Pre-DeNES I: Fallen Star - Fantasy Colonisation

Decamper

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Joined
Jul 28, 2014
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Introduction
DeNES I is largely inspired by Dnd/Pathfinder (and hugely a rip off of EQ's Botwawki), and will hopefully have some of the same feel. The game will be focused on exploration and expansion across an island to acquire resources to build up your settlements, colonists and heroes while handling the various threats and issues the island will throw at you and the limited space you share with the other colonies.

As this is my first NES/STG, any and all comments/criticisms will be appreciated. Also, I'm not too sure where to launch this, so at the moment I'm testing for interest while still finishing some details I haven't worked out yet. Cfc also killed my account, so that's a thing.​
Story
Spoiler :
A year after the falling of the red star, the nations of the world have sent small colonial expeditions into the great central ocean to a newly discovered island, thought to be hiding the fallen star. These colonists and adventurers, cutthroats and treasure hunters, exiles and thrill seekers now land on the beaches and setup small settlements, knowing little of the mysteries and dangers of the untamed lands they are setting out to conquer.

Faction Setup
Spoiler :
Colony name:
Mother country name:
Race: Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Human, Orc
Tradition: Imperialist, Industrialist, Mercantilist, Militarist, Theocratic.
Leader name:
Leader traits:
Hero 1: Class (determined by tradition), name
Hero 2: Class, name

Race
Races are no different as far as stats are concerned, but their basic attributes will take play in events and story telling.

Dwarf: Short and wide, and with long, blood racial feuds with orcs, Dwarves have gained a reputation of being a race of warriors. While Dwarven warriors have earned their reputation, most dwarves are still better describes as hard working, inventive, and good natured.
Elf: Elves past is unknown and widely argued, but to most the come across as otherworldly and distant. Elves tend to be isolated and cold towards other races, but those who are friends with an elf can attest that the friendship of an elf is one of the strongest bonds that could ever be forged.
Gnome: Gnomes are similar to elves in that they seem apart from the rest of mortal races, but they are far from their unsocial cousins. Gnomes share the high spirits of the similarly sized Halflings, but also have a reputation of being eccentric, or outright mad, as an entire society.
Halfling: Halflings are short of stature and generally physically unthreatening, but they are known for making up for this with endless enthusiasm, good humour, and a deep well of luck.
Human: Regarded by the rest of the races as blundering and ignorant, Humans do little to convince otherwise. Despite this, they have managed to spread themselves across the world enough to be considered the dominant race of this world, and few Humans won't take the chance to remind any who listen of it.
Orc: Most orcs are known as simply savage hordes that are constantly raging against the rest of civilisation. The cousins of these wild orcs are physically similar, but live in much the same way as the rest of civilised races, but are also always having to face their bestial ancestry.

Tradition
Traditions reflect the cultural and policies of the mother country, which the colony also adopts. A tradition is fixed, unless ties to the mother country are cut and the colony become independent (this will note be fun, expect a bloody fight and probably economic ruin). Each tradition will change a colony’s starting equipment and first hero, along with how the mother country will interact with the colony.

Imperialist – The colony begin with a larger population, a larger store of food, and a wizard. Construction costs of new settlements, forts and camps are halved. Medium military skill.
Industrialist – The colony begins with larger store of wood and stone, a camp (to be placed in addition to the starting town), and a Bard. Production of wood, stone and food are increased by 25%. Medium military skill.
Mercantilist – The colony begins with a larger store of currency, a trade ship, and a Rogue. Gold production is increased by 25%. Low military skill.
Militarist – The colony begins with a better cache of weapons, a barracks, and a Fighter. Soldiers fight better. High military skill.
Theocratic – The colony begins with a small cache of Enchanted weapons, a temple, and a cleric. Population growth increased. Medium military skill.

Leader Traits
Leaders can die off or be replaced, so these traits may change multiple times through a colonies lifespan. Most leader traits influence events more than day to day colony matters. While the leader only starts with one trait, more may be gained as the game progresses due to unique handling of events, interesting character-building stories, or other ways. These are a few pre-made examples, but players may make their own initial trait (I’ll tell you if your trait is too out there).

Animal Lover – wild animals will be less aggressive, and some may even assist the colony.
Sea Legs – the sea itself seems to favour this leader, and the colony will reap the benefits.
Mystic – magical events will seemingly seek out the leader.
Nice – the colony’s reputation will benefit from having a leader who’s just an all-around super person.
Divinely Appointed – the leader is, or at least is said to be, chosen by the gods.


