Pre-industrial Fantasy STGOD OOC/Rules Thread:

[The Romulan Republic]

OOB thread is up.

Story thread on its way.

Edit: You will note that I have not posted my own OOB. This is because it is still in progress and if I posted it now, I would be unable to edit it later and would have to repost it. Which would clutter and confuse the thread.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Simon: That works for me.Would you mind if, instead of selling the guns, we lease them to you for the operation and provide observers/advisers to ensure they're used properly?

[Simon_Jester]

That's funny, we used to be able to go back and edit old posts here in the STGOD forum. Maybe the change to the board software had that effect...

[scratches head]
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E_F, leasing the guns actually sounds like a very interesting option, although if that is done the Ohioans will probably not bother to buy large amounts of mass-effect powder and shot. They have crews experienced on operating large, heavy cannon and handling cumbersome ammunition in siege operations, after all. However, the guns themselves are of great value and utility.

Your observers would of course be welcome; I'll put them in contact with Sébastien Lepresque, a gifted colonel of engineers. If Ohio had artillerymancers, he would be the greatest wizard of gunnery among them. