Reply With QuoteGovernment/alignment:
Alignment.
This is where you choose what alignment your nation falls into, there are only three categories and you can only ever choose one (and should be mandatory to do so). Of course the descriptions with each alignment do not mean you have to act exactly act like that of course.
1. Good: Your people prance around singing about fairies with the doves as small white rabbits and mice take care of your princesses clothing needs, people fawn all over you in adoration and love and everything is so cute, and white, and pink and sickeningly cute. Really, you’re so sickeningly good that the whole reason Evil nations exist is to bring you down. Or at least thats what the Evil people say. In truth you’re hardcore believers in peace, justice, honour and the like.
2. Neutral: You’re a “middle-ground” nation. Not good, not evil, you have justice, injustice and all other things that plague a normal nation, because that is what you are, a nation of normal well-adjusted people, unlike the white and black weirdos on each side of the fence that is your nation.
3. Evil: Though we prefer the term “alternate system of Morality” you probably love the song “Where there’s a whip, theres a way” when it comes to things, cannibalism? Sure, Murder? Only if its worth it. Massacring a horde of goody elf children? Where are my tickets? But the second you start singing to wildlife you’re on the rack!
Government.
What kind of government your nation has is up to you, is it some kind of monarchy with a king/queen on top, a empire, republic, whatever you can think of that works in a fantasy setting.Traits.
Each nation gets one Trait for free in each category and after those traits have selected you get 13 (THIRTEEN) more points to distribute in ANY of the available categories (save for history and special trait category of course).
Traits cannot stack (don’t even try it…)
History Traits: (Select only one, this trait doesn’t give any benefits it’s just a way for you to describe how your nation came to be unified under a righteous/wicked leader in struggling battles, gathered together by merchants buying/smuggling their goods or did you rather went the way of diplomacy and/or seduction coercing people to see you ways instead of meeting on the battlefield.
1. Warlike: Your nation has had it’s fair share of war, either from internal conflicts or outside threats and the tales that are told to the children of your nations are filled with marching armies and clashing monsters.
2. Diplomatic: Instead of fertilizing your farming grounds with blood and bodies your nation has decided to see if the other side rather talked instead of losing men and women in needless battle. Or perhaps you are a believer in ‘keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer in reach of that dagger behind your back.’
3. Exodites: Where your nation has made it’s home now isn’t the original homelands of your people, forced to flee your former home because a aggressor took your lands or some kind of natural disaster you now make do in a strange country.
4. High Walls: You’ve always been on the defensive, being attacked over and over and thus it’s only natural for your nation to be on the defensive at every turn both on the battlefield or in a possible diplomatic meeting.Ruling Traits:
Ruling Traits describe how your people are ruled. Not taking ANY ruling traits means you’re probably not very good at the who “ruling” deal and should probably quit while you’re ahead. Each trait typically has “two face” which are really only relevant from a good/evil perspective. The Neutral perspective is, as might be expected, somewhere in the middle.
1. Town Guard: The police force. They administer law and order by whatever means are required by that society, whether it is Good and the people work for their hard-earned freedom or Evil and they’re whipped into legions of prisoners to grind against the enemy lines.
2. By Whip or Word: Your people are incredibly fanatically loyal. Whether kept in line be fear of their masters whips or the love of their kind lord it doesn’t matter. Nothing the enemy does will (normally) demoralise them. Bribes mean nothing to these nations.
3. For The Good Of The People: Your nation leaders either use their power to advance the quality of life of the public or use it to make sure that there won’t be any assassins lurking under your bed, depending if your good or evil. Public opinion and approval of your nation’s leaders is excellent by this and they are then more than willing to do the bidding of their leaders before asking questions like ‘is it really that smart to march against 100’000 soldiers with only 1000 of us?’. But this means your nation leader is too busy appeasing/suppressing the masses instead of leading your armies into battle or going out on a diplomatic trip.
4. Educated: Your people, for whatever reason, are educated, and any education is better than none. Your buildings are better, most mages more skilled. More militarily valuable is that your people can operate more effectively with their own initiative.
5. Disposal of the Dead: Apparently your people just don’t like bodies lying around and thing the idea of just leaving them to rot in the streets is in awfully bad taste. As such, depending naturally on your nations alignment, you either bury, maybe burn, your dead if you’re of the good spectrum, or if evil either have mass-graves or tend to feed the dead to the monsters. Possibly both. Either way it seriously cuts down on disease and plague.
6. Law: You have more effective and comprehensive laws than others. To your people it isn’t enough to have a mans word, or a simple set of rules. You have to KNOW he committed the crimes, you have to KNOW why he did it and how severe the crime was.
