Game with Nation Building, Economics, and Large Scale War

[chaosgirl]

I have a friend who is interested in running a Disney Princess game, and has decided she’s looking for a system that will allow her players to trade resources with one another, keep track of the value of those resources and what there used for, and should things break down go to large scale war with each other.

Is there a system that does this? Almost seems like it wold be better as a board game, but she has plans, and they seem really cool

[NichG]

Large scale war is a bit difficult to run in parallel with individual character focus if you get into too much detail about units, positioning, etc, because you're generally being pulled back and forth between different timescales and zoom levels.

For resources and economics, one thing I can recommend is to have a system where resource capacity is a per-turn thing rather than allowing arbitrary stockpiles to be accumulated. One advantage is that if resource provision is per-turn, multiple nations can cooperate to build something that any one of them individually could not do, no matter how long they had. If such projects can also expand the resource-generation capacity, then it's doubly strong - you can have a situation where a small nation can be transformed into a powerhouse that still matters to the larger ally, if that larger ally is willing to invest the resources. So it sharpens economic pressures and connections between the various groups, but it also raises points about fairness and how to prioritize that could create a lot of politicking in the game.

[Sparky McDibben]

The A Song of Ice and Fire RPG by Green Ronin does this real well.

[Satinavian]

I agree. Though that might be a bit lightweight on the trade aspect and has not really economic simulation.

[Duff]

ASOIF does this at what you might call a "local lord" or barony level. To do kingdom level will probably need some work.
For example, You won't want to buy a "Smithy" you'd want to invest in an iron industry. You don't want to build a "Sept" you want to fund religious orders in your kingdom

Also, it doesn't really address what supplies come from a place and what is needed to do things.
So If you want - "Building a castle takes 100 units of lumber and 400 of stone. Kingdom X is willing to sell you 100 units of stone" then, again, there's work to do.

That said, It's the best system I know for the job unless you want to use something like FATE and just make the kingdoms effectively a kind of character
Or maybe DD3E had something to do this?

[Lacco]

I'd definitely take a look at Hârn.

There are some supplements that could help a lot (e.g. HârnManor for the "barony" level) with any work you are going to be doing.

My favourite mass combat system comes from Riddle of Steel, but that might be too focused on specific characters and less on the overall strategy/combat simulator from wargames. You could also use By this Axe + By this Poleaxe...

...or you can delve into the Fields of Blood (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?615037-The-Lords-of-Sleeping-Beauty-FoB-3-5-nations-game-Interest-Check) (example & further links provided in the link). Dunno how that plays, but it sounds quite complex and on the level you are looking for.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

Well there are some systems that do accomplish this.

Pathfinder had the Kingmaker module but also expanded the kingdom building rules in one of their Ultimate Books. Of what I can remember it is generic enough that it could be adapted to something like 5e with very few changes needed.

If wanting something less rules heavy there is a game called Lords of Creation. You are essentially playing a god but the fluff can be changed to be that of a royal pretty easily.

There is always the Fate system where I am sure that one of the fan made worlds address what your looking for.

I believe in one of the older editions for Legend of the 5 rings had something of managing armies and land holdings though that has more of a samurai era flavor to it.

Of course you can always make up your own.

[Slipjig]

I'd say you are probably looking for two different games: one that handles the economic model, and one that handles tactical combat (presumably on a large scale). As long as you establish rules for converting characters from one system to the other, that doesn't seem like an issue.

How crunchy are is the group looking to get on the economics? Are you looking for something that's mostly narrative and providing adventure hooks, or are your players excited about busting out the spreadsheets for a full-fledged management sim/Fantasy Tycoon game?

[sktarq]

Actually go look up Birthright. Its 2e world that includes lots of "how to rule"....

It has lots of interesting things that are easy to adapt to any homebrew that I'd recommend you build.

[KineticDiplomat]

Burning Empires. You’ll have to adjust the setting from “feudal space future”, but the rules are specifically written for the impact of high value people on operatic scales. Flexible rules for “social combat”, leading engagements from a few small groups out to vast armies across a continent, you get the idea.

What it isn’t is a “make sure you have the X power, and remember, the difference between a long and short spear is personally critical!”