Malachi Lemont
2013-10-29, 06:26 PM
Autocracy is a structured game of world-building, economics, and war. Each player controls a nation, which they can customize to a certain extent, including "crunch" attributes like natural resources and government structure, as well as "fluff" such as tourist attractions and pop culture. The game takes place in Belorica, a modern-day parallel of Earth, where all the normal laws of physics apply, and technology has followed pretty much the same paths it has in the real world. Each turn, you will engage in trade, expand your empire, or shift your government's policies to lead your people to global domination.
Maps
The map of Belorica will not be divided up into territories or hexes. Instead, boundaries will be somewhat organic, so that nations of any size and shape will be permitted.
Physical Map:
http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/images/f/fa/BeloricaBasic.png
Political Map
http://images.wikia.com/autocracythegame/images/b/b5/BeloricaPol7.png
Rules
Economics
World economics will be a huge part of this game. Each player will have a currency, which will relate to other currencies through exchange rates. All exchange rates will be 1:1 at the start of the game, but they will quickly change depending on the players' political actions, as well as chance events. Below are some of the sub-fields of economics that will come into play during the game.
Resource Production
Raw materials are the foundation of the economy. Here is a table of the raw materials involved in this game. The Labor cost represents the number of workers you need to produce one of each resource per turn. The number 1 on the table represents 10,000 people, and 10 is 100,000 people.
{table=head] Resource|Labor Cost|Uses
Grains(GR)|1|Sustains and expands population
Vegetables(VG)|3|Improves Health
Livestock(LI)|4|Improves Happiness
Crude Oil(CO)|5|Powers machinery
Industrial Metals(IM)|3| Builds machinery
Precious Metals(PM)|10|Stabilizes currency
Natural Gas(NG)|7|Substitute for oil[/table]
The type of land you control affects which resources you can produce, and in what amounts. Producing resources requires labor. The following table shows the maximum yield you can gain from any available land.
{table=head]Terrain Type|GR|VG|LI|CO|IM|PM|NG
Temperate Forest|17|4|4|2|6|2|2
Rain Forest|11|8|1|4|4|3|1
Pine Forest|10|3|3|5|4|1|3
Semidesert|13|3|6|4|3|1|3
Desert|6|1|1|8|3|2|4
Mountain|8|1|1|2|10|4|2
Tundra or Ice|2|0|0|9|4|3|4[/table]
Manufacturing
Manufactured goods can be created using raw materials. You can trade them in the same way you would trade raw goods. Manufacturing also requires labor. The same scale is used for labor: 1 labor point = 10,000 workers.
{table=head] Product|Ingredients|Labor|Uses
Automobiles|2 IM, 3 CO (or NG)|10|Facilitates trade, boosts economy
Weapons|3 IM, 1 CO (or NG)|8|Makes military more efficient
Electronics|2 IM, 1 PM|14|Improves communications, happiness
Luxuries |1 IM, 2 CO (or NG), 3 PM|20|Improves happiness, prestige
[/table]
Trade
In order to trade with other countries, you have to have a surplus of some resource. You can then choose to put some of your resources up for sale. For example, Player 1 could post "2 automobiles for sale, 700 credits each." Other players would be free to claim one or both of those, but once the two are gone, they would have to ask permission from player 1 to purchase more resources.
Money
Money is the game's most important resource, and will be collected each turn. The first step in determining your country's budget is to determine national income. Each employed worker generates 1,000 credits (or whatever you currency unit is) per turn. This will give you an income in the billions. You also gain additional bonus income for:
{table=head] Bonus Factor|Reward
Each automobile unit in country|200 million
Each electronics unit in country|500 million
Island Nation (tourism)|1 billion
Each happiness point over 15|1 billion
Each education point over 10|200 million[/table]
Taxes
Once you have calculated your final national income, you can tax your population. The default tax rate will be 10%. This will cause no unhappiness, and will still generate a decent amount of revenue. Your revenue is simply the tax rate multiplied by the national income.
Exchange Rates
These will not affect how much money you can spend domestically, but they will determine international trade. Your country's worth is measured in a currency value. The lower your currency value, the less you will receive through trade.
Here are the rules I have made so far on Nation Attributes.
The quality of your nation is determined by 5 attributes: Happiness, Education, Health, Technology, and Patriotism. The players' starting attributes will be determined by rolling 3d6. The dice rolls are only to get the 5 numbers. You get to assign each number to an attribute, depending on where your priorities lie. The attributes will be updated each turn.
