Intro
The South Pole Cradle is a game about a rise of ancient civilizations in iceless Antarctica. Imagine Earth going through a massive global warming some time 50,000 years ago - perhaps as a result of a less pronounced wobble in the Earth’s spinning tilt, combined with a drop in volcanic activity that set off the “volcanic winter” that made the recent Ice Age possible. Not only did the steamhouse effect cause complete melting of the ice sheets, but some oceanic water also got trapped under the mantle after being sucked into the tectonic subduction zones.
Long story short, it means that what we know as the land of perpetual winter and a home of penguins is now a thriving continent, which shoreline is not as badly changed by the rising oceans. It hosts some bizarre South-American and Oceanian megafauna, it hosts a wide diversity of climate zones, and it just recently got populated by three different groups of homo sapiens: Mapuche Amerindians from South America, Tasmanian Aboriginals from Oceania, and Khoisan Bushmen from South Africa. While these groups of paleolithic hunters and gatherers explore the world, they’ll gradually start forming new civilizations under the clear southern sky, with its months-long winter nights and summer days.
Rules
Regions
The continent known to the players as Antarctica is divided into Regions. Each Region can host multiple Population Slots - some taken by Population Centers, and some unoccupied. The maximum number of Population Slots hosted by a Region is known as its Capacity. Needless to say, Capacity can change over time - usually it will go up, but sometimes it’ll go down.
Note: Multiple civilizations will be able to have their Population Centers in the same Region. Regions themselves don’t “belong” to any one civilization, but the Population Slots do.
The vast majority of the regions are Land Regions, but a few of them are Aquatic Regions, meaning that they consist of agglomerations of islands (you’ll easily find them on the map). The only difference between them is that many actions performed in the Aquatic regions require a successful Seafaring action to support them. We’ll talk about actions later.
Other important traits of a region (ranging from 1 (the lowest) to 9 (the highest)):
Civilizations will be the entities brought to ascendancy (or utterly ruined) by the players. Two main parameters characterizing a Civilization are:
However, not all Power Points can be directly used by players. To determine just how much control they have over their civilization, there are two parameters measured in percentage:
Conformity and Centralization are not permanent values. Firstly, they’ll drop by 5% for each newly gained Population Center. Secondly, there will be actions available to the players allowing to increase either one of them (more on that later). The Power Points not available to the players will be spent randomly (or will remain idle, resembling internal squabbling all too typical for the early civilizations).
Actions
To make my life easier and the game set more straightforward, all Power Points can be spent on 16 Action types, four for each Power Point type.
All civilizations will have a unique personal profile, known as Civilization Package. It will consist of ratings (from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest)) associated with each of these 16 actions. The values in the Civilization Package define efficiency of associated actions.
Milestones
By reaching Level 5 of any profile value in the Civilization Profile, any civilization will reach a Milestone. It means that that profile value will allow the GM to choose if they wish to use the Basic Bonus provided to their Action by default (see the Actions part) or to use the Milestone Bonus (whichever is higher).
Note: the player cannot combine the Basic Bonus and the Milestone Bonus together, but the player may choose one or the other.
For example, imagine Civilization A has access to highest Deposit rating 6 and attempts to use Industry action. The Basic Bonus based on deposit rating 6 is +1. However, Civilization has also has reached Innovation Level 5, and it has at least one Population Center in a region with Urbanization 7 (which gives Milestone Bonus +2). So, instead of using the Basic Bonus, Civilization A can use the Milestone Bonus to improve its chances of success.
List of milestones
Quests and Modifiers
Modifiers are Civilization-impacting achievements that could last hundreds of years. They may represent forms of human organization, such as various reforms, institutions, traditions, or they may be associated with engineering practices integrated into the very core of a certain civilization (think Persian roads, Roman aqueducts, Garamantian underground irrigation, etc.). Modifiers will give players’ Civilizations some flavor and some lasting bonuses, representing their ability to outdo others in certain fields, simply by developing unique traditions and specializations.
Each modifier will have a certain Timer, during which that Modifier is active. Once the Timer expires, the Modifier stops working - after all, the Marian Reforms of the Roman military kept it superior only for 3-4 centuries, and roads and aqueducts can fall apart, too.
In order to create Modifiers (or reset the timer on the existing/expired ones), players have to accomplish Quests. These Quests may represent some reforms or major societal developments, or generations-long megaprojects (such as the Egyptian Pyramids). Each quest will have up to three Attributes (associated with the Civilization Package) and a three-fold Attribute Demand. Think of them as the Quest’s progress bar(s) - all three bars have to be fulfilled with successful Attribute rolls for the Quest to get into effect.
