New NESes, ideas, development, etc

A more detailed and formal ruleset for a potential Game of Thrones NES if more players post interest.

The NES will start with 5 families, 2 of which are at war with each other, the Lannisters and the Starks, a conflict that started with the rise of young Prince Joffery Baratheon to the Iron Throne following the King's death and the ensuring execution of Lord Stark under the charge of betraying his king and country when he refused to accept Prince Joffery as the King, claiming the boy was too young being only 12 years of age. Stark's heir, Lord Robb Stark quickly formed his father's army and marched south, gaining allies as he moved further towards the coast. Finally through cunning and stealth he split the large Lannister forces into 2 and defeated the smaller force capturing Ser Jaime Lannister, the golden boy of the Lannister family and heir apparent of the family fortune and lands. The two armies now camped a few miles from each other stand poised to determine the fate of the Iron Throne and the kingdom as a whole.

The Starks only demand is the return of Lord Starks body and an independent Kingdom of the North separate from the rule of the Iron Throne and to a lesser extent the Lannisters themselves. The Lannisters fight for the Iron Throne itself, the bloodline of Prince Joffery is dubious and many members of the court believe Joffery does not have any of Baratheon's blood in him, that he is pure Lannister. This makes the Lannisters unpopular in the capital city, Kings Landing, which resisted their rule more when Lord Stark was executed. The Lannisters begin with the capital against them but in control of the City's Watch and King's Bodyguards, arguably the most powerful units in the game, they also start with the entire northern section of Westoros mobilized against them and with the rest of Westoros growing more restless of their politics and actions. The only thing the Lannisters have going their way is the fact that they are the richest faction in Westoros with prime dominance over the trade lanes in the tax rich provinces of the south with which they could buy mercenary armies from the Hordes who live across the bay.

Then of course you have the option of being a mercenary Captain with a small band of warriors willing to offer your services to either side. Or join the fray on your own and seize the Iron Throne for yourself. Naturally the latter would be difficult unless you have the support of one of the 7 families.

The 7 Families are:
Stark. (Lords of the North and the Nights Watch. Bred for war after countless skirmishes with the creatures beyond the wall.)
Lannister. (Wealthy Lords in control of the tax rich provinces which straddles the trade lanes.)
Arynn. (Not much known, except that their Lord is the Hand of the King.)
Baratheon. (Current Royal Bloodline, fought and defeated the Targaryens for the Throne.)
Targaryen. (Former Royals, exiled to the Barbarian lands of the south bays, poised to return to Westoros and take their rightful lands from the Lannisters.)
Frey. (Not much known of them.)
Tully. (Lady Catelin Stark, mother of Robb comes from the Tully line, but are not fighting on Starks side, taking instead a neutral role.)
Greyjoy. (Not sure what is going on here, Theon Greyjoy appears to be a hostage to the Starks in exchange for something from the Greyjoys, but all communications between the two houses seems to have ended.)

OOC: Those who understand the movie better may correct me. Also cheers to those who understand the complex bloodline of the picture below of the 7 families. :goodjob:

OOC: More to come, including example stats, a picture of the bloodlines of the 7 families and a map of Westoros.
 
Whoa man, you didn't read any of the books did you?

For this sort of project being limited to the miniseries is.... trouble... but even just based on the miniseries you know that the Frey control the Twins in the Riverlands and that they have a major problem of.... overpopulation... in the royal family.

The Greyjoys... man.... you are missing out if you don't know the story behind the greyjoys. The Iron Islands are the coolest from what I've heard.

Check out the Wiki if you want good answers though, I also know little other than the miniseries.
 
A Game of Thrones NES would be fun but it absolutely has to be based on the books.
For instance, the Stark are NOT lords of the Night Watch. The Night Watch doesn't obey any king. They are there to fight the Others because, you know, Winter is coming.
And houses Tyrall, Martell would fit much better than Aryn, since Jon Aryn is kind of dead and there's about noone left to take over. Plus there'd be Littlefinger who's worth a role unto himself.
 
I've been preparing a new NES for a while.
After toying with several ideas, ranging from a British Arthurian setting to a fantasy fresh start, I've decided It'd be more comfortable with a Dominion NES once again.
This is basically a fantasy fresh start except that each participant is worshipped like a god by some people. This worship grants them powers beyond those they already possessed.
Here's a quick background:

The world used to be a mass of whirling Chaos, from which everything could be spawned.
A very powerful being turned part of this Chaos mass into a stable world, but maintaining it against the everchanging surroundings sapped her powers, and she eventually sacrificed herself to keep this world safe from corruption/transformation by chaos. She was worshipped as a goddess by the inhabitants of the world, who now seek guidance from powerful beings to protect them from the unknown, chaos, foreigners, heathens and killer rabbits.

