignore the events if you want!)

WhtKnt: I'm sorry I could answer you sooner, but as you might have seen, my father was in the hospital, and since I was on his DPA, I had to be there pretty much 100% of the time.

As CESN says, there's really not a major problem with differing sizes, to be honest, since the main thrust is plot, not PvP. Just go as normal. If in the future there's something that negatively affects nations with a size mismatch, I'll probably give the smaller guys a buff in some way.

Melanqolia: Don't worry about making all your posts if you can't. Remember, only one is required. The other two are optional, and as stated above, size mismatches are not really a thing to be concerned with.

i know...but everyone is writing so well and so quickly...and i dont want to be the odd one out

well... it takes me like 4 days just to even post the draft with enough words (to "book" the 3 actions)... then I need to review so it makes sense. It's not really quick, at least in my case :D but I'm lucky to have some breaks at work that I can use here and there

It took me a year to write like 4k words of something i wanted to do ...I'm VERY slow

Sorry to hear about your father, Falcon. I hope that everything turns out alright.

He's fine, and I'm back home now.

Is it typing that slows you down, or finding the right thoughts?

both?

I am with Machiabelly. While this a great project, particularly to assist me in theoretical world building for a novel I'm writing, it requires more time than I can commit. I'll withdraw, the orcs boiling in civil war.

I know writing takes time, but I hate to see you go. You do only need one post a week. The other two are optional. Would it help if I lowered the word requirements?

To be honest, no. I'm pretty stretched in general and have stopped reading the other posts as well. While I feel bad for not participating in the Covenant community this way, I don't see that changing.

That's understandable. Hate to lose you, but I know it's hard keeping up with everything sometimes.

I don't see myself on the map, which is why I asked, to be certain that I was on the right one. I have a post prepared, but it is only about 300 words, so I'm trying to expand upon it. I'll put it up here when I fill it out a bit more.

I see you on the map, but it has to be through the covenant map link on top. The map that is shown is out of date and shows the council lands instead

That one didn't update right for some reason, gimme a sec.

Should be corrected now.

I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I guess the general tip is to read a lot of different book genres (and maybe top with other media types). That should help you find words and different ways to express things but, in the end it is practice that makes ... fast? ;)

At some point, you’ll find what works best for you. For example, for this game the first thing I do is write some bullet points of what I want to happen and what falcon told me will happen, then I think how those will fit and from there write up a draft with enough words.

My two cents worth is this: Spend a hour or so thinking about the story while doing other things. After that, just sit down and write. It might be horrible. It doesn't matter. Once you start writing, just don't stop. If you don't know what's supposed to come next, say that in your story too. That's when you switch to a new character or perspective. Once you've done that for a while, then read what you've written. It's a pretty good bet, you'll see a style in there that you didn't do deliberately. That's your natural voice. Use that voice to write your actual story.

@melanqolia My two cents worth as well. Don't be concerned about the quality. Just write whatever comes into your head. Remember it doesn't have to be in continuous prose. Fragments are fine. A snippet of conversation here, a one or two sentence descriptor of a place or an event there. If you're overthinking the events, then set it aside. Just describe something you had already been imagining regarding your territory or one of your characters. You can always try to fit in the weekly event later.

I see you use characters and images to inspire you. Describe a snippet of their personality, or narrate something that happened to them, then see why they would be concerned about the current event. Nation-level stories are essentially character stories with context thrown in.

Yep, that's really good advice there.

Ooooh, thanks, peeps!

Hello Melanqolla. It looks to be that the GM advices us to communicate with each other as we are getting closer. I'm going to put my action as being careful about the newly discovered neighbour. What about you?

oooooo now were they?

RoAries: Oh! Yay! I get to rp Ordinus and Leslisia arguing about how to deal with these new peeps. One sec, I'll look at your nation

They'd definitely be careful and the raiding and pillaging may be a LITTLE too close to what they remember as the Horde to be comfortable with. However, they'd be accepted and not hostile towards them.