This makes your people considerably happier knowing Justice is served but at the same time a larger number of Criminals escape justice due to lack of convincing evidence.
7. Cleanliness: Well its relative of course. For a good nation it equates public baths (or even private if you’re rich) A popular pastime of the people. (This isn’t really an Evil sort of trait) Either way this also reduces disease.
8. Public Executions: This, to be blunt, isn’t a good trait, they can take it but they better have really good IC reasons for it. The short and skinny of it is that your nation doesn’t tolerate its violent offenders, criminals or people who talk too loudly in public. One wrong step and its a quick trip to the gallows (or monster-pit or something suitable.)
9. Long Term Planning: Your nation plans ahead. Perfect location or not it plans for the future to make best use of the space it has. It plans for a cities expansion and when business needs to be relocated to the outskirts of the city and more housing built towards its centre
10. Forums: Your public has a say in the running on your nation, or at least a place to go and learn about its running and the day to day changes. Use your own initiative as to how fluffwise this applies. (Generally the people react more quickly to changing situations.)
11. Compartmentalised: Your nation is basically many sub-nations each handling a single aspect. While each is better at its specialisation than anyone else a single crippled “section” can bring the whole nation crashing down.
Technology.
Technology is rare but not non-existent in most fantasy worlds. Now for the sake of keeping the Fantasy feel i’m avoiding any real advanced technology. So things like Dwarven Steam Tanks, Gyrocopters, Cannons etc are out!
1. Siege technology: The nation is skilled at Sieges, better Catapults and Ballistae etc means less time before that annoying wall is torn down which is keeping the nice city at the other side from your view.
2. Masonry: You know how to build with stone and thus all your buildings, walls, fortresses are stronger and more capable of withstanding a siege.
3. Aqueducts: A revolutionary technology when it comes to Hygiene and general health. A society that can wash itself is naturally less susceptible to disease and infection.
4. Metalworks: The Nation has dedicated Metalworks where the Smiths work producing higher quality metal objects out of their workshops. A Metalworked Sword retains its edge and is less likely to break than a normally forged weapon. (Slightly better weapons and armor)
5. Viridium: Why use steel and iron when you know how to make weapons out of Viridium! It doesn’t mean your weapons can slice and dice through everything but it’s less likely for them to snap in half… (need Metalworks for this trait, can’t be taken with Mithril)
6. Mithril: Why use steel and iron when you know how to make armor out of Mithril! A knight send out in this armor was send against a fire-breathing dragon and behold the armor survived the flames intact, the knight was cooked alive but that doesn’t really matter… (need Metalworks for this trait, can’t be taken with Viridium)
7. Towering heights: The nation is skilled at vertical construction with towers forming a prominent part of their society. Such nations may also have cities built into cliff sides and tree boles. (The latter isn’t recommended, sure your city is all pretty but one good fire, deliberate or not, and the mages are going to have a merry time putting it out.)
8. Skilled Paving: Your nation is better at paving roads, in fact all your cities and towns are paved and chances are you have a decent cobblestone road between them if they aren’t paved too!
9. Crop Rotation Farmers: Your people have mastered basic agricultural technologies, windmills, crop rotation and all other manner of useful technology and learned skills. Thanks to that famine is almost unheard of in your nation.
10. Medicinal Technology: Your people have learned the properties of the very nature around you with astounding skill, while Penicillin might be a funny word to your people they don’t need a fancy mage to be loitering in the area to attempt treatment and have a fair chance of living (unlike other nations where “self-help” is a 50/50 affair)(Good Nations are singularly better at it than others to the point of battlefield application.)
11. Seafarers: Your people are more skilled with boats than anyone else, maybe it’s because you just build ships the way you do or use wind-mages to gain some more speed the fact is when it comes to seafaring you have both better boats AND navigational instruments.
National Traits:
1. Natural Mastery: Your nation is skilled at picking the absolute best spots to put things. “A Port city you say? Well this bay is protected from the worst storms by the ocean wall there, the currents run both ways to the ease of shipping and there is plenty of good stone for defensive walls or expanding the ocean wall” Compared to others EVERYWHERE you build seems to be perfect in every way for what you want there. Unfortunately not so good when you just want a normal average everyday township. Specialisation is key.
2. Unified with nature: To some this may sound “Good” but in truth it is all, sure you might have the Good nations with their prissy princesses singing with pidgeons and Doves, but at the same time the Evil societies poisoners are gently coaxing venom out of snakes and taming the Monsters of their neighbourhood so they can shut that damn princess up once and for all.