Participants would design their nations, along with a few battlefield spells, and would be able to design rituals and projects to accomplish whatever they like provided they have the resources.

The NES mechanics would include designing units, battlefield spells and military doctrines, an abstracted infrastructure but detailed projects would help economy, accounting of one's worshippers, recruiting heroes and leader to lead armies. I'll probably reuse the dominions game to get some screenshots of battles, but I'll definitely put much more emphasis on battle plans than I used to. Otherwise said, don't try to play the game to guess the results of a battle, you'd likely be wrong. Magic and magic items will be quite rare, and the magic system will be base on 3 kinds of magic:
-theurgy, which depends on how many worshippers you have. This can be very powerful but if you overuse it, your worshippers will suffer as you're actually tapping their life force through their prayers
-chaos manipulation, which is powerful but quite random and only works in places still under the influence of chaos. It therefore does not work at all in the middle of the Orderly world, but can be very powerful outside it. The issue being that lands inside chaos influence can jsut change, vanish or move away at any time if no magic is spent to keep them at least somewhat stable.
-sacrifice. This requires sacrificing more than what you'll earn. Stuff like allowing yourself to run fast as wind for one day at the cost of afterwards losing your legs forever can be amusing if the benefit indirectly allows you to get more than what you sacrificed in the first place.

NESers would interact with each other (obviously the most important), with some NPC nations, NPC heroes, their worshippers, heathens, and Chaos from which stuff may be spawned that would move into the world because it looks like a nice, stable, rich, plunderable place. Becoming a deity worshipped by most people migth also be appealing to some.

I could start thhis around next week (18 february). If people are interested, I'll start a thread.
 
Yeeeeees.
 
So here's the NES I am also preparing. It is set in the same world as my current NES (El-Or), but on a much smaller scale and not a fresh-start. Instead it takes on more of a dynastical-conquest type of style (see NES' like Aros), but very, very, very simplified. The point of this NES is not to be overly complex, but easy and fun.

Players take on the roles of high & low lords of a distant island-continent called Ekra. Ekra is populated by Elves, Orcs, and Goblins—the former two enslaving the latter—who were recently united by the Orcish High King Graz I two generations ago. Although Graz I conquered Ekra with sword, his son Graz II brought true unity after wedding himself to the Elvish Princess Maerima, who produced the third High King Urzog-Suiaar I. All was more or less peaceful until the mana-storm occurred (which players of NNESIV.5 are familiar with), which was a meteor shower that crashed strange, colorful rocks into El-Or and triggered the existence of magic as we know it.

Now, all kinds of bad things happened after the mana-storm. Over the next century or so Ekra was rocked with earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, etc., but the Unified Kingdom never broke. That happened when High King Urzog-Suiaar I was found butchered in his chambers with all sorts of strange runes carved into his flesh. His son, Urzog-Ainron, was placed on the throne and Ainron's uncle, an Elven High Lord called Morsidiran, was named his regent. However, the regency is pretty weak and the high & low lords (the players) are in the position to exercise their ambitions and carve out petty kingdoms for themselves.

Stats are simple:

High/Low Lord Name (Race/Age) (Dynasty & Dynasty Affiliation)
Income-Maintence = Spendable Income (Treasury) (Manpower Unraised/Manpower Raised)
Holdings (Military/Religious/Civic)
Family
Favor


The lord's name and age are straight forward, but race deserves a special mention. Players can be one of three races at the start: Elven, Orcish, or Half-Elf & Orc (henceforth called Orelf). Goblins exist, but they are slaves. Orcs are the more civil of the three pure races. They dwell mostly in the heartland of the unified kingdom, are the source of many technological advances, and are the most numerous (excluding Goblins). Elves are their semi-savage cousins who live on the fringes in arid grasslands, craggy hills, and deep forests. They are traditionalists and have held onto many of the 'old ways' that Elves and Orcs once shared. Orelfs are found exclusively in the heartland of the kingdoms and are seen as odd, though they enjoy fairly prominent positions in the kingdom due to the fact that the vast majority of them are noble-born.

Elves live for roughly 350-400 Years; Orcs for 250-300; Orelfs for 150-200; and Goblins for 40-70.

