FFH NES III: The Eastern Expanse

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

The Eastern Expanse

First off, if you know what this is great.

If not then I'll refer you to FFH NES III: The Expanse.

This is a closely related NES. It is played in the same universe, with the same rules, just with a different moderator. Kenkrajen moderates the North Expanse in the other thread and I moderate the Eastern Expanse in this thread. At first there won't be much contact between the regions but later on there can be some minor contact and maybe more.

So first off, what is this universe? In short, it's an Fall From Heaven, only with some moderate changes. We're using the basic lore of the Fall From Heaven Mod, and adapting it to a new region of Erebus that Kenkrajen developed called the Expanse. He has a lot of information of the basics of the Expanse in his thread, I'll stick to just the unique features of the Eastern Expanse here.

And then, what are the rules? Well ... that's a little longer.

I'll get to that next. The rules will be the same ones that are posted in Kenkrajen's thread, but I'll copy them here for easy reference for Eastern Expanse players.

Finally, you might be wondering why I am modding this. Or not. Well I'll tell you anyway.

I had an great time playing in Immaculate's FFH NES II last spring and when that eneded I looked around and saw no Fall From Heaven Nes going that was a big let down for me. Then Kenkrajen asked me if I would like to help out on this project and I accepted so that FFH NES can keep going and we can all keep enjoying it.

So I'm looking foward to modding this and I hope you guys are looking foward to playing it. The post below this one will be for recent news on important things happening with the NES. Thanks and have fun.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

11/27/09

Everyone's orders have been received. Update and stats will be finished by Monday the 30th.

Unit rebalancing is ongoing and should be finished by Monday as well.

Buildings and Innovations sections are finished.

Sections on item price and value have been added.

2 spots are still available to any new players. Pm me or post in the thread if you're interested.

Spoiler Older Entries :

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Players List

Immaculate

Kyzarc Fotjage

Seon

Tayschrenn

Vrutchen

Open

Open

I won't post any organization names, but if you want me to put your name up just tell me.

We still have two open slots, so if you are intersted post in the thread or send me a pm. New players can join anytime.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

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MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

A History of the Eastern Expanse

Spoiler :

The Nations of the Eastern Expanse

Spoiler :

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

The Map

The Map: is portrayed in screenshots from the actual FFH mod. Each Update the map will be forwarded 1 turn in the civ game. The grid is toggled for ease of measurement. All maps to start will be around 10x10 squares. As organizations grow in Scale more of the map will be revealed. The existance of resources that can be seen on the map is public knowledge, meaning all NPCs and NPOs know where they are located as well. There are plenty of resources that can be found in any square which are currently unknown to everyone. Certain Techniques must be used to discover these unknown resources.

Buildings that POs built need not be in the square their homebase is located. Player buildings can be built throughout that POs Sphere of Influence. Squares in which cities are located are treated differently in the rules than a rural square, that is any square that does not contain a city. Improvements found in rural squares exist in those squares, however they do not take up the full 100 square miles. Buildings (which are unhidden) that POs build in squares will be listed below (the mods will have the master list with public and secret structures). Each square of the map will be labeled with a grid system. The rows will be letters and the columns will be numbers.

The Squares: Each square on the map represents an area equal to 100 square miles, meaning the length of each side of a square is 10 miles. Moving one square counts as 1 of a units movement, so a unit with a movement of 4 could travel 40 miles or 4 squares between updates.

Time: Each Update will represent a period of one month passing in game time.

Screenshots: These three screenshots make up the known map so far. The first one is the farthest left (or for the game world west) and then each on shifts a little to the left/east. Players will start in this area and place their headquarters on a square of it.

Cities: Here is a summary of the 3 cities in the player starting area.

Spoiler :

Starting Location: Your headquarters will be somewhere on this map and your sphere of influence will be calculate from that square. I would recomend trying to ensure that there is a city within your sphere of influence since most of the action will occur at cities. The information in the city section (specifically the list) will have an effect on gameplay for factions in the city. It will determine the not only the size of the population and police but also which nations you can gather influence with. Large player actions are likely to change this information and that would be noted in the update.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Designing a New Organization

Type

The first thing you have to decide is what type of organization you want to play. Each one is unique. An organization’s type determines its function, methods, and its main path to power. Your organization type will also give you a free Technique to start with, and can be used without having researched the appropriate Innovation. Further, your type will affect what kinds of specialties a PO can choose.

Any organization should be classified as one of the types given in the following table:

Organization Type---------Bonus Technique
Business--------------------Survey Market
Community------------------Any one other org type’s bonus technique
Criminal---------------------Sticky Fingers
Magic Tradition--------------Spellcasting Level 1
Military----------------------Raid
Noble House-----------------Diplomacy
Religion----------------------Proselytize

Organization Type------------Key Ability
Business-----------------------Highest Score
Community---------------------Culture
Criminal------------------------Underworld
Magic Tradition-----------------Magic
Military-------------------------Combat
Noble House--------------------Leadership
Religion-------------------------Faith

Specialties

Each organization gets to choose Specialties. A specialty is a particular Innovation tree in which progress is faster than normal, specifically all RP spent on a Specialty Innovation tree counts as twice the normal amount. To be able to select a Specialty your organization type must be listed as one of the types next to each Innovation Tree in the Specialties List below. Any tree that your type is not listed as being able to specialize in is called a Cross-Specialty. Any number of Cross-Specialties can be chosen dependent on how many Specialties are given up, in a 2:1 ratio. Each PO gets a number of Specialties equal to the modifier of its Key Ability Score divided by its Organization Scale. Once selected Specialties cannot be changed unless the Key modifier changes, and the amount of Specialties that can be changed can only be the amount the modifier has changed by. A Key Ability is the Ability Score on which an Organization could not exist without. This is different for each organization detailed on the list below:

