North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
StNNES IV: Carnage and Culture
Welcome to the fourth installment of the StNNES series.
The current status of the NES is all on the front page. Heres the Table of Contents (by Post #):
#1: Rules
#2: Player Stats
#3: NPC Stats A-L
#4: NPC Stats M-Z
#5: The World and status thereof
#6: Troop Descriptions
#7: Trade, Goods, and all that
#8: Great Leaders
#9: Timeline
#10: Firsts and Mosts
#11-12: Reserved
Most are self explanatory, I hope.
Basically this is a random map, fresh start NES. There is a strict limit of 2 PMs per order set, and a strict deadline for when orders must be in.
Rules are completely scratched from the last time, so read carefully.
Rules
Economy
This is of course the lifeblood of your civilization. Nations can rise and fall with the boom or bust cycles. Great powers can collapse from their own weight or minor powers can rise with the tide. You get the point.
Economy is rather simple. The Levels of Economy go: Depression, Recession, Weak, Stable, Prosperous, Booming, Powerhouse. Dont be deceived by the small number of levels, for these can mean the difference between life and death.
The actual thing you spend is Income. Income comes from many sources, among them taxes, tribute, trade, and others.
Taxes is of course most likely your main source of income, and it is the base level of income. You cannot gain less than what you get in taxes. But dont be deceived by this, because tax level varies as well. You can increase the amount of taxes you get by investing in your infrastructure, conquering a rich area, increasing farming production by a new invention, or simply raising taxes, though this latter one has the negative effect of making your people unhappier.
There can be a temporary (or permanent) bonus to income by trade (see below), tribute from other nations (I hope I dont need to explain this), or random events. Random events can be good or bad, remember. It could be a gold rush or a blight. These are decided at least semi-randomly, so dont flame me for them.
Trade
As one famous guy once said, ah, trade. The lifeblood of civilizations. That is true in real life and in this NES, very much so, in fact.
Well, there are two types of trade. Sponsored, and unsponsored. I hope that you might have an idea of what that means, but it might be wrong, too, so Ill clarify.
Sponsored means that a nation supports it. Eg a trade route. Nations on either end have to agree to it. Trade routes are quite nifty, as they (usually) gain both sides money and (probably) profit you in another way if they dont gain you money. For instance, a nation could sell another nation spices for incense. This would gain both nations money. But, there could be an example where one supplies a significant resource to the other. The supplier gains money, and the buyer can maintain a balanced (a.k.a. nil) gain by selling back to their own people.
Then there is unsponsored. This is essentially what your people trade without your blessing. They will do this all the time, with almost everyone you have contact with, unless you prohibit it. All nations will earn some money off of this trade (representing tariffs), but a nation with a lot to trade, or a nation sitting on an essential crossroads will inevitably earn more.
The amount you get from a trade route depends on what goods you are selling, like if you have a rare commodity it will be worth more than if youre trading grain.
Unsponsored also depends on what, exactly, is passing through your nation.
Also remember you can be the middle man, like Persia buying silk from China and then selling it to Rome.
Plus there is the even more fun aspect that you can seize trade goods and pirate other peoples trade routes. Well, fun for the thieves. Not the merchants.
Military
Something tells me that quite a few of you were waiting for this part. Your army and navy are, quite simply, the only things that stand in the way of you getting overrun by barbarians or other nations, and are as such rather important.
Both are represented in numbers, and both have many different unit types, that will be listed elsewhere. To make it bigger, there are several ways. You can just say to increase it in your orders, in which case the amount it grows will depend on your age, national population, what youre recruiting, and of course, how much money you put into it. You can also call for volunteers, though this wont net you quite as many unless youre in a crisis and the nation loves you. Drafting is available, but not advised as it will generally lead to rebellion.
One more thing: The bigger your military, the more expensive it gets, you do have to pay upkeep in this NES. Upkeep will vary, but generally it will be bigger if your people are opposed to war, if your government dislikes it, if youre at war, and what terrain youre fighting in. In any case, upkeep depends on training, too. More well trained troops will cost more... More on that later.
Unique Units
There is not theoretically a such thing as a Unique Unit, but you can create units unique to your state. This is done by essentially filling out a template for your new custom troops:
Name: (obvious, no?)
Attributes: (Whats their characteristics? How are they better than other troops?)
History: (optional, but preferred)
You can have as many of these as you want, but remember, keep it within the age and sensible (no tanks or battleships in the bronze age!), and remember the better you make it the more it will cost.
