Main Characters You can create only one main character in the game. After the main character dies, the heir or protégée will take over as the next main character. The scope of your character is better explained in the player guides.
Stats
Auxiliary Characters These are characters you can play from time to time for a more in-depth and creative RP, they may not collect income, be appointed to leadership positions, hold non-duplicate offices, help main characters do anything to unduly advance, or in any way threaten a main character - they are solely for RP purposes. Auxiliary characters will be subject to the same rules and death rolls as main characters, although they may become main characters if your main character dies without any heirs or protégées. Main auxiliary characters have to be registered in the auxiliary registration thread in the Registration forum. However, auxiliary characters for the purpose of short duration role-plays need not be registered.
Killing Auxiliary Characters You can kill your auxiliary characters any time you wish. But you must have a good reason to kill it as you would with main characters. Also, the odds of attempts to finish your aux get doubled. But of course, the killing of an aux will be treated as the killing of a main character.
Aging of Characters Characters will age at a rate of one in game year per one real week. At the age of 55 onwards your characters will be subject to natural death rolls - done each week by the moderators, the chance of a natural death being 1/5. When your character reaches the age of 65 onwards the chance each week increases to 5/10, so to kill off any super old, and therefore unrealistic, characters. The character can see out the remainder of any thread in which he/she is role-playing, but must die by the end of that game year. However, players can also commit suicide if they so wish.
Signing up and commitment: Role-playing, as the name describes is taking a role of the character. The first thing to be aware of is that by signing up, you are making a commitment to play. Once your character becomes involved in the game it would be a detriment to lose that character through lack of involvement. Keep in mind that taking on leadership positions will mean that you should stay active enough to carry out necessary tasks. If a character becomes too inactive for too long, he may lose his position. As such we ask that any notable absences you take you post in the absence thread.
Heirs, Protégées, and Wills This section explains what happens when your main character dies. When you main character dies, you must make a will as soon as possible. The will shall include only the character’s personal wealth. For instance, a duchy is not a character’s personal possession. By default, a character’s personal wealth goes to the heir. But the church could also claim some parts of it. For a clergyman, unless otherwise willed, his fortunes go not to his protégée but to the church. My suggestion would be to prepare the character’s will the moment he/she turns 55.
Apprenticeship As was common in those days, heirs and protégées would live under the guidance and mentorship of the character. So, the player has two options when he takes over a new main character. Either the player can use the starting skill point amount set for new characters or he could ask the moderators to roll the apprenticeship roll.
Apprenticeship roll = (D20 * 2) %
If the roll comes below 5, the roll is rolled again. This is to prevent players from getting the bad luck of getting a meagre 2% to 8% of stats.
Useful Terms: OOC – Abbreviation for Out of Character. This is the 'real world', everything that is OOC is nothing of your character and you can use abbreviations and such in OOC. IC – Abbreviated as In Character. This is your in-game character's world. Everything that happens under this is for your character and for your character only. OOC is not to be taken into IC, nor should you fume or anything about IC issues, if you are offended in role-play do not get angry over it. Meta-gaming: Using OOC information in IC, and vice versa. For example, if you read something that someone had done in-game, but your character does not know it, your still character doesn't know it even if you do yourself. This is very important, since people get unfair advantages by doing this. It is forbidden to do so. Power-gaming: This means doing something that you couldn't do. Like, "Bob jumped to moon and landed without injuries upon his arrival." This is not possible (unless the rules say so), and is not allowed. Usually moderators will clear such things up; but it is forbidden. Power-gaming can be similar to meta-gaming. Some people may read about a hidden army in the forest, for example, and marched up to kill them. This is not allowed. Also, harming another player without giving a chance to react for the opposite side is highly forbidden.
There would come a time when a player would wish to murder another character, be it main or auxiliary. There are two ways of how they could it. They could either assassinate them with the help of a professional assassin, or finish them off personally. In the second one, you can assail help from another player too if both agree. But this is a murder which the whole realm would eventually hear of. My advice would be to use the professionals unless you opt for the second way, provided you are confident that your character would get away with it. The best alternative should you be unable to avail a professional assassin is to challenge them to a duel/fight.
