Between Game Actions and Land System

Knight Realms has several systems to help simulate the game world between the live events.  This document contains the rules and some details for how those systems work.

The Systems descibed here are:

• Between Game Actions

• Land System

Guiding Principles

• Participation in these between game systems is optional

• There are no detrimental effects for not participating

• This is a secondary system that supports the regular game 

  • Actions that come with repercussions will have most aspects of those repercussions contained within these systems.  

  • The level of the actions taken in these systems should add background information into the game and be affected by plot, but are not for resolving plot.

  • Storytellers may use these systems as a way to further the plot of the coming events, launch hints as to what is going on in the larger world, etc.  However, this use of the system is strictly on a case by case basis at the discretion of the Storyteller or Plot Marshal for each specific plot.  Do not assume that because something plot related worked once that it will work again.

• PVP will be minimized.  

• Character cooperation and coordination will be rewarded.

• A turn is the time between primary events.  

• Festivals, Banquets and other special events do not end turns.

• Exceptions to when the turns start and end will be announced as needed.

Between Game Actions

After the weekend event ends, each character is assumed to be spending time travelling back to their home where they will resume a fairly normal and unexciting life until the next time their skills are needed.  Each character is allowed to fill this time with a job or other kind of activity within the following guidelines.  

• All active characters may take one between game action each turn.

  • A character is considered active if they have earned build within the last 6 months.

• If the character is a member of a business then this first action may be a Business Action.

• Characters with Civil Service may take one additional Action.  This second action has some limitations:

  • It must take place in the same Land and Settlement as their first action.

  • It can not be a Business Action

• Characters with both Quadrivium andCivil Service may use their second action as a business action.  For these characters, if the second action is a Business Action then that Action may also be taken in another Land and Settlement than their first action takes place in.  

  • This represents leaving detailed instructions behind with the employees as well as responding to problems via written correspondence.  

  • The character is considered to be physically residing in the Land and Settlement of their first action.

• Characters may set up a Default Action (or two if they qualify) to take when no other actions are specified.  These actions will be automatically populated ONLY IF there are no actions specified manually.  

• Entering any Action will prevent Default Actions from loading, even if you enter fewer new Actions than you have the potential to take - the difference will not be made up by loading any Default Action.

• Negative actions may not be set as Default Actions

Status of a Settlement

Settlements have a number of metrics that are tracked for them.  Each of them is tracked using a percentage based system or a raw number.

• Public Order (%)

  • Maximum of 80% achievable through Improvements only

  • Maximum of 85% achievable through Improvements and Military combined

  • Reduced by a large population

• Public Health (%)

  • Maximum of 80% achievable through Improvements only

  • Reduced by a large population

• Happiness (%)

  • Maximum of 80% achievable through Improvements only

  • Reduced by too many jobs and not enough people (people being worked too hard)

• Wildland Safety (%)

  • Measures how much of the wild areas are travelled each month.  The less travelled the areas the more wild.  

• Population (raw number)

• Military (raw number)

• Military Effectiveness (%)

  • Decreases when new military units are added.

  • Increases over time and with certain actions

• Criminals (raw number, hidden)

Status Ranges for Percentage

Status Range for Wildland Safety

Specific Action Details

Positive Actions

• Public Order

• Tend Wildlands

• Public Health

• Bolster Military

• Public Administration

• Foster Belief

• Promote Science

• Arcane Assistance

• Public Education

• Promote Trade

• Entertain / Boost Morale

Positive Actions only available some of the time

• Refugee Management (Available after large calamities)

• Rebuilding (Available after large calamities)

Negative Actions

Negative actions have a chance of failing.  The chance of the actions failing is based on a couple of factors, which include the size of the Military in the given settlement relative to the population, and the Public Order number.  

• Petty Crimes

  • Represents really minor crimes such as cheating at gambling tables, pick pocketing, or stealing from merchant tables.

  • Success -- Generates from 1 to 5 gold directly into the character’s bank account.

