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  • Poly-CFC scenario workshop

    This is a joint Apolyton-CFC NES. It will be fairly plot-driven at first, more open ended later on, with plenty of opportunities for customization and choice all the way through.

    It is set on earth, thousands of years after an apocalyptic event. The climate is recovering, and in certain regions humanity has clawed its way back into the industrial age, but resources are still scarce and civilizations isolated.
    Thus the Apolyton players and CFC players will each start in separate regions, initially with little or no contact between sites, surrounded by non-industrial cultures.
    I will run one thread on CFC, and another on ‘poly, and open an ‘Embassy Thread’ for when you gain reliable contact shortly after we start.
    Because Non-Player Countries will not initially be playable, it is important that you declare your intent to play now. I will be custom-editing the map and stats for how many players there are. If you intend to play, please post a “I would like to play” or some recognizable variant thereof. If you change your mind, please post a “I have suddenly and inexplicably changed my mind”, or some variant thereof.

    Any and all experience levels welcome.
    I will be updating once a week, more often (yeah right!) if appropriate and feasible.
    If you give me a compelling reason why you should be on the other site’s “team”, I will probably allow it.

    The premise is based upon the short story Slow Birds by Ian Watson. It’s a good little story; you can go read it or not. Having read it will not confer any advantages or disadvantages to you in the game.

    This is not historical. It may or may not take place in our world’s timeline; what little history your civilization knows will be given to you upon the opening of the scenario. More may be discovered as you play.
    Thus aside from some background culture and a bit of basic local history, the character of your nations will be open to a wide degree of customization.

    Rules, Orders, and Stats

    Orders are not based on a mechanical rule system. The nation statistics are there for your convenience, not to require you to bang your head on the wall trying to figure them out. You could probably mostly ignore them and do just fine.
    Everything you write is an ‘order’ of sorts. Your descriptions, actions, stories, however you choose to express the way your country is functioning and where you want it to go will form a library of prose from which the conditions of your country will be drawn.
    So you are encouraged to integrate abstract orders with the real life manifestations they represent.

    Example of lame orders:
    “Increase economy. Train more soldiers. Stomp out the rebellion”.
    Example of good orders:
    “With the recent influx of countryside immigrants into the port city of Veracruz, drawn by the prospects of work in the new steel mills, we must take measures to accommodate the growing population. With money from industrial taxes supporting the municipal budget, we are slated to begin construction within the year of basic housing and infrastructure within the year on the new riverside residential suburb. Improved water and electric facilities will come within two years, and amenities and a market district following that” etc.
    That said, it’s probably better to write lame orders than no orders.

    Secrecy and Espionage

    A fair bit of the decisions you must make will be based upon trying to get information on the circumstances you face. It’s a shattered world, and you know little (or incorrectly) of what came before the present or now lies much beyond your borders. So guess what? The full map will not be known to you, nor will completely filled out, up to date statistics of your enemies be available to you.
    Things that would really be widely known (at least to your government) will be posted in the public update, things that would be secret will be passed on to you secretly through pm or email.

    That’s why your espionage strength will be very important—it is crucial to find things out about other players and limit what they can find out about you. IMPORTANT- Espionage must be done in game! Do Not look at the other site’s thread unless I permit you to, or use out of character knowledge. That said, it’s probably wise not to post top secret battle orders in the thread, firstly because I can’t stop players from seeing them, only find out after the fact, and secondly because your allies might decide they don’t want to be your allies anymore (players from the same site are not bound in an unbreakable alliance—whether you cooperate with them is up to you). I frown upon, and by frown upon I mean gleefully punish, dishonorable play.

    Tough Times

    This will probably be a challenging game for your nation. It’s possible you’ll slide through without ever being seriously worried that your country will be eradicated, but not likely. Life is not fair, history is not fair.
    If you see something you don’t agree with, by all means bring it to my attention. I may have made a factual mistake; I may have made an error in judgement. But keep in mind things will not always go your way. I will not give your nation difficulties without reason, and I will certainly not intentionally ignore your orders.
    But keep in mind that a lot of the fun of a game can come through extricating yourself through difficult situations, or merely surviving when the odds are thoroughly stacked against you. Enjoy the challenge of dealing with the difficulties your people face!
    Those walls are absent of glory as they always have been. The people of tents will inherit this land.

  • #2
    The Statistics

    As mentioned, the intent behind these is to be a source of general information, not an obsessive object of perfectionism. They don’t inherently confer success on you if they are good, nor failure if they are bad, they merely are indicators to your conditions strengths and weaknesses.
    Note: Do not submit some filled out version of this! Choosing nations comes later, Right now is just signing up.