In 1370, the Holy Roman Empire operated, as much of the world did, on a set of legal, economic, and military customs known as Feudalism. Feudalism structured society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. There is a strict hierarchy of landed nobility, with peasants paying or fighting for their liege lords in exchange for protection. These lords have their own superiors, and provide money and troops in exchange for their protection. These superiors also have their own liege lords, and so on until you reach the highest order, the Kaiser (Emperor).
Titles and Holdings Anyone who holds two or more provinces can give another player one or more provinces in exchange for their fealty. However, you may only be promoted to a rank lower than the promoter. The Kaiser generally doesn’t promote players to ranks below Count, so it falls to lower ranked nobles to do so. Lords are free to determine whatever tax they wish upon their subjects or whatever services they expect, however their subjects are equally as free to oppose this and revolt.
The Oath When promoted, you will be required to undertake an oath of fealty to your liege lord. By doing this, you agree to supply your lord with taxes and troops or any other service in exchange for his help and protection. At any time, a liege lord may revoke the land and titles of their vassals; however their vassals may oppose this and rebel.
Levies All landed ranks have a base number of troops ready and willing to fight for them when mustered. Provinces also provide troops. The exact number is tied to the quality of the province (tier) itself. Better provinces provide more levies. Tier 1: 1,500 extra troops to its lord. Tier 2: 1,000 extra troops to its lord. Tier 3: 500 extra troops to its lord.
Note: Levies are determined by the agricultural productivity of each province. To determine your provinces levy capacity, please look at the Agricultural Productivity Map
Tier 1: Dark Green/Very High Yield
Tier 2: Light Green/High Yield
Tier 3: Yellow Green/Average Yield
The above is in addition to troops gained from rank. Base levy given below. Kaiser: 5,000 King: 3,000 Prince: 2,500 Duke: 2,000 Margrave: 1,500 Prince-Archbishop: 1,000 Count: 1,000 Baron: 500 Free Imperial Knight: 250 Merchant Republic (sovereign of): 100
Note: Electors add 1,000 men to their levy size. This is in addition to troops from rank and land.
Regents When a landed noble dies without any successor (willed or otherwise), or when his successor is judged to be unfit by his subjects, a Regent shall be nominated by anyone and approved by the dead noble’s direct lord. Regents are responsible for the safe keeping of the lands they watch over, nothing more. They receive no extra income and are allowed to raise additional troops only when the deem it to be in the interest of the estate that he is charged with. Regency shall end when a character with a valid claim to the land is approved by both the subjects and the overlord. If no such person steps forward, the Kaiser may appoint someone to the position. Once approved by the subjects and liege lord, they will be able to assume all of the duties and privileges associated with the position. Regency has nothing to do with personal possessions and wealth. The duty of the regent is solely to the state, as the state (county or duchy etc.) is not a personal possession.
Last edited by Lucius Malfoy; August 01, 2012 at 01:02 AM.
The following are the rules for childbirth and adoptions in the game.
Childbirth The procedure is the simplest. Simply post in the Physician thread, requesting the childbirth roll. The moderator will do the roll and post the outcome. The rolls would be for first the wife’s (or mistress’s) survival, second the survival of the child, and last the gender of the child. The odds are mentioned below.
Physician of the Imperial Household (The best in the Reich) - For Emperor – Free, Electors – 3,000 Reichmarks, and Others – 5,000 Reichmarks. Wife’s survival: 19/20 Child’s survival: 17/20
The following are the important points regarding the childbirth rolls.
You must post clearly, the name of your character for whose spouse the roll is being rolled. The character can be main, or heir, or any family member of the main character.
Do not post the roll request for auxiliary characters. You can simple assume them to have children.
Only the child from a legal marriage sanctified by the church would be considered as legitimate. Otherwise, it would be considered as illegitimate.
Only legitimate children can inherit personal fortune (by default) or stand successor or inherit the family name. You can however include them in the will (for personal fortunes) if you are intending for it to become the main character.
You cannot ask for a childbirth roll more than once in a week (real life). If you consecutively ask for four rolls every week, a death roll for the wife will be added from fifth week onwards. My advice would be to wait two weeks before asking the roll again.
Adoptions Adoptions are fairly simple here. You can adopt any child, provided it is not a rolled child of another player. Adoptions are subject to permission from your higher lord (in case of royals) or the church (for others). However, the emperor can permit the adopted child to inherit the name, fortune, or even stand as successor.
