Civilization VI: Myths and Legends
And awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy we go!
This thread is for Rules, Race Voting and Tweak Voting. Entries close on June 27th. We start the "additional Tweaks" voting after entries close and THOSE entries (also done in this thread when the time comes!) will close on July 3. I will then take a break until Monday July 6th, when if all goes according to plan, we start on July 7 with the Pregame Show (the first six game months). What was posted in the "rules" thread a while back is reposted here, as I've made some changes since then and I want a central thread to link back to rather than that old thing. This Civ might collapse at any time if drama erupts at my current living situation, so you jump into this knowing it might wind up "more" unfinished than my other games. But by the same token, most of you also know I don't quit out unless I absolutely have to, so.
Anyway, rulesets. Lots and lots of rulesets and walls of text. If you don't get it, ignore it and "monkey see monkey do" when the time comes. 
You don't need to understand anything here to just vote at the end of each game month.
This one's going to be the longest yet, with a main thread spanning 30 (!) game years... and three posts worth of rules, races, and Tweaks because one post couldn't hold it all! You think I overdid it?
The last couple lasted between 5 and 10 game years, and only because I slowed down the pacing of my writeups. With a main thread in mind I can keep posting at a flat rate of speed even if there's not much to write about, since there will be always the Main Quest to think about, even if it is only a few paragraphs in length. Going to try for nightly (two days apart at the very latest) posts. I have a big story in mind, though depending on what races and Tweaks you pick, you might make it impossible to launch (though I'll try to adapt as best I can). If that's the case, I'll just wing it like I've been doing the past five. There will be a short break mid-game either way, as I'll be changing location (AGAIN) october-ish when I go bunk down in a second friend's RV (if his plans don't collapse) or maybe somewhere in Ohio thanks to Badge's keen eyes (if drama explodes and I have to run).
Anyone who votes on a given writeup is termed a Voter, anyone who has voted at least five times is Eligible for a Character, and those who have a character are considered Players.
Each Player starts with 3 Standard Actions and 1 Finest Hour. Standard Actions (SAs) are worthy of a write-up (even if it is just a sentence), while Finest Hours (FHs) pack a punch and may be somewhat of a game-changer. There are a total of nine Base Aspects, each with four (up from three) Sub Aspects. 1 SA regenerates at Midsummer (fuck rolling, you guys got shafted last game), 2 SA and 1 FH regenerate at Winter's Meet. Maximums are 7/4 because let's face it you guys never really held onto your Actions unless you were idle.
Each Aspect comes with Gifts and Perks. Gifts are reached at every four levels of a Base Aspect, while Perks come at every even level of a Sub-Aspect. Gifts define the Civilization in a knowledgable way while Perks are little bits and pieces... minor stuff, but still very useful nonetheless. Aspects start at 1, while Sub Aspects start at 0. They level roughly once a year if you don't do anything.
Sub Aspects are shown in bold in the tabs below:
Village Life
Dungeoneering
Warfare
Technology
Personal
Spiritual
Social
Sorcery
Research
Village Life : Village Life and Defense:
* Deals with Home and Family (Home defense; each level allows one "trick" for the home village)
* Deals with Food and Water (Better Food = Better Troops = Better Morale = Better Combat)
* Influences Wonders (Longevity and complexity of built structures/buildings that provide bonuses; each level allows 1 Wonder, like a Library, or a warlord statue)
* Affects Population (+3% per level to a maximum of 50%; for slow breeders [those who birth every 3+ years] it will add 1% instead.)
Dungeoneering : Dungeoneering:
* Deals with Dungeon Traps (Finding, disarming, studying and mimicking traps for later)
* Affects Mazelooting (better chances for shinies)
* Influences Dungeon Combat (surviving a good brawl)
* Increases Sphinxology (puzzles, dilemma-traps and surviving the brain cells of a completely batshit anthropomorphic hyena mad wizard).
Warfare : Warfare:
* Influences Militia (basic combat)
* Affects Group Tactics (grants group skills and special abilities)
* Affects Single Tactics (grants solo skills and special abilities)
* Affects Magic Tactics (grants unusual spells).
If Warfare is rolled, Militia is *always* rolled.