Setting
The continent known to us as Antarctica is a starkly different place than we know it. The climate here is seasonal (especially farther from shore), but only a few high mountains have permanent ice caps. Summers feature several weeks of permanent sunlight and winters have similar periods of constant dusk, but the effect of these months on the local life shouldn't be overstated. To the human inhabitants, the continent is likely going to be known as the Land of Shining Sky, as sometimes they can witness the beauty of aurora australis in the night sky.
From the ocean known to us as South Atlantic ("left side" of the map), the continent is slammed with constant precipitation that comes with hot, humid meteorological fronts. What we know as the Indian Ocean, on the other hand, sends very little in the direction of the South Pole, so few oceanic winds reach the high plateau facing it (the "right side" of the map). Meanwhile, the deeper you advance toward the massive volcanic traps located in the "top right" quadrant of the map, the more continental the weather gets.
The flora and fauna of the continent mostly resembles the various species found in prehistoric South America, plus some rare marsupial remnants, a few species of South Pacific migratory birds and oceanic animals and fish found in Oceania and South Africa. Some of the more unusual inhabitants of the continent include giant flightless birds (carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous kinds), saber-tooth tigers, short-snout bears, giant ground sloths (true titans of this world), several species of dire wolves and deer, stout hyodon elephants, massive armadillos (with and without tail clubs), donkey-like hippidion horses, trunk-nosed patahonica llamas, camel-like litopterns, hornless toxodon rhinos, wolf-sized marsupial lions, giant wombat, giant vampire bats (not as dangerous as their name suggests), giant eagles 5-meter-long constrictor snakes and some rare monitor lizards. Of course, many other, non-megafauna species familiar to the players can also be found there.
Let's take a look at the continent now.
Elevation and landscape:
Precipitation and average annual temperature:
Regions:
The South Pole Cradle is a game about a rise of ancient civilizations in iceless Antarctica. Imagine Earth going through a massive global warming some time 50,000 years ago - perhaps as a result of a less pronounced wobble in the Earth’s spinning tilt, combined with a drop in volcanic activity that set off the “volcanic winter” that made the recent Ice Age possible. Not only did the steamhouse effect cause complete melting of the ice sheets, but some oceanic water also got trapped under the mantle after being sucked into the tectonic subduction zones.
Long story short, it means that what we know as the land of perpetual winter and a home of penguins is now a thriving continent, which shoreline is not as badly changed by the rising oceans. It hosts some bizarre South-American and Oceanian megafauna, it hosts a wide diversity of climate zones, and it just recently got populated by three different groups of homo sapiens: Mapuche Amerindians from South America, Tasmanian Aboriginals from Oceania, and Khoisan Bushmen from South Africa. While these groups of paleolithic hunters and gatherers explore the world, they’ll gradually start forming new civilizations under the clear southern sky, with its months-long winter nights and summer days.
Rules
Spoiler :
Regions
The continent known to the players as Antarctica is divided into Regions. Each Region can host multiple Population Slots - some taken by Population Centers, and some unoccupied. The maximum number of Population Slots hosted by a Region is known as its Capacity. Needless to say, Capacity can change over time - usually it will go up, but sometimes it’ll go down.
Note: Multiple civilizations will be able to have their Population Centers in the same Region. Regions themselves don’t “belong” to any one civilization, but the Population Slots do.
The vast majority of the regions are Land Regions, but a few of them are Aquatic Regions, meaning that they consist of agglomerations of islands (you’ll easily find them on the map). The only difference between them is that many actions performed in the Aquatic regions require a successful Seafaring action to support them. We’ll talk about actions later.
Other important traits of a region (ranging from 1 (the lowest) to 9 (the highest)):
- Soil Fertility - accommodation of agriculture, usually dependent on rich soil and moderate climate;
- Grazing - accommodation of pastoral lifestyles, usually dependent on access to open grassland;
- Wilderness - accommodation of hunting, gathering, and fishing lifestyles, usually dependent on vibrancy and population of the local wildlife;
- Deposits - presence of mineral resources or other craft materials, which may include mud, stone, timber and, of course, different ores, etc.
- Urbanization - urban infrastructure that will grow with the rise of civilizations; in the beginning, all regions have no urbanization whatsoever.
Civilizations will be the entities brought to ascendancy (or utterly ruined) by the players. Two main parameters characterizing a Civilization are:
- Extent - its current total size, calculated as a sum of all Population Centers that are not occupied or influenced by other civilizations (more on that later);
- Prominence - how much gravity that civilization has; in game terms, it defines how many Population Centers that civilization can get before it naturally fractures. Think of the collapse of the Macedonian Argead Empire or of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom due to overexpansion.