Each attribute has several causes and effects. The tables for causes will display three variables: The condition for change, how much the attribute changes, and the duration of the change. Suppose your happiness rating is 10 when the condition becomes true. If the value says +1, and the duration is "1 turn," then your happiness will go up to 11 the next turn, and will stay at 11 after that. If the duration says "unlimited," then you will gain +1 every turn until the condition is false.
Happiness
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
Tax rate above 10%|-1|1 Turn
Tax rate above 15%|-2|1 Turn
Tax rate above 20%|-3|1 Turn
1 or more Livestock per 10,000 people|+1|1 Turn
1 or more Electronics per 20,000 people|+1|Unlimited
1 or more Luxuries per 50,000 people|+3|1 Turn
At war|-1|Unlimited
At war on home front|-3|Unlimited
10 million credits spent on entertainment|+1|Unlimited[/table]
Effects:
{table=head]Happiness|Result
Each point over 15|1 billion in national income
Each point over 10|1 million immigrants from each nation with a lower happiness
10 or higher|1% chance of Revolution
9|5% chance
8|10% chance
7|15% chance
6|20% chance
5|25% chance
4|30% chance
3|40% chance
2|60% chance
1|80% chance
0|Revolution!
[/table]
Revolutions:
When a revolution begins, your government loses all authority for at least one turn. During this time, you just have to sit back and wait to see what happens. You cannot collect or spend money, and foreign trade will shut down. Your people will continue collecting resources, but they will not pay any taxes. If you are dependent on trade for grain, people will starve.
When a revolution begins, it has a strength of 2. Each turn, a d6 is rolled. If the d6 is less than or equal to the revolution's strength, the fighting continues. Otherwise, the fighting ends, and the government will be back in power the next turn. If the government recovers, all government attributes will reset to 10.
Other countries can choose to support a revolution. If a foreign country sends an invading military force greater than at least 10% of the revolting country's population, the revolution's strength grows by 1. The revolution's strength cannot be more than 5. After 5 turns of revolution, the player will be removed from the game, and all of their territory will be handed over to the invading player, or, if there is no invader, it will be up for grabs.
Education
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
1 credit per 10 people toward Education|+0|Unlimited
1 credit per 5 people|+2|1 Turn
1 credit per person|+4|1 Turn
Less than 1 credit per 10 people|-1|Unlimited[/table]
Effects:
{table=head]Education|Result
Each point over 10|200 million in income
10|No Effect
Each point below 10|5% of jobs outsourced[/table]
Health
Here's a new version of the health system. Tell me what you think of it:
Highest vegetable consumption (per person) in the world: +1 per turn.
Highest % of healthcare workers in labor force: + 2 per turn.
Lowest % of healthcare workers in labor force: -1 per turn.
At war: -1
At war on home front: -2
At war with country with outbreak: -3 (once only)
Outbreaks are possible with a health stat of 9 or less. The chances increase as your stat gets lower. Outbreaks always last for 3 turns. You can't cure outbreaks once they begin, but you can reduce their effects by spending lots of money. Here's how it works:
Full Effect of Outbreak:
Less than $200,000 spent on healthcare per person: 1d4 % of population dies.
$200,000 - $500,000: Reduce outbreak by 10%.
$500,000 - $1,000,000: Reduce outbreak by 25%
$1 - 2 million: Reduce outbreak by 50%
$2 - 5 million: Reduce outbreak by 75%
Over $5 million: Reduce outbreak by 90%
Outbreaks:
When an outbreak starts in your country, your policies continue as normal, except that all population growth stops and 1d6 % of your population dies each turn. If you have a health score of 15 or higher, you can choose to end an outbreak, either in your country or in someone else's. Outbreaks end when either someone uses a cure, or your population gets less than 10 million. If someone invades your country during an outbreak, their country is also infected.
More Rules
Technology
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
1 credit per 10 people toward Technology|+1|Unlimited
1 credit per 5 people|+2|1 Turn
1 credit per person|+4|1 Turn
Less than 1 credit per 10 people|+0|Unlimited[/table]
*Note that Technology is the only attribute that cannot go down.
