The City States of Greece

dot80

Emperor
Joined
Jan 9, 2011
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I know my last game was a failure, but I promise to be better this time. I hope by streamlining the process and by making a more interesting game for players that we all can have a better experience than last time. tCCoG is a feud/citizen of the empire/prestige game where each player takes control of a family and tries to earn more prestige than any other family by the end of time. If you hadn't inferred by the title we will be playing in Greece. So without further ado I present the City States of Greece!

PRESTIGE: Prestige is the honor/glory rating earned by a player's family. The family with the most Prestige at the end of the game is the winner. Prestige is earned by living in a renowned city, holding powerful positions, earning great wealth, winning great battles, and by writing good role play in the thread. I will give out role play points every session to the best posters.

JOINING: When players first join the game they are added to the Waiting List, and are brought into the game at the birth of a new citizen. If someone's entire living family is killed, or in the event of a shortage of participants, players are allowed to rejoin the Waiting List. From time to time I will add NPCs to the waiting list, that will join the game in the place of a player. When a player is born they will start at 18 and will be located in the city that gained another population point.

FAMILIES: Once a player's first character is born they are allowed to start a family. Names will be [Titles][First Name] [User Name] [Family Name] for ease of understanding which player plays which character. To continue their families players will have to get a spouse and procreate. Players can only control their heir, which is named upon birth.

CHARACTERS: Players have complete control over their active character, and can preform any of the actions below any number of times per session. Every session players will be sent the following stats:
Spoiler :
Character Name:[Titles][First Name][User Name][Family Name]
Position : Social/Economic/Political Positions
Wealth: Money Available for Spending. Players initially make 0.25gpt
Prestige: Amount of Accumulated Prestige
Age: How old your character is. For now characters will age at one year per turn.
Property: Hexes Owned by Family
Spouse: Husband/Wife
Children: Offspring
Skills: Talents/Abilities


SOCIAL STATUS: The level a player is at in the social hierarchy. It will affect how NPCs treat a player, and will earn players prestige per session. It also will effect the actions a player can take.
Spoiler :

Slave- You have been enslaved by another Player/NPC you have no rights. Can preform few independent actions. You are treated as property. Do not count as part of the population.
Serf- You are peasant and have few rights. Can preform most of the actions a Pleb can. You are treated as unimportant.
Plebian (Pleb)- You are a citizen and enjoy all the rights of one. You are treated as a common man.
Noble- You are rich/influential and enjoy exclusive rights over the lower orders. You are treated with respect.
Warrior- You are outside the social order, and your treatment depends largely on public opinion, though you enjoy the rights of a Pleb.


PROPERTY: Characters can own hexes, and gain income from them once every turn. There are two types of hexes, Parceled, and Wholesale. A Parceled Hex is divided into sections based on it's output, and each point of output (whether it be Food/Hammer/Commerce) can be owned by a different Player/NPC. And a Wholesale Hex is owned by one Player/NPC, who gets the entire output. Lower class NPCs/Players will demand Parceled Hexes, while upper class NPCs/Players will demand Wholesale Hexes. Food gives 1gpt, Hammers give 3gpt, and Commerce gives 5gpt. Tiles are named/bought/distributed based on rules set by players.

SKILLS Characters can posses a range of skills that will effect chances of success, and possibly give access to special actions. Players gain skills by using the practice movement, or by using the skill. I will add skills as they become available. If you think there needs to be a new skill, just ask. If you believe your character deserves a skill and didn't get one, just ask. Skills:

Fight Skill- Character's ability to fight. Used in the attack action, used for citizens apart of a combat unit.
Subterfuge- Character's ability to spy.
Rhetoric- Characters ability to sway NPCs to their side.
Theologian Skill- Characters religious knowledge.
Multilingual Skill- Characters knowledge of other languages.
Musician Skill- Characters talent with music, and their ability to move an audience.