Organization Type-----------------Key Ability
Business--------------------------Highest Score
Community------------------------Culture
Criminal---------------------------Underworld
Magic Tradition--------------------Magic
Military----------------------------Combat
Noble House-----------------------Leadership
Religion----------------------------Faith

Example: An organization called the The Hands of Laroth upon organization creation has chosen its type to be a Magic Tradition. As such, a Magic Tradition can specialize in the Alchemy, Ceremony, and Thaumaturgy trees. Let’s say this org’s Key Ability Score is 16, yielding a +3 modifier. That means The Hands of Laroth could choose to specialize in all of its Specialties. However, this organization wants to depart from the stereotypical mage guild and wants to be able to manipulate people and other organizations from behind the scenes so it chooses to give up two Specialty slots for a Cross-Specialty in Villainy. This leaves one Specialty slot left. The Hands of Laroth choose Thaumaturgy. All research points the organization spends in these Innovation Trees counts as double.

Innovation Trees

Alchemy - This tree is all about learning new uses for chemicals and herbs, for making items magical, and for creating your own special substances.
Ceremony - Expect to learn how to use rituals, both magical and non-magical. Ceremony is an important aspect of celebrating important moments. It's useful for strengthening the bonds of the members within an organization, and for empowering spells with the power of ritual.
Commerce - This one is all about getting more bang for your buck, and learning ways to take advantage of the economy.
Exploration – Whether your searching for a hidden mountain pass or a new resource. It's important to know how to find things. Also this tree grants access to faster modes of travel.
Industry - If you want to build things yourself instead of buying them and process raw resources, research this tree. Building things yourself is always cheaper than buying them.
Nature – Expect to learn agricultural techniques in addition to harnessing the powers of nature.
Thaumaturgy - Simply magic in all its forms.
Rhetoric - For bettering your communication skills, inspiring your followers, and becoming a better negotiatior.
Villainy - Everything that wouldn't be deemed kosher.
Warfare - Expect to be making use of the combat mechanics with these Innovations.

Specialties List

Business: Alchemy, Commerce, Industry, Rhetoric
Community: Ceremony, Commerce, Exploration, Industry, Nature, Rhetoric, Warfare
Criminal: Alchemy, Commerce, Villainy
Magic Tradition: Alchemy, Ceremony, Thaumaturgy
Military: Exploration, Nature, Warfare
Noble House: Rhetoric, Villainy, Warfare
Religion: Ceremony, Thaumaturgy, Rhetoric

Alchemy - Business, Criminal, Magic Tradition
Ceremony - Community, Magic Tradition, Religion
Commerce - Business, Community, Criminal
Exploration – Community, Military
Industry - Business, Community
Nature – Community, Military
Thaumaturgy - Magic Tradition, Religion
Rhetoric - Business, Community, Religion, Noble House
Villainy - Criminal, Noble House
Warfare - Community, Military, Noble House

Organization Scale

An organization’s scale is one of the most important parts of creating a new organization (all POs start at 1). An organization’s scale determines the magnitude pf its power and influence. Increasing your scale grants a special benefit, allows you access to more options, and grows your Sphere of Influence.

To grow an Organization’s Scale a PO must spend any combination of a number of Culture, Research Points, and Gold Pieces equal to the listed cost. The listed cost however becomes different for each PO, as organizations get to lower the listed cost by an amount equal to its Command Sub-Ability Score multiplied by 10.

Ex. The Hands of Laroth are a Scale 2 PO with a Leadership Score of 22. Their Command Score is 44; this number mulitplied by 10 is 440, making the cost to increase in scale 4,560. The Hands of Laroth feel they are ready to increase their Scale and spend 560 Culture, 3,500 Gold Pieces (all they have on hand), and 500 Research Points in their orders. In the next Update they become a Scale 3 PO gaining all the benefits and drawbacks that go with it.

Scale..............Cost……..........Example Spheres of Influence
..1..................1,000.............Local group (gang, cult, trading post, tribe, neighborhood)
..2..................5,000.............City Faction (historic noble house, thieves guild, mage guild)
..3..................10,000...........Citywide (temple, city guard, elder council, smuggler’s port)
..4..................50,000...........Multiple Cities (corporation, wizard/knightly/religious order)
..5..................100,000.........National (governments, black market, Guild of Hammers)
..6..................500,000.........Multi-national (Overcouncil, religion, crime syndicate)
..7................................... .The Expanse (none to date)

Organization Population Cap

Each organization has a Population Cap which puts a maximum limit on the number of members it can have dependent on its Organization Scale as depicted below:

Scale............Population Cap
..1..........................100
..2..........................500
..3.......................1,000
..4.......................5,000
..5.....................10,000
..6.....................50,000
..7...................100,000

Sphere of Influence:

This is a PO’s radius of the area in which it can execute Techniques. The radius of a Sphere of Influence is equal to it’s Organization Scale multiplied by it’s Key Ability Score modifier (if your modifier is lower than +1 than treat it as +1 for the purposes of this mechanic). Be aware that Spheres of Influence belonging to other organizations can overlap with yours. Your home base is the center of your Sphere of Influence, and you can construct buildings anywhere in your Sphere of Influence.

Starting Resources: Don’t confuse the use of the term ‘resources’ here with it’s other meaning as goods and materials. Every PO will begin with 25 General Points. These points can be converted into anything (except Mallets and adding to ability & sub-ability scores). When purchasing Faith Points, appropriate scores apply for enhancing the number gained. When spending Research Points gained from General Points, specialties do multiply the amount of research spent but the Science Sub-Ability modifier does not apply. All General Points must be spent/converted when creating an organization or they are lost. Spend them wisely.