Training
This is going to be included in army stat and navy stat. Essentially, the more trained your troops are, the better they will fight, man for man, obviously. Training requires an income point per level to improve, but thats only to hire better drill instructors. It will also make the army more expensive to maintain (see army maintenance). Training will be for the army and navy as whole groups, since it is simply too hard for the mod otherwise. If you want a specific part trained, make a unique unit that because of [insert unique thing] here, they have a higher training then the average men of the military.
Levels: Conscript, Little, Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, Supreme
Training drops a level every time you reach a new age.
Infrastructure
Well Im sure youre wondering what this is going to be about? Thats right, infrastructure is a stat. Essentially it means how developed the workings of your civilization are. Like roads, sewer systems, waterworks, etc. It affects directly how fast your armies move, how much trade your nation can handle, how much industry you can have, how many people you have, how healthy they are, and how happy they are.
Note that the actual infrastructure will vary from area to area, this is just an overall stat. It should be obvious where it is more and where it is less, but if you are uncertain, you can of course ask the mod, or simply consult the map, which will of course have roads on it, and so the areas with more roads have more infrastructure. Theres a lot to this stat.
Levels: Barbaric, Underdeveloped, Little, Developing, Moderately Developed, Developed, Fully Integrated.
Research and Education
Yah, so the learning type areas of your nation are divided into two segments, research, and education.
Research is basically what you invest in your science departments in order to discover new technologies. This is basically the area that more of means you are better able to invent stuff you are seeking than otherwise. So essentially, when you order a technology to be researched, this is the stat you ought to be worried about. Remember, though, actually researching things takes years, sometimes centuries of effort. It is rather unlikely the industrial revolution will happen around 0 CE.
Education is completely different. Education is basically how... well... educated your people are. This affects how fast the new technologies discovered by your scientists/alchemists/sages/prophets/etc diffuse to the people, and make their lives better. Well the pragmatically evil among you dont really care about the welfare of your people, so it does something else. Remember how I said how research was rather difficult and took a long time? Well its much easier getting advances from other people than inventing them yourself, and education affects how fast other peoples techs diffuse into your environments.
Education drops two levels every time you reach a new age.
Religion:
This is one of the pillars of civilization. People will live for it. Die for it. Kill for it. It is a powerful tool to control the masses, and an excellent area to muscle out your creativity.
You start with basic animistic principles. Or you can immediately change it to another religion. Religions can be based on real life religions, of course, or, if you want to be creative, you can create your own. Of course, a religion of your own isnt just as simple as inventing a word for it. You ought to write a lot about it and the belief systems if you want it to be at all decently able to resist invaders. Remember that you can send missionaries in your orders to convert others in your orders.
If you want to help the mod out while creating your new religion, please fill out the template provided at the bottom of the rules.
Culture:
Culture quite simply refers to the power of your culture, or to put it differently, how likely your culture is to appear better or more desirable than another culture. A big part of this is Religion.
Levels: Barbarian, Very Little, Little, Weak, Poor, Decent, Good Enough, Fine, Excellent, Superb.
Governments:
Self explanatory. If you want something bigger or better than the usual, then make it up. Keep it with the times, no Communism in Bronze Age.
Confidence:
Confidence is how much the people like how you are doing. Depends a lot on your actions and how well the nation is faring.
Levels: Wrathful, Hateful, Terrible, Disliking, Poor, Decent, Well Enough, Liking, Great, Loving, Willing to follow anywhere.
Projects:
These are essentially either projects by the government, intellectual developments, or physical buildings. You describe what it is, and what it does for you. I decide how much in the way of income youll need to invest. Typical projects might go like:
Great Sand Mound: (+3 Income, +5,000 Infantry) (1/8)
Living on the Edge: The Barbarian Lifestyle
In this NES, finally Im having the idea Ive been toying with for so long occur. You can take control of the big gray blobs. You can be a barbarian.
Barbarians will have their own stats, culture, that sort of thing. You will still be encouraged to write stories (even if they are ala Amon), you can still create a real and viable culture. However, there are a few things different.
For one, there is no research or education in a barbarian culture. Really, there is no structure up above to facilitate the education of the general populace, so that it will be up to the people themselves. Your nation will still gain new technologies, but at a slower pace.
Income will be very low, and the main way you gain new troops is either by encouraging your people to fight, by promising them new lands, new wealth, and new riches (in other words, promising to invade someone), or to force civilized nations to pay you tribute and thus have money to hire more mercenaries.
