Sphaera: A World Forged by Iron: Discussion

I'm going to use this as a drafting board for ideas on it until we have something solid, I'd love to know that some of you would follow along to this next project and I'd like you to feel like you're still an active part of it. In particular, I would really appreciate feedback and critiques of any ideas sound boarded off of you guys as I even work on the basic drawing board of this;

New/Old Player Rotation

It's no secret that this died out because I relied significantly on the participation of every player. Even when running in person matches, you can't count on everyone always being there. Especially when you are at the age of this sites main demographic [Teen-Young Adult, typically student or fresh to the job market]. So this time I want to keep a consistant world with players being a major factor in controling it, but keeping it so that I can NPC a town/village at any time.

The problem with a town based map is this; I'm going to have to eventually draw up a map of the Entire region with all major towns. At this stage, new

• 1. Serve as new rulers to old Settlements or
• 2. Start as villages which number maybe a few hundred [and thus not included on the map due to a lack of serious notability] and come into power with plot related needs or simply playing a good tactician.
• 3. (Unconventional) Start as a neighbouring tribe/city from a neighbouring who would not be particularly well recorded on the map but might have stake in the outcome of this.

This does put new players at a slight disadvantage but gives them a choice between inhereting powerful Demesnes or custom building their own but having to suffer through the need to ally with a more powerful force and building themselves up.

Stats

The second mechanical concern is stats and general game play. Intuitively, freeform seems like the best option for this; a large map mechanic would definitely ruin the flavour and turn it into a tactical slog rather than a real world building experience where creativity could be rewarded. However, what I propose is a general statting of Kingdoms, on the basis of a few markings. How they would interact with eachother is still in question but an example might be this;

• Lykyemav (Toryl, Galyr Region)
  • Ruler: Saerrul Daelyn
  • Language: Toryl, Cwengâr
  • Ressource (Optional): Regional Capital
  • Wealth: *****
  • Military: **
  • Defensibility: ***
  • Stability: *

This would make a village which is very wealthy [Wealth] due to it's Historic Location and decently well protected [Defensibility] but weak militarily [Military] and on the verge of revolution [Stability]. Here's a break down of the stats;

• Ressource is largely a flavour element but one which will help players describe their village more quickly; is it a fort built for a "Strategic location"? A port known for spice trading? A home to a university of philosophers? This will determine a lot about you as a village but it doesn't do anything in itself, it more describes why you are buying stats in a certain way.

• Wealth as a stat is the only one with downsides as it increases, namely that you are [over all] a more desirable target. Once the game starts however, you also have one of the fastest tracks to improvement; you decide to begin investing in your army, defence building, stability or even increasing your own wealth! If you do, then these stats will increase passively over time.

• Military is the other fast tracks to improvement as it covers you ability to loot wealthy cities and generally invade and keep people in line. Sure, Wealth allows you to passively improve a city but a Military sortie will see you do it faster if the star align right. One note though is that Militaries rely on wealth! If you have a huge army but a low wealth city, you had better find people willing to pay tithes or be ready to become a Raider-Warlord.

• Defensibility is the ability to defend yourself against attackers. Military suppliments this, but defence will be what wins you sieges and makes you a difficult target to attack. This synergizes with Military by making you harder to get revenge on and Wealth by making you a less appetizing target.

• Stability is perhaps the least appetizing stat at first glance but it's also the most dangerous. If your Stability stat is low, then you have to deal with corruption from NP Cs and various annoying assassination plots. If things get particularly bad [like say an outside source bribing some nobles to rebel] then even the Military could rebel and end up divided and Defensibility could be significantly weakened when the angry populace opens up the frontgate to invaders.

Basically this will allow me to balance the power of cities while allowing even a remote mountain towns to be in some ways competative with larger trade cities [Defence & Stability v. Wealth]. This allows me to call a victor without having to relay on unstated planning, defensibility and claims to large armies, while still letting you guys take decent liberties with what you want from your city.

Obviously capitals and powerful cities will have boosts that make them difficult targets but highly rewarding.

Game Play

Like the Original, I think I may have a division between Hero and Ruler Characters, with the option to make them one in the same. Again (following along with city Stats) I'd be willing to write some up quickly in order how good a fighter, speaker or schemer your characters are and what draw backs they suffer from.

Location

I mention Meiya or Toryl as locations possible for this match and so I feel it is worth contrasting the two:

Race

• The Meiyans have different cultures but don't really divide themselves up like that; You have different areas and regions with unique economies, life styles and dialects but they all think of themselves as Meiyan.
• Toryl is ethnically diverse but also divided; Duss, So'raan, Fayn, Loeryl, Galyl and, of course, Toryl themselves. There are a lot of backgrounds which can create tensions or bridge a gap.
  • In Short: Meiyans have Chinese/American National Identity (unique regions sure, but similar enough to think they belong together as a nation) while the Toryl are more Roman Empire (different languages and cultures awkwardly under one roof because of good laws and shiny technology/reforms)

Gender

• The Meiyans are the simplest here; Lock seems to have wanted to avoid sexism entirely with them. I will try to bring up the problems that would arise and ways I think it could be dealt with but it would be the most modern fantasty "girls are in the party, deal with it" Civ.
• The Toryl are more subtle and complicated. As with the Meiyans, Women make up a significant chunk of the armies, but this plays into a more unique but none the less well established gender role which still down plays a Woman's ability. Here, more thought and philosophical waxing could be offered to the subject and the roles could be challenged by players. It's more difficult than the Meiyans in some ways but much more rewarding to play right.
  • Short Version: Meiyans=D&D gender equality, Toryl represent one where you can have female characters [especially as soldiers] but they have to work through difficulties and come to terms with some crappy things, yet when they do and you make an awesome female character kick ass then it is really rewarding.

