Documentation: Core Game Concepts

[Ludovic]

Army: A grouping of regiments. A character can be assigned as General, and any number of characters can be assigned to assist or be kept prisoner.

Character: A named character, usually controlled by a faction. Has a class, traits (can be skills, abilities, personality traits, physical traits or plot related), items and some background info on race, culture, gender, religion, etc. Starts at level 1, and can level up from gaining experience.

Character Task: All characters have a task. This can be leading an army, exploring a dungeon, spying on a rival, acting as emissary in a neutral city, etc. The default task is a nonspecific assignment to the faction's seat of power.

City: A city represents a settlement that ranges in size from a large village to a sprawling metropolis. It can have a leader assigned, can have buildings constructed, and has a wide range of attributes and statistics. Refer to the City documentation for more info.

Culture: A culture identifies a common historical, social, and cultural heritage. It not necessarily equivalent to a nation or race - but almost all nations have a primary/dominant culture. All cities are considered to have a primary culture, but may contain enclaves / districts / minority groups of a different cultures. Refer to the Culture documentation for more info.

Dungeon: A dangerous site not accessible to armies by normal means. Characters can be sent to explore a dungeon. If several characters from a faction are given a task to explore a dungeon, they will form a party and improve the chances of positive outcome. Dungeons can have bosses - which are factions that start out as very weak, but sometimes have the potential to spawn marauding armies or growing into a stronger faction if left alone. Dungeon exploration can result in looting resources and/or items, triggering events and carry the risk of follower injury, fatality and psychological damage. Under certain conditions a raid can be launched on the dungeon, where military units can also be included, and the dungeon boss defeated, the dungeon itself subjugated/destroyed, and/or greater treasures looted. More detailed info can be found here.

Faction: An independent actor, capable of controlling characters, armies and sites. The primary subtypes are: Wizard (player or AI), Warlord (player or AI), Dungeon Boss, Ancient Evil, Nomadic Horde, Minor Nation/City-State and Organization.

Hex: A hex on the world map. Has a terrain type and divides the world into discrete locations. Generally has a only a single site. Hostile armies located in the same hex will in most circumstances engage in combat.

Hex Condition: Indicates the presence of major variation of the normal hex terrain/fauna/flora, usually of a supernatural nature. See theHex Condition documentation for more info.

Mana: A resource only usable and acquirable by Wizards. Used to cast spells on the world map, during battles or as part of a cost (eg summoning, upkeep).

Market: An abstract world market where factions can sell and buy resources. The gold resource is used as standard price unit.

Nomad Camp: Neutral sites representing a sizable group of nomads or migrants. They can spawn raiding armies and attack nearby settlements and can relocate to a different location.

Organization: A faction representing a group not organized as a kingdom or empire. Examples are knightly orders, cults and mercenary companies. Their characters, units or even fortresses are often nominally controlled by another faction, and their allegiance either hidden or currently aligned with the other faction due to payment, diplomacy or magic.

Regiment: A group of soldiers, beasts, monsters or even a single monster. Currently the exact number is abstracted away as a Strength statistic which represents full strength at 100 and elimination at 0. Hit points basically.

Regiment Type: All regiments have a regiment type from which their statistics and abilities are derived. When training or summoning a regiment, a regiment type is always selected as the base.

Resources: Each faction has a collection of resources which are needed to pay for construction, recruitment, upkeep, etc. This are gained from a number of sources, but sites, trade and character tasks are the main source of resource income. Examples are gold, mana, influence, lumber, mithril, ectoplasm and coal.

Site: The game mechanical abstraction for a city, shrine, dungeon, mine, nomad camp, fortress, etc. Most sites can be controlled by a faction and can be the target of a character task.

Warlord: Warlords represent ascendant kingdoms, expansionistic tribes or even grand empires. Research and unique mechanics are focused on military and realm-building aspects. Still far from full implemention, so currently only available as AI opponents.

Wizard: A faction controlled by a mighty wizard. Has the ability to cast spells, and has access to the special manaresource and the special mana node sites. The seat of power for the faction is a Wizard Tower site.