CITY STATES: Each city functions as its own city-state, which will have its own laws/religion/military/ect. Cities will have a rating of Standard of Living, Power, Literacy, Culture and Renown, and each will be explained below. I will track the individual spending and income of each city, so they will each have their own treasury to spend. Settlers built in a city are controlled by someone appointed by the city government. The appointee must be alive and active in the game to be appointed. Upon completion of the settler unit a new player is born from the waiting list, and can be appointed. Settlers gained from a social policy or elsewhere are given to the next player on the waiting list. Workers are controlled by the city the builds them , and can be traded between city states. Workers gained via social policy are randomly assigned to a city. When players want to move between cities they will have to first remove another player from the city they wish to move to. This can be accomplished a number of ways including assassination, enslavement (where they no longer count as part of the population), Eviction (by the government of the city), or Replacement (a person of a higher social class can replace someone of a lower social class).

STANDARD OF LIVING: A city's standard of living is the calculated wealth of the populace. This is calculated by comparing the total drachma income divided by it's populace to that of the average income for all cities. It is calculated at the end of each session. Below the global average and a city is considered poor. Around the global average and a city is considered average. Above the global average and a city is considered Rich. The richest cities gain renown and have a populace more apt to buying literature and luxury products.

LITERACY: A city's Literacy is the calculated intelligence of a population. It is calculated by Beakers/Population compared to the other cities. Literacy rate is calculated at the end of each session. Under the average and a population is considered illiterate. Near the average and the population is considered average. Over the average and the population is considered Intelligent. Intelligent populations will bring Renown to a city and a population that is Forward thinking will be more open to new ideas and more apt to buy literature.

CULTURE: Culture is a city's calculated culture strength in comparison to other cities. The strength of a culture is calculated by comparing a city's cultural output to that of the average of all the the cities in the world. Culture strength is calculated at the end of each session. Under the average is considered Fledgling. Around the average is considered Refined. Above the average is considered Influential. City's with strong culture are more nationalistic, less willing to go to war, and will bring more renown to a city. Religions can only be founded in cities with Influential culture.

RENOWN: Renown is the prestige of a city. The more renowned a city is, the more prestige per turn its inhabitants will get from living there. Cities earn renown by building wonders, have a High Standard of Living/Culture Strength/Literacy, founding a religion, by having a large military, being the birth place of a great person, ect.

RELIGION: A religion can be founded in a city with Influential Culture, and average or above literacy. Religion will affect NPC behavior as expected, depending upon the Era the game is at. The evolution of a religion will depend largely on the action of civilizations throughout the game. It's influence in a city is based off of population. A missionary can only spread the influence of a religion to one population point at a time. The religion has a chance of spreading to all newly born citizens by a chance of Followers/Total Population. There are three levels of religion: Cult, Belief System, Religion. At the cult stage religion is hard to spread, and easy to defeat. At the Belief System Stage a religion is easier to spread, but easy to defeat. At the religion stage a religion is easy to spread and hard to defeat. Religion will spread by means of missionary, and the founding of new cities. A settler will follow the most powerful religion in a city. (What exactly the level of a religion does, and how it is calculated is kept ambiguous on purpose.)

TECHNOLOGY: Each city state can research it's own technology, and the time spent researching each technology will be split based on the Beaker outputs of each city.

GOLDvsDRACHMAS: Gold is the raw commerce output in game, while Drachmas are worth 5d for every 1 gold. This is an important distinction because when dealing with a city's treasury you are dealing with Gold. When dealing with player money you are dealing with Drachmas. So potentially you can convert a city's treasury directly to drachmas at 1g:5d. (Thank filli_noctus for pointing out the issue and proposing the nice theme-fitting name Drachma).

TILE OUTPUTS If a player owns a tile they earn the output of the tile as their own. The output goes as :c5food: = 1, :c5production: = 3, :c5gold: = 5. Cities earn a base trade tax income from the commerce done in the tiles they are working.

MOVEMENTS: Players can only preform two movement per session. Movements include the following:
Spoiler :
Change Location (1 tile per movement before horseback riding, can travel over multiple tiles on river after sailing)
Practice Skill (Increases a character's skill in something)
Attack (Physically Attack another player. Compares Fight Skill of each character)
Thought of a new kind of movement? Send me a pm!