Heroes
Spoiler :
Heroes are special units that can be used in three ways: as Mayors, Captains or in Events. In each role they will have a different effect. Mayors will affect towns, War Chiefs affect battles, and each class of Hero has different ways of affecting Events. Heroes level up, to maximum of 10 levels, increasing their performance at each task. Similar to the Leader, heroes may gain traits through their actions throughout the game, though they start with none.
Hero levels are broken into three tiers which correlate with Event difficulty and magic equipment power.
Lvl 1-3 is Heroic, lvl 4-6 is Paragon, and lvl 7-10 is Epic.
Hero classes:

Fighter
Mayor: increases production of all resources by 5%*level
General: Fighter’s count their own attacks without multiplying for skill level.
Events: Strength – Events requiring extreme hardiness or violence are best directed towards the Fighter.
Example Event: Some beast that attacks your workers resides in a nearby cave that is too narrow for soldiers to be effective. The fighter could attempt to slay the creature.

Cleric
Mayor: increases natural growth by 5%*level
General: 5%*level of casualties survive regardless of win or loss.
Events: Wisdom – Clerics have a great depth of knowledge in regards to Religion and healing.
Example Event: A native tribe is suffering from an unknown ailment. The cleric may be sent to discover what the ailment and its origin are, and possible cure the tribe’s people.

Bard
Mayor: construction costs are reduced by 5%*level
General: Bards increase the military skill of (5*level)% of troops in attached army by 1.
Events: Charisma – Bards can best handle situations that require diplomacy or persuasion.
Example Event: The bard may convince band of brigands to allow the player’s workers safe passage, or even to join the player’s faction.

Wizard
Mayor: Random outcome from magical experiments. Most often either a bonus to some aspect of settlement or enchants some weapons. Small chance of larger bonuses or rare items. Very small chance of the experiment going horribly wrong.
General: attacks similar to Fighter, but used before main combat.
Events: Intelligence – Wizards are useful in any situation that requires great analytical intellect or knowledge of the arcane.
Example Event: After discovering an artifact with an unknown magical property, the Wizard may be able to study it and discern its use.

Rogue
Mayor: gain currency equal to Population*(.05)level.
General: targets enemy heroes. Rolls directly against opposing heroes.
Events: Dexterity – Rogues are adept at any situation involving sneaking, stealing or other forms of skullduggery.
Example Event: A group of blacksmiths are protesting in your main town, halting weapons production. The Rogue can be used to make the protest’s leaders disappear, sending the rest back to work.


Example stats
Spoiler :
New Mare (Empire of Mare): Decamper
Race: Human
Tradition: Imperialism
Leader: Governor Eris
Leader Trait: Sea Legs
Military Skill: 3
Currency: 600 (+100)
Total Population: 1000
Total Soldiers: 200
Food: 2000 (+1875)
Wood: 200 (+50)
Stone: 150 (+100)
Metal: 50 (+25)

Settlements:
Capitol: New Haven (town)
Resources: +1875 food, +50 wood, +100 stone, +25 metal.
Population: 800 (290)
Soldiers: 100
Structures: Forge, 3x Farms, Barracks, Quarry, Shipyard
Equipment: 300 crude, 150 civilian, 100 military

Camp Hood (camp)
Resources: +250 metal
Population: 200 (0)
Soldiers: 100
Structures: 2x fortifications, 2X mine, barracks.
Equipment: 50 civilian, 100 military

Heroes:
Barric
Lvl 5 Wizard Human
Traits: Afraid of bugs
Equipment: military

Tallia
Lvl 4 Bard Human
Traits: Tree hugger
Equipment: Mastercraft

Rules
Spoiler :
Population, Soldiers and Slaves
Your colonists are your main resources, being the most used asset in exploration, resource gathering, construction, and warfare. Population is increased naturally over time, as well as through passive immigration from overseas, or from paying for additional colonists from your mother country. Each colonist will consume 1 food each season. Most structures will require colonists for the structure to function, and so the population stat will also include your number of 'unemployed' colonists that can be used for whatever task you need them to do. Every colonist is capable of fighting, with their effectiveness being determined by your colony's military skill.

