Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
The Idea
Basically, this NES is another fantasy-themed NES there will be elves, goblins, dragons and of course humans amongst a number of other races, some of which I will invent myself. Further elaboration on the basic concept though, I deem that unnecessary. Now to the next part of this introduction.
I've worked out a world with myths, magic and races, and most importantly a history. The players will play as a number of human kingdoms based in the isles to them known as 'the world' This is, in other words, a fresh fantasy start based around these islands. As this is fantasy, you are allowed a little freedom: You won't have to walk through a whole stone age, bronze age and then an iron age. As incorrect this might be, the reason is that I don't want this to wander around as a history of technology. Yes, technology is an aspect of this world, but I want magic and medievalness to be even with that. So in order to keep flavor, we'll throw away a little realism. I hope that's all right.
What this really means is that each player will have to design a semi-developed fantasy nation from scratch. Do, however, try to imagine a fantasy nation on an early point of its development; while it's cool to have mages wandering around that can travel in between dimensions, it's not really that point we are yet. However, you can have armored cavalry, and magic is also very accepted.
Interesting features in this NES
I have wondered over the idea of fantasy NESes in general. The problem with such NESes is that ancient powers, godly intervenions, artifacts, great people are problematic to include, that is; deus ex machinae are often impossible. This is a problem, imho, since I think some of the greatest events in fantasy are based upon these concepts the One Ring in Lord of the Rings, the Golgothian Sylex in Magic: the Gathering, and Archimonde's destruction of Dalaran in Warcraft for example and those events, ancient powers and abuse of artifacts are rendered completely useless in NESes since they simply lead to unfair and unfun play.
My solution to this was simply making this the fresh start it is with somewhat developed nations in a small, secluded island. The players are isolated unaware of whatever is beyond the great waters, unaware of the space above them, unaware about the depths below. Most importantly, whatever mythos the island nations might believe in, these myths might not be the true myths and myths have a very important role in this NES.
Unlike research, investing into the knowledge of the past is quite valuable in this world. Forging great artifacts today is uncommon however, reading the history of your ancestors, a nation might figure out where the old king of the ancient empire lies; and most importantly, if his legendary sword lies with him. Therefore, like researching into new magic, social organizations and technology, one can also research into mythos, eventually mapping out the history of this realm. The means of doing so rely on the player's creativity. Druids can maybe talk to trees, asking them what they remember a century ago, while astrologers can read the stars, priests can ask the gods, archeologists read runes. This should allow some interesting choices for the players as well as allow the said deus ex machinae that I love so much.
Also, you might question why I chose to make players be humans only. One of the reasons is that I want these islands to be as secluded and unaware of the rest of the world as possible; elves, for example, have very long lives and therefore might know more of the past than the average player. Additionally; when the islanders meet the remaining world, they should be surprised from it, not already knowing how it looks by knowing all the races already.
At last when talking about the new features in this NES, I have prepared a racial trait system much alike the concepts found in Magic: the Gathering; this system follows Magic's color pie, which pretty much explains each concept about fantasy personalities and shows where some features are able to work together (Preservating elves and protective humans for example) while other cultural opposites practically makes negotiation impossible (Nature-abiding elves vs. unnatural undead). I have seperated all of the values of the color pie in a number of racial traits. The reason why humans are such an interesting nation in fantasy is that they have all the traits of the other races combined (Fantasy races are always extremes of human ideologies and concepts). Therefore, the players only have the freedom of the trait system if playing as humans. The list is below:
Ambition
An ambitious people values the ability to rise from one state to another. The goal of life is to strife until your entity has reached another level.
Amorality
The ends of actions legalize the means; how you should work is unimportant as long as the final result satisfies the goals.
Chaotic
An individual's freedom is important and untouchable. One should be able to decide for himself; one stays happy as long as he decides for himself.
Community
The family, the nation and the state is a part of yourself, and you are a part of the whole. One's will is dependent of the community, and one must sacrifice for his community.
Consideration
When having a problem, the best solution is often to look it over, and probably research into it. Quality over quantity; thought over action.
Creativity
Art, culture and music is an important aspect of life. Emotions, feelings and thoughts should be expressed and unfold unto the world.
Ethics
There are some rules that should always be abiden. Morality is always a factor when deciding to act in any way.
Faith
Blessing or hating, crafting or destroying, the divine gods must be present in this world; a faithful people is not necessarily the only religious ones, but they value divinities significantly more than most.
Forsaken
Whether divine entities exist or not, a forsaken people have broken with them, either being atheist or having aligned with the powers against the gods.