ACTIONS: Players can preform any number of actions per session. This list is in no way comprehensive and the sky is the limit on the possibities. Actions include the following:
Spoiler :
  • Find a Spouse (Look for a wife/husband)
  • Procreate (Have children)
  • Transfer Amount (Give money to another family.)
  • Hire Assassins (Hires assassins to kill a Player/NPC. Price depends on the assassin.)
  • Hire Spies (Hires spies to get information on player/group/population. Explained further below.)
  • Hire Body Guards (Hires guards to protect against spies/assassinations/mobs/ect. Explained further below.)
  • Create Group (Creates an ideal/guerrilla/business/ect group. Explained further below.)
  • Create Propaganda (Creates and distributes propaganda.)
  • Rebel (Rebels against government. Just ask for more info)
  • Create/Reform Laws (Add/Changes law)
  • Boycott/Protest (Creates public protest against something)
  • Evict Player (Removes player from city, requires control of city gov't)
  • Replace Player (Kicks out another player and you take their place. Requires higher social class)
  • Enslave Player (Makes another player your slave)
  • Hire Mercenaries- (hire mercenaries to fight for you. Mercenaries cost varing amounts of GPT depending on the situation)
  • Levies (In times of war nobles can summon levies from lands they own. The strength will be random, but the more land and power Nobles have the stronger the levies they will be able to raise. Raising levies may anger the people)
  • Send Envoys (This action is for those delegated the power to send diplomatic envoys in city state governments. Diplomatic envoys now will cost a base cost of 5 Drachma per every two hexes from the capital (before horseback riding). It will cost an extra 5 Drachma per turn to send a Guarded Envoy. Unguarded Envoys have a chance every turn to be attacked. Fight skill will determine how likely it is a player will be killed if they are apart of an Unguarded Envoy.)


Hire Spies- Hiring spies will allow you to secretly gather information on NPCs, Players, NPC groups, Player Groups. Spies have a high chance of being thwarted the more body guards one has. There are two different packages for hiring spies:
Spoiler :
First Package: Information gathering mission that finds out NPC opinions/wants/needs. Costs 15d

Second Package: Spies on an NPC or Player and can gather information about Movements/Actions or Stats (one or the other, not both). It costs 25d.

Third Package: Infiltrates an organization/tails an NPC or Player. Costs 50d


Hire Body Guards- Hires guards to protect characters from espionage/assassinations/riots. Body guards cost 5dpt. Additional money spent on bodyguards will increase their effectivness.

Create Group- Formal groups are more influential to the NPCs, and have special actions. When creating a group I need a name, the reason for creation, and its belief/idea. Recruiting NPCs to a group becomes easier the more you have in a group. Groups can be secret or public. If you have a new kind of group in mid just ask, I am open to new ideas.
Spoiler :

Ideal Groups- Groups that are centered around a core idea/creed/issue. Ideal groups can more easily garner support, and their members are much easier to call to action than the general population. Special Actions:
Assemble- Can assemble the group in one place for a temporary or permanent period of time to have max influence over an area.
Call to Action- Can have the group do anything from raise money to protest, to take up arms and attack.
Guild- Groups centered around a profession. Guilds can more easily influence and run business among multiple NPCs and players. Guilds can own their own public land for use among the entire guild, and have their own treasuries. They have a power rating of 1-10. 1 being not very powerful 10 being very influential (monopoly). There are two different kinds of guilds: Economic and Combat.

An Economic guild is centered around a business and has the following special actions:
Create Headquarters- Centralizes money flow, and increases income.
Joint Transportation- Easier/Cheaper movement of goods from one place to another
Control Market- Influence the price of goods to go up or down.

