The Long Winter
join us at our IRC channel!
To enter, write /join #TheLongWinter in the message box
join us at our IRC channel!
To enter, write /join #TheLongWinter in the message box
In this game the players must work together in order to survive in a strange world covered in snow and frozen forests, with the only real population centers located around volcanic hotspots, where competition is fierce for the few resources available.
The players will start out as leading figures of a series of clans or dynasties in a decentralized, tribal state, and must work with or against one another to attain power and secure their people’s future in this hostile world.
Just like my very first forum game, which was undoubtedly also the most successful one, this game will be sort of like a sort of a political sim based on Civilization IV with modifications. However, this time, we will start in the beginning of the classical era. The players can gain power through brute military force, owning land, running a business or political intrigue. To begin with, the last leader of all the clans has died without any heirs, and it is up to the players whether to establish a common government or remain divided.
Alternatively, you can just sit on the sideline and help enriching our culture with lore.
Creating a clan - There is always room for more players, just throw me a PM!
To begin with, 50 years or so are likely to pass by between every update, so you will be playing as a dynasty rather than a person, sort of like in Crusader Kings. Players joining late will play as a branch of one of the largest existing clans, and can choose to break away or stay part of their mother clan. Our language is Nahuatl, so names must be from that language too. Just google "Nahuatl names". If you want names in any other language, you have to obtain permission with me.
Name of Clan Leader(s):
Clan Name: Alternately, you can leave an English name here, and then I'll translate it for you
Succession and Leadership: How is a new leader selected? Are there one or more leaders?
Lineage: Players joining late can play as a cadet branch of an existing large clan. This ensures that new players start out with some resources and prevents one clan from steamrolling the others. You have to send me a PM in order to start as a break-away branch.
Background: Optionally, you can write a little about the history, traditions and characteristics of your clan.
Playing the game
As mentioned above, the main ways of gaining power is through trade and production, brute force and political intrigues.
Trade and Production - Economy
Each turn, every clan may send economical orders, which are basically build orders, and depending on the amount of production points at their disposal, they will either succeed, and gain new assets, businesses or buildings, or fail, and nothing will happen.
An economic order simply consists of what you will be focusing your production points on for the duration of the next turn. In order for an economic order to succeed, you need to have some production points at your disposal. You may focus on building something that gets you more...
- Production, which allows you to build even more buildings, establish new businesses faster and recruit more military units. Easily the most important resource in the game.
- Wealth, which can also be used to build buildings, establish new businesses and recruit military units, but only later on in the game.
- Food - the clan with the most of this will have the largest population growth, which translates to more land, more production and more power.
- Goods and resources - possessing a monopoly on a strategic resource may grant you enormous influence.
- Research - the clan with the most research will gain new knowledge, and as you know, knowledge is power
- Culture - used to influence public opinion and expand our civilization’s border. Public opinion and the cultural values of our people can be influenced at any time if you have culture points at your disposal. You must make a post on the thread, stating what it is you want to change, such as the view on violence, religious beliefs etc., and then all players with culture points must vote. Their votes are weighted according to the amount of culture produced each turn. If the vote is a "yes", the desired changes to our culture will come through. This is useful if you for instance want your religion to dominate society or get people to vote on your party in elections.
- Happiness - also used to influence public opinion and to prevent your people from rebelling (not so important to begin with)
- Health - keeps people from dying (not so important to begin with)
- Espionage - boosts your ability to conduct political intrigues and also protects you from the machinations of your enemies
- Defense - prevents settlement from being captured by enemies
- Military facilities - makes your troops more experienced and effective
- Recruitment - for troops, navies, merchants, explorers and settlers (see the recruitment doc for a full list of options)
You can also combine and focus on several things or be even more specific on what your focus will be; for instance, if you want to focus on production by being a lumberjack. Keep check on how many resources you have on the stats sheet here.
Military Force - the Military
To begin with, anyone can raise and lead warriors. For the purpose of recruitment, go to the recruitment doc before sending an order.
When issuing orders to your units, please include the following:
1. State your goal, so that I know when the order has been carried out, and thus also when to request a new one.
2. Also state how many casualties your wards are allowed to sustain without pulling back. If you do not state this, your troop will be more likely to run away.
