Faction Rules

## Principles:

These rules are defined with the following goals in mind:

* **Create dynamic situations in a world, by making nations** **interact with each other**. The interaction is the most important factor. The rules of the game should make sure that the nations *need* to interact in order to grow. Nobody can grow all by themselves.
* **Create exciting conflicts between nations which change how the world looks**. The super power today might be a minor nation tomorrow. It is important that the rules imply for change in the world. We do not want a static world - that is no fun.
* **The game is a framework to change the situation of the Player Characters.** It is a way of creating world conflicts that no single person controls. Not even the GM. The nation game is a way to make situations and opportunities for the player characters occur. They are still the stars of the show. Always.

## Defining Aspects

Aspects are words used to describe a nation. They include the ambition of its leadership and its reputation among the other nations. Every nation has three **aspects** defined at every time. After a faction turn the player of a nation can always choose to change one or more aspects and explain how that constitutes in the fiction of the game. For example, if a nation has a change in leadership, it might influence its aspects.

*Example: The Mountain Kingdom might have the following aspects: Savage, Honorable and Uncompromising. If during play none of these come up, the player character controlling the Mountain Kingdom, might choose to alter one or more aspects. Perhaps it is tough to be Uncompromising in a world of global politics and the merchants of the kingdom sees this and adopts a more loose interaction with state law, changing "Uncompromising" to another aspect.*

Example aspects:

1. Ambitions
2. Violent
3. Treatherous
4. Primitive
5. Faithful
6. Independent
7. Shrewd
8. Calculating
9. Pragmatic
10. Strange

When you are in doubt about which virtues to use to describe your nation, think about how you would like the people in the other nations to describe the people in your nation. Are they *trustworthy*, *demanding* or maybe *unpredictable*. And think about which methods your government could use to achieve their political goals. The aspects should be something which can be shown to be true through actions on the world politics scale. In this way *ugly* does not function as a very useful aspect. If you have a hard time choosing just the right one don't worry. Remember it can always be changed at the end of a faction turn.

## Using aspects

Whenever your actions reflect your aspects you gain **faction points (FP)** at the end of a faction turn. FP can be used to improve your base stats when you gather enough of them. At the end of the faction turn, everybody consults their goals and briefly presents why their actions this round were in line with their aspects. If you do so, mark an FP for every aspect than aligned with an action. When reaching 10 FP, you can improve a stat, unless a special case makes you improve one sooner.

This way the game enforces you to take actions, which might not be the best tactical desicion, but are instead aligned with your aspects. This is a way of generating dynamic conflicts.

*Example: If The March has a leader which is very aggresive towards the other factions, the faction might have the aspects "Conquest", "Merciless" and "Demanding". If The March used an action to attack a region belonging to another faction (conquest), slaughtering its citizens (merciless) and demanding a tribute to stop advancing further into enemy lands (demanding) the march would get three FP (one for each aspect) at the end of the faction turn.*

## Stats

The nations have stats which define what they are good at. These are **Force**, **Influence and** **Wealth.** Force are the scale and quality of your armies, influence is the competence of your spies and emmisaries and wealth is the coin and trade that your nation has available. Stats ranges from 1-6.

### Tags

Force and Influence has a number of tags associated with them. A tag defines a *way in which your nation is good at using your stat*. Think of it as the types of situations your agents are educated to handle. For example if you have a force tag called *"Siege"* your soldiers and generals are particularly good at siege warfare. When making an action in which a tag applies gives you a bonus to the action roll (described below). A stat has as many tags as the stat's score. For example, if a nation has **force 5**, it has five tags which describes its force.

* Ambush
* Disciplined
* Siege
* Mobility
* Open warfare
* Naval combat
* City defence

**Influence:**

* Spies
* Assasins
* Merchants
* Thugs for hire
* Propagandists
* Priests
* Artists

### Wealth

Wealth is an abstract description of the coin and trade that your nation has available. Like **force** and **influence**, wealth ranges from a number from 1-6, but does not have tags and cannot be used as a base for an **action roll**. Instead it can be spend to improve the likelyhood of succeeding actions (see action roll).

## The Action Roll

Some actions, like assembling an army does not require an action roll. Some actions however, requires you to roll to see how great your results are. These could be ordering your army to assault another army. To determine the outcome of such an action an action roll is called for.

### The action

To make an action roll the Player making the action should state the *intent* and *method* of the action. The intent should be simple. Something like, "Routing a rival army" or "Making a civil riot in the streets of Syricia". The methods however, can be more elaborate. Look at your tags for your stat to determine a good way of making an action happen. Example methods for the above examples could be to "Draw the enemy army out in the open, where my fleet can attack them from the sea" and "Bribe officials to turn away when my priests, preach about revolution on the street." Ideally, the method is a way to make sure you can use your tags. More importantly, it is important for establishing details in the fiction in which the Characters (which are the real stars of the show, remember?) can interact. After *Intent* and *Method* decide which stat to use: **Force** or **Influence**. This choice should be obvious most of the time.