Effects:
{table=head]Technology|Result
Highest|+20% to currency value
Second Highest|+10% to currency value
Lowest|-20% to currency value
Second Lowest|-10% to currency value
15 or higher|10% labor discount on resource production
20 or higher|10% discount on manufacturing
25 or higher|20% discount on resources
30 or higher|20% discount on manufacturing
and so on to 60|maxes out at 50% discounts
[/table]
Patriotism
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
Highest in any attribute besides Patriotism|+1|Unlimited
Highest in 2 other attributes|+2|Unlimited
Highest in 3 other attributes|+3|Unlimited
Highest in all 4 other attributes|+4|Unlimited
Lowest in 1,2,3,4 attributes|-1,2,3,4|Unlimited
War on home territory|+3|[/table]
*Note: Because Patriotism depends on the other 4 attributes, it is always calculated last.
Effects:
{table=head]Technology|Result
Each point above 10|+5% Military Strength
Each point below 10|-5% Military Strength
0|10% chance of citizens defecting to a larger nation
40 or above|Ultimate Authority[/table]
Ultimate Authority:
As long as your patriotism remains above 40, it is impossible for your other attributes to go down. Ignore any negative effects of your actions that are listed in the rules. Unless someone can wrest power away from you, you just might rule the world!
Winning when outnumbered 20-1 seems a little strange to me, and that system is both hard to understand and involves huge amounts of luck.
Maybe have a system where each unit has a score, so for infantry 10, tanks 20, planes 25, or something, with guns giving infantry +5, but also a combined arms bonus of 20 for getting a 3/1/1 mix of the types or something.
So side 1 has 5 infantry, all with guns, 2 tanks and 1 planes, for a score of 130.
Side 2 has 3 infantry, all with guns, 1 tanks and 1 planes, for 80, with a combined arms bonus of 20, for a total of 100.
Then, each side rolls a d6. A 1 gives -10% to the score, a 2 no modifier, a 3 +10%, a 4 +20%, and so on.
The amount of casualties could be based on the amount of score extra, maybe 1 unit per 10 points.
So in this example Side 1 rolls a 2, Side 2 a 6, giving final scores of 130 and 140. Side 2 wins, and, having won by 10 points, takes out 1 random unit (this could be random, or by a dice roll, with every unit being given a number).
But if there was 20-1 numbers, like 20 infantry with no guns versus one without, then the scores would be 200 and 15, and therefore impossible for the side of 20 to lose.
If you want, you could have a 20 point defence bonus or something.[/SPOILER]
Maps
The map of Belorica will not be divided up into territories or hexes. Instead, boundaries will be somewhat organic, so that nations of any size and shape will be permitted.
Physical Map:
http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/images/f/fa/BeloricaBasic.png
Political Map
http://images.wikia.com/autocracythegame/images/b/b5/BeloricaPol7.png
Rules
Economics
World economics will be a huge part of this game. Each player will have a currency, which will relate to other currencies through exchange rates. All exchange rates will be 1:1 at the start of the game, but they will quickly change depending on the players' political actions, as well as chance events. Below are some of the sub-fields of economics that will come into play during the game.
Resource Production
Raw materials are the foundation of the economy. Here is a table of the raw materials involved in this game. The Labor cost represents the number of workers you need to produce one of each resource per turn. The number 1 on the table represents 10,000 people, and 10 is 100,000 people.
{table=head] Resource|Labor Cost|Uses
Grains(GR)|1|Sustains and expands population
Vegetables(VG)|3|Improves Health
Livestock(LI)|4|Improves Happiness
Crude Oil(CO)|5|Powers machinery
Industrial Metals(IM)|3| Builds machinery
Precious Metals(PM)|10|Stabilizes currency
Natural Gas(NG)|7|Substitute for oil[/table]
The type of land you control affects which resources you can produce, and in what amounts. Producing resources requires labor. The following table shows the maximum yield you can gain from any available land.
{table=head]Terrain Type|GR|VG|LI|CO|IM|PM|NG
Temperate Forest|17|4|4|2|6|2|2
Rain Forest|11|8|1|4|4|3|1
Pine Forest|10|3|3|5|4|1|3
Semidesert|13|3|6|4|3|1|3
Desert|6|1|1|8|3|2|4
Mountain|8|1|1|2|10|4|2
Tundra or Ice|2|0|0|9|4|3|4[/table]
Manufacturing
Manufactured goods can be created using raw materials. You can trade them in the same way you would trade raw goods. Manufacturing also requires labor. The same scale is used for labor: 1 labor point = 10,000 workers.