1 General Point equals:
1,000 gold pieces
25 Research Points (starting rp cannot be spent on innovations beyond tier 2)
25 Culture
5 Faith Points (+ your religion modifier)
* A PO may spend 10 General Points during organization creation to make their Homebase hidden.

Homebase: Pick any square to be your homebase that is not a water tile (unless it has a ship wreck) or hellfire. Homebases will only be revealed on the map if they are not hidden. More than one organization can locate their homebase in the same square. All homebases come with one room to function as a command center, and a room for storage. Each building that can be built can instead be built as an additional room or structure attached to your homebase for a higher price. The drawback is that larger bases take more skill to conceal. One benefit is that it is easier to defend your units and headquarters if they are not spread out. The main benefit of building additions instead of separate buildings is that being so near to hq makes all org members operating that room more diligent and efficient, as their leadership is very nearby (however, this can change depending on your civics). This means that techniques executed by a rival PO are more difficult if your homebase or someone in your homebase is the target. All members produce more of whatever it is they’re producing than normal (in the sense of abstract mechanics like rp and culture, not building items or buildings). All points and other abstracts produced are increased by 10% (round in the player’s favor) after the totals are determined. Specific stats for your homebase will be listed under its building entry in the Buildings section. One more thing, if you’re homebase is destroyed you’re PO is destroyed. Protect your hq.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Abilities

You have six abilities scores that represent the main aspects of every organization. They are Leadership, Combat, Culture, Magic, Religion, and Underworld. Most deeds you attempt to accomplish will require strengths in particular abilities. Each ability gives a modifier to mod rolls based on the score. To determine your ability scores you will be allotted 28 points to spend on your abilities. All ability scores start at 8. You may spend points to raise them, and depending on what abilities are important you may not. After the initial ability score point buy, there will be opportunities to increase these scores through play. There will also be events that cause your scores to raise or drop during play. An organization’s strength or weakness in an ability is demonstrated by its followers as they perform their varied activities.

Score....Modifier
0-1.............-5
2-3.............-4
4-5.............-3
6-7.............-2
8-9.............-1
10-11..........+0
12-13..........+1
14-15..........+2
16-17..........+3
18-19..........+4
20-21..........+5

Score.....Cost
8.............0
9.............1
10...........2
11...........3
12...........4
13...........5
14...........6
15...........8
16...........10
17...........13
18...........16
19...........20
20...........24

Leadership: This represents the strength and effectiveness of your organization’s leadership. This affects your ability to recruit followers, how well they carry out their orders, your organization's morale, and any other things you might do that require you to exercise your authority.

Combat: This measures your organization’s combat readiness, their skill in battle (both melee and ranged), and any other aspects related to fighting. A low score indicates an untrained and poorly armed fighting force, while a high score indicates a thoroughly prepared and powerful army.

Culture: Members of the same organization share a culture, that is they share the same system of values, beliefs, thought patterns, and perceptions. Art, music, and literature are the artifacts, relics, or results of culture. However, your culture is really a sub-culture of the greater culture of the nation in which you reside in. This score represents how much you affect and are affected by the cultures surrounding your own. A high score means you are effective at spreading your ideals outside of your organization, and a low score means that your members are more susceptible to the influences of cultures exterior to the organization's.

Magic: This represents how naturally talented the members of your organization are in the arcane magical arts, in addition to their skill and knowledge of magic. Expect to use this for casting and researching spells. A high score indicates that wielding magical power is easy for members of this organization no matter the difficulty of the spell. An especially low score may mean that the organization’s members have no ability to use magic whatsoever.

Faith: This score determines how strong an organization’s connection to the gods are. A strong score shows that this organization’s priests have a close relationship with their god(s), and their god in return grants them blessings and divine magical powers. A low score means that the organization doesn't really care about what the gods do, and vice versa (until its time to claim their souls). Further, low scores mean that this organization's members are more susceptible to and affected by divine magical effects.

Underworld: This represents your connections to the seedier sides of life. Techniques involving stealth, disguise, theft, street smarts, and anything on the other side of legal involves this ability. If you’ve just stolen a rare and valuable piece of art, a high score will likely mean you can find a fence that will pay a high price for it while a low score will mean that you likely got caught trying to steal it in the first place.

These ability scores will come into play as you recruit your followers and send them on missions, in addition to performing the daily activities of your organization.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Sub-abilities

Leadership Sub-Ability Scores:

Command: This represents how many units your organization is capable of commanding in an ordered fashion at one time. Multiply your Leadership Score by Organization Scale. This number is your Command Score, and represents the maximum amount of units that can participate in the execution of any single Technique.

Unity: This is a modifier composed of your Leadership Score modifier multiplied by Organization Scale. This modifier is important for preserving or improving Morale, lessening or nullifying the Desertion Rate and faction splits.

Morale-----------------Effect
Zealous......................Benefits of Inspired and +1 Movement
Inspired......................+1 Strength
Heartened...................Techniques are more efficient
Ready........................None
Shaken......................Techniques are less efficient
Frightened..................-1 Strength
Panicked....................Penalties of frightened are doubled

Combat Sub-Ability Scores: Take the Combat Score, multiply by two and divvy up the amount between the Ferocity and Health sub-scores listed below. Neither Score can be 1.5x greater than your Combat Score. Minimum is 1. Both Combat Sub Scores use the same modifier chart as the Ability Scores.

Ferocity: This is a reflection of how skilled your units are at dealing damage in battle. A positive modifier means your units are better able to kill what they hit, able to strike the most critical spots of their targets. A negative modifier will make the damage you deal in combat more distributed between enemies, making enemy losses less likely.

