War

Overview

The Empire is at war with the barbarian nations it borders. The expected pattern for that war is that the players will, over the next few years, reverse the defeats of the last five decades before eventually invading and conquering new territory. The battles that we put on - as part of the ongoing military campaigns - are part and parcel of the event, so the Empire being at war with someone is unlikely to go away any time soon. So plots that involve the ongoing wars will always be viable in some form in Empire. What follows below is a brief explanation of the mechanical system that we use to calculate the progress of the war and how the PCs influence that.

Danger in LRP

The absolutely ideal danger level for a combat quest, skirmish, or battle is one where the players almost - but not quite - end up dead. That is the goal that anyone writing plot should be aiming for.

There are two ways to achieve this.

Accept that occasionally the players will mess up and get killed, while at other times they play a blinder and cruise through it.
Re-stat everything during the fight to ensure it always comes out as a "nearly died".

We are desperately keen to avoid the second option - it produces a great LRP game for some players, but other players hate it with a passion. For Empire we have chosen to try and deliver the best possible experience we can without resorting to this mechanism. That means accepting that some times it will go wrong and characters will die horribly and sometimes it will be a breeze for them.

When writing high risk combats its worth bearing in mind players react much better to losing a character if they feel if was due to a mistake they made or at least random chance. If players feel the encounter was un-winnable or targeted at them then this often causes bad feeling.

The Military Campaign

War in empire follows a crude event-based model. The Empire and her enemies both have a number of armies. The map of the world is divided into territories and the armies go "on campaign" in territories contested by the Empire and her enemies. Orders are issued by the barbarian forces prior to an event (so we can cheat and change them when we see what the players do) for the season that follows an event. Orders are issued by the players at the event on the same basis. In effect, by the end of the event, the players and the barbarians have committed their forces for the next season of campaigning that follows the event.

When opposing armies are on campaign in a contested territory then both sides suffer casualties in the encounters that take place over a three month period. The larger force (other factors not withstanding) will inflict more casualties and capture one or more regions (part of a territory). From the arrangement of forces, the civil service are able to use day magic to produce an accurate prediction of the season's campaign - even though it has not yet happened. This prediction is given to the Imperial generals at the start of the event - and they then receive a handful of opportunities to intervene in the campaign - by teleporting half the playerbase into a territory to fight a pitched battle (see below). How hard the battle is - and how successful the players are - determines how big a positive change to the outcome of the campaign from the original forecast the players are able to produce.

In simple terms, there is an ongoing war, whose strategic choices are determined by the PC generals. The war is entirely mathematical - there is no random element to it. The random element comes from the player battles - when the success or failure of the players provides the critical variable that shifts the campaign in the players favour if they win their battles.

In plot terms what that means is this: There is an ongoing military campaign whose success or failure is very important to the players. You can run a piece of plot and one of the outcomes can be to provide the players with benefits in this campaign. An eternal can lend them troops or give them access to a powerful battle opportunity. They can perform rituals that help their armies - so items and potions that help them perform those rituals are valuable. Diplomats who offer military aid or threaten to send aid to the Empire's enemies are making credible threats. Basically we have a simple mathematical model that means that we can take account of plot developments, factor them in - and players will see those plot elements reflected in the world they interact with.

Battles

We aim to run two battles at each event - but the ideal is to present the players with more than one battle opportunity but let them pick between those on offer. While this is expensive in plot terms, (since we have to develop battles we don't run), creative ideas can be recycled and the benefits are significant in terms of producing a game where the players are able to make real decisions. The ideal battle should last between one and two hours and involve 4-600 combatants on either side, half of them players, the other half made up of player-volunteers led by our skirmish crew.

Battles should not be a slog-fest, they are supposed to represent critical tactical opportunities, not a last man standing scenario. The ideal battle should have a number of objectives in it, such as murder the enemy shaman, prevent the ritual being completed, destroy the fort, slay five orgres or whatever. The more objectives the players complete - the more positive the advantage they produce for their armies campaigning in the field.

It is hard, really hard, to do plot on a battlefield. Players are fired up on adrenalin and ready to kill anything that looks at them funny. This makes it more important to try out best, not less! An Empire battlefield should be an epic place to roleplay your character, there should be the potential for cool and thought-provoking encounters, items to be gained, locations to be scouted out. We should aim to cram as much plot into a battle as possible - in particular we can cheerfully ignore the laws of probability - it is not "incredible" that five unlikely things all happen at once on a battlefield because the Empire has used day and night magics to divine the most serendipitous moments and locations to fight. All the dull fighting where nothing momentous happens is done by the off-stage NPCs - the cool pivotal moments when dramatic stuff happens should take place on the player battles.