3. Metal-sense: Your people have a greater sensitivity to magnetism than most, possibly due to a large geomagnetic lodestone somewhere in your borders. But as a benefit your people can literally sense concentrations of metal. Whether underground or in time to prepare a counter against a flank attack by the enemy no-one really knows. (Side-Benefit : Your people cannot get lost due to always being aware of Magnetic North at all times.)
4. Water-Folk: Your people are comfortable with the seas for one reason or another. You tend to be better sailors and fishermen than anyone else, but anything too far from the sea may as well be an inhospitable wasteland as far as your people are concerned.
5. Honourable: Your people are seen by both good and evil alike as incredibly honourable and will never question your word. Unfortunately for you there is the fact you must keep your word too, you and your peoples honour forbids anything else.
6. Bazaar: Your people are merchantile and show it. Your trade routes spread through every land that will tolerate you and you’re practically rolling in money. As your people deserve and expect. However expect to see people, even foreign rulers, instinctively clutch their purses whenever one of your people walks by for fear of you taking the coins right from their pocket in exchange for lint!
7. Industrious: Your people work hard. Like REALLY hard. Whether it is the whips of the overseers or the kind words of their lord the people really knuckle down and work, while quality may suffer from this you more than make up for it in sheer quantity of goods.
8. Religious: Your people are highly religious and they are happier for it, or at the least, more obedient. While they are willing to put aside religious obligations to do something if it is really needed they won’t do for long and the only way to get them to war at all is with religious motivation.
9. Party Please!: Your people LOVE to party. Fanatically. Nighttime is an excuse to get pissed in taverns, weekends are for frolicking in the hay with whoever got in the stack first and all sorts of mind-numbing happiness making. Industry suffers for it, (so does farming and mining) but without a doubt your people are as happy as pigs in mud (and may be with the pigs rolling in mud just for the heck of it!)
10. EPIC!: Your people have a strong streak of Heroism (or Lietenantism) running through them, tales of the Great Heroes (or Cunningly evil Lieutenants) are a popular favourite and little kids play out the adventures on the streets (or go a little further than playing for Evil nations) you can count on them during a call to war!
11. Flag Wavers: Your nation and it’s people welcome any contact with open arms and waving flags frantically and thus have less trouble than other nations with establishing peaceful and/or trade relations with other nations and races (this works best for neutral nations they can deal with both sides but E and G nations can only deal with N and others of the same alignment).
Military Traits.
These traits dictate your Military skill, tactics and operations in a normal atmosphere.
1. In Armour Clad: Your army favours more armour than the average nation. As such your troops are slightly more protected than other nations, your armor is slightly thicker and thus offers more protection.
2. Excellent Light troops: Your light infantry and cavalry are better than those from other nations (the units with leather armor). They move faster, fight longer and carry generally better weapons than their contemporary counterparts. (taking this trait means you are not able to take the Medium or Heavy troops trait)
3. Excellent Medium troops: Your medium infantry and cavalry are better than other nations (the units with chainmail, scale armor), maybe it’s because of the better armor and weapons you provide them or the inspirational speeches (speeches that inspire fear or heroism depending on alignment). (taking this trait means you are not able to take the Light or Heavy troops trait)
4. Excellent Heavy Troops: Your heavy infantry and cavalry are better than other nations (the units with plate armor). They don’t get exhausted as quickly as other nation’s heavy infantry and they keep formation more tighter. (taking this trait means you are not able to take the Light or Medium troops trait)
5. Ambush Predators: Despite the name it isn’t evil only. But your army has a real talent for hunkering down and ambushing the hell out of people. However this comes at a sacrifice of Heavy Armour. (Cannot be taken if In Armour Clad is chosen)
6. HOLD THE LINE!: At a single signal your endless ranks of spears and blades drop into a seemingly impenetrable wall of sharp blades. Your nation is twice as good at defence as other nations by simple watching the enemy fall on your blades trying to break through your lines. (A tempting target though all those men huddled together for a nice fireball or monster landing in the middle with fang and claw)
7. BRING ME THEIR HEADS!: The opposite of HOLD THE LINE! At a word from their leader your men surge forwards in an irresistible wall of scything metal and arrows determined to bring the enemy down even if you have to walk across a mountain of your own dead to do it. (Cannot be taken with HOLD THE LINE!) Your men are twice as good at assaulting the enemy as another nations army might be.
8. SHIELD WALL!: At the command of your officers your soldiers form a impenetrable wall of shields against that nasty rain of arrows. Your soldiers in turtle formation laugh as they are marching across the battlefield while arrows bounce harmlessly off your shields… just hope they don’t send magic or a nice boulder from a catapult your way… not to mention monsters who are hungry for some canned food… (Cannot be taken with HOLD THE LINE or BRING ME THEIR HEADS)
9. Block out the Sun!: Your men are archers by nature and inclination. At least 2/3rds of your army must be ranged units.