Rulership

• The Toryl are a Republic of Patricians, this means that when a player drops out, then we will simply say he died or that there is some sort of a mechanic for a no-confidence mechanic/exile. I support the latter in the case of sudden disappearance in the place of official drop outs; this allows for a civil war mechanic to play out in the city if the old player returns.
• The Meiyans are really wierd. I downplayed it but Lockon has something akin to Seniority ala Crusader Kings II. Considering the age and expanse of the Empire? This would lead to a lot of chaos. However a complicated scheme like that /would/ allow for a great deal of intrigue and a handy way to move in new rulers.
  • Short version: Roman Republican shenanigans v. really really awkward dynastic inheretance shenanigans. Either way, expect a lot of poisoned daggers and double checking your meal.

Language

• Toryl has a lot of rough notes on how it works but it is a relative blind spot. I'd like to work with Rider in the near future vis-a-vis the details but I could get a comprehensive vocabulary going. This would allow a huge variety placenames, regular names and even background culture. Surrounding areas also have highly developed Conlangs.
• The Meiyans are still generally based around the rough notes that Lockon left. I'm willing/able to add to these myself and work around them, to create a list of place names and personal names. However, it is limited in a lot of regards, with obtuse parts and a need for a lot of new words whole sale. In general, it's sort of walking into the shoes of someone else which are far to small; Meiya was designed to have less range and flexibility than I would like, it is still usable however.
  • Short Version: We can work to finish Toryl which can steal from notes on Fayn/Galyl for a huge head start at becoming a full con-language, work with the limited notes on Meiyans and neighbours without any desire for scope or simply create some Meiyan names and place names from scratch.

Conclusion

If there's initiative to start this up again, then I'm relying on you guys to keep active here during these early revival stages; this world was build by you and for you, bringing it out to others will be a challenge but one I look forward to. I'm going to try to make the setting accessible to newcomers while also aiming to make them appreciate the scope and depth of our world building. If you join up, you'll all be first priority to bring up to speed and serve as sort of intermediaries with the new comers to help them out as well.

If I can get at least 3 or 4 of you willing to join up for a second go, then I'm happy to give this a try.

If not, I have plans for an Alternate History RP at a similar time period [Dark Ages] and I will link it here for the interested parties.

edited 4th Jun '14 12:21:22 PM by Fauxlosophe

Got pointed here by Hanuman, since we somehow ended discussing Dawn of Worlds in the Skype chat. I'd certainly be interested in participating in a Dawn of Worlds-ish version of this.

Me too. Because Dawn of Worlds sounds awesome sauce.

&I was actually aiming to flesh out the setting a little and work with what we had. Nman pointed me towards the rules like an hour ago and I've barely looked past the title page.

I'd read them over and think about a game of this but it's not really the idea up for discussion right now; What I have in mind is sort of a cross-over Crusader Kings [County Level in a Large Empire about to collapse] and Dynasty Warriors [Wandering heroes who team up and kick ass in the middle of large battles] after fleshing out this pre-existing setting a bit more to make it suitable for campaigning.

A whole sale world building game is interesting but I'll PM you guys if we end up going for that idea.

edited 4th Jun '14 5:16:57 PM by Fauxlosophe

Well, I'll lurk around. If I'll beat through my WB, I might even contribute something to the current RP.

I support this one.

I like that stats thing but are we being assigned stats based on what we write up, or will get X amount of stars to spread out among the different stat columns? I know a lot of Fate games seem to get swallowed up by arguing over stats and I am concerned over if this will end up like those constantly do. Not sure Resource is the best word to use there. Maybe City Type? City Industry? City Economy?

What I never really got used to with the first game was that our Ruler characters had to spend a lot of time talking either to NP Cs or a single other player character. Will there be a way for them to have more interaction with other players this time around?

Location: I vote for Meiya, if only because it was the state I ended up being more familiar with last time. I also want to say that if the rulership aspect is more annoyingly complicated than it is scheming and gaming complicated, then it should be streamlined or revamped into something more playable. The same goes for language, I don't feel the need to constrain ourselves what was essentially a rough draft.

I didn't really want the different start types to be exclusive; if someone drops out and someone else wants to try managing the city that someone else built up rather than start from scratch, I'm in favour of letting them. Similarly, if outside factions become important to plot and the story allows it, I'd be okay with setting up a PC or two there. Though the latter is only with plot allowing it.

I could go either way. I will manage how conflicts run and go into detail there; as a DM, I've never had a game go into arguments about Stats which I wrote. In lightly ruled games, I've never had trouble with stats at all; I mean to keep them as a means of resolving Pv P and giving others [including me] a quick glance at what the city does. I agree with ressource; I was first in a very specific mentality of "What do they sell" but then I realized that simply being in a good location on the river for trade or defensible and near a chokepoint might be worth building a city around regardless. Your suggestions sound a bit modern to me, but I like the direction of it so give me a bit and I'll think on it.

You guys will be incharge of towns with roughly county level power. Your rulers will definitely have a lot of face time; at lower ranks, I'll encourage personal travel and fast agreements since you don't want an ambassador to making decisions for you and it could take months to organize things my courrier. I may merge it into the hero element or else make Heros a later game addition who can help sway battles; It was pretty common back then for even Kings to be on the front line. Especially in a civil war.

Vote has been counted!

edited 4th Jun '14 9:29:30 PM by Fauxlosophe

So Parable and Claw's new game is the current game focusing on ye olden times worlde building. I guess Sphaera 2.0 is on hold for now? I know that with ASFAP and the new one, I probably wouldn't be able to handle a third game with that much responsibility involved