  • Failure -- Fine of 5 gold if caught (may cause your bank account to go negative)

• Disturbing the Peace

  • Represents public protests or spreading of gossip as well as being drunk in public or other raucous behavior.

  • These actions are not illegal in nature but do cause the numbers of a settlement to drop

  • Success -- Lowers the public order number for the settlement

  • Failure -- Raises the public order number for the settlement

• Cause Mayhem - PVE

  • Select this land action if you are causing mayhem for the sake of building your character’s background in the Knight Realms world. Your attempted mayhem can be descriptive or generalized, minor or major. You cannot seek to antagonize a specific player character or group of player characters with this action. There is zero chance that your characters actions can be discovered or proven. However, there is a chance based on a number of factors, including the Public Order of the settlement, that your mayhem will fail to proceed as you planned.

• Cause Mayhem - PVP

  • Select this land action if you are causing mayhem for the purpose of antagonizing a player character or a group of player characters. If you perform this action there is a percentage chance that your action will be discovered.  That percentage chance is outlined in the chart below and will be rolled by the Director. You may not perform a Mayhem action that would be suicidal to your character and it will always be assumed that you are taking every available precaution not to get caught regardless of the details you submit.

• • Base Discovery Chance depends on Public Order of the location in which you are performing your current land action.  

    • Public Order of 70% or higher 5%

    • Public Order of 80% or higher 10%

    • Public Order of 90% or higher 15%

  • Modifiers  -- each can only be added once

    • If you performed Cause Mayhem - PVP in the same settlement within the last 3 months: +5%

    • One or more Public Order actions by a Sentinel character in the location in which you are performing your current land action: +5%

    • One or more Public Order actions by an Emerald Huntsman character in the location in which you are performing your current land action: +5%

    • You have been named as a Specific Target to watch in a Public Order action in the location which you are performing your current land action: +20%

    • No other action - RP related, plot related, skill related or otherwise - will effect this percentage.

    • Maximum Discovery Chance: 40%

• • Success in this die roll means that you succeeded at the land action, and you have done so in such a way that you either leave no evidence or tracks, or those that you have left behind have been tampered with or destroyed to the point of no possible use. The only way that this action could be used against you is if you purposefully bring evidence of any kind into the live events. In this case, if you are caught in the game and questioned about it, it can be found out.  

  • Failure in the die roll means that you are discovered. It is always assumed that you were caught in the act of committing the crime and thus the bulk of the crime’s negative actions are foiled. You are brought to the Count who will dispense punishment for the specific crime that you were caught at and none other.  Either side of the PvP may request this encounter be played out with the Count at the game, however this scene will under no circumstances meet with a greater or lesser outcome.

Business Actions

(only available if the character is the owner or employee of a business)

• Business Operations

• Business Operations (Risky)

  • This action has a chance to lose money from the Business.

• Business Operations (For the Settlement)

  • This action also affects the Settlement status, but decreases the potential profit of the Business.

• Not Yet Implemented -- Business Operations (Commodities)

• Business Operations (Unattended)

  • This action is automatically added for any Business that has had NO actions taken for it in a given turn.

Travel Actions

(If your character will leaving the Barony for any amount of time they must travel first to Kormyre either by land or by sea.  These two actions serve mostly as placeholders for the fact that you had travelled and on occasion may result in rumors.)

• Travelling by Land to Kormyre

• Travelling by Sea to Kormyre

Large Building Projects

• Camp Watch

• Worker Management

• Manual Labor

• Other Assistance

• Sabotage

Businesses and Ships

First, some terminology.

A Merchant is someone who pays a small fee annually or monthly to the Merchant’s Guild for the right to sell goods for coin or gems.  The fee is set by the guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild, and can be found on the Baronial Notice board.  If you are part of a Company and that Company has at least one Business, then this fee is considered paid by the Business as part of its normal operating expenses.

