Earth-World the musical development

[Harry1991]

Earth-World - The Musical

Welcome! welcome one and all!
to the mountain kings counting hall!

Earth worlders come
thy will be done!
did your side
have lots of fun?

Welcome to Earth-World! a game based loosely upon the Erfworld comic series by Robert T. Balder and Xin Ye, with special thanks to Jamie Noguchi for his contributions. Earth-World is a play-by-post strategy game which aims to give players the 'feel' of being an erfworld side caught in the struggles of turn based warfare. While this game shares many of the same fantasy elements as erfworld it is based more loosely on the real world, meaning some things like dance fighting have been removed for the sake of game play.

Special thank go to the creators of the 'New Erf' and 'Erfworld Empires' games, which I found helpful as base material for these rules. Any ideas used from them is attributed as such in footnotes.

*POP* - your first turn

Imagine you are a ruler in Earth-world. You have suddenly popped one sunny morning in your level 4 city. At this moment in time you are aware that this is the very first turn in this world, no side has yet come onto turn and that your side encompasses the capital, three ancillary cities (all level 3), an heir, two warlords and a caster.

You stand there for a moment thinking and looking at your 'empire'. It is not quite fully formed yet. You have decisions to make, like what weapons to give your soldiers? what sort of mounts to use? and what sort of casters do you want?.

UNITS

In Earth-world the bulk of your side will be units. There are six 'generic' unit types, each of which have 3 choices available (except for siege where all types are available but work slightly differently) for unit stats, and one 'specialized' unit for each side that is entirely designed by you the player.

All units have 3 statistics for you to keep track of. Attack, defence and finally movement, please note siege engines have only the defence and move stats. Attack and defence scores are used for combat, movement is how far on the world map a unit can travel. Beyond that some units will have special abilities that give them powers beyond regular soldiers.

The basic designs are: stabbers, archers, scouts, mounts, siege and knights. At the beginning of the game you will need to pick which version of these units you will be using. This decision is fixed and cannot be undone. Players may name their units whatever they wish and describe them as they see fit but these are the unit templates to follow.

FOR FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIALS NOTED PLEASE LOOK AT THE SPECIALS SECTION!

Stabber types

Sword Stabber - Basic swordsman, average attack, defence and movement. 2/2/4.
Spear Stabber - Strong anti-cavalry unit, come with a large shield, higher defence then attack. 1/3/4. (anti-cavalry)
Axe Stabber - Brilliant offensive unit against infantry. High offence, low defence. 3/1/4. (anti-infantry)

Archer types

Woodsman archer - Fast and nimble ranged combatant used for ambushes. 4/1/6 (ranged)
Longbow archer - Basic Archery unit. Average attack, defence and movement. 4/2/4 (ranged)
Crossbow archer - Strong offensive archer with heavy crossbow. High attack, low movement. 4/4/2 (ranged)
Garrison archer - Defensive archers, cannot move. 4/4/0 (garrison, ranged)

Mount types - paired with scout choice

Ground mount - a basic ground mount. 1/1/12 (ground mount)
Flying mount - a basic flying mount. 1/1/12 (flying mount, flying)

Scout types - paired with mount choice

Ground Mounted scout - a lone scout. 1/1/4 (ground rider, land scout)
Flying Mounted scout - a lone scout. 1/1/4 (flying rider, air scout)

Knight Types

Mounted Knight - A strong mounted knight, requiring either a flying or a ground mount. 3/3/4 ( ground rider OR flying rider at your choice)
Man-at-arms - A knight who fights on foot, often saved as a reserve guard due to their value. 4/4/4.

Siege Units

Siege Tower - a siege tower can be moved against a city wall (requires 2 infantry to push) and allow instant access to the outer wall zone. 2/1

Siege Ram - a siege ram allows attacks to bypass a city gate going straight to the court yard (requires 2 infantry to push). 1/1

Once these units have been picked you must turn your attention to developing your sides 'special unit'. Each side is given one choice of special. Just one. If you later regret it then you have no option to change it and must live with your decisions.

