Bay 12 Games Forum

This is the IC thread for Markov’s Kingdoms. Much more detail is contained in the OOC thread.

     The reports just finished piling on Queen Hadreena’s desk as the winter thaws began up in the mountains, raising the level of the Hestran river. They detailed the locations, timings, and suspects, if there were any at all, in the deaths of four of her siblings, leaving only one behind, three uncles, eight cousins, and a particularly tragic incident involving an entire family, burnt inside their own building, bringing the body count to twenty. Beside this stack was a list of letters. Condolences from supposed allies, notifications that one of her more powerful aunts regretted that she could no longer support her rule, as she had to flee for her own safety, and two death threats. Those likely weren’t credible, at this moment at least. It would be incredibly impolitic to kill her immediately after her coronation, and she had the support of the clergy; those responsible would pay, if the attacked her. But it was clear that the consequences for attacking her family were somewhat more nebulous. If she didn’t instill some sort of order, she could very easily hemorrhage support as those who would otherwise stand by her realized the danger of doing so. An isolated queen would not likely be a long-lived one in Hestra.

     There were also worrying reports that this year, more than just meltwaters might make their way down the mountains. The Viri Sánguinum Imperii a literally blood-thirsty and militant people, were rumored to have finished licking the wounds that were left from their recent conquest of the dwarves that used to populate those mountains. The death of the dwarven kingdom had been manageable for Hestra; it meant a lighter flow of goods to the mountains at the time, but in the long-run it had only brought dwarven refugees, who turned out to be excellent craftsmen, into the city. But the prospect of being turned into thralls for those that lived in the mountains was a sobering one.

Kingdom Status
Economy: Healthy (4d6)
Military: Ready (3d6)(Holding)
Culture: Content (2d6)

     Three reports sat on Imic’s desk, The Sanguine Threat, A New Master in the South, and Less Peninsula Every Year. Compiled by groups of advisors, they laid out what challenges this spring most likely held. In the mountains to the northwest, the Telrac had finished feasting on dwarves, and potentially looked for new victims. They were a fearsome race, though they had not come down from the mountains in a long time. To the south, along the coast, the Deep Ones were said to be following a new Eldritch master, although the report was mum about the nature of this new thing. As far as they could tell, it was a kind of viceroy for a larger entity. That entity had, in the past, seen fit to keep Ha-Malkut as a trading nation. If that continued to be the case, it would seem no threat at all. But a new master might see a change to all of that. The final report detailed how some of the western coast of the peninsula seemed to slip into the sea every year, leaving fishermen to watch as the surf creeps towards their home. The report wasn’t clear on the timescale of the erosion, or therefor how imminent the threat was.

Kingdom Status
Economy: Healthy (4d6)
Military: Ready (3d6)(Holding)
Culture: Content (2d6)

     Looking out over Cantiera from a tall spire, Chief Racion saw prosperity, but also external threats to that prosperity. To the east lay the sea, and the ports of Ha-Malkut. They had ever been a key destination for the goods passing through Cantiera, but as important as they were, they had also never been understood. Who or what the Deep One’s served, was something of a challenging question to get answers to, and a number of Cantieran scholars had literally lost their minds trying to answer the question. But what was agreed was that recently the power structure had changed. Change could be profited from, if leveraged properly; but losing access to the sea would be another issue entirely.

     To the north was competition, of a sort. There were essentially two ways through the mountains that covered this coast: the pass through Cantiera, or the one through Hestra. Rumor had it a large part of the new ruler’s family had been killed off rather suddenly by rebellious nobles. That kind of destabilization might actually be beneficial, if leveraged properly.

     To the west, the displaced elves from the Forest that Was were finally making headway on establishing a kingdom. That could hopefully be a trade opportunity, for those willing to pass underneath the volcano’s shadow and breathe her dust, but so far communication had not been established, and their stance towards trade was unkown.