A Company is represented by a Company Ledger which is kept in Logistics and must stay in Logistics for the entire event.  It is a group of PCs (identified individually) who share a common secure storage facility.  This storage is conceptually a warehouse, a basement, a shed, or a store room.  Gold and Commodities may be secured there.  Gold on a Company Ledger does not gain interest like Gold stored in a character’s Bank account.  Gold on a Company Ledger will only go away if another PC who has access to the Company Card makes a withdrawal or if a Business operated by the Company loses money. Individual limits can be set on the amount of Gold and Commodities each PC can withdraw or deposit each month.

A Business is a function of the Land System.  Each Business has a defined Settlement and Land that it physically resides in.  Each Business is run by one Company and any PCs who are members of the Company will be provided with access to Land System actions for the Businesses their Companies operate.  One Company can own many Businesses, in which case any PCs on the Ledger will have access to operate any of those Businesses. Businesses are assumed to have a certain number of NPC employees of various skill levels.  In order for a business to be founded it must meet the following criteria.

1. Business must be fixed in place to a single Land and Settlement (Ships are “fixed” to Port Valandra)

2. Business must be of a type that it is able to be operated solely by NPCs if the PCs are not present

3. Business ideas that rely on specialized skills will be rejected

4. No Business will be able to make use of any character skills, with the exception of Literacy, Trade & Trade Proficiency (detailed below).  Your non-trade skills may provide a bonus to how well the business operates when you are there to run it but are not the main driver behind its operations.

5. To open a business you must seek out Approval from the Lord of the Land in which the business will be operated and then have an In Game interaction with the Chancellor of the Exchequer or their designee to get the paperwork finalized.

If your idea for a business doesn’t meet all of these criteria then it may be better as a Trade skill or something that you just need to RP at an event.

Note: The ability for Businesses to produce Commodity Cards is not yet active in the system

Each Business will be associated with 1 kind of Commodity Card (Luxury, Durable, Wearable, Consumable).  A Land Action will be available that will let a PC who has the appropriate Commodity type to operate the Business to produce Commodities instead of Gold.  (Example: Boris has a Brewery which is associated with Consumables.  Boris the Brewer also has Trade - Consumable: Brewing and two Trade Proficiencies.  At the start of each Event Boris attends he can already claim 7 Consumable Commodity cards.  With this Land Action Boris will be able to produce another 6 Consumable Commodity cards that are deposited into his Company Ledger.  The cost of this of course is a Land Action and then his Business will produce Commodities instead of Gold)

Only the commodity type is required to be the same, not the actual Trade. A person with any Trade skill that produces Consumables can operate any Business that produces Consumables. A person with Trade: Luxury could own a Business that produces Consumables and hire someone with Trade: Consumable to operate it for them, but the person with the Trade: Luxuries skill not operate it to generate Consumables themselves, only gold.

You cannot generate more commodities than you have Trade Profs from a Business, and the Rank of the Business is a limiting factor. This is because if you took all of the commodities out of an operating Business it would have nothing to sell to its regular customers, but you can get some extra out without impacting operations too much.

Note: The ability for Businesses to produce Commodity Cards is not yet active in the system

Rank I businesses will be able to generate up to 3 Commodities

Rank II up to 6

Rank III up to 9

Rank IV up to 12

Multiple people generating commodities out of the same business each can generate up to their personal cap (based on their Trade Skill and the Rank of the Business)

Multiple people generating Gold out of the same business will experience diminishing returns:

1 Action = up to 100%

2 Actions = up to 200% (each of the actions produces normal output)

3 Actions = up to 300% (each of the actions produces normal output)

4 Actions = up to 350% (each action can produce up to 87.5% of normal output)

5 Actions = up to 375% (each action is only at 75% normal output)

6 Actions = up to 387.5% (each action is only at 64.583% normal output)

… and so on until ...

11 Actions = 400% output of a single action (each action is only at 36.36% normal output)

So the total amount that a single Business can earn in any given month will not exceed four times what one person could earn alone with a single action. This means that more actions equals more money but not an infinite amount of money. After a while you just can't squeeze any more money out of a business for a given month.

