The Collected Histories of Aneric
Herein lies the grave of TCG and Vasarius, stolen too soon from this world due to carelessness and negligence. But we are here not to just mourn the dead but to celebrate their memories and vow to do better in the future. And so we bring forward to todays newest game, The Collected Histories of Aneric.
CHA is TCG reborn, and will follow many of the same rules, if you need a refresher or simply want to see what the fuss is about, check it out here. Thrive Civilization Game (Part 3 Reboot)
Now, what is CHA? CHA is based on the proposed Strategy Mode of the Thrive Game, and is influenced by famous 4x games such as Stellaris and Civilization. You are the entity, or national spirit, of a collection of people. This group of people will evolve in their culture and identity over time, so to call them a single civilization or culture is a bit of a misnomer, but essentially you will represent, direct, and personify the collective will of a group of people over time.
You, and your people, will change over time, and be influenced by numerous factors, such as the environment, other people, and your people’s own development.
Rules
Rounds
This game will be split into Rounds of up to 5 players at a time. This means that I will write 5 results at a time, post, then while the votes come in write the other players rounds. Hopefully this form of a mental break will allow me to continue writing without hitting a mental wall as quickly.
Each round will be posted to the public, instead of sent through DMs or other previous ideas, to allow for a single place to find relevant information. You may still contact me directly with ideas, questions, or secret plans, but if something is a common question or relevant to all players I will post the answer (redacted as needed) to the group.
Votes
Each round you will be able to make a vote. A vote is a major change in policy or direction towards your people. This can be direction of movement, a large scale infrastructure project, focused research development, policy change, diplomatic changes, etc. Votes are large scale changes in your peoples direction, most other things, such as minor research, steady development and population growth, and low scale building, are all backround events that don’t require a direct vote.
Vote success will be determined by a formula utilizing a d20, modified by things such as difficulty, institutional knowledge, and other factors.
Votes shouldn’t be too specific, nor should they be too general. If they are too specific or too general, I will tell you and give you a chance to fix it. If for the sake of time I need to get the next round posted, I will give you a decision that is as close to what you said as possible. For example, if you said you wanted to engage send a company of knights to raid Bob’s lands, I will approximate that as you encouraging your soldiers to pillage lands belonging to Bob.
However, more specific votes will be more effective when successful (and more harmful when unsuccessful). If you voted to increase intelligence operations of your nation to spy on other nations, it would give you a small boost to espionage across the board, but if you were to specifically vote to increase spying against Player X, that would give you a large boost to espionage against that particular player.
In the case that you want to make a private decision, send me a private message telling me your decision, and then post a regular post on the thread saying “PM for decision sent”. This would be useful if you, say, wanted to nuke someone by surprise. You could also spend a vote to spy on a specific player, and this could allow you to intercept secret decisions if you vote successfully. It can also be just to make everyone else around you nervous because that’s funny.
Power
The number of votes you are able to take without a direct penalty will be determined by your power ranking. Your power ranking is a combination of military force, population, technology, economic prosperity, etc.
Power ranges from:
- Tiny
- Minor
- Regional
- Major
- Great
- Superpower
Each level will be a single vote. All people will begin at as a Tiny power, so 1 vote. If anyone manages to become a Superpower, they will be able to make 6 votes per round. This is not necessarily better, because more power also means more responsibility, and larger, more powerful civilizations are harder to maintain and can more easily lose stability. Remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Power is also relative. You can be a great power in the bronze age by having large armies of chariots and plenty of grain, but if you are surrounded by industrial nations with machine guns and oil refineries, you will definitely lose that Great Power status.
Stability
Stability:
Be aware though that your civilization is large and diverse and the decisions you make only push it in a certain direction. The people can get a mind of their own and you can face internal dissent and revolutions, if you are not careful. The stability of your civilization can also fluctuate based on how well you direct them. If your stability falls too low, your civilization will collapse, and you must branch off from another, or a successor of your own if not everyone dies, civ. Depending on the stability of that civilization, this may or may not happen peacefully.
Stability ranges from:
Failed State (-3)
Collapsing (-2)
Unstable (-1)
Stable (0)
Very Stable (1)
Prosperous (2)
Golden Age (3)
Stability is a combination of cultural and religious unity, quality of life, political stability, war, disease, famine, resource supply, etc.
Events
Events are key moments in your people’s history that vary in size and influence. These events may be environmental, cultural, or technological. Some you will have influence on, others you will not. These events will present you with direct options, but you may make your own options, these will not cost a vote but may be influential in ways you do not expect.