There are many upsides to barbarians, though. You dont have to pay nearly as much income, you are much more effective at warmongering.
You also have the (irreversible) option of having some of your people settle down and become a true nation, however, many of the barbarians in your tribe will likely not give a care, and stay as barbarians. You can invade nation, defeat it completely, and install yourself as the new ruling dynasty of that nation (be prepared for rebellions, though).
One final note: Expansion will be alternately slow and rapid, depending on where you are expanding, but keep in mind that during the ancient age you can lose vast areas of territory to a new power quickly. You can control a huge empire and lose massive tracts of land to another. The size of the empire affects this, for the larger your empire is, the harder it is to control the outlying areas. The confidence also affects this, for if the people like you they will try to stay, if they hate you the outlying areas of the empire will rapidly fall to an invader because its not exactly like they are loyal to you.
Template:
Nation Name (replace this)
Ruler/Player: ?/?
Age: Stone Age
Government: ? (keep it reasonable)
Religion: Animism (default)
Economy: Stable
Income: 3 (+0 trade, +0 bonus, +0 extras)
Army: 4,000 warriors, 1,000 archers (Upkeep: 1), Conscript
Navy: 10 canoes (Upkeep:1), Conscript (If by sea)
Infrastructure: Barbaric
Research Funding: 0
Education: Barbarian
Culture: Little
Confidence: Terrible
Projects:
Barbarians Template:
Nation Name (replace this)
Ruler/Player: ?/?
Age: Stone Age
Government: Tribalism
Religion: Animism (default)
Economy: Stable
Income: 2 (+0 trade, +0 bonus, +0 extras)
Army: 7,500 warriors, 500 archers (Upkeep: 1), Conscript
Navy: 10 canoes (Upkeep:1), Conscript (If by sea)
Culture: Little
Confidence: Terrible
Religion Template:
Name:
Head: (Who heads your religion? Which person(s) make the decisions?)
Attitude to War: (How does your religion view war?)
Belief about God(s): (Animistic / Pantheistic / Monotheistic etc.)
Belief about Afterlife: (What happense when you die?)
Heretics: (Which religions are considered extremely heretical?)
Control over people: Intense / Strong / Normal / Weak / Negligible
Religious Center: (Where is your religion centered? Or is it not centered?)
DONT POST YET! Theres 12 odd posts after this one.
Welcome to the fourth installment of the StNNES series.
The current status of the NES is all on the front page. Heres the Table of Contents (by Post #):
#1: Rules
#2: Player Stats
#3: NPC Stats A-L
#4: NPC Stats M-Z
#5: The World and status thereof
#6: Troop Descriptions
#7: Trade, Goods, and all that
#8: Great Leaders
#9: Timeline
#10: Firsts and Mosts
#11-12: Reserved
Most are self explanatory, I hope.
Basically this is a random map, fresh start NES. There is a strict limit of 2 PMs per order set, and a strict deadline for when orders must be in.
Rules are completely scratched from the last time, so read carefully.
Rules
Economy
This is of course the lifeblood of your civilization. Nations can rise and fall with the boom or bust cycles. Great powers can collapse from their own weight or minor powers can rise with the tide. You get the point.
Economy is rather simple. The Levels of Economy go: Depression, Recession, Weak, Stable, Prosperous, Booming, Powerhouse. Dont be deceived by the small number of levels, for these can mean the difference between life and death.
The actual thing you spend is Income. Income comes from many sources, among them taxes, tribute, trade, and others.
Taxes is of course most likely your main source of income, and it is the base level of income. You cannot gain less than what you get in taxes. But dont be deceived by this, because tax level varies as well. You can increase the amount of taxes you get by investing in your infrastructure, conquering a rich area, increasing farming production by a new invention, or simply raising taxes, though this latter one has the negative effect of making your people unhappier.
There can be a temporary (or permanent) bonus to income by trade (see below), tribute from other nations (I hope I dont need to explain this), or random events. Random events can be good or bad, remember. It could be a gold rush or a blight. These are decided at least semi-randomly, so dont flame me for them.
Trade
As one famous guy once said, ah, trade. The lifeblood of civilizations. That is true in real life and in this NES, very much so, in fact.
Well, there are two types of trade. Sponsored, and unsponsored. I hope that you might have an idea of what that means, but it might be wrong, too, so Ill clarify.
Sponsored means that a nation supports it. Eg a trade route. Nations on either end have to agree to it. Trade routes are quite nifty, as they (usually) gain both sides money and (probably) profit you in another way if they dont gain you money. For instance, a nation could sell another nation spices for incense. This would gain both nations money. But, there could be an example where one supplies a significant resource to the other. The supplier gains money, and the buyer can maintain a balanced (a.k.a. nil) gain by selling back to their own people.