Health: This Sub Score affects how well your units can heal their wounds naturally without the help of units capable of enhancing healing. A negative modifier means that your recovery rate is slower than normal, and positive meaning faster than normal.

Carrying Capacity: A strong warrior is able to carry heavier loads than a weak one. Every member of your organization is able to carry a certain amount of equipment or material dependent on your Combat modifier. This is to represent the average carrying capacity a member of your organization can carry without restricting their movement. The amount of items a unit can carry is equal to five (5) plus your Combat modifier. Up to twice that amount is the maximum that an average member of your organization can carry and travel a meaningful distance, however all movement is halveed (rounded down).

Culture Sub-Ability Scores

Mores: These are the values, beliefs, and taboos that your organization holds most sacred. You get to choose a number of mores equal to your positive Culture Score modifier. If the modifier is zero you get no mores, and if negative then your organization will pick up mores independently that are not of your creation or choosing. Now where are these mores that you are to choose from? It’s up to you to make them up (try to keep each one to a single sentence). For each more you choose, your organization Arts Value increases by an additional percent. For each more you have that is not of your own creation your Arts Value is decreased by 1%. If you have no cultural Mores then this does not affect your Arts Value.

Arts: The beauty part of Plato’s threesome: the true, the good, and the beautiful. The more culture your organization produces the more the surrounding population will be exposed to your values and ideas. The longer your values became an accepted norm the friendly its people are towards you. To calculate this score take your Cultural Value and multiply it by the number of people producing culture. Divide this number by org scale. Multiply this value by 100, and divide by the city’s Culture Value (will be provided by mods) whose radius you are in (if you’re not in one then this sub-ability doesn’t do anything for you). This number is the percentage of the city’s population who agree with your values. How high the percentage is directly correlates with how accepted your org and its values are in the city’s culture. This percentage provides a direct benefit according to the chart below, and will make performing certain techniqes easier in this city and its radius. This information will be specified in the descriptions of certain techniques.

0%: Outsider – The people of this city consider you to be barbarians. Executing techniques are more difficult than usual in this city.
More will be revealed as players' Arts Scores increase.

Science: Every culture tries to explain the world around it. This urge is the root of science and philosophy, which makes it an integral part of culture. The more developed the culture the more it tries to understand the world it is in making innovations and new discoveries come more often. This sub-ability turns your Culture Score modifier into a Research modifier. If it is positive the total amount of research points you generate will be multiplied by this number. If negative total RP will be divided by it. If it is zero then nothing happens.

Magic Sub-Ability Scores

Learning Curve: Each time your mages develop a new spell they have learned a little bit more about the nature of magic. The RP cost for researching a new spell is reduced by an amount equal to your Magic Score modifier. This reduction is cumulative per previous spell you have researched. The RP cost cannot be reduced more than 50% in this way.

Academia: determines how widespread magical knowledge is within the org and measures how many spells can be cast with one spellcasting Technique. The spells do not have to be cast by the same unit. The amount of spells that can be cast with one Technique equals your Magic Score modifier.

Faith Sub-Ability Scores: These will be in the form of 21 ratings, each ranging from 0-10. Each rating reflects your standing with each deity. When creating your organization, divvy up an amount of points equal to your Faith Score between the 21 deities as you see fit. These ratings start at 0. A negative Faith Score Modifier means that all of your ratings are 0. In order to cast a divine spell a PO must have a rating of (2 x the spell level) in that sphere.

Sphere/Deity Ratings:
• Air/Tali: 0-10
• Body/Aeron: 0-10
• Chaos/Camulos: 0-10
• Creation/Amathaon: 0-10
• Death/Arawn/Laroth: 0-10
• Dimensional/Ceridwen: 0-10
• Earth/Killmorph: 0-10
• Enchantment/Nantosuelta: 0-10
• Entropy/Agares: 0-10
• Fire/Bhall: 0-10
• Force/Dagda: 0-10
• Ice/-: 0-10
• Law/Junil: 0-10
• Life/Sucellos: 0-10
• Mind/Mammon: 0-10
• Nature/Cernunnos: 0-10
• Shadow/Esus: 0-10
• Spirit/Sirona: 0-10
• Sun/Lugus: 0-10
• Water/Danalin: 0-10

Underworld Sub-Abilities: Multiply your Underworld Score by three and distribute the number between your three sub-abilities. No Sub-Ability can be more than twice your underworld Score; minimum zero. Now divide each one of these three numbers by your Organization Scale.

Stealth: This represents how skilled members of your organization are at hiding and camoflaging buildings, people, and items in addition to how skilled they are at perceiving hidden things.

Deception: This one is all about how good your members are at conning or bluffing or deceiving someone, which really boils down to how good your organization’s members are at lying convincingly.

Larceny: The number of this sub-ability rates how skilled your organization is at pulling off crimes that don’t involve hiding or lying. This ranges anywhere from picking pockets, assassination, arson, to a heist.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Combat

Basic Mechanics: In this system combat will be based around :strength:

. The greater a unit's (1 organization member) :strength:

than it’s opponent’s the greater one’s chances for victory and survival on the field of battle, wherever that may be. When multiple units are employed in teams or armies, their :strength:

will stack. Ex. In a battle on a grassy plain between one swordsman with 6 :strength:

and an axeman with 4 :strength:

. The swordsman is 1.5 times more likely to emerge from the combat victorious. The same would go for ten swordsmen vs. ten axemen. A unit that takes damage will lose :strength:

. The loss remains until healed. Healing & Damage will be determined by the mods as they take into account the dice, the stats of the unit(s), the PO's Health Sub-Ability Score, and player orders.

