Working model of a national campaign

[Xipher]

I've been working up rules for a long term, nationally played scenario. This is the first draft and I would like imput from as many different realms as possible. Please read through the rules, take a look at the example maps, and let me know what you think. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? What aspects do you think will not work? Is this something you would like to particpate in? Do you think your realm would be interested in particpating? Thanks!


Purpose
The purpose of this extended national campaign scenario is to promote realm participation, teamwork, and inter-realm relations. It is hoped that more extensive contact between local realms will help to foster growth and competition.

Registration

1. Only registered fighters may participate in campaign battles.
2. To register, email Xipher at XXXXXXXX or register with your local Kingdoms herald.
3. Registration is maintained as long as the fighter continues to participate in Kingdom battles. It expires one year after the last Kingdom event attended.
4. Registration information should include fighting name, realm, county, and unit.

Territory

1. A realm must have 5 registered members to participate.
2. A realm’s capital is located in the county which practices are held in.
3. Realms with 20 fighters expand their attack range to all counties adjacent to their capital.
4. Every additional 10 fighters registered with a realm adds one tier of counties to their attack range.
5. Realms may annex unclaimed counties that are not in any other realm’s attack range and to which they have a direct corridor of territory at any time.
6. Counties that are included in the attack range of multiple realms must be won in battle before being annexed.

Conquest

1. Counties controlled by other realms may be annexed through conquest if they are within the attack range and there is a direct corridor of territory to travel through. Attack ranges are calculated using registered member numbers one week prior to the scheduled Kingdom event. New fighters may register at the event, but they will not affect army size or attack range.
2. Once a county is won through conquest, it is considered part of a realm’s controlled territory.
3. Counties lost in conquest battles can not be counter-attacked for one month.
4. Controlled territory must always be connected to the capital through a direct corridor of other controlled territory. If a county is cut off from the capital so that no direct corridor exists, that county reverts to being unclaimed. If it is included in only one realm’s attack range, that realm may annex it immediately.
5. The maximum number of fighters that can participate in a conquest attack is equal to the attacking realm’s number of registered fighters, minus five fighters for every county they are removed from the home realm. Thus, attacking a county two tiers removed would remove ten fighters from the maximum army size.

Battles

1. Conquest battles should take place at a place and time mutually agreed upon by the participating realms.
2. There must be a campaign herald present to run the battles.
3. This herald is responsible for determining maximum army sizes and recording participants.
4. The warring realms may fight any number of battles they choose, with a minimum of nine. The conditions for victory must be agreed upon by all realms before the conquest starts.
5. All realms with the ability to attack the contested county are allowed to participate in the battles.
6. Multiple counties may be fought over on at a single event, with each realm having a maximum of four attacks per month. Thus, two realms attacking each other could potentially fight over eight counties in a single event.

Vassal Realms

1. When a realm’s capital is attacked, the defending realm has the option to fight from a castle.
2. If the defending realm loses a conquest battle for their capital, they become a vassal realm of the attacking realm.
3. Vassal realms become part of the controlling realm’s army. Each army’s attack range and maximum army sizes still apply.
4. All controlled territory of the defeated realm returns to an uncontrolled status. If a county is included in only one realm’s attack range, it may be annexed immediately. If an uncontrolled territory is included in more than one attack range, it must be conquered as normal. Vassal realms of a conquered realm are considered to have won a rebellion.
5. Vassal realms may choose to rebel against their controlling realm. An attempt to rebel can be made once every three months. The battle is played out exactly as if the controlling realm were attacking an independent realm’s capital. If a vassal realm wins their rebellion, they are returned to an independent capital county, with no other territory.

Mercenaries

1. If a realm is unable to fill their maximum army size with registered members from their own realm, they may hire mercenaries.
2. Mercenaries must be registered fighters, but may be from any realm except the opposing realm.
3. Mercenaries must have a connection to a unit present in the hiring army. The hiring army can only accept mercenaries that belong to units that are already represented in the army.
4. The number of mercenaries hired is limited by two factors: The hiring army can only hire half the number of mercenaries from a single unit as are already represented and the maximum army size must not be exceeded. Thus, if the hiring army contains ten fighters from a single unit, they can recruit five more fighters from that unit from outside the realm, as long as they do not exceed the maximum army size.

These example images are very high resolution and may be better viewed when downloaded and viewed as a .jpeg file. Some detail is lost when viewed in it's entirety.

Example Image: A selection of midwestern realms. It is in no way complete, or even particularly accurate, it is merely a proof of concept.



Example Image with estimated attack ranges included. Again, this image is in no way accurate, it is merely an educated guess.





Thanks for reading through all of it, please give me any thoughts!

[Theros the Large]

This strikes me as being rather Darkonesque...

I like the idea of having territory battles and possibly a couple of themed events during the year.

Would it be easier to create a fantasy map for the campaign? Or are you sticking with the idea of using the real realm maps for the fighting? My only concern would be how to include the more remote realms in the game if we use the real realm map.

I saw that you had a way to incorporate units into the mix with the mercernary rules, which I think is a really good idea.

Who would be in charge of certiftying heralds and record keepers for this game? Would we need some sort of nationaly recognized herald group to govern the game?