Kingdom Status
Economy: Healthy (3d6)
Military: Unprepared (2d6)(Holding)
Culture: United (4d6)

     Adelina saw that her people were still pleased with their conquest of the dwarves. A long-lived race, they naturally were also long-minded, and reveled in victories and felt the shame of their defeats over much longer time periods than the short-lived races did. But that victorious glow was beginning to turn into a hedonistic frenzy, directionless and chaotic. That chaos could damage the order she had built, and it was clear the Imperii would need something to unite over. Some productive task would have to be found. A priest had been attacked the other day, before the attacker was pulled off and summarily executed. A bad omen for the direction that idle hands would turn soon.

     And to make matters worse, idle was exactly what most of the hands in her empire were. Not only did the nation as a whole not have a direction, many individuals were having increasingly hard times bringing money into their homes. Economic thinking might not be something that came readily to her, but it might be necessary to take up that cause to repair years of neglect.

Kingdom Status
Economy: Stagnant (2d6)
Military: Ready (4d6)(Holding)
Culture: Content (3d6)

     Gamchicoth felt throughout the part of himself that was Ha-Malkut that there was unrest, rising from the depths. A calm surface, to be sure, but he could feel it. Anxiety, distress, uncertainty. The parts of the world that were not also him were changing, and the Deep Ones that lived in Ha-Malkut were upset by this change. They kept this emotion deep in themselves, because tied to it was often a thought. The thought that Dagon might have been wrong in remaking Ha-Malkut, in destroying his predecessor and install Gamchicoth. Maybe there was too much unrest in the outside world for this to have been the moment. They covered this thought with others, like the thought that, to be sure, Gamchicoth is far superior to Iaugraandi. And that they could imagine no better being to rule than Gamchicoth, not that they could imagine him. But underneath all of that was the suspicion that this was poor timing. Gamchicoth would have to help them keep this suspicion deep, or expel it entirely. It would not do for it to bubble up to the surface, where Lord Dagon might feel it.

Kingdom Status
Economy: Healthy (4d6)
Military: Ready (3d6)(Holding)
Culture: Upset (2d6)

     Han’Qerr felt a wind blow down from the north, and on that wind were fragment of the Forest that Was, the old Tree Grove. It was a painful reminder that once, their air had been clean. The pain came not only from the memories, but from the ash kicked into the air by those winds. That ash had been the biggest threat since they left the forest, but it had also come from their greatest provider. The volcano gave them obsidian from which they could fashion powerful magical tools and some of the most precise blades on earth. Its foothills were also home to the metals which the elves needed so badly, in order to get the food they required. But, despite this tenuous hold on life, the elves of High Vallus finally had enough stability, and something that might even be approaching material prosperity, that they could start looking to the future, and building the kind of land that they wanted to live in. This time, though, they would need to be ready to defend it.

Kingdom Status
Economy: Healthy (4d6)
Military: Unprepared (2d6)(Holding)
Culture: Content (3d6)

 

This is intended to be a high turnover game, where characters are either killed in the pursuit of great deeds, or retired to advance the world. In either case, the end of every character promises greater beginnings for the next, and hopefully even more heroic of deeds. Hopefully, this will result in a world that is constantly moving forward, while at the same time a wide variety of new characters are brought in to experience it.

The degree of RP and direction of the story is in the hands of you, the players. Any life can be played out, from a baker to a beserker.

To create a character, select between one of the available souls (a prerolled list of race, HP, SP, Attack, and Defense), and give the character a name, description, and class. Once claimed, a soul is taken off the list of available souls. New souls will be rolled as space is available, and only once all existing souls have been claimed. Filling out the Name, Class, Stats, and Resource die for a new character is sufficient to claim the soul, you can fill out the description at your leisure. These are strictly first come first served.

Classes are purchased using whatever Spirit Points you have stashed since your last death, and any excess SP can either be banked for the future, or invested in Resource die at a rate of 1 SP per (resource die), 3 SP per 2 [resource die], and 5 SP per 3 {resource die}. Earning SP is discussed below, and you begin with none.

