Mechanics explained
posted on 2017-03-02 13:16:58
posted on 2017-03-02 13:16:58
In this campaign, you will play the role of an authority figure within your faction. This can be whatever you feel like- a general, a mighty shaman, or a shrewd politician. Players work in factions- a team sharing an agenda- to achieve that faction's goals.
General info
This is a turn-based game, with every faction performing their actions simultaneously each turn. At the end of the turn, I will calculate the results and write a turn update (found under "turn updates" on the home page)- as soon as this update is posted, the new turn begins!
Turns end on Sunday evening (23:59 Central European Time) and start again on Tuesday morning (0:00 Central European Time). Mondays are for me to calculate turn results, write the update, and do all sorts of bookkeeping before the new turn begins.
There will be a limited number of turns, although I'm not going to tell you how many! This is to prevent players from using the last turn to act while knowing there will be no consequences for their actions. Most campaigns will last about ten turns or so, give or take. The turn updates may hint at when then the game is coming to an end- or it may not!
Joining a faction
To join a faction, simply go to the website's home page (by clicking home in the menu), and select "War room" under a current campaign. Here you can enter your character's name, and select a faction to join. Simply click sumbit, and you're ready to go!
After you've signed up for a faction, please make a post in the relevant sign up thread so I can give you access to your faction's hidden forum. There you will be able to talk with your teammates, without your rivals being able to find out!
Please read the description of each faction carefully before deciding which one to join! Each faction has its own theme and goals, so select one that best fits your character!
The war room
The war room is where you'll issue your orders. Here you may move, report, manage your resources, perform special projects and build facilities.
Moving and reporting
Each turn, you may submit movement orders. Each turn you will receive three movement points (MPs), which you may spend by moving to an adjacent location. At the end of the turn, all unspent MPs will be lost, so make the most of them!
In order to move, select a destination from the drop-down box and click "Move" in order to move to an adjacent location. The drop-down box will show you how much MP the move will cost. You can move as many times as you like during your turn, as long as you have MP to spend.
If you click "Report", you will attack your current location. Note that this will deplete your current movement points- no moving after attacking! By reporting, you contribute to your faction's efforts to either capture or defend a location.
Resources
Next in the war room, you will find your resources listed, as well as an option to send another player some of your resources. To do so, simply type a number in the field, select a type of resource (gold, diamonds, sheep, depending on what you have in your inventory) and click "Send". The recipient will receive a PM telling him you've sent him some resources.
Also, on the right hand side, you'll find a list of all your faction's members, as well as their current location.
Market
Below your list of resources, you'll find the market. Here, you'll find all resources available in the campaign (except gold), along with a "buy" and "sell" button for each. This allows you to buy or sell resources for gold with independent merchants (who cannot be otherwise contacted or affected in any way).
Next to each resource, you'll find an exchange rate. Note that if you do not have a resource to sell, or enough gold to buy a resource, a message will inform you of this and replace the buy or sell button.
Buying a resource increases the market's demand; selling that same resource will reduce demand instead. This affects price; goods that are in demand are more expensive than those who are not. It is even possible to lower demand to the point where goods can no longer be sold, or to raise demand so that they are no longer available. When this happens, the "buy" and "sell" messages will be replaced with a message informing you of the market's status.
NOTE: Prices on the market are the same for all players; if the prices rise, they rise for ALL players, not just you. Shrewd merchants might attempt to flood the market with a specific resource, so others will be unable to sell them. Also, all sales are instant- both the exchange of goods and the market's supply and demand are recalculated instantly.
Special projects
Further down the war room, you'll find a number of buttons, which you can use to perform a number of special actions. Each will be explained below. Note that each button has a number between parenthesis; this is the cost in gold for performing the special action. This amount will be subtracted from your inventory automatically after the action has been resolved.
- Hire mercenary; this adds an additional report to your current location, which is slightly weaker than a player's report.