- Demographic Point - grants access to abilities to spread forth and multiply;
- Cultural Point - grants access to abilities to develop new ideas in what we call “human sciences” today;
- Economic Point - grants access to abilities to enrich itself and deal with more “solid” sciences;
- Military Point - grants access to abilities related to war, enforcement, and seafaring.
However, not all Power Points can be directly used by players. To determine just how much control they have over their civilization, there are two parameters measured in percentage:
- Conformity - Defines number of Demographic and Cultural Power Points that can be used by the player per turn.
- Centralization - Defines number of Economic and Military Power Points that can be used by the player per turn.
Conformity and Centralization are not permanent values. Firstly, they’ll drop by 5% for each newly gained Population Center. Secondly, there will be actions available to the players allowing to increase either one of them (more on that later). The Power Points not available to the players will be spent randomly (or will remain idle, resembling internal squabbling all too typical for the early civilizations).
Actions
To make my life easier and the game set more straightforward, all Power Points can be spent on 16 Action types, four for each Power Point type.
All civilizations will have a unique personal profile, known as Civilization Package. It will consist of ratings (from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest)) associated with each of these 16 actions. The values in the Civilization Package define efficiency of associated actions.
- Demographic points:
- Agriculturalism - if successful, allows the Civilization to take over an unpopulated Population Slot and create a new Population Center there. (Note: the region's Soil Fertility rating modifies the efficiency of this action as well.)
- Pastoralism - if successful, allows the Civilization to take over an unpopulated Population Slot and create a new Population Center there. (Note: the region's Grazing rating modifies the efficiency of this action as well.)
- Survivalism - if successful, allows the Civilization to take over an unpopulated Population Slot and create a new Population Center there. (Note: the region's Wilderness rating modifies the efficiency of this action as well.)
- Migration - if successful, allows the Civilization to move one of its Population Centers from the Population Slot in one region to an empty Population Slot in another nearby region. (Successful Seafaring action (see below) allows performing Migration across the sea to any region.)
- Cultural points:
- Spiritualism - if successful, allows to form a friendly splinter civilization by converting one Population Center of another civilization. It also works in defense against that action. (Civilizations need to be aware of each other and within proximity. Converting multiple Population Centers of the same Civilization will form a single splinter civilization.)
- Intellectualism - if successful, allows an improvement of Civilization Package (+1 level for one action type). More on the Civilization Package below.
- Comity - if successful, allows increasing the Civilization's Conformity or Centralization by 10% per action.
- Material Culture - if successful, allows increasing the civilization's Prominence by 1 per action. (Modified by the highest available Region’s Deposit rating; influenced or occupied (see below) Population Centers of other Civilizations also count toward the highest Deposit rating.)
- Economic points:
- Mercantilism - if successful, allows influencing Population Centers of other civilizations. Influenced land slots do not count to the Influencer Civilization's Extent. Successful influencing lasts one turn after the action and allows the Influencer Civilization to use the influenced Population Center's Military or Cultural Power Point (using the Influenced Civilization's Civilization Package). (The higher the Urbanization rating of the Region where the Population Center is located, the harder it is to influence that Population Center. The higher highest available Urbanization rating of the Civilization that attempts the Mercantilism action, the easier it is to influence the targeted Population Center.)
- Assimilation - if successful, allows conversion of one influenced Population Center of another Civilization into the player's Civilization permanently. (The higher the Urbanization rating of the region where the targeted Population Center is located, the harder it is to assimilated that Population Center.)
- Innovation - if successful, allows adding improving (by 1 per action) any one of the following qualities of the targeted region: Soil Fertility, Grazing, Wilderness, or Max Capacity. (Modified by the highest available Region’s Deposit rating; influenced or occupied (see below) Population Centers of other Civilizations also count toward the highest Deposit rating.) Any Region can be improved only by 1 point of any one parameter per turn.
- Industry - if successful, allows increasing Urbanization value of a region by 1 per action. (Modified by the highest available Region’s Deposit rating; influenced or occupied (see below) Population Centers of other Civilizations also count toward the highest Deposit rating.) Any Region can be improved only by 1 Urbanization point per turn.
- Military points:
- Conquest - if successful, allows the Civilization to occupy a targeted Population Center of another Civilization (also works as a defense against that action). Successful occupation lasts one turn after the action and allows the Occupier Civilization to use the influenced Population Center's Demographic or Economic Power Point (using the occupied Civilization's Civilization Package). (The higher the Urbanization rating of the Region where the Population Center is located, the harder it is to occupy that Population Center. The higher highest available Urbanization rating of the Civilization that attempts the Conquest action, the easier it is to occupy the targeted Population Center.)