Technology : Technology:
* Influences Steampunkery (Building complex machines such as TF2 Sentries, augmented limbs, or other technological toys)
* Affects Inventioneering (Blueprints and building stuff for the first time)
* Affects Tools and R&D (You're only as good as your tools)
* Affects Metallurgy (As the tech for metal smelting increases, new metals and techniques are unlocked, but you'll need tools for them).
First-time inventions will not usually be more than 50%-75% successful unless you roll a critical --- there's always room for streamlining and whatnot. If you design new weapons or technological things, there will usually be four "tiers" of improvement they go through: Prototype (requiring one successful action), Basic Concept (two more successes needed), Advanced Concept (3 more after that) and Breakthrough (4 after that). Beyond that, more breakthroughs are only accomplished by critical successes (to a maximum of three before "Perfection").
Personal : Personal:
* Influences character Occupations (your job --- actions based on your job in the civilization get a +15 bonus) All players have one job to start. You had one job, Batman! ONE JOB!
* Influences character Skills (A +7 bonus) All players get 3 Skills.
* Influences character Hobbies (+3 bonus) All players get 5 Hobbies.
* Influences Mastery (The rate you get Masters at as well as the bonuses they give)
If Personal is rolled, Mastery will always be rolled. If your action is related to your job, remind me, or you might miss the +15 bonus.
Spiritual : Spiritual:
* Influences the Divine aspect (Deities and their needs)
* Affects Healing (the amount and strength of healing magic, as well as Healing wounds/resting)
* Affects the skills of your Shaman (covering knowledge of The Spirit Realm)
* Affects Zealotry (higher devotion to your gods grant various bonuses depending on standing).
If Spiritual is rolled, Zealotry will always be rolled.
Social : Social:
* Influences People Skills (Basic impressions and culture)
* Affects Trade And Goods (dealing with items and resources)
* Influences Diplomacy (deal making, bribing, "friendly rivalry" and cold wars)
* Affects Espionage (stealing, seducing and assassinations)
Sorcery : Sorcery:
* Influences Mana (Higher level means more magic overall)
* Affects your Innate Magical Effect (Personal special effects)
* Influences Ley Lines (both finding them and using them)
* Affects Magical Theory (Researching new magic).
If Sorcery is rolled, Theory will always be rolled.
Research : Research:
* Affects finding new Legends and Lore (spcific items, names and places),
* Influences Spell School (for individual spell effects)
* Affects Cultural (when you find new Civilizations or study ancient ones)
* Influences the size of your Library bonuses (a catch-all for everything else).
Each month, Aspects and Sub-Aspects increase by 1d7 (3d7 for Midsummer, never less than 9; 5d7 for Winter's Meet, never less than 12), This'll be modded based on whatever races end up in the starting lineup of the Civilization; something that progresses 20% slower, for example, will require 120 EXP to go up its first level, 150 its second, and so on. On a successful Action, the Base Aspect will increase by 3, any Sub Aspects in that Base go up by 1, any Sub Aspects -used- in that base go up another .5 and any Sub Aspects used from other Aspects go up by .25. On an unsuccessful Action, the Base Aspect will increase by 1, any Sub Aspects in that Base (whether used or not) go up by .25, and any Sub Aspects used from other Aspects won't go up at all. Aspects and Sub-Aspects level in steps of 100, +25 (100, 125, 150, etc) each additional level to a maximum of Level 20.
I've done the math, if I rolled maximum for one whole year on everything, that's 162 EXP, which is about a level and a half to start. So figure about 80 EXP before Action bonuses... you should regularly level the Aspects.
Rolling Actions
Interesting Events
Mastery
Trance
Combat/Wounds
Magic Use
Experience Points
The Five Heralds
Hazards
Rolling Actions :
For each Action, I will roll 1d100 against a Difficulty. If I roll a Natural 5 or below, the result is a Critical Failure. 95+, and it's a Critical Success (although on difficulties of 95 or higher it will be only 100 that is a crit success). The roll gets a bonus of 3 per point of Base Aspect, and a bonus of 2 to the roll per level of Sub Aspect. In addition the Difficulty is lowered by two per point of Base Aspect. However no more than 1 Sub Aspect per 4 (changed from 3) levels of Base Aspect will be rolled! This makes rolls far more difficult, and makes you rely on Occupations and such that much more. Only -one- Base Aspect will be rolled, with up to three Sub Aspects maximum (plus one more if there is a synergy, like Warfare + Militia). Designing something new/prototypical with a lot of moving parts, for example, might fall under Research + Inventioneering instead of Technology + Inventioneering (though after the first time something is successful, it will use likely use Technology and later Tools).