{table=head] Product|Ingredients|Labor|Uses
Automobiles|2 IM, 3 CO (or NG)|10|Facilitates trade, boosts economy
Weapons|3 IM, 1 CO (or NG)|8|Makes military more efficient
Electronics|2 IM, 1 PM|14|Improves communications, happiness
Luxuries |1 IM, 2 CO (or NG), 3 PM|20|Improves happiness, prestige
[/table]
Trade
In order to trade with other countries, you have to have a surplus of some resource. You can then choose to put some of your resources up for sale. For example, Player 1 could post "2 automobiles for sale, 700 credits each." Other players would be free to claim one or both of those, but once the two are gone, they would have to ask permission from player 1 to purchase more resources.
Money
Money is the game's most important resource, and will be collected each turn. The first step in determining your country's budget is to determine national income. Each employed worker generates 1,000 credits (or whatever you currency unit is) per turn. This will give you an income in the billions. You also gain additional bonus income for:
{table=head] Bonus Factor|Reward
Each automobile unit in country|200 million
Each electronics unit in country|500 million
Island Nation (tourism)|1 billion
Each happiness point over 15|1 billion
Each education point over 10|200 million[/table]
Taxes
Once you have calculated your final national income, you can tax your population. The default tax rate will be 10%. This will cause no unhappiness, and will still generate a decent amount of revenue. Your revenue is simply the tax rate multiplied by the national income.
Exchange Rates
These will not affect how much money you can spend domestically, but they will determine international trade. Your country's worth is measured in a currency value. The lower your currency value, the less you will receive through trade.
Here are the rules I have made so far on Nation Attributes.
The quality of your nation is determined by 5 attributes: Happiness, Education, Health, Technology, and Patriotism. The players' starting attributes will be determined by rolling 3d6. The dice rolls are only to get the 5 numbers. You get to assign each number to an attribute, depending on where your priorities lie. The attributes will be updated each turn.
Each attribute has several causes and effects. The tables for causes will display three variables: The condition for change, how much the attribute changes, and the duration of the change. Suppose your happiness rating is 10 when the condition becomes true. If the value says +1, and the duration is "1 turn," then your happiness will go up to 11 the next turn, and will stay at 11 after that. If the duration says "unlimited," then you will gain +1 every turn until the condition is false.
Happiness
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
Tax rate above 10%|-1|1 Turn
Tax rate above 15%|-2|1 Turn
Tax rate above 20%|-3|1 Turn
1 or more Livestock per 10,000 people|+1|1 Turn
1 or more Electronics per 20,000 people|+1|Unlimited
1 or more Luxuries per 50,000 people|+3|1 Turn
At war|-1|Unlimited
At war on home front|-3|Unlimited
10 million credits spent on entertainment|+1|Unlimited[/table]
Effects:
{table=head]Happiness|Result
Each point over 15|1 billion in national income
Each point over 10|1 million immigrants from each nation with a lower happiness
10 or higher|1% chance of Revolution
9|5% chance
8|10% chance
7|15% chance
6|20% chance
5|25% chance
4|30% chance
3|40% chance
2|60% chance
1|80% chance
0|Revolution!
[/table]
Revolutions:
When a revolution begins, your government loses all authority for at least one turn. During this time, you just have to sit back and wait to see what happens. You cannot collect or spend money, and foreign trade will shut down. Your people will continue collecting resources, but they will not pay any taxes. If you are dependent on trade for grain, people will starve.
When a revolution begins, it has a strength of 2. Each turn, a d6 is rolled. If the d6 is less than or equal to the revolution's strength, the fighting continues. Otherwise, the fighting ends, and the government will be back in power the next turn. If the government recovers, all government attributes will reset to 10.
Other countries can choose to support a revolution. If a foreign country sends an invading military force greater than at least 10% of the revolting country's population, the revolution's strength grows by 1. The revolution's strength cannot be more than 5. After 5 turns of revolution, the player will be removed from the game, and all of their territory will be handed over to the invading player, or, if there is no invader, it will be up for grabs.
