zerombr
2009-05-05, 02:42 PM
The Might of Mortals
by Zerombr, and Vadin
The concept of MoM is to create a supplement, a companion to the LoC games, to help provide definition to the mortal flocks without overcomplicating, or clashing with the rules-light system of Lords of Creation.
All too often in game, wars happen between mortals, which, assuredly is both fun and entertaining until the inevitable question occurs of, 'Who wins?'. Generally the game suggests that both sides decide on a victor beforehand, and when agreed upon, this is surely the easiest and best way to deal with such things. However some players, myself included, may maintain that certain advancements in matters of magic or technology may cause the war to lean a different way.
That is what this system is hoping to represent, so let's get started explaining how it works.
Gods typically bestow knowledge upon their mortals, what we have done is separated each knowledge into one of eight classes, causing it to increase one of the base stats. Gunpowder, for example, is definably a military knowledge, though it has non-violent uses. In truth, what you label the advancement is solely roleplay. Granted, one should use a modicum of discretion, as to not bestow Knowledge:Nuclear warfare upon their flock, until Doomsday actually occurs.
A few LoC commands change using this system, most notably Nourish Populace, is renamed Encourage Populace: (advancement). Create Artifact automatically bestows a point of Encourage: Faith, as well as Creating a new class will bestow a point of Encouragement to a stat.
Every population will increase one of their stats at rollover, and can have up to two points per rollover encouraged by their god, anything above that is wasted as the mortals try to make sense of all the knowledge bestowed at once.
The stats are as follows:
__Military__
Naturally all military tech goes here as well as military organizations and classes created, such as :Fighter, Scout, Warblade...
__Populace__
How large your population is, and things that promote health and welfare of your people, as well as more of a 'catch-all'. Populace is very important, considering that 0 populace is considered either dead or scant survivors, depending on how you wish to play.
Factotums, Chameleons can go here, all uses of Nourish Populace.
__Science__
Mining, Smelting, Alchemy, Chemistry, Robot-Forging, it's all here, as well as non-magical classes
__Faith__
Religious Doctrine, Holidays, Divine casters, religious organizations, and artifacts
__Wealth__
Commerce in general, Currency, Trade Routes, Caravans, Nourish Land can be used here, if creating valuable goods.
__Culture__
society in general, not quite the same as Populace, as this appeals to royalty, class systems and government, and all things that appeal to social causes, such as Bards, Rogues and Paladins of Freedom.
__Arcane__
Magical organizations, arcane spellcasters, creation of meta-magic and Nourish Land if used to denote a more magically inclined area, such as ley lines.
__Spirituality__
A more generic magic/awareness, that supplements nature. Druids, Shamans, Rangers go here. Arcane/Divine casters may go here if the god wishes to have their people close to nature.
So a flock might have stats like this
Military:2
Populace:4
Science:7
Faith:3
Wealth:4
Arcane:1
Social:2
Spirituality:2
such a stat block suggests a technological focus on the civilization with little regard for nature or arcane magic.
Might
Now let's discuss the Mights. A Might is determined by simply adding together the two stats that make it up.
Military and Populace are the backbone of the War Might, as they represent the standard army's power and size
Science and Wealth together are the Trade Might. Having superior goods as well as the best trade routes is not to be underestimated.
Arcane & Spirituality represent the general Supernatural Might, ie: Magical dominance, arcane aided armies and whatnot.
Faith & Social are the last might, the Religious Might. Conversion of enemy forces, divine caster based armies and their ilk
The Mights are the base stats used for large scale attacking and defending from each other.
Combat
Combat can be subtle or overt depending on what you pick to do.
Small scale combat can be waged in any number of ways, skirmishes, siphoning gold from opponents, converting them, infiltration with spies and arsonists, spreading hurtful rumors...
These are generally used to 'soften up' a target before an assault, which helps define weak points to attack.
example: Jeff declares a Trade attack against Matt, saying that his people are starting a new trade route within Matt's cities. To see who benefits from this most, compare the Wealth Might statistics, with each side adding 1d6 to their roll. The victor may steal 1 pt of statistic from their opponent.
There are only 3 positions to use in Large ScaleCombat,
At Home, In the Field, At Enemy Home
In a field scale battle, combat is simply the chosen Might +1d6 for each side, high roll wins. Spoils are +2 points from the losers' stats.
At home or at enemy home, the home side may use more of their advancements to aid them.