Since we have lots of newcomers (well, I'm expecting them, anyway; please, everyone, bring your friends here) coming in this game, I'm going to explain a little more about actions. Each game month when I write up a post, actions (under an appropriate heading) will be posted along with the dice rolls (d100) used to get them. Let's say you were trying to loot a castle with your newly made army, I'd probably roll Warfare + Militia + Mazelooting at a difficulty of... let's say 85. The roll will look something like this on the post:
[Army Looting]: Base roll is 20 + 6 (Warfare 2) + 2 (Militia 1) + 2 (Mazelooting 1) + 10 Action Points = 40 vs Modded 83 - 0 MP = 40 (Base 85) (Action Failed)
[Army securing the Castle]: Base roll is 87 + 6 (Warfare 2) + 2 (Militia 1) + 2 (Traps 1) + 0 Action Points = 97 vs Modded 48 - 0 MP = 48 (Base 50) (Action Succeeded) [49: +12 AP, +7 MP](the modified 97 is NOT a critical, the base roll has to be 95+).
Sometimes failures won't actually be "failures". In the above example, if there's no one to contest you looting, you just might find fewer pieces of loot, or lesser quality loot.
There CAN AND WILL BE difficulties over 100, especially later on.
Action Points a player has can be used to add a bonus to the roll (up to 15) and Mastery points can be used to reduce the difficulty of the roll (also to 15, minimum difficulty of 30). For each successful Action, I'll take the difference between the roll and the modified difficulty, and divide that by 7 (for Action Points generated, rounding up) and 9 (for Mastery Points generated, rounding down); a critical success or a roll over 150 will double these values.
If you run out of SAs/FHs, you can still perform a Standard Action by using the stored potential of the "Action Pool", but the highest number that can be rolled will be equal to the amount of AP spent to a limit of 75. 20% of this will be deducted from Mastery (so a full 75 will drop MP by 15). AP/MP will not be generated on such a roll. This way if you absolutely need to do an action but are out of actions, you can still do it (though it's not really reccomended).
If you use AP/MP on a roll, no AP or MP will be generated for that roll, nor will Trance increase.
I use Random.org's front page dice roller to roll the d100, then I have a IRC script to plug in the modifiers, so yes, the numbers are random. For those of you worried about being screwed, the only time I screw my players is that I write to the whims of the dice. If I roll a Critical Failure (5 or less on the original roll), you WILL be feeling it, as the old players familiar with my Civilization games will vouch for! I might try to save characters' lives, but if the dice say no and I can't think of a good way to write around it, then the dice say no. If I constantly fucked with my players, I'd lose players right quick! 
I write to the whim of the dice. If the dice are deviant, so will the results (but it will at least keep me hopping trying to rationalize everything...)
Interesting Events :
For each successful Action, I will roll Personal + Mastery for SI (Something Interesting, 80+); if that roll is successful I'll roll again for a ME (Mysterious Event, 90+, up from 70+ and 80+ of Civ 5). Yes, these rolls generate additional AP/MP for the "Action Pool." Something Interesting grants a write up and another possible avenue of research or story to explore. A Mysterious Event is just that, a "Watch out, I'm going to perform Science on it!" situation that turns the story in a completely new direction. SIs and MEs won't always be beneficial (roughly 50/50%, modified by Personal + Mastery total levels), and if BOTH the SI and ME roll are Critical Successes, I'll roll again (at 85+) for a chance at it being Unusual, which is a once-in-a-lifetime occurance and will most definitely be a gamechanger (though it might not always be beneficial!).
Mastery :
This game I'm introducing the new Mastery mechanic. Every successful Action, I'll roll 1d100 - twice the Mastery Level against your current number of Mastery points (and subtract another 10 if it was a critical), and if I roll below the number of current points stored, you get a Master added to the population and the points value drops by 100 (can go negative). Said Master will be based upon the Action that was successful. You don't get a choice whether or not to get a Master, so if you have a very high MP when Midsummer gets close... for EXP purposes you might want to hang back on actions!