- Depredation - if successful, destroys a targeted Population Center (also works as a defense against that action). (The higher the Urbanization rating of the Region where the Population Center is located, the harder it is to destroy that Population Center. The higher highest available Urbanization rating of the Civilization that attempts the Depredation action, the easier it is to destroy the targeted Population Center. A successful Depredation action may lower the Urbanization rating of the targeted region.)
- Oppression - if successful, allows conversion of one occupied Population Center of another Civilization into the player's Civilization permanently. (The higher the Urbanization rating of the region where the targeted Population Center is located, the harder it is to oppress that Population Center.)
- Seafaring - if successful, allows projection of any other Power Point’s action across a body of water (except rivers and lakes, which don't require Seafaring). (Also works as a defense against that action.
Milestones
By reaching Level 5 of any profile value in the Civilization Profile, any civilization will reach a Milestone. It means that that profile value will allow the GM to choose if they wish to use the Basic Bonus provided to their Action by default (see the Actions part) or to use the Milestone Bonus (whichever is higher).
Note: the player cannot combine the Basic Bonus and the Milestone Bonus together, but the player may choose one or the other.
For example, imagine Civilization A has access to highest Deposit rating 6 and attempts to use Industry action. The Basic Bonus based on deposit rating 6 is +1. However, Civilization has also has reached Innovation Level 5, and it has at least one Population Center in a region with Urbanization 7 (which gives Milestone Bonus +2). So, instead of using the Basic Bonus, Civilization A can use the Milestone Bonus to improve its chances of success.
List of milestones
Quests and Modifiers
Modifiers are Civilization-impacting achievements that could last hundreds of years. They may represent forms of human organization, such as various reforms, institutions, traditions, or they may be associated with engineering practices integrated into the very core of a certain civilization (think Persian roads, Roman aqueducts, Garamantian underground irrigation, etc.). Modifiers will give players’ Civilizations some flavor and some lasting bonuses, representing their ability to outdo others in certain fields, simply by developing unique traditions and specializations.
Each modifier will have a certain Timer, during which that Modifier is active. Once the Timer expires, the Modifier stops working - after all, the Marian Reforms of the Roman military kept it superior only for 3-4 centuries, and roads and aqueducts can fall apart, too.
In order to create Modifiers (or reset the timer on the existing/expired ones), players have to accomplish Quests. These Quests may represent some reforms or major societal developments, or generations-long megaprojects (such as the Egyptian Pyramids). Each quest will have up to three Attributes (associated with the Civilization Package) and a three-fold Attribute Demand. Think of them as the Quest’s progress bar(s) - all three bars have to be fulfilled with successful Attribute rolls for the Quest to get into effect.
Setting
Spoiler :
The continent known to us as Antarctica is a starkly different place than we know it. The climate here is seasonal (especially farther from shore), but only a few high mountains have permanent ice caps. Summers feature several weeks of permanent sunlight and winters have similar periods of constant dusk, but the effect of these months on the local life shouldn't be overstated. To the human inhabitants, the continent is likely going to be known as the Land of Shining Sky, as sometimes they can witness the beauty of aurora australis in the night sky.
From the ocean known to us as South Atlantic ("left side" of the map), the continent is slammed with constant precipitation that comes with hot, humid meteorological fronts. What we know as the Indian Ocean, on the other hand, sends very little in the direction of the South Pole, so few oceanic winds reach the high plateau facing it (the "right side" of the map). Meanwhile, the deeper you advance toward the massive volcanic traps located in the "top right" quadrant of the map, the more continental the weather gets.
The flora and fauna of the continent mostly resembles the various species found in prehistoric South America, plus some rare marsupial remnants, a few species of South Pacific migratory birds and oceanic animals and fish found in Oceania and South Africa. Some of the more unusual inhabitants of the continent include giant flightless birds (carnivorous, omnivorous, and herbivorous kinds), saber-tooth tigers, short-snout bears, giant ground sloths (true titans of this world), several species of dire wolves and deer, stout hyodon elephants, massive armadillos (with and without tail clubs), donkey-like hippidion horses, trunk-nosed patahonica llamas, camel-like litopterns, hornless toxodon rhinos, wolf-sized marsupial lions, giant wombat, giant vampire bats (not as dangerous as their name suggests), giant eagles 5-meter-long constrictor snakes and some rare monitor lizards. Of course, many other, non-megafauna species familiar to the players can also be found there.
Let's take a look at the continent now.
Elevation and landscape:
Precipitation and average annual temperature:
Regions:
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