MW Alpha Empire! Rule Reference

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These Rules have been modified and adjusted for play-by-post on Mythweavers by SerakHawk with permission from Morph Bark the Original Creator of the Empire! ruleset on Giant in the Playgrounds. These Alpha rules are heavily based on the Empire! 6 community adjusted rules.

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Revision Log

Revision #	Revision Date	Revision Details
v1.0	08-Mar-2023	First Swing
v2.0	12-Mar-2023	Full Transfer Complete
v3.0	25-Apr-2023	Industry!
v4.0	05-May-2023	Fixing the Colonise == Faith Gain to be a Great Success Bonus

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Table of Contents

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1. What is Empire? History, Overview and Managing Expectations

Empire is a Collaborative Worldbuilding game originally based on the Crusader Kings II video game and adapted to a play-by-post environment. It has undergone multiple changes through its play on GitP, tuning, wide sweeping changes, and adjustments and will likely continue to adjust as it is played; however, at the heart of the game remains its competitive nature. As said by a veteran and GM of the game on GitP:

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“Empire's whole goal is a possibility space where there are enough voices that you don't just have one or two people dictating the course of events, that eventually comes to a natural conclusion that leaves you with a compelling story.” - TheDarkDM

Just like CKII players get out of Empire! what they put into it and will tell their own stories. Most of the time the story one player wants to tell will conflict with a story another player wants to tell, sometimes they cooperate. This conflict and cooperation is to be expected and even embraced with Empire! just like any kind of Player vs. Player interaction.

Like any other game, be kind and courteous and understanding of the people you are playing with, roll with the IC punches, and try your best to remember it's just a game. (Chimi)

1.1. Playing Empire:

In Empire! you take on the role of the ruler of a realm and their heirs and successors through the course of the game. You tell your own stories of alliance, betrayal, romance and intrigue by interacting with other players, realms and organizations to potentially turn your small starting realm into a Kingdom, Power or Empire.

The GM has tone and genre oversight and final approval, but the setting’s content is majorly controlled and driven by the players, their realms and their actions. There is no real limit to the number of people who can play, but most maps do require some player caps to operate and GMs do have final say on player counts.

The game is played in rounds, each lasting two real-life weeks and representing three to five in-game years. Every round you have a number of actions you can take which represent the significant activities of your ruler and realm over that period. Each action improves your ruler’s ability to do things in future and helps contribute to the ongoing development of your realm.

The roleplaying and worldbuilding elements can be much greater than the mechanical side if you lean into the purpose of the game while the mechanical side helps provide a framework to attach the roleplaying onto.

Roleplaying can be as simple as attaching characters from your realm to your mechanical actions and telling short stories about those events. Events are hosted by other players that represent a physical, holographic or other kind of gathering of important people from nearby realms, so that you can interact with each other, form alliances, pursue romances and feuds, and just generally get to walk around in your characters’ shoes. Sometimes these events or gatherings are forced by round opening events or hosted by Organizations or non-players.

Eventually, your ruler will die or step down to be replaced by their heir or chosen successor, and the cycle begins anew.

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2. What is a Ruler?

A Ruler is the representation of the leader of your Realm in whatever form of governance it takes. This is the singular person in charge for the period of time they are alive through who’s eyes you look at the game. Depending on your story and history for your people they could be a king, a mayor, an elected official or really any kind of ruler you want as long as they are the one who makes the final buck.

Rulers live, grow old, have children and die mostly all at your discretion, and sometimes by events. Interactions between characters can cause deaths and drama through various plots or in character interactions.

2.1 Ruler Attributes

Rulers have five main attributes that dictate how good they are at aspects of their Rulership, and in turn what bonuses you get on your actions for the round. These attributes are as follows:

• Diplomacy
• Military
• Industry*
• Faith
• Intrigue

The scores have a value from 1 to 10 that reflect the ruler’s personal ability and the institutions they maintain to support them. Various bonuses can improve your rulers score (permanent or temporary) but the most common method of increasing their abilities is by completing two actions in a single round related to the specific attribute you want to raise as explained below.

*Industry has historically gone by Economy, Opulence, Stewardship and other various terms.

2.2 Increasing Attributes

For every two actions spent in an attribute in a single round, you receive a +1 bonus to your ruler’s score in that attribute, starting from the opener of the following round. The bonus will be applied to whichever ruler you are using in the following round, even if that is not the same ruler who took the actions that resulted in a bonus.

Your ruler’s score in any attribute cannot increase beyond 10. You can continue to take actions in that attribute, but any bonus that would take the score above 10 is lost. Please note clearly at the end of your post in the IC thread which attributes you intend to increase, to assist the GM with administration.

2.3 Making a Ruler

A Ruler is made either as the original Ruler of your realm or as created due to the death, incapacitation or abdication of the previous Ruler.

For your first Ruler you Roll 1d4 five (5) times, then add a +1 to any two attributes. For this ruler if you roll multiple ones reroll any number of additional ones after the first.

If this is a Ruler as part of a dynasty or a planned successor to the title it is assumed that they will have inherited some of their predecessor’s abilities, expertise or were educated and instructed by the previous Ruler.

For this type of inherited title you roll a 1d4 in order for each attribute and gets a bonus to their attributes based on the predecessors scores. A +1 for any attribute score of 4 or higher and a +2 for any attribute score of 8 or higher.

If the new Ruler is a new dynasty or not a planned successor (like a military coup) you roll for attributes as if this was your first Ruler, 5d4 and assigning scores while applying two +1s as you choose.

2.4 Death of a Ruler

With the limited special actions a ruler can do in their lifetime there comes a time in every Ruler’s life to retire gracefully… or die due to happenstance or events. This can occur voluntarily or can be the cause of other player or Organization interactions.

If you are voluntarily changing rulers, this should be announced in the round before you want to start using the new ruler. Any bonuses accrued during your current ruler’s last round will be applied to the new ruler when they take over at the start of the next round.

(This means if you completed two diplomacy actions the round before switching your new Ruler will get the +1 diplomacy attribute increase for the following round instead of the retiring Ruler.)

If you have to change Rulers during a round from the closer, opener or an event, your new ruler will take over immediately. Roll your new ruler and begin using them in the same round. Any bonuses accrued during your late ruler’s last round will be applied to your new ruler immediately just as the voluntary change of Ruler.

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3. What is the Map?

The map in Empire! is the known world for the game that you interact with to convert, conquer, claim, explore and exploit. These maps greatly change between games and set the playing field for your interactions with other players, different terrain, resources, fog of war, continents, native units, faiths and locations that are specific to the game.

The GM will provide the map divided into numbered regions by with different borders types and terrain. The borders types change from game to game and have impacts on traversal and interaction between the players and adjacent regions. Some games include a fog of war that hides regions from view requiring exploration before the unknown regions can be interacted with and some include multiple spilt areas so the players have to explore to find another group.

3.1 Map Details

The map is split into regions on land and on the ocean (or other more esoteric types depending on game). Each region’s borders will have different types depending on how the map was made to reflect the type of terrain between those regions. Some typical boundaries are listed here for example but your GM may add or edit these:

• Light Blue: River Border
  • You can cross this border without requiring special technology or naval units, but it is harder to attack across rivers.
• Green: Hill Border
  • You can cross this border without requiring special technology, but it is harder to attack across hills.
• Red: Mountain Border 
  • You need mountain traversal technology to cross a mountain border. 
• Gold: Desert Border
  • You need desert traversal technology to cross a desert border. 
• Black: Arctic Border
  • You need arctic traversal technology to cross an Arctic border.
• Dark blue: Deep Water Border 
  • Crossing a deep water border requires sailing technology. 

Travel over water provides unique benefits to those kingdoms who possess the technology to do so. If a kingdom is capable of reaching a region with their current level of sailing (up to and across one deep water border with default Sailing) they are considered adjacent for the purposes of all actions.

Deep water borders represent the general limit of navigation and supply carried by sailors at the time of the game's start, but are not the sole borders used to determine distance losses - for Military purposes, every region passed along a coastal route counts as one region traversed when calculating Distance Losses, in addition to the bonus distance inflicted by every deep water border crossed. With additional sailing technology, it may become possible to bypass coastal routes in favor of the open ocean. Ocean regions inflict no distance losses beyond those of their own deep water borders, but sailing away from land is treacherous and incurs its own dangers (see Complete Military Rules)

Some games can be run with a ‘split start’ having groups of players start on different continents. In the course of play, players from these splits will uncover land or sea routes to each other's continents. When players discover a new continent, they must complete a Great Project to decipher some degree of the local languages and customs. Until this Great Project is completed, most actions taken inside the foreign continent suffer a -6 penalty. The exceptions to this rule are attempted Invasions and Sacks, which require no great understanding of local customs to inflict violence. Completion of the Great Project reduces this penalty by 2. Similarly, taking control of a region in the new continent or establishing an Embassy with a local kingdom also decrease the penalty by 2. These penalty reductions stack, leading to a minimum -2 penalty to actions outside your home continent. Until completion of the Great Project, claims cannot be established or pressed, embassies cannot be created, buyouts cannot be attempted, and regions cannot be converted in the new continent.

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4. What is a Realm and Region?

The ‘realm’ as mentioned or referred to through-out Empire! is specifically the things you control. Be them soldiers, heroes, rulers, regions, religion, trade post and anything else you control. There are different government types apart from the default one as your realm can grow into a Kingdom, a Great Kingdom, Empire, Merchant Power or Holy Land. You can only lose your realm if you lose all the pieces of it that you can interact with or if fully capitulate and give up your realm.

Regions are the areas divided up on the map acting as the different playable tiles the game acts through. Distances and interactions in Empire! are all based on borders crossed between different regions and their types. Regions contain armies, cities and improvements with different faiths peoples and geography.

4.1 Creating a Region

When a region is your starting region, or is colonised, conquered for the first time you create the information for the region that isn’t already filled out. Regions have four key characteristics, Geography, People, Resource and Faith. Resource is only filled out for your starting region, all the other regions have one randomly assigned / generated by the GM. Faith will match your founding faith of your starting region when colonised, or will remain unchanged when conquered.

Geography: Describe the geography of your region. The appearance of the region on the map will give you an idea as to the climate and biome. Set out what the region looks like, including descriptions of landmarks, towns and other settlements.

People: Describe what the people in the region generally look like. What do they wear? What race(s) are they? What is their culture like? What do they do in their daily lives? Explain roughly how their society functions.

Resource: For your starting region describe one valuable resource that can be found in the region, which your people make available for trade. This resource becomes a Great resource in your capital region. See additional details on the resources and trade section.

Next also describe one resource that your region does not have and which your people are obliged to import. This can be something essential, like food, or a luxury item of which your people are especially fond. During the game, you will need to find a way to obtain this resource, otherwise your people will become unhappy and may rebel.

Faith: The world of EMPIRE! contains many mysteries and its people follow various religions and faiths. As the game progresses, some of these religions will become widespread, while others may dwindle and die out. Provide an outline of what your people believe at the start of the game.

4.2 Exploration

Types of Exploration Action.

You can use Diplomacy, Military or Industry actions to explore, depending on how you want to make first contact with neighboring peoples. Depending on the type of action taken, exploration may be easier or harder, and may have different results. These actions are listed in the relevant attribute actions section and each signify a different approach to exploring the unknown regions around you.

4.3 Resources & Trade

Each region contains up to three Trading Posts, reflecting the abundance of a resource in that region. If you own a Trading Post in a region, you have access to that region’s resource. The quantities of any given resource are referred to as Minor, Good, and Great respectively (one, two, and three trading posts respectively). You begin play with control of one Trading Post in your capital region.

The number of your Trading Posts may be affected by outside actions, whether increasing them with Industry actions or reducing them with Military actions. A region with no Trading Posts becomes economically untenable, and will suffer penalties commensurate with the nature of the Trading Post’s destruction and the region’s environment.

Your capital region will begin with a Great resource of your choosing. Your capital region will also start with a resource requirement that will need to be fulfilled through trade with another region.

Regions that are not capital regions do not have resource requirements, but regions or holdings may occasionally demand a resource be delivered within a limited time frame, whether for a reward or to avoid negative consequences.

4.4 Holy Sites

The presence of faith in a region is represented by its Holy Site. The Holy Site may be a shrine, stone circle, temple or school. While there may be various religious minorities across the region, the one which controls the Holy Site is the most important and influential in that region. The relative power of faiths can be judged by the number of Holy Sites they control. Each inhabited region contains one Holy Site, designated at the time the region is written up.

If a Holy Site in your land is controlled by an undesirable religion, you can attempt to convert it to a different religion, or send in troops to drive out followers from the site. Look at the Purge military action or the Convert faith action for how this works.

4.5 Taking Over a Region.

Once a region is in play, you can attempt to gain control over it. There are three principal ways of doing this:

• Claiming: Marry a family member to the existing rulers of the region, then use diplomatic channels to persuade them to recognize your rule;
• Colonization: Send settlers to establish colonies in an empty region;
• Conquest: Send troops to conquer the region. If a region has native defenders, they will automatically generate a commander with a Military score of 1d6+4.

