City-State Nation RP, Frostpunk Theme

[Templar Knight]

IDK how many on here saw or have played the recent City-Management sim Frostpunk by 11-Bit Games, but I was inspired by it to think of an RP concept around the world after the events of the main campaign. As in the initial crisis of survival has passed and various city-states have been founded around the Generators, and now this new world begins to function in a way beyond mere survival.

Here is the intro trailer, and those who don't know, this is the game itself and its concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqEpSOFDXGA

Essentially, alternate reality late 1800s Steampunk world, where the entire world enters a major ice age, civilization collapses, and now the survivors are trying to survive and re-establish themselves by whatever means necessary to fight the cold.

This RP would take place after the events of the main campaign and initial survival problems culminating in the coming of the massive storm called The Great Frost, your cities will be assumed to all have survived such events no matter how costly it was. The survival elements will still be in there, but the RP will mostly focus on City-State interactions, competing over resources and expansion, diplomacy, dealing with major crisis, and any other scenarios I or you guys would think to throw into this situation.

Here's my initial idea for Nation Sheets, subject to change but includes most of what I'm thinking of:

Nation Sheet

City Name: (Ex. The name of the city in the main campaign is canonically called "New London", but other examples of various settlements you come across are Tesla City, Winterhome, New Manchester, etc. British references are not required, but remember that the setting is both Steampunk and is basically just an alternate late 1800s, so cities based from places like Modern Russia or North Korea are obviously unlikely.)

Flag/Insignia:

Location: (I intend to use a regular world map, though for the purposes of the setting, the area for possible locations will be restricted to the further Northern Hemisphere, I'm thinking.)

Population:(Total | General Workers/Engineers/Children)

Government Type: (This can literally be anything you can think of, though bear in mind you'll have to eventually justify as to how your City managed to survive The Great Frost and not descend into complete panic and self-destruction. Government Type can factor into this majorly. The game itself gives two basic types, Totalitarian State a la Orwell, or a Religious Theocracy, but I can imagine all kinds of other government types from the other scenarios, if one is creative enough).

Established Laws: (This can be as long or as short as you like, this is mostly to understand how your government works, and what laws they put in place to survive up until this point. Do they reserve the power to compel people to work extended shifts or even 24 hours for whatever reason? Did they implement child labour? How extensive? Did they set various medical laws to save, or condemn, or merely comfort the sick or injured? Did your government enable torture to gain information and maintain public order? Do they allow alcohol or other drugs or are they banned? Do they set strict ration policies? Do they segregate classes, ages, or any other demographic in their city? The list is limited only to your imagination as to how long you want it to be.)

Major Industries and Supply Stockpiles:

Major Industries/Professions: (Which jobs do your people focus more on? How many people are in each?)

Minor Industries/Professions: (Which jobs do your people focus less on? How many people are in each?)

Coal production and consumption per Day: (Since its the most important of the resources, this is one of the only ones that requires a daily consumption number on the outset, as you will always be in a position of consuming coal to keep everyone, or at least the people you care about in your city, alive. Note that more larger advanced cities with lots of automatons and advanced heating and production facilities usually consume coal.).

Food Intake/Food Outtake per day:(How much Raw Food do your people collect versus how much processed food do they consume? Higher outtake versus intake will eventually lead to starvation, with higher populations naturally needing more)

Wood Stockpile: (Needed for building, research, and potentially charcoal manufacture if you have no coal supplies)

Steel Stockpile: (Building material needed for advanced construction)

Steam Core Stockpile: (Rare components necessary for high-tech machines and buildings, almost entirely needed to be scavenged from outside of your cities.)

History: (Where did your people come from when the global temperatures dropped and the new ice age began? How did they learn of the Generators in the North? Are they a singular group or are they a mix of various groups that banded together? Was there conflicts? Resource shortages? How did they deal with them? What major events punctuated the time from establishing the city up until the end of surviving the Great Frost?)

Significant Figures in your City: (Mostly the people you'll be role-playing as, and likely will be the leaders of your cities or other figures who oversee processes within the city. No hard limit on this, but fewer is obviously better just for simplicity's sake.)

ex.
Character Name:
Age:
Sex:
Birthplace:
Occupation:
Background/Personal History:

Extra Notes:

I'll be honest folks, I've never run a serious nation RP before, so feel free to give me any thoughts on how this looks in any respect, any questions on the setting or lore, and obviously if you're interested in it.