- Explore: Only available in locations owned by your faction, exploring a location allows you a chance to find something of value. This can be additional resources, or even a treasure. A treasure is a unique artefact which does nothing during the game, however, at the end of the game, each treasure your faction owns will add to your final score for the campaign. Keep in mind, however, that it is also possible an exploration project returns nothing- it's a bit of a gamble.
- Invest in area; this will improve an area's economy, infrastructure etc. In game terms this means you will receive extra income from the location each turn.
- Despoil area; the opposite of investing in an area, your warriors will do as much damage to the area as possible, lowering the amount of gold the owning faction will receive each turn. This comes in handy for enemy locations, although factions aimed at razing the lands might even despoil their own lands!
- Spy: When performed in an enemy location, this will return a report of how many enemy players are in the area. However, there is a chance this project will fail. Performing this project in a location owned by your faction will increase the odds of enemy spy projects failing (for that turn and that location only). This represents you fielding counter-espionage agents to halt enemy spies.
In addition to these special projects, it is also possible to create player-made projects. If you have an idea to help your faction, or want to advance the story in a particular direction, then these are for you. Simply post a thread in your hidden forum (or send me a PM), detailing the following;
- name of the project
- short fluff description
- actual effect on the game
- suggested cost for the project
After you submit the project I will review it, and either change some details about the effect or propose a different cost (or, if you're lucky, accept the project as is), and we'll negotiate a cost and effect that we're both happy with. You can then active it simply by contacting me again (via the forum or PM) and telling me that you want to active your project that turn.
These player-made projects are the best way to influence the game's story and make your character shine. Want to train a pack of squigs and unleash them on the enemy? Great! Want to forge a runic weapon to bolter your army? Also great! Want to marry the resident count's daughter and claim a noble title? Another great idea!
Note that personal projects need not have a mechanical impact on the game; if you simply want to achieve something storywise, then that's fine, too! the one thing I'm going to ask for, however, is that your project is somehow related to the campaign's story. A good personal project should add something to the campaign, after all.
While I'm not placing a hard limit on projects, try not to have more than two active at the same time. After all, I only have so much time to spend on them!
Building
Only available in friendly locations, buildings are permanent fixtures for locations. Keep in mind that an enemy who captures a location will benefit from all buildings constructed in that location.
- Barricade (10): Increases the defense of a location (note that barricades do nothing if nobody reports at the location!)
- Enterprise (5): Increases the gold you receive from this location each turn
- Mustering ground (10): Enables another special project to be performed at this location; Extra Strength (10), which allows you to slightly increase the impact of your reports permanently.
- Treasurehunter's lodge (10); increases both the chance of finding resources and treasures with the Exploration project.
- Guard post (10): Increases the likelihood of enemy spy reports to fail.
Note that both special projects and building facilities are performed as soon as you click the corresponding button, not at the turn's end. Keep this in mind when timing your projects!
Attacking
When the turn ends, all submitted reports are processed to determine which faction conquers what location, as well as the effects on a location's health and a character's finances. These topics will be explained below.
Conquering locations
By submitting reports, you increase the control percentage (CP) of your faction in your current location, while lowering the CP of all other factions in that location. Whichever faction has the highest CP in an area controls that location.
Health
Each location has a health rating, representing how prosperous it is. This health will change over the course of the game- attacking a location is detrimental to its health, but each defending report raises the health rating again. In addition, special projects can be used to raise or lower a location's health.
Note, however, that not all factions in Wartales have the same effect on a town's health. Some factions attempt to establish control over a location, while others simply seek to pillage and burn it to the ground. The first group, the "conquerors", will only slightly reduce a location's health when the attack it, because they plan on claiming it after the battle. The second group, the "savages", deal greater damage when attacking, and in addition they don't increase a location's health while attacking. They are savages, after all- rebuilding isn't in their vocabulary!
Attrition
Even attacking a neutral area- one controlled by locals rather than a faction- is dangerous for your troops. To reflect this, whenever you attack or defend a location, you lose some of your reporting strength.
