Avatar: The Middle Kingdom
化身中國
Several centuries ago, the War of Three Hours devastated civilisation everywhere and anihilated all forms of organised government. Out of this new Dark Age came the Benders: men and women blessed with the ability to manipulate the Five Elements: Water, Earth, FIre, Air, and Energy. Although these "Benders" exist around the world, in Asia they have been born in such high numbers that entire societies have formed based on the bending of the elements. The most powerful of these Benders is the Avatar, who can bend all elements. The Avatar is dedicated to restoring balance to the world, and will punish overly-aggressive nations.
The Map
The Rules
House Rules
1. Do not flame, troll, or personally insult any other player OOC or IC. At all. You may comment on certain things negatively, but don't take it further than that.
2. Stay on topic. Make sure all comments are relevant to the fictional world of the current IOT and have nothing to do with your personal religious/political beliefs.
3. Your posts should actually consist of something relevant to your nation and not just one-liner comments. Do not spam.
4. Long diplomatic discussions belong to the realms of Social Groups or visitor and private messaging, not the Game Thread.
5. No powergaming. By definition, powergaming is making your country surpass every other country by all terms including armed forces, technology, etc.
6. The GM is supreme. He reserves the right to change game rules, ignore or modify orders, impose restrictions on players, disband player nations, and so on.
7. Please write your orders in bold and in any colour that isn't red (which is reserved for GM actions only).
8.
Trollquitting is forbidden.
9. Above all else, RESPECT THY FELLOW FORUMERS.
10. Violation of any of the above will merit the Wrath of the Avatar.
I'll usually warn players first if they break the rules. If they break the rules repeatedly, then I'll apply this:
1st Strike: Player is suspended from the game for one turn.
2nd Strike: Player is suspended from the game for three turns.
3rd Strike: Player nation dissolved, and the player banned from ever rejoining.
If someone really gets on my nerve I may ban him.
Inactive players (AWOL for more than 3 turns) having their nation disbanded. These players can rejoin the game, but their old territories won't be restored to them; they'll start off with 10 claims like every new player. The nations may also be turned over into NPCs or given to new players.
Joining the Game
To join a game choose a nation and a color, tell us about it, a flag is necessary, government, religion, people, policy and etc. Claim any five CONNECTED provinces on the map. Non contigious nations are not allowed unless they fit common sense (e.g. a country of Bali, Timor, Flores and Kimodo is allowed, but not one of Japan and New Guinea). In addition, you need to choose ONE of the following factions in order to play:
-Waterbender: -50% cost of Navy Techs, -50% cost of navies (rounded down); naval units get +20% on combat rolls.
-Earthbender: -50% cost of Land Techs, +20% Defence against all other nations
-Firebender: -50% cost of Army Techs, -50% cost of Armies, +20% for Armies on combat rolls.
-Airbender: Starts with Air Tech 0 and -50% cost of Air Techs, -50% cost of Air Wings, +20% for Air Wings on combat rolls.
-Energybender: +50% combat bonuses against all nations. However, only 1 in 20 nations can be Energybenders.
Updates
IOTs are turn based games. each turn is 1 in game year. Updates will come irregularly, but I will try and not make an update within 48 hours of a previous one. Stories and stats will come with each update
Expansion
You expand by sending out armies to conquer the surrounding region. However, when claiming territories that are on another part of the coast (or are on an island), you will need navies in addition to armies to claim them (1 navy for every army). Your armies are also used up when taking "colonial" territories. Small territories (i.e. ones that are smaller than 5 pixels) can be claimed for free, as long as they're reasonably close to your territory (use common sense for this).
Economy
Each province produces 1 IC (Industrial Capacity). You can also invest 2 IC into Infrastructure, which increases your income by 1.
Roleplaying
Roleplaying is the essence of IOT. It’s how your nation develops. It’s how alliances are formed and broken. Roleplaying is very encouraged. Feel free to inhabit your nation with whoever or whatever you want, provided it fits with the setting and the etiquette listed above. Notice, however, that apart from the bending, this is otherwise a standard IOT: you cannot play a faction of steampunk waterbending ponies who work magic gifted to them from the Demon Sultan Azathoth, for example.
War
The three basic military units are Armies, Navies, and Air Wings.
Armies cost 1 IC, and are used to take adjacent enemy territories or ones that are on the coast. If it's the latter, then you'll need to use at least 1 navy per army. Navies cost 5 IC and are used to blockade nations, which causes them to lose 25% of their income. Air wings also cost 5 IC, and are used as support for attacking armies, and to bombard enemy infrastructure. Unused armies are automatically put on defence, navies are immediately used to defend coasts from amphibious assault, and air wings are put on defence from bombardment. You can only build Air Wings if you have Air Tech 0.
See here for details on combat.
Technology
There are three types of technologies, which cost 100*The level of the Tech you're researching. There number of Tech Levels are limitless. Here is a list of the techs available:
- Army Techs: For every Army Tech you have, your rolls have a 10% bonus.
- Land Techs: For every Land Tech you have, you can blitz 1 territory more.
- Navy Techs: For every Navy Tech you have, your Navy Rolls have a 10% bonus.
- Air Techs: For every Air Tech you have, your Air Rolls have a 10% bonus.
Note that these effects are cumulative with your Bending bonuses. Note that you can only research Air Tech 0 (which allows construction of Air Wings) if you've already researched Army Tech 10, unless you are an Air Bender.
The Avatar
The Avatar is the one of the most important elements of the game world. He (or she) is 'revealed' in Turn 3 in a random Waterbending nation (Note: although the rules refer to the Avatar as male, the Avatar has a 50/50 chance of being female), before travelling to various countries. If he visits a country, he then acts as a "protector" of sorts, and gives major defence bonuses for it. The Avatar also hates trolls, powergamers and warmongers, and violating any of the above etiquitte will merit your armies being attacked by them. Your armies have a 50% chance of being defeated by him. If the Avatar is defeated, then there is a 66% chance that he has survived and has taken refuge in a neigbouring country, and 33% chance that he would be reincarnated and appear again in a random Earthbending (then Firebending, Airbending, etc) nation. However, there's a 1% chance that he was in the Avatar State when he is killed, meaning that bending has ceased to exist and the game ends. If the nation that the Avatar will be reincarnated in is wiped out before he "comes of age", then there is a 10% chance that he will be revealed to have fled and has been hidden in a neigbouring nation with each succeding turn.