3. If you know what you want to be doing after the first goal has been reached, you may state it as a second order.
Political intrigues - and Government
The political part of the game will mostly happen on thread, but everything from which government form we end up with to where we decide to throw our garbage has an effect in-game.
- The clans would be ultimately led by one person, the Tlatoani or "Speaker", but he would be aided by a Xenatl ((derived from Latin Senatus)) or necentlaliliztli ((Assembly)) - there was no consensus on what to name it - composed of all the clan leaders. The exact relationship between these two institutions was never thoroughly debated ((which is quite realistic for a government in this age)), but there seemed to be consensus that the Tlatoani would rule until death unless he lost the support of the clan leaders.
- To become Tlatoani, one must first undergo a series of trials.
- Each clan sets up a trial. Every clan has their own traditions in selecting their leaders, and therefore, any future Tlatoani must pass each of the clans' trials. However, some clans do not have to undergo a trial to choose their leader. For these clans, it would be best to let them approve which candidates have passed all the trials of the clans.
Trials:
Clan Yolotli - The aspiring Tlatoani must present some creative work, whether it be a new idea, a new tool, a new instrument, a work of art, a piece of music, etc.
Clan Maximotl - The aspiring Tlatoani must sit with the wisest man of the Maximotl clan where he will be asked a series of questions. He must answer 3/4 of the questions soundly or correctly.
Clan Necuametztli - An aspiring Tlatoani will have a day to solve complex numerical problems
Clan Achtopochtecapiltzmeh - The aspiring Tlatoani will compete in a game of wits and strategy
Clan Tonatepotztocah - The aspiring Tlatoani must walk through a fire.
Clan Cecuecacayotin - The aspiring Tlatoani will lead a force in a mock battle in a test of military tactics
Clan Quallitechichic - An aspiring Tlatoani must go into the woods, survive there on his own for a month, and come back with the largest and most dangerous prey he can find.
Clan Tlanextic - The aspiring Tlatoani will perform in the rite of Ixtozoa ((night vigil)). The Tlatoani must stay awake for as many consecutive nights as possible, until he passes out.
Clan Xiuhcoatl - An aspiring Tlatoani must receive the mark of Xiuhcoatl without falling, staggering or flinching.
Clan Atlaticquipiltzmeh- The aspiring Tlatoani must recite an ancient poem of leadership from memory
Since you don't have any traits apart from your businesses,and since we want to be other things than playing trials, the results of most of the trials will be based on dice rolls, with your characters' trades maybe also having an effect. Maybe we can go in-depth with some of them from time to time, and you can cheat during the trials through sending me intrigue orders at the time of the announcements of your participation, but otherwise, the trials will mostly just be a bit of awesome lore.
The rest of the clan leaders will act as judges, ruling on who have passed the trial and who haven't.
Possible Government Functions
Defining what exactly is up to who in the governing of the realm has not been determined by the players yet. I will, however, list what the government can do to interact with the game.
- It can issue economic orders if it is in possession of resources.
- It can issue military orders if it possesses units
- Espionage: Decide how great a percentage of our espionage budget should spent on each known foreign country
- It can impose taxes on players on both production, wealth, food, research and culture or demand that they provide military aid or build different projects for the common good.
- Determining our foreign policy - this is done by setting a stance towards each foreign nation (1. Hostile - we are at war, 2. obstructive - refuse any cooperation with them, 3. indifferent (default stance) - be friendly and agree to fair proposals, 4. cooperative - attempt to keep good relations, agreeing to all proposals as long as we don't lose anything, 5. appeasing - do everything to improve relations, give in to every demand or request for help)
- It can also conduct diplomatic negotiations with specific goals (trade, tech etc.)
- Other stuff I might remember later
Intrigue
And then, the intrigues. If you want to secretly murder, kidnap or otherwise sabotage someone, just write up your secret plan and send it to me when you are ready to put it in motion. The more espionage points you have, the more likely it is that you will succeed. Getting more players in on it also might help, especially if they also have espionage points.
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