There are four ranks of Businesses

The cost to open a Business is based on its starting Rank. This cost is paid to the World (most of the money, when spent, leaves the game), but the mechanism for doing so IG is through the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Some of this payment will go to the Land in which the business is established.  The remainder goes to the setup costs of the Business. These costs are subject to change IG, and may be affected by roleplay or other IG occurrences.

The registration with the Merchant’s Guild is IG. If your Business is not going to be completely above board, consider how you would present a reasonable front (e.g. a smuggling operation inside a barber shop).

This list of Businesses by cost is by no means complete at this time.  If you do not see the business type you would like to have please reply and I will answer with its cost and then update this post.

Rank I: 250 Gold

Tavern

Alchemy Shop

Barber Shop

Blacksmith (produces pots and pans and other durable metal goods)

Gambling Hall

Salvage Company

Medical Clinic

Common Crafts (can be easily represented by the Trade skill)

Rank II: 500 Gold

Inn

Brothel

Weapon and Armor Smithy (produces weapons and armor for the military and paying public)

Brewery

Artisan/Specialty Crafts

Rank III: 750 Gold

Distillery

Hospital

Barge

Rank IV: 1000 Gold

Import and Export company

Merchant Ship

Businesses always start out as their lowest Rank.  After a Business has been in operation for six months at a given Rank the owners may decide to upgrade it to the next higher Rank by paying an expansion fee of 100 gold.  Businesses may be further expanded until they are Rank IV.

A Business may be relocated to another settlement at no cost.  However the relocation requires approval from the new location’s Lord, and takes one month to accomplish, which means no actions can be taken for the Business during that month.  Ships that are no longer wanted will be purchased by the Kingdom for their full value.

A settlement’s population will dictate how many Businesses it can support.  Exact numbers will be determined and posted when available.

Ships can only be registered in Port Valandra of Drega’Mire and to do so you must talk to the Port Master which is an IG position appointed by the Lord of Drega’Mire.  This is the ONE exception to the requirement that the Chancellor of the Exchequer must be involved in the set up of your business.  Ships are not always available however and there may be a waiting list. Other Businesses in Port Valandra follow the normal procedure.

There are a few Businesses that are currently off limits to PC ownership.  Mines, Lumber Mills and Farms are all specific to certain lands.  This is subject to change in the future.  If you already have one of these because of some past RP (deed to a mine, etc.) let us know and we will figure something out.

Land System

Each Land will have a Lord or some other designated Land Manager. For the purpose of this section we will just use the term Lord to mean “the player who runs the land”.

Each Land will have a number of Settlements to manage.  Each Settlement will track a number of factors.

• Any Improvements to the settlement will be listed.

  • Each improvement will have a passive effect on its Settlement.

• The Basic Resources of the Land System are:

  • Lumber

  • Stone

  • Food

  • Gold

  • Goods

Math behind the scenes

The costs in this are based on an assumed NPC pay rate of 1 silver per day per laborer, 1.5 silver per day per craftsman and 5 silver a day for a master craftsmen.  Each laborer working for a month should earn roughly 3 gold per month, 4.5 gold per month per craftsmen, 15 gold per month for a master craftsmen.

Labor is measured in population months -- The work produced by 1 population unit working for 1 month is 1 labor

Gold is measured in pieces and is the same as the Gold used at live events.

Food is measured in units. One unit of food is enough food to feed 10 population for 1 month.  Under fair trading conditions, 1 unit of food costs 10 gold.

Stone, Timber and Finished Goods are measured in units -- under fair trading conditions each unit of stone, timber or goods is worth 10 gold

[Not Yet Implemented] Delivery of 1 unit of Food, Stone, Timber, or Goods costs 1 Labor

Pressures

Happiness influences the rate at which the Population increases and decreases

Happiness is added to the baseline Population as a randomizing factor to keep Population numbers looking organic.  This should simulate the regular birth / death cycle as well as normal migration of people.