Then there is unsponsored. This is essentially what your people trade without your blessing. They will do this all the time, with almost everyone you have contact with, unless you prohibit it. All nations will earn some money off of this trade (representing tariffs), but a nation with a lot to trade, or a nation sitting on an essential crossroads will inevitably earn more.
The amount you get from a trade route depends on what goods you are selling, like if you have a rare commodity it will be worth more than if youre trading grain.
Unsponsored also depends on what, exactly, is passing through your nation.Also remember you can be the middle man, like Persia buying silk from China and then selling it to Rome.
Plus there is the even more fun aspect that you can seize trade goods and pirate other peoples trade routes. Well, fun for the thieves. Not the merchants.
Military
Something tells me that quite a few of you were waiting for this part. Your army and navy are, quite simply, the only things that stand in the way of you getting overrun by barbarians or other nations, and are as such rather important.
Both are represented in numbers, and both have many different unit types, that will be listed elsewhere. To make it bigger, there are several ways. You can just say to increase it in your orders, in which case the amount it grows will depend on your age, national population, what youre recruiting, and of course, how much money you put into it. You can also call for volunteers, though this wont net you quite as many unless youre in a crisis and the nation loves you. Drafting is available, but not advised as it will generally lead to rebellion.
One more thing: The bigger your military, the more expensive it gets, you do have to pay upkeep in this NES. Upkeep will vary, but generally it will be bigger if your people are opposed to war, if your government dislikes it, if youre at war, and what terrain youre fighting in. In any case, upkeep depends on training, too. More well trained troops will cost more... More on that later.
Unique Units
There is not theoretically a such thing as a Unique Unit, but you can create units unique to your state. This is done by essentially filling out a template for your new custom troops:
Name: (obvious, no?)
Attributes: (Whats their characteristics? How are they better than other troops?)
History: (optional, but preferred)
You can have as many of these as you want, but remember, keep it within the age and sensible (no tanks or battleships in the bronze age!), and remember the better you make it the more it will cost.
Training
This is going to be included in army stat and navy stat. Essentially, the more trained your troops are, the better they will fight, man for man, obviously. Training requires an income point per level to improve, but thats only to hire better drill instructors. It will also make the army more expensive to maintain (see army maintenance). Training will be for the army and navy as whole groups, since it is simply too hard for the mod otherwise. If you want a specific part trained, make a unique unit that because of [insert unique thing] here, they have a higher training then the average men of the military.
Levels: Conscript, Little, Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, Supreme
Training drops a level every time you reach a new age.
Infrastructure
Well Im sure youre wondering what this is going to be about? Thats right, infrastructure is a stat. Essentially it means how developed the workings of your civilization are. Like roads, sewer systems, waterworks, etc. It affects directly how fast your armies move, how much trade your nation can handle, how much industry you can have, how many people you have, how healthy they are, and how happy they are.
Note that the actual infrastructure will vary from area to area, this is just an overall stat. It should be obvious where it is more and where it is less, but if you are uncertain, you can of course ask the mod, or simply consult the map, which will of course have roads on it, and so the areas with more roads have more infrastructure. Theres a lot to this stat.
Levels: Barbaric, Underdeveloped, Little, Developing, Moderately Developed, Developed, Fully Integrated.
Research and Education
Yah, so the learning type areas of your nation are divided into two segments, research, and education.
Research is basically what you invest in your science departments in order to discover new technologies. This is basically the area that more of means you are better able to invent stuff you are seeking than otherwise. So essentially, when you order a technology to be researched, this is the stat you ought to be worried about. Remember, though, actually researching things takes years, sometimes centuries of effort. It is rather unlikely the industrial revolution will happen around 0 CE.
Education is completely different. Education is basically how... well... educated your people are. This affects how fast the new technologies discovered by your scientists/alchemists/sages/prophets/etc diffuse to the people, and make their lives better. Well the pragmatically evil among you dont really care about the welfare of your people, so it does something else. Remember how I said how research was rather difficult and took a long time? Well its much easier getting advances from other people than inventing them yourself, and education affects how fast other peoples techs diffuse into your environments.
Education drops two levels every time you reach a new age.
Religion:
This is one of the pillars of civilization. People will live for it. Die for it. Kill for it. It is a powerful tool to control the masses, and an excellent area to muscle out your creativity.