Each Master drops the difficulty of Actions they are a Master of by (Mastery Level +6, to a minimum difficulty of 30), and generates 30% more AP and MP when used. In addition it will give any chance for Something Interesting or Mysterious Events a +10 bonus. If you decide to use a Master on something they're NOT a Master of, this bonus is cut to 1/3 (difficulty drop by 5, 10% bonus to AP, +3 to SI/ME); they're considered elites, so there's still something there. It costs 7-13 (randomly rolled) AP to use a Master during your turn, and half that in MP (A Master's time is valuable, and therefore expensive!). If this random roll would drop your AP or MP to 0, the Action simply won't generate AP/MP that time but will still go off normally.
Each Master is usable only once by any one person in a month. Using them a second month in a row doubles the AP/MP cost. Three months in a row triples it, and four in a row and thereafter quadruple it. So if Person A uses Master A in 500.01, Person B (or anyone else) can't use Master A until 500.03 unless they want to pay the increased cost.
Trance : Trance increases by 2 points 25% of the time. Failing that, 1 point 50% of the time. There is a +1 for using an Action (whether successful or not), +1 if AP or MP were generated, and another 2 each for if Something Interesting or a Mysterious Event happens.
Trance caps at 40. If you hit Trance, AP and MP generated are doubled, SAs go off with the power of a Finest Hour, and FHs go off with 150% normal power. Trance lasts for 2 game months (the turn it is hit and the turn thereafter). Once you hit Trance there is a 7 month cooldown before it can be hit again, and if you somehow hit it a second time (unlikely, but possible in the right circumstances) before the cooldown period ends you can choose to gain 2 Standard Actions or one Finest Hour instead.
Combat/Wounds :
I'm codifying the wound system I've been using for the Civilizations. In the past it was simply a rough estimate of how badly matched you were with an enemy, and then a single saving throw (larger-sized targets sometimes got tougher saves). This time, I'm solidifying it not with HP, but with Wounds. You start at Uninjured, and it goes from Uninjured -> Slightly Injured -> Somewhat Injured -> Moderately Injured -> Severely Injured -> Badly Hurt -> Potential Permanent Damage (25%) -> Potential Permanent Damage (50%) -> Mortally Wounded -> Dead. Some races get more or less wounds; a race that has -2 wounds for example will start Uninjured but go straight to Moderately Injured part of the scale on the first hit.
Severely Injured or worse require bed rest and recovery until you are -fully- recovered. You can still act, you just can't do anything that deals with a great length of travel, intense research, spellcasting ritual, or combat. Otherwise, you'll take double normal damage instead in any combat or possibly re-injure yourself otherwise.
For combat/dungeon runs, battles will usually be Dungeoneering + Group Tactics (or Warfare + Militia for outdoor melees). Difficulty will differ on situation and both teams will make a roll; the losing side on the d100 roll has to make a saving throw for each member of the fight (d20, usually a 14+, 16+ for Big Guys and Giant-tweaked, 11+ for Stunty or Tiny, 9+ if both Stunty/Tiny). If I make it you take 1 wound, if I blow it you take 2, and if I roll a Natural 1 you take 3. If you're already injured, a Natural 20 on the save will recover one wound instead (from adrenaline).
If BOTH teams fail the initial roll, all forces involved take 1 Wound (though skills like Big And Strong still kick in) and I roll again, while if both teams succeed at the initial roll, the higher roller is declared the winner for determining saves and damage, though damage is reduced by 1 (2 if a Critical Success.)
Afterward for the majority of the time there's a clear winner and loser, I'll roll (the winner's Warfare)d10 for both sides, and subtract one die rolled per wound dealt on the saving throw. So if someone has Warfare 5 and the losing side blows it with a Critical 1, taking 3 wounds, I'll roll 2d10 for the winner and 5d10 for the loser.