As Population increases Public Order will naturally decrease  

(Population / 1000)^2 = Public Order Baseline Reduction

Each month the Population consumes Food

 (Population + Military + Criminals) / 10 = Food Units Consumed

Population * Public Order * Public Health sets the Labor number

If there is not enough Food in Storage to feed everyone then Labor gets diverted to produce Food first

Labor can spend time producing Food at a 5:1 ratio (5 Labor to make 1 Food which can in turn feed 10 people, this is basically hunting and gathering  

Food shortages (if any) will reduce Public Order, Public Health and Happiness

Food surpluses (if any) will increase Public Health

[Not Yet Implemented] Labor will then be allocated to operating Improvements

[Not Yet Implemented] Remaining Labor can then be allocated to the construction of Improvements

Improvements require Gold, Labor, Stone and Lumber to build

Improvements require Gold, Goods and Labor to operate

[Not Yet Implemented] Improvements that are properly operated will adjust the baseline numbers

Military is tracked as two numbers.  Military is the raw number of soldiers, militia and guards living and working in the Settlement.

Military Effectiveness is the percentage of their training together as a unit.

When capacity to house new soldiers appears new soldiers are hired immediately from the available population.

However training will take a hit as the new soldiers are not yet ready and the existing soldiers are distracted by new members.  So the Military Effectiveness number will drop and slowly re-accumulate to full training effectiveness.  Bolster Military will increase this number faster.

Every 15 perfectly effective troops adds 1 to the Public Order

Military * Military Effectiveness / 1500 = Increase to Public Order from Military

Criminals are tracked as a single number (hidden from the Lords) showing the population that are purely criminal in nature.  Criminals will not grow food or work jobs but continue to consume food.  They are a constant drain on the community.

Both Military and Criminals are added to the Population to calculate food consumed.

Player Character actions will adjust the baseline numbers for the turn in which they are taken only

Extraordinary PC actions or Plot can adjust the actual numbers as determined by the Storytellers and the Staff

Specifics for each of the Lands

Each land produces enough of the basic resources to sustain itself at a minimal level.  Each of the lands also produces an excess of two of the basic resources that they use to trade with the other lands.  Most improvements will require trading with at least one other land to accomplish

• Alisandria

  • major exports - food

  • minor exports - finished goods

• Ostcliff

  • major exports - finished goods

  • minor exports - lumber

• Kaladonia

  • major exports - lumber

  • minor exports - stone

• Pendarvin

  • major exports - stone

  • minor exports - gold

• Dreaga'Mire

  • major exports - gold (as the result of operating the port they make a lot of gold)

  • minor exports - food

Trading Resources

Each Land will have a set number of resources of each type to try to maintain and this number is set per settlement by the Lord

Internal Trading

• If there are excesses in one Settlement of a Land and shortages in other Settlements of the same Land then labor will relocate the resources internally to a Land first

• It costs 1 labor per unit to move resources from one Settlement to another

• [Not Yet Implemented] Additionally it costs 1 gold per unit of resources to use the Baronial Roads to move resources from one Land to another Land.  This gold is paid to the Barony.  This gold is not paid on trades with the Barony itself.

Calculate Supply and Demand

• if there are excess items they will be put on the public market

• if there exists a shortage then demand gets generated

Set prices

• Resources with more demand than supply will be traded at 11 gold per unit.  This is a designated maximum price as set by the King.

• All other resources will be traded at 10 gold per unit until demand is satisfied

Assign trades

• Resource units will be assigned round-robin fashion, starting with the Settlement with the greatest shortage of a given type, until all demanding Settlements have been granted their need in most need to least need order.

• This will result in an equal spread of items with slight advantage to the settlement with the most demand.  Of course once a settlement’s demand is met it will cease purchasing, leaving the supplying Settlement potentially with excess goods still left.  

[Not Yet Implemented] Export

• Resources with no demand but excess supply will be purchased by the Kingdom at 9 gold per unit… shipping to be handled by the crown.

• The Kingdom will not buy resources that had any amount of demand preferring to leave those resources available for later months

• The Kingdom will supply labor to move the goods and will only buy when it can fill a ship with 100 total units of a single type.