I intend this game to be unique in regards that we have a scholarly path here – The Path of the Quill. Hence, it is only natural that there should be Researches and Technological advances. Therefore, in this game, scholars can attempt research as quests. The quest would depend on the character’s intelligence stats, and on rolls. Rolls will be rolled to determine how much a research advances. The quest in itself will be a role-play between the character and the moderator.The following points should sum up the rest of the idea.
Characters: Any character can take up to research or an advance. However, scholars would have a definite advantage in this regard. This is by taking into consideration the background learning and intelligence stats.
Relevance: To protect the game from spoil effects, moderators would keep an eye on what quests are started.
For instance, a quest to discover or make gunpowder is acceptable. But a quest to build a F-22 Raptor fighter jet is just pushing it.
This section covers the income part of the game. The game has base incomes (pre-defined set of incomes), and additional incomes (income from tax and trade). Historically, the currency of the Holy Roman Empire was the Reichmark. Hence, it shall feature as the currency of the game too.
Base Incomes Base income is the predefined income for all paths. This is the basic income the players get without worrying too much about it. This income has two sub-types -> Starting income and Yearly income.
Starting Incomes The below list includes the starting incomes for the paths. This income is collected when you start the game, and when you are promoted to a higher rank. This is a one time income only, and hence cannot be collected regularly.
Yearly Income The below list includes the yearly incomes for the paths. This income is collected every in-game year (every real week).
Tax Incomes The tax income works like this. Every region has productivity tiers. The income is derived from a formula involving these tiers. Tax then can levied as you wish, in fractions (1/3, 1/6 etc.). Refer the map for the province tiers. Base value: The basic or average yield from the lands. Tier value: The additional yield of a land.
The formula is given below. Production = Base value + (D20 * Tier value)
Base value – 500
Tier I (Very high yield) – 2,000
Tier II (High yield) – 1,000
Tier III (Average yield) – 500
Trade Incomes Trade income includes the income from NPC sales made by a merchant. The NPC trade income varies for individual and for Guilds. Base value: The basic value which is decided by the in-game rank of the player. Profit of a Good: Selling price – Cost price.
The formulas for NPC trading are given below. Individual Income from a good = (Intelligence/10) * (Base value * Profit of that good) Guild Income from a good = (1.25 * Number of members) * (Intelligence/10) * (Base value * Profit of that good)
Base value for Local Merchant – 500
Base value for Merchant – 1,000
Base value for Tradesman – 1,500
Base value for Trading Enterprise – 2,000
High Office Incomes
Those who occupy any high office be that Kaiser appointed, or publicly elected, (e.g. The Grand Marshall, The High Treasurer, The High Chancellor, The High Steward) are entitled to a 4,500 Reichmarks yearly income.
Last edited by m_1512; August 21, 2012 at 07:46 AM.
Reason: typo
Casus Belli
Simply put, casus belli means justification for war. Historically, realms used to need a proper justification to declare war as wars used to be costly affairs.
In the game, players would need valid casus bellis to start wars. The following is a list of casus bellis for declaring war.
If a player wishes to declare war without a casus belli, it will be known as wars of aggression. This will come with many penalties, the most basic of which are noted below.
The Emperor gets a valid excuse to impose Imperial Ban.
The allies of the player have no obligations to take part or even support this war. They are free to turn their backs leaving the player to his fate without any consequences (punitive casus bellis for dishonouring alliance).
Other realms (NPC foreign kingdoms) will be sympathetic towards the defender.
Alliances
Coming to alliances, all previous alliances are to be null and void. Players are now requested to make fresh alliances as per this new system. By this system, alliances are not permanent. By default, an alliance ends with the death of the ruler, unless another period is agreed upon. Also, alliances now have an obligation to be honoured.
This system introduces following alliances.
Marriage Alliance and Succession
This is an important type of alliance as it is mentioned separately. Marriage alliance happens when characters of two house get married. This alliance is also permanent and lasts until either of the house/dynasty is destroyed.
But this alliance is like a double edged weapon too. While it creates a permanent alliance, it also creates a casus belli. The next generation of the characters gets the succession casus belli.
For example, a player's character (male) marries into the ruling family of Naples (for example, king's sister). The next generation, that is both the player's heir and king's heir gets the casus bellis against each other.
Game Rules