    CNS v. 3.2

    Nation Name
    Player Name
    Civil Modernity: Number = em./de./nor.
    Military Modernity: Number = em./de./nor.
    Technological Capacity: Number = em./de./nor.
    Espionage: Number = em./de./nor.
    Army: Number = em./de./nor.
    Navy: Number = em./de./nor.
    Population: Number million = em./de./nor.
    Economic Vigor: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Median Living Standards: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Contentedness: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Education: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Bureaucracy: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Environment: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Health: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Public Safety: Status, Number = em./de./nor.
    Notes— May include descriptions of some of the following:
    Government.
    Culture/Society.
    Economics/Taxation/Commercial Efficiency.
    Liberties.
    Conscription/Military Spending.
    Social Welfare.
    Socialized Services.
    Nationalized Industry.
    Industrial Grants.
    Corruption.
    Police.
    Protectionism.


    The following symbols are your nation’s pundits’ in-character best guesses at what the future holds for a particular stat area: Take them with a grain of salt.
    + Promising
    = Okay
    <> Uncertain
    -- Bad

    The following are included simply to remind you of what your currently policies are doing with regards to stat areas. Like most of the specific or sensitive information, they will not be included in the public stats, only what I give you secretly, so if you find them distracting or something I can take them off, no problem.

    Emphasize, em.
    De-emphasize, de.
    Normalize, nor.


    Population; in millions of people. If number of citizens, national population, and residents within your borders grow too disparate, I guess I’ll have to keep track of them separately. But for now assume they’re all about the same.


    Economic Vigor; the general commercial health of your nation; employment, entrepreneurship, how easy it naturally is to be a consumer or producer at the given time.

    Primitive (0), Backwards (1), Poor (2), Struggling (3), Stagnated (4), Decent (5), Good (6), Thriving (7), Exceptional (8), Glorious (9), Feverish (10).


    Median Living Standards; Quality of life, practical availability to the average folk of necessities and amenities for a given tech level (thus it is measured independently, like economy, of technology, though like everything else they impact each other).

    Abysmal (0), Squalid (1), Poor (2), Unacceptable (3), Constrained (4), Tolerable (5), Good (6), Very Good (7), Exceptional (8), Utopian (9), Material Paradise (10).


    Contentedness; it speaks for itself.

    Open Revolt (0), Extremely Displeased (1), Worrisome (2), Significant Discontent (3), Restless (4), Just Satisfied (5), Conformable (6), Happy Enough (7), Optimistic (8), Quite Pleased (9), Exuberant (10).


    Bureaucracy; this is largely outside of your direct control. It will reflect to some degree your actual play style. You can order reductions in corruption or programs to improve efficiency, and they might work.

    Independent (0), Local (1), Autonomous (2), Functioning (3), Sleek (4), Rooted (5), Sizable (6), Bulky (7), Burdensome (8), Monolithic (9), A Society Unto Itself (10).


    Education; not just public education or institutes of higher learning (though those play the largest roles); can also be nontraditional education methods; influenced by freedom of speech and extent of information availability and public discussion.

    None (0), Dismal (1), Ineffectual (2), Basic (3), Limited (4), Decent (5), Respectable (6), Quite Well Rounded (7), Very Well Informed (8), Excellent (9), Just…A lot (or variations thereof) (10).


    Environment; the world is recovering from ecological catastrophe and is still unstable; may change due to human-caused activities or simply factors beyond your control.

    Wasteland (0), Devastated (1), In Crisis (2), Inhospitable (3), Marginal (4), Hospitable (5), Healthy (6), Vital (7), Pristine (8), Pleasant (9), Well Tended (10).


    Health; self explanatory.

    Unhealthy (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), Moderately Healthy (6), (7), (8), (9), Extremely Healthy (10).


    Public Safety; (from crime); street crime as well as corruption, organized crime, and white collar crime can contribute to low ratings, as can, for example, an enemy army smashing through your territory (unless it is a courteous and well behaved enemy army).

    Very Unsafe (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), Moderately Safe (6), (7), (8), (9), Extremely Safe (10).


    Civil Modernity; roughly equivalent to infrastructure and how common private and public technology is.


    Military Modernity; Military technology, training, readiness, effectiveness of force projection. A war will decrease it as manpower and equipment stockpiles are used up.


    Technological Capacity; Neither your Military Modernity or Civil Modernity may exceed your technological capacity rating. Tech Cap indicates how much theoretical scientific knowledge you possess (or if your society is against science, then it is how much “worldly wisdom has been revealed to your priests”), not how much is actually implemented in your country.