Rules for how to claim and colonize a region are set out in the Diplomacy rules. Rules for conquest are laid out in the Military rules.

Once you have taken over a region, you will need to write it up in the same way you did your first region, albeit with less detail, as the GM will provide the basics! If you do not do so in a timely fashion, the region may fall into unrest due to your neglect of it.
If you take over a region that has previously been written up by another player, you can make changes to the writeup. These changes should generally be limited to adding details to the region or updating it to reflect the new reality of the region’s government, and you can only delete information with permission of the GM (or the other player in question). You can however make changes to the perspective of the writeup, to add nuance or present details from a different point of view.

4.6 Wilderness, and other Game Specific Regions

Not all regions are inhabited or suitable for immediate occupation. You may find a region which is designated as Wilderness. This region has no sizable native population and cannot be conquered or claimed. In order to take over a region of Wilderness, you must send your own people to the region to establish colonies. See the Colonize action under Diplomacy for more information.

Additionally there may be other region types depending on the specific game being run by the GM. Consult the game specific handouts to ensure you are aware of all region modifiers and types.

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5. Outline of a Round

Play for Empire! is structured into rounds, as previously stated these represent a number of in universe years in which actions by the players occur. Players choose their actions, roll for effect, check for success or failure and interact with other players simultaneously to play the game. The flow of a round has three components.

• The Round Opener
• The Player Actions
• The Round Closer

1: The Round Opener:

This is the GM post that starts the open season of player actions and describes any round events that could impact the world, map, neutrals, action modifiers or players. Organization actions may also be included to allow players time to respond and react. When the opener goes live it will signal the entry into Step 2.

2: The Player Actions:

This period typically takes place over two weeks of real life time (Subject to Change based on GM) and is the period in which the players post their interactions with the world and the mechanical actions that their ruler takes (action types are outlined later). A deadline for ‘war’ or combat actions will typically be sooner than the two week deadline to allow defending players a chance to respond. The player will get five (5) (variable by GM but 5 is the ‘tried and true’ number) mechanical actions that have their ruler interact around their region and improve in ability.

There are many interactions that can occur between rounds that do not take a mechanical action unless the ruler is completing an action during the interaction that would give a benefit to the empire. These in character interactions are short snippets of interactions between rulers, their courts and other side characters usually focused on an event and a set piece or topic decided on by the event host.

When the window is up the GM will close the round preventing further changes and freezing the actions as set by the player which will lead into 3.

3: The Round Closer:

As it takes some time to process the actions of all of the players the GM will take a week of real life time to process the round, post the round close and later post the round opener. Timing and exact schedules are set by the GM to encourage game progression, as with all things PbP, be generous and understanding of scheduling conflicts and delays.

The round closer will summarize the effect of all of the actions known (and unknown as applicable) that the players and the Organizations have completed. This will provide the players with all the information they need to know if their actions have succeeded or failed and what the effect will be for the next round. Any goals met, quests completed (or failed) and rewards will be provided and doled out to the relevant players at this time as well.

You can edit your actions at any time before the end of the round. If however you have already made rolls for some actions, you should ask the GM for permission before editing those actions. Unless there are unusual circumstances, the GM will usually refuse permission to edit actions which are the subject of a failed roll.

There is an early deadline for war-related military actions. This is to give you and other players an adequate opportunity to defend against attack. See the battle rules for details of specific requirements for military actions. The GM nevertheless encourages you to post all actions early in the round if they can, as it makes it easier to process the effects of actions at the end of the round, and minimize the transition time between rounds.

If you don’t post actions in a round, that round is considered wasted. If you don’t post for two rounds in a row without notifying the GM in advance, you may be removed from the game. You do not have to take all your actions every round, but any actions you do not take are not carried over and are lost.

If you edit your actions after the GM closes the round, your actions post will be ruled invalid. Because of the possibility for abuse, any action posts that are edited after the round closes will be ruled completely invalid unless proof can be provided (i.e. date stamped screenshots or equivalent) that the actions are unchanged from before the round closed. A GM may lock the thread at the round close to prevent some of this editing - if you need to edit an action after the round closed confer with your GM.

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6. What is an Action?

Actions are the major things happening in your Kingdom over the course of the round. Is construction happening on a monument to a god or ancient leader? Are armies being raised to answer the call of their sovereign? Perhaps your Kingdom is sending its finest diplomats to an international event to mingle with foreign rulers, or even hosting such an event? If you want your Kingdom to do something and have an impact on the wider world, use an action.

By default, you can take five actions each round. This number can be increased by upgrading your Kingdom to a Great Kingdom, Empire, Merchant Power or Holy Land. These can be created with a Special Action using Diplomacy, Industry or Faith. See the relevant section on each attribute for how to create each entity.

Each action is associated with one of the five attributes of your ruler. Mark which attribute you are using for each action.

Actions do not have to have a mechanical effect on the game. You may choose to take actions solely to develop the background of your kingdom, or to improve your ruler’s abilities. Normally however your actions will have some sort of effect on your Kingdom, or on other players. Details of these actions are set out under the description for each of the attributes.

If your action is intended to have a mechanical effect, you will probably have to roll to see if it is successful. This may be an opposed roll against another player, or an independent roll against a target number. Details of how to make these rolls are given in the sections on Opposed Rolls and Target Numbers. Normally you will roll to determine success on your own actions, but in some cases (such as battles) the GM will roll for you.

All actions take effect at the end of the round (unless they have an effect that is delayed even longer). For instance, if you buy out a trading post for a resource, you will not have the resource until the beginning of the following round. If you pursue an investigation, the results will be announced in the GM post at the beginning of the next round.

Most actions are repeatable and can be done as many times in a round as there is a valid target for the action to be completed on. Other actions can only happen once per round, or once per ruler. See Special Actions for more details on those.

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7. Gameplay Mechanics

There are two kinds of rolls in Empire! - Target Number Rolls and Opposed Rolls. Opposed rolls occur when you are in direct conflict with another player, NPC or organization and both sides roll for the action triggering the opposed roll while Target number rolls are the majority of rolls made in the game.

7.1. Target Number Rolls:

Most actions in Empire! still have a chance of failure based on ruler skills and the action being undertaken. These actions will have a target number assigned to the roll for you to equal or beat for the action to be successful. As modifiers to the standard target numbers should be declared in any relevant round opener you can highlight if your action is a success or failure if you wish to in your post.

The relevant dice roll is 2d6 + relevant attribute + other bonuses / modifiers. Any factional values are rounded up unless otherwise specified.

A summary of the standard unmodified target numbers for actions are as listed:

• Target Number Roll Difficulties

  • Easy Roll: 10

  • Average Roll: 12

  • Hard Roll: 14

  • Daunting Roll: 16

  • Formidable Roll: 18

  • Heroic Roll: 20

  • A Great Success where applicable is Action TN + 6

• Explore Diplomacy: 12

  • GS Explore and Claim Diplomacy: 18

• Colonize Diplomacy: 12

  • GS your state faith becomes the faith of the colonised region: 18

• Establish a Claim Diplomacy: 12

• Claim 2 rnds  Diplomacy: 12

  • GS Claim 1 rnd Diplomacy: 18

• Stabilize Unrest Diplomacy: 12

• Stabilize Rebellion  Diplomacy: 14 + Rebels defeated

• Sack a TP  Military: 12

• Purge a HS  Military: 12

• Purge a HO  Military: 16

• Explore Industry: 10

• Buy TP Industry: 12

• Convert a HS Faith: 12

• Claim Religious Head Faith: 20

• Quest into the unknown Hero: 12

  • GS Quest into the unknown Hero: 18

• Errant quest Hero: 12

  • GS Errant quest Hero: 18

7.2. Opposed Rolls

Anytime that you and other players find yourselves at odds over an action or opposition to your plans both players are required to make an opposed roll.

Like the target number roll both players roll 2d6, add the relevant attribute score and relevant modifiers. The higher roller wins the opposed roll. Ties go to the defender of the opposed roll unless otherwise specified. The GM will roll on your behalf against secret actions or other unknown vectors.

Military battles function differently than a straight opposed roll and will be covered in the “Battles” rule section.

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8. Special Actions

 

Special actions are actions tied to each attribute and attribute level that your ruler can only undertake once per lifetime. For each attribute a ruler may only take one attribute 5 and one attribute 10 action. The attribute 10 action can be one of the level 5 actions if desired.

You can use these actions at any point during a ruler’s lifetime so long as they have reached the requisite score. Special actions still use an action for the round and count toward the relevant attribute training. They cannot be held over from one ruler to another, so if a ruler dies without using a special action, the opportunity to use it is lost.

8.1. Projects

Some major undertakings may take more than one action to complete. These are called Projects. The more actions are spent on a Project, the more significant the outcome. You can take multiple actions in the same round towards a single Project, or stagger actions taken on a Project across multiple rounds.

The largest Projects are known as Great Projects. A Great Project takes 5 actions and represents a remarkable achievement which will typically attract international attention.

Project Effects and outcomes are to be determined between you and the GM prior to starting or prior to completion.

8.2. Secret actions 

These are actions which are known only to you and the GM. Such actions need to be sent to the GM for verification, otherwise they will have no effect. Send a private message to the GM to notify them of your intentions. You may only have one action designated as a secret action per round.

Rather than being declared in full in the action post, secret actions need only be declared as “Secret Action”, with the details sent to the GM using a private message instead. Such actions have no effect if not sent to the GM for verification. Secret actions are always considered to be Intrigue Actions for the purpose of determining growth at the end of a round, and any rolls associated with a Secret Action are modified by Intrigue in place of any other stat. Only one secret action may be taken per round.

Many action types cannot be secret actions, including but not limited to all diplomacy actions, raising and using military units, all Special actions (5s and 10s) related to attributes other than Intrigue, Buyouts (see Industry), and all types of Exploration. Further, secret actions with results causing direct changes to public information - such as Trade Post ownership, Treasure, and the Incite Betrayal special action - will be effectively revealed in the following round opener.

You cannot directly investigate what other players have done with their secret actions taken by players, but by investigating the results of those actions, you may discover the culprit. If you correctly deduce what another player is doing with their secret action, you can take preemptive action taken to foil them. Secret actions are always full actions, rather than sub-actions or non-actions.

8.3. Sub-actions

Sometimes it is possible to take a single action which incorporates the effect of several minor actions. This is most common where you attend an event. At an event, for the cost of a single Diplomacy action, you can make multiple agreements such as betrothals, technological trades, or treaty signings. Details are set out in the sections on Diplomacy and on Events.

The other major form of sub-action is Tactical Maneuvering, which is a sub-action taken when an army is deployed. Details of this are set out in the rules for Military and for Battles.

In general, and unless specified otherwise in the rules, if an action must be rolled for, it probably can't be a sub-action and will take a full action of its own.

8.4. Non-actions 

These are anything you do in your turn that does not cost an action. You can take any number of these, some of which may have a mechanical effect. Changing rulers is a non-action, as is allowing foreign troops passage through your territory. Resisting attempts by other players to buy out your trading posts or convert your holy sites are also non-actions. Non-actions may also be used, at the GM’s discretion, to correct administrative oversights, errors in previous rounds or as a bonus.

Non-actions take effect at the end of the round along with regular actions.

8.5 Late Start / Bonus Actions

The GM may allow additional players to join after the game is underway. If you have recently joined a game after the end of Round 2 you may take an additional “bonus action” in your first round. Additional “bonus actions” may be granted at the GM’s discretion, typically one action for every two completed rounds.

GM’s may also allow you to take “bonus actions” if you are returning from a vacation, holiday or break from the game.

Just like all actions, the bonus actions and their attribute increases will all take effect at the same time as your normal actions at the end of the round.

These bonus actions may not involve interaction with other regions or players, as they represent some of what your Country has been up to prior to making contact with the outside world. This restriction only applies to your bonus actions and not to the five regular actions that you can take as normal.

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9. Diplomacy Actions

Your Diplomacy score represents your leader’s ability to sway, flatter, and persuade others, whether in person or through representatives. Diplomacy actions are used to peacefully expand your borders, maintain and restore stability in your territory, found kingdoms of increasing wealth and power, and secure the loyalty of your most powerful followers.

Diplomacy actions generally cannot be secret - clandestine negotiations and subversive tactics are intended for Intrigue actions.

General Actions:

• Host or Attend an Event
• Diplomatic Mission
• Raise Organization Reputation
• Stabilize a Region
• Colonize
• Establish Claim
• Press Claim
• Declare a New Capital

 

Special Actions:

• Special 5: Establish Cultural Identity
• Special 5: Create Embassy
• Special 10: Consolidate Permanent Cultural Identity
• Special 10: Elevate to Grand Kingdom

 

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Host or Attend an Event

In the course of play, you may wish to host a gathering of world leaders, or send a retinue to attend one hosted by another kingdom. The catchall term for such gatherings is an Event.

