(Well, conceptually this is from the You are Lord and later You are King series. I transplanted it to an environment more akin to a renaissance Italy, in which there is never-ending change of alliances, no single state claiming hegemony, the golden age of Condottieri, rise of gunpowder, and the authorship of The Prince.)
The first 3 applicants are the sovereign of their own princely state. Later applicants can initially be anything but prince.
Sovereign:
Anyone can claim sovereign, as long as he directly control at least one parcel of land. He can control all rolls on events that take place solely within his land, as long as there is no conflict of interest. He can also make laws, as long as they abide to the rules, for every subject under his sphere of influence. Being a sovereign does not preclude vassalage to another sovereign, as is common in the time.
Warfare:
To more accurately present the theme, troops are separated into three different qualities of Levy, Noble and Professional, before other qualifiers.
Levies are villagers pressed into service. They are not as effective as other troops, and do not like to follow orders. With experience, or if they are disbanded due to upkeep, may provide a core for a more professional force. They can only be raised on land.
Nobles are the landed gentry, their sons, and their sons in perpetuity. Can only be raised on land. Only people with land can adequately support such a force, unless you are willing to break your bank. They are more capable, but do not like to follow orders or tactics, and will be happy to go headlong rushing. Owing to their background, they will never become professionals.
Professionals are soldiers that are actually paid in money rather than in kind. You can only recruit a professional troop if there are professional soliders available. They are more ready to follow orders and are at least as effective as nobles. They are expensive to keep but are more expensive to replace.
Your household troops are nobles who follows your orders. The cheapest way for mercenaries to fight is on the bargaining table.
Armies can be raised every quarter if you still have the capacity. Upkeep is paid every quarter; however, if levies are kept in active service in Autumn, agricultural output suffers due to insufficient manpower. History told us summer is the best time to do combat unless your men are professionals.
Gunpowder, functional magic, or such:
Gunpowder and functional magic are treated as upgrade to troops. If you have a regiment of fire mage, for example, they will probably be equivalent to a Professional Heavy Ranged Regiment. Gunpowder are just another upgrade, probably similar to ranged. As the game progresses, or if someone is determined to provide the infrastructure to raise pike and shot, the cost of firearms might decrease to a more affordable level. At that time, though, it is expensive.
Tax
Commerce Taxes are collected quarterly. Land taxes are collected on Autumn. Manpower and such are given each Spring.
Looting
If you directly commands the troops, you collect loot. More important to Mercenary captains than to sovereigns.
Non-humans:
There are reports of centaurs and lizard-men from far-off areas. However most involved in the story should be human. Avoid Tolkienism please.
RtD:Anything that involves chance will be determined by a RtD system unless otherwise stated. i.e. 1. Crit Fail 2. Fail 3. Minor Success 4. Success 5. Great Success 6. Crit success with things going overboard.
Rolls may be modified. Only natural 1s and 6s are counted as Crits. Otherwise they are just treated as a more severe version of 2 or 5.
Time:Time flows when the GM says so. There are 4 quarters to a year; preferably one quarter per real life week.
Sovereignty: As long as you have absolute control of one parcel of land you can declare yourself sovereign. Doing so means the land will be subject to your own laws and rules, and you have the privilege similar to any other prince or sovereign to their lands. You alone decide rolls taken on your land, unless you have conflict of interest, in that case another sovereign or the GM shall do so.
Being a sovereign does not mean that you are automatically equal to other princes. A more likely situation will be the original reigning prince gave you some parcels of land and make you a subordinate of his, to take away workload or tie you to the land. On the other hand, people at that times may not welcome usurpers with open arms, especially when you are viewed as a foreign prince.
Military and Warfare: Anything that can be considered a military force are abstracted into military regiments, all which have modifiers and thus strength, and have a physical location at any time.
Units can only be recruited, with or without upgrades, at the start each season, and they will be delivered by the next season, unless in extraordinary circumstances (e.g. impeding siege). Upkeep must be paid once upon delivery. They can be disbanded anytime.
Units can also be upgraded, again at the start of each season, and will finish the upgrading by the next season.
Battles are decided by comparing the strengths of the attacker (defined as someone doing a maneuver which successfully done will gain ground for them) and the defender, both modified by a 1d6. The victors loses at least 1 strength worth of units after modifiers, while the loser loses at least 2. The commanding officer of either force selects what units to be sacrificed.
In case of a meeting engagement, both will be attackers until one side wins any battle. Battle continues until both sides refuses to continue, one side has retreated too far away for a pursuit, or any side is annihilated. The default order is to retreat once on the losing side, and not pursuing when winning.
Example:
Prince Francesco leads his force, which consists of 1st Houshold Heavy Cavalry(4), 2nd Levy Heavy Polearms(2), 3th Levy Crossbowman(1), and a regiment of hired Professional Polearms(2) into the hills, in order to drive out a bandit force. Instead, he faced fierce opposition already in position, in the form of 4 crossbowman(1+1) and 1 infantry (1) regiments.
Attacking force (Francesco) 9+1d6 = 12
Defending force (Bandits) 9+1d6 = 13
The attack was unsuccessful. Knowing that he need not to pay the mercenaries if they are all killed, Francesco decided to let them die. That Professional Polearms has a strength of 2, so it sufficed. The bandits also lose their lone infantry in the engagement.
Meanwhile, the bandits decided to sally out and pursue Francesco's force. Since they are now on the attacking side, their force is only 4, while Francesco still has 8, as he is now on defensive and the bonus for his crossbowman now kicks in force. Assuming everything goes well, Francesco has a good chance of driving away the bandits.