    Espionage; measured in number of base of operations: Number you have, (Number you can support). You cannot have more than you can support. If you can support between one and two times as many base of operations as you actually have, the ones you do have will be more effective. Beyond that there is no change in effectiveness.


    Army; measured in divisions: Number you have, (Number you can support without strain). Divisions present above the support limit will have lower morale, poorer equipment, and less training. Mobilize to increase the number of supportable divisions.


    Navy; Measured in fleets. Works just like the Army does.


    Spots Available (5/10)

    Signed up as of 3/22 7:20 AM PST

    appleciders
    metaliturtle
    bipolarbear
    cyclotron
    (reserved for micha)
    Last edited by foolish_icarus; March 22, 2006, 10:17.
    Those walls are absent of glory as they always have been. The people of tents will inherit this land.

    Comment


    • #3
      Count me in!
      "Bother," said Pooh, "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock
      phasers on the Heffalump. Piglet, meet me in transporter room
      three. Christopher Robin, you have the bridge."

      Comment


      • #4
        Other games invite thread and CFC counterpart threads have also been posted.
        Those walls are absent of glory as they always have been. The people of tents will inherit this land.

        Comment


        • #5
          I'm in too!
          First Master, Banan-Abbot of the Nana-stary, and Arch-Nan of the Order of the Sacred Banana.
          Marathon, the reason my friends and I have been playing the same hotseat game since 2006...

          Comment


          • #6
            COUNT ME IN!

            COUNT ME IN!

            Wow, I have to hand it to you Icarus. With all of my crazy ideas, I never considered doing an interforum NES. Congratualtions no matte how this turns out. That is really creative and I admire that.

            I'm really loking forward to this.


            Also, thanks for the reservation.
            Lysistrata: It comes down to this: Only we women can save Greece.
            Kalonike: Only we women? Poor Greece!

            Comment


            • #7
              I can't claim credit for the inter-forum idea.
              I had a lot of fun, though, figuring out a scenario and rules that might make it work.
              But I must say, I was expecting to get at least a few new players by advertizing in other games. Nichevo. An adequate number at CFC signed up, and we should have enough here. The map is finished, and I've put together quite a terrifying series of events (if I may say so) for about at least the first half dozen updates, with some ideas for further misery and fun beyond that. I'm going to finish the stats and give one more day for potential signups, so look for posting of official thread tomorrow. After countries are chosen, gameplay will probably begin thursday, with an update...Wednesday-ish, probably.
              Those walls are absent of glory as they always have been. The people of tents will inherit this land.

              Comment


              • #8
                Okay then, I'm in. I will attempt to make time for this, it sounds fun.
                Lime roots and treachery!
                "Eventually you're left with a bunch of unmemorable posters like Cyclotron, pretending that they actually know anything about who they're debating pointless crap with." - Drake Tungsten

                Comment


                • #9
                  Did you PM the usual suspects, like Laurentius, Lord Nuclear, and Pave? And how is it that Micha's not here? Anyway, how many are signed up at CFC?
                  "Bother," said Pooh, "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock
                  phasers on the Heffalump. Piglet, meet me in transporter room
                  three. Christopher Robin, you have the bridge."

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Cool.
                    Yeah, I'll be sending some pms.
                    7 signed up at CFC.
                    Those walls are absent of glory as they always have been. The people of tents will inherit this land.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Is Classy Comrade Tassy still alive? I remember there was something about him going missing but I thought that was a self ban or something.
                      Lysistrata: It comes down to this: Only we women can save Greece.
                      Kalonike: Only we women? Poor Greece!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        To the best of my knowledge, he no longer makes himself known on the internets.
                        Those walls are absent of glory as they always have been. The people of tents will inherit this land.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Oh. I will have to do something in honor of my fallen comrade. Maybe I will not pay my taxes in his name. Yes, I'm sure he'd probably be happy about that.
                          Lysistrata: It comes down to this: Only we women can save Greece.
                          Kalonike: Only we women? Poor Greece!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Soooo.... What's going on, then?
                            "Bother," said Pooh, "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock
                            phasers on the Heffalump. Piglet, meet me in transporter room
                            three. Christopher Robin, you have the bridge."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I was begnning to wonder myself. Whenever there is a big gap like this, I always assume that someone has died.
                              Lysistrata: It comes down to this: Only we women can save Greece.
                              Kalonike: Only we women? Poor Greece!

                              Comment

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