I'm planning on being able to RP my diplomatic/negotiation team to visit and have a talk with The Malgeri Directive. How shall it be done? On discord, or in a thread here?

My suggestion would be to do a 300 post of your diplomatic team presenting the deal and then have Melanqolia do a 300 post reply.
I would send a note to Melanqolia describing your intention and the proposed outcome to make sure you're on the same page.

How will I know that the guards will attempt to entertain my group? Or is it still a matter of me interpreting what the scenario is like?

You could also do a co-post, of Discord RP, just clean it up a little to make it read well, and make it twice as long to account for both your posts.

Either way is fine with me.

I'm going to have to drop out, folks. It isn't you; it's me. I'm just not getting the hang of this. Thanks for the opportunity to play with all of you.

Btw, can you show again what the colours of the biomes represent? I want to know what the different tones of green mean.

Sorry, the legend fell off the map. It's back on it now.

I said earlier I'd let this update run long since I got the update in late last time. I'm going to let it run through the end of the week so there's no change in the general schedule.

Sorry folks, my turn to bow out. I'll be starting a couple more games as DM (real life, and GP too!), and while my mind is weaving fiendish plots for them, I'm suddenly drawing a blank for Rivellesk. Ironically I have to thank Falconloft and this game for getting me back into the storytelling groove; thus far I'd only been on GP as a player, but all this writing rekindled the itch to DM.

If Rivellesk ever becomes a setting for one of my games, you guys would be first to know!

Goodluck with your games, Bedzonell!

BTW, I have made more information for my nation. It has developed another layer of complexity.

I'll still be seeing some of you in various other games for sure!

Oh man! and now I have to conquer him instead of doing some nice diplomacy :(
I had the same feeling, it’s such a great world build exercise that you just want to use this elsewhere :D
Good luck with you GMing 👍 i’ll Love to try shadowrun by the way, but unfortunately time is not as relative as Einstein wanted us to believe 🤣

I've got Dark Sun up atm, and am planning to offer Planescape next after Shadowrun.

CESN, the beautiful seaside resort of Rivellesk is all yours!

Good to see it got you gack in the groove, Bedzone, thanks for contributing!

For everyone else: I'm going to need to rethink the crisis since most everyone on the other side of the board is away atm. Because of that, I'm changing the storyline I had planned. I'm not going to get rid of the still nighttime sun, but I am going to pause things on that front.

Sorry guys, even though I love the roleplay here, and was just getting to the good part, I'm going to leave this game. It's mostly because I underestimated how much time the writing would take, and didn't budget my time properly. Hope you guys understand.

It's a pity, but I suppose its expected as this game requires more typing than the others in this website. Thanks for joining anyways, saevikas!

My personal way of doing it is by planning an idea, and start with some sentences in the word docs. When I have time, I add in more. It would take about half to one hour to write one post.

It's okay, seavikas, thanks for joining for a bit.

Image. Link.
Here is my models of the Tzaangors(which the Zaangors are based off of) that are on display on my shelf. If you want to know more about this franchise, go look up Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, or Warhammer 40k. They are different universes, under the same company Games Workshop, but they have these guys in each of them.

The coming weeks may be a bit slower for me. I'll try the 4 posts, but we'll see how it goes :D

No worries, i always expect slowdown this time of year.

hey guys. I'll be really busy the next two months and will struggle to posting anything long .
I'll try to keep up, but I'm expecting it to be really difficult at the moment (and may have to drop) :(

Well, I tell you what. Let's just archive this for now. I haven't had time to look for new players, and things are busy on my enbd as well. During the hiatus, I'll try to refine the way things works better, and I'll start a new one up when it seems right. It's been fun, and the fiction has been great, but it is hard to keep it up I know.

Yeah, that's probably best. A month ago I had tried asking a WhatsApp writer's group, and a discord rpg group, but none seem to be interested so far.