[Sierra]

For one thank you for introducing me to that game. That is mine now. 11 Bit studios games are fantastic, even if they have an incredible knack for making you feel like a terrible person. Between that and Surviving Mars I am drowning in good survival city-builders.

Now more relevantly, you can't rely on people knowing the lore beyond a basic premise. The game is too new. That basic premise is pretty cool (shitty pun intended) so I think this may see people. I'm not normally huge into NRP myself (diplomacy is fun but I am a character writer; the abstract nature doesn't jive for me) but that's not to say I won't keep an eye around. I may hammer out a sheet at some point.

[Templar Knight]

Thanks.

I mean, if anyone has questions about the lore, I feel that I have enough of a grasp on it to answer any questions people may have on it. I also intend to give a more detailed summation of the lore that will be necessary for people to know in an actual OOC post if enough are interested.

In most regards though, aside from a couple basic things, most of the stuff I am intending to leave open for personal invention. The lore of Frostpunk by and large is very indirect and left for interpretation anyway as to why the world is and what the world was before and why the situation has largely happened, hence why there isn't too much detail to start off.

But I appreciate the comment.

[Marquise]

Sounds fun, and Frostpunk pulls at the heartstrings :) . Fighting the cold and the iniquities of one's fellow man...an excellent start! It's generally a good idea to provide a guide - of sorts - as to what you're looking for in the form of your own nation (or in this case, city-state) sheet fairly early on...Helps with numbers and planning, as a general rule-of-thumb.

[Templar Knight]

Valhalla

City Name: Valhalla

Flag/Insignia:

Location: TBD

Population:(Total | General Workers/Engineers/Children) (298 Citizens | 213 General Labourers/42 Engineers/45 Children)

Government Type: Theocratic Monarchy

Established Laws:
-The King's word is law, and his declarations are thus stricken into records or struck off at his desire.
-Child Labour is permitted for non-Industrial Jobs, with the age of recognition of adulthood lowered to 14 years old. All can be compelled to work if the King demands it.
-24 Hour long shifts are a power the King can invoke.
-Alcohol is allowed to be consumed with no age limit, though moderation for children and expectant mothers is highly encouraged.
-All accused and accusers have a right to have their case heard by the King, though there is penalty for abusing this privilege on trivial disputes and is meant for crimes only.
-Crimes in Valhalla include: Thievery, Murder, Arson, Rape, Workplace intoxication in excess of specified limits (as set by workplace), Assault of any kind, openly promoting blasphemy against any of the established Cults, and inciting or engaging in treason against the crown.
-Holmgang, or duels can be called to settle disputes between citizens if both agree to its terms as a form of legal remedy, in which case they shall engage before witnesses in a controlled duel of arms. The other punishments for crimes include ration limitations (as well as compensations in kind for the victims), public mutilation in the form of lashings or branding, exile, or even public execution as decided upon by the King.
-Registration to the lists of at least one of the Cults of the Aesir or Vanir is required for all citizens, with Inspectors ensuring that at least one shrine or idol to one of said Gods is in a household. Copies of the Elder and Younger Eddas, are also to be checked for.
-Huscarls are the King's enforcers, and are to be obeyed in their administration of law and order, as it is their duty to protect the city both from within and without.

Major Industries and Supply Stockpiles:

Major Industries/Professions: Hunting and Food Processing, Coal Mining, and Woodcutting are the main industries of Valhalla, with 160 of its Labourers participating in these industries. (60 Laborers in Hunting/50 Laborers in Coal Mining/50 Laborers in Woodcutting).

Minor Industries/Professions: Steel Production and Scientific Research are the minor professions. (20 Laborers in Steel/20 Engineers in Research).

The remaining 33 Laborers and 22 Engineers are spread out among Huscarl and Cult positions. Children are currently not forcibly employed, but they can be drawn upon if demanded.

Coal production and consumption per Day (Average): 1000 units of Coal per day produced, 800 Units consumed per day.

Food Intake/Food Outtake per day: 120 Units of Raw Food per day converted into 480 Standard Rations per day, Outtake per day is 308 Standard rations.

