[FAQ] Kormyrian Civil War - The War Map Mechanic

Hey All You Budding Strategists!

The STs for this event and myself have been hard at work getting a new bit of extra-content ready for this coming Live Event and the months that follow: the War Map. I have included James's opening announcement below as well as a link to the Rules PDF for your browsing needs!

Since I am sure many of you will have some questions, this forum posting will serve as a place to ask such questions. To make things easy for new readers, all questions and answers will be combined and placed in the second post of this thread.

~ Joe G.

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Hello Everyone!

I am writing and running the Main Plot for the next two events with the primary story revolving around the start of a major Civil War. I’d like to introduce a War Game within the Live Game that will be active and available for play starting this weekend. As you have seen on the boards and on social media, a civil war has erupted across the rift in mainland Kormyre with the Count deciding to put his trust in the Heroes of Travance rather than untested administrative bureaucrats. A system has been devised to facilitate this war were each player who physically attends an event will be able to effect the battles and decisive actions for that following month.

This game is not for just the nobles or people of perceived station. It is for every player to contribute to and be privy to the results of each turn at a fully equal level. No one can force you or command you to perform the action they want you to perform. You choose for yourself how you contribute, and everyone's actions collectively will decide the publicly announced outcome.

While the concept of fighting this war may sound like a major part of the weekend’s plot, the war game on its own is not the plot of the Live Game and serves only as a backdrop to facilitate the actions you could not reasonably perform at the event (like fight a war with ten thousand troops besieging a castle). The plot of the Live Game will deal with aspects of the conflict that effect Travance Proper, as well as allow you to unveil the circumstances surrounding the war before dealing with those circumstances as you see fit.

You can choose not to participate in the War Game by simply not submitting your resource. You may not however, gift your resource to another player. You have the freedom to decide that you don’t want to be involved on an OOG level if you are simply uninterested, or an In-Game level if you do not support the Count. If this type of thing does interest or excite you, then please read the following document in order to get a head start on understanding how this War Game works.

May the Scales of War ever be in your favor.

Can I get some additional clarification on this new mechanic?

The Civil War mechanic allows for players to have input on the Civil War's outcome by spending resource cards to complete predefined (but open to player fluff) actions listed in the document. It is a side-mechanic and not central to the entire event. You can interact with it at whatever level you wish, but it comes down to once you spend your resource, that action is locked in come Sunday at 2pm (when Lay-Off is called). IG reasoning is that the orders will then be delivered to Count Everest for the royal seal to be affixed and all orders will be carried out between Full Events.

The results will be written up by STs and published on the forums publicly.

We intentionally limited the types of actions and the amount of resources going out as this is an Alpha test of the coming expansion system that James is working on (not the replacement/modified Land system, as that has lead to some confusion). We want to see how players interact with this part of the live game and go from there.

So in essence, you can spend your card in 5 minutes of planning or you can spend 12+ hours at the table strategizing and then spend your card. You can choose to stay in Travance or to go lead an army for a month, that part is very much up to the player.

Can we get some clarification on the espionage action?

For the "Becoming One with the Enemy" action, you must first spend the required resources to plant your desired operative (either yourself or a volunteer PC) into the city. You will begin this operation at the end of the Live Event if you are successful in doing so. Once successful, you will be given information leaks related to your cover between events to relay to the game world at your digression. At the next Live Event, you may play the same character or opt to play an alternate character, this is your choice. The assumption is that your cover persona just goes on a "hunting" trip or something of that likeness (up to you to decide the flavor). As for consequences, if you are caught and thus executed, you start the following Event as a Spirit and do not gain any information leaks between the two events (AKA: resources are wasted). Remember that even though on an OOG level, Deaths are infinite, going through an execution should present psychological trauma to your character IG. Not to mention the opposite side may take a new interest in you once your identity is revealed ...

What are the rules about making new groups within the system and thus, gaining access to additional Exploration resources?