In addition to being excellent opportunities for role playing and expanding on the relationships between your characters and those of other players, Event attendance allows you to take several specific types of action at once and bundle them as sub-actions to the principal event attendance action. Possible Event sub-actions include:

• Trading Technologies (See Technology rules, and specifics under Military and Industry)
• Trading Treasure (See Industry for Treasure rules)
• Trading Units (See Military and Advanced Military for rules on units)
• Trading Regions

Events are a major venue to debut and develop characters, and will typically feature the highest concentration of named characters in any particular round. As part of this, it is probable that characters will come into conflict. If you can agree a resolution with other involved players, this can take effect without the need for rolling.

If you can’t agree on an outcome, or want the outcome to be left to chance, agree the nature of the contest with the other player(s) and make opposed rolls for the most applicable attribute. You can decide the exact parameters of this as necessary, but the standard is as follows:

Each player rolls each roll 2d6 plus:
If their ruler is directly involved, the relevant attribute
If a Hero is involved, their Hero score (See Military rules for Hero mechanics)
If another named character is involved, half the relevant attribute.

If other players wish to aid one side in such a contest (and circumstances allow), they should choose which of their characters is going to intercede, and roll 2d6 with the applicable bonus as above. If they exceed a TN of 12, they provide a +2 bonus to their chosen side.

Whichever side achieves the higher result wins the contest. If you win, you may determine the result, subject to GM oversight.

Diplomatic Mission

This is a type of exploration that dispatches a Diplomatic Mission into the unknown regions. A Mission sends envoys of your ruler’s court as well as a small caravan of servants to make contact with the peoples inhabiting an unknown region. You can only send a Mission into regions adjacent to your borders.

Roll 2d6 and add Diplomacy and any relevant bonuses. A successful roll against TN 12 gives you a +1 to Establishing a Claim over the region in the following round. A great success (TN 18) establishes a claim on the region. You may only benefit from the great success bonus claim once per leader.

Raise Organization Reputation

The three Organizations that span the world are each pursuing their own agendas, and with a Diplomacy action you can attempt to aid in this agenda. Reputation is a measure of your relationship with an organization, ranging from hated enemies to trusted, influential confidants.

It is based on a ranking scale of -3 to 4. You can increase your reputation with an organization by 1 level with a Diplomacy action with a TN dependent on your current reputation with the organization:

• Reputation -3 -> -2: TN 16
• Reputation -2 -> -1: TN 14
• Reputation -1 -> 0: TN 12
• Reputation 0 -> 1: TN 10
• Reputation 1 -> 2: TN 12
• Reputation 2 -> 3: TN 14
• Reputation 3 -> 4: TN 16

See the Organization rules for further explanation of the benefits and limitations of Reputation.

Stabilize a Region

A number of events and actions can cause instability in your regions, moving it into Unrest. You take a -2 penalty on any roll involving one of your regions that is in Unrest.

You may attempt to reduce Unrest in regions you control by taking a stabilization action. Roll 2d6+Diplomacy and any relevant bonuses. This roll is not subject to the -2 penalty for actions in that region. If your roll is at least 12, the region becomes stable and is no longer in Unrest.

You may not attempt a roll to Stabilize regions in Rebellion. Once the units generated by a Rebellion are defeated, regions in Rebellion automatically downgrade to Unrest.

See Unrest and Rebellion for more information.

Colonize

In certain situations, regions may be discovered that lack any substantial civilized population. These regions fall into two categories: Wilderness regions and Special regions. In the case of Wilderness regions, you may attempt a Diplomacy check against TN 12 to dispatch sufficient people from your own kingdom to settle the land and begin exploiting its resources. This establishes an outpost of your culture in the region and adds it to your kingdom. A Kingdom may only attempt to Colonize a region if it is adjacent to a land region they control, or if they are able to reach it unimpeded with their current level of Sailing technology.

Special Regions are regions designed specifically by the GM for the Empire! game at hand. These can come in different names, blighted, corrupted, maligned, but they essentially represent some terrible malady afflicting the area that is required to be resolved prior to colonization. These can be monstrous creatures, unnatural weather, or other factors that make colonization impossible. Exploration results of a Special region will include the steps necessary to resolve the issues. Once these are successfully completed, the region becomes a Wilderness region and may be colonized.

On a Great Success (TN 18) your state religion becomes the religion of the newly colonized region.

Establish Claim

In order to peacefully take control of an uncontrolled region, you may attempt to establish a claim on it. Establishing a claim requires the use of a named member of your ruler’s family or your ruling government, who is dispatched to the region to enter into a political marriage that binds your ruling dynasty with the region’s power structure.

You can establish a claim on a region that has been explored but is not controlled by another player. Blighted and Wilderness regions cannot be claimed. To attempt to establish a claim, roll 2d6 and add Diplomacy plus any other bonuses against a TN of 12.

If you roll successfully, you acquire a claim over the region and can press it in subsequent rounds. Failure, however, results in consequences to the dispatched family member at the GM’s discretion. A player may attempt to establish a claim as often as they wish, but successfully establishing a claim happens only once per leader. This is in addition to the Claim potentially generated by a Diplomatic Mission Great Success.

Press Claim

If you have a claim over a region, you may attempt to press the claim by rolling 2d6+Diplomacy. A roll of 12 is a partial success for a claim, and allows you to continue to press you claim the following round. If in the second round the claim is not contested by other players, the region is claimed automatically. If you roll a 12 in the first round but don’t press the claim in the following round, the claim is abandoned and subsequent attempts to claim the region must roll again. If a region being claimed has native defenders, successfully completing the claim and integrating the region grants the claimant kingdom 1 Unit.

A roll of 18 or higher is an immediate success on a claim and the region falls under your control at the end of the round.

If multiple players have a claim to the region, some of them may forfeit their claims and support other claimants instead. For each player who does this, add +2 to the roll of the claimant they support.

In the event there are multiple claimants for a region more than one of whom wishes to claim it, they should all roll, with the claimant who rolls highest being successful, provided they meet the target number. If none of the claimants roll an 18 or higher in the first round, the claim may still be contested in the second round, in which case the player who rolls highest in the second round successfully claims the region.

Declare a New Capital

You can declare any region that you control to be your capital region. By default, your starting region is your capital. If you have lost your capital region, you can declare another region you control to be your capital as a non-action, with no need to roll.

If you want to move your capital, choose a region and roll 2d6 plus Diplomacy and any other relevant bonuses, against a TN of 10. On success, that region becomes your capital. Your former capital region becomes unstable, if you still control it. On a Great Success (TN 18) the new capital is successfully established and the former capital region does not enter unrest.

Special 5: Establish Cultural Identity

If you have a score of 5 in Diplomacy, you can spend an action to create a Cultural Identity for your kingdom. A Cultural Identity will grant an increase in die size (2d6 to 2d8) on a specific type of roll, of your choice. This roll may not be Tactical Maneuvering (or battles). A particularly agnostic or faithful Faith focused state might adopt an identity granting a bonus to Faith rolls resisting conversion attempts. A cutthroat Industry-focused state might adopt an identity that granted its bonus to rolls to buyout trading posts.

A Cultural Identity lasts until it is changed by a subsequent Diplomacy 5 action. It can be made permanent with a Diplomacy 10 action, enabling you to maintain multiple Cultural Identities.

Special 5: Create Embassy

If you have a score of 5 in Diplomacy, you can spend an action to establish a permanent embassy in another kingdom’s capital. The recipient kingdom must confirm this embassy as a non-action in the round the Diplomacy Special is used - otherwise the action rebounds and the special is refunded. Two kingdoms linked by an embassy gain the following benefits:

• They may take Diplomacy actions that involve only the other kingdom as a non-action, provided both players agree.
• Technologies can be traded between them with a non-action
• Each can use an Industry 5 special action to upgrade resources in each other’s regions (subject to agreement).
• Trading posts can be exchanged directly between players with an Industry action from each player, no roll required.

Technology trades or Diplomacy non-actions taken in this way do not contribute towards attribute increases for the following round.

Special 10: Consolidate Permanent Cultural Identity

If you have a score of 10 in Diplomacy you may choose to make your existing Cultural Identity, created by an earlier Diplomacy 5, permanent. The Cultural Identity may be introduced simultaneously in the same round with a Diplomacy 5 special action.

A Permanent Cultural Identity remains in play as long as the kingdom exists, or until specifically replaced by a subsequent Diplomacy 10. A kingdom can support as many Permanent Cultural Identities as it can establish.

Special 10: Elevate to Grand Kingdom

If you have a score of 10 in Diplomacy and the requisite regions under your control you may choose to unify holdings that you control into a more potent kingdom.

• If you control four or more stable contiguous regions, one of which must be your capital, you may found a Great Kingdom. Great Kingdoms have a sixth action per round and may take vassals. If you ever control fewer than four contiguous regions at the start of a round, you immediately lose the title of Great Kingdom and all associated benefits. You may regain the title and the associated benefits if you manage to regain control of 4 contiguous regions within four turns. You must take a standard Diplomacy action to re-establish your status once you have achieved this.
• You may form a Great Kingdom if you are already a Merchant Prince or Holy Land, but in doing so your government is restructured. You lose access to the special benefits of being a Merchant Prince or Holy Land in exchange for gaining a Great Kingdom's benefits.
• If you are a Great Kingdom and control 12 or more regions (including vassals) you may create an Empire. Empires have seven actions per round. You lose the title and all associated benefits if you ever cease to qualify as a Great Kingdom, or cease to control fewer than 12 regions, including vassals. You may regain the title and associated benefits if you manage to regain control of 12 regions (including vassals) and spend two Diplomacy actions to re-consolidate your rule within three turns.

Great Kingdoms and Empires gain +1 to their unit cap for each vassal that they have. This includes vassals of vassals.

If you have an Empire, every time you generate a new ruler, assign +1 to one attribute score per vassal that you have. This includes vassals of vassals. You may choose which attribute you add this bonus to.

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10. Military Actions

Your Military score represents a leader’s ability to command troops, their Kingdom’s military infrastructure, and logistics. Military actions are used to train or to deploy troops, attack enemy holdings, undertake quests, build fortifications, and to develop a Kingdom’s military theory.

In general, Military actions cannot be secret, as it is hard to keep large-scale troop movements beneath the notice of other interested kingdoms.

See Combat & Warfare for the mechanics of how military battles occur.

General Actions:

• Recruiting Units
• Deploying Units: Attacking and Defending Regions
• Break Vassalage
• Destroy Organization Base
• Purge Faith
• Sack
• Suppress Unrest
• Quest

 

Special Actions:

• Special 5: Recruit a Hero
• Special 5: Introduce Tactical Doctrine
• Special 10: Raise Fortress
• Special 10: Research Military Technology

 

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Recruiting Units

Units are recruited with a Military action. One unit is recruited per action taken.

Units function as your available army and navy. Once a unit is recruited, it remains in play until you disband it, or it is lost during combat or other in-game events. It is assumed that any natural wastage due to retirement of individual soldiers is replenished.

One unit is typically equivalent in effectiveness to 200 members of a human kingdom’s warrior caste, be they tribal leaders, knights, hurskarls, or the like, this representation changes at GM intentions for the specific game. Units become available for deployment in the round after they are recruited. Larger numbers of less elite fighters may be introduced as a Unit if it is more fitting for your kingdom’s tone - trading off quality for numbers may result in as many as 2000 meaningful fighters per unit, though they will be of lesser strength than the assumed core 200. The reverse is also true, as kingdoms made up of nonhumans may choose to have smaller numbers of meaningful fighters in their Units to represent exceptional abilities. Regardless, in all cases a Unit represents a substantial portion of your people’s potential fighting strength.

You may recruit as many units in a round as you have actions available. The maximum number of units you may have in play at any one time is 6, plus 2 for every additional region you control beyond your capital. For example, a 3-region Realm may have up to 10 units in play.

Having vassals or being a vassal has implications for a kingdom’s unit capacity; in general, lieges have increased unit capacity while vassals have reduced unit capacity. For full details, see the Vassalage rules.

If any of your regions border a coast, a deep water region, or a border interrupted by a lake you may recruit additional naval units. The maximum number of naval units you may have in play is 3, plus 1 for every additional qualifying region you control; this pool is separate from and in addition to the army unit limit. Naval units can be used to engage at sea, transport army units, or participate in coastal battles.

If at the start of a round you have more units in play than the above limits allow, excess units are automatically disbanded.

Deploying Units: Attacking and Defending Regions

Units can be sent to occupy a region that you do not control. You may deploy any number of your units to attack a single region with one action. If the region is not defended, it will be conquered automatically. You cannot conquer unpopulated regions.

If you are under attack, you may deploy units to defend your regions. The defender must still allocate its units to specific regions it wants to defend. If you are under attack in two or more regions, you must therefore decide where to deploy its troops and in what numbers.

If a defended region is attacked, a battle results. If the attacker wins the battle, it takes possession of the region. The region will suffer unrest as a result of the conquest.

If the defender wins the battle, it retains possession of the region and the attacker is driven out. If the result is a tie, the defender retains possession of the region, but if the attacker renews the attack the following round, it will gain a +2 bonus on the battle roll.

Battles are determined by an opposed roll: see the rules on Combat & Warfare for full details of how these rolls are calculated.