Wood Stockpile: 300 Units of Wood, with a production rate of 100 Units per day.

Steel Stockpile: 40 Units of Steel, with a production rate of 20 units per day.

Steam Core Stockpile: 2 Steam Cores, impossible to manufacture in Valhalla.

History: (Where did your people come from when the global temperatures dropped and the new ice age began? How did they learn of the Generators in the North? Are they a singular group or are they a mix of various groups that banded together? Was there conflicts? Resource shortages? How did they deal with them? What major events punctuated the time from establishing the city up until the end of surviving the Great Frost?)

Significant Figures in your City: (Mostly the people you'll be role-playing as, and likely will be the leaders of your cities or other figures who oversee processes within the city. No hard limit on this, but fewer is obviously better just for simplicity's sake.)

ex.
Character Name:
Age:
Sex:
Birthplace:
Occupation:
Background/Personal History:

Extra Notes:

This is a WIP example based off of my current outline.

For those curious as to how I came up with the numbers for the various production levels, this is basically the equations I am working with.

Coal: 1 Labourer = 20 Units of Coal Produced per day.

Food: 1 Labourer = 2 Units of Raw Food per day. 1 Unit of Raw Food = 4 Units of Rations.

Wood: 1 Labourer = 2 Units of Wood per day.

Steel: 1 Labourer = 1 Unit of Steel per day.

*I am open to adjusting these equations for city-states that specialize their industries, or utilize laws to effect productivity, but I mostly expect numbers that make sense.

**Note that nations that include automatons can work 24/7 regardless of conditions (so long as they can refuel) and will produce double what 7 Labourers can do in a day for any given industry. The catch? Automatons cost a lot of resources to make, including a Steam Core for each, and they displace 10 workers for every one of them that is introduced.

Consumption numbers of Food is simple. The number of people you have in your city-state is the number of rations you go through daily.

Coal consumption I'll admit is hazier. I have no real solid equation for this atm, but for now I'm considering the idea of tying it to Generator operation levels (1-4 with 1 being the lowest level of heat generation and consumption, and 4 being the highest), because all nations will be assumed to have survived the Great Frost, all nations will have access to these levels and essentially mean that they have a fully-equipped generator. Temperature fluctuation will require changes in Generator power levels to either lower or increase heat production based on how much you're using it, and thus will determine consumption.

I'll be honest again, I'm not a big fan of using complex equations for RPs, but this is a nation RP that revolves around a fair bit of resource management detail by virtue of its premise, so I have to include them, but I'd aim to try and keep them simple.

[Sierra]

I'll start by saying I'm not entirely sure where those numbers are coming from considering that a steelworks spits out 6 steel/worker/day (up to 12 with a steam steelworks memory serving) but that's not relevant to either of my goals. What I wanna do is quickly translate all this game jargon into something that other people can understand. The few of us here are all familiar with it, but it'll help accessibility and by extension player numbers.

The Premise (in more detail):

In the frozen wastelands, towering generators have kept small pockets of land free of glacier, creating ice craters within which cities are built. Survivors who make it to these cities have to work together to survive an apocalyptic winter with just what resources they can scavenge, rebuilding shreds of civilization. Industries are built. Technologies are rediscovered. People are tested. Under pressure of societal collapse, most cities turn to authoritarian or theocratic regimes to maintain peace, usually descending into an Orwellian nightmare or fanatical cultism in some capacity respectively. Laws are passed. Hope dangles precariously. Discontent is ever present. It is the leader's (your) job to manage all of this and survive ... which against all odds the player cities have and can take their place in the new, very frozen world.

Resources explained:

• Coal: Fuels your generator, which prevents you from freezing to death. If the generator dies, everything dies. Coal moves in and out in high volume.
• Food: People eat food to not die, simple. (Food can be simplified to 4 food/worker/day, cutting out all conversions.)
• Wood: Basic construction material, used in most construction.
• Steel: Advanced construction material, used increasingly in more advanced construction.
• Steam Cores: High-pressure steam apparatuses used in powering mechanisms in facilities and automatons and heating systems in medical and agricultural facilities. These are not manufacturable within cities and must be found.

The usefulness of construction materials is highly dependent on how built out cities are, which they must be to a fairly significant degree if they've made it this far.