Impulse
Brief reaction and brute force is usually the best way to resolve a problem. When a problem is taken care of, it's not there anymore; therefore it should be solved quickly.
Instinct
The first of all natural gifts is your guts. All basic needs can easily be archieved when you follow your instinct, and one should act upon it.
Lawful
The judge's hammer, the will of the gods and the state's will above all. Having a safe, strict system allows for the preservation of the greater good and the protection of the people.
Logic
All conclusions need evidence, all thoughts need empirical proof. Decisions always depend on the logic of the mind and objectivism.
Naturalist
A naturalistic people believes that everyone has its place; one is what one is destined to be, and can't change that role. When he was born a prince, he's always supposed to become the king.
Technology
While some might delve in the problems of existence, technology has a solution to everything, is important to promote; a knife chops up the meat for you, and wax wings make you fly.
What importance these traits have is simply how well your people connects with other peoples; that is, alliances between nations that share similar inhabitants are more natural, causing less dissent than an unholy alliance. Also, your national development specializes itself much dependent on your traits. It's not normal for a chaotic people to be that organized, since organization usually takes up a bit of freedom. And yes, conflicting traits are allowed; real humans do, after all, have all of the above traits in some way. Now to the stats themselves.
Nation name/Player: The name of the nation/The active player or NPC playing. The player part is listed as NPC if the nation is playable by a player, and is listed as the leader name if unplayable.
Leader/Race: The leader of the nation/The race of the nation.
Traits: Traits the nation has.
Economy: The amount of EP spendable each turn. This can be invested into economy, culture, mythos, research, military, or whatever you think is fit.
Military: Your military units. They run in 1000s usually.
Navy: The number of ships you have.
Details: Any additional details about the nation.
---------
And that will just about be the ruleset.
Military costs will depend on the nation itself, same goes for navy costs. This game will not necessarily revolve around war, I just tried to keep the stats as simple as possible. Initially, the nations are allowed to pick out 5 traits for their nation and choose a starting location on this map:
Climate map:
Dark blue: Deep water.
Medium blue: Water.
Light blue: Coast or river.
Pale yellow: Desert.
Light brown: Steppe.
Olive green: Temperate.
Basically, this NES is another fantasy-themed NES there will be elves, goblins, dragons and of course humans amongst a number of other races, some of which I will invent myself. Further elaboration on the basic concept though, I deem that unnecessary. Now to the next part of this introduction.
I've worked out a world with myths, magic and races, and most importantly a history. The players will play as a number of human kingdoms based in the isles to them known as 'the world' This is, in other words, a fresh fantasy start based around these islands. As this is fantasy, you are allowed a little freedom: You won't have to walk through a whole stone age, bronze age and then an iron age. As incorrect this might be, the reason is that I don't want this to wander around as a history of technology. Yes, technology is an aspect of this world, but I want magic and medievalness to be even with that. So in order to keep flavor, we'll throw away a little realism. I hope that's all right.
What this really means is that each player will have to design a semi-developed fantasy nation from scratch. Do, however, try to imagine a fantasy nation on an early point of its development; while it's cool to have mages wandering around that can travel in between dimensions, it's not really that point we are yet. However, you can have armored cavalry, and magic is also very accepted.
Interesting features in this NES
I have wondered over the idea of fantasy NESes in general. The problem with such NESes is that ancient powers, godly intervenions, artifacts, great people are problematic to include, that is; deus ex machinae are often impossible. This is a problem, imho, since I think some of the greatest events in fantasy are based upon these concepts the One Ring in Lord of the Rings, the Golgothian Sylex in Magic: the Gathering, and Archimonde's destruction of Dalaran in Warcraft for example and those events, ancient powers and abuse of artifacts are rendered completely useless in NESes since they simply lead to unfair and unfun play.
My solution to this was simply making this the fresh start it is with somewhat developed nations in a small, secluded island. The players are isolated unaware of whatever is beyond the great waters, unaware of the space above them, unaware about the depths below. Most importantly, whatever mythos the island nations might believe in, these myths might not be the true myths and myths have a very important role in this NES.
Unlike research, investing into the knowledge of the past is quite valuable in this world. Forging great artifacts today is uncommon however, reading the history of your ancestors, a nation might figure out where the old king of the ancient empire lies; and most importantly, if his legendary sword lies with him. Therefore, like researching into new magic, social organizations and technology, one can also research into mythos, eventually mapping out the history of this realm. The means of doing so rely on the player's creativity. Druids can maybe talk to trees, asking them what they remember a century ago, while astrologers can read the stars, priests can ask the gods, archeologists read runes. This should allow some interesting choices for the players as well as allow the said deus ex machinae that I love so much.