You start with basic animistic principles. Or you can immediately change it to another religion. Religions can be based on real life religions, of course, or, if you want to be creative, you can create your own. Of course, a religion of your own isnt just as simple as inventing a word for it. You ought to write a lot about it and the belief systems if you want it to be at all decently able to resist invaders. Remember that you can send missionaries in your orders to convert others in your orders.
If you want to help the mod out while creating your new religion, please fill out the template provided at the bottom of the rules.
Culture:
Culture quite simply refers to the power of your culture, or to put it differently, how likely your culture is to appear better or more desirable than another culture. A big part of this is Religion.
Levels: Barbarian, Very Little, Little, Weak, Poor, Decent, Good Enough, Fine, Excellent, Superb.
Governments:
Self explanatory. If you want something bigger or better than the usual, then make it up. Keep it with the times, no Communism in Bronze Age.
Confidence:
Confidence is how much the people like how you are doing. Depends a lot on your actions and how well the nation is faring.
Levels: Wrathful, Hateful, Terrible, Disliking, Poor, Decent, Well Enough, Liking, Great, Loving, Willing to follow anywhere.
Projects:
These are essentially either projects by the government, intellectual developments, or physical buildings. You describe what it is, and what it does for you. I decide how much in the way of income youll need to invest. Typical projects might go like:
Great Sand Mound: (+3 Income, +5,000 Infantry) (1/8)
Living on the Edge: The Barbarian Lifestyle
In this NES, finally Im having the idea Ive been toying with for so long occur. You can take control of the big gray blobs. You can be a barbarian.
Barbarians will have their own stats, culture, that sort of thing. You will still be encouraged to write stories (even if they are ala Amon), you can still create a real and viable culture. However, there are a few things different.
For one, there is no research or education in a barbarian culture. Really, there is no structure up above to facilitate the education of the general populace, so that it will be up to the people themselves. Your nation will still gain new technologies, but at a slower pace.
Income will be very low, and the main way you gain new troops is either by encouraging your people to fight, by promising them new lands, new wealth, and new riches (in other words, promising to invade someone), or to force civilized nations to pay you tribute and thus have money to hire more mercenaries.
There are many upsides to barbarians, though. You dont have to pay nearly as much income, you are much more effective at warmongering.
You also have the (irreversible) option of having some of your people settle down and become a true nation, however, many of the barbarians in your tribe will likely not give a care, and stay as barbarians. You can invade nation, defeat it completely, and install yourself as the new ruling dynasty of that nation (be prepared for rebellions, though).
One final note: Expansion will be alternately slow and rapid, depending on where you are expanding, but keep in mind that during the ancient age you can lose vast areas of territory to a new power quickly. You can control a huge empire and lose massive tracts of land to another. The size of the empire affects this, for the larger your empire is, the harder it is to control the outlying areas. The confidence also affects this, for if the people like you they will try to stay, if they hate you the outlying areas of the empire will rapidly fall to an invader because its not exactly like they are loyal to you.
Template:
Nation Name (replace this)
Ruler/Player: ?/?
Age: Stone Age
Government: ? (keep it reasonable)
Religion: Animism (default)
Economy: Stable
Income: 3 (+0 trade, +0 bonus, +0 extras)
Army: 4,000 warriors, 1,000 archers (Upkeep: 1), Conscript
Navy: 10 canoes (Upkeep:1), Conscript (If by sea)
Infrastructure: Barbaric
Research Funding: 0
Education: Barbarian
Culture: Little
Confidence: Terrible
Projects:
Barbarians Template:
Nation Name (replace this)
Ruler/Player: ?/?
Age: Stone Age
Government: Tribalism
Religion: Animism (default)
Economy: Stable
Income: 2 (+0 trade, +0 bonus, +0 extras)
Army: 7,500 warriors, 500 archers (Upkeep: 1), Conscript
Navy: 10 canoes (Upkeep:1), Conscript (If by sea)
Culture: Little
Confidence: Terrible
Religion Template:
Name:
Head: (Who heads your religion? Which person(s) make the decisions?)
Attitude to War: (How does your religion view war?)
Belief about God(s): (Animistic / Pantheistic / Monotheistic etc.)
Belief about Afterlife: (What happense when you die?)
Heretics: (Which religions are considered extremely heretical?)
Control over people: Intense / Strong / Normal / Weak / Negligible
Religious Center: (Where is your religion centered? Or is it not centered?)
DONT POST YET! Theres 12 odd posts after this one.