Any 7 or 8 will deal 1 additional wound (to all combatants on that side) unless heavily armored or magically protected, a 9 rolled will deal two wounds (1 if armored/protected), and a 10 deals three in all cases. I will automatically have characters retreat from battle if they reach Badly Hurt or worse; if a character retreats, the opposing force has a 50% chance for a 3d10 parting shot (which could kill you).
If after one round of combat, both teams are surviving, I'll roll a second round, to a maximum of three rounds. At that point I'll total the three rolls and award the win to the higher total (unless the monsters have you surrounded with no escape, it's an expenditure of resources and not a complete Total Party Kill.)
Wounds regenerate at the rate of 1 per game month, or 2 if you're in a safe spot and don't do any Action (just remind me you're resting) that month. Some races get better (or worse) regeneration, and some races also take more than one wound a hit (which will compound with Stunty/Tiny). While the realm of ressurection and Raise Dead isn't out of the question (depending on what Tweaks are picked), it's not going to be easy and will have to be researched.
Magic Use :
For magic, The Civilization begins with all of the 0 level spells for both Divine and Arcane casters (
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/so ... Spells.htm
and
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/cl ... ericSpells
). Researching a new spell level is a Finest Hour that can be attempted only at Midsummer or Winter's Meet (or any time Celestial Eclipse is triggered if you decide to take Ponies and their Racial Power). Your highest spell level possible is your Spiritual (divine spells), Sorcery (arcane spells), or Healing (spells that recover wounds), while the number of spells you can know at maximum is equal to (Mana sub aspect +1). You can research spells of up to +2 spell levels but they may come with strings attached.
Each time you research spells (an SA; a new spell level available is a FH), if you are not a caster and succeed, you'll get one random spell of a random available level added to the Civilization's library. If you're a caster, you get 1d2 if a Hobby, 1d2+1 if a Skill and 1d3+1 if an Occupation (with the chance for new and unusual spells as well) During combat and dungeon runs I'll take spells in the library into account for ideas on how best to deal with problems.
Experience Points :
Every Midsummer, I'll look at the AP and MP of the "Action Pool". ((Current AP * 7) + (Current MP * 9)) EXP will be awarded, divided evenly among everyone. In addition, each individual player gets +10% of that per SA spent, 20% per FH spent, and +30% if you entered Trance (once-a-year bonus only) done during the year. Every 475 EXP will equal a Level and the EXP will be reset to 0; this is subject to change after the first year based on the net result of the first 12 months. Each Aspect will receive 1 EXP per point of AP and 2 per point of MP in the Action Pool before AP/MP values are reset to 0.
Each time a Player gets an Experience Level, one of five results can happen (chosen by player): A) increase a Base Aspect EXCEPT Personal by 30% of the amount required for its next level, B) add one Wound to personal strength, C) bank a Critical 100 for personal use, D) regenerate 3 SA and 1 FH immediately, E) Advance a Hobby to a Skill (50% chance of success) or a Skill to an Occupation (25%). New Hobbies cannot be chosen until you only have two hobbies left.
The Five Heralds :
This game, I will be promoting five Players or Voters (Voters get priority over Players) to Heralds each month. They get to "direct" the Civilization as a whole in a general aspect, saying what the general public is going to focus on (this can be an Action different from the write up's seven choices). In effect it is the "common unimportant person's" Standard Action. I won't even roll this, it will be assumed to be moderately successful (but never a crit).
The Action should be kept fairly broad and short, such as "focus on farming" or "focus on scouting/exploring, maybe in X direction" or "focus on magic with interest on water element"... things like that. The original action is free; for every 7 AP spent from the general pool, they may make one extra "broad" Action to a maximum of 21 AP (which would be roughly a paragraph's worth of Actions total). If they choose to hold action instead, the Action Pool of AP/MP will increase by 3% (with an additional 5% bonus if -all five- Heralds hold action). Herald actions will be posted as single sentences, in a paragraph titled "Background Noise". Sometimes Herald actions will open up new storylines, so they're not as useless as they look.
