Overview
More detailed rules exist to help me govern things behind the scenes, but I've opted to keep them private and instead present a simpler overview of the game. This is just to avoid people being scared away by die roll modifiers, stats, etc. that they never have to concern themselves with in order to play the game anyway: If you think of things from an in-character perspective, the stats and such should pretty much line up with your expectations.
The Basics
Every player controls a powerful family involved in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire. Since characters aren't all gathered in one place, RP mostly takes place in Court threads: Similar to real life, a player's court is where their characters receive visitors. Most dynasties will have a single court, but there's also a Diet thread for characters to gather and discuss matters pertinent to the empire at large; historically, a diet would be gathered to discuss a specific matter and then disbanded, but in-game it's kept as a single non-ending thread for simplicity's sake.
To represent the flow of time, we have a turn take place every week. A year consists of between two and five turns. The reason for the fluctuation is because some years are simply more eventful than others: Since all players are tied together through Imperial politics, we can simply slow the game down when things become active and speed things up when less is going on. It also allows us to have a single New Year turn where we advance character ages, handle births & deaths, etc. since there isn't a set amount of time tied to each turn.
Before You Begin...
Don't be intimidated by the map and other "hard" rule stats: If you think them as being in-character creations, the role they play should seem more natural. For example, the influence map could be from the notes of a historian during the time period.
Also, don't think that the game revolves around stats: They just serve as a backdrop for RP. You will never have to deal with numbers in this game: They just exist so I can run things fairly behind the scenes and to make your characters interactions with the world seem more real instead of the usual "Buncha guys in a small room" RP.
Maps and Stats
The map is divided up into Provinces, each of which has a non-changing Value stat scaled between zero and six. Some provinces will also have an important City in them that can have an effect on who receives the province's value.
Titles that have their own vassals are called Major Titles. Characters can adopt a Policy for their major title as long as they're present in the title's area (e.g., Saxony for the Duke of Saxony). A policy is basically a one sentence order describing what the title-holder has ordered to be done: Anything from encouraging a revolt to subduing barbarians to strengthening the church's independence in a province.
Most policies will in some way revolve around gaining Influence over NPC provinces and cities. Each province has an Influence Owner who most strongly influences it: The Duke (or other local lord), the Cities, local Barons, or a specific character. City Loyalty functions similarly, but is either in favor of the Emperor, the Church, or neutral. On the map, this is all represented by the color of the province or city.
Provinces can also have an Influence Attribute with special rules attached. For example, a common example is the "Owned Province" attribute, meaning the character himself is count of the province. Another example could be "Supports King Henry" and "Supports King Otto" attributes for a civil war between two rival candidates for the throne. Attributes are represented with a colored icon.
Some Important Points
● The usual no god modding rule applies. More specifically to this game, if you want to arrest someone who's visiting your court, don't. Yes, it's quite appealing to have your character yell "Sieze him!" and point menacingly, but it's no fun for anyone involved and it doesn't fit in the game setting for a variety of reasons anyway. Unless pre-approved by a mod or you're working with the other player on something, just leave the violence on the battlefield.
● In-character and out, executing, exiling, or stripping a defeated foe of their provincial titles is frowned upon: The nobility of the Empire is really big on their rights, and even anti-kings would often keep much of their power after being defeated. Although a strong enough ruler might be able to survive the aftermath, if you're too aggressive you will find rallying NPC support against you to be far easier.
● Even if I approved something via PM, all policy changes, orders, etc. must be posted in the orders/turn thread. If for some reason I said the details could be kept private, you still must post a reminder there for me.
Miscellaneous Hard-Rule Notes
These are just some unorganized notes about how I do things that players might be curious about. You don't really have to read this section to play the game since most hard-rule things are handled from an in-character perspective, but knowing how I do and do not handle things might help with your RP.
● Attributes attached to provinces and titles are used in all sorts of die rolls that can come up as a result of RP. Try to think of things from an in-character perspective and feel free to ask for a custom attribute to represent the in-character world as accurately as possible: That's what they're for, after all.
● Enemies get bonuses when working in areas without any "active" major titles. If you have more titles than you can handle, give some away to your other characters or your allies. After all, it's better to keep some authority than have it all taken away from under your nose.
● Influence attached to a specific character might die with the character or have other caveats attached, but it's almost always more effective than other types of influence, especially ducal influence. Assuming they remain loyal, it's almost always worth it to promote another player's character's influence rather than have a province's wealth go to waste.
● Local dynasties tend to be more effective at dealing with NPCs than foreign ones. It can often better to accept some concessions and let a defeated foe keep ruling then try to replace them with an ineffective ally and have them rise up again.
● Births are weighted toward the first years after a couple is married with a small chance afterward as long as they haven't had a child yet. To help keep painful surprises to a minimum, every "official" child will survive to adulthood, 16 as far as the rules are concerned. If they want, the player is free to create their own short-lived children for the sake of RP.
● When a character dies, there's a turn of limbo around their assets in case anyone claims their titles, etc. If no-one claims anything the game proceeds as if nothing happened, but if a claim does occur then dice are rolled to determine who NPCs swear fealty to, etc. before anything else is done at the end of the turn. Influenced provinces generally support whoever the player wants them to.
● In warfare, both sides automatically use their full strength to fight a single battle even if no battle orders were sent in. After the battle, any forces on the winning side begin to occupy enemy-influenced provinces; armies without a policy involving the war aren't as effective, but they still will invade a bit anyway. "Enemy" is anyone who sent armies against you or that you specifically targeted: If someone tries to sneak attack you you'll still invade them just the same, so don't worry about someone changing their policy at the last minute.
