ALTERNATIVE HISTORY EXPERIMENT
OBJECTIVE:
To construct an alternate history from the dawn of civilization, in as short a period of time as possible, with the intention of running a NES from it, when some particular period catches my fancy -- so expect, with that in mind, the occasional slowdown.
METHOD:
I intend to mirror Daftpanzer’s Alternate Timeline Building Experiment, not exactly of course, but in much the same style and substance. The turns will be shorter measured not in millennia, but in centuries. I also intend to exercise some of my economic judgement, and will I hope, achieve something useful from it, although that might be hoping for to much.
ON POINTS:
Players will be given control over a culture, and will have the ability to shape it via a simple points system which can be spent each turn on anything the player feels like, be it religious, cultural, military or otherwise. The player may opt to spend it on general objectives, the propagation of some religion, the discovery of some technology or another etc, and all things going well it will be successful, eventually.
There is however a second option, if the player is particularly bold, they may instead opt to spend the points on the creation of a character with a slightly more specific aim. The effects of this compared to the more generalized spending will be far more significant, a culture particularly gifted in military combat, might gain a Count Belisarius, while a particularly religious or cultured nation might get a Luther or Calvin. There will of course be unintended consequences aplenty as the Luther or Calvin analogue may rip your culture apart in a series of religious wars.
However, I believe that in making the effects significantly more powerful, and allowing for the nature of the NES which favours long term strategic action and dissemination of ‘winning’ traits among cultural units, the returns will be significant. In other words, a little pain now, might translate into a major bonus in later years, as your religion to continue the analogy, ends up rapidly spreading across a large geographic era, which if combined with a tradition similar to the Hajj, might reap substantial dividends for a number of turns. The trade-off becomes a turn or two (depending of course on the situation) of instability for a large potential gain in the future – and be rest assured that the rewards, if properly carried out, will be substantial in most cases.
Nations will be awarded these at the start of each turn; the number will depend on a host of factors including the quality and brevity of orders, the level of input, and the in-game success of nations -- the latter will of course have significant weight but will not be a decisive factor on its own.
ON THE ROLE OF THE PLAYERS:
I’m quite content at this early stage to allow players to handle multiple sub-cultures in their broader culture; expect this to change when the NES proper starts. There will eventually be a stage in the experiment where I will be forced to strip players of control, this will for a number of factors including, possible collusive acts, the ability to break the game, a decisive break in cultural continuity etc. I reserve broad powers in that respect at least, that which I have giveth, I can taketh away, as it were.
In the general sense I’m indifferent to what players say, if a player action isn’t consistent with the culture presented, I may opt to ignore it. Players are in charge of the culture, they are not in charge of the specific actions of the individuals in it. I will however follow orders which are imaginative etc. I’m not attempting to strip the player of their freedom. I’m merely trying to keep them consistent with their own creation.
STATS:
I don’t intend to have stats at this stage. I will, however, provide a proxy indicator for ‘power’, since people have been asking. For instance, for the period around 1870 I might provide pig iron production which isn’t a perfect measure but will provide the player with an idea of strength. For our present, early stage, of development, I might provide horse numbers, or population of the capital, which should provide players with a fair estimation. The main reason for this ambiguity is my desire to simulate the vagaries of history –- states often messed up, something which is difficult to do in NESing with our precise stats. For instance, we would never have an Alexander; nobody would be barmy enough to try the odds in a NES.
CRITICISM AND INPUT:
I encourage everyone to provide input, and hopefully corrections, so that I can have the best possible game -- criticism is often the basis for improvement. So I implore players to provide input, in whatever form they care to provide, in whatever area they care to interfere with. As you’re probably well aware, I’m relatively well versed in economics, I’m less well versed in military history, and my knowledge of history outside of a handful of areas is frankly deplorable, so feel free to correct me, I welcome it.
CONCLUSION:
If, I’ve missed anything, I apologise. I just ask players to keep in mind a simple truism: “it’s only a game” at least for now. It will transition into a proper contest, later. Feedback as ever is obligatory not optional, I'm more than happy to rewrite for clarity or add to sections for comprehensiveness. I'm also thinking of adopting a two tier approach to updating -- a history book style for the usual update, and a narrative style for the interesting sections.
. (Though I'm pretty certain I'd only have 1 spending point, if that.)
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