EMPIRE 2!
Gods, Kings & Adventurers
A Community World=Building Game by Morph Bark

Running on Giantitp since January 2014!
Empire 2 since September 2015 by QuintonBeck, and Zayuz since August 2016!

Current OOC: EMPIRE2!-CWBG-V-It's-Mostly-Chicken-Based-Actually
Current IC: [EMPIRE!]
Current Dice Rolling: Dice


~ ~ Them's The Rules ~ ~

Below in all the spoilers are the rules, with headers describing their general contents. This first post should contain all the information necessary to get started and play Empire! The second post shall contain the more complicated and in-depth rules, many of which are only used by the GMs but are publicly available for purposes of transparency. Others concern more acute areas of play and may be relevant to some, but not all players.

Starting Up

The Basics
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In EMPIRE! you start play as the ruler of a country. You perform actions to improve your ruler and country and their position in the world through alliances, trade, finding your children suitable spouses, researching new technology and waging war. Once your ruler dies of old age, disease, accident or murder, their heir takes over, becoming your new ruling character controlling the nation.


Your Ruler
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All player characters have the following attributes:
  • Diplomacy
  • Military
  • Curiosity
  • Faith
  • Luck


When a new player starts, they roll 1d4 for each attribute, and then assign the rolls as they wish. Two +1s may be assigned to any two separate attributes.

You can make your rolls in this thread once approved. If you roll more than one 1, you may reroll any 1s beyond the first for your nation's very first ruler. If you have more than two 1s after the reroll, those subsequent 1s become 2s (you are still left with two 1s). This option to reroll is only available to newly joined players/nations so as to avoid a terrible first ruler.

Changing Rulers
Changing rulers is a non-action. If your current character dies or abdicates the throne, their heir takes their place. In the case of the heir being the child of the previous ruler (whether eldest, youngest, adopted, or blood so long as the heir was raised as a child of the previous ruler) Their stats are rolled down the line of scores with 1d4 for their attributes receiving a +1 bonus to any stats their predecessor had a score of 4 or higher in or a +2 bonus to their roll for any attribute their predecessor had an 8 or higher in.

If the new ruler is not a child of a previous ruler, they roll stats as a new player's first ruler with flat d4s and two floating +1 modifiers. Unlike rulers who were children of a previous ruler the rolls may be assigned freely to the various attributes.

Regents, those who rule in the place of a designated heir should they be too young to begin rulership themselves, roll attributes as non-related rulers. Unlike legitimate sovereigns, Regents cannot perform special 10 actions but can perform special 5s.

Rulers must be changed the round prior to the round in which you wish to use their attribute scores. The round in which a ruler is changed the previous ruler's scores will still be in play although bonuses accrued by their actions will be applied to the new ruler for the subsequent round.

A new ruler does not roll for Luck as Luck is a player stat (discussed under Luck as an attribute below)

Please link the rolled stats for your new ruler in your IC post in which they first come into play.


Creating a Region
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Describing Your Country
When a player enters the game, they first must claim a region and describe it in fluff.

Population: A new region starts with a population of 300,000 + (10d10 x 10,000). If you take over an existing region you don’t have to reroll population.

Terrain: Describe the physical features of your selected region at least one major landmark or more at the player’s discretion. You may divulge a bit more on general landscape, and you are entirely free in amount of towns or cities you wish to have—provided that the amount suits well with the population the region has.

People: Describe what the people in the region generally look like. What do they wear? What race are they? What is their culture like? What do they do in their daily lives? It might be a good idea to see what your neighbours’ people are like, because yours and theirs are likely similar in some ways, or at least have some interesting interaction possibilities. A region might have the same general type of people as a region neighboring it and similar culture can exist beyond a single region.

Resource: Describe one resource that can be abundantly found in the region as well as at least one resource the people will have to import from outside out of necessity or desire. You can have something that doesn't exist in the real world as a resource, such as special metals like mithril or adamantium, or things that would be great for alchemy or chemistry or certain technologies, but to start using these requires a technological advance of its own.

This resource starts at [Good] quality. The import necessity will not be automatically satisfied; you have to strike a deal with a player who has it as a resource to trade it with you.

You can trade resources with other players. The mechanics of trade are discussed under Base Mechanics.

Religion: Religion can be very important in EMPIRE! When a player enters the game, their people are either pagans (animist, shamanist, druidist, unorganised religions involved with spirits, ancestor worship) or adherents to one of the pre-existing organized faiths discussed in the setting description in the first post of the OOC thread. Gaining the support of organized religions can be helpful or have unusual effects. Players can introduce their own religions with a special action if they have a Faith score of 10, raising an existing spiritual cult to official status, introducing something entirely new, or making a major change to an existing religion in their region.