More detailed rules exist to help me govern things behind the scenes, but I've opted to keep them private and instead present a simpler overview of the game. This is just to avoid people being scared away by die roll modifiers, stats, etc. that they never have to concern themselves with in order to play the game anyway: If you think of things from an in-character perspective, the stats and such should pretty much line up with your expectations.
The Basics
Every player controls a powerful family involved in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire. Since characters aren't all gathered in one place, RP mostly takes place in Court threads: Similar to real life, a player's court is where their characters receive visitors. Most dynasties will have a single court, but there's also a Diet thread for characters to gather and discuss matters pertinent to the empire at large; historically, a diet would be gathered to discuss a specific matter and then disbanded, but in-game it's kept as a single non-ending thread for simplicity's sake.
To represent the flow of time, we have a turn take place every week. A year consists of between two and five turns. The reason for the fluctuation is because some years are simply more eventful than others: Since all players are tied together through Imperial politics, we can simply slow the game down when things become active and speed things up when less is going on. It also allows us to have a single New Year turn where we advance character ages, handle births & deaths, etc. since there isn't a set amount of time tied to each turn.
Before You Begin...
Don't be intimidated by the map and other "hard" rule stats: If you think them as being in-character creations, the role they play should seem more natural. For example, the influence map could be from the notes of a historian during the time period.
Also, don't think that the game revolves around stats: They just serve as a backdrop for RP. You will never have to deal with numbers in this game: They just exist so I can run things fairly behind the scenes and to make your characters interactions with the world seem more real instead of the usual "Buncha guys in a small room" RP.
Maps and Stats
The map is divided up into Provinces, each of which has a non-changing Value stat scaled between zero and six. Some provinces will also have an important City in them that can have an effect on who receives the province's value.
Titles that have their own vassals are called Major Titles. Characters can adopt a Policy for their major title as long as they're present in the title's area (e.g., Saxony for the Duke of Saxony). A policy is basically a one sentence order describing what the title-holder has ordered to be done: Anything from encouraging a revolt to subduing barbarians to strengthening the church's independence in a province.
Most policies will in some way revolve around gaining Influence over NPC provinces and cities. Each province has an Influence Owner who most strongly influences it: The Duke (or other local lord), the Cities, local Barons, or a specific character. City Loyalty functions similarly, but is either in favor of the Emperor, the Church, or neutral. On the map, this is all represented by the color of the province or city.
Provinces can also have an Influence Attribute with special rules attached. For example, a common example is the "Owned Province" attribute, meaning the character himself is count of the province. Another example could be "Supports King Henry" and "Supports King Otto" attributes for a civil war between two rival candidates for the throne. Attributes are represented with a colored icon.
Some Important Points
● The usual no god modding rule applies. More specifically to this game, if you want to arrest someone who's visiting your court, don't. Yes, it's quite appealing to have your character yell "Sieze him!" and point menacingly, but it's no fun for anyone involved and it doesn't fit in the game setting for a variety of reasons anyway. Unless pre-approved by a mod or you're working with the other player on something, just leave the violence on the battlefield.
● In-character and out, executing, exiling, or stripping a defeated foe of their provincial titles is frowned upon: The nobility of the Empire is really big on their rights, and even anti-kings would often keep much of their power after being defeated. Although a strong enough ruler might be able to survive the aftermath, if you're too aggressive you will find rallying NPC support against you to be far easier.
● Even if I approved something via PM, all policy changes, orders, etc. must be posted in the orders/turn thread. If for some reason I said the details could be kept private, you still must post a reminder there for me.
Miscellaneous Hard-Rule Notes
These are just some unorganized notes about how I do things that players might be curious about. You don't really have to read this section to play the game since most hard-rule things are handled from an in-character perspective, but knowing how I do and do not handle things might help with your RP.
● Attributes attached to provinces and titles are used in all sorts of die rolls that can come up as a result of RP. Try to think of things from an in-character perspective and feel free to ask for a custom attribute to represent the in-character world as accurately as possible: That's what they're for, after all.
● Enemies get bonuses when working in areas without any "active" major titles. If you have more titles than you can handle, give some away to your other characters or your allies. After all, it's better to keep some authority than have it all taken away from under your nose.
● Influence attached to a specific character might die with the character or have other caveats attached, but it's almost always more effective than other types of influence, especially ducal influence. Assuming they remain loyal, it's almost always worth it to promote another player's character's influence rather than have a province's wealth go to waste.
● Local dynasties tend to be more effective at dealing with NPCs than foreign ones. It can often better to accept some concessions and let a defeated foe keep ruling then try to replace them with an ineffective ally and have them rise up again.
● Births are weighted toward the first years after a couple is married with a small chance afterward as long as they haven't had a child yet. To help keep painful surprises to a minimum, every "official" child will survive to adulthood, 16 as far as the rules are concerned. If they want, the player is free to create their own short-lived children for the sake of RP.
● When a character dies, there's a turn of limbo around their assets in case anyone claims their titles, etc. If no-one claims anything the game proceeds as if nothing happened, but if a claim does occur then dice are rolled to determine who NPCs swear fealty to, etc. before anything else is done at the end of the turn. Influenced provinces generally support whoever the player wants them to.
● In warfare, both sides automatically use their full strength to fight a single battle even if no battle orders were sent in. After the battle, any forces on the winning side begin to occupy enemy-influenced provinces; armies without a policy involving the war aren't as effective, but they still will invade a bit anyway. "Enemy" is anyone who sent armies against you or that you specifically targeted: If someone tries to sneak attack you you'll still invade them just the same, so don't worry about someone changing their policy at the last minute.
