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Conners
2011-05-08, 04:33 AM
For anyone interested in this thread, check this one for where the mechanics/campaign is being worked out: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10972503#post10972503


Welcome to My Life as a Majesty. If you have played My Life as a King or Majesty, then that joke will be funny.

For those who don't know what Majesty or My Life as a King are about, read the spoiled text (or look them up on google): The aforementioned games (My Life as a King and Majesty) have made me want to play something similar, but in a roleplaying/tabletop style. To describe how they play, you are the sovereign of your own fantasy kingdom, and have adventurers slays monsters, conquer dungeons and protect your kingdom. This is an interesting perspective on the usual adventurers in a fantasy world, and the mechanics can be very fun.

Thus, if anyone else is interested, it'd be good fun to discuss how to make such a system. Would prefer "from-scratch" style discussion, with rule uses from other systems being fine.


To outline the basis of what such a game would entail:

Ability to manage a kingdom. From the perspective of the leader, leaders, or the leader's helpers.
Kingdom/Town-based mechanics, like constructing buildings.
Management of adventurers.
Dungeons you can behest(order) adventurers to attack.
Mechanic for placing a bounty on completing dungeons, killing specific monsters, and retrieving items, etc..
Monsters should attack or threaten the town/kingdom sometimes, with some gameplay focused on defending your castle with your adventurers.


I think those are all the main parts a My Life as a Majesty game needs.

Now, to put forward the first topic... How should fights be handled? Simply, or in-depth? Personally, or abstractly?
IE: When the Warrior and the Wizard go to kill the Troll, do you play out the fight with the players controlling the Warrior and Wizard--or just roll once to see how successfully/badly it went?

mint
2011-05-08, 06:01 AM
Now, to put forward the first topic... How should fights be handled? Simply, or in-depth? Personally, or abstractly?
IE: When the Warrior and the Wizard go to kill the Troll, do you play out the fight with the players controlling the Warrior and Wizard--or just roll once to see how successfully/badly it went?

Simplicity with depth!
That is to say abstractly. But with a neat arbitration device.
I think few choices are fine as long as the choices you can make feel meaningful. For example, say you let there be hundreds of possible party compositions. Only a few will be good, fewer still optimal.
Instead, you could provide only a few possible compositions that are all meaningful.
Say you are gearing up your guys and you are choosing between a sword or a spear. Say the sword does 5% more damage to zombies and the spear gives you 10% more defence against large monsters.
Not so interesting a choice.
If the sword does 25% more damage across the board and the spear gives you 50% more defence across same said board, something more interesting is going down.

Essentially what I am saying is I am for a system where bringing your resources to bear intelligently is more important than rolling dice.
At least when it comes to a view from the top game like this.

Conners
2011-05-08, 01:36 PM
@mint: Very good points, mint. Making the equipment tactical could be very interesting--of course, we don't need to limit it to weapons.

Some examples of tactical decisions that take place before the fight:

1: Party composition. You do this based off level and class, mostly, though you could include other details like traits ("Fear of Trolls", would make them not so good for slaying the troll, for example). You could even have genuine characters, where players should consider their personalities and how they're feeling.

2: Armour. Despite how well you can move around in plate armour (regardless of what some people believe), it'd still be a big problem for climbing mountains, going through swamps, and other such things. You also need smaller considerations, like how mail won't protect you from a golem's fist.

3: General equipment. Nets can be useful for certain monsters, climbing equipment is needed for mountains, boats are handy if there's water to take advantage of, and other such things. For stuff like the climbing equipment, you can have a General Store building that sells just aobut anything--as long as it's of the appropriate level. Level 1 is just any odd bits and bobs, level 20 would be just about anything on Earth outside of the other stores' ranges.

4: Gathering information. for difficult missions, this'd be quite important. What terrain is there? Does the monster have habits? Anyone nearby willing to help out? Gathering information well could net bonuses, as well as helping you to apply proper tactics.

5: Tactics. You could give the adventurers an idea for what tactics you want them to use, then apply bonuses based on how good your tactics were for them. Weapons could also come in here more, rather than with stats. The GM could give a bonus for holding a monster back with a spear, or give you a free attack if you brought longbows since the monster need to climb the rocks to get to you.

If Combat happens in phases/turns of some kind, you could even give tactics per turn, which could be interesting and fun.


How does that sound?


Hmm... so, how much detail in the combat?

A) You decide it in one roll.

B) You decide it in a few rolls, possibly the players influence the adventurers' actions.

C) You play it out fairly in-depth--though the combat system would be kept simple.

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-05-08, 02:16 PM
Perhaps you could modify the rules presented by the Kingmaker adventure path from Pathfinder.

Conners
2011-05-08, 09:31 PM
Haven't heard of them before. What are they like?

Kobold Esq
2011-05-09, 02:08 PM
Why would you get to choose party composition? Don't parties of adventurers (especially at higher levels) usually show up pre-constituted when the plot hook arrives?

Presumably you could either recruit individuals of a lower level, or you could hire whatever slightly higher level group is out there, but you can't make meaningful changes to them. (Though perhaps you could provide them a boon, such as an artifact from your treasury)

Conners
2011-05-09, 07:08 PM
With Majesty and My Life as a King, adventurers are recruited from level 1, then they level up. There could be ways to hire already set up adventurers, though--an inn could attract visitors who sometimes could be adventurers (and sometimes high-level ones).

Archpaladin Zousha
2011-05-09, 09:22 PM
Haven't heard of them before. What are they like?

Kind of complicated, that's what they're like. :smallbiggrin:

Joking aside, I doubt I could explain it very effectively. It allows PCs to take on various leadership roles in the government, boosting the kingdom's scores which improves how smoothly the place functions.

Conners
2011-05-11, 09:21 PM
For anyone who is interested in this thread, proceed to this one where the mechanics are being worked out: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10972503#post10972503