Forging an Empire - Interest, Discussion and OOC

[MrCasperTom]

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Backstabbing, betrayal and poison. Whispering in every corner, everything you do being watched, reported on and fed back to some over-pampered Lord who doesn’t really know what the hell is going on. They here about some unrest here or some muttering there and think they can solve it with a bit of gold and a whole lot of crap spewing from their mouth.
So what if the loins they were pushed out of had a better name attached to them. So what if you have six hundred years of heritage going back to Aldier the Brave or Paul the Really Mean Goat Puncher?
Barely any of them know what it means to truly hold a sword. To stand shoulder to shoulder with men and women you know the name of. To be ready to die for them and know they would die for you. Barely any have felt the fear of near death for their home and the rush it brings to know your arms may just save your lands.
You know what I think they should do? Take a spear and shove it up the arse of all those council-men, all those title loving fools who sit on their cushions thinking they know how to rule the realm.

And people wonder why I’m not allowed at court.

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Have you ever read a novel and wondered what it would be like to write one? Or even to contribute to a small part of a world created by imagination and made real by the paper it is printed on? I know I have and as a writer I do that often. However sometimes you just don’t feel like you can or you feel that your own input just doesn’t do it justice. And sometimes, like me, you might want to sit down, get a group together and see just how well your world might unfold.

Well this is what I propose. Through the medium of imagination and bit of thought and some nice playing along we can propose a nice little writing challenge for myself, to spur me on to write my novel, but also a way for us all to be creative, friendly and design a world to our whim. Well sort of.

The Vision

Spoiler :

How are we going to do this Tom?

I hope this is what you’re asking. If you’re not then you should be. And if you think you shouldn’t be then maybe you’re in the wrong place.

Here is what I propose. Using the medium of a game, and I know we all love games, we start to bring a world to life. The game itself is Civilisation III. What if you don’t have Civ III? Well that’s not a worry as I’m going to be doing all the work on the game end so that’s fine. Only I need it and I’ve killed far too many hours on it not to not have it.

So if you don’t need to have the game and, by default, don’t need to play it, where does that leave you? Well by bringing it to life. For those that don’t know the game Civ III allows the building of empires, the forging of wars and various other acts that chart the expansion of a Civilisation over many, many years. Through the use of a mod we’ll be using it in a fantasy setting with the background and various other parts of the story created by myself, with input from you.

From there, if people are willing, we’ll go through an ongoing story. Through you lovely people we’ll create characters you will ‘control’ or, in another way, be in this world. You may be a Captain in an army or a member of the ruling council, in charge of diplomacy with other nations. You might be a lord of a prominent house, who can create a standing army, maintain their land etc. In fact I’m open to possibilities and ideas. Later on you’ll find a list with my original ideas but I encourage suggestions via the thread or PM.

Once the background and characters have been decided the world can begin. Every ‘turn’ choices can be made, options discussed between you all and things decided on. Essentially through the act of roleplaying your character you all decide on how the nation will be run, what happens and everything in between. Then your actions will be ‘played out’ on the map and the next ‘turn’ will happen.

Of course one ‘forum turn’ won’t equate to one game turn but that will be discussed in detail later. Suffice to say that your choices will influence how the story progress, what happens and various other things. Really it is more a story with a game to allow the actions to play out and be ‘seen’ rather than a game dictated by the players. At the end of each turn I will have a nice little written post detailing what has happened as well as more out of character (OOC) details

But it won’t just be some fun old chin-wag, oh not if I can help it. Houses will try and undermine houses; wars might tear apart the empire. Recruit spies to listen in on other movements (so some PM to me might be seen by you too), pledge support to someone’s armies and then don’t turn up and all the other backstabbing, hating and things that goes on. Frankly, it’s all there. Heck I’d be happy to aim for something like Game of Thrones idea in the sense of plots and what-not.

So in summary – Each player will control a portion of an empire. Whether that is a great house, a member of the council, a leader of an army or even the King himself, each person will take a part. With that what each person wants to do with be submitted to me, events will play out partially through the game and partially through the forum, a story will be create and we’ll all have lots of fun.