Name:
Race:
Description:
Class:

HP:
MP:
Attack:
Defense:
Wounds:

Skills:

Resource die: (An abstraction of wealth. When you try to purchase something, you will roll one or more of these die against some obstacle for the purchase. After rolling them, these die are lost, so you must be careful how you allocate them.)
Inventory/Equipment:

The outcome of every action is determined by rolling a collection of d6 die. The nomenclature is as follows: {a} + + (c) + d means roll a die and take greater than 1, b die and take those greater than 2, and c die and take those greater than 3, and add d points, and that is the number of successes.

In combat, the number of successes you roll is subtracted from your enemies number of defense successes, and then that number is subtracted from their HP. Even a nonlethal blow can result in wounds. Each 6 rolled counts as a wound die, and the number of wound die is capped as the excess of the attack roll over the defense roll. 1 wound die is a superficial wound, with no functional consequences, 2 is a minor wound that will have some small impact, but will fade without treatment, 3 is a midi wound that has a small lasting impact, and will require attention, 4 is a major wound that can significantly alter the course of combat, 5 is a severe wound that could be fatal without treatment, and 6 is a traumatic wound, with the window of only a single turn to prevent death. Any loss of HP not due to a wound can be recovered at a rate of 1 HP per turn while resting. This is subject to rebalancing as need be.

In the use of skills, the process is similar, except that in the large majority of actions only 1 success needs to be rolled for the action to be successful. Only in the case of extraordinary or heroic actions is it necessary to roll more than 1 success. That being said, in all cases additional successes yield better results.

If you’re trying to use a skill you don’t have yet, you’re going to need to be lucky. Specifically, a die will be rolled on which only 5 and 6 are successes. 1 and 2 can results in negative consequences depending on the skill being attempted.

Skills will grow according to how many times they’ve been used, requiring 3 uses to learn, 5 more to advance from (1) to (2), and 7 more to advance from (2) to (3). After (3) skills begin changing die types ((3) goes to [1]+(2),etc and [3] goes to {3} + [2]), with a difference of 2 uses in the requirement for each level.

If you take an action not governed by a skill, such as searching for an item or person, or attempting to lift something heavy, etc. a 1d6 will be rolled with RtD outcomes.

SP represents the power to cast spells. It is spent while performing magical actions and recovered similarly to HP.

There are two ways for your character to exit the stage of the game. The first is that they might be killed, either in combat, a fatal mistake in a spell, or something as absurd as a pig falling on their head. This is an abrupt end and leaves you with nothing more or less than the Spirit Points you’ve accumulated along the way.

The alternative is to gracefully enter retirement. This means that not only do you get to keep your accumulated SP, but your character has the opportunity to define a new class based off of their skills, the result being that all newly generated characters can begin with this class.

The newly generated class includes skills, equipment, and spells that the new character beings with. These must be spells or skills the character already possess, or equipment that could be readily acquired. It also contains limits on which characters can pick it. This must include purchasing the previous class the character used (i.e. if you pick Brute as your first class, and retire as a Soldier, picking Soldier will require paying the cost of Brute, and having its advantages), and can also include limits of other sorts (i.e. limiting to certain races, limited starting resource die, or minimum thresholds on certain starting stats). These other limits will decrease the cost of the created class. The cost in SP will be equal to the sum of the skills granted, plus the expected costs of the equipment, minus some value depending on the limitations imposed on the class, at my discretion. This is subject to future balancing.

SP is earned as a consequence of successful deeds. In combat, this is concrete. Killing certain entities may be worth a given amount of SP. However, this is also abstract. What is worth SP is partially based off of your character’s apparent goals, and whether or not they are making strides in accomplishing them, but also in what accomplishments are considered noteworthy. I’ll give out SP when somebody accomplishes something that I feel deserves it, but also feel free to nominate others for SP, and give reasons why you think they’ve earned it. Please refrain from asking for SP for yourself, unless you genuinely  believe I simply missed something. If that’s the case, bring it up once in a PM and then accept whatever judgement is given.

It’s worth noting other actions may affect future characters in other ways. For example, befriending a race and bringing them into the town will make them available for future characters, acquiring great artifacts of public benefit may give bonuses to all future characters, etc. These could also have detrimental effects.