10. THAR BE MONSTERS!: Your nation has a larger than normal monster population and it shows you receive 2 extra monster points. Almost every ranking officer of your army ride some sort of monster but all those extra monsters need to get their food from somewhere… either by eating your own people or your food supplies.
11. Magic supremacy: Your nation fields mages as a matter of course and you have three more disciplines than all those other nations who are stuck with those silly cantrips.
12. Greek Fire!: You have outfitted some of your ships with a incendiary weapon that launches fire at enemy ships and can even burn for a time on water itself, also handy for a BBQ at sea.
13. Extreme Siege Engines!: A nation with this likes siege weapons for any occasion. It’d bring a catapult to a witch-burning! (IF the nation was into that sort of thing)(Must have Siege Technology Trait!) A nation with this gets access to unique Siege Engines (while the others are stuck with catapults and ballistas you have trebuchets).
14. Unbreakable: Your people cannot have their morale broken. They will ALWAYS hold the lines regardless of what they’re told. Magic, Technology, Monsters, none of it phases them in the least. Of course they also refuse to retreat or surrender and will fight to the last man regardless of any considerations. (Are also immune to magical compulsion to flee or run.)
15. MONSTER SLAYER!: Maybe it’s because of your magically enhanced, target seeking arrows or those big guys in heavy armor with nasty looking sword but your nation knows how to slay monsters. But because you’re so good at killing monsters you have one monster point less (cannot be taken with THAR BE MONSTERS!)
16. Dragonlord: Your nation has a large dragon population and instead of being gobbled up by them you managed to tame them (close enough) and thus it only costs 1 monster point if you select dragons. You also have, depending on nation size S-M-L you receive 2-4-6 dragons extra (but this trait cost 2 trait points!)
17. VIKINGS!: Your nation are experts at forming small bands of soldiers who are send into other nations to quickly raid and pillage their settlements or just to annoy and torment them before your full invasion commences.
Faults/Weaknesses:
(Each Fault/weakness/Flaw allows you to take one more trait in any category, no more than three may be chosen)
1. Magic Nulls: Maybe it’s a joke of the gods or something in the water but your race isn’t really good in the magic arts and thus you are only proficient in 2 schools of magic and instead of 4 extra discipline points you have 2. (cannot be taken with Magic Supremacy!)
2. Healthy Dose of Self Preservation: When monsters take the field your soldiers prefer to take a holiday, you receive no monster points but since this is a major disadvantage you may take 2 extra traits.
3. Honor and Valor Above All!: your army attack other nations with armor polished until it shines even in the dark of night, flags moving in the winds and trumpets announcing your arrival. You can never lay ambushes or use deception in your tactics or send out raiding parties, not even if it’s a prelude to a invasion.
4. Trade Dependant: You must trade those precious metals (silver/gold/gems) of yours for extra food and metals otherwise your people starve and your army is stuck with lesser quality weapons and armor.
5. Failing Leadership: Maybe it’s because your leaders are dumb or corrupt, or your royal family has been too busy marrying it’s cousins instead of outside blood but your government doesn’t work like it should.
6. Watch out for the Goatee: You know that trusted advisor of yours with the goatee he keeps stroking? Who you’ve known since childhood? Well he thinks he can run the country better than you do… Your advisors, lords, etc believe they should rule which creates internal unrest and possible revolutions.
7. Public Outcry!: Those ignorant peasants keep complaining! There isn’t enough food, people are dying because of sickness, monsters attack unprotected settlements and more of that kind of rubbish, they keep complaining even after you offered them cake before your royal guard pushed them away from your nice, shiny palace! This could mean that your people might actually welcome enemy armies with open arms while cheering the death of your own troops.
8. Nice Beastie, Good Be- AAAAAAAARGH, IT’S EATING MY LEG!: Auch, you might think those monsters of yours are tamed enough but that could be deceiving in fact they are more likely to suddenly turn on you when you expect them to attack those enemy soldiers (can’t take this fault and Healthy Dose of Self Preservation together).
9. Cult of {Keyword}: You wish to invade the neighbouring country next monday but that most annoying cult that are worshipped by a large quantity of your people declare that your army shouldn’t march until a black virgin chicken has been sacrificed at the altar of Good Intentions and it’s intestines are eaten by your nation’s leader on a night with a full moon.
Special Trait!:
Each person may create one special trait for their nation which represents your people/nation as a whole. This means no technologically orientated trait or a ‘I’m better than you are’ trait. This trait must reflect your people’s methods and ways of doing their business in this world.