Skirmishes

A skirmish is like a battle but smaller - only involving one, or at most two, nations of PCs. They are usually shorter in duration than a battle, but should have the same amount of plot detail and sets of objectives. At present we are not running any skirmishes at the first event in 2014, to allow us to concentrate more resources on quests.

All battles need military reports to give the general's council options to choose which battle to take. Ideally battles & skirmishes should be linked to other quests or anvil encounters to give them more depth.

Quests

A quest is a small sequence of encounters (a handful) that take place in the woods. They are intended for up to thirty players at a time, but individual quests may be smaller or larger. There is a temptation to try and get as many players on a quest as possible - to try to get players more fighting time - but we want to avoid diluting the experience by having players watching whilst others fight or interact with the encounters.

Everything that holds true for battles can be true for quests. Quests need to have a plot element - though it can be as simple as "go here and fight this creature" - but they can also be seeded with plot elements and leads for other plots. Quests aimed at the military council may provide assistance to them in their ongoing campaign (just like a battle, although with a proportionately smaller impact) - scouting parties assessing a military force, escorting an Imperial courier or intercepting a barbarian supply wagon.

All quests need a 'hook' of some sort to let the players know when it is, where they are going, and roughly what they will be doing when they get there. Care should be taken with quests that do not sound appealing or appear to be suicidal; Empire quests are opt in and we do not force anyone to go if the do not want to. The Quest team can afford to drop the odd quest slot if players do not want to go on it but if this happens regularly it wastes time and effort and damages morale.

However unlike battles, quests do not need to have anything to do with the Empire's ongoing military campaigns. Magistrates may want to send militia to bring back a criminal, a sorceror or a blasphemer. The Conclave might be requested by an Eternal to send a party to retrieve a lost item from a regio. A map to a valuable treasure might come up for sale in the Bourse.

There are a limited number of quest slots available at each event, they are normally assigned on a first come first served basis.

Non-combat Quests

Quests do not have to include combat, indeed most should be more than just an excuse for a fight. Sometimes a mosh is what players want, but it is better to try to include as much plot and roleplaying interaction as possible in your quests and skirmishes.

However, where possible, it is better to avoid non combat quests. We can only run combat on quests (i.e. not on the Anvil field) so every non combat quest is one less opportunity for those that want combat. There are lots of good ideas for quests that don't include any combat, but we will only run a handful of non-combat quests each event, to make sure there are plenty of fighting quests for those that want them.

If your plot does not involve combat, see if there are ways to run the encounter on the field at Anvil - generally we won't run a non-combat quest if that could be run as an encounter on the field.

Structure

You need to decide how many people can go on a quest - this will determine how many people can pass through the Sentinel Gate to attempt the quest. The players can use magic to determine this figure, so we anticipate that they will bring roughly that number of characters. You should try and stat the difficulty of your quest accordingly.

Players cannot go back to Anvil to get reinforcements or supplies they have left behind. Be careful to try and communicate clearly anything the players will need to take with them to attempt the quest. Ideally, try and avoid absolutely must-have items, unless you have specifically told the players that they must have that item.

The Sentinel Gate

All our events take place at Anvil - the cultural centre of the Empire where the great and the good meet four times a year to rule the Empire. Anvil is not a city as such, more a sacred meeting place, a cross between the Icelandic Althing and the Field of the Cloth and Gold. As such it is pretty much the safest place in the Empire - and certainly the last place you would expect to get attacked.

To get the opportunities to go on battles, skirmishes and quests, the players need to pass through the Sentinel Gate, an ancient stone gate that draws on the power of the stars to teleport the players elsewhere in Empire for a limited time. This plot device is what enables the players to travel from the safety of Anvil to the dangers of the battle grounds.

The Sentinel Gate has it's own cosmology and rules that determine how it can be used. Please make sure that you read these carefully and make sure your plot works with these rules, rather than against them.

Templates

There are templates for submitting quests and skirmishes. If you are creating a quest or skirmish, please make sure that you use the accompanying templates, which are stored on the plot wiki.

Locations

We have the woods and an open field and either may have some kind set piece or fortification, we can (and like to) run combat after dark but this has challenges particularly in the woods where lighting is very poor. Night time woods quests better suit static combats e.g. attack a camp site or sneaky knives in the dark type missions. It is not a good idea to have a quest that involves a large running battle for thirty players and that many monsters after dark.

