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Hello and welcome to my latest game, People of the Rift, a game set in a post-apocalyptic setting influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's Cosmicism but also some other fictions like The Last Gunslinger by Stephen King. In the mid-20th century a rift in time and space opened up in the orbit of Earth and brought on the destruction of post-industrial civilization on the surface. Shreds and bits of humanity survived mostly underground in emergency shelters and rarely on the surface although many of those are barbarous compared to their kin who originate from the shelters.
Strange and ancient beings emerged from "the Great Slumber" reinvigorated by the energies of the rift. But also other beings and forces benefited like the vampiric bloodlines who for a century until 1949 were dwindling in number in the modernizing world. Reanimated corpses roamed the countryside in hordes eating refugees and migrants during the Fall as they traveled along Route 66 to Bakersfield or in the later years the cities and ruins. Many hostile creatures and fiends stalked humanity too and the old ecosystems were replaced with that of the Rift. And so humankind went underground to regroup, and to vaguely prepare for surface resettlement.
Fundamental Game Mechanics
Turn Progression and Events
The game will progress in turns lasting 1 to 2 weeks at a time. They will typically cover a 4 month time span In Game but given the nature of our setting this could variate. During a turn I will post events to guide the course of the game and give players something to do. Events often involve die rolls and can provide a wide range of effects on statistics and game lore. You may submit your orders in the thread or in PM. There's no format except to keep the order under 500 words and be clear with what you're requesting. You're allowed 3 order posts/PM a turn.
Your Settlers
You have four modifiers representing the status of your faction. People/Resources/Talent/Psyche
100/100/10/+3
People is of course how many people you have in your control who in some way are part of your faction.
Resources is everything needed to build, buy, trade, and maintain goods, units, and infrastructure.
Talent represents your great minds and experts. Talent allows you to acquire knowledge and boost efficiency.
Psyche is the general happiness and sanity of your people.
Creating Your Faction
Here's the template:
Name (s): Hub City
Location: Barstow Ruins
Background/History: A max of 5 paragraphs. Link your lore to this page and I will link this page to the topic thread.
Economics
In an effort to keep things simple and flexible i've come up with a simple economic system.
Essentially your faction statistics are determined by the composition of your settlements. A settlement always provides population and resources per turn. Talent is more generalized, if you lose a settlement you do not lose talent. Psyche is altered by in game events and die rolls. A settlement's contribution to your faction is represented by a simple percentage.
A settlement always costs 1,000 resources and 500 population. Once a settlement is founded it will progress and evolve on its own although your orders and other in game events will no doubt effect its course of development.
Units likewise have their costs. Conscripts are available to everyone and cost 1 resource per 1 soldier. Other units however required higher quantities of resources and population, even talent or a certain psyche rating. Magical knowledge and the possession of relics also effect the kind of units you can build. Some factions may gain the capacity to produce their own unique unit if there's enough good IC on it.
Units can be bought as mercenaries or recruited from your population by using resources to convert population into units at a fixed cost. Recruitment typically takes 1 turn while buying mercenaries allows you to have instant use of those units.
Talent is the last modifier i'll talk about. Talent is used to buy Leaders who boosts the strength of your armies and faction. They also boost the research of magical knowledge, can be made military leaders, and can be spent to boost the success of any order. There will be die rolls with your talent investment thrown in to determine the outcome of these actions.
Basic Unit Cost
100 Resource/100 Population = 1 Conscript Unit (FP/HP/M) (5/2/+3)
200 Resource/100 Population = 1 Regular Unit (FP/HP/M) (10/5/+3)
500 Resource/10 Population = 1 Paladin Unit (FP/HP/M) (20/10/+3) (has Heroic die roll which allows the unit to overcome a bad die roll and win the battle if successful)
These are the basic units that any human faction can build.
While the first two categories are familiar the third requires a bit of explaining. The term "paladin" was used to describe the fiercest and best warriors of Charlemagne's court and in this way they exist in our setting. They have become one of the few hopes and lights of human society. Imagine Mad Max types but on a larger scale.
Unit Statistics and Warfare
A unit is simply the term referring to what you can think of as movable pieces on the map. They will mostly consist of military types but there will certainly be more specialized ones as well.
Units possess three modifiers. Firepower, Hit Points, and Morale. There's really no limit to how large these stats can become although Morale ranges from -1 to +3.
Battles are won by the side that has the best FP/HP/ and Morale but also by numbers and by random die rolls representing all the mistakes and lucky moments that often determine battles.
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