Rounds
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Each round will take two OOC weeks and will be the equivalent of 2 years in-game.

During each round you have a default of five actions you can spend doing things. If players haven't posted actions by the end of that round, their round is considered wasted. Rounds close and open on Sunday.

The effects of actions don’t kick in until the end of the round. Armies raised in a round can therefore not be used until the next round, attribute increases only are added at the end of the round, and newly discovered resources or newly acquired technologies cannot be used until the round after they were introduced in your region.


Actions
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Actions are the major things happening in your nation over the course of the 2 in-game years each round covers. Is construction happening on a massive monument to your god? Are armies being raised to answer the call of their sovereign? Perhaps your nation is hosting or sending its finest diplomats to an international event to mingle with world leaders? If you want your nation to do something and have an impact on the world, use an action. There are a few specially defined actions discussed below.

Special actions are actions you can only take when your ruler has at least a 5 or a 10 in the attribute in question. Special actions are limited to one 5 and one 10 per attribute per ruler. Luck is exempt from this restriction as it is a player and not a ruler attribute.

You may be able to combine your actions with those of other players to increase their effectiveness or broaden their impact, but this will be at the GM's discretion.

All actions take effect at the end of the round (unless they have an effect that is delayed even longer). So, for instance, if you set up a trade route for another resource, you will not have the resource until the following round. If you pursue an investigation, the results will be announced in the round opener for the next round.

Projects: Some things may take more than one round to complete. These are called ‘projects’, and take multiple actions to complete. Some take only 2 actions, like making the roads a little better between your cities. Some are Great Projects that take 5 actions, like making a road network between all your towns, cities, fortresses and bordering countries, a Great Wall, an Underway or some amazing wondrous building.

Other players may assist with completion of a project.

Sub-actions are where a single action can be taken that has the effect of several other actions. The most common occurrence for this is at events, where a player can perform several diplomatic actions such as betrothals or treaty signings for the cost of one action.

In general, unless specified otherwise in the rules, if an action must be rolled for or has a mechanical effect, it probably can't be a sub-action and will take a full action of its own.

Luck actions are normally sub-actions.

Secret actions are actions which are known only to you and the GM. Such actions need to be sent to the GM for verification, otherwise they will have no effect. They do not count towards attribute increases and you can only take one per round. Special actions (5s and 10s) cannot be secret. Other players cannot investigate what you have been doing with your secret actions due to purely OOC curiosity, but if your actions affect them, they may investigate the results and trace them back to you. Secret actions are always full actions, rather than sub-actions or non-actions.

Non-actions are anything that a player does in their turn that does not cost an action. A player can take any number of these, some of which may have a mechanical effect. Changing rulers is a non-action, as is allowing foreign troops passage, and resisting conversion attempts.

Non-actions take effect at the end of the round along with regular actions.


Increasing Attributes
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Every turn a player has completed their actions, they list at the end of their post what attributes they increase. For every two actions spent in an attribute in the round, that attribute increases by one. EG: 2 Military Actions, 2 Diplomacy Actions, and 1 Curiosity Action = +1 Military and +1 Diplomacy

Please note clearly at the end of your post in the IC thread which attributes you increase so that it can be clearly noted in the tables.

What Attribute Does an Action Belong To?
Because it can sometimes be unclear what attribute an action belongs to, the following gives a general guideline. If you are still unsure about an action type, ask in the main thread or ask the GM. The GM has final say on all action types.

General: Any action that requires an attribute roll belongs to that attribute. Attribute’s Special actions always belong to their attribute. Doing any actions specifically underlined under an attribute’s rules—such as setting up trade routes under Curiosity—belongs to that attribute.

Diplomacy: Forming alliances, arranging marriages or betrothals for your character or their relatives, changing laws—unless those laws specifically apply to military or religious endeavors. Great Projects to create a world wonder or cultural marvel would fall under Diplomacy, not Curiosity. Diplomacy actions may also be aiding another nation with a project as a sign of goodwill between nations so long as the assisted project is not a military endeavor.

Military: Any action to raise troops, utilize their services, or construct fortifications.

Curiosity: Anything that has to do with trade or investigation. Project or Great Projects related to education, investigation, or economics would fall under Curiosity.

Faith: Religious gatherings, prayers, dealing with the heads or priests of your religion or those of others. Projects or Great Projects to build temples, religious institutions or faith schools would fall under Faith.


New Player Bonus Actions
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Beginning after the start of Round 6 all players to join the game will be granted 5 additional bonus actions to go along with their 5 beginning actions. These actions and their attribute increases will all take effect at the same time as your regular round actions IE at the end of the round. These bonus actions may not be interactive with other realms as they represent a partiality of what your realm has been up to prior to entering the world stage.