Combat Guilds are centered around mercenary/knightly order work. A mercenary guild has the following special actions:
Training- Can train members to be more adept at combat.
Brotherhood- Members are more cooperative and cheaper to pay
Barracks- Easier and cheaper to raise and keep a fighting force.
Create Propaganda- To create propaganda simply send to me a speech or pamphlet that you have written in regards to a subject, and what tiles you want to distribute to. The cost is (0.5 x Population in a city) x The number of tiles you want to distribute to. To find out how the public reacted you can either hire spies to check, use a movement to check, or see the effects that show up in the next update.

ETHNIC GROUPS: Ethinic groups are culture groups of people that have distinct customs/languages/ect. All those in a specific ethnic group will more often then not agree on major issues and have the same opinion about Players. Each new founded Greek City-State will also found a new Ethnic group. Along with the Greek ethnic groups, foreign nations will also have their own ethnic groups. Eventually, through immigration, new ethnic groups will arrive in cities who previously may not have had any. Ethnic groups will evolve naturally based on events in the game and player actions. At the bottom of Session Updates I will post "Known Cultures" which will have a description of all known ethnic groups.

AMENDMENTS: In the likely event someone doesn't like a rule they can move for an amendment. If an amendment shows enough support I will recognize it and keep tally on supporters. Some rules I will not sway on, but others I'll allow the players to change. Amendments require a 3/4 majority to pass. Current rules I have decided the players cannot change include: 1 Population Point:1 Player

TRAITS:
I have updated the game with a system of traits for the male NPCs. There are 17 good traits, 17 bad, and 11 neutral traits. I will not go into detail on what exactly each trait does (though most of them are self-explanatory). This system will help me better to role-play from the standpoint of NPC nobles, and will help bring flavor to the game.

Here is a list of traits I have come up with:
Spoiler :
Good: Just, Fertile, Energetic, Pious, Honest, Chivalrous, Loyal, Eloquent, Frugal, Rational, Brave, Intelligent, Natural Leader, Industrious, Hearty, Zealous.

Bad: Hothead, Slothful, Xenophobic, Deceitful, Impious, Incompetent, Paranoid, Gambler, Cowardly, Crewel, Drunkard, Gluttonous, Prideful, Uncouth, Irrational, Sickly, Unchivalrous.

Neutral: Moderate, Liberal, Conservative, Country Bumpkin, City-Slicker, Adventurous, Bold, Cautious, Extravagant, Plain, Ambitious.
If you can think of any to add please PM me, along with a short description of how the trait might influence behavior. I’d like to keep an even number of good and bad, so if you come up with a trait try to come up with its anti-trait.

MILITARY: Unborn players and Born players can now join the military. For joining the military you can earn money, prestige, and even notablitlity for your family. If you die however, you will lose all money and notablitliy earned for your family, and you will move to the end of the waiting list (unless you have been born and have family outside the military). The amount of players allowed per unit is equal to Total # of Players divided by Total # of units. So now, for example, it would be 16/1. So the unit could hold all 16 players. When the hoplite is finished it will be 16/2, so the unit could only hold 8 players. This mechanic is designed to limit the number of players who can be in a highly upgraded/defensive unit. Players apart of units cannot preform any actions, and instead can put their characters in three modes:

Safe Mode- Less prestige, lower chance of death in the case of attack. Lower chance of promotion.
Neutral Mode- Less prestige, no change in chance of death. No change in chance of Promotion.
Heroic Mode- More Prestige, Higher chance of death in case of attack. Higher chance of Promotion.

Prestige will depend on what the unit is doing (defensive units wont gain much prestige). Pay will depend on what the city-state the unit is part of is paying its units (base pay however is 0.25 at no cost to the city-state). Chance of death is calaculated by taking the damage to the unit divided by the units total health. "Safe Mode" will lessen your chance of death by 20%, and "Heroic Mode" will increase it by 20%. Fight skill will also increase your chance of survival by 10% per level. ONLY BORN PLAYERS MAY HAVE SKILLS. There is a 50% chance you will be promoted after you survive a battle where the unit takes more than 3 Damage. Being in "Safe Mode" will decrease this chance by 20%. Being in "Heroic Mode" will increase this chance by 20%. Notability will depend on the Rank of the military person. In an Athenian unit, at Colonel you will be treated at the same level as a plebian (in regards to NPCs); at Commander you will be treated at the same level as a Noble (In regards to NPCs).