To design a special unit players are given a total of 16 points to distribute between attack, defence, movement and specials. Some specials will have an impact on these stats while others will be beneficial in different ways.

Units (all except siege) in these rules have 3 'levels'. When they are popped they are 'basic' level, meaning their stats are as advertised but after surviving 3 battles they 'level up' and go to 'experienced' level granting them +1 to attack and defence. If they then survive a further six battles they become 'advanced' level and gain a stacking +2 to attack and defence (+3 total). This encourages players to keep their units alive rather then throw away valuable units.

[Harry1991]

CHARACTERS

After units your side is represented by a cast of individual characters. These are your ruler, your heir, your warlords, your casters and (if any dare pop them) courtiers. Characters add vitality to your side and have special bonuses that they confer to units and different abilities which influence those they command.

Characters may also be equipped with magic items to increase their abilities. Some generic items are creatable but others must be found through searching ruins.

Courtiers have a single stat, movement. They have no attack or defence and are killed if a city is taken with them present. They have 2 purposes, firstly as an advisory board to the ruler and secondly as diplomatic envoys. It is common custom to allow foreign courtiers to pass unmolested even in times of war.

Warlords, rulers and heirs have 3 stats, attack, defence and movement, the same as units but have a forth stat called 'level'. Whenever your character does something worthy a game master will tell you they have leveled. This might involve winning battles, it may involve managing cities or training units. A characters level is used in many calculations in order to assist game play, also each level brings a corresponding +1 to attack and defence OR you may elect to gain 2 points towards specials that can be saved up.

Casters have all three basic stats, level and a fifth stat as well. The fifth stat (juice) is used to cast spells from their school of magic. Casters do not gain attack and defence as they level, instead they gain +20 juice. Casters are capable of creating magic items, writing magic scrolls and some casters provide a leadership bonus to certain types of units. When popped casters will be given a type by the game master this will tell you what spell schools they can cast from.

Where a stat says 1DX please roll a random number using a random number generator (my personal favorite is random.org but there are more out there) and inform the game master.

Character stats

Courtiers - Advisers and envoys. Only movement. 6.
Warlords - Generals and commanders. 1D4/1D4/1D6/1 (leadership)
Heir - Heir to the kingdom, becomes ruler if current ruler dies. 1D6/1D6/1D6/1 (leadership)
Ruler - You. Your kingdoms current ruler and your 'avatar'. 1D3/1D3/1D4/1 (leadership)
Caster - Capable of casting spells and leading units (though with no bonuses) - 1D3/1D3/1D4/1/30

[Nihila]

This appears moderately interesting, but you don't actually have the promised list of specials.

Also, what's the advantage of Garrison Archers over Crossbow? Crossbows appear to be better due to a move that's 2 higher.

What's the advantage of Sword Stabbers over Spear and Axe, given that the total stats are the same and Sword doesn't have an 'anti-' bonus?

How will popping and upkeep be handled?

[Harry1991]

that is because these rules are in development and i had to go see my in-laws today so i've not done anything lol errrrrrrrm list of specials is what i'm working on now. Garrison archers were meant to have 6/6/0, nice spot. You won't be able to promote them to field units so it means you have awesome defense at the cost of any attack skill.

Siege engines will be added as well.

Sword stabbers have no bonus currently, i couldn't think of one, so i'm open to suggestions - maybe a speed increase.

[Harry1991]

2 point specials

This is the list of specials and their associated cost and effect.

Anti-infantry - 2 points - this unit gets +3 attack against infantry and -1 attack against cavalry.

Anti-cavalry - 2 points - this unit gets +3 attack against cavalry and -1 attack against infantry.

Flying - 2 points - this unit may fly, bypassing terrain penalties and only being engagble by ranged or flying units.