Dynasty & Dynasty Affiliation are also pretty straight forward. Most players belong to their own branch of a larger dynasty which includes other branches/players. For example if a player takes up the role as a lord in the heartlands then they most likely are a member of the Vugdush clan, but their own personal family may be whatever. It would be listed as: (Birik/Vugdush). Players can marry into other dynasties through marrying off themselves/close family members, which would be listed as: (Birik/Vugdush *Gort-Vugdush). The '*' indicates the player has marital ties to their cousins, the Gort (family) - Vugdush (clan).

Income is generated from estates (look below), as in manpower. Manpower is the sole source of a player's maintenance, as you can safely assume that things such as maintaining castles, roads, etc. are taken care of by the player's vassal—unless otherwise noted. Income can be used to further develop holdings and estates, which is done by giving that income to whatever estate you want to develop and giving them vague directions. Manpower comes in two variants, unraised and raised. Unraised manpower costs 1 income per 5 manpower. Raised manpower costs double that, or 2 income per 5 manpower. You can assume that this extra income per 5 is used to fund campaigns, but feel free to throw more income at them.

Holdings are the bread and butter of this NES. The map is divided into numerous provinces, and these provinces in turn have estates within them. Estates come in three flavors: Military, Religious, and Civic. Military estates are those estates held by the high-nobility and are things like castles, fortresses, keeps, and other defensive structures. They provide more manpower, but less income. Religious estates are either Churches/Monasteries of the Goddess (if the dominant peoples in the province are orcs) or Sites/Cults of the Many (if the dominant peoples in the province are elves). They are unique and provide varying amounts of income and manpower, so they should not be relied upon for a steady income. However, they are directly tied to the use of magic (which will be explained later). Civic estates are those estates held by the low-nobility and are cities, towns, and villages. They provide more income, but less manpower.

As high & low lords players control provinces and do not have to go into the details of their estates. Vassals exist, but unless something important is going on with them you can ignore them for the most part.

Family is listed as: wife (if wed), then heirs, then son's, then daughters, then kin. Unless the player really wants to go into details then the only named characters are the heirs. Family members are pretty much just bargaining chips to be used for dynastic diplomacy. It is good to not have too many children, as that leads to less chance of a succession crisis, but then again it is bad to have too few!

Favor deals with the various NPC factions that are present in the game. These factions would be listed separately on the front page, and any faction that a player has favor/disfavor with will be listed in their stats.


So what do you guys think?
 
I'd be up for it, just slightly sad I can't use my Swiech, maybe we'll run into them at some point.
 
Well I am not abandoning the past NES. Just doing this NES to act as a way for me to still NES while I recover and finish my senior thesis and once that's over I'll have all the time in the world to discuss just how much you guys ruin the world.
 
okay, Just about to start my own ness. just want to put it here so people can have a once over befor I start it, and point out anything I messed up, forgot compleatly, or simply dose not mesh well.
It's in the spoilers below.
Spoiler :

Welcome to KeoNES IV.
This is an alternate world, fresh Start NES, with a few twists thrown in to give it a unique flavor.
The first twist would be the presence of Magic in this NES. It exists, and eventually, you might use it as a powerful tool. But not at the start. Until a few advances come around, and you can shape Iron easily, you’re pretty much limited to simple cantrip like spells that take a few seconds to cast. Lighting a fire, creating a gentle breeze, stuff like that. Until then, it’s basically background. Embrace it, suppress it, or simply ignore it.
The second Twist. Well, it’s also a bit of background. The sky is... a bit regular. Lots of straight lines. There is a reason, but you’ll have to discover it for yourself.
The final twist is the ruleset I will be using. I call it an Evolving Rule set. The basic premise of it is that the stats will evolve as the NES progresses. Only the most basic stats will be available at the start, and as the players advance over the ages, so will the stats. New stats will be discovered by and appear in the visible ruleset. Some of the old stats will lose their importance or be replaced, vanishing from the stats. All will appear in good time, but you can hasten the process by seeking them out.