Equipment: Units will be able to be equipped with various weapons and armors. Most equipment will augment a unit’s :strength:

, in addition to providing unique abilities and effects depending on the items and equipment employed. Equipment and items can be damaged, lost, stolen, or destroyed on the field of battle. While you don’t have to expect buying equipment often, don’t expect to have to buy something only once either.

Terrain: All kinds of terrain will affect combat, however you’ll just have to figure out its probable effects through reasoning and experience.

Movement: Each unit will have listed in their stats how many squares they can move in one update. Boarding or leaving a ship or any other transport counts as one square of a unit's movement.

Combat Techniques: This is a subtype of Technique, specifically all Techniques that have to do with combat. Certain Innovations will add combat 'Techniques' to a PO's Knowledge Base. Combat Techniques can run the gamut from attack formations, to fighting styles, special training, and any other unorthodox abilities involved with combat.

(this honestly was going to be quite a bit longer, but it turns out that it's a lot more fun for you and us to leave you guys in the dark to figure out for yourselves what's going on behind the scenes)

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Magic

Magic System:
A PO must have access to the appropriate mana to cast spells of a specific sphere. Mana comes in two forms: energy and crystal. Mana energy emanates from a mana node with the appropriate improvement, and low level spells of that sphere can be cast if the node is within the org's sphere of influence, since its mages can tap into the power permeating the air. The crystalline mana in large quantities will be required for rituals, can make low level spells more powerful, and are necessary for the highest level of spells.

Spells and Spell Levels:
Each spell has a sphere or god associated with it, is either arcane or divine, and each spell is of a particular level. There are five levels in total. Ability to cast spells of a certain level will be dependent on the PO's Magic Score and the casting unit's tier. In order for an organization to be capable of casting a spell it must have a positive Magic Score modifier divided by Organization Scale equal to the spell’s level. Tier 1 magic users can cast Level 1 spells. Tier 2 can cast Level 2 & 3 spells. Tier 3 can cast Level 4 & 5 spells. When a player organization learns a new spell, they are to create it themselves and submit it to their mod for approval. Go to the Knowledge Base section for further important information.

Casters:
There are two types of casters: Arcane & Divine. Arcane magic can conjure demons, throw fireballs, turn someone into a toad, and much more. To cast a spell the caster needs access to the appropriate mana, and may or may not need access to special materials in the case of ritual casting. Divine magic is derived directly from the gods of Erebus, as they empower their priests and most devout worshipers. The kind of effects divine magic can accomplished is usually restricted to the domain of the god from where the divine power is derived. Those who use divine magic are associated with their god in some way, either through a religion or by direct contact with their patron deity and do not need mana to cast spells. All other kinds of magic require mana and are therefore arcane.

Mana:
Mana will come in two forms: Hard Mana and Leylines. At low tiers arcane magic users will require Hard Mana crystals in order to cast their spells. Hard Mana is depletable. Depending on the size of the crystal and the skill of its user a portion of the Hard Mana will be consumed in the casting of a spell. Mana can come any size and are measured by their Size Category (listed under the Production section). The rule of thumb for Tier 1 Arcane Casters is that 10 cubic centimeters of mana yields enough power for one 1st level spell, 20 cm for one 2nd level spell or two 1st level spells, and so on. A Tier 2 Arcane Caster uses up only 1 cm per spell level, and can use Ley lines emanating from Mana Nodes. Tier 3 Arcane Casters are the same as Tier 2 except that they can also draw ley line energy from crystal mana in small quantities (a Mana Node is essentially a huge crystal [in this game anyway] that mysteriously does not get depleted. This means that a Tier 3 Arcane Caster only has to be within line of sight of crystal mana to draw on its ley line energy and use it (the mana is still depleted). Also, Tier 3 casters can tap into Civilization Mana. Remember that the caster still needs to know a spell that can is of the same sphere of the mana being utilized. So for example, a Size Category 5 Dimension mana crystal that is 1 cubic meter can provide 10 spell levels for a Tier 1 caster, 100 spell levels for a Tier 2 caster, the same for Tier 3 however this caster does not have to be carrying the mana but only needs to see it to be able to use it (must be in the same square as the mana).

Now I bet your wondering how does my mage lug around a boulder on the battlefield to be able to not be restricted in his casting by the amount of hard mana crystals he has. In all practicality he wouldn't. This is where ley lines will come in. More skilled and higher tier arcane casters will be able to tap into the magical energy that permeates the air (as noted above). Tier 2 and 3 casters can cast spells if they and the Mana Node are within the caster’s organization’s Sphere of Influence. Tier 3 casters can utilize Civilization Mana as long as they are within the Civilization’s borders Civilization Mana permeates the air throughout the entire nation's cultural borders. Mana Nodes and Civilization Mana do not get depleted. However, if a nation is particularly jealous of how its mana is used or is not willing to tolerate independent mages using its mana, those mages may be deemed outlaws and persecuted. Be careful when using mana that does not belong to you. Also, just because mana belongs to one organization does not prevent another from using it if within range.

Casting Capacity:
In order to cast a spell the PO will have to spend an action in their orders. The amount of spells that can be cast with one action depends on what tier the caster is, the PO's Magic Score, the Innovations the PO knows, and certain techniques in the PO's Knowledge Base. Look to the Actions entry in the Designing a New Organization section for how Actions work.

Knowledge Base:
Each PO will have a repository of techniques and spells that are known only to them, and will all be recorded in a section of there spreadsheet called the Knowledge Base. Rules for exchanging techniques and spells with other POs will be listed elsewhere.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Religion

There are three basic aspects of religion: 1) Miracles, 2) Religious Influence, and 3) Patron Deities.

