Hey all, I’m back again and want to write more.
If you were here for the last forum its going to follow the same type of structure and worldbuilding, if you are new then feel free to read up at: http://thrivegame.freeforums.net/thread/1034/thrive-civilization-game-pt-3
If you want to join just let me know, and hopefully we have enough players to start this saturday!
Now I would like to welcome you to the Strategy Mode spin-off of the spin-off of the Official Thrive Forum Game Competition, and its many, many, many spin-offs. Instead of controlling a species, here you will lead a civilization, as you make decisions to compete with the other civilizations and avoid collapse. Or just decide to see how many you can take with you as you fall!
Just to clarify, you won’t be a civilization from the beginning. In terms of vocabulary, a tribe will refer to a nomadic people, and a civilization will refer to a sedentary people. You will transition from a tribe to a civilization when you settle down and build cities. NPC tribes and civilizations will also exist in the game.
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.
How do I control my civilization? What can I vote for? How will these works?
Rules
This game will use similar rules to the original by NicktheNick and the spin off by Lowry, unless I decide otherwise in my capacity as GM. You the player play as a mysterious force that guides your people through the eons. Each round of play, you can make a vote / big policy change for your people. Note that if you are nomadic, this can be choosing a direction/destination to migrate. Your votes can also be anything from choosing to wage war against a neighbor, choosing to convert your population to a new religion, choosing to research a new technology, etc. Don’t worry, picking a vote in waging war on a certain target won’t neglect everything else in your civilization, it will just mean that your civ will focus on the war, same can be said for most decisions unless such decision prevent the action from occurring. Throughout the game, many things will run in the background even if not directly voted for.
Votes will be rolled for with a d20, to me this allows more possibility and flexibility in my decision making process. The possible outcomes are (generally):
1: total disaster, Fiasco level, someone probably gets hurt
2-5: Mistake and something bad will most likely occur
5-9: Generally, could have gone worse, but not much accomplished towards goal
10-14: Making progress but could’ve gone better
15-19: Well done, you managed to get it done right!
20: Not only did you manage to get it all done, but something great happens too!
Various bonuses can be applied depending on the roll and situation. (For example, during period of good harvest, a bonus will be applied if you vote for better harvesting techniques)
Be aware though that your civilization is large and diverse and the decisions you make only push it into 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 the 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:
Imploding (-3)
Collapsing (-2)
Unstable (-1)
Shaky (0)
Stable (1)
Steady (2)
Prosperious (3)
Stability is a combination of cultural and religious unity, quality of life, political stability, war, disease, famine, resource supply, etc. Think of it like the endangerment ranking in the original.
You also have a power rating, which represents the relative strength and influence of your people.
Power ranges from:
Tiny - 1
Minor - 2
Medium - 3
Major - 4
Great – 5
Superpower - 6
Power is a combination of military force, population, technological advantage, economic prosperity, and several other factors.
For each level of power, you will able to make 1 vote. Everyone starts at Tiny, so you all start only being able to make 1 vote, but if anyone reaches 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.
There will be no graphics included in the gameplay (unless I decide otherwise, and this includes maps, mainly because I have no art ability whatsoever), so if you guys want details as to the landscape and your surroundings ask me and I can explain. You can create maps for yourselves as you play and I’ll add it to the game if you want me to.
Various events can occur during play, but besides these most events will arise from interaction between your civs:
Events
-Disease/Epidemic (Local/Region/Planet)
-Drought/Dry season (Local/Region)
-Fire (Local/Region)
-Earthquake (Local/Region)
-Volcano (Region/Planet)
-Hurricane (Region)
-Landslide (Local)
-Famine (Region)
-Resource Shortage (Region)
-Animal Attack (Local)
-Meteor (Planet)
-First Contact (Planet)
Every event has a chance to fire, the chance varies depending on local ecosystems and such, but the planet shattering ones are very unlikely to ever happen. There are also positive events that can fire, but most of them depend on previous votes you’ve made.
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.
Round 0
Tribe: Grinus Revila
Stability: Stable (1)
Power: Tiny (1)
Past Policies:
Sapience: Your species has gained the wisdom and intelligence necessary for complex thought.
Language: Your people have developed an 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. [/spoiler]
Biological Description
Grinus Revila are very similar to human species, though different in a few ways. They’re bipedal, omnivores and hold similar limb count (2 arms, 2 legs) and proportions to early humans, however their other details differ. They sport hair that grows primarily on the top and back of their head, and varies in color from dark purple to bright orange. They have bulbous oval eyes coming in a color range from purples and pinks to oranges and yellows as well as rare grey/white. Their skin tone is varying from snow white to dark purple, though the average is red. Horn growths protrude from their skulls, though most are very small, the largest coming around 10cm in length. They have harsh angular ears with near straight lobes attaching back to the head. Their noses tend to be more snubbed but individuals differ. Their upper row of teeth sports a double canine with those canines closer the main incisors being larger, fang sized, though the size varies, the lower and upper teeth are appropriately sized to accommodate this. Overall Lannisians grow up to 5’4” in height currently. [/spoiler]
World Description:
Varrianis is separated into various continents and land masses, but most of the world is unexplored by the locals and they are not sure how the world itself is divided.