Reporting strength represents the impact of your army and determines by how much you can chance an area's control rate in your favor. As your troops fight and grow weary, your strength decreases. Even when you do not report, simply being present in an area that is being fought over will decrease your reporting strength each turn.
It should be noted that, if your faction manages to capture the area (or if it is able to hold on to the area, should the faction already control it), your reporting strength decreases by a lesser degree. After all, soldiers on the winning side are bolstered by the glory they've earned!
You can regain your reporting strength by performing an Extra Strength project at a friendly area where a mustering ground has been built.
Wealth
Each town has a wealth rating, representing how wealthy it is.
There are several sources of income. First is raiding, which is what happens when a faction attacks an enemy location. For each report placed, a player will receive a small amount of income.
Note that raiding in this way will lower a location's wealth rating. If a location's wealth rating drops to zero, players no longer receive any income for raiding it.
The second source of income is taxes. After new ownership for each location is calculated, each faction receives income based on how many locations are under their control. For taxes, the amount earned from each location depends on that location's Health- healthier locations generate more taxes. Conversely, locations with a health rating close to zero do not generate any taxes at all- the population is barely surviving! Taxes are divided among the players, so if a faction has more players, then each individual player will receive fewer income from taxes.
The third way of gaining income is enterprises. These are facilities you build in locations you own, which generate income for you each turn. Note that all faction members receive gold from enterprises, but keep in mind that if an enemy faction takes your location, the enterprise will generate income for them instead!
Another way of gaining income is trading, as explained above. If you purchase resources for little, then sell them when they become more valuable, you could make quite a bit of money from your investment!
Finally, you can perform exploration projects, or even try and beg for some resources from other players or NPCs...
NPCs
NPCs, or non-playing characters, are the inhabitants of the world, who can be interacted with via roleplay. Each one of them is controlled by the GM. To contact them, simply write them a letter- there will be a designated thread in each faction's hidden forum to post these. Of course, if you'd rather keep communication with NPCs hidden from your teammates, then you can simply PM the letter to the admin.
There is no hard limit on the number of letters you may send per turn, but keep in mind that all these letters are being answered by one person (for now at least). I'll certainly try to reply to all letters, but I can only do so much! Also, keep in mind that some NPCs might not like receiving tons of mail each day, while not contacting others for extended periods of time might diminish their opinion of you...
Wartales features two types of NPCs, or figureheads, namely advisors and notables.
Advisors are people who work for a faction, supporting them with their knowledge. They are reliable sources of information and loyal to a fault. Only a faction's members may contact their advisor- or at least, only they should expect a reply! There are some cases in which an advisor can be persuaded to speak with another faction, but most of the time they will either forward your letter to the faction's members, or simply tell you to stop bothering them.
Notables, on the other hand, represent the political powers in the wartale's area. They can provide tangible benefits to any faction- for a price. Unlike advisors, notables have their own agendas and will start out completely impartial to all factions- except where the faction's goals and their own clash.
Winning the campaign
The focus of a campaign lies in building a story together. That being said, a winner will be declared at the end of the campaign. This is done based on victory points, which can be earned throughout the campaign.
At the end of the campaign, each location will be worth a number of victory points. While I'm not telling how much each location is worth, assume that bigger ones are worth more points than smaller ones.
Another way to earn vicory points is to find treasure, by using the exploration project mentioned above. There is a limited number of unique treasures which can be found during the campaign, and each will be worth a small number of victory points. They will also tell you something about the history of the area you're fighting over.
Note that while some factions might not be overly interested in these historical artefacts, they still receive victory points for obtaining them. Storywise, this is explained as them selling the treasures, using them as bribes or leverage over factions who do care, or simply burning the treasures just to spite their opponents. Whatever the explanation, each artefact has the same value in victory points for every faction.
Thirdly, the faction with the most resources (gold, gems, sheep, whatever) will also gain a small number of victory points.
Lastly, every so often the GM may give your faction a special objective, for example capturing a certain location within a certain number of turns, or something like that. If you succeed, your faction will be awarded victory points.
