Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
ljNES - The Sentient Beast
Introduction
Welcome!
There needs not much introduction for now, although I will write something tasty tomorrow. There has been a quiet detour of many of my old NESing friends; most of them, while excellent NESers, many simply don't have the time to mod anymore and as such are roaming the chatrooms, waiting for fresh starts to show up. Well, I'm not bound to anything committing 'till next fall, and I have an urge to make something constructive and glorious, so here's a grand NES for all of you.
If you're new to NESing, the concept is simple: Write history while managing your empire and stand the test of time. Those are the Never Ending Stories of this forum; and of course, general stories, creativity, pictures, drawings, poetry and even music are appreciated and will serve you well through divine
Setting
This cradle NES is a fresh start on a nonearth planet. We begin like when playing civilization, with a secluded area seperated from the rest of the world, the peoples in it mingling and feuding, only to have the shrouded world retract and more exotic things appear from the darkness.
The starting area resembles the Mesopotamian setting, and that's because our starting area resembles the Cradle of Civilization from Earth. I've chosen this to allow for some realistic consistency, as it's something I'm not very good at without enforcing it. When creating your culture, take this into account, at least until we have explored a larger part of the world.
Updates Info
After the first players have submitted their cultures, we will begin the game. The first update will be a BT, and the coming updates will be ITs until a time of depression and instability comes up; at that point, another BT update will be written. BT is short for Boring Time and spans last many, many years. ITs on the other hand, are Interesting Times, and have a much shorter span of years. The first update will last from the equivalent of earth's 2000 BC to 400 BC, and then updates will take 10 years apiece as ITs.
Orders for an update are sent through PM, and I will only accept up to two PMs per update. Also, I prefer concise orders rather than complex ones. If you feel the need to be complex, write it as you wish, but post it as stories, and you will be rewarded. Don't just write "Invest 2 EP to increase education", rather "Build new libraries in my capital and major cities {with interesting info here}" but not an epic about the gathering of materials, the muses' goodwill toward you and the influence on empires 1000 miles away.
The orders are best appreciated when formatted as such:
TITLE: ljNES ; {Update N} ; {My nation} ; Orders
CONTENTS:
Stats
Diplomatic agreements since last update, with links to the posts
Stories since last update, with links to the posts
Actual orders
If you do that, mod likes you.
Stories
One can't have a NES without stories, and they're very encouraged in this one. Infact, they're very rewarded. I prefer quality over quantity, though, and justt writing a lot of random stories doesn't let you gain more bonuses; it doesn't work that way. Rather, I only reward one story an update. I choose this because I like well-written things.
Countries
General
At the beginning of the NES, players are allowed to create countries wherever they want in the cradle, and then I'll place NPCs to fill in holes and needs. After the first update players may no longer create nations in the center of the cradle! To join then, players have three options: They may found a nation near the edge of the cradle; they may take over NPCs already present on the map; or they can instigate a revolt in unstable nations. (Whether a nation is prone or not to revolt is usually written in its Confidence stat.)
If founding a new nation, it will usually be much more developed if founded on a barbarian culture. You can still found new nations from the bottom near the edges, but don't expect to be a political juggernaut when doing so.
Rebel movements don't have stats until controlling territory.You will lose control of your country if you are conquered and the conquering party wishes you gone or if you don't send orders two turns in a row. However, when losing control of your country due to such a time-out, your country will be reserved for you for one turn.
Below is a list of country stats.
NATIONAL TEMPLATE
Nation Name/player
Capital:
Ruler:
Government:
Culture:
Technology:
Army:
Army Description:
Navy:
Navy Description:
Economy (Base/Manufacturing/Trade):
Size:
Population:
Infrastructure:
Education:
Confidence:
Projects:
Background:
Ruler
Self-explanatory. Won't matter much during BT's.
Government
A qualitative description of the way your country is governed. Absolute power allows for more direct control while a decentralized parlamentary system usually leaves you unable to pass certain policies due to either corruption or unwill.
Culture
A qualitative description of your country's religion, ethnicities and the general ways and ideas of your people.
Technology
A qualitative description of your technological age. The NES nations begin in the early bronze age, while some of the central areas will be more developed. Of course
Army
A quantitative count of your regiments.
Army Description
A qualitiative description of your army composition and quality. The quality of your units matters a lot and can be improved by investing into better weaponry, more effecient training, better discipline etc.
The levels are:
Mob-Pathetic-Poor-Tolerable-Normal-Better-Good-Great-Mighty-Juggernaut
Navy
A qualitative count of your fleets.
Navy Description
A qualitiative description of your ship design and quality. The quality of your fleet matters a lot and can be improved by investing into better weaponry, stronger hulls, a more solid naval tradition etc.