Break Vassalage

If you are a vassal, you can renounce your vassalage to your liege at any time with a Military action. If your liege does not agree to this, breaking vassalage carries repercussions in your territory.

On taking the Military action without your liege’s approval, you cease to be a vassal automatically and you do not need to roll. However, if the departure is not amicable your liege may attempt to spread unrest as you depart. A dissatisfied liege may roll 2d6 + Diplomacy, opposed by your own 2d6 + Diplomacy roll with a minimum TN of 12. If the liege succeeds, the vassal’s capital region enters unrest as the various mechanisms of government buckle under the reorganization of your kingdom.

See the Vassalage rules for more information as to vassalage generally.

Destroy Organization Base

You may take military action to destroy the base of an Organization located within a region you control. This option is only available within your own regions: bases located in regions you do not control are not vulnerable to direct attack.

Roll 2d6 and add your Military score and any applicable bonuses, which will be opposed by the Organization’s roll of 2d6 plus their primary score. If you beat the Organizations’ score, the base is overrun and destroyed. The region enters unrest due to the social impact of the fighting and destruction of a major regional feature.

If you fail to beat the organization’s score, the base remains and the region rises in rebellion as the organization rallies its supporters against you.

Purge Faith

A Purge involves using armed forces (or the threat of armed force) to clear a faith group from a region they control. To purge a Holy Site, roll 2d6 and add Military score plus any other applicable bonuses.

• On a roll of 12 or higher, the Purge is successful and the Holy Site becomes vacant. The violence of the purge causes the region to suffer unrest.
• On a roll of 18 or higher, the Purge is successful and the region does not enter unrest.
• If the roll is lower than 12, the Purge fails and the region enters unrest as the faithful close ranks against your government.

Sack

A Kingdom may sack a Trading Post or City within its own borders, in a neighbouring region, or along shared coastlines. This may be to weaken an enemy’s economic network, to remove troublesome influences, or to gain loot.

Roll 2d6 and add Military and any applicable bonus. The owner of the Trading Post or City will automatically oppose the roll. If the sacking Kingdom wins the opposed roll-off and meets the target number, the sack is successful. The sacking Kingdom gains 1 Treasure.

If the target is a Trading Post, the target number is 12. On a successful sack, the Trading Post becomes vacant. On a great success (the higher of TN 18 or defender’s roll plus 6) the targeted Trading Post is destroyed.

If the target is a City (see Industry for the Found City special action), the target number is 14. If the sack is successful, the City is devastated. Sacked cities can be repaired with an Industry action.

Suppress Unrest

If a region is in unrest, a Kingdom can choose to suppress the unrest violently using its military rather than engaging diplomatically. If successful, this will restore order to the region, but the casualties among the civilian population will damage its economy.

Roll 2d6 and add your Military score and any applicable bonuses. If your roll is at least 14, the region’s stability improves. However, the overwhelming violence of the action means that one trading post in the region is permanently destroyed, as the merchants and craftsmen are either killed in the slaughter or flee.

Quest

You can only undertake a Quest if you currently employ a Hero. The Hero is sent into unexplored territory to search for a new region. Your target must be adjacent to an explored region, but it may be within any player’s borders or unclaimed. Roll using the Hero score, rather than your Military score, to determine success.

The standard TN is 12. If successful, the Hero finds suitable land, and returns with information regarding the region. On a great success (TN 18) the Hero also returns with 1 Unit, composed of the followers and hangers-on moved to their service. Failure on the roll leaves the Hero lost in the wilderness, and unable to be used for one round following the failed Quest.

See Heroes for more information on how heroes and quests work. 15.1 Quest

Special 5: Recruit a Hero

A ruler with a Military score of 5 or more may recruit a Hero. Heroes can be used to command your armies, guard Artifacts, and undertake Quests.

When a hero enters play, roll 1d4+6 to determine their hero score.

For full details on Heroes, see the Hero rules.

Special 5: Introduce Tactical Doctrine

If your ruler has a Military score of at least 5, you can introduce a new Tactical Doctrine. When used successfully, a Tactical Doctrine affects the performance of an army in battle. Examples of Tactical Doctrines would include (but are not limited to):

• Improved medical assistance for troops, decreasing battlefield casualties;
• Better protection for an army’s leaders, with a reduced chance of losing the commander;
• Raiding away from the main force to sack Trading Posts

Tactical Doctrines are subject to approval on introduction by the GM on a case-by-case basis.

You may possess any number of Tactical Doctrines, but may only use one at a time. Tactical Doctrines cannot be shared or stolen.

Attempting to use a Tactical Doctrine is a sub-action of an attack or defense action. To determine whether a Tactical Doctrine is in effect during a battle, make an opposed roll using Military score and any applicable bonuses. The winner of the opposed roll applies their Tactical Doctrine.

Larger armies are harder to maneuver, so you suffer a -1 penalty on any such Tactical Maneuvering roll for each 4 units in the army.

Special 10: Raise Fortress

A ruler with a Military score of 10 may build a major fortress in one of their regions.

A Fortress grants a permanent +2 bonus in battles to defend the region.

If any of your regions contain a Fortress, you may, once per round, recruit 2 units with a single action. This benefit can only be used once per round, no matter how many Fortresses you control.

Special 10: Research Military Technology

A ruler with a Military score of 10 may introduce a new military technology. Military technologies include such developments as:

• New or improved equipment, such as chariots, longer-ranged bows, or more protective armour;
• Technical developments, such as improved metallurgy or smithing;
• Improved logistics, enabling units to be supplied more easily away from home.

A technology will provide a mechanical benefit to any Kingdom that possesses it and the necessary resources to use it. This is usually expressed by way of a bonus to battle rolls or equivalent effect.

A technology becomes available for use or trade in the round after it is created.

A technology may have prerequisites in the form of resources or other technologies. A Kingdom must possess the necessary prerequisites in order to benefit from the technology’s effect.

All elements of technology creation (including whether a proposed technology is thematically appropriate for the setting) are subject to the discretion of the GM.

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11. Industry

 

Industry, also known as Economy or Opulence, is the attribute used to represent the ability of your ruler / realm to manage your finances, trade network and the ability to execute favorable deals. You use your industry attribute to manage and exploit your resources and develop civilian technologies.

General Actions:

• Buyout Trading Post
• Exchange Trading Post
• Hoard Treasure
• Expedition

Special Actions:

• Special 5: Create Trading Post
• Special 5: Upgrade Resource
• Special 5: Raise City
• Special 10: New Technology
• Special 10: Economic Unity
• Special 10: Establish Trade Route

 

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Buyout Trading Post

You may attempt to gain control of revealed trading posts using a Buyout action. You may attempt to take over unowned trading posts in any region regardless of distance, border connection, or other geographical limitations as long as the region is revealed to you. However, attempting to buy out trading posts on other continents will incur a penalty.

Roll 2d6 plus Industry and any relevant bonuses. If your roll equals or exceeds 12, you acquire the trading post. If another player already owns the trading post in question and does not want to relinquish control, make an opposed roll, with both players rolling 2d6 plus Industry and relevant bonuses. If you own the region the trade post being contested is in you may support your attempt and get +2 to the roll. You must meet the target number and exceed the other player’s roll to acquire the Trading Post.

You may support attempts by other players or yourself to buy out unowned trading posts in regions that you control. You can also choose to support a buyout of a trading post you already control. If so, specify this in your actions post as a non-action.

If you support a buyout, the acquiring player adds +2 to their roll. You cannot support your own buyouts unless you own the region.

Holding multiple Trading Posts helps increase the overall wealth and prestige of your Realm, as rare and precious things flow from across the world to your lands. As a Kingdom gains control of increasing numbers of Trading Posts, they benefit from this by accruing passive Treasure every round. Once a Kingdom passes a threshold of controlling 5, 10, 20, and 40 Trading Posts they gain a stacking 1 Treasure every round (1 Treasure at 5 TPs, 2 Treasure at 10 TPs, 3 Treasure at 20 TPs, etc.).

Exchange Trading Post

If you own a trading post, you can give it to or exchange it with another Realm with which you have an Embassy. Both you and the other player must take this action to transfer control of Trading Posts in this way.

Hoard Treasure

Treasure serves as a unit of currency. You can generate one treasure using an Industry action, much the same way as a Military action raises a unit. Before making a roll, you may choose to spend a maximum of one Treasure to provide an additional +1 bonus to the roll. Treasure may be spent on most rolls, but may not be spent to increase the result of stat rolls for new rulers, event conflict rolls, Hero generation rolls, Tactical Maneuvering rolls, or Duel rolls.

Your maximum Treasure is determined by Realm type. A default Realm can hold up to 5 Treasure in its treasury. A Great Kingdom or Holy Land can hold up to 10. An Empire or Merchant Princedom may hold up to 15. Treasure that exceeds this cap is lost, whether due to corruption, mismanagement, or the depredations of outside forces.

Expedition

A reliable way to explore the unknown regions is to fund an expedition. Expeditions will focus on finding out what peoples and resources lie in an unknown region. You can only send an Expedition to a region that borders one of your own regions. Roll 2d6 and add your Industry score plus any applicable bonuses.

When you take the action, indicate the direction from your own region that you want to explore. Pay attention to the map to ensure that there is (or is likely to be) a region there to be discovered. add your Industry score and any applicable bonuses. On a roll of 10 or higher you discover a region (assuming an undiscovered region exists in the direction selected) and you gain a +1 bonus to the next round to Buyout the region's Resource.

A Great Success (16 or Higher) provides you with 1 Treasure in addition to the region details and temporary Buyout bonus.

Special 5: Create Trading Post

If you have an Industry score of 5 or higher you may increase the number of trading posts in one of your regions. You may perform this action in a region you control, or in a region with whose owner you share an embassy. Increasing the quantity of a resource will turn a Minor quantity resource into a Good quantity resource and a Good quantity resource into a Great quantity resource. You automatically gain control of the new Trade Post created by this action, and may not assign ownership to another kingdom as part of the action.

If the region already contains a Great resource, you cannot add a new trading post, though you may be able to found a City.

Special 5: Upgrade Resource

The nature of a region’s resource can be changed with an Industry 5 by the player who owns the region. You may perform this action in a region you control, or in a region with whose owner you share an embassy. Examples include upgrading a Cotton resource to Textiles, or upgrading Wild Horses to Domesticated Horses.

Special 5: Raise City

If you have an Industry score of 5 or more, you can found a City in one of your regions. A region can support up to one City, which provides an additional trading post of the local resource. A City is always controlled by the owner of the region. Regions with a City gain a +1 bonus to defending against military attack. Cities cannot be bought out or raided, but they can be Sacked. A sacked city can be restored with an Industry action.

A City represents a significant sign of progress of population centres and as such a Realm can only support so many. For every four regions a Realm controls a Realm can control one City.

Special 10: New Technology

If you have an Industry score of 10, you may introduce a new technology. A technology will provide a mechanical benefit to any Realm that possesses it and the necessary resources (including prerequisite technologies) to use it. This is usually, but not exclusively, expressed as a bonus to a certain type of roll.

Civilian technologies created with an Industry 10 action do not have a military application and cannot give a bonus to battle rolls. Creating a new technology requires that you already have any prerequisite technologies or any resources that are a prerequisite.

Prerequisites for any technology are to be discussed with the GM. Resources being used for a technology are ‘consumed’; they still count for region requirements, but cannot be used for another technology without additional Trading Posts. The use and bonuses of technologies are generally determined on a case-by-case basis. However, some technologies may specifically apply only to certain regions or have other special restrictions, to be determined by the player and GM.

Special 10: Economic Unity

If your leader has an Industry score of 10, and you possess 15 or more trading posts, you may choose to elevate your status to a Merchant Prince.

Merchant Princes may take a sixth action every round. This action must be an Industry action. Merchant Princes may also spend up to 2 Treasure on any roll as long as they retain the title (See Treasure rules).

If the number of trading posts you control falls below 15, and remains below 15 for two rounds, you lose the status of Merchant Prince and the associated benefits.

Merchant Princes can become Holy Lands or Great Kingdoms, but in doing so your government is restructured. You lose access to the special benefits of being a Merchant Prince in exchange for gaining a the benefits of a Holy Land or Great Kingdom.

Special 10: Establish Trade Route

If you have an Industry score of 10, you can create a trade route, linking your Realm with another through a complex web of economic agreements and shared highways. Choose two Cities, one of which you must control, that can be linked by an overland route. If the second City is controlled by another Realm, that Realm's player must accept the Trade Route as a non-action. Chart a route between the two cities - the Trade Route occupies one trading post in every region along the route, and provides the resources on the route to the Realms in control of the two cities anchoring the Trade Route. The course of the Trade Route must be submitted to the GM for approval.

If a region along the Trade Route lacks an open trading post, the Trade Route creator chooses one trading post owner to displace in favour of the Trade Route trading post. If transit through other kingdom's regions is necessary for the route, that kingdom must use a non-action to approve creation of the route. Trade Posts controlled by the Trade Route do not count towards Trade Post totals for the purpose of passive treasure gain, but control of a City anchoring a Trade Route provides one passive treasure gain per round. This does not stack if one Realm controls both Cities anchoring the Route.