### The counter

Now its the opposite player to react. The player defines which method is used to counter the action of the first player. Ideally, this could also include tags. Examples to the above situation could be "A battle in the open is a perfect way for me to use my own navy - naval warfare, baby!" and "Officials turn away you say? Good thing Syricia is full of gangs. I bribe them to beat up your priests". The counter should never be something that negates the *method* of the first player, that does not drive an interesting narrative. Instead, think of it as the method from the action has already worked and you need to find a way to solve the newly arrived problem with the tools you now have available. The countering player chooses which stat to use: **Force** or **Influence*.*** Again the answer should be obvious.

### The Roll:

Now we need to determine the results of the situation. Each player should roll 2d6 + any bonus die from answering yes to the following questions:

* Can I use any of my tags to help me in this situation? +1d6 for each tag
* Is my stat higher than my opponent's? +1d6
* Is another faction helping me in my action/counter? +1d6
* Do you wish to spend Wealth? +1d6
* Is the target Fortified? +1d6 (see special conditions)

### The Result

The player that rolled the single highest diget on the dice won the conflict, at least for now. If there is a tie, look for the second highest. If theres a tie, look for the third highest etc. If one of the players run out of dice, the one with the most dice have won.

### Stat wounds

When loosing a conflict, the nation takes 1 stat wound. If a nation accumulates 3 stat wounds, there stat goes down by 1. One can spend a downtime action to remove 1 stat wound.

*Example. Ketil and Peter are battling over the control of the western part of a lake because it provides great fishing and trading opportunities. Both nations have deployer troops, but no blood has been spilled yet. Ketil uses a faction turn to assault Peters troops. He describes the **intent**: "make the troops withdraw from the area", and his method "Attacking in the dead of night with a group of Spirit Tamers" (his **Force** has the tags: "Occult" and "Ambush", so its a good plan.) This is obviously a **Force** roll.*

Peter chooses his cou*nter: "We have planned for an assault like this and have planted bombs in the area which can be lit by fire arrows, when The March soldiers run towards the camp site" (Tag: "Black Powder").*

*We determine the roll:* The *March uses two tags ("Occult", "Ambush") while Baldria uses one tag ("Black Powder"). The March has Force 4, while Baldria has Force 3. No one gets assistance from another faction at the night of the attack and no-one spends any wealth. This means The March rolls 2+2+1 = 5d6 while Baldria rolls 2+1 = 3. The March gets: 4,2,6,3,2 while Baldria gets 4,4,2, meaning The March won the conflict. The intent was to make Peter's troop withdraw. Since Ketil won, Peter's troops withdraws from the area, and gains 1 **Force wound**. If they get 2 more wounds Force goes down by 1. Now Ketil controls the lake, however maybe Peter will be back next faction turn, perhaps with help from friends...*

## Special conditions

### The Fortified Tag

The action roll is great in determining conflicts, however sometimes a conflict should not simply be solved in a single roll. Examples of this could be a siege, or the assasination of a King. To exemplify these scenarios we use the "**Fortified**" tag. When a thing in the fiction aquires this tag, it is much more difficult to attack or influence. When a player makes an action with an **intent** towards a specific **target**, the opposing faction can immediately take -1 wealth and proclaim that the target is Fortified. That player should then describe, how the target is fortified. The player with the action now makes a choice to abandon the action or carry through. A fortified target is much more difficult to bring down in that every time a nation looses a conflict revolving a fortified target, instead of the intent coming true, the target takes 1 wound. Only after taking three wounds, i.e. loosing three conflicts, will the intent be true. In addition the counter-action gets +1d6 for a fortified target. This is a way of defending cities or persona from a raiding army in a way that is grounded in the fiction.

### Assemble an army

In order to attack with an army, a player needs to assemble an army. This costs an action. The player then explains where the army is placed on the map. This is a mechanic to prime every ones attention to the army, giving opposing factions time to prepare if they wish.

## V 0.1

Each faction has several stats, **Force, Prosperity, Population** and **Influence.**

**Force**:

* 1. None: The faction has few or very poorly trained soldiers. Equipment are usually, clubs, torches, farming tools and wooden spears.
* 2. Militia: Able-bodied men and women with worn weapons, ready to be called upon in times of need.
* 3. Guard: The faction has a standing military, ready to defend it's cities and can be mobilized into small armies.
* 4. Garrisons: Well trained military both in terms of scale and quality.
* 5. Battalions: The factions force consists of battalions (1000 armed soldiers or equivalent).
* 6. Legions: The factions force is of superior quality in terms of scale, quality or both.