Ranged - 2 points - this unit may attack flying units and may fire up to 2 hex away.

ground/flying mount - 2 points - allows the unit to be ridden by a unit/character with the corresponding ability at no penalty, all other units take a -2 to attack. (please note you select either ground or flying)

ground/flying rider - 2 points - allows a unit/character to ride a corresponding mount. (please note you select either ground or flying)

4 point specials

air scout - 4 points - allows a unit/character to give limited intelligence for up to 12 hexes. Limited intelligence includes terrain and unit numbers but not unit types.

ground scout - 4 points - allows a unit/character to give detailed intelligence for up to 6 hexes away and limited intelligence up to 8 hexes away. Detailed intelligence includes unit types, unit numbers and terrain types.

First strike - 4 points - this unit will always deal damage first against a unit without first strike. In the event that both units share this skill the one with the highest move will go first.

Loyal - 4 points - this unit can only be turned by magic.

6 point specials

Natural Caster - 6 points - allows this unit to cast level 1 spells from a chosen field with a juice limit per turn of 30.

Breath Attack - 6 points - this unit has a breath attack that allows it to damage city walls as if it were a siege engine.

[Harry1991]

NOTES: Made some minor changes to units and characters, to allow for greater depth of play. Added in siege units. Finished the list of specials.

CITIES

Cities are your resource producer. Without a city your empire has no source of income and would have to rely on mercenary work to survive. You cannot directly build cities, most will begin as barbarian towns and must be conquered to expand your empire, but you are able to upgrade them; both in level and by adding additional buildings and zones.

Cities may be managed by either a warlord, an heir or a ruler. Managing cities increases their schmucker production by 50%. It requires however that the character in question remains in the city for one full turn doing nothing else. He will not level this way but it is a good means to increase income.

Cities range from level 1 to level 5 with the average city being a level 2. A level 1 city represents little more then a stockaded village while a level 5 represents a medieval metropolis. Because of this cities will be able to have different upgrades at different levels, these upgrades do not carry over if you increase a cities level.

City stats are shown below.

LEVEL 1 CITY
Wall Strength: 20
Income per turn: 100 schmuckers.
Maximum upgrades: 2
Zones: Courtyard and Garrison.
Upgrades available: Farms/fishing pier, lumber yards, pastures.

LEVEL 2 CITY - cost to upgrade 500 schmuckers
Wall Strength: 100
Income per turn: 200 schmuckers.
Maximum upgrades: 1
Zones: Courtyard, Tower and Garrison.
Upgrades available: Blacksmith, carpenters.

LEVEL 3 CITY - cost to upgrade 2,000 schmuckers
Wall Strength: 200
Income per turn: 900 schmuckers.
Zones: Walls, Courtyard, Tower and Garrison.
Maximum upgrades: 1
Upgrades available: Tavern, Barracks.

LEVEL 4 CITY - cost to upgrade 5,000 schmuckers
Wall Strength: 500
Income per turn: 1,500 schmuckers.
Zones: Walls, Courtyard, Tower, Dungeon (if a prison is present) and Garrison.
Maximum upgrades: 1
Upgrades available: Prison

LEVEL 5 CITY - cost to upgrade 10,000 schmuckers
Wall Strength: 1000
Income per turn: 2,500 schmuckers.
Zones: Walls, Courtyard, Tower, Dungeon and Garrison.
Maximum upgrades: 1
Upgrades available: University
NOTE: a level 5 city can take 500 prisoners.

City walls may be attacked by units (who attack at x10 their normal combat strength) if no siege is present. Ranged defenders firing from a wall zone gain +1 to their attack.

CITY UPGRADES

NAME - COST - EFFECT

Farms/fishing pier - 500 schmuckers - decreases a sides upkeep by 1% per farm
Lumber yards - 500 schmuckers - decreases the cities time to pop siege by 1 turn (non-cumulative)
Pastures - 500 schmuckers - decreases the cities time taken to pop a mount unit by 1 turn (non-cumulative)
Blacksmith - 750 schmuckers - decreases infantry upkeep by 1% per blacksmith.
Carpenters. - 750 schmuckers - decreases siege upkeep by 1% per carpenter.
Tavern - 1,250 schmuckers - gives a random chance of uncovering a near-by ruins hex every 5 turns
Barracks. - 1,250 schmuckers - doubles cities production of non-siege units (if 1 would pop, pop 2 instead)
Prison - 2,500 schmuckers - allows the city to take 200 prisoners.
University - 10,00 schmuckers - if the city pops a warlord he has an additional chance of being a caster.