A Trade Route cannot pass through borders that are impassable to either player whose City serves as anchor (e.g. passing over a Mountain border if both players do not share a mountain traversal technology). Hostile action against a trading post linked to the route, or unrest in any region through which the route passes, shuts down the Trade Route until the unrest is resolved and/or the route TP is restored to normal operations. If a Trade Route TP is the target of a Raid, Buyout, or Sack, the resistance roll may be rolled by the highest applicable score of either Trade Route anchor Realm. Either anchor Realm may also attempt to regain control of this TP in subsequent rounds.

If one of the Cities anchoring the Trade Route is sacked, the Trade Route is suspended. If the City is repaired within two rounds of being Sacked, the Trade Route resumes operation. However, if more than two rounds pass before the City is repaired, the Route expires and must be re-established with another Industry 10 Action.

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12. Faith Actions

 

Your ruler’s Faith score represents their personal devotion, their relationship with the head of their faith and their political power within that faith, and the strength of their religious relationship with their people.

When you first join the game, you will follow the beliefs of your people, whatever they are. All religions are unorganized at the game start and they can be organized through play with the special action. you can convert to a faith organized by another player, or start your own church to spread influence across the world.

If you follow an unorganized religion, you can attempt to convert Holy Sites to your religion and discover or create Artifacts, but you cannot establish a Holy Land, found Holy Orders, or perform Miracles. You do not gain any bonuses associated with the number of Holy Sites your religion controls.

If you organize a religion, you become the head of that religion. This means that you can determine the direction and doctrine of the religion, and influence any Kingdoms that follow it. If you decide to adopt a different religion, you will lose the status of religious head, and that position becomes vacant. You may if you wish step down from this position voluntarily even if you still follow the religion. This is a non-action. If you are dissatisfied with the current head of your religion, you can challenge them and try to take the position yourself. See below for details on how to claim the status of religious head, together with other examples of Faith actions.

Magical effects and influences are typically handled under faith even if they are not based on religion.

Actions tagged with the (Org) markers requires a faith to be Organized to be completed.

General Actions:

• Convert Holy Site
• Seek Aid
• Become Religious Head
• Cast Out
• Set a Holy Site Bonus
• Adopt Faith

 

Special Actions:

• Special 5: Create Holy Order
• Special 5: Discover or Create Artifact
• Special 5: Organize Faith
• Special 10: Miracle
• Special 10: Religious Unity

 

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Convert Holy Site

Attempt to convert a Holy Site to your faith. You can only convert Holy Sites to the faith that you follow. Even if your faith is unorganized, you can attempt to convert Holy Sites. You can only attempt to convert Holy Sites in regions which you have contact with. If your route to a region is entirely blocked by fog of war, you cannot attempt to convert in that region.

Roll 2d6 and add your ruler’s Faith score, plus any other applicable modifiers, against a TN of 12. If you succeed on the roll, the Holy Site is converted to your religion.

If you are trying to convert a Holy Site in a region belonging to another player, they have the option of ignoring the conversion, supporting it or resisting it. If they ignore it, you roll against the TN as normal. If they support your conversion, you still roll against the same TN but gain an additional +2 to the roll, to reflect local political support. If they resist your conversion, make an opposed roll on 2d6 to determine whether you are successful. Even if you roll higher than the region owner, you must still score at least 12.

Supporting and resisting conversions are non-actions, but must still be noted in your actions post.

Seek Aid

Sometimes, a course of action is so important to a people they will seek the aid of a higher power. In such situations, you may choose to Seek Aid on behalf of your realm. Roll Faith against a TN of 12 - if successful, you gain a +1 bonus on a subsequent rolled action. The details of this action must be decided before the Seek Aid is rolled and noted in the Seek Aid action, and you cannot Seek Aid retroactively on an action you have already rolled for. Seek Aid may not be used to increase Hero or Ruler score rolls, Tactical Maneuvering rolls, or Duel rolls. Any given roll may only benefit from one Seek Aid in a Turn.

You may Seek Aid on behalf of another realm that shares your faith, if you follow an organized faith. As with Seeking Aid on your own behalf, the details of the roll you hope to benefit must be specified in the Seek Aid action and must predate a roll in the action itself

Become Religious Head

If you have adopted an organized religion, you can attempt to claim the title of religious head. This is of course easier if there is no competition for the position.

• Roll 2d6 and add your Faith score plus any applicable bonuses, including the following:
• Add +2 to your score for every other Realm which follows the religion and supports your claim.
• If you are the only remaining follower of the religion, add +2 to your roll.
• If the position of religious head is currently vacant, add a further +2 to your roll.
• If you are a Holy Land, add +2 to your roll.

If your score is 20 or higher, you become the new head of the religion in the same round.
If your score is at least 14, your claim is not wholly unsuccessful, but you must take a further action in the following round to consolidate it. You do not need to roll for this consolidation action if your claim is unopposed.

If multiple players are attempting to claim the title of religious head at the same time, this is treated as an opposed roll with whoever scores highest winning. The highest-scoring player must nevertheless meet the target numbers above. If no player succeeds in the first round, they roll again in the second round, with the player who scores highest winning. If a player successfully claims the title in the first round, the other players are defeated and do not take an action to consolidate their claim in the following round - though they can instigate a fresh challenge and start the process again.

If the position of religious head is currently occupied, make an opposed roll against the existing head to try to oust them from their position, with both players applying bonuses as set out above. You must however both exceed their roll and meet the target number above in order to succeed in taking over the position. If you fail on either count, the existing religious head remains in place. Resisting an attempt to take over the position of religious head is a non-action.

If you succeed in becoming the new head of a religion, you may take a sub-action to redefine one of the Holy Site bonuses associated with the religion. This reflects the change in direction you intend to bring to the faith. You can only change one bonus this way.

Cast Out

If you are the head of an organized religion, you can take an action to cast our or excommunicate realms from your religion. If the realm accepts being cast out, this happens automatically on taking the action; otherwise, make an opposed Faith roll.

If you are cast out of a faith, you will derive no benefits from being associated with it. You can re-adopt the same religion with an Adopt Faith action but require the approval of the religious head in order to do so. Being cast out from your Faith may impose additional penalties, depending on the circumstances of your conflict with the Faith Head.

For two rounds following the Cast Out action, the Faith Head may roll to defend against conversions in the Cast Out regions, to represent the entrenched clerical hierarchy's break with the secular government.

Set a Holy Site Bonus

All followers of a religion gain bonuses to certain types of actions as decided by the head of that religion. The size and number of these bonuses depends on the number of Holy Sites controlled.

If you are the head of an organized religion, you can take an action to define one of these bonuses. You must qualify for the bonus at the time you take the action to define it.

You can redefine the bonus with a further action, should you later decide a different bonus would be more desirable.

• When your faith controls 5 Holy Sites, all followers gain a +1 bonus on a specific type of roll.
• When your faith controls 10 Holy Sites, all followers gain a shared Cultural Identity.
• At 20 Holy Sites all followers gain a benefit equivalent to a Tier 1 technology.
• At 40 Holy Sites, all followers gain a benefit equivalent to a Tier 2 technology.

Further bonuses may be available should any organized religion obtain 80 or 160 Holy Sites.

If the number of Holy Sites your religion controls falls so that you no longer qualify for a bonus that you have already established, you can no longer make use of the bonus. It will however be automatically reinstated if you acquire sufficient Holy Sites to qualify again.

Adopt Faith

If a religion has been organized (See Special 5 Organize Faith), you can officially convert to it and gain the benefits associated with being a member of that faith. Take a Faith action to make this your realm’s new official religion.

Once you have adopted a new faith, you can make use of the Holy Site Bonuses associated with that faith. You can also contribute to internal church debates over who should lead the faith, or challenge for the position yourself.

Special 5: Create Holy Order

If you have a score of 5 in Faith you can spend an action to establish a regional Holy Order. These could be warrior priests bound to righteous crusade, a monastery for wise and reflective monks, or a distinguished collection of nobles committed to their faith’s cause. A region can only support one holy order, but a Holy Order may be established in any region, even those you do not directly control, so long as the region’s Holy Site is controlled by your religion.

A Holy Order counts as an additional Holy Site for the purposes of achieving Unity, or defining bonuses based on numbers of Holy Sites controlled. If a Holy Order is present in a region it gives a +4 innate defensive bonus against Purges or Conversion to other Holy Sites in that region which share its religion.

Holy Orders may also be used to guard Artifacts, in which case the Artifact cannot be used outside your own regions, but benefits from the Holy Order’s +4 bonus against attempts to steal it. A Holy Order can only defend three Artifacts.

Holy Orders cannot be converted, but can be exterminated in a Purge or replaced by another Faith 5 action.

Special 5: Discover or Create Artifact

If you have a score of 5 in Faith, you can spend an action to create an Artifact. This could be a mystical icon that bestows magical powers onto its bearer, an enchanted, sentient weapon, or the remains of a long-dead holy person that blesses the area in which they’re held.

An Artifact provides a small bonus to one action, up to once per round, and can be lost or stolen. You can give an Artifact to a Holy Order for them to guard, in which case the Artifact cannot be used for rolls outside your borders, but receives the +4 bonus from the Holy Order to rolls to avoid being lost or stolen. If the Holy Order is purged or replaced, the Artifact disappears, and may resurface elsewhere.

Instead of being entrusted to a Holy Order, an Artifact may instead be bestowed on a Hero. In the hands of a Hero, the Artifact may only affect rolls directly involving the Hero. However, if held by a Hero, the Artifact receives a +2 bonus to avoid being lost or stolen and provides a +2 bonus to any roll to maintain the Hero's loyalty. If the Hero is persuaded to defect to another Realm, they take all their Artifacts with them. If a Hero is killed in a Duel, their artifacts are claimed by their killer. If a Hero is killed on an Epic Quest, their artifacts disappear and may be searched for with the Investigation action (See Intrigue).

There is no limit to the number of Artifacts a Hero can be granted, but a Holy Order can defend a maximum of three Artifacts.

Special 5: Organize Faith

If you have a Faith score of 5, you can take an action to formally organize your faith. To organize a Faith, the unorganized Faith must control at least 5 Holy Sites. This may be an organization of your unorganized native religion, or a schism with an existing organized religion. You automatically adopt the new faith without needing to take an action.

Your leader is treated as the head of this new faith by default, although you may designate another character as the head. Followers of an organized religion receive bonuses based on its number of controlled Holy Sites as designated in the Set Holy Site Bonus action.

If you are organizing a previously unorganized religion, Holy Sites controlled by that religion will convert to the new organized religion.

Setting organized ideology bonuses normally requires one action per bonus, but setting the bonus for controlling 5 Holy Sites may be taken as a sub-action of the Organization special action.

Special 10: Miracle

If you follow an organized religion, you may request a Miracle from the power(s) that you worship, or perform a Miracle using your understanding of magic or other supernatural forces. The most common use for Miracles is to learn information, accomplish unusually difficult tasks, or impart a benefit to characters such as immortality or increased power. Such uses often have limited direct mechanical effect, but would not otherwise be possible through mundane means.

You can however try to use a Miracle to gain a more tangible benefit. This may take the form of an improvement to your Holy Orders, creation of particularly powerful artifacts, or granting increased abilities to your ruler, ruler’s bloodline, or Heroes. You can request that a Miracle is unleashed on one of your enemies, to smite a character or curse a region.

Work with the GM to determine an appropriate representation of the Miracle you wish to perform. It is a good idea to approach the GM well in advance with your plans for a Miracle, to allow adequate time for it to play out over the course of a round.

Examples of miracles used in previous games include:

• Requesting a deity personally resolve a schism in their church;
• Turning a character into an immortal dragon;
• Bringing an assassinated character back to life;
• Creating a special book that can be read even by people who don’t speak the language;
• Moving a magical storm to interfere with shipping;
• Binding supernatural creatures to a ruling family or group of families;
• Permanently changing the climate in a region;
• Turning a mundane ship into a magical stone ship that still floats;
• Developing a form of magic that characters can use on an ongoing basis.

These are examples only, in order to give an idea of what is possible, and do not represent a limited set of options for you to choose from.

All elements of Miracles - even moreso than for other actions - are at the GM’s discretion, and you may find that your Miracle does not work in quite the way you intended. Standing too close to a Miracle can be harmful to health.

Special 10: Religious Unity

If you have a Faith score of 10 and meet the other requirements, you may choose to declare your realm a Holy Land. Holy Lands are considered an improvement on the standard realm with a religious emphasis.

In order to become a Holy Land you must follow an organized religion which controls at least 15 Holy Sites. If the number of Holy Sites controlled by your state religion drops below 15, you lose the title of Holy Land and all the associated benefits. If you regain control of 15 Holy Sites within 2 rounds, you regain Holy Land status without having to spend a new Special 10 action.

In establishing a Holy Land, you may establish a free Holy Order in your Capital. This Holy Order may exist in addition to the Holy Order normally allowed by the Faith 5 special action. The bonuses to conversion resistance in the region stack if two Holy Orders are present.

Holy Lands may take a sixth action every round. This action must be a Faith action.