Life forms differ from those on Earth and the different landmasses each have diverse and rich evolutionary backstories. As well as this geologically they’re all unique, so enjoy late game exploration. The world of Varrianis is home however to some extraordinary natural wonders that can change the local happiness (and other factors) of populations in the area. So prepare to delve into my world.
The beginning area is a central valley with 2 winding rivers, and a few hills surround the valley. Due to recent drought, the area has become less frequented by game and the lack of water has limited the boon found from plant life.
Realizing this, local leaders sent many scouts out to beyond the hills searching for a new home for the people. Through this scouting your tribes hear many rumors:
To the west lies forests rich with game and shelter
To the south fear striking tropics, with large waters and much exotic fruits and animals,
To the east is an extensive wasteland, with much sand and burning sun
To the north is vast windswept plains and many large creatures.
The local leaders have disagreed on which path to follow, and some accuse the scouts of lying or being untruthful about their findings. Some have though to travel to lands different than where the scouts have been sent.
The Grinus Revila hunt many different creatures but most have fled from the valley due to the drought
This first turn is unique in that instead of making a free vote, you are restricted to only voting on a direction to migrate (You may also choose to stay where you are). Next turn you may vote openly on whatever you want. You must also name your tribe, something reasonable please!
Suggested Mechanics!
Religious Gambles: prophecies and predictions made by religious figures have offer a large culture and happiness boost, if it comes true as well as an increased conversion rate for 2 turns. However, if predictions fail, the exact opposite takes place. Prophesies cost no action points to be created though can only be created once some form of structured and largely accepted Pantheon is formed.
More Value Based Trade: Products for trade now scale in value, allowing you to understand how precious the product you produce or desire is, the scale is between 1-10 and improves with technological advances and the overall skill of the population. Trade deals can only be feasible if a civilization can support it, if a civ can only trades food and is currently only just making enough harvests to keep going, they won’t be getting those carved stone bangles anytime soon. However, you as the civilization driving force can influence how much your people value something, not ridiculously however unless religion or culture dictates so.
The Culture Shock: different places develop their own cultures, different tribal populations, cities, kingdoms or counties all differ culturally. You can lean certain areas towards certain cultures however, by encouraging different productions and laws in an area you’d change their overall culture. Cultures are not fixed things and can change quickly, so be warned if you begin leaning in one direction and your people lean another way. It’ll cause a few rifts. Once you have separate settlements you can begin leaning areas culturally by taking a free vote, or let things happen naturally. This is here to set up trade capitals or military strong cities to develop individuality on a smaller scale inside of a larger whole, allowing you to specialize cities in certain areas. Just say so to try it.
National Identities: As civilizations and cultures grow, some ideas become so ingrained into the psych of the population, that things that challenge these ideas or values can become hazardous. But so can these ideas create a sense of unity in the people who practice them, and these ideas can spread or be beholden to the population. Variants of these ideas can challenge cultural standards and the nation can suffer, or grow due to it.
Famous leaders: 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 on later ages these characters can have a larger and more permanent effect.
Achievements: Achievements are significant things that can help change the game, for good or bad. The specifics will get more in depth over time, and I’ll add it to the main post, but for now they will give you the choice between a guaranteed mediocre success, a guaranteed fail on someone else, or a two dice role taking the best or worst depending. You can also save up points for usage later
Note: I will give 48 hrs to respond, then I write the rounds and tag latecomers. If there is no response within another 24 and I have the rounds checked by my beta than the round goes up regardless, you get 2 rounds to respond before the tribe/civ dissolves
if you wish to communicate with another nation through PM, please include me in the group
As this is my second attempt to GM a game there are bound to be a few bumps, so let me know and constructive criticism is encouraged. If you have any additional ideas, please pm me!
If there is enough demand I will recreate The Worldbuilding thread to submit stories, ideas, questions ect.
Players and Tribes:
Round 1:
BlackInk: Morbus
OmipotentFnarr: Ack Nan
Evolution4weak: Arcimea
Round 2:
PositiveTower: Kurich
Jellyfishmon: Olyamata
Zenzonegaming: Bananarama
Teaking: Oprectim
Suspended until return:
Mistermustacio: Beastmen
Serialkiller: Kometenvolk
Agent time: Akeer
Immortaldragon: Khurisaa
Waitlist:, Foushoo, Nover452, OoferDoofer
Discord, cause I’m bad at peer pressure: https://discord.gg/eAQQznf