Well, on with the ruleset.
Player stats
Spoiler :

Player name: Random player
AP: 0/0
Player name: The name of the player
AP: The players Action points. These are not bound to the player’s nation, but are instead bound to player himself. The first represent the number of points a player has available to use. The second numbered are earned action points, which are transferred to their pool of action points whenever their nation is destroyed.
As to what action points are, well, think of them as moments of awesome. An Exceptional act committed by a person within your nation. They are, in essence, what make the player nations stand above the NPC. You can commit one to any action your nation makes, enhancing its effort and improve its outcome greatly. Use one to greatly reduce the cost of a project. To make a campaign against your enemies go exceptionally well. You can even conditionally allocate a few to be spent to counter any action points your enemies use against you.
When you join, you start out with 5 AP. From there, there are three ways to gain them. The first is time. You will gain 1 AP for every 100 years you play a Stone Age nation, or 80 years as a Bronze Age one. Even more advanced ages will further reduce the time between AP gains. The second way is to write stories. Exceptional stories, a few good ones, or even lots of bad ones will eventually earn you an AP. Don’t expect to earn an AP each turn via them though. The third is the simply playing your nation well. By doing this, you get Earned action point, which will be stored until your nation is destroyed. These are fairly easy to earn, but can’t be used immediately.

Consistent Stats
Spoiler :

Nation: Random Nation
Age: Stone Age
Status: Ascending (young)
Projects: None
Discription: Something here
Nation: The name of the players nation.
Age: your nations Technological age. Stone Age – Early Bronze age – Bronze age – Late Bronze age – Early Iron age.
Status: the first part is your nations stability. Ascending only appears when a nation starts
Ascending means your nation is just starting to form. Not quite stable, but in a good way. you can easily shape and change things.
Growing means your nation is stable, and is improving itself. While there is some resistance to change, anything short of a radical shift is still very easy to do.
Stable is just that, stable. Nothing is changing, but there are no particular problems.
Decadent means your nation nothing is really changing, but there is sign of social decay. There undercurrents of problems
Unstable means there are points of disruption within your nation you should address before they go past the point of no return.
Descending shows your nation is well past its glory days, and unless you do something, will soon enter its final years
Collapsing is on the other side of the point of no return. Things are about to get very messy.
ANARCHY!! Means, well, just that. Somehow, your nation has held together beyond the point of unreasonable hope. Err, good luck.
The Item in parenthesis is your nation’s relative age. Young – Youngish – Middle aged – Oldish – Old. Generally, the older your nation is, the easier it for its status to slide towards a negative status. though it does not affect the difficulty of reversing this shift at all, or the effectiveness of actions to prevent it.
Projects Special, large scale effort to improve your nation of create something that will last ages to come. To start a project, send a description in your orders, and I’ll decide it’s cost. Some may take time, other take various resources.
Terrance888 seems to have said it best, who might got if from soemoen else
Projects are where you will get all sorts done and really let your creativity flair. The better the idea, the cheaper the cost for greater benefits. Some things, of course, need a multitude of projects to achieve your desired affect. For this you probably want to communicate the fact that it is a series of projects.
Oh, and if you throw an action point at a project, it will likely greatly reduce the cost, possibly to the time of a single turn.
Discription a description of your nation.


Stats from the Stone Age:
Spoiler :

None. Stone age is going to only exist this first turn. Everyone will be in the bronze age next turn. This will be replaced next turn by Stats from the bronze age.


Stories:
Writing stories are highly encouraged. Any story (or diplo) you do write will go towards earning you action points. A lot of stories, a few well written ones, and/or a highly entertaining story will likely earn you small bonuses.
Updates and Orders:
I will try and update weekly and orders will be due about 4 days after the updates is posted. The date the orders will be due will be posted at the top of the first page. Please try and put any spending you do at the top of your orders, though there is no penalty should you decide not to.
NPCs and Barbarians:
Grey areas surrounding civilizations on the political map represent the barbarians. The darker the area, the more hostile they are towards the nearby civilization, and the harder they will be to suppress and integrate into your nations. NPC’s (non-player nations) follow the same rules as Player nations except they do not have access to Action points. They tend to be slightly less powerful then player nations because of this. Players without a nation can take over an NPC any time before the orders are due.
 
I'd be up for it, just slightly sad I can't use my Swiech, maybe we'll run into them at some point.

Swiech are actually in the game, but via an NPC faction (initially at least) of traders from a nearby Swiech Grand Warren.

would you go back to the Other NES eventually?

Of course! Again, it is not abandoned, just on hiatus till I can tackle something as large as a freshstart NES.
 
It would not make sense to post the update, as you guys would not have the stats to do anything with it without stats and whatnot. I will post the update when I resume the nes!

edit: Just rest assured that you and another player screwed up the world.
 
Me? (Do you mind PMing me what I did that broke the world? :p I don't remember anything that dangerous!)
 
What makes you think that, technojack?
 
Everyone look away from the Bragaash. Blame Seon or Thomas. The Bragaash did not broke the world. If we did, we'll be sure to either fix it or compensate it, we think. Nothing to see here, move along. :twitch:
 
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