By constructing barracks, colonists can be turned into soldiers, who fight with a military skill +2 above the rest of your colony. One barracks can train and house 100 soldiers, with more barracks being required to train a larger army. Barracks are also necessary to adequately station soldiers in a settlement - without barracks, soldiers may desert or die if stationed in an unprepared settlement. Soldiers are counted separately from your total population, and provide no tax income, while also costing one currency a season in addition to the normal 1 food.

Slaves can be taken from defeated enemies if you so choose, and will passively produce resources while costing no food. Slaves can also be sold to the mother country for currency. Having a very large slave population runs the risk of an uprising.

Resources and the Map
Food, wood, stone and metal are the core resources that your colony needs. Food is consumed every season, and if your colonists don't eat for a season they will die. Wood, stone and metal are need for construction, with metal being especially important for forging weapons. Settlements will passively produce resources, with the amount being determined by the surrounding terrain, and there are structures that will increase the amount of produced resources. Factors that increase food production are access to fresh water, forests or wildlife for hunting and foraging, and larger bodies of water for fishing. Wood production is best in heavily forested areas, and is reduced in hilled areas, and scarce in mountains. Stone production is best in hills and mountains, and worst in forests. Metal is also generally more likely to be found in hills and mountains, but metal veins are more difficult to find than stone sources, and so should be scouted for in preparation for settlements.

Resources are gathered within roughly 10 km of a settlement, though the farther out they are, the more vulnerable the workers will be. If a settlement is sieges, resource production will be severely limited.

In addition to the basic resources are special luxuries that can sold to the mother country for currency, and remnants of the fallen star that can be used to create magic weapons, among other things.

Combat
Combat is done through a simple roll between opposing forces. The number of colonists or soldiers is improved by their equipment, then modified by their military skill and a number of dice are rolled with the resulting number. Modifiers such as terrain, tactics, and other situational things are then applied to the results. The two sides are compared, and the side with more points wins the engagement. Losses for both sides are decided by what percentage each side's result is when totaled together. For example, if the two sides have roughly the same results, then both sides will take roughly 50% losses, and there may be no winner. The losing army routes, abandoning lost equipment and being at the mercy of the wilds as the retreat to the nearest friendly settlement, or desert from the colony. Winners get any recoverable equipment, the settlement if involved in a siege, and a larger amount of xp to be put towards raising their military skill.

Heroes that take damage lose levels, until reduced to 0, at which point they die.

Siege Combat
Sieges can either be a direct assault, or a prolonged siege. A direct assault will involve the attacking directly attack the defenders, imparting large defensive bonuses. A prolonged siege will often take at least more than one season, and will last as long as the settlement had food. Once out of food, the defending army will automatically either attack or surrender, depending on military skill. While sieged, a settlement have a severely reduced resource production, and outlying farms, mines, quarries and lumberyards may be destroyed by the attackers (Farms are generally used to feed the attackers, but may be raised if you so choose). Basic Siege weapons such as ladders and rams will be automatically constructed, while complex siege weapons must be constructed in settlements and brought to the siege. Defending siege weapons will constantly harass a sieging army.

Weapons
Common weapons are ranked as such, in increasing power. If unarmed, a colonist or soldier is assumed to use makeshift weapons.
- Unarmed, Crude, Civilian, Military, Mastercraft,
Easily forged magical weapons are Blessed weapons, forged in temples, and Enchanted, forged in laboratories. More powerful magic weapons can be found or created through special events, and will often have unique properties in addition to being extremely powerful. These weapons follow the same Heroic, Paragon, Epic tier naming system as Heroes.

Siege Weapons
Sieve weapons attack before general combat begins to weaken an army or fortifications. Siege weapons are generally abandoned by the losing army, though high military skill may result in the losing side sabotaging siege weapons. Siege weapons operate differently depending on the battle:
- When used in a siege, they will break down fortifications and damage inside structures, or pick of attackers, depending on the side.
- In a naval engagement, siege weapons can be mounted on ships to sink ships. All siege weapons can be transported by any ship, but can only be operated on certain ships.
- In a standard engagement, siege weapons will target either soldiers or siege weapons.

There are 3 different siege weapons, and each operate slightly differently:
- Scorpios attack soldiers directly, with minimal effect on other siege weapons, structures or ships.
- Ballistae generally target other siege weapons, but also have a moderate effect on structures, soldiers, and ships.
- Catapults generally target structures and ships, and are minimally effective against soldiers and siege weapons.