1. Miracles
Throughout the course of this NES there will be POs that acquire Faith Points. These Faith Points, or FP for short, can be cashed in for a miracle. Miracles come in all shapes and sizes, being dependent on the god the FP are sent to and how many FP are sent in total. The more FP you put in, the more beneficial the miracle. Also, your Religion Score and Deity Sub-abilities will factor in when requesting a miracle. Those with low scores will will need more FP than those with higher scores to obtain the same miracle. So serve your god well, and you will be rewarded.

Requesting a Miracle: Should be put into orders. There is no guarantee on what the miracle will be despite any specific requests. Miracles are dispensed as the gods (read: mods) see fit. If a well thought out prayer is written into weekly orders your deity may look upon your request more favorably.

Gaining Faith Points: FP are gained by spreading your religion’s influence and performing acts that further a favored cause of your deity(s). FP can be gained specifically by building religions buildings, converting people to the faith, holding ceremonies in your deity’s name, and in general any action that bring’s a smile & warm fuzzy feeling to your deity (if you worship an evil deity you can use your imagination as to what that means). These acts are rewarded with FPs in the updates at your god’s discretion. Whenever you gain FP in an update, you gain or lose an additional amount of FP equal to your Religion Score modifier multiplied by your Organization Scale. This calculation will not be factored into what gets posted in the update since your stats are yours to reveal or keep secret as you see fit, but these extra will be included in your stats.

2. Religious Influence
Each city has a population breakdown in percentages of what deities/spheres are worshipped there. These percentages can be altered through your actions (look to the Missions section for details on how). By showcasing your organization as a leader of religion and proselytizing you can convert the masses to worshipping your patrons. The greater the percentage of people living in the city (and the radius is included in this too) worship your patron the greater the bonuses you get. A revered religious leader can convince the masses to give them money, goods, or even riot. On the other hand, a reviled religious organization that does not keep its activities and whereabouts secret will most likely be hunted. Being disliked would most likely come about if your activities are offensive to the nearby cities cultural values in combination with a low Religious Influence Percentage.

Religious Influence Percentage Effects:

0%: Unbelievers. The people of this city think your ideas of the gods and religion are ludicrous. Executing the Proselytize technique is more difficult than usual in this city.

More will be revealed as players increase their Religious Influence

3. Patron Deities
Any deity that you have a Rating of 5 or more with can be selected to be a ‘Patron’ of your organization. Each deity grants a specific static benefit related to its sphere to favored organizations. A PO may select a maximum number of patrons that you satisfy the rating requirement with equal to your Religion Score modifier. If your modifier is negative than you cannot have a patron. POs do not have to select a deity as a patron if they do happen to have a Rating of 5 of more with the specified deity(s). You cannot choose an evil deity as an additional Patron if you have a good aligned god as a patron, and vice versa. If a long enough period of time goes by and no FP have been cashed in in the name of a specific patron god, then ratings will slowly deteriorate.

Spheres/Gods Patron Benefits:
Coming Later

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Production

In this NES, production is more than just a regulator – it is one of the paths to power. Through enhancing one’s production capabilities, the cost of buildings, weapons, and varied kinds of equipment become cheaper and can be produced quicker. An organization with great production capabilities has great power in being able to create the right tools to conquer any problem.

Mallets: These are the abstraction of the work a unit or building can produce. Everything that is built needs a certain amount of mallets to complete the construction. Each unit will be able to produce a certain amount of Mallets per month (one turn) when assigned to build things. Equipping a unit with tools will increase the amount of Mallets they produce. Buildings themselves need units to run them, and will greatly enhance the amount of Mallets these units produce.

Construction Time: This is the amount of time it takes to build something, and will be calculated in months (turns). How long it takes to build something depends on how many Mallets you put into each month. The construction time will change if the amount of Mallets spent varies each month.

Maximum Workers: Depending on the Size Category of what is being built maximums will be assigned to the amount of workers that can contribute to a construction project. For instance, it would not only be unfeasible but counter-productive to have 1,000 units trying to build a single shovel. The rule of thumb is one worker per cubic meter of the item being built.

Size 1 – 1 worker
Size 2 – 1 worker
Size 3 – 1 worker
Size 4 – 1 worker
Size 5 – 10 workers
Size 6 – 100 workers
Size 7 – 1,000 workers
Size 8 – 10,000 workers
Size 9 – 10,000 workers + 1 for every additional cubic meter beyond 10 cubic km

Size Category: Each building and item will be given a basic size category as listed below.

Size 1 – Fine – 1 cm or less (all ft measurements here are cubic)
Size 2 – Diminutive – Over 1 cm to 10 cm
Size 3 – Tiny – Over 10 cm to 100 cm
Size 4 – Small – Over 100 cm to 1 m
Size 5 – Medium – Over 1 m to 10 m
Size 6 – Large – Over 10 m to 100 m
Size 7 – Huge – Over 100 m to 1 km
Size 8 – Gargantuan – Over 1 km to 10 km
Size 9 – Collossal – Over 10 km

Artisan’s Guilds: Any organization unable or unwilling to build an item or building themselves can choose to pay a local Artisan’s Guild to conduct the construction for them. The pricing is based on how many mallets the Artisan’s Guild spends. Prices will vary per Mallet depending on where the guild is located, as different guilds will have different construction capabilities and skills. Distance is also a factor. The total price of a given construction is increased by a cumulative 5% for each square of distance the customer is from the guild (including the space the customer is located in) All raw materials the Artisans are to turn into a finished construction must be provided by the PO.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Business

These mechanics are all about the money – income, debts, economies, supply, demand, resources, and trade. If you want to make money know these rules well. There are three basic aspects of business in The Expanse: 1) Commerce, 2) Market Demand, and 3) Item Categories.