Generator:

The generator keeps you warm and alive in a frozen wasteland. It provides high pressure steam via conduit in roads for mechanization and heating. The radius and temperature of this can be controlled, varying fuel consumption. Radius setting can be determined by the city population, which roughly approximates size/radius. Power level is affected by the temperature, which fluctuates randomly.

Laborers:

"Engineers" generically describes skilled laborers who can work on research, advanced contraptions (prosthetics, automatons), and in medical fields. They can also conduct menial labor tasks the same as regular workers. Children may or may not be available as menial laborers or as apprentices to engineers or medical facilities depending on the laws passed in a city (see below).

Laws:

Laws are the policies put in place that determines how your city runs. For the purposes of this RP, these can be thought of mostly as flavor text. They do however provide some indication on the style of governance, lifestyle of the population, etc. (There may be some rolls affected by whether or not certain policies are in place; GM clarification required.) Some of these can affect overall productivity by affecting work shifts and the workforce.

I think this will be helpful to those unfamiliar with the game (if you like survival games, city builders, or things that break your soul, you'll like it and should check it out). @Templar Knight I hope I didn't step on any plans in this and I hope I adequately explained things for the layman. Further, I release everything above to public use if you want it.

[Skylar]

You have my interest, I am a major fan of Frostpunk and have some ideas for a city in the frostlands.

THE CITY MUST SURVIVE

[twannyman]

It sounds really interesting, altough I haven't played Frostpunk I do like Post Apocalypse games and city builders alike

[Sierra]

@twannyman Then you're a perfect guinea pig for telling me whether or not I succeeded in making the game concept somewhat understandable to the unfamiliar.

[twannyman]

@Sierra

Yes is the correct answer

[Templar Knight]

@Sierra

Honestly, three reasons on the numbers.

1) I forgot how much some of them made specifically.

2) If I were to make the numbers all line up exactly with the game's mechanics, nobody would have much reason to go find Steel, Coal, or Wood sources, because every city location in-game has at least 1 (often 2) of each that is enormous and practically impossible to exhaust in current game modes even with maxed out tech and 24 hour extraction. I'm aiming to avoid that, because that IMO limits RP options and variety.

3) I'm still trying to iron out how much I want this to be resource numbers focused, and if so, what for? Considering the time of the RP within the setting, I cannot realistically use the classic tech tree, and any tree that I come up with would arguably inadequate for the task of this kind of RP, considering others could say: "Well why can't we built X" because I happened to forget or simply because others are more creative in different manners than I. Currently, I'm leaning towards less resource numbers just to simplify things.

I'm mostly curious what others are thinking on the last bit.

But no, I don't have a problem with the simplification and sum-up, I haven't GM'd many RPs before, personally.

Glad to see others are interested, I will probably setup a OOC shortly just to move things there.

[Marquise]

Given that we're playing in a post-Great Frost world (or at least, post first Great Frost), I think a bit of leeway on the resource numbers is no bad thing. Keeping track of a few critical ones makes sense and introduces an element of planning - and allows you as GM to inject an element of consequence into decisions - but you don't need to know how many chairs the citizens made in their down-time :P .

Part of the fun of this is going to be interaction between the city-states, figuring out how to spread our influence - and our cities - beyond the confines of our own little craters, and how to survive more long-term in the brave new sparkly cold world.

[Templar Knight]

Apologies to everyone for my absence, between a 3-day solid power outage on my end, 2 days afterwards of on and off power, and along with other matters that have kept me away from the computer, its been a little while since my response.

I'll keep this simple and just have it be one last check to see if anyone is still interested since the unexpected hiatus, if 3 people say yes, I'll get on an OOC.

[Marquise]

@Templar Knight, still interested :) . Sorry t'hear about the real life difficulties - everything sorted now?

Oh, and it might be worth pinging those who've previously registered their interest :) .

[Templar Knight]

Good idea. And yes, things are mostly sorted out, hopefully nothing else comes up.

@twannyman@Skylar

@Sierra

I realize you're extremely busy with your own RP, one which looks interesting to me myself, this is mostly just for formality's sake.

[Sierra]

Slammed against a wall would be a fairly accurate description of my current state. I think that has to speak for itself in regards to my present availability to being a joiner of anything really.

[twannyman]

I'm still interested

@Templar Knight