Whichever faction has the most victory points at the end of the campaign can declare themselves the winner, and claim bragging rights! Most importantly, however, is that the results of one campaign may influence the story of the next...
General info
This is a turn-based game, with every faction performing their actions simultaneously each turn. At the end of the turn, I will calculate the results and write a turn update (found under "turn updates" on the home page)- as soon as this update is posted, the new turn begins!
Turns end on Sunday evening (23:59 Central European Time) and start again on Tuesday morning (0:00 Central European Time). Mondays are for me to calculate turn results, write the update, and do all sorts of bookkeeping before the new turn begins.
There will be a limited number of turns, although I'm not going to tell you how many! This is to prevent players from using the last turn to act while knowing there will be no consequences for their actions. Most campaigns will last about ten turns or so, give or take. The turn updates may hint at when then the game is coming to an end- or it may not!
Joining a faction
To join a faction, simply go to the website's home page (by clicking home in the menu), and select "War room" under a current campaign. Here you can enter your character's name, and select a faction to join. Simply click sumbit, and you're ready to go!
After you've signed up for a faction, please make a post in the relevant sign up thread so I can give you access to your faction's hidden forum. There you will be able to talk with your teammates, without your rivals being able to find out!
Please read the description of each faction carefully before deciding which one to join! Each faction has its own theme and goals, so select one that best fits your character!
The war room
The war room is where you'll issue your orders. Here you may move, report, manage your resources, perform special projects and build facilities.
Moving and reporting
Each turn, you may submit movement orders. Each turn you will receive three movement points (MPs), which you may spend by moving to an adjacent location. At the end of the turn, all unspent MPs will be lost, so make the most of them!
In order to move, select a destination from the drop-down box and click "Move" in order to move to an adjacent location. The drop-down box will show you how much MP the move will cost. You can move as many times as you like during your turn, as long as you have MP to spend.
If you click "Report", you will attack your current location. Note that this will deplete your current movement points- no moving after attacking! By reporting, you contribute to your faction's efforts to either capture or defend a location.
Resources
Next in the war room, you will find your resources listed, as well as an option to send another player some of your resources. To do so, simply type a number in the field, select a type of resource (gold, diamonds, sheep, depending on what you have in your inventory) and click "Send". The recipient will receive a PM telling him you've sent him some resources.
Also, on the right hand side, you'll find a list of all your faction's members, as well as their current location.
Market
Below your list of resources, you'll find the market. Here, you'll find all resources available in the campaign (except gold), along with a "buy" and "sell" button for each. This allows you to buy or sell resources for gold with independent merchants (who cannot be otherwise contacted or affected in any way).
Next to each resource, you'll find an exchange rate. Note that if you do not have a resource to sell, or enough gold to buy a resource, a message will inform you of this and replace the buy or sell button.
Buying a resource increases the market's demand; selling that same resource will reduce demand instead. This affects price; goods that are in demand are more expensive than those who are not. It is even possible to lower demand to the point where goods can no longer be sold, or to raise demand so that they are no longer available. When this happens, the "buy" and "sell" messages will be replaced with a message informing you of the market's status.
NOTE: Prices on the market are the same for all players; if the prices rise, they rise for ALL players, not just you. Shrewd merchants might attempt to flood the market with a specific resource, so others will be unable to sell them. Also, all sales are instant- both the exchange of goods and the market's supply and demand are recalculated instantly.
Special projects
Further down the war room, you'll find a number of buttons, which you can use to perform a number of special actions. Each will be explained below. Note that each button has a number between parenthesis; this is the cost in gold for performing the special action. This amount will be subtracted from your inventory automatically after the action has been resolved.
- Hire mercenary; this adds an additional report to your current location, which is slightly weaker than a player's report.
- Explore: Only available in locations owned by your faction, exploring a location allows you a chance to find something of value. This can be additional resources, or even a treasure. A treasure is a unique artefact which does nothing during the game, however, at the end of the game, each treasure your faction owns will add to your final score for the campaign. Keep in mind, however, that it is also possible an exploration project returns nothing- it's a bit of a gamble.