How will it work?

Spoiler :

To start off with discussion with take place in this thread. So if you want to ask further questions or register your interest then here is the place. Below there will be a list of potential spots to fill but they are flexible. If you want to create another house then you can do. If you’re thinking of a character position that you would like to try but can’t think of anything then let me know and we’ll try and work it in. Basically it is entirely flexible.

The bigger the role within the world the more you’ll have to control. A leader of a house will have to dictate where their forces go and the general running of their cities. If you’re a minor lord from a house then your basic direction will be determined but you still get some control; heck you can even ignore the orders if you want (and hope that your Lord isn’t a wrathful arse).

While In Character (IC) you have to write as you are that character and so council discussions and everything else will be done like that. OOC you can of course discuss these things but IC helps me keep track of things and represents your final say on what you are telling other players what you want done and how. IC will also be used to discuss trades and treaties, with myself writing for the other part.

Each ‘plot turn’ will need a set of order. Each turn everyone who has control of a character that needs to tell me what to do will send me a PM with their final orders. These don’t have to match what you’ve said IC. In fact that is the fun of it. Sure you might pledge support to your neighbour but if there is resentment between the two of you, then a PM to me may tell me not to march your troops that way. A plot turn later you’re s******ing into your hand after the Barbarian horde has overran House Yugstuckle (please, no one choose this) and now you can go claim their lands, what with everyone dead and all. Of course, IC, your Lord will be entirely sympathetic to the other player.

Once these orders are all in, or if the ‘time-limit’ for that turn has ended and I feel it is time to progress, then I will take these orders you have given, or assume some from the IC thread, and put them into action. Those that require the movement of armies on the map or anything in-game will be done so. Anything that is simple enough to merely talk about (like the death of a Player Character (PC) due to poison) will be done so. If a battle is to take place it will be done through the game, will tactics being up to you but ultimately battles do come down to luck sometimes.

Once each turn is done I’ll write something up to describe was has happened and we’ll progress. I’ll also note at this point that sometimes your orders might not cover everything that has happened. For example you might not have asked to send scouts out to look for the enemy, or these scouts were captured/killed before they could report and so you meet the enemy before you thought you would. This is where a general set of order will come in, such as stating “If enemy if encountered then pull back to defensible position and engage.” I will either try and contact you for quick orders or, if not, then I’ll assume from my own knowledge of your character or orders.

The Medium Used

Spoiler :

Here’s a draft of what will be decided in-game, purely on the forum or both.

In-Game

· The outcome of battles. Orders will be given to me and discussed IC but the actually attacking of troops will be decided In-game, to add a bit of randomness but also an ability to bring an outcome.​

· While you will tell me what you want built, some of it will require in-game effects. For example if you want a temple built, then this can be done in game and will make your citizens happier.​

· Gold collection; you will tell me what to do and discuss deals for trade IC but the available options will dictated in game. For example if the in-game Empire map has no gems connected then you can’t trade them.​

· Similarly building of roads, mines and farms will be shown in game.​

In-Character Forum Writing

· In summary the decision of what is going to happen. As a whole the council will discuss what is done, what is built. Lords will dictate what troops they will build etc, etc etc. Essentially the running will be done on the forums, through discussion, PM orders and general plotting and merely conveyed onto the development of the game. What I will stress is the game is simply going to be something to bring a more visual picture of what you are doing and how your actions are affecting the game.​

· The general building of your character. This is important as through this I can make assumptions on how you would act if you need to step back for some time due to Real-life issues, keep track of what is going on and also to add more life to the world. A world is interesting, a populated one with compelling characters that we cheer for, love, hate and every other possible emotion is much better.​

What I will stress at this point is if the added medium of the game doesn’t work out then I would happily move it down to pretty much straight writing with some diagrams and maps to add for. For example if I can’t get it work to build armies quick enough for people, or we decide that it is taking too long to wait for orders, then we can do it purely by the advancement via writing. Only trial will see though but I’m happy to do it either way.