If you are a Holy Land, you will find it easier to take over regions associated with your religion. If an unoccupied region’s Holy Site is controlled by your religion, you may take the press claim action to take control over the region as if you had a claim. See the Diplomacy rules for details of how to press your claim. There is no limit to the number of claims that can be pressed in this way.

Holy Lands can become Merchant Princes or Great Kingdoms, but in doing so your government is restructured. You lose access to the special benefits of being a Holy Land in exchange for gaining a the benefits of a Merchant Prince or Great Kingdom.

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13. Intrigue Actions

 

Intrigue represents a realm’s overall capability for spycraft and information gathering, both above-board and surreptitious.

A higher Intrigue score will help in subterfuge against other realms or countering such villainy against oneself. Spying on neighbors, monitoring rumors and communication, and plotting or foiling schemes are the broad purposes of Intrigue. Great Projects intended to draw the attention of spies, saboteurs, and detectives fall under Intrigue.

General Actions:

• Investigation
• Fomenting Unrest
• Theft
• Raids
• Slander

 

Special Actions:

• Special 5: Assassination/Kidnapping
• Special 5: Destroy Organization Base or Damage Organization HQ
• Intrigue 10 Special: Spark Rebellion
• Special 10: Incite Betrayal

 

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Investigation

Despite the reputation garnered by more nefarious uses, Intrigue is also used to keep abreast of events and to discover the truth behind mysteries. Investigating an event or mystery requires a standard check (2d6+Intrigue) against a variable, hidden TN. The degree of success of an investigation is dependent on the result, and it may be that the investigators meet with only partial success or fail altogether. Note that some investigations may be impossible: a high roll does not guarantee a discovery if there is no lead to follow or secret to uncover.

Fomenting Unrest

Intrigue allows canny plotters to sow dissent and undermine the stability of their rivals. A Realm may attempt to cause unrest in a stable region using an opposed Intrigue roll against the region’s controller. If successful, the target region enters unrest. (See Unrest and Rebellion for more information)

This action cannot typically cause a region to progress from Unrest to Rebellion - see the Spark Rebellion special action for that.

Theft

Realms of a larcenous inclination may use Intrigue to steal Technologies, Artifacts (see Faith, Artifacts), Treasure (see Industry, Treasure) and other items of material value from rivals. Thefts are opposed Intrigue rolls between a thief and the current owner. In the case of technologies, a successful thief duplicates knowledge of the technology without depriving the owner but all other successful thefts transfer possession of the target Artifact or 1 unit of Treasure from the current owner to the thief.

Raids

Intrigue can be used to seize control of a trading post controlled by another realm using a Raid. A Raid is an intrigue roll targeting an owned Trading Post, opposed by the existing controller’s intrigue. If successful, control of the trading post transfers to the raider. Unlike buyouts (see Industry, Buyouts), raids are inherently hostile and cannot be supported, nor can the trading post’s current owner waive their opposed roll. (See Resources and Trade for more information).

Slander

Prospective Wormtongues may use Intrigue to sully the names of their rivals in the eyes of organizations worth currying favor from. (See Organizations for more information)

Slandering is an opposed intrigue roll targeting another realm with respect to one organization, with both the slanderer and target’s rolls modified by their respective reputations with that organization - a slanderer considered an Initiate to that organization would receive +1 to their roll and a target already seen as an Enemy would suffer -2 to their resistance roll. If successful, the target’s reputation with the selected organization is reduced one step, to a minimum of -3.

It is not possible to slander a realm without having first established diplomatic contact with the realm.

Special 5: Assassination/Kidnapping

A realm with an Intrigue score of 5 or more may attempt to assassinate or kidnap individuals of interest. An assassination or kidnapping attempt is an opposed roll against the target’s Intrigue score, including any relevant bonuses. If the target is a hero, treat their intrigue as equal to their hero score for this purpose (See Military, Heroes for more information). If the assassin wins the opposed roll, the target is killed or captured. In the event of a tie the target escapes alive, though may be wounded or otherwise inconvenienced. In the event of a failure the special action is not expended, but the target of the failed attempt receives an additional +2 bonus to resist further assaults on their person in the following round. Characters with no mechanical impact on the game may be assassinated as a normal Secret Action without consuming a Special.

Attempts to rescue captured characters (whether captured in war or kidnapped) are treated as kidnappings, with the captor’s intrigue rolled to resist such heroics.

Special 5: Destroy Organization Base or Damage Organization HQ

A realm with an Intrigue score of 5 or more may attempt to attack a known Base belonging to an organization. If this action is performed openly or otherwise discovered, the perpetrator's Reputation with that organization immediately drops by 3 ranks. (See Organizations for more information)

Bases located in uncontrolled regions are destroyed uncontested if attacked. For Bases located in player-controlled regions, the result of an attack is determined by an opposed intrigue roll between the attacker and the region owner, with the defender winning in the event of a tie. The region owner may refuse to defend the base if they do not wish to, in which case the attack succeeds uncontested. In the event of a failed attack, the special action is not expended.

If this action is used to successfully attack an organization’s HQ, the HQ is damaged rather than immediately destroyed. While an Organization's HQ is damaged, it takes a -2 penalty to all rolls; the HQ can be repaired with a two-action Project by the owner of the region in which it is located. If an HQ is Damaged by I5s three times before repairs are complete, the HQ is destroyed.

Intrigue 10 Special: Spark Rebellion

A realm with an Intrigue score of 10 may attempt to push a region in unrest into outright rebellion. This action must target a region in a state of unrest and requires a successful opposed intrigue roll to upgrade the region’s status from unrest to rebellion. (See Unrest and Rebellion for more information)

A rebellion sparked using this action consists of a militant uprising in a target region with 1d6+1 units led by a Hero (1d4+6) who attempts to throw off the yoke of the region’s current ruling Realm. The goals of the rebels are determined by the GM. Some rebels may also have access to technologies or other bonuses, as determined by the GM.

Special 10: Incite Betrayal

A realm with an Intrigue score of 10 may attempt to sway a hero sworn to one of their rivals through bribery, seduction, coercion, or other means. To do so requires an opposed Intrigue roll against the target Hero’s current realm’s Diplomacy. If successful, the target hero leaves their current realm and enters the service of the realm taking this special action. (See Military, Heroes for more information) In the event of a tie, the Hero’s loyalty is retained and expends the I10 special.

Any Hero whose loyalties change as a result of this action is forever known as a Betrayer and all future diplomacy rolls to resist Incite Betrayal special actions targeting this hero are taken at a -4 penalty.

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14. Combat & Warfare

War Deadline and OOC Conduct

Due to the importance and complexity of military actions, players who wish to deploy troops against other players are encouraged to take their actions as early in the round as possible so that other players have a chance to respond appropriately.

If you are attacking another player, or are taking other actions that are likely to bring you into conflict (such as attacking a neutral region that they are also trying to conquer) you should notify them of your intentions as soon as possible, by private message, in the OOC thread, discord for the game, or by some other means likely to bring it to their attention. If you make dramatic adjustments to your war actions in the course of a round so that it affects another player, you should notify them of this.

War actions are subject to an earlier deadline than other actions. All war actions should be posted and confirmed by a war deadline given by the GM. The GM may grant permission for actions to be edited after this point depending on circumstances. If you post or edit war actions shortly before the deadline, the GM will probably permit your opponent to edit theirs after the deadline in order to respond.
Players who spring “surprise attacks” (or indeed “surprise defenses”) on foes at the end of the round, without permission in advance from the GM, will be penalized barring extenuating circumstances.

Combat & Warfare Sections:

• Attacking and Defending Regions
• Region Battle Effects
• Distance Losses
• Tactical Maneuvering
• Intercepting attacking armies
• Commanders
• Units
• Tactical Doctrines
• Technologies
• Duels
• Other Modifiers & Assisting Allies
• Battles
• Calculating Casualties
• Outcomes of Battle

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14.1. Attacking and Defending Regions

Units can be sent to invade or occupy a region that you do not control using the Deploy Military Action. You may deploy any number of your units to attack a single region with one action. Each unit can only be deployed once per round. You can launch as many attacks in a round as you have actions and units available.

You must have a clear path from your own border to the region you want to attack. If any region along your route is unexplored or blighted, you will not be able to pass through and will have to either conquer that region or find another route. Unclaimed regions with NPC troops will automatically attempt to intercept your forces if they move through the unclaimed region.

If you have to travel across the sea to reach the region you want to attack, you will need a fleet of naval units to carry your army. 1 naval unit can carry up to 2 other units. If you do not have enough naval units to carry your army, you must leave units behind.

If you attack a region that is not defended, you will conquer it automatically. The region becomes part of your Kingdom, although it will be in unrest.

If you are under attack, you can defend any number of your own regions with a single action. The defender must still allocate its units to specific regions it wants to defend. If you are under attack in two or more regions, you must therefore decide where to deploy its troops and in what numbers.

Kingdoms may at times possess regions that are separated from the rest of their territory by regions belonging to other kingdoms or by deep water borders. If these regions come under attack, they may only mobilize a number of defending Units equal to the Unit Cap provided by them and any other of their kingdom's owned regions that share an uninterrupted link (2 land Units and 1 naval Unit for normal regions, 6 land Units and 3 naval Units for a kingdom's capital). For the purposes of determining this adjacency, regions controlled by a single kingdom that are linked across White, Light Blue, and Green borders are automatically considered adjacent, while regions linked across Red, Gold, or Black borders are considered adjacent if their kingdom controls the appropriate traversal technologies and controls the Trade Posts necessary to activate them. If the defending kingdom wishes to apply more units to the defense, they must dispatch Units from other owned areas, potentially incurring distance losses and becoming vulnerable to interception.

If you attack a defended region, a battle results. See below for full details on how battles are decided.

Whether you are attacking or defending, you must specify in your actions post:

• How many units are deployed to the region
• Who is commanding those units
• What, if any, tactical doctrine you intend to use
• What technologies your troops have available for use

14.2. Region Battle Effects

Most regions are separated by white borders, over which attacks and defense function normally. However, a number of special border colors separate regions on the map, and provide varying bonuses and penalties when military action occurs over them. Confirm with your specific game if there are additional border types or modifications for your game.

• Light Blue: River Border. 
  • You can cross this border without requiring special technology or naval units, but it is harder to attack across rivers.
  • If defending against an attack over a river border, you gain a +2 modifier to your battle roll.
• Green: Hill Border. 
  • You can cross this border without requiring special technology, but it is harder to attack across hills.
  • Defending against an attack over a hill border grants the defender a +2 bonus on the battle roll.
• Red: Mountain Border. 
  • You need mountain traversal technology to cross a mountain border.
  • If you send troops across a mountain border, this counts as crossing 2 regions when determining distance losses.
  • Defending against an attack over a mountain border grants a +4 bonus to the defender.
• Gold: Desert Border. 
  • You need desert traversal technology to cross a desert border.
  • If you send troops over a desert border, it counts as crossing 3 regions when determining distance losses.
• Black: Arctic Border. 
  • You need arctic traversal technology to cross an Arctic border.
  • If you send troops over an arctic border it counts as 3 regions when determining distance losses.
• Dark blue: Deep Water Border. 
  • Crossing a deep water border requires sailing technology.
  • If you send units over a deep water border this counts as 2 regions when determining distance losses.
  • Defending against an attack over a deep water border grants a +4 bonus to the defender.
• Region with a City
  • Defending against an attack in a region with a City grants a +1 bonus to the defender.
• Region with a Fortress
  • Defending against an attack in a region with a Fortress grants a +2 bonus to the defender.

14.3. Distance Losses

Armies operating too far outside their own borders may suffer attrition on the march from overstretched supply lines, disease, unfriendly locals, etc.

For every four regions travelled through by an army beyond the borders of its own Kingdom, it suffers up to 10% casualties in addition to any casualties incurred in the battle itself. These casualties occur prior to the battle rolls being resolved.

After the first four regions, it suffers 10% casualties. After eight regions it suffers 1d2*10% casualties, after twelve, it suffers 1d3*10% casualties, and so on. These losses will be rounded to the nearest whole number.

Deep water borders represent the general limit of navigation and supply carried by sailors at the time of the game's start, but are not the sole borders used to determine distance losses - for Military purposes, every region passed along a coastal route counts as one region traversed when calculating Distance Losses, in addition to the bonus distance inflicted by every deep water border crossed. With additional sailing technology, it may become possible to bypass coastal routes in favor of the open ocean. Ocean regions inflict no distance losses beyond those of their own deep water borders, but sailing away from land is treacherous and incurs its own dangers. For every ocean region travelled through en-route to a battle, the GM team will roll 1d2. On a 1, the fleet encounters a deadly challenge, be it a storm, or a becalmed stretch of water. Every such challenge inflicts 1d2x10% casualties upon the traversing fleet before they are able to move on.

14.4. Tactical Maneuvering

Tactical Maneuvering is a specific type of opposed roll made to determine whether one side in a forthcoming battle can establish an edge, whether by intercepting an opponent or by bringing a tactical doctrine into play.

It is usually a sub-action to an action to attack or defend a region.

