Absolution 4: Tabula Rasa

Hadrian Makes Another Discovery

Satura has always been dominated by personalities. Unlike other nations where institutions guide a nation from generation to generation, where procedures set in stone offering the and those set in paper offering the future.

In Satura, the Men are the Institution.

There is only power, and those unafraid to take it here. A speech stirs the soul of the Saturan, be he Nulic, Seregite, Junglite, Sudanese or Wasetian. The common bond of Satura is not the government, but the will of strong men and those who follow him.

For ages, this power has been handed down from one to another. From the ancient Gorden Gideon to the prolific and religious Farseer, from the Farseer to the visionary and tactile Aureas, and from Aureas we enter the current time, the time of Octavian.

But more, in Octavian there are no longer single men who take the lead. For in the time of Octavian there were men who do not ride upon his cloak-tails.

Hadrian the Scholar, descendent of King Gideon himself, discovering the new by looking through scrolls of the old, by archiving the chantings of the Oracle. He who tries every format, every possibility, every chance to improve his standing.

And Malach, the strange shepard-boy from Sudan who has given Satura many of her discoveries. From Lead to Coffee, from engineering to mapmaking, his skills are unparalleled and he has gained a strong following in Sudan.

And so, while Octavian voyages on his ships, these men through their will established themselves, too, into the heart of Satura.

It shall to be seen how she can survive with the beating of three hearts.


The Enigmatic Malach, called a Magician for his many discoveries and inventions

Upon seeing that Heavenly Dragon got 2 Militaristic Stories this turn (and not 1 Militaristic for them and 1 for Paranaa) I did some investigation into wording.

Scientific Stories: Will provide either 1 or 2 points towards a specific research project. 1 per technology per turn.

Cultural Stories: Will add 1-4 points to your Reputation, and increase your esteem in the eyes of the NPCs and local peoples.

Militaristic Stories: Will allow 1 unit to use a tactic. 1 per unit per turn.

Commercial Stories: Will be worth either 1 Economy or can be used to generate a Trade Good for export. 1 per turn, Added Economy goes to your savings and is not spendable on the turn you write the story.

Construction Stories: Can add 1 to a Building Project. 1 per turn.

Click to expand...

It seems that only Construction and Commercial stories are truly limited to 1 Per turn for each nation. For scientific stories, as long as they are different technologies you can write more each turn. The same goes even further with Militaristic: as most units can only have 1 Tactic, You can, with enough stories, possibly through a journal of a soldier's life or a runthrough of presigious regiments, gain the benefit of the militaristic trait without having it. i.e. A tactic for every unit.

Interesting. Will be writing prescientific stories for each of the future Iron Age techs asap for the lulz.

Terrance888 said:

For scientific stories, as long as they are different technologies you can write more each turn.

Click to expand...

This is true.

Interesting. Will be writing prescientific stories for each of the future Iron Age techs asap for the lulz.

Click to expand...

But I do not see how this idea follows from the initial premise. I mean, I won't stop you. But you should know that we won't be adding a "lulz" stat until the late Industrial era.

I'm not sure if you think that this is actually a strategy though. I mean, there is evidence that my reading comprehension has been low the last couple of weeks. Cut me a break, it's finals. But I do read your stories. I'm not just going to blindly hand out science points for a research story centered around a tech you don't have the prerequisites for.

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Militaristic Stories are the one place I allow people to compete to see who has more free time.

Also, Cultural Stories, but that's a whole different situation. Tactics are not auto-victories and Militaristic or Well-Barracked Factions are still able to compete ably with any militaristic story dump.

Hey,

OOC

Explain to this old man what this means?

...runthrough of presigious regiments...

Do you mean one story that list regiments would gain tactics for all of listed?



Blaze Injun

Well, that does raise an interesting line of questioning though, about what the nature of a story is.

For instance I've been pretty lenient about flash stories, I do not require long stories and everyone has seen an advantage from that, I do not consider it an exploit.

But it is exploitable. If a hypothetical player were to perform a militaristic story dump in separate posts with, say, less than 200 words each, in a continuing story describing his armies then that hypothetical player might justifiably interpret the story rules as permitting him to gain 1 extra tactic per post.

Now, that hasn't happened yet. If it does happen there will be a number of variables that might affect how I would react (army size, specific story wordcount, diminishing returns, temporal proximity of posts, writing quality) and if a hypothetical player felt compelled to test my goodwill then I would advise them to tread lightly.

This applies to people who are not Terrance as well.

Hey,

OOC

Please take into account of maybe a "hypothetical player" dropping out of this NES if such a thing was done. No matter if it is or isn't a exploit.

I already feel my story posts aren't up to the details they should be. I feel the need to post them no matter how short because of the story rules.

EDIT: Plus there is not way I'm going to write 29 story post for all my units.



Blaze Injun

I am sorry that you feel that way.

I do not feel as though that outlook is justified. I admit that it is possible for my rules to encourage a "race to the bottom" scenario, but we do not operate in a system where the rules are applied blindly and statistically speaking I don't see evidence that there is pressure from competing players to game the rules in such a way.

Eltain has been writing short stories. I believe that he is operating under time constraints. That is fine, that's why I wrote the rules the way I wrote them, so that people who wouldn't or couldn't devote a ton of time to this game did not have to, but that they could still participate on an equivalent level with people who do spend a lot of time on this thread.

Terrance does not write short stories, he writes a lot of stories and most of them are a decent length for an NES story. But still, it isn't as though this grants him an insurmountable advantage A lot of them get counted as cultural. Terrance doesn't get his EP from stories, he got it from projects devoted to making him into a trade mogul.