- Invest in area; this will improve an area's economy, infrastructure etc. In game terms this means you will receive extra income from the location each turn.
- Despoil area; the opposite of investing in an area, your warriors will do as much damage to the area as possible, lowering the amount of gold the owning faction will receive each turn. This comes in handy for enemy locations, although factions aimed at razing the lands might even despoil their own lands!
- Spy: When performed in an enemy location, this will return a report of how many enemy players are in the area. However, there is a chance this project will fail. Performing this project in a location owned by your faction will increase the odds of enemy spy projects failing (for that turn and that location only). This represents you fielding counter-espionage agents to halt enemy spies.
In addition to these special projects, it is also possible to create player-made projects. If you have an idea to help your faction, or want to advance the story in a particular direction, then these are for you. Simply post a thread in your hidden forum (or send me a PM), detailing the following;
- name of the project
- short fluff description
- actual effect on the game
- suggested cost for the project
After you submit the project I will review it, and either change some details about the effect or propose a different cost (or, if you're lucky, accept the project as is), and we'll negotiate a cost and effect that we're both happy with. You can then active it simply by contacting me again (via the forum or PM) and telling me that you want to active your project that turn.
These player-made projects are the best way to influence the game's story and make your character shine. Want to train a pack of squigs and unleash them on the enemy? Great! Want to forge a runic weapon to bolter your army? Also great! Want to marry the resident count's daughter and claim a noble title? Another great idea!
Note that personal projects need not have a mechanical impact on the game; if you simply want to achieve something storywise, then that's fine, too! the one thing I'm going to ask for, however, is that your project is somehow related to the campaign's story. A good personal project should add something to the campaign, after all.
While I'm not placing a hard limit on projects, try not to have more than two active at the same time. After all, I only have so much time to spend on them!
Building
Only available in friendly locations, buildings are permanent fixtures for locations. Keep in mind that an enemy who captures a location will benefit from all buildings constructed in that location.
- Barricade (10): Increases the defense of a location (note that barricades do nothing if nobody reports at the location!)
- Enterprise (5): Increases the gold you receive from this location each turn
- Mustering ground (10): Enables another special project to be performed at this location; Extra Strength (10), which allows you to slightly increase the impact of your reports permanently.
- Treasurehunter's lodge (10); increases both the chance of finding resources and treasures with the Exploration project.
- Guard post (10): Increases the likelihood of enemy spy reports to fail.
Note that both special projects and building facilities are performed as soon as you click the corresponding button, not at the turn's end. Keep this in mind when timing your projects!
Attacking
When the turn ends, all submitted reports are processed to determine which faction conquers what location, as well as the effects on a location's health and a character's finances. These topics will be explained below.
Conquering locations
By submitting reports, you increase the control percentage (CP) of your faction in your current location, while lowering the CP of all other factions in that location. Whichever faction has the highest CP in an area controls that location.
Health
Each location has a health rating, representing how prosperous it is. This health will change over the course of the game- attacking a location is detrimental to its health, but each defending report raises the health rating again. In addition, special projects can be used to raise or lower a location's health.
Note, however, that not all factions in Wartales have the same effect on a town's health. Some factions attempt to establish control over a location, while others simply seek to pillage and burn it to the ground. The first group, the "conquerors", will only slightly reduce a location's health when the attack it, because they plan on claiming it after the battle. The second group, the "savages", deal greater damage when attacking, and in addition they don't increase a location's health while attacking. They are savages, after all- rebuilding isn't in their vocabulary!
Attrition
Even attacking a neutral area- one controlled by locals rather than a faction- is dangerous for your troops. To reflect this, whenever you attack or defend a location, you lose some of your reporting strength.
Reporting strength represents the impact of your army and determines by how much you can chance an area's control rate in your favor. As your troops fight and grow weary, your strength decreases. Even when you do not report, simply being present in an area that is being fought over will decrease your reporting strength each turn.