The levels are:
Mob-Pathetic-Poor-Tolerable-Normal-Better-Good-Great-Mighty-Juggernaut
Economy (Base/Manufacturing/Trade)
Your wealth. Base income stems from agriculture, mining and fishing, manufacturing from industry and goods, and trade from the exchange of wares that somehow generate wealth due to capitalist theory etc. This is what you use to invest into things, whether that be construction, revolution, reformation, colonization or military.
Size
A larger nation size means it costs more economy to change infrastructure, education and culture. The size is numbered with a flat value, for example 1, 4 or 7.
Population
This shows the population size of your country. A larger population allows for a higher capacity of economy if not the technology is high enough (Of course, the capacity isn't set in stone, but you can only weave that many clothes as a worker) Also, in generaly, if your population is larger than your size, it means that your country is prone to colonize a new area. However, confidence and education are both more expensive to invest in when there is a high population.
Infrastructure
The higher is your infrastructure, the easier it is to move your (or enemy) troops across your territory; also, high infrastructure will influence such things as culture and trade. In addition, infrastructure in this NES also takes things like bureaucracy or legal systems into account.
Infrastructure: None-Dirt Paths-Pathetic-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Improving-Good-Efficient-Very Efficient-Great-Excellent
Education
This is just how your people are... educated, I guess. Obvious enough. With a good education, you have better chances of receiving a “miracilous invention”. You could design better walls and siege engines, and ships for that matter, with higher education. It also affects just how advanced are your weapons, and thus the success of your army in a battlefield.
Once someone reaches Enlightenment education, he becomes much more likely to reach the next age as soon as it becomes possible at all. When he does, he loses two education levels.
Education: None-Dumb-Illiterate-Tolerable-Literate-Educated-Well Educated-Perfect-Academic-Enlightenment
Confidence
This is the degree to which the people trust or mistrust, love or hate you and your government. Its effects shouldn't be hard to explain, really - a more loyal people will take up arms in your defense, a less loyal people will take up arms to overthrow you. As not even Fortune is as fickle as public opinion, this will fluctuate wildly depending on your (perceived or real) successes or failures, and on the propaganda as well - both yours and that of your enemies. Watch it, though: I will write here if there is a chance another player or NPC will take control of parts of your country.
Confidence: Lynching-Hateful-Resentful-Barely Tolerating-Tolerating-Respecting-Admiring-Loving-Worshipping
Projects
Local equivalent of wonders, but is more often some sort of a particularily large project or program as opposed to some huge building. Basically, you can do almost anything reasonable with this (again, consult me for specifics), but the amount of time it will take depends on just what do you plan to do. You have to pay a certain sum to get the project going (usually 1 eco. point); after that, eco. points can be used to speed the process up (1 eco. point can be used to speed the project up by 1 turn), but not more than 2 per turn. You can make it secret, but in that case you'll have to remind me about the effects every so often.
Background
This is where I write a little snippet about your country to make you feel warm and giving the stats a more human face.
Other things
Military
Military is important in waging war, crushing rebels, keeping order etc.
Troop movement is not to be underestimated. A good infrastructure allows for long walks, but in general you should feed your armies so they won't pillage the countryside or desert. You have to invest additional money into major campaigns just to keep the numbers up.
Prices: For 1 EP you will get 10 regiments worth of standard troops. You can also raise levy regiments to defend your homeland, but the number depends on your population and confidence stats. Lastly, you can hire high-quality professional mercenary armies from different cultures throughout the world. Those will require 1 EP a turn to fight for you. For navies, 1 EP will get you 10 ships.
Barbarians
and barbarian noncountry cultures are very present on the map, and you may interact, manipulate, conquer or ignore them all that you will. Barbarian areas are marked with a gray. Note that whether the barbarians are civilized or not is never really spelled out, and their cultures can be very unique - what's important is that they aren't unified enough to appear on the nation list.
Religions and cultures
Each of these have an important influence on the game and will be written about. Greater religions mean greater influence when controlled by a player. Great culture can allow peaceful (or violent) subjugation. Human society is fleeting, and as such these things aren't represented in the stats, but they're there.
To join during the first turn
I want the cradle to be consistent, and as such players should take into account that they're creating peoples inspired by our Earth's ancient Middle East. I won't accept things that don't fit, so no Europeans, Asians or Americans right now. Oh, and if you don't take your neighbours into account when writing a backstory of your country, its culture or mythos, I will and change your background slightly to moderately to fit in - Sorry, but it's a necessary sacrifice for the greater good of this NES as well as preservance of this forum's more hardcore historians' sanity.
Lastly
I would like to say thanks for MjM's understanding when completely ripping off many of his NES' rules. <3