Tactical Maneuvering is an opposed roll on 2d6 with the following bonuses applied on each side:

• Leader's Military score of the Commander's kingdom
• -1 for every four units in their army
• Any bonus from technologies
• Any other applicable modifiers

Whichever side rolls higher wins.

14.5. Intercepting attacking armies

If you are under attack, you may prefer to fight the attacker on a ground of your choosing. You can order your defending army to intercept an attacking army in one of the regions it must pass through in order to reach its destination. If the army is coming by sea, you can attempt to intercept them at sea using your own naval units.

Your own intercepting army must be able to reach the region where you are trying to intercept.

The players make an opposed Tactical Maneuvering roll. If you are trying to intercept an opponent inside your own borders, you get a +2 bonus to your Tactical Maneuvering roll. Any terrain modifiers to a defender’s battle roll also apply to tactical maneuvering rolls to intercept. The army attempting to intercept must exceed the opponent’s roll in order to intercept successfully. If the interception is successful, a battle is fought in that region. If unsuccessful, the attacker continues on to its destination.

If an interception occurs at sea, both naval units and any land units being transported fight in the resulting battle. You can send land units of your own to assist your naval units with the interception.

If you fail to intercept an opposing army, your troops are committed and may not fall back to assist in defence of another region.
If one of your armies is intercepted, and you win the resulting battle, you have the option of conquering the region in which the battle was fought, or continuing on to your original destination. Specify your preference in your action post. If you continue on to your original destination, you do not conquer the region where you were intercepted, and your army may have to fight again on arrival.

14.6. Commanders

The commander score is used in determining a battle outcome and depends on who is leading the army. Rulers and Heroes are the most effective leaders, but sending them into battle risks their being captured or killed. They are also unable to be in multiple places at once. Each character can only command one army each round. If you have multiple characters capable of leading an army, specify which is leading your army. If you do not specify a commander, it is assumed your ruler will command, even if they are not the best commander available.

If your ruler is leading the army, use their Military score. If a Hero is leading the army, use their Hero score. If any other character is leading the army, use half your ruler’s Military score.

14.7. Units

Each unit in your army adds +1 to your battle roll. Naval units each add +1 to the battle roll like normal units, but can be deployed only in coastal regions or at sea.

The more units you have, the harder your army is to maneuver. For every four units in your army, you take a -1 penalty on any Tactical Maneuvering rolls.

14.8. Tactical Doctrines

You start play with a set of basic Tactical Doctrines. During play, you can introduce further Tactical Doctrines with a Military-5 special action, subject to approval by the GM.

When used successfully, a Tactical Doctrine affects the performance of your army in battle.

If you possess multiple Tactical Doctrines, specify which one you want to use in a given battle.

The starting Tactical Doctrines are:

• Reckless Attack: On success, gain a +2 bonus to battle results. Move one step higher on the casualty track for calculating your own casualties.
• Skirmishing: On success, both attacker and defender calculate their losses one step lower on the casualty track.
• Cautious Advance: On success, suffer a -2 penalty to battle results, but move two steps down the casualty track when calculating your own casualties.

14.9. Technologies

Military technologies will provide armies with advantages in battle. This may take the form of a bonus to the battle roll, or some other effect, such as reducing or increasing the number of casualties sustained. If an army possesses a relevant technology and the resources required to use it, add the applicable bonus to their battle score.
For full details on how to create technologies and what bonuses are available, see the Technology rules.

14.10. Duels

Army commanders may fight each other personally with the intention not only of winning glory, but improving the morale of their own troops, or demoralizing opponents.

Before battle is joined, you can challenge your opponent to a duel. Your opponent does not have to agree, but rejecting a challenge to duel imposes a -2 penalty on the battle roll, due to the demoralizing effect on an army of their leader’s apparent cowardice.

Make an opposed roll on 2d6 and add your Hero score, or Military score if your ruler is commanding, plus any applicable bonuses from artifacts.

If you win the duel, you add +4 to your battle result. If you win the duel by 6 or more, you have the choice to either kill the opposing leader or take them into captivity. Otherwise, the loser is able to withdraw, but may still be killed or captured in the main battle.
Against armies that lack a leader that can be dueled but where a duel can still occur (a battle with more than two participants), the success or loss of the battle will be determined absent duel results. If an army with a leader capable of dueling still wins, duel bonuses will be used to determine casualties in comparison to other armies with leaders capable of dueling.

14.11. Other Modifiers & Assisting Allies

There may be additional modifiers available in certain battles. These may include artifact bonuses, attack bonuses for renewing an invasion following a tie, miracle effects, or other specific circumstances set out by the GM. If applicable, these are added to the battle roll accordingly.

If one of your allies is attacked, you can send troops to assist them in defending their regions. You can also send troops to assist one of your allies in pressing their attack. In either case, your troops must be able to reach the region in question, as if you were attacking it.

Where there are multiple armies on one side of a battle, it is necessary to decide on an overall commander. This will determine the command score used, the tactical doctrines that the army has available, and who takes ownership of the region if it is conquered.

An allied army will generally use the highest commander score available. If you want to use a different commander, agree this with your allies and specify this in your actions post. The allied army may only make use of tactical doctrines available to the overall army commander. If allies disagree on who is to lead, the owner of a region where the battle is taking place takes priority, even if their commander score is lower.

14.12. Battles

When two armies clash, they first try to maneuver into an advantageous position

State in your action post whether you want to use a Tactical Doctrine. If you have multiple Tactical Doctrines, specify the one you want to use. Make an opposed Tactical Maneuvering roll.

Whichever player rolls higher may use their Tactical Doctrine in the battle. In the event of a tie, neither player uses their Tactical Doctrine.

The winner of the battle is then determined by means of an opposed roll. The GM makes these rolls after the end of the round. To determine the battle result, each side rolls 2d10 and adds:

• Commander score
• +1 for each unit committed to the battle
• Any bonus from tactical doctrines, if applicable
• Any circumstantial bonus from region features.
• Any bonus from technologies
• Duel bonus, if applicable
• Any other relevant modifier.

Whichever side has the higher total wins the battle. If both sides are equal, the result is a tie.

14.13. Calculating Casualties

Battles are a bloody business and both sides can expect to suffer casualties. Casualties are calculated as a percentage of the number of units deployed, and depend on the margin of victory.

The casualty track is set out below.

Margin	0-4	5-9	10-14	15-19	20+
Winner	40%	30%	20%	10%	0%
Loser	40%	50%	60%	70%	80%

Losses are rounded to the nearest whole number. Each side loses that number of units.

For instance, if two armies each with 4 units clash, and one side wins by 14, the winner will lose 20% of their units: 0.8 units, rounded to 1. The loser will lose 60% of their units: 2.4, rounded to 2.

If there is more than one participant on one side of the battle, calculate losses for each contingent individually based on the overall result.

Commanders are vulnerable to death in battle, even in victory. The GM will roll 1d20 and subtract the number of units lost by the army they are commanding. If the army in question has been completely wiped out, there is a further -5 penalty on the roll. On a result of 1 or less, the commander is killed or taken prisoner. Both Rulers and Heroes can be captured or killed in this way.

14.14 Outcomes of Battle

If you attack a defended region, a battle results. If you win the battle, you take possession of the region. The region will enter unrest as a result of the conquest. If the defender wins the battle, it retains possession of the region and the attacker is driven out.

If the result is a tie, the defender retains possession of the region, but if the attacker renews the attack the following round, it will gain a +2 bonus on the battle roll.

If you lose your last region as the result of a battle, your Kingdom has been conquered, but your ruler may survive to continue the fight. Your ruler becomes a Rebel Leader and remains in command of any surviving units, heroes, and artifacts.

Rebel Leaders treat all regions they controlled up to two rounds prior to their capital’s conquest as their territory for the purpose of distance. Every round a Rebel Leader operates, they generate Unrest in one randomly selected Region in this territory. Rebel Leaders may attempt an Intrigue check, opposed by the region’s new owner, to raise rebel units in regions they send into Unrest. The Rebel Leader rolls 2d6 + Intrigue against the controller’s 2d6 + Intrigue, with a minimum TN of 12. If successful, 1d4 Units appear in the region under the Rebel Leader’s control. A Rebel Leader may only attempt this once per region per turn. Rebel Leaders have no troop cap as long as they remain Rebel Leaders. Actions taken by the Rebel Leader in territory sent into Unrest or Rebellion by their actions gain a +2 bonus representing the partisans and grass root support for their embattled regime.

However, a rebellion can only be sustained for so long. A Rebel Leader must occupy a new territory within 2 rounds otherwise they begin to lose support. On their third round of operation without territory, the Rebel Leader must attempt a Diplomacy check against TN 14. Failure removes them from the game, while success allows them to act for another round. This TN rises by 2 for each additional round the Rebel Leader spends in rebellion (16 in round 4, 18 in round 5, etc.)

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15. Heroes

 

If your ruler has a Military score of 5 or more you may recruit a Hero. Heroes can be used to command your armies, guard Artifacts, and undertake Quests.

When a hero enters play, roll 1d4+6 to determine the Hero Score.

If a Hero is commanding an army, the Hero score is used in place of that of the ruler’s Military score.

A Hero may also enter a duel to improve the chances of success in the battle: see the battle rules for full details. It must be clear from the actions post whether a Hero is leading the army.

There is no limit to the number of Heroes you may have in play. Once recruited, a Hero remains in play until killed: it is assumed that when they reach an advanced age they pass their duties over to a suitable protégé of similar ability.

You may attempt to bribe or otherwise induce a Hero away from their current employer. This requires an Intrigue action to Incite Betrayal. If successful, the Hero deserts their existing employer and enters service for the new Kingdom.

If an Artifact is given to a Hero, it will only affect rolls directly involving the Hero. However, in the hands of a Hero, the Artifact receives a +2 bonus to avoid being lost or stolen and provides a +2 bonus to any roll to maintain the Hero's loyalty.

A Hero can be given multiple Artifacts, and gains a +2 loyalty bonus from each. However, if a Hero is induced to join a different Kingdom despite the bonus, they take all their Artifacts with them.

15.1 Quest

If you employ Heroes, you may send those Heroes on quests. Each Hero may quest once per round. Unlike other Military actions, quests can be undertaken secretly.

To undertake a Quest, roll 2d6 and add the Hero score.

There are three types of quest:

Quest into Unknown Lands: The Hero is sent into unexplored territory to search for a new region. On a roll of 12 or higher, the Hero finds suitable land, and returns with information regarding the region. See the Exploration rules for details of what information will be found.

On a great success (TN 18) the Hero also returns with 1 Unit, composed of the followers and hangers on moved to their service. Failure on the roll leaves the Hero lost in the wilderness, and unable to be used for one round following the failed Quest.

Errant Quests: The Hero is sent to seek fame and glory in an explored region. This can be one controlled by the Hero's Realm, one controlled by another Realm, or an unclaimed region that has been explored.

On a roll of 12 or higher, the Hero comes across a worthwhile adventure and returns to their leader with 1 Treasure, at the expense of causing Unrest in the region they Quested in. On a great success (TN 18) they generate 1d4 Treasure instead. On a failed roll, they generate Unrest in the region Quested in but return with no Treasure to show for it. If a Hero attempts an Errant Quest in a region they are not welcome, the player in control of the target region may refuse them entry as a non-action. The player rolls Diplomacy opposed by the hero's player's Diplomacy - on a success, the Hero ceases their quest before upsetting the region's inhabitants. In the event of a tie, or if the refusing player loses the roll, the Hero continues on their quest.

Epic Quests: These quests will be generated by the GM team to provide unique challenges and rewards to those Heroes brave enough to undertake them. The parameters for success and failure will be unique to each Epic Quest.

Multiple Heroes can Quest in the same region or embark upon the same Epic Quest. If they choose to do so collaboratively, one Hero makes the primary roll while any supporting Heroes roll 2d6 + Hero score against a TN of 12. On a success, they provide a +2 bonus to the primary roll. This requires an Action to dispatch the Hero, even if they are from the same kingdom as the primary rolling Hero. Any number of Heroes may choose to aid the primary Hero, but the primary Hero must declare whose aid they are accepting in their Action post when they roll. Attempts to aid in the quest after the fact are illegal, and may result in additional penalties.

Regardless of whether their aid was successful or not, cooperating Heroes divide any Treasure rewarded in a Quest equally among themselves and otherwise benefit equally from success or suffer equally from failure.

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16. Vassalage

 

You may become a vassal to another Realm, in order to benefit from its protection and greater resources. If you are sufficiently powerful, you can take vassals yourself, to expand your reach and influence. Realms with vassals are known as Lieges.

To become a liege, you must be a Great Kingdom or Empire. If you are a Holy Land, Merchant Prince or Great Kingdom, you can only become a vassal if your liege has an Empire. If you are already a vassal, your liege must be an Empire before you can become a Holy Land, Merchant Prince or Great Kingdom.

Empires cannot be vassals. If you are a vassal and take a valid special-10 action to become an Empire, you must dissolve your vassalage to your liege. For rules on dissolving vassalage, see Military actions. You can do this at the same time as you found your Empire.