General Advice

Monsters are real people too

Roles and scenarios that are fun for them to play often encourage better roleplaying which makes the player experience better and everyone wins. Ensuring that plot is fun for our crew, as well as just the players is an important part of the Empire style guidelines.

For battles, skirmishes and large combat quests, both player and monsters should have win conditions – it helps explain what the monsters motivation is and how they react should the players do badly. For example, if the monster win condition is to protect objective A and players want to steal objective B then both need to be in the same place or players and monsters may never meet up.

Avoid Trapping the Players

Be careful with kidnap plot or other types of plot that might remove a character from play without them being dead (typically by being on the wrong side of the gate when it closes). We have worked very hard to make it as difficult as humanly possible for players to get trapped on the wrong side of the gate. A player that gets captured is then unable to play his character... and we can't easily create an IC environment where that can be resolved. This is a situation that is desperately unsatisfying for all involved - so avoid plots that aim to trap players.

Be Careful with Linearity

Scenarios that have to happen in a set order (linear quests), are risky as players will almost certainly miss encounters, ignore clues and generally react in ways you did not expect. Plots that have a single point of clear failure or worse rely on an NPC to deliver a monologue to the players are very risky. There is nothing in Empire to stop the players eviscerating the NPC before he even opens his mouth - a fully intentional consequence of the game design. It is better to avoid plots that require a linear sequence of events or have a single point of failure where possible.

Likewise plots that rely on a specific character, skill, or item to complete are very risky. We are keen for our players to respond naturally to the plot opportunities they discover in play - so you can't mandate which characters, skills, or items will be present on a quest. If you do want a skill or item present - make sure your plot hook clearly communicates this to the players before they go on the quest (after is too late - they cannot go back and try again).

Any Monster can be Killed

It is not wise to use monster stats as the core of the plot e.g. the monster that can only be killed by the sword of bling. Interesting stats can be a good sub plot (if they work within the rules) but rarely work well as the main plot. In Empire, the rules are very clear - anything can be hurt by anyone - the game is deliberately focussed away from monsters that require special weapons to harm them.

Avoid Grandstanding

Plots where the players are spectators rather than participants e.g. two NPCs monologuing behind an impenetrable force field goes against the ethos of what we are trying to deliver for Empire - a game focussed on the actions of players. Sneaking up on two NPCs that are having a heated argument is more challenging and interactive, but generally it is better to avoid grandstanding and having NPCs that are interacting with NPCs. The focus should be on the PCs, what they do - and the characters they interact with.

Complexity should be Layered

Keep it simple is a good starting point for a quest, skirmish, or battle. Actually, it is great if an encounter is complex and subtle - provided that the complexity is layered over a simple baseline. Plot devices that require players to do something non intuitive to complete a quest, for example, a mission to steal resources where the win condition is to hide those resources somewhere rather than bring them back through the gate are usually confusing and difficult for the players to understand.

But a complex quest where the basic approach is simple - but there are subtle layers to the encounters such that the players can approach the quest in different ways are great. The difference is that it must not be essential for the players to perceive the complexity to complete the quest.

Shooting for the Moon

It's a nice idea to write a quest involving the players scaling the walls of a hundred foot high castle - but we don't have a hundred foot high castle. It's good to be ambitious and try and push ourselves in terms of what we can or cannot achieve - but quests, skirmishes or battles which feature pointlessly difficult or expensive sets, props, or costumes are likely to be rejected as infeasible.

Getting Help

There are various people who can help you write and run plot at events that use these elements. The most common people who can help you are listed below.

Combat

The Skirmish High Command (Richard Loveday, James Crollie, Emma Woods) are the team responsible for actually running battles, skirmishes and quests. Please talk to them for help on incorporating combat into your plot.

Timetabling Quest Slots

Each event has a limited number of quest slots. Once your plot has been approved then you can add it to the quest timetable, provided there is a slot free. If there is not a slot available for your quest, it will have to wait until the next event.

Monster Stats

Most barbarian warriors should be built on a handful of character points, similar to a PC. For anything else, the Referees (Graeme Jamieson, Nicholas Taylor) can help you with stats for monsters and other creatures.

Costume and Makeup

The Costume (Pru) and Makeup (Mim) teams can help you with advice on what costume, makeup and prosthetics we have available and what the options are.

War

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