Tactical maneuvers will be difficult, due to poor command chains typical of the time, and the noble tendency of putting honor above life. Normally speaking, it will have a success roll modifier of -1 for each regiment/unit involved beyond the first unit, unless they are your household unit or professionals which the penalty will apply only every second unit. Good descriptions of how to pull it off in the heat of battle will improve odds.
Each quarter, after assessing their battle records, units will get experiences. More experienced units can get themselves promoted, either with a upgrade, or change in base unit.
Taxes:
Towns generate urban taxes each quarter. This is tied to the level of industry and urban development in the town.
Ports, markets or towns also generates trade taxes. In general, the more goods and resources going through, the higher taxes will be.
Each parcel of Land generates a flat 5 florin per Autumn (regardless of any development it has), that is the amount left after feeding the peasants. If the peasants are in active duty, however, the land will not receive any tax due to poor harvest.
Resource exploitation may or may not generate taxes, depending on the situation.
Land Regiments:
All Regiments, unless stated, will be infantry.
Base Unit:
Levies: Strength 1, cost 1, upkeep/quarter 0. Limited to 0.5/parcel of land/year, rounded up. Decreases agricultural output by 5 if kept in autumn. Represents Peasants pressed into war.
Nobles: Strength 2, cost 4. Upkeep/quarter 1 if holding at least 1 parcel of land/unit, or 5 otherwise. Double cost for upgrades. Hard cap of 1/4 parcel of land when recruiting. As long as you can pay and enough land to satisfy them, there is always an endless number of nobles. Represent landed gentry who takes up arms for his lord following warrior code.
Household: Strength 2, cost 4. Upkeep/quarter 0. Hard cap of 1 unit. Represents your household troops.
Professionals: Strength 2, cost 2 + 1 veteran soldier, upkeep/quarter 1, double upkeep for upgrades. Professionals who live on fighting and war spoils, not the actual gains after it. Seemed to value their lives too much, but is at least more reliable than any other type of troop.
Bought Upgrades:
Heavy: +1 strength, +1 Upkeep/quarter, cost 1. i.e. Armored.
Archer: +1 strength when defending, fighting across a wall or in hilly terrain, +1 to ambush tactic rolls in hills or forests, +0.5 upkeep/quarter, cost 1. Represents crossbows or longbows.
Polearm: +3 strength when fighting cavalry, +0.5 upkeep/quarter, cost 1. Spears, Halberds or Pikes comes under this.
Gunpowder: +1 strength when defending or when fighting across a wall, +1 upkeep/quarter, cost 2. A fancy way of doing warfare. Have a chance of forcing its opponent into defense by virtue of its noise, at least initially.
Cavalry: +1 strength, +1 strength on open terrain, +1 Upkeep/quarter, cost 1. +1 rolls to tactics involving flanking, faking retreat or the like involving mobility. Vulnerable to polearms or gunpowder.
Support units:
Siege Ladders/towers/rams: 1 Engineer, cost 1, 1 upkeep/quarter. +2 attack to fortifications.
Catapult: 1 Engineer, Cost 2, 2 upkeep/quarter. Strength 2, +1 to or from fortifications.
Ballistae: 1 Engineer, Cost 2, 1 upkeep/quarter. Strength 0, +2 to troops.
Gunpowder Artillery: 1 Engineer, cost 4, 3 upkeep/quarter, Strength 1, +3 attack to fortifications. Represents bombards which fires massive stone projectiles with awful accuracy.
Ships:
Ship: Strength 1, cost 1+1 sailor, upkeep/quarter 1. Dhows or cogs. Holds 1 cargo.
Naval Upgrades:
Extra size: Cost +1, Holds +1 cargo, Upkeep/quarter +1. Can be applied 2 times, or 3 if supported by a high mobility upgrade.
Oared: Cost +1, Strength +1, Upkeep/quarter +2, plus +1 for each extra size taken. High Mobility. Transforms your ship into a galley.
Seafaring: Cost +2+1 sailor, holds +1 cargo, Strength +1, Upkeep/quarter +1. High Mobility. Caravel, Carracks, Galleons.
Cannons: Cost +2+1 Engineer, Strength +1, Upkeep/quarter +1.
Trained Upgrades:
Disciplined: +1 strength when defending, 100xp. Does not apply for artillery.
Agressive: +1 strength when attacking, 100xp. Does not apply for artillery.
Commanding: +2 to tactical rolls per unit, 200xp.
Ranger: +1 strength in hills or forests. Increases tactical rolls involving ambushes or utilization of terrain. Represents troops that utilizes the terrain and cover to the fullest effect. Can escape combat before it commences, on a roll of 3 on 1d6 (no bonuses). Not available for ships.
Drilled: + 0.5 strength, 100xp.
Prospective Prince, please answer these questions.
1. What is the name of your realm?
2. Describe yourself.
3. Describe your realm.
4. When and how do you get onto this position?
Your Army consists of:
1 Household Heavy Cavalry regiment (str 4x1)
2 Levy infantry regiments (str 1x2)
Total Army Strength: 6
Your realm holds:
Unknown quantities of Land, towns, and resources
Your realm has a total Tax revenue of:
Town Taxes: ? Florin/quarter
Trade Tariffs: ? Florin/quarter
Land Taxes: ? Florin/year
Your treasury: ? Florin