There are five Heralds, four named as an Ace from the Tarot deck and each concerned with one aspect of the Civilization: The Herald of Swords (Military might and defense, where to go, what to train, who to piss off, who to piss on), the Herald of Wands (Magical might, both in its research and its applications, whether combat or healing), the Herald of Cups (Cultural and Spiritual might, dealing with other societies and the spirit realm) and the Herald of Pentacles (Material might, allocation of resources for building things). The last Herald is the Fool (named more for fool's luck than stupid moves) that is an all-around general Herald... a Utility Herald, so to speak. The Fool's Action does have a chance to Critical, but only if A) no AP was spent with any of the Aces and B) the Fool spends 25 AP and 10 MP. If the Fool ends up Critical-ing (d100 roll with no modifiers, 95+) the Action goes off with the power of a Finest Hour. If the Fool critfails, three Hazards will immediately go off at once.
The Herald title will switch from person to person randomly. Voter turnout and population (lack of a better word) will define how often people get a shot at Herald, but right now it's no more than once per year per individual type of Herald. (so yes, theoretically one person might get lucky and be all Heralds at different times of the year). This ought to keep those lazy bums from being inactive... Players (those with characters) who didn't get to be Herald in a game year get a bonus multiplier of 25% to their EXP at Midsummer to compensate (and since I pick Heralds from voters first before Players...). For every additional 7 voters who stay active, another Fool will be added to a maximum of five total Fools (if we get this many, a Herald Council of advisors will be created).
Hazards :
Finally, we're adding another little thing called the Hazard Bar which is something from games I used to host on IRC in decades past. It starts at 0 and increases by 3d7 per month. It increases by 1 per Action done (so choosing the three actions each month in the writeup automatically increase it by 3), +1 for a Herald or Standard Action, and +2 for a Finest Hour. When it hits 100, a "misfortune" occurs. They are minor, usually used to give "fluff", or to open the way for a potential storyline. Each time a Hazard goes off, I will roll 3d10.
If I roll doubles, it is a beneficial personal effect (such as finding treasure or completing research ahead of schedule), given to a random player. No player will be targed twice in a row if back to back doubles are rolled.
If I roll triples, it is a greatly beneficial effect (akin to a Critical 100), targeted at the Home Village in general or 3 players (50/50 odds).
If the roll features numbers in ascending order (such as rolling 4-5-6), then it will be featured as a storyline opener or game-changer (an "ascendant roll"). However such a game-changer can only go off once per year, and a second or further ascendant roll will only result in "regular" un-beneficial Hazards.
If I roll 0-0-0 or 7-7-6 (in that order), the Hazards go from just obnoxious to Really Evil, and will probably require a Finest Hour to deal with. 7-7-6 ("Joker Doom") is far more dangerous than 0-0-0, but 7-7-6 will be rerolled for the first 5 years.
If I roll anything else, it's a Hazard, and I'll come up with a monkeywrench in the current situation by rolling Personal + 3 random Sub Aspects against a difficulty of 80. If I make the roll the Hazard is merely an annoyance/delay to make you think on your feet in a "hey, think fast!" moment (alchemy experiments might go awry, construction of a building might hit a snag). If I blow it, the Hazard is something that makes you think on your feet with a cost attached (dangerous, but not deliberately fatal; almost always a save at 9+) and if I critically blow it, the Hazard is flat out destructive and requires recovery of some kind. Hazards will -usually- (but not always) require an SA to mitigate, so you may want to keep one saved up just in case. Hazard rolls will generate AP/MP as usual.
A Hazard's theme will be based off of whatever the (unmodified) highest roll was during Actions -unless- a Critical Failure or Success's been rolled, in which case I'll base it off that (critfails over critsuccesses) instead and make the saving throw more difficult. Saving throws relating to hazards will usually be 9+, with a 13+ on a Critical Success Hazard and a 17+ on a Critical Fail Hazard.
In the last Civ, racial tensions blew over. Centaurs and Wemics exterminated each other (long live Narasimha and Myron), the Drow doomed themselves through greed and poor choices, the Grippli turned into the dominant race... but I'm a glutton for punishment, so we're going to try that again! There will be another racial vote, and the top 5 races will be joined together to form the tribe, each vote adding 70 members of that race. You can choose how to train these 70 to your personal taste. Racial tensions remain, so if you pick incompatables, there is going to be *trouble*. I hope you learned that with the LAST early-goings back in October of 2013! good gods has it really been that long?
Statistics: Posted by Aegis J Hyena — Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:25 pm