1. Commerce: To turn items and raw resources into gold pieces a PO must sell their wares to a cottage/hamlet/village/town, city, or traveling merchants. Each city will have its own set prices that its people are willing to pay for a given item category. These prices will fluctuate dependent upon the Market Demand in the city. Cottages, hamlets, villages, and towns have a maximum amount of gold pieces they will spend buying from a single PO each turn. This maximum is equal to the number of gold symbols in the square multiplied by 100 (1 gold = 100 gold pieces). The maximum in cities is equal to its population mulitplied by 100. Markets will not barter unless the item(s) being sold by the PO is in Extreme Demand in the city radius.

2. Market Demand: In every economy, the more valuable and sought after a good is, the higher its price. Each city has its own Market Demand, which itself consists of several Demand Ranks. There is one Demand Rank for each Item Category present in a city radius. A PO will be aware of the Demand Ranks in the city radius it is located in. The Market Demand info in other cities will have to be acquired, as detailed in the Missions section. There are seven Demand Ranks:

Extreme Glut - item is ubiquitous and demand is at its lowest, price is reduced by a large amount (90% or more)
Surplus - item is in abundance, price is reduced by 75%
Common - price is reduced by 50%
Normal - no price adjustment
Uncommon - price is increased by 50%
Shortage - demand is outpacing supply, price is increased by 100%
Extreme Demand - demand is desperate and supply is scant, price is increased by a large amount (greater than 100%)

3. Item Categories: Every item, material, or resource in this game has a category and subcategory. There are 12 categories and each has the same 3 subcategories.The purposes of this system is to provide the least complicated method possible for establishing a reasonable price to buy anything in line with the Market Demand system. The categories are:

1. Apparel
2. Arms & Armor
3. Art
4. Building Materials
5. Chemicals & Herbs
6. Currency
7. Foodstuffs
8. Livestock
9. Mana
10. Magic Items
11. Metals
12. Misc.

As you know the prices fluctuate from city to city, depending on their Demand Rank. However, everywhere you go you can count on being able to differentiate what you find in the marketplace into the three subcategories:

A. Staple Goods
B. Common Goods
C. Luxury Goods

Staple goods are things that everybody needs like basic food and clothing. They always have a fairly consistent, steady demand. If a business invests in any of these they can expect a fairly steady form of income since the demand won't change much. They can also be sold in pretty much any city since everyone needs them. However, since they are commonly produced, competition drives down the profit margin so that these are the least profitable goods.

Luxury goods are at the opposite ends of the scale. Things like jewelery, fine clothing, or fancy furniture. Some cities may have a demand for these goods, but other cities won't want any at all. They cost more to make than staple goods, but if you can find a market for them the price benefit is much higher. If you can't find a market for them, you will have to either sell them as cheap goods at a loss, or store them somewhere to sell later. Overall, they can provide a higher profit margin, but are riskier.

Common goods fall somewhere in between. They offer a good compromise of risk vs. profit.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Innovations

In this NES, reseach is going to be blind, so you will not know which innovation you are researching. The actual "tech tree" will not be posted, but once an innovation is discovered by one organization it will be posted so that all players can see it. Once an innovation is made public (in either region of the Expanse) then all other players can choose to research it directly.

If you are trying to research an innovation that has not been discovered yet, put in your orders which branch you are researching and how much rp you are spending. If you discover a new innovation it will be noted in your stats and the innovation will be posted in the update.

As a general guideline, Tier 1 innovations will generally cost 50-100 rp. Remember that innovations in one of your speciality trees will only cost half of that.

Notation

U: Unit
B: Building
A: Ability Boost
T: Technique
S: New Stat Benefit
I: New Item

I. Alchemy

Spoiler :

II. Ceremony

Spoiler :

III. Commerce

Spoiler :

Capital

IV. Exploration

Spoiler :

V. Industry

Spoiler :

VI. Nature

Spoiler :

VII. Thaumaturgy

Spoiler :

VIII. Rhetoric

Spoiler :

IX. Villainy

Spoiler :

X. Warfare

Spoiler :

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Missions

Each organization receives 3 actions per turn. It is not possible to "store" actions, if they are not spent by the end of the turn they are lost. Actions are used to perform one of many missions. These missions will form the majority of your orders.

Attack - Units will attack a specified single target in the square they are in. Attacking occurs automatically if the units move into a square with hostile units. Attacking in this way still uses an action and cannot be done if the PO has no actions to spare. Attacking a target can result possibly in the capture, damaging, or destruction of a target and/or the damaging/destruction of the attacking units.

Diplomacy - Units will carry messages to NPCs and NPOs. Each action spent on diplomacy can only carry one message, of which the length is not limited, and barring any unfortunate events the messenger(s) will bring back the reply. Certain units, as described in their entry, will help to bring back more favorable responses. Communication with other Players is unlimited and requires no actions.

Espionage - Units will attempt to bypass detection and defenses in order to attain the specified target.

Fortify - Units will attempt to better the defenses of the specified area to increase chances of victory in case of an attack.

Move - the units designated will move their movement up to the amount specified in the orders.

Recruit - Any unit can recruit, though certain types will be more successful at it as described in the unit entry.

Work - Units capable of producing gold, mallets, research or culture do so, with whatever buildings and tools they are assigned to use.

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The mechanics in the first four are not going to be revealed entirely. When you discover a unit/building you will be told if it gives a bonus to one of these missions.

The last two, Recruit and Work will be fully explained now. Any member (even untrained) can perform them, although later units will be more efficient and achieve better results.

Recruit: Cost - 1 Action

Effect - Adds a number of members to your organization.

Each member assigned to this mission will provide about 0.5 new members.