Example: Jeff is defending from Matt's large army, with his own more humble army. Matt chose to field a War Might army, and has the stats to back it up. Jeff is more technologically based than military, and his army has suffered, but here, with the resources available, he can add a bit of his scientific knowledge to aid his troops, up to an average of (Military + Science)/2 + populous to calculate his War Might.
so to recap:
Field battles
Matt
5 Military + 7 Populace = War Might 12
Jeff
3 Military + 5 Populace = War Might 8
At home, Jeff would have (3 Military + 9 Science)/2 = 6 + 5 Populace = 11
Jeff stands a greater chance to survive at home base.
Land Control
In the beginning.....the Gods made the world, and then they had a pool of 200 points to distribute among the various terrains of: ocean, wasteland, grassland, forest, jungle, tundra, desert, swamp, mountains, & hills.
There are three reasons I've implemented a land control system is, firstly, to allow players to understand exactly how much room there is to work with, as opposed to undefinable elements. Keep in mind, that this part, as well as MoM is totally optional, and unnecessary for the simple game. The second reason is to encourage gods to use their Alter terrain abilities for more than vague purposes. The third reason involves subraces, which I'll get to in a moment.
so, as always let's do an example
When a race is formed, simply designate what their favored race's terrain type is. That main race may not populate anything but that terrain.
ie: Dwarves - Hills, Dragons - Mountains
For the size of the land controlled by a population, simply add the Populace and next highest score to represent the size of the flock.
example again
the world has 25 pts for Hills.
the Dwarves have developed enough that they have a Populus of 11, and Technology of 14 which gives them a 25 for Size. They cannot increase their Populus or technology until they are given more land to expand into.
If one cannot expand via simple conquest, a god may decide to Create/Alter Land, changing the point spread for the world by 20 pts. A god may also create a secondary area that may be up to 50 pts in size, as an 'extra' zone, such as the Underdark, or an extraplanar area, though generally these areas have their own terrain types to deal with.
Subraces are the easiest way to adapt to being out of terrain, Creating a subrace of Dwarves for Mountains, ie: Mountain Dwarves, lets them move into the mountainous regions for expansion, meaning now Dwarves can count Hills and Mountains in the amount of land they can use.
Errata
No one stat may be over 5 pts higher than the lowest stat.
- changed land size controlled from average of Pop and next stat, to Pop and highest stat.
more to be determined by playtest.
Land control still under development
Questions? Ask!
by Zerombr, and Vadin
The concept of MoM is to create a supplement, a companion to the LoC games, to help provide definition to the mortal flocks without overcomplicating, or clashing with the rules-light system of Lords of Creation.
All too often in game, wars happen between mortals, which, assuredly is both fun and entertaining until the inevitable question occurs of, 'Who wins?'. Generally the game suggests that both sides decide on a victor beforehand, and when agreed upon, this is surely the easiest and best way to deal with such things. However some players, myself included, may maintain that certain advancements in matters of magic or technology may cause the war to lean a different way.
That is what this system is hoping to represent, so let's get started explaining how it works.
Gods typically bestow knowledge upon their mortals, what we have done is separated each knowledge into one of eight classes, causing it to increase one of the base stats. Gunpowder, for example, is definably a military knowledge, though it has non-violent uses. In truth, what you label the advancement is solely roleplay. Granted, one should use a modicum of discretion, as to not bestow Knowledge:Nuclear warfare upon their flock, until Doomsday actually occurs.
A few LoC commands change using this system, most notably Nourish Populace, is renamed Encourage Populace: (advancement). Create Artifact automatically bestows a point of Encourage: Faith, as well as Creating a new class will bestow a point of Encouragement to a stat.
Every population will increase one of their stats at rollover, and can have up to two points per rollover encouraged by their god, anything above that is wasted as the mortals try to make sense of all the knowledge bestowed at once.
The stats are as follows:
__Military__
Naturally all military tech goes here as well as military organizations and classes created, such as :Fighter, Scout, Warblade...
__Populace__
How large your population is, and things that promote health and welfare of your people, as well as more of a 'catch-all'. Populace is very important, considering that 0 populace is considered either dead or scant survivors, depending on how you wish to play.
Factotums, Chameleons can go here, all uses of Nourish Populace.
__Science__
Mining, Smelting, Alchemy, Chemistry, Robot-Forging, it's all here, as well as non-magical classes
__Faith__
Religious Doctrine, Holidays, Divine casters, religious organizations, and artifacts
__Wealth__
Commerce in general, Currency, Trade Routes, Caravans, Nourish Land can be used here, if creating valuable goods.