**Prosperity:**

* 1. Poor: Only the bare necessities for sale. Unskilled laborers are readily available.
* 2. Moderate: Mundane items are available. Some skilled laborers
* 3. Wealthy: Most kinds of skilled laborers are available, some exotic items can be found
* 4. Rich: Everything you need can you find. Specialists are available.

**Population:**

* 1. Exodus: The faction has lost most of its population beyond sustainability and on the verge of collapse
* 2. Shrinking: The population is less than it once was. Buildings stand empty.
* 3. Steady: The population size is in line with the size of the steadings of the faction. Slow growth.
* 4. Booming: Resources are stretched thin trying to keep up with the number of people.

**Influence:**

* 1. Only the most necessary trade and connections
* 2. Well regarded diplomats, and some trade of exotic goods.
* 3. A well connected spy network, well established intelligence units, important political insttutions (such as state religion)
* 4. The very best of informants, double agents, assasins. Deals with trade with the most exotic of good.

## Attacking, laying siege and conquering

### Raise army, gather troops

**When you gather your troops** determine where you position them on the world map. It should be a position you control and have access to. When you place your army, notice your **Force** and write it as army strength. Now take -1 **Force**, this represents that in order to deploy troops you are more succeptible for an attack on your own territory.

In addition choose one:

* Take -1 **Population** to symbolize your decrease in your work force
* Take -1 **Prosperity** to symbolize money for sallary, equipment etc.

*Example: Callador wants to raise an army, possibly to be ready to attack Altana. If Callador has **Force 6** their army strength is 6. Callador's force then becomes 5. Callador has easy access to money, so they choose to take -1 **Prosperity***.

### Dissasemble army

**When your army returns home** answer if the army has lost half their strength or more.

* If Yes: Your army returns home, but you get no stats back
* If No: You can choose to either get +1 **Force** or either +1 **Prosperity** or **Population**, dependent on how you paid for your army.

### Attack an army

When an army attacks another army both rolls their **Army Strength** and adds any relevant modifiers. The army with the most **Successes** won the first clash of the battle. The losing army takes -1 army strength. If none of the armies moves to another position, the battle continues next faction turn.

Relevant modifiers:

* Attacking or defending from an advantageous position
* The element of surprise

### Lay siege

**When an army attacks a city or a keep**, they start a progress clock. The army rolls **Army Strength** against the defenders **Force**. For every army success the clock is ticked once. When the clock is filled, the city or keep is conquered.

Sizes of progress clock

* Smaller steading without big city walls or a other kinds of defences: 4 ticks.
* Big city or keep: Large walls, anti-siege protocols, food to last a long siege: 6 ticks.
* Fortress: Giant walls, soldiers trained for defending, catapults, vast food storage: 8 ticks.

### Conquering af city or keep

When you conquer a steading it gains the *tag: civil unrest* and you gain the benefit of the trade from the region. In addition choose one or several:

* Sack: You gain +1 **Prosperity** while the original owner of the steading takes -1 **Prosperity**.
* Exterminate: The original owner of the steading takes -1 **Population**, the *civil unrest* tag is removed.
* Dissolve influence: You break buildings of note, dispands political organisations or guilds, relevant to the steading. The faction which previously controlled the region gains -1 **Influence**.

## Long-term project

Working on a long term project is a way of improving the stats of the faction. To develop a long term project, decide on the fictional action and the stat that would benefit from the project. Then begin a 8 tick progress clock. Every turn you work on your long chain project, roll your **Population**. Any sucesses count as 1 tick.

*Example: Altana wants to increase their **Influence** and decides to build a cathedral. If they have 2 **Population** they roll 2d6. The results are 4 and 5, meaning 1 success. They tick 1 tick on their progress clock.*

## Using your influence

Influence is the most versatile stat in the game. It can be used for things like spying, making rumors, hiding actions, and even assasinations etc.

**When you use your influence**, state the action that you want to make and roll **influence**. For each instance of an influence roll you need either 1, 2 or 3 successes. There are no progress clocks, either it works or it does not.

## Tags

Tags are something which defines a faction, steading, army or any other situation. Every time new tag is introduced to the game, a mechanical effect is determined. All of these effects can later be changed if the players chooses to.

* *Civil Unrest*: Can be applied to any steading where the law is difficult to upkeep. If Civil unrest is not addressed within the next faction turn, a 4 tick progress clock starts, which ticks 1 every faction turn. When it runs out, the tag turns to *Anarchy*. To address civil unrest the player controling the steading can take -1 **Force** to make a 4 tick progress clock. Every faction turn the clock ticks 1 until the matter is resolved and the civil unrest is settled. Then the faction regains +1 **Force**.
* *Anarchy***.**