National Psych
Certain events or votes may have a direct impact on the development of your National Psych. Your national psych will include things such as special traits your people develop as a result of those votes or events, which may influence future votes or how your people will react to events without your direct vote, this could be positive or negative, and making votes against your national psych may cause more instability than one that goes in line with what your people expect and understand. Your national psych will impact things such as productivity, and what your people value both spiritually and materially.
National Psych can be molded and influenced by your own explanations and descriptions, so I encourage you to help develop your national psych by being descriptive and creative with your people.
Famous People
Certain actions can help create legendary figures in your society, these figures can have a huge impact on the population: prophecies, cults, government changes, warlords, and many other effects can occur. Most of these leaders are simple legends by the time the next turn occurs, but some characters can have a larger and more permanent effect.
Achievements
Achievements are significant turning points in history that you may develop, some are unique and will only occur once, others are more common that will happen to all people given enough time. Each achievement will grant a bonus, some more than others. Most of these bonuses will be Meta-Gaming, such as compelling a mediocre success, guaranteeing a fail on another player, or allowing a second dice roll on something you feel may have a major impact if it succeeds or fails. You can also save up points for usage later, or use them on another player as a method of negotiation.
Response
Every player will have 48 hrs to respond to the round. After 24 hrs, I will tag all latecomers and begin writing the rounds. After 48 hrs have passed the round will go up if complete. You will have two rounds to respond before your you lose your spot and the next player in the waitlist will take your place. They may take over your people, form their own new people (which will be based on the average development of all peoples at the time), or branch off a currently existing people (peacefully or not depending on stability). Any people who do not have a current player will become an NPC, and may continue to develop or stagnate in the background depending.
If the round is not completed by 72 hrs after the previous round, it will be posted as a partial round, with the basic outcome without the fancy descriptions I like to write, to allow you to keep playing. The basics will be expanded as time and energy allows.
If you wish to communicate with another nation through PM, please include me in the group.
Now for the Game itself:
As players have evenly split on the VOA and World Spawn approach, I will split the difference. Every player will be able to submit their own people’s description as a Round Zero.
For this first round, each player will give me a description of their people, which may include things like their current location, culture, leadership structure, beliefs, etc. The more detailed it is, the more I can play with it for my rolls, which will determine your actual starting conditions.
For players that chose it, the Valley of Ancestors people will be used as a basis, and you may make your vote to chose a direction or to stay in the location.
Round Zero:
People: The Valley of Ancestors denzins
Stability: Imploding (-2)
Power: Tiny (1)
The people of the Valley of Ancestors are experience a drought unlike any they have before, for the past generation the many tress that used to litter the valley are now nothing more than sticks, the water of the mighty rivers no more than muddy streams, and the lush grass now nothing more than cracked dirt. The beasts that used to be common and supported the people have long since fled. The hills that surround the valley are bare and the mighty mountains to the south no longer show snow on their caps. Perhaps it is indeed time to move on. Spurred by this development the elders of the valley have come together to formulate a plan, but none can agree. Should the people journey to the great southern mountains and appeal to the gods on their peaks? Should the people travel to the dark and numerous caves and seek within where some scouts have spoken of hearing the trickle of water? Or should they attempt to leave the Valley along the rolling hills, trying to chase the prey that have long sense fled? Or perhaps there is another idea that they have not yet thought of.
Past Policies:
Sapience: Your species has gained the wisdom and intelligence necessary for complex thought.
Language: Your people have developed oral communication to allow for complex exchange of information and more intricate levels of cooperation.
Oral Tradition: Your people pass knowledge down orally from generation to generation, allowing practices of hunting, animal interaction, and culture to be retained and refined over the years.
Mysticism: With sapience, your people have begun to think about the world in a spiritual way and now have various beliefs in spirits and the afterlife.
Fire: Your people have learned how to create and control fire. Through this, they have begun to cook their food. They also have applied fire to heating materials during crafting and to scare away predators. Fires have developed as a central hub for the activities of your tribe.
Tool Use: Your people have adapted materials in their environment into simple tools for hunting, crafting, and combat, often shaped out of flint or other soft stones. This includes things such as clothing and the usage of animal skins.
Basic weaponry: Your people have the basic ability to craft tools such as spears, javelins, knives, hatchets, and short bow to hunt the mighty prey who used to live in the Valley.
Two questions:
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Does anyone have a specific species idea they would like to incorporate into the game? My previous species were a slightly different hominin that had horns, fangs, and different colours, but I am not married to them or humans.
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What form do you want general round description to be? Personally I enjoyed the Vasarius Imperial Reports, which allowed me to give a more modern detail without diving into the specifics of what was happening (and would have allowed me to directly influence the game if I got bored or frustrated), but I’m open to other ideas.
Any other questions and ideas I am open too. Thanks all. After appropriate time I will replace the old Topic with this to ensure everyone knowns the rules in an easy place.