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Six Turns with three Phases each are played to advance the calendar one Month. Each Turn is to be understood as Simultaneous and Concurrent with the others, and the sum is the total activity of the Community or Group in that span.
Each Player operating a Group or Community decides which Turns they will field their Workforce in the hopes of producing Yield in the respective spheres of activity each Turn governs. Each Workforce so employed taxes resources (initially strong as supplies brought over from the Vrun Continent), and unless it is an exceptionally well-funded undertaking, will require at least foraging/hunting to supplement the needs of the workers.
--Only 3:5 of the population of a proposed colony are Workers. The rest represent young children, women with child, or the elderly/injured. All require sustenance, but workers more so for their efforts.
Turn 1: If no catastrophe at sea has quashed the hopes of the expedition, the first task is to disembark and make preparations. Since the area has hopefully already been scouted (or more likely, selected on the 'chart'), one hopefully has a reasonable chance of being prepared for the sort of terrain encountered, and that no hostiles ruin the moving-in party.
Turn 2: If hostilities are initiated by the Player or by circumstance, then that is played out, with each Phase representing one-(8-day-)week, and the Workforce, the fighters. If no hostilities occur on a Player's Turn, no expenditures are accrued.
Movement and Exploration are the stuff of Turn 3, and where the map board and scale ruler are used to plot a course for the scouts to explore through. Each Terrain type depicted upon the map is a general type, and as explorers move into the terrain, individual features are determined (randomly, via a written Scenario, or a combination of the two). These features are reported by the scouts, and upon these findings, possible future sites are demarcated.
An extensive Innovation and Invention system is presented, allowing Communities to build upon existing technologies and create new applications or even uses for by-products. Subterfuge, too, takes place in Turn 4.
Turn 5 is Commerce, and allows for the buying, selling, and trading of Production Yields in Turns 1 and 4. Paying workers from affiliated communities/groups, also takes place in the 5th Turn.
Turn 6 is the most random, and the effects a Player can generate, least present. The changes in social customs, issues regarding marriages and inheritances, and the inclusion of newcomers are all matters dealt with, as are increases or decreases in population (thus affecting Workforce).
Do you play dwarf fortress? The above really reminds me of it.
ReplyDeleteSo in turn one you can set up additional colonies? Or is that just meant to be played during the first month?
ReplyDeleteAlso it appears that the chart link is set to private.
@Blair: Never heard of it.
ReplyDelete--I don't do much of anything but write, research, and game.
@BlUsKrEEm: No. But one can scout, and choose to settle folks in new areas in subsequent Months.
I'll have to see what's up with the 'chart'.
--Thanks for pointing it out. :)
This would be interesting enough in yr average vanilla fantasy setting - but doing all this on Urutsk = awesome :)
ReplyDeleteSean, thank you very much! :D
ReplyDelete--Nice to hear from you again. :)
Very nice. I love it how a macro-scale game dove-tails nicely with the rpg-ing game on Urutsk. I can see players and GMs going through the macro-game you detailed above and setting rpg scenarios amidst the backdrop of events that arise from one of the game turns in the macro game.
ReplyDeletespeilmeister: Thank you. :D
ReplyDeleteYou are right on target. :D
--At NTRPG3, we ran both from an established site towards wilderness exploration, as well as a game in which explorers find an abandoned settlement, and then are retrieved by the colony they were headed for after their ship had been blown off course on the way over.
All of that flowed from the Boxed set rules, but were still couched in RPG terms.
Whether the Boxed Set is played casually as a Colony-building one-off game, an immersive expedition, the basis of a Vanguard campaign, or simply as the backdrop for the Role Playing Game, it seems to offer a different take on the dominion-type game.
DEMESNE, our Urutsk card game, should be entertaining, too.
Thanks for commenting. :D