Each player may register their character as allied to a single land/faction/guild/household (aka: group) at the War Map. We have listed a pre-approved list of groups at the end of the Rules PDF. These are drawn from the historically constant groups present at our Live Events. We will have a secondary, blank list ready for anyone who wishes to register their group in the system. Our only caveat for new registrants is that said group must be well defined and autonomous from most other groups. For example, the Order of the White Fox may desire to form their own group of 5+ unique characters even though some of their member population decide to sign for, and only for, Corvincia or Kaladonia. We have this in place to ensure that Exploration resources are limited in quantity (currently around ~20/turn at a 100+ player event) and are spread out to enough of the player-base as possible to foster cooperation.

Similar to your example, the followers of the War gods may choose to form a cross-pantheon Crusade group, which would have a different cause than the Church of Light/Dark as a whole. This ideological difference would allow for characters to ally themselves with that Crusade to pursue its unique goals in this Civil War. However, Mercenary Division #2 of Land/House XYZ is not a valid faction as their goals closely align with the parent faction.

~ Joe G.

For Tactical Resource Options, Becoming One with the Enemy (Spying Mission) it states A full turn must be spent to attempt to set up the operation. & Each month, the imbedded must reroll to determine their success.

Does this mean that a) multiple turns or events will be needed to do one of these operations? b) Events will have to be missed/alts will have to be played to perform this action long term?

It also says Failure entails capture and execution. Now given that mechanicly death is an infinite system, what is the in-game mechanical detriment to performing this action beside failure?

There’s light church and dark church. If followers of one god have enough people can they be their own group?

Alternatively, if the lore for a particular god has two groups of followers, can they each split into their own group?

Dennis Brand (Devin) wrote: For Tactical Resource Options, Becoming One with the Enemy (Spying Mission) it states A full turn must be spent to attempt to set up the operation. & Each month, the imbedded must reroll to determine their success.

Does this mean that a) multiple turns or events will be needed to do one of these operations? b) Events will have to be missed/alts will have to be played to perform this action long term?

It also says Failure entails capture and execution. Now given that mechanicly death is an infinite system, what is the in-game mechanical detriment to performing this action beside failure?

For the "Becoming One with the Enemy" action, you must first spend the required resources to plant your desired operative (either yourself or a volunteer PC) into the city. You will begin this operation at the end of the Live Event if you are successful in doing so. Once successful, you will be given information leaks related to your cover between events to relay to the game world at your digression. At the next Live Event, you may play the same character or opt to play an alternate character, this is your choice. The assumption is that your cover persona just goes on a "hunting" trip or something of that likeness (up to you to decide the flavor). As for consequences, if you are caught and thus executed, you start the following Event as a Spirit and do not gain any information leaks between the two events (AKA: resources are wasted). Remember that even though on an OOG level, Deaths are infinite, going through an execution should present psychological trauma to your character IG. Not to mention the opposite side may take a new interest in you once your identity is revealed ...

Reyna Del Dragon (reynadeldragon) wrote: There’s light church and dark church. If followers of one god have enough people can they be their own group?

Alternatively, if the lore for a particular god has two groups of followers, can they each split into their own group?

Each player may register their character as allied to a single land/faction/guild/household (aka: group) at the War Map. We have listed a pre-approved list of groups at the end of the Rules PDF. These are drawn from the historically constant groups present at our Live Events. We will have a secondary, blank list ready for anyone who wishes to register their group in the system. Our only caveat for new registrants is that said group must be well defined and autonomous from most other groups. For example, the Order of the White Fox may desire to form their own group of 5+ unique characters even though some of their member population decide to sign for, and only for, Corvincia or Kaladonia. We have this in place to ensure that Exploration resources are limited in quantity (currently around ~20/turn at a 100+ player event) and are spread out to enough of the player-base as possible to foster cooperation.

Similar to your example, the followers of the War gods may choose to form a cross-pantheon Crusade group, which would have a different cause than the Church of Light/Dark as a whole. This ideological difference would allow for characters to ally themselves with that Crusade to pursue its unique goals in this Civil War. However, Mercenary Division #2 of Land/House XYZ is not a valid faction as their goals closely align with the parent faction.

~ Joe G.