NOTE: You will not gain prestige/notability/moeny unless your MAIN CHARACTER OR HIS/HER HEIR is in the Military.
 
Active Players:
Jehoshua
Filli_Noctus
JoanK
Christos

Waiting List:
Smugkitten
Mayor
Dirk Digger
Aaronius
Civleader
Mickzter97
CelticEmpire
Tambien
Ben-09
 
I join :p
 
I'll join as well :p
 
notice how his city-state structure is an attempt to prevent a monolithic all powerful autocracy from developing, aww bless him :p
 
Yay! Joining! I guess I'll have to read the rules now ;)
 
So when'll we begin? :p
 
When someone gets assasinated. Everything else is just a prelude.
 
Ah yes. The absence of GaP has actually started to manifest in mild insanity so I hope this game starts up post haste! (JoanK and any casual observor can attest to the veracity of this statement)
 
notice how his city-state structure is an attempt to prevent a monolithic all powerful autocracy from developing, aww bless him :p

It's almost as if he'd never heard of the Delian league.

Suggestion: For most of you during GaP this never came up but as the longest reigning monarch :)king:) I occasionally had to deal in :c5gold: and GaP gold in the same transaction, which could get confusing. For clarity (and flavour) may I recommend changing the term for gold used by players to drachma.
 
Good I'm glad everyone signed up. Waiting list is on a first come first serve basis, so congrats to Tambien, you control the first warrior and settler!

notice how his city-state structure is an attempt to prevent a monolithic all powerful autocracy from developing, aww bless him :p

Haha yeah I hope it might be a bit more challenging.

It's almost as if he'd never heard of the Delian league.

Suggestion: For most of you during GaP this never came up but as the longest reigning monarch :)king:) I occasionally had to deal in :c5gold: and GaP gold in the same transaction, which could get confusing. For clarity (and flavour) may I recommend changing the term for gold used by players to drachma.

I heard of the Delian League and I was gonna put something in there about inter-city-state relations but I decided it would be best for it to evolve naturally. Afterall there has to be some kind of cooperation for this to work. You actually reminded me of some things I forgot, so I'll be updating the rules soon. Also I'll post Session 0 today at some point.
 
Shouldn't the next player to sign up control the warrior? :p
 
Nope :) It works the same as the Worker rewarded by a social policy, it is randomly put under the control of a city state, and in this case there is only one.

Rules updated. Thanks Filli.
 
Sir, I would like to point out that I signed up too. May I also remark that I did so before Swimandciv?
 
In the beginning the earth was without form, and void. But the sun shown upon the sleeping earth, and deep inside the brittle crust massive forces became unleashed. The seas parted and great continents were formed. Mountains arose, earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves. Volcanoes erupted, and spewed forth fiery lava, and charred the atmosphere with strange gases. Into this swirling maelstrom of fire, and air, and water the first stirrings of life appeared. Tiny organisms, cells and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats. But the seeds of life grew, and strengthened, and spread, and diversified, and prospered, and soon, every continent and climate teemed with life. And with life came instinct, and specialization, natural selection, Reptiles, Dinosaurs, and Mammals. And finally evolved the species known as man. And there appeared the first faint glimmers of intelligence. The fruits of intelligence were many: fire, food, and weapons, the hunt, farming, and the sharing of food, the family, the village, and the tribe. Now it required but one more ingredient. A great leader. To unite the quarreling tribes, to harness the power of the land, to build a legacy. Your people stand ready to march to war, to spread the great Greek culture to millions, and to bring you everlasting glory. Are you ready to accept your destiny? Will you lead your people to triumph and greatness? Can you build a civilization that will stand the test of time?

The Greek tribe has been wondering for centuries and are now ready to settle. But where?

Issues:
  • Where to Settle
  • Warrior Orders


Tambien, I also need your characters First name, and Family name.
 
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