__Culture__
society in general, not quite the same as Populace, as this appeals to royalty, class systems and government, and all things that appeal to social causes, such as Bards, Rogues and Paladins of Freedom.
__Arcane__
Magical organizations, arcane spellcasters, creation of meta-magic and Nourish Land if used to denote a more magically inclined area, such as ley lines.
__Spirituality__
A more generic magic/awareness, that supplements nature. Druids, Shamans, Rangers go here. Arcane/Divine casters may go here if the god wishes to have their people close to nature.
So a flock might have stats like this
Military:2
Populace:4
Science:7
Faith:3
Wealth:4
Arcane:1
Social:2
Spirituality:2
such a stat block suggests a technological focus on the civilization with little regard for nature or arcane magic.
Might
Now let's discuss the Mights. A Might is determined by simply adding together the two stats that make it up.
Military and Populace are the backbone of the War Might, as they represent the standard army's power and size
Science and Wealth together are the Trade Might. Having superior goods as well as the best trade routes is not to be underestimated.
Arcane & Spirituality represent the general Supernatural Might, ie: Magical dominance, arcane aided armies and whatnot.
Faith & Social are the last might, the Religious Might. Conversion of enemy forces, divine caster based armies and their ilk
The Mights are the base stats used for large scale attacking and defending from each other.
Combat
Combat can be subtle or overt depending on what you pick to do.
Small scale combat can be waged in any number of ways, skirmishes, siphoning gold from opponents, converting them, infiltration with spies and arsonists, spreading hurtful rumors...
These are generally used to 'soften up' a target before an assault, which helps define weak points to attack.
example: Jeff declares a Trade attack against Matt, saying that his people are starting a new trade route within Matt's cities. To see who benefits from this most, compare the Wealth Might statistics, with each side adding 1d6 to their roll. The victor may steal 1 pt of statistic from their opponent.
There are only 3 positions to use in Large ScaleCombat,
At Home, In the Field, At Enemy Home
In a field scale battle, combat is simply the chosen Might +1d6 for each side, high roll wins. Spoils are +2 points from the losers' stats.
At home or at enemy home, the home side may use more of their advancements to aid them.
Example: Jeff is defending from Matt's large army, with his own more humble army. Matt chose to field a War Might army, and has the stats to back it up. Jeff is more technologically based than military, and his army has suffered, but here, with the resources available, he can add a bit of his scientific knowledge to aid his troops, up to an average of (Military + Science)/2 + populous to calculate his War Might.
so to recap:
Field battles
Matt
5 Military + 7 Populace = War Might 12
Jeff
3 Military + 5 Populace = War Might 8
At home, Jeff would have (3 Military + 9 Science)/2 = 6 + 5 Populace = 11
Jeff stands a greater chance to survive at home base.
Land Control
In the beginning.....the Gods made the world, and then they had a pool of 200 points to distribute among the various terrains of: ocean, wasteland, grassland, forest, jungle, tundra, desert, swamp, mountains, & hills.
There are three reasons I've implemented a land control system is, firstly, to allow players to understand exactly how much room there is to work with, as opposed to undefinable elements. Keep in mind, that this part, as well as MoM is totally optional, and unnecessary for the simple game. The second reason is to encourage gods to use their Alter terrain abilities for more than vague purposes. The third reason involves subraces, which I'll get to in a moment.
so, as always let's do an example
When a race is formed, simply designate what their favored race's terrain type is. That main race may not populate anything but that terrain.
ie: Dwarves - Hills, Dragons - Mountains
For the size of the land controlled by a population, simply add the Populace and next highest score to represent the size of the flock.
example again
the world has 25 pts for Hills.
the Dwarves have developed enough that they have a Populus of 11, and Technology of 14 which gives them a 25 for Size. They cannot increase their Populus or technology until they are given more land to expand into.
If one cannot expand via simple conquest, a god may decide to Create/Alter Land, changing the point spread for the world by 20 pts. A god may also create a secondary area that may be up to 50 pts in size, as an 'extra' zone, such as the Underdark, or an extraplanar area, though generally these areas have their own terrain types to deal with.
Subraces are the easiest way to adapt to being out of terrain, Creating a subrace of Dwarves for Mountains, ie: Mountain Dwarves, lets them move into the mountainous regions for expansion, meaning now Dwarves can count Hills and Mountains in the amount of land they can use.
Errata
No one stat may be over 5 pts higher than the lowest stat.
- changed land size controlled from average of Pop and next stat, to Pop and highest stat.
more to be determined by playtest.
Land control still under development
Questions? Ask!