Tycho rarely writes stories. That didn't stop him from being in the Iron Age second or from developing a robust domestic economy. The biggest problem (one of army size) was slowly developed over the Bronze Age and stories would not have helped that problem (they might have freed up resources, but they would not have directly helped).

If there are further questions about rule mechanics feel free to ask them publicly. If the problem has more to do with the character and competence of the moderator, or the dastardly nature of any specific player then please direct them to me in private and I will do my best to investigate specific claims. I have no interest in cluttering my thread with accusations or OCC drama.

Since I happen to have a list with every story reward listed I have long since investigated the matter of stories and come to the conclusion that there is no systemic pressure towards brevity or quick turnaround and that both of those factors tend to diminish rewards. If you have specific examples that you would like to use to make your case then I will be glad to consider them.

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Blaze, are you really trying to tell me that having the largest army in the world puts you at some sort of disadvantage?

@ Blaze, I mean talking about the strengths of a regiment from Sereg compared to that from Iruba. Like modern "Royal Marine" v.s. "Navy Seals" debates. Your stories are fine (I like the many characters, but they get detached after a while) and I like them because they reveal much more than mine, especially for the sake of the "Normal People"

@ SKILORD: I will make sure that, if I ever need to utilize that aspect of the rules, I shall move to justify each and every advantage I might gain.
Can construction stories get used for Engineering research?

Hey,

Merp of the Bees. (Paranaa Trade good: Honey)

"Stop rolling around Merp!" Yelled the heavy robed man with his head and face covered in a thin silk mask. "Head for the river!"

"Yeeeaahhhaa!" The young man tore at his robes trying to get out of them and the bees from under them. He heard his masters words and quickly jumped to his feet and took off for the river. He ran screaming crazily between the long rows of wooden boxes in the valley's field of flowers. Each box made of special wood that would help the bees produce the best tasting honey. Wisdom found after many, many years of Junjan studies.

"I will have you beaten if you destroy any of my hives and my business Merp!" His master yelled after the swarm chased boy. He turned to his other apprentice, who was laughing at the scene. He handed him his bronze lamp, that produced a thick smoke used to calm the bees. "Follow him and make sure he lives."


PTh04

Terrance888 said:

Can construction stories get used for Engineering research?

Click to expand...

lol, no.

I understand what you are saying, if I had a much more complicated method of doing "science" then that would make a lot of sense.

But in this context, no.

You could have gone for another double story, I guess, and it would have had a good shot, but I think you already did a science story for engineering.

Ah yes. Sudan did, but Satura did not.

Well, we have discussed this before Terrance. If you know the first three steps of "Engineering" and Sudan knows the first five steps of "Engineering" that does not give you eight steps towards Engineering.

Have you ever considered changing Sudan's trait?

Hey,

OOC

That answers one question I had, almost. Back a few turns Paranaa spent 1 EP on Astrology but you put it under the Dragon Empire's stats. Shouldn't it be under Paranaa? Paranaa might be a vassal but has its on trait and individual building projects.


Blaze Injun

It might give me six steps of Engineering.

What would I change Sudan's trait to? Commercial would be useless. Scientific might be... but I just need to figure out how to, you know, Land of the Sun. Industrious; heck, I am industrious. Vassals allow me to be flexible via extra traits.

Please don't talk to me about Religious. Unless it can prevent Vassal Swap, it's worth as a trait doesn't amount to much.

I hope that Eltain hits Iron soon so I can do a "New Age Rule Revamp."

I have all the new trait advantages written up. I don't know if you remember, but before Agents came along Militaristic was a dud trait too.

People with a "United Purpose" temple get 2 free trait changes for vassals as well.

Yeah, but until Eltain returns his message, I cannot be sure that I won't need militaristic soon.

That said, look at the meta mess we made in the thread. THIS is why I made the Social Group, so that discussions specifically about just my country can be safely hidden.

EDIT: Well then, I see the problem, funky story counting , you counted as a Sudanese Scientific Story when the story occurred in Waset, the designed Sudanese Scientific became a Trade Goods, and other stuff.

I guess I need to write better, longer stories. I shall not be meta!

To Zull

To help you decide, I will place some Iron in your hands instead of in the guts of some stoned swordsmen in exchange for 1 EP;


To Persia

Akten's Wine, unfortunately, serves much better as a soldier's drink than a scholar's, so that the burning will to become pure is not wasted, we will take the occasion of the end of that unilatural trade agreement, AKA subsidy, to divert said subsidy to Land of the Sun, where not only will it be more useful, but it will be used by those more useful, if you get my drift.


To Neighbors

I will pay 1EP for those who develop trade goods to trade with one of ours.

I was just trying to make the game easy to mod.


Link to video.

And so I put the control panels out in the open, instead of hiding them behind a curtain.

People tell me this is "meta."

And also, for some reason, that I am a "very bad man."

Yeah yeah.

Well, to make all our lives easier, I shall end this experiment. I still can't see how that story was construed as Commercial. I mean, I just can't see it.

Only two references. Fine for a flash story (I wrote some too), I suppose. One was the one he stolen from Kausta. One was an organic one, made to store some transmorgifying organ, if you catch my drift.

High Quality Decks of Cards

(Commercial Story: (Punt: Trade Good (Playing Cards))

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And so they gambled, playing cards and passing around their money.

Sometimes they talked, "Hey, this story is pretty short."

And then the response, "Yeah, but I hope it puts us back on track."

"At least before the next page starts."

"Something like that."

"Too meta?"

"Screw it, let's play cards."

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To: Satura
From: Punt

:handheldoutexpectantly:

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OOC: The real problem is that none of you play Absolution like I would play Absolution (Tycho is the closest) and most of my NPC's are too wrapped up in your plans to play Absolution like I would.

I like Iberios. They are my favorite NPC to play as.