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Start:
A PC and a COMPANION are dumped out in the world (or possibly two
COMPANIONs are dumped out in the world, and we have a PCless system). They
have no training, no GLORY, and very little money - maybe 500 gold in
current prices. To succeed in the world, they need to increase all three to
get ahead (training, GLORY, money).
Money can be obtained through WORK, production of items via EQUESTRIAN,
SHIPBUILDING and the like, TRADE, and EXPLORATION. It's used to buy items, and
pay for the maintenance of armies and laborers.
Training comes from time spent studying. The current system is fine
for this.
GLORY is vaguely like experience points in RPGs, but doesn't get
spent for skills. You increase GLORY by most of the things that would show up
on the Olympia rankings and R.I.P. board. Exploration, high skills, courageous
battles, and ammasing wealth all would increase glory (note that a "courageous
battle" is one where you fight well against an almost equal or better
opponent). You'd lose GLORY from losing battles, and for sitting idle. GLORY
is useful in that as you get higher GLORY, you can find new COMPANIONS (again,
diminishing returns, so your second companion comes quickly, and your 6th might
take a year of real time). New COMPANIONS come untrained, and will simply
join with the player the first time he visits a city once he's amassed
sufficient glory. Note that if GLORY falls below the necessary level for the
number of companions, the newest companion will leave (taking his possessions
with him) and fade into the woodwork. If a companion dies, he cannot be
replaced, and any companion losses due to GLORY dips comes from live
COMPANIONS (ie a dead companion gets infinite seniority, and will not leave).
At some point the player is going to want to command men, either as
armies or laborers (I'll call these generically HOARDS). A HOARD is a bunch
of creatures that help in certain activites. They are similar to horses in
that they are part of a COMPANION's inventory, but are visible in a turn report
to other players. A COMPANION who performs an activity which the given HOARD
is capable in gets a bonus in performing it, since there are creatures helping
him perform the action. In return, the COMPANION must pay the HOARD a
monthly maintenance cost, or it will suffer desertions and possibly attack
other people in the current province. A HOARD has a quality rating. At
the beginning, it is GREEN. A HOARD's quality increases both by time (they're
busy drilling when they're not busy) and from successfully helping a COMPANION
perform an action. If more creatures are added to a HOARD, the quality is
diluted (note: this is the only place where skill dilution enters into the
game).
HOARDS come in many types. Each hoard is skilled in certain fields.
A unit with a skill in a field can help a COMPANION perform that action, and
exactly how much depends both on QUALITY and amount of skill. For example,
GNOMES would have MINING 2, DWARVES MINING 1, and ELVES not skilled in mining.
So, if all three groups had quality GREEN, a COMPANION mining would get twice
as much help from a GNOME than a DWARF, and no help from an ELF. Once the
units reached NOVICE (the next level up), they'd help 1.5 times the previous
rate - ie. novice DWARVES 1.5 times green DWARVES, while novice GNOMES would do
3 times green DWARVES. ELVES would still not be able to help. Here's a list
of some possible HOARD types (note: I've seperated laborer skills from combat
skills because I don't think experience building ships shouldn't help someone
fight, but it should help them build castles):
Laborers:
DWARVES: MINING 1, CONSTRUCTION 1, WEAPONSMITHING 1
GNOMES: MINING 2
ELVES: EQUESTRIAN 1, WEAPONSMITHING 2, SHIPBUILDING 1
FAERIES: EQUESTRIAN 2, WEAPONSMITHING 2, SHIPBUILDING 2
Warriors:
ORCS: COMBAT 1
HILL GIANTS: COMBAT 3, Health x2
ELVISH ARCHERS: ARCHERY 2, COMBAT 1
GOBLINS: COMBAT 1, ARCHERY 1
DRAGONS: COMBAT 4, Health x4, Defense x4
There are several ways to get HOARDS. First off, Mages can SUMMON
some of the types of creatures. Perhaps these armies wilt after a time,
perhaps the monetary charge is enough to maintain them. Also, each region
would have a population type, and RECRUITing in an ELVEN FOREST would get you
ELVES (BTW, you can't mix creature types in a HOARD). Bland types like ORCS
and ELVES and DWARVES should be available in most locales, but DRAGONS might
only be found atop Mt. Norgar.
Each creature would have a cost associated with it for maintenance
and recruiting, and creatures will also have a GLORY limit, so that a newbie
couldn't recruit DRAGONS no matter how much he pays. However, since HOARDS
are items, you can buy and sell them with other players as well.
HOARD recruiting should be relatively easy (at least for the hum-drum
type). A little money and a little exploration should be all it takes.
However, their maintenance cost should be steep. Unless you're making money
through each of your HOARDS (Laborers creating stuff to sell, Warriors
controlling provinces), you shouldn't be able to afford them for long. Also,
the GLORY of the COMPANION controlling the army should put a limit on how many
creatures he can control, with each creature having a cost to control. So,
a newbies could barely control two orcs, an older player maybe 10 orcs or a
dragon, and a glorious general maybe 100 orcs.
Command summary:
ATTACK, BUY, CANCEL, DECLARE, FORGET, LOOK, MOVE, PASSWD, PAY,
MESSAGE, JOIN, POST, PROMOTE, RESHOW, SELL, SET, SIGNAL, STACK, UNSTACK, USE,
STUDY, and WAIT are unchanged.
ASSIST and IMPRESS no longer exist.
TAKE/GIVE:
Same as before, but HOARDS have unit IDs, and can be transferred
like items by this id.
EXPLORE [location] [days]:
Explores the given location for the number of days specified.
<location> defaults to 0, the current province. <days> defaults to 7.
Note that if <location> is the ID of ruins, you'll go dungeon-delving.
FORM:
Creates a new HOARD. HOARD type depends on where you are. All units
start out GREEN (however, you could say a very GLORIOUS leader could
recruit NOVICE or VETERAN troops automatically)
RECRUIT <unit> [days] [number of creatures]:
Recruits into the specified unit. The type of creature in the unit
must match the type obtainable in the region.
PERSUADE, TERRORIZE, and SWEAR:
I don't know if I want this to stay. If they stay, the target of the
attack is a COMPANION, and if he's brought over he brings any HOARDS he
possesses with him. However, I lean towards COMPANIONS being life-long
friends, unpersuadeable and irreplaceable.
TRANSFER <from> <to> <number> [have-left]:
Transfers men from HOARD <from> to hoard <to>. Both must be in
possession of the COMPANION issuing the order, and both must be of the
same creature type. Quality dilution does occur.
WORK [days]:
Similar to now, but more profitable. However, HOARDS will not help one
work.
In case you missed it, here's some things I've suggested that I've not
included in the above system:
1.) Standing armies - Since an army is a possession, it must always be in the
possession of a COMPANION, or else it disappears. I don't think I'd even
allow armies to be the possessions of castles - they need a leader, or they
crumble
2.) HOARD possessions and loyalty - Making HOARDS possessions makes sense to
me, and if it's a possession loyalty and armor for them is hard. Also, in this
way you can easily give a DRAGON a nasty bite without a weapon, and you just
assume an ORC comes with a sword in order to set up it's attack damage.
Scott Hauck