Education
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
1 credit per 10 people toward Education|+0|Unlimited
1 credit per 5 people|+2|1 Turn
1 credit per person|+4|1 Turn
Less than 1 credit per 10 people|-1|Unlimited[/table]
Effects:
{table=head]Education|Result
Each point over 10|200 million in income
10|No Effect
Each point below 10|5% of jobs outsourced[/table]
Health
Here's a new version of the health system. Tell me what you think of it:
Highest vegetable consumption (per person) in the world: +1 per turn.
Highest % of healthcare workers in labor force: + 2 per turn.
Lowest % of healthcare workers in labor force: -1 per turn.
At war: -1
At war on home front: -2
At war with country with outbreak: -3 (once only)
Outbreaks are possible with a health stat of 9 or less. The chances increase as your stat gets lower. Outbreaks always last for 3 turns. You can't cure outbreaks once they begin, but you can reduce their effects by spending lots of money. Here's how it works:
Full Effect of Outbreak:
Less than $200,000 spent on healthcare per person: 1d4 % of population dies.
$200,000 - $500,000: Reduce outbreak by 10%.
$500,000 - $1,000,000: Reduce outbreak by 25%
$1 - 2 million: Reduce outbreak by 50%
$2 - 5 million: Reduce outbreak by 75%
Over $5 million: Reduce outbreak by 90%
Outbreaks:
When an outbreak starts in your country, your policies continue as normal, except that all population growth stops and 1d6 % of your population dies each turn. If you have a health score of 15 or higher, you can choose to end an outbreak, either in your country or in someone else's. Outbreaks end when either someone uses a cure, or your population gets less than 10 million. If someone invades your country during an outbreak, their country is also infected.
More Rules
Technology
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
1 credit per 10 people toward Technology|+1|Unlimited
1 credit per 5 people|+2|1 Turn
1 credit per person|+4|1 Turn
Less than 1 credit per 10 people|+0|Unlimited[/table]
*Note that Technology is the only attribute that cannot go down.
Effects:
{table=head]Technology|Result
Highest|+20% to currency value
Second Highest|+10% to currency value
Lowest|-20% to currency value
Second Lowest|-10% to currency value
15 or higher|10% labor discount on resource production
20 or higher|10% discount on manufacturing
25 or higher|20% discount on resources
30 or higher|20% discount on manufacturing
and so on to 60|maxes out at 50% discounts
[/table]
Patriotism
Causes:
{table=head]Condition|Value|Duration
Highest in any attribute besides Patriotism|+1|Unlimited
Highest in 2 other attributes|+2|Unlimited
Highest in 3 other attributes|+3|Unlimited
Highest in all 4 other attributes|+4|Unlimited
Lowest in 1,2,3,4 attributes|-1,2,3,4|Unlimited
War on home territory|+3|[/table]
*Note: Because Patriotism depends on the other 4 attributes, it is always calculated last.
Effects:
{table=head]Technology|Result
Each point above 10|+5% Military Strength
Each point below 10|-5% Military Strength
0|10% chance of citizens defecting to a larger nation
40 or above|Ultimate Authority[/table]
Ultimate Authority:
As long as your patriotism remains above 40, it is impossible for your other attributes to go down. Ignore any negative effects of your actions that are listed in the rules. Unless someone can wrest power away from you, you just might rule the world!
Winning when outnumbered 20-1 seems a little strange to me, and that system is both hard to understand and involves huge amounts of luck.
Maybe have a system where each unit has a score, so for infantry 10, tanks 20, planes 25, or something, with guns giving infantry +5, but also a combined arms bonus of 20 for getting a 3/1/1 mix of the types or something.
So side 1 has 5 infantry, all with guns, 2 tanks and 1 planes, for a score of 130.
Side 2 has 3 infantry, all with guns, 1 tanks and 1 planes, for 80, with a combined arms bonus of 20, for a total of 100.
Then, each side rolls a d6. A 1 gives -10% to the score, a 2 no modifier, a 3 +10%, a 4 +20%, and so on.
The amount of casualties could be based on the amount of score extra, maybe 1 unit per 10 points.
So in this example Side 1 rolls a 2, Side 2 a 6, giving final scores of 130 and 140. Side 2 wins, and, having won by 10 points, takes out 1 random unit (this could be random, or by a dice roll, with every unit being given a number).
But if there was 20-1 numbers, like 20 infantry with no guns versus one without, then the scores would be 200 and 15, and therefore impossible for the side of 20 to lose.
If you want, you could have a 20 point defence bonus or something.[/SPOILER]