Naval Combat and General Seafaring
Basic boats such as canoes and rafts can be constructed without cost, allowing short range water travel. These basic boats are completely unprotected though, and are very impractical for long trips or any combat.

Larger ships can be constructed with a Shipyard. Combat with these ships will generally involve arrow fire and boarding to capture ships, along with occasional sinking due to ramming. If equipped with ballistae or catapults, ships will be much more proficient at sinking other shops, while Scorpios will kill crew quicker. Generally, the higher an army's military skill, the better chance of capturing rather than sinking.

Ships have a certain number of 'hardpoints' that can be used to equip siege weapons. Scorpios take 1 hardpoint, Ballistae take 5 hardpoints, and catapults take 10 hardpoints.

-Cargo Ship: large merchantmen, capable of carrying up to 100 sailors/marines, as well as a cargo hold to move resources and up to 100 people (comfortably, you can stuff more in though you risk them dying over even short voyages).Too slow and ill-armed for effective combat, these ships are best used for moving population or resources, or as transports for an amphibious attack, and should be escorted by better equipped vessels. Has 5 hard points.
- Patrol Ship: quick, medium armoured combat ships that carry up to 100 sailors/marines. These ships are the core military ships, and are perfect for use as escorts, raiding and capturing cargo ships, or making up the bulk of an armada. Has 10 hard points.
- War ship: Large and heavily armoured combat ships that carry up to 150 sailors/marines. These expensive ships are the backbone of an armada. Has 20 hard points.

Events
Events are simply the challenges that I'll be throwing at you to deal with throughout the game. They can be comprised of single faction related events such as colonial matters, wildlife or other local issues, or personal events dealing with leaders or heroes. They can also occasionally take the form of events that affect a region of the island, or game-wide events. The handling of events is entirely up to you, though generally the more creative you are with your solutions, the more succesful (or at least interesting) your outcomes will be.

The Mother Country and Inter-colonial Relations
The mother country will for most of the game serve as a way to increase your population through immigration and as a way to buy or sell resources, depending on your situation. Colonials for the most part are independent of the mother country, and are free to interact with other colonials as they see fit. That being said, events from the mother country will occasionally occur, their specifics depending on your tradition. Mother countries will also, on rare occasions, go to war with another mother country, in which case colonies may be asked to go to war with each other in the mother country's name. In these cases, it is up to you to decide to follow its whishes or not. Angering a mother country to much, or declaring independence, may result in a secession war, with a large force sent over to attempt to pacify you. These wars will be difficult, so carefully consider if being freed from a mother country's nagging is worth the bloodshed.

Diplomacy, trade, border agreements and whatever else are entirely up to you. If you want to draw lines or cooperate is decided by you. It is worth noting that for the beginning of the game, depending on number of players, colonies will mostly likely be largely isolated for a few seasons.

Settlements:
As there are no official borders on the map, constructing new settlements will be necessary to create safe zones as you explore and exploit further into the island. Settlements that are reasonably close together (<40km) are assumed to have roads connecting them, though these roads are not safe in and of themselves. The closer cities are together, the less at risk are their trade routes. Having food be interrupted between a lowland farming town and a mountainous mining camp can be disastrous.

Towns: 1000 wood, 500 stone, 100 metal. The main population centres of a colony.
Forts: 1000 stone, 500 wood, 100 metal. Provides defensive bonus, but halves all production.
Camp: 500 wood, 100 stone, 50 metal. Cheap to build, but produces no food. Generally used for accessing distant resources or for light defense.

Structures:
Spoiler :
Fortifications: 300 stone, 100 wood, 100 metal. increases the military skill of defender by level of fortification. May be built 10 times.

Barracks: 200 wood, 100 stone. allows for the recruitment and housing of 100 soldiers. Soldiers cost 1 gold a season.

Farm Enhancement: 200 wood, 100 population. provides bonus to food production. Can be built 3 times, but adds less of a bonus each time.

Fishing Docks: 300 wood, 100 population. Provides to food production. Can be built 3 times, but adds less of a bonus each time.

Lumberyard: 200 wood, 100 metal, 100 population. Increases wood production. Requires large source of wood. Can be built 3 times, but adds less of a bonus each time.