Also, you might question why I chose to make players be humans only. One of the reasons is that I want these islands to be as secluded and unaware of the rest of the world as possible; elves, for example, have very long lives and therefore might know more of the past than the average player. Additionally; when the islanders meet the remaining world, they should be surprised from it, not already knowing how it looks by knowing all the races already.
At last when talking about the new features in this NES, I have prepared a racial trait system much alike the concepts found in Magic: the Gathering; this system follows Magic's color pie, which pretty much explains each concept about fantasy personalities and shows where some features are able to work together (Preservating elves and protective humans for example) while other cultural opposites practically makes negotiation impossible (Nature-abiding elves vs. unnatural undead). I have seperated all of the values of the color pie in a number of racial traits. The reason why humans are such an interesting nation in fantasy is that they have all the traits of the other races combined (Fantasy races are always extremes of human ideologies and concepts). Therefore, the players only have the freedom of the trait system if playing as humans. The list is below:
Ambition
An ambitious people values the ability to rise from one state to another. The goal of life is to strife until your entity has reached another level.
Amorality
The ends of actions legalize the means; how you should work is unimportant as long as the final result satisfies the goals.
Chaotic
An individual's freedom is important and untouchable. One should be able to decide for himself; one stays happy as long as he decides for himself.
Community
The family, the nation and the state is a part of yourself, and you are a part of the whole. One's will is dependent of the community, and one must sacrifice for his community.
Consideration
When having a problem, the best solution is often to look it over, and probably research into it. Quality over quantity; thought over action.
Creativity
Art, culture and music is an important aspect of life. Emotions, feelings and thoughts should be expressed and unfold unto the world.
Ethics
There are some rules that should always be abiden. Morality is always a factor when deciding to act in any way.
Faith
Blessing or hating, crafting or destroying, the divine gods must be present in this world; a faithful people is not necessarily the only religious ones, but they value divinities significantly more than most.
Forsaken
Whether divine entities exist or not, a forsaken people have broken with them, either being atheist or having aligned with the powers against the gods.
Impulse
Brief reaction and brute force is usually the best way to resolve a problem. When a problem is taken care of, it's not there anymore; therefore it should be solved quickly.
Instinct
The first of all natural gifts is your guts. All basic needs can easily be archieved when you follow your instinct, and one should act upon it.
Lawful
The judge's hammer, the will of the gods and the state's will above all. Having a safe, strict system allows for the preservation of the greater good and the protection of the people.
Logic
All conclusions need evidence, all thoughts need empirical proof. Decisions always depend on the logic of the mind and objectivism.
Naturalist
A naturalistic people believes that everyone has its place; one is what one is destined to be, and can't change that role. When he was born a prince, he's always supposed to become the king.
Technology
While some might delve in the problems of existence, technology has a solution to everything, is important to promote; a knife chops up the meat for you, and wax wings make you fly.
What importance these traits have is simply how well your people connects with other peoples; that is, alliances between nations that share similar inhabitants are more natural, causing less dissent than an unholy alliance. Also, your national development specializes itself much dependent on your traits. It's not normal for a chaotic people to be that organized, since organization usually takes up a bit of freedom. And yes, conflicting traits are allowed; real humans do, after all, have all of the above traits in some way. Now to the stats themselves.
Nation name/Player: The name of the nation/The active player or NPC playing. The player part is listed as NPC if the nation is playable by a player, and is listed as the leader name if unplayable.
Leader/Race: The leader of the nation/The race of the nation.
Traits: Traits the nation has.
Economy: The amount of EP spendable each turn. This can be invested into economy, culture, mythos, research, military, or whatever you think is fit.
Military: Your military units. They run in 1000s usually.
Navy: The number of ships you have.
Details: Any additional details about the nation.
---------
And that will just about be the ruleset.
Military costs will depend on the nation itself, same goes for navy costs. This game will not necessarily revolve around war, I just tried to keep the stats as simple as possible. Initially, the nations are allowed to pick out 5 traits for their nation and choose a starting location on this map:
Climate map:
Dark blue: Deep water.
Medium blue: Water.
Light blue: Coast or river.
Pale yellow: Desert.
Light brown: Steppe.
Olive green: Temperate.
But having Technology as a trait, for example, obviously directs your nation down a technological path.
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