If you are a vassal, you may use one of your Liege’s attribute scores in place of your own, once per round. You can use this for any roll, whether for an action you are taking or a roll to passively oppose another player. You cannot use your liege’s score to perform special actions.

If you are a vassal to a Great Kingdom which is in turn a vassal to an Empire, you may use the attribute score of either the Great Kingdom’s ruler or the Empire’s ruler, once per round. You cannot use both.

If you have an Empire, every time you generate a new ruler, assign +1 to one attribute score per vassal that you have. This includes vassals of vassals. You may choose which attribute you add this bonus to.

Lieges may use one of their vassals’ Cultural Identities, once per round.

Military implications of vassalage

If you want to use your liege’s Military score for a battle roll, this operates on the same principles as normal commander rules. If your ruler commands the battle, you can use your liege’s full Military score. If your army is not led by your ruler (or a Hero) you use half your liege’s Military score. You may still only use the score for one roll per round, so you will have to decide between using it for the battle or for Tactical Maneuvering. Heroes may not use their liege’s score, and vassals may not use their liege’s Hero scores.

If you are a vassal, your unit cap decreases by 1. If your liege is also a vassal, your unit cap decreases by a further 1. If you are a vassal of a Great Kingdom which is a vassal of an Empire, your overall unit cap will therefore be reduced by 2.

If you are a liege, your unit cap increases by 1 for each vassal you have. This includes vassals of your vassals.

As a Liege, your troops can travel through regions belonging to your vassals without incurring additional losses for distance. You may still incur distance losses en route to your vassal’s territory, if you do not share a border.

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17. Unrest & Rebellion

 

If you neglect your regions, or a player takes actions which damage the government or rule of law in a region, you may find that it suffers unrest or even enters rebellion.

A region in unrest may be subject to banditry, civil disobedience, or other factors which make it difficult for the government to operate effectively, although it does not yet present a direct threat to your rule. A region will enter unrest if:

• You conquer it
• Another player or nearby rebels induce unrest in your region
• You purge a holy site (unless you achieve a Great Success)
• You fail to satisfy your capital’s resource requirement
• You fail to provide a write-up for the region after acquiring it
• You fail to respond adequately to a GM-instigated event

While a region you control is in unrest, you take a -2 penalty on all rolls in that region, excluding battle rolls and rolls to stabilize the region.

If a region remains in unrest for too long, a Rebellion will begin. This causes rebel units and a Rebel Hero to appear in the region. All players (including you; this stacks with the penalty for unrest) take a -2 penalty on any rolls in that region, excluding battle rolls and rolls to stabilize the region.

Rebel units may sack trading posts or cities, purge religious centers, spread unrest to neighboring regions, or even attempt to conquer the region. Rebel units will continue to appear as long as a region remains in rebellion. Rebels are always considered attackers for the purpose of combats and opposed rolls.

Uncontrolled regions may enter rebellion, if prompted by a player or GM event. These rebellions operate in the same way as any other. Note that native defenders of a region that are present on discovery are not necessarily rebels. Native defenders will not normally spread unrest, or take action against trading posts or holy sites. If an uncontrolled region contains rebels, the GM will notify players.

If you defeat the rebels in battle in any region, you take control of the region (if you did not already own it), the rebellion will end, and no more rebel units will appear. The region will remain in unrest and another rebellion may begin if the region is not stabilized.

To stabilize a region, make a roll on 2d6 and add your Diplomacy score and any applicable bonuses. If your roll is at least 12 the region’s stability improves. See the Stabilize a Region Action for more information.

You can also suppress unrest in a region by application of extreme military force. See the Suppress Unrest Action for more information.

A region in rebellion will revert to unrest once the rebels are defeated. Stabilizing a region in unrest returns the region to normal.

If your capital region is suffering unrest, negative GM events will be more likely in all regions you control. Capital regions will not normally enter rebellion so readily as other regions, but may do so if their resource requirement is unmet or another player instigates a rebellion. If your capital enters rebellion, you take a -2 penalty to all rolls until the rebellion is resolved. This penalty stacks with other unrest and rebellion-related penalties.

If you think resistance to a rebellion is unsustainable, you can choose to accept a change of government. Your ruler is overthrown. Generate a new ruler unrelated to your previous one. Discuss with the GM what happens to your existing units, Heroes and rebel units in your regions: they may become your new standing army, or some of them may disband or defect. The GM will also adjust the stability of your regions to reflect the new regime taking power.

You can attempt to sabotage other players by destabilizing their regions, see intrigue actions for more details.

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18. Technologies

 

Technologies can be acquired and will provide you with a permanent benefit so long as you have the resources to keep the technology operational. The most common type of technological effect is to grant a bonus to a particular type of action. You can begin using your technology on the round after you create or otherwise acquire it.

Technology creation is at the discretion of the GM. Technologies must be balanced in their effect and appropriate to the theme of the game. The use and bonuses of technologies are generally determined on a per tech basis. However, some technologies may specifically apply only to certain regions or have other special restrictions, to be determined by the player and GM.

Technologies are created with a 10-special action. Civilian technologies are created with Industry, and military technologies are created with Military.

A technology will provide a mechanical benefit to any Realm that possesses it and the necessary resources (including prerequisite technologies) to use it. This is usually expressed by way of a bonus to a certain type of roll. In addition, later technologies may be built up existing technology to produce a higher tier technology. Tier 2 and 3 technologies typically require multiple resources and at least one Tier 1 technology (or Tier 2 in the case of Tier 3 techs) but allow access to progressively more powerful effects.

Civilian technologies cannot give bonuses to battle rolls. Equally, military technologies will only grant bonuses to military actions. Additionally, military technologies will be assigned a category based on what their intent is, drawn from the following list:

• Special Materials
• Armor
• Melee Weaponry
• Ranged Weaponry
• Cavalry
• Scouts and Logistics
• War Beasts
• Fortifications
• Combat Drugs and Medicine
• Sappers and Siege Weapons
• Subterfuge

The effects of technologies from the same category cannot stack.

You can exchange technologies or gift them to other players.

If another player is reluctant to trade a technology with you, you can steal it from them. This is an opposed Intrigue roll on 2d6, adding technologies and other bonuses. If you are successful, you acquire the technology at the end of that round and may use or trade it in the following round.

18.1. Starting Technologies

At the start of the game, you may pick a technology from this list which your people have already developed aptitude and knowledge in. These technologies are indicative of a Bronze age or earlier start and may be adjusted by your GM to fit the setting of the game.

• Sailing: Enables exploration and troop transport over deep water (or coastal only depending on the game)
• Masonry: +1 to resist Raids and Sacks
• Writing: +1 Conversion Defense, +1 Conversions in regions that share your writing system
• Irrigation: +1 Stabilization
• Animal Husbandry: +1 to Industry and Diplomacy exploration
• Pottery: +1 Buyouts

If your starting technology is Writing, you are assumed to have developed a native writing system. When you trade or give this technology to other players, they adopt your writing system.

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19. Organizations

 

In addition to the localized realms in the Empire! game, there are globally spread - though more decentralized - organizations of note in operation. These Organizations operate out of bases scattered throughout the world, and have goals and inscrutable motives of their own.

Each Organization is defined by a short list of action types it is specialized for, a list of bonuses and penalties they grant to players at different reputation levels, and a list of favors they are capable of granting to players they deem worthy. Each Organization may take three actions each turn and rolls as necessary - when performing actions they are specialized for or performing standard favors, they are treated as having a 9 in the relevant attribute and 5 in any other case.

These organizations will be summarized by the GM for the players to know of the outline of their intents before hand.

19.1. Reputation

Your relationship with an Organization is determined by your Reputation score, which ranges from 4 to -3. The higher your reputation, the better that Organization thinks of you, and the more they’ll be willing to assist you. Conversely, making enemies of an Organization may have terrible consequences as they withdraw support or even directly work against you.

The different levels of Reputation and the titles associated with them are:

• -3 - Varies by Organization
• -2 - Enemy
• -1 - Distrusted
• 0 - Neutral
• 1 - Initiate
• 2 - Adherent
• 3 - Ally
• 4 - Varies by Organization

By default, players begin at rank 0 and receive no organization-specific penalties or benefits. Players with higher or lower reputation receive reputation bonuses or penalties as defined within the organization in question, and players with positive reputation gain access to the favors associated with their rank and below as specified by the organization.

You can increase your Reputation with an Organization by 1 level by spending a Favor, or with a Diplomacy action with a TN dependent on one's current Reputation with the Organization. See the Diplomacy section for rules on Raising Reputation.

Taking hostile action against the organization and its principles will reduce reputation with the Organization. This includes actions such as destroying their bases, slandering them, or raiding their resources.

Only one player may have a Reputation of 4 with a given Organization at any given time. Up to three players may have a Reputation of 3 or higher. Once you have reached Reputation 3 or 4 with one Organization, your Reputation with all other Organizations is capped at 2.

If a player desires to raise their Reputation with an Organization while all higher level slots are filled, the player may choose to discredit another player occupying one of those slots, making an opposed Diplomacy roll. If successful, the discredited party has their Reputation reduced by 1 while the original player has their Reputation increased by 1. You may only discredit other players inside your discovered area (See Map section for definition of “discovered area”). In the case that two people are attempting to rise from Rank 2 to Rank 3, and the limit has been reached, only the highest roll of those two players will succeed.

Players may also publicly or secretly attempt to slander and reduce another player’s reputation with an intrigue action opposed by the other player. Each player will receive a bonus on this roll equal to their reputation level.

Changing leaders will result in a Reputation change if you have an extremely good or extremely poor Reputation. If a player's Reputation is 3 or 4 with an Organization, it will be reduced by 1 level upon changing leaders. If a player's Reputation is -3, it will be increased by 1 level upon changing leaders. Alterations to Reputation on the round in which the leader change occurs will happen before this step.

19.2. Favors

In addition to the passive benefits, players with positive reputation gain enough sway to ask organizations for favors. Favors are a currency with a specific organization, which cannot be traded between players and can be spent only with that organization. In general a favor can be spent generically to raise reputation by 1 or on an organization’s specific favors associated with reputation ranks 1, 2, or 3. Organizations will typically refuse to grant favors to those with reputation lower than the rank associated with the favor requested, no matter how many favors the org owes the kingdom.

At the GM’s discretion, organizations may be willing to grant favors to Realms to which they owe nothing, in return for the promise of a later favor returned in kind.

19.3. Tasks and Requests

At GM discretion, Organizations may post specific tasks or requests for open fulfilment or for specific realms only. This will take the form of a clearly-laid-out goal and a reward offered for its completion, which may take any form from favors owed, gifts of treasure, artifacts, or anything else the organization has to offer. Such requests may be made toward realms that owe the organization favors as demands instead, and in this case there may be severe consequences for failing to meet them.

19.4. Headquarters and Bases

Organizations are by definition widespread and each has bases scattered throughout the world in addition to a single headquarters somewhere on the map. These bases define the practical reach of an organization and serve as hubs of activity. So long as it controls a base on a continent, an Organization rolls actions there as a local Realm. Without access to a base on a continent, an Organization takes the normal penalties for acting outside their continent, with the presence of a Reputation 3 or 4 realm serving as the equivalent of having a regional embassy.

If an organization lacks an extant Headquarters, its activities are greatly hindered and the organization not only suffers -2 to all rolls but is limited to a single action per round until its headquarters is restored. An organization with no extant bases at all is destroyed entirely.

19.5. Destroying Organization Bases

You may attempt to destroy bases belonging to Organizations. If the base is within your own region, you can do so with a Military action. You can use an Intrigue special action to attack a base anywhere on the map that has been revealed to you. See the relevant actions for more details.

To attack a base in your own region, roll 2d6 and add your Military score and any applicable bonuses, which will be opposed by the Organization’s roll of 2d6+9. If you beat the Organization’s roll, the base is overrun and destroyed. The region enters unrest due to the social impact of the fighting and destruction of a major regional feature.

If you fail to beat the organization’s score, the base remains and the region rises in rebellion as the organization rallies its supporters against you. Irrespective of success, your Reputation with the organization drops by 3 ranks.

If you have an Intrigue score of 5 or more you can attack a base anywhere on the map as a special action, including within your own regions. If this action is performed openly or otherwise discovered, your Reputation with that organization immediately drops by 3 ranks.

If the base is in an uncontrolled region, or a region you own, it is destroyed automatically with this special action. If it is in a player-controlled region, make an opposed Intrigue roll against the region owner on 2d6. If you exceed the region owner’s roll, the base is destroyed.

The region owner will defend the base automatically, unless they specify that they are refusing to do so. If they refuse, the attack succeeds. In the event of a failed attack, you are not considered to have spent your Intrigue-5 special action and may attempt to take another one in subsequent rounds.

If this action is used to successfully attack an organization’s HQ, the HQ is damaged rather than immediately destroyed. While an Organization's HQ is damaged it takes a -2 penalty to all rolls; the HQ can be repaired with a two-action Project by the owner of the region in which it is located. If an HQ is Damaged by I5s three times before repairs are complete, the HQ is destroyed.

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