[turbler]

(It certainly has been a while. . .)
Seems interesting, but I have a couple questions
Why would anyone ever want to take either of the Anti-(Whatever) Abilties? You either pay 2 for a conditional +1 ATK or (assuming stats scale 1:1) 2 for an unconditional +2ATK
Also, First strike (priced at 4) seems to be redundant given that Rachery grants first strike (and then some), all while costing 2.
Also, are we going to be borrowing the spellbook of some other game (and if so which)?
And lastly, do we have a working combat system (or part of one)?
Other than that... this looks alright. (Although I must say I wish we could have multiple specials.)

[BLANDCorporatio]

Sorry for being grossly off-topic, but

welcome back turbler!

[Harry1991]

As a student my time during the week is quite limited but I had already thought about increasing the 'anti' bonus to +3 with a corresponding -1 against something else.

Ranged v First strike. First strike wins. That is why you would select it. EDIT: made changes to ranged allowing the unit to fire 2 hexes away (1 hexes gives a 50% attack reduction, 2 hexes gives a 75% attack reduction) but removing their first strike capabilities.

Magic system is in the works, most likely going to be similar to the New Erf system but I am going to be adding in caster 'class' (novice, adept, master) as well. HOWEVER I will probably be changing around spells and making caster links more dangerous but more beneficial (and having some 'standard' link ups described too) as well as having a 'spell failure' mechanism with such fun results as uncroaking the enemy units and having them still be enemies.

Combat system is simple. Total attack, modified by leadership bonus, stacking bonus, spell bonus etc, against the total defence (as modified by ya-da ya-da ya-da) of the target stack with the difference being the amount of 'croaked' units. Player decides which units croaked (except warlords, GM decides that). ADDITIONALLY if a player specifies something like 'attack the siege' then a GM will mention what portion of the siege must be destroyed by the attack. Ranged damage (1 square away) would be halved.

EXAMPLE 1: A stack attacks with 12, B stack defends with 8. 4 units in stack B die.
EXAMPLE 2: A stack shoots B stack at range (1 hex) with an attack of 8. B stack defends with a defence of 5. Attack is halved, no deaths.
EXAMPLE 2.5: A stack shoots B stack at range (2 hexes) with an attack of 8. B stack defends with a defence of 5. Attack is reduced to 1/4, no deaths.
EXAMPLE 3: A stack attacks at 20, B stack defends at at 22. No deaths.

with regards specials, there will be a whole host of wild units you can capture then convert. If you get enough of them you can then start popping them (say 10+). This is where 'specials' come from in this game system. It just means we don't get 20 different versions of essentially the same unit to administer and instead the game focuses more on players making hard decisions like whether to devote time to tracking down dwagons to gain a tactical edge or whether to push yourself to a war footing with what you have.

[turbler]

@BLAND: Thanks, it's good to be back. I'm pretty busy with school (or rather, procrastinating on schoolwork on here for the time being), so I'm glad to see a game in development, since the requisite knowledge is minimal. I think I might look into New Erf over the summer though.
@Harry: No need to rush, I just want to know what is and isn't ready yet (even though I really shouldn't be spending my time on this right now, I still want to). And when I have a little more time I might be able to help with the spellbook, and some other rules.
EDIT: Units attack back at the same time when first strike/range aren't issues, right?

[Harry1991]

yeah if the warlord orders it or the stack is unled.

The stack that moved into the hex will attack, as will the defending unit. So a combat calculation will go like this

Stack A Attack: 20. Stack B Attack 18.
Stack B Defence: 21. Stack A defence: 9.

Stack A loses combat and suffers 9 casualties.

In a case like this the defeated stack is likely to lose a warlord due to the high casualties.

[turbler]

So... Where is this thing, rules wise (as in what's presently being worked on)?