[Xipher]

Yes, it does have some similarities with Darkon, which was intentional.

How to involve remote realms is one of a few major problems I haven't worked out yet. I used an actual U.S. map for a few reasons. The biggest incentive to using a real map is so that the realms you attack in the scenario are actually close enough to visit easily. My hope with this scenario is to encourage a lot of inter-realm relations and that is most easily done by having frequent contact with close realms.

My other major concern with inventing a fantasy map to use would be realm placement. No one would want to be close neighbors with large realms for fear they would be overwhelmed. So, you place realms on the map by realm size. The problem with doing that is there is no gurentee that the large realms are going to be close to each other and the small realms are going to be close to each other. Since there is extensive travel involved in moving the game along, I felt that physical proximity was very important.

Unit involvement is another major area I would like to improve. As written, the mercenary rules are a relatively minor aspect of the game. The rules would also give no benifit to non-national units as they stand now. I would really like to hear some ideas on how units could be more smoothly incorporated into this rules set. I have a suspicion that the best way to include units in a scenario game like this would be to create a separtate scenario with a fantasy map that is based on units rather than realms.

You are a very keen man, Mr. The Large. A third area that I have some concerns about is the amount of record-keeping involved. Training and supervising of heralds can be fairly minor, I just think there needs to be a mechanism to ensure there is someone present checking the scenario rules and ensuring the army limits, etc. are followed.

Registering the participants is a fairly key componant to the system, however, since attack range and maximum army size are based off registered fighters. I included this to eliminate any ambiguity in estimated realm size vs. actual realm size. I see this information as being available on a website so that all the players can review it and know what their neighbor's capabilities are. There would be a lot of record keeping (which a database program might streamline) and a lot of updating of a game website and "game board." Some of this can be broken down regionally or it could be the responsibility of the attending herald to gather and enter this information.

A very nice side benifit to registering fighters and tracking which fights they participate in is that it provides Belegarth as a whole some reliable hard numbers that we haven't previously had access to. I can think of all sorts of useful things we could glean out of a year's worth of registrations and battle participation numbers.

Thanks for the look-through Theros, those are very good questions!

[debuenzo]

this is an awesome idea
and thanks xipher for the initiative!
unfortunately, i have no questions or suggestions at this point

[Soo Ma Tai]

We have been looking at doing themed battles once a month to help with new guy retention, this could be a great portal for that. The only prob is like Theros said, Stygia realm would control all of montana and more before we were contested by another realm it seems. I do like the idea of using a real map like Xipher suggested, cause there is a Darkon group here, and their big claim is they fight over a fake map, and that sounds lame to me.

[Xipher]

I had the notion to adjust attack ranges by region, but I haven't worked out the details yet. I'll probably need to mock up a full national map first and see where the obvious breaking points are, but that may help to include some of the more remote realms.

[Mekoot Rowan]

A neat idea. I'll watch to see how this shapes up. I'd definately participate if it gets up and running.

[Xipher]

I have posted the second draft of the rules and a more complete set of maps in the Recruitment Ideas forum to allow more people to give input. Thanks for giving me your thoughts!

[bo1]

that is pretty slick.

obviously there are other realms to put in. but you have a good start.

why not run it as a tourney, 7 man style. then take away fighters as they get further away from home, much like risk, the board game. so once you get 7 away you have none to go forward. then you have to leave fighters on a square to keep it, like risk again. but have to leave actual named fighter. then you get reserves at some point, not sure when but sometime. so that you can stategically move guys to the front. so if a country wants to take a spot from you they fight who is on the spot. would make fighters think more about who works well together, not just these are my best 5.

really if you just copy risk, and instead of nameless marks, you use named fighters, you are golden. then figure out when people get to have reinforcements.

just some of my random blatherings, use what you like throw the rest away.

[Xipher]

I had in mind a more long-term sort of game (like, all summer or multiple seasons). That sounds feasible for a special tourney scenario, but it's not really what I was going for. If you're interested, I have posted an upgraded rules set and map in the Recruitment forum. Thanks for the input!

[Theros the Large]

Keeping the rules as simple as possible seems to be the best course for this game to take.

I would like to see tons of people from all of the realms excited to play the game. We need to make it accessible to the masses and easy to learn.

[bo1]

i think i miss stated some things.

it would be an on going game, every event new things would/could be happening. but the battles that determine who moves where would be determined by who has what fighters on the square adjacent to what you want to attack.
example.

rhun wants a spot controlled by dunharrow. we have 3 fighters on the adjacent square, myself, kayle, and ghosta. so the 3 of us get to fight whoever dunharrow has on the square opposing us. lets say moxk and jimmy. so it would be a 3v2 fight. winner gets the square, loser would lose nothing but there turn would be over. if rhun won we would only get to transfer 2 fighters to the new square, leaving one o n the original square. so eventually you would run out of people. so the largest realms would have the largest defence and best chance of taking new territory. but one they get far away from home it gets really hard to take new ground. if a fighter is on a square and the get attacked but are not at the event, they lose automatically. this way participtaion would be stronger. i would hate to lose my realm a spot cause i wasn't there. we could do a turn per event, which would be everyone getting a chance to attack, or per day per event. really you are talking about only a small part of the day. maybe and hour total.