Example Characters

Spoiler :

Here are examples of characters open and spots I would like to see filled or have characters similar to them. Any names are merely stand-ins. History of each character, the Great Houses, can be decided by you, the PC. However I can do such a background if people want. If you choose them feel free to go a bit crazy, within reason, so it is fine if you decide your house isn’t best friends with another, especially if the two PCs discuss and agree.

· The King – I’m going with king due to the basic medieval view of men over women. It is going to be swords and shields, magic and dragons so this era fits well. However I’ll glad submit to a queen if ideas are brought forward. Can be of an existing house or feel free to make up your own.​

· The Council – This is just a basic list: additions are welcome. I also have ideas for a Spy Master if someone would want to discuss it with me.​

1. Treasurer – Someone to control the cash flow and its allocation to the empire. This could also fit in will a foreign advisor (someone in control of diplomacy between houses and other nations) if the person wanted more things to do.​

2. Master of the Fleet – Would see a small control of an army and a fleet. Would be in control of building up the navy, exploring and everything like that. May have a small port city.​

3. Royal Commander – You’ll be in control of the Elite Forces; we won’t have a massive army but in theory these battalions can go toe to toe with a lot of things. If your King isn't a great battler then for the most part you will decided where to send troops that are needed. But remember that the King needs guarding. That’s right a lot of things will be revolve around the story of making sure plots and things aren’t conducted and the king if protected on journeys and what-not. (Bear in mind that plots and stuff will be conducted by talking to me. If you have suspicions then you can try and plant spies and all that jazz. It will be more stories based but also potentially more fun if you like that.)​

4. Law Master – Holds the general role of dictating the laws and things. While this could largely be story I would be happy to work in a sort of Royal Peacekeeping force that would take part in the defence of the nation lands (so a nation army as well as a army per house). Story-wise this would be the declaration of the councils will (so the proclaiming of the traitor during a civil-war between houses or, indeed, allowing the war) and generally drafting up the does and don’ts.​

· The Great Houses​

There isn’t really a set number right now, although I wouldn’t want to go over ten unless a good idea was put forward. It should be noted that the Lord of each house, it will be up to you to think up back-story, house-name and various other things (I can but I prefer it if as much as possible is drawn from the Players). The basic structure of each house can be seen below.​

1. House Lord – This will be where the house name will derive from (i.e. your Lords last name). You will control the dictation of your Houses’ resources; control an army relative to your houses’ population etc.​

2. Minor Lords (or Banner-men) – Each may control a small town/city or even just a garrison somewhere. You can choose your own name but you will answer to the House Lord or have to revolt. You may control a small portion of the army, but this will be a small portion of the total. Your development will be dictated by the House Lord but you can discuss preferences. This is a good character for those who want to get involved but aren’t entirely sure on how much commitment to offer.​

3. General council/banner men – A largely discussion role, for people who want to get involved but are happy just to add a small input – You can create characters who are captains or who offer advice. You can state your opinion on troop movement. NB: While the idea is great logistic might be hard to come by so we will discuss this is there is a call for it. But it is open idea.​

]As you can see with the House Lord and Minor lords there’s scope for quite a lot of players.​

So we can see there’s scope for quite a lot of PCs. From the basics we can have at least 7 PCs and that’s purely if we went with my ideas, one great house and one minor lord. On the game I can, through techno-wizardry, control 31 players, but I can also easily have more than that (I doubt we will need it, even with other None Player Character Nations (NPC nations) involved) by messing around and having backup slots if it came to someone wanting to succeed from their house or something. It can be worked around and so feel free to propose ideas if you want something out there.

So there are the basics. If you’re interested, want to know more or want to propose some other ideas comment below. Hopefully, with some interest we can start this off and then I’ll create some spots for people to jump into and thus allow more chance to get started but involve others as we do.

I have a basic History in my head which I will provide on the grounds of interest but, as I will stress, most of this world is dictated by you, the Players. So suggestions or ideas are encouraged and welcome, even if you don’t think they could work. It is better to try and get rejected then not try at all. I’ve run this on other forums and it can work out well. Plus it would be fun to play two against each other