It should be noted that, if your faction manages to capture the area (or if it is able to hold on to the area, should the faction already control it), your reporting strength decreases by a lesser degree. After all, soldiers on the winning side are bolstered by the glory they've earned!
You can regain your reporting strength by performing an Extra Strength project at a friendly area where a mustering ground has been built.
Wealth
Each town has a wealth rating, representing how wealthy it is.
There are several sources of income. First is raiding, which is what happens when a faction attacks an enemy location. For each report placed, a player will receive a small amount of income.
Note that raiding in this way will lower a location's wealth rating. If a location's wealth rating drops to zero, players no longer receive any income for raiding it.
The second source of income is taxes. After new ownership for each location is calculated, each faction receives income based on how many locations are under their control. For taxes, the amount earned from each location depends on that location's Health- healthier locations generate more taxes. Conversely, locations with a health rating close to zero do not generate any taxes at all- the population is barely surviving! Taxes are divided among the players, so if a faction has more players, then each individual player will receive fewer income from taxes.
The third way of gaining income is enterprises. These are facilities you build in locations you own, which generate income for you each turn. Note that all faction members receive gold from enterprises, but keep in mind that if an enemy faction takes your location, the enterprise will generate income for them instead!
Another way of gaining income is trading, as explained above. If you purchase resources for little, then sell them when they become more valuable, you could make quite a bit of money from your investment!
Finally, you can perform exploration projects, or even try and beg for some resources from other players or NPCs...
NPCs
NPCs, or non-playing characters, are the inhabitants of the world, who can be interacted with via roleplay. Each one of them is controlled by the GM. To contact them, simply write them a letter- there will be a designated thread in each faction's hidden forum to post these. Of course, if you'd rather keep communication with NPCs hidden from your teammates, then you can simply PM the letter to the admin.
There is no hard limit on the number of letters you may send per turn, but keep in mind that all these letters are being answered by one person (for now at least). I'll certainly try to reply to all letters, but I can only do so much! Also, keep in mind that some NPCs might not like receiving tons of mail each day, while not contacting others for extended periods of time might diminish their opinion of you...
Wartales features two types of NPCs, or figureheads, namely advisors and notables.
Advisors are people who work for a faction, supporting them with their knowledge. They are reliable sources of information and loyal to a fault. Only a faction's members may contact their advisor- or at least, only they should expect a reply! There are some cases in which an advisor can be persuaded to speak with another faction, but most of the time they will either forward your letter to the faction's members, or simply tell you to stop bothering them.
Notables, on the other hand, represent the political powers in the wartale's area. They can provide tangible benefits to any faction- for a price. Unlike advisors, notables have their own agendas and will start out completely impartial to all factions- except where the faction's goals and their own clash.
Winning the campaign
The focus of a campaign lies in building a story together. That being said, a winner will be declared at the end of the campaign. This is done based on victory points, which can be earned throughout the campaign.
At the end of the campaign, each location will be worth a number of victory points. While I'm not telling how much each location is worth, assume that bigger ones are worth more points than smaller ones.
Another way to earn vicory points is to find treasure, by using the exploration project mentioned above. There is a limited number of unique treasures which can be found during the campaign, and each will be worth a small number of victory points. They will also tell you something about the history of the area you're fighting over.
Note that while some factions might not be overly interested in these historical artefacts, they still receive victory points for obtaining them. Storywise, this is explained as them selling the treasures, using them as bribes or leverage over factions who do care, or simply burning the treasures just to spite their opponents. Whatever the explanation, each artefact has the same value in victory points for every faction.
Thirdly, the faction with the most resources (gold, gems, sheep, whatever) will also gain a small number of victory points.
Lastly, every so often the GM may give your faction a special objective, for example capturing a certain location within a certain number of turns, or something like that. If you succeed, your faction will be awarded victory points.
Whichever faction has the most victory points at the end of the campaign can declare themselves the winner, and claim bragging rights! Most importantly, however, is that the results of one campaign may influence the story of the next...
DemonSlayer
Posts: 431
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 431
Location: The Netherlands
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