Work: Cost - 1 Action

Effect - Choose a resource from the following list. Your members will produce that resource.

Gold - About 40 gold per member assigned to this mission

Research Points - About 1 rp per member assigned to this mission

Faith Points - About 1/4 fp per member assigned to this mission

Note: Later units/improvements can perform these missions much more effectively.

Everything produced in these missions is the minimum estimate. You will produce at least this much, but there is a chance you can receive more. Any description of how your units are performing the mission wil help your chances a bit. It doesn't have to be long, just a sentence or two.

For example:

Spend 1 action on Work - collect gold. 5 members will beg on street corners, pretending to be homeless.

Spend 1 action on Work - collect fp. 4 members will preach in the markeplace about Junil's code and how following it will lead to salvation.

etc.

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Buildings

Each building entry has the following: Name, Type, Maintenance, Requisite Staff, Mallets, Resources Required, Purchase Price, and Description. The Name tells you what the building is. The Type tells what kind of building it is for the purposes of effects that target certain building types, and whether this is a building that stands alone or whether it can be an addition to your homebase or if it can be built as either. The Maintenance line lists how much gold it costs per turn to keep this building in a functioning condition. Requisite Staff lists what units are needed for this building to function. Resources Required tells you what resources and how much of them are needed to construct this building (these resources are consumed in the building process). Mallets detail simply how many mallets are required to build this building if you plan on building it from scratch. The Purchase Price is the average cost it would take for an Artisan’s Guild to build it (doesn’t include distance costs and how much the Artisans charge for their work, its just a baseline; all materials must be provided for the artisans). If there’s a Description it states the building’s function and what it generally looks like (feel free to flesh out anything in your PO with your own descriptions, just remember that your descriptions won’t affect the stats). Benefit is a stat bonus or game effect that you receive for keeping this building functioning.

Arcane

Spoiler :

Culture

Spoiler :

Healing

Spoiler :

Military

Spoiler :

Residence

Spoiler :

Storage

Spoiler :

Research

Spoiler :

Special

Spoiler :

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Units

First off, many of these have been rebalanced from their earlier posted forms. If you read the previous list, you should probably still read these again. Resources used to pay salaries (food baskets, reagents, etc.) are detailed in the next post.

Training: Units can be upgraded to other units of the same type that are of a higher tier, and followers can be upgraded to anything. In order to upgrade a unit to a specific higher tier unit, you must already have recruited one of that kind of higher tier unit to train the lower tier units. As long as you have one of the new kind of unit, and a building that provides the facilities for training specific types of units, you can upgrade as many units as you have resources for. If you ever lose all of one type of unit - say if all your mages are killed in a battle – you will have to recruit a mage again before you can start upgrading your adepts. Upgrading costs 3 X the new units salary - the previous unit's salary. Followers have no salary, so they always pay the full price. However, if you had a mage you could upgrade one of your adepts for 3 X the cost of a mage’s salary - the adepts' salary.

Arcane

Spoiler :

Combat

Spoiler :

Craftsman

Spoiler :

Criminal

Spoiler :

Healing

Spoiler :

Influence

Spoiler :

Recon

Spoiler :

Special

Spoiler :

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Resources

These resources are things besides gold points, research points, and faith points that your organization needs to obtain. You can obtain them in a variety of ways: trading for them, stealing them, or sometimes even making them. The possiblities are limited only by what you can think up. Here I'm just going to deal with the simplest method of obtaining them - purchasing them with gold. This will give you a simple way to obtain each resource, and an idea of how valuable they are.

Each resource has a base price, which is then modified by the market demand to determine the purchase price that turn. The prices of any good can change as of each update, and only extremely significant changes will be mentioned in the update. So before buying anything, check back here each turn.

Each item has a category that determines its general type, and a class - staple goods, common goods, or luxury goods. The class tells you how much the price generally fluctuates. The price of luxury goods changes the most, staple goods the least, and common goods are somewhere in between.

Resource List

Foodbasket
Type: Foodstuffs
Class: Staple Goods
Base Cost: 5 gp
Represents a general assortment of the food around and
is usually the cheapest way to feed your units.

Corn
Type: Foodstuffs
Class: Staple Goods
Base Cost: 8 gp
Note: Can be used in place of a foodbasket.

Reagents
Type: Magic Items
Class: Common Goods
Base Cost: 30 gp

Tools
Type: Building Materials
Class: Common Goods
Base Cost: 10 gp

Luxury Tools
Type: Building Materials
Class: Luxury Goods
Base Cost: 20 gp

MasterofDisasta · Oct 31, 2009

Market Values

I'll link each update to this post. It will record the past and present market demands for each resource starting from Month 2 (Turn 2). As new resources are discovered, they will be addded. Items are also color coded - red for luxury goods, green for common goods, and blue for staple goods.

Extreme Glut - item is ubiquitous and demand is at its lowest, price is reduced by a large amount (90% or more)
Surplus - item is in abundance, price is reduced by 75%
Common - price is reduced by 50%
Normal - no price adjustment
Uncommon - price is increased by 50%
Shortage - demand is outpacing supply, price is increased by 100%
Extreme Demand - demand is desperate and supply is scant, price is increased by a large amount (greater than 100%)

Month 2

Cesslen

Food Basket - Normal

Corn - Normal

Reagents - Common

Tools - Normal

Luxury Tools - Normal

Trez

Food Basket - Normal

Corn - Uncommon

Reagents - Normal

Tools - Common

Luxury Tools - Normal

Raldel / Crisdolt

Food Basket - Uncommon

Corn - Uncommon

Reagents - Uncommon

Tools - Normal

Luxury Tools - Normal

FFH NES III: The Eastern Expanse

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Attachments

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