Quarry: 200 wood, 100 metal, 100 population. increases stone production. Requires large source of stone. Can be built 3 times, but adds less of a bonus each time.

Mine: 200 wood, 100 metal, 100 population. Increases metal production. Requires large source of metal. Can be built 3 times, but adds less of a bonus each time. Also used to access some special resources.

Siege Works: 500 wood, 200 stone, 200 metal, 50 population. Allows construction of Scorpios for 25 wood, 15 metal, Ballistae for 50 wood, 30 metal, and catapults for 100 wood, 60 metal.

Forge: 200 wood, 100 stone, 100 metal, 10 population. Turn metal into weapons. Weapons cost 1 for crude, 2 for civilian, 4 for military and 8 for Mastercraft.

Laboratory: 300 wood, 200 stone, 100 metal, 5 Star Dust, 10 population. Increases effectiveness of a Wizard Mayor. Can construct Enchanted for 16 metal and 2 Star Dust.

Scrapper: 200 wood, 200 metal, 50 population. breaks down weapons, ships and buildings for a return of half the building cost.

Shipyard: 300 wood, 100 stone, 100 metal, 100 population. allows construction of ships. Cargo Ships cost 200 wood, 25 metal, Patrol ships cost 400 wood, 50 metal, and War Ships cost 600 wood, 100 metal.

Market: 500 wood, 100 stone, 50 population. produces currency based on population, as well as a chance of getting small amounts of wood, stone, metal, slaves, weapons or rare items.

Tavern: 100 wood, 50 stone, 10 population. produces small amount of currency. Keeps population drunk and distracted.

Arena: 200 wood, 100 stone, 50 metal, 50 population. produces currency, keeps population happy.

Jail: 100 wood, 400 stone, 200 metal, 50 population. lock up dissenters, keeps public order. Holds 100 inmates (comfortably).

Temple: 500 stone, 20 population. colonists receive blessings and healings, resulting in a bonus to population growth. Keeps population happy. Can construct Blessed weapons for 16 metal and 2 Star Dust.

Map
Spoiler :

I'm wholly an amateur at making maps, but my main goal was to make a very pulpy fantasy looking map, something you could pull out of an adventure module. I hope that worked out well enough. Colonies will be limited to settling some coastline and surrounding islands, then expand from there.

Conclusion
That's about all I have finished for now, but there's still a number of features I'm either trying to add or fine tune. If anyone has any suggestions, do tell. On the list right now is:
- Some sort of colony magic system
- More structures
- Add siege rules
- Add naval combat to rules
- add example orders
- Whether or not I should add cavalry/how to make that work mechanics wise
I also still need to right out a few charts for random events, but that's the easy part, so this thing could be going up in a less than a month.

If you're interested say so below, I'll launch on whatever forum shows more interest (and doesn't eat my account).[/quote]
 
Added siege rules and siege weapon details under rules. Added siege works under structures.

So that's one on board. I'd love to get about 6-10 to start.
 
Added naval combat under rules.

So far there's 3 interested on the Frontier, and 2 on Cfc.
 
There was (slightly) more of a reaction on the Frontier, and so that's where I launched it.

Proper game thread is up now, if you want to play go there. I would post a link in my signature, but I don't know how to do that. Hopefully most people can find there way to between the two forums by now.
 
Sorry, if I'm stupid, but I made account to The Frontier forums, and I can't make posts there, do I have to wait for some sort of account confirmation by admin/moderator or something to post?
 
Right, sorry about that. Thanks thomas
 
Got my account back. Links are in my sig. Orders for update 0 are due Nov. 6, so pop over soon if you want to try this thing out.
 
As I am waiting for approval on The Frontier I'll post my application here:

Colony: Expeditionary Stardust Order (capital: Fallensport )
Mother country name: Illuminated Order of Holy Engineers
Race: Gnome
Tradition: Industrialist
Leader name: Overseer Wynddrast
Leader traits: Ruthless (feared by most, everyone respects him by fear)
Hero 1: Bard , Counsellor Cayrnn
Hero 2: Wizard, High Enginneer Drœnfrost
Location: The small peninsula (with the lone mountain on it) in the northeastern extremity of the island. The Town is located on the shore near what seems to be a river and the camp near the mountain.
I'll provide a description of the faction shortly.
 
Cool Cadellon. If you want to repost it the main thread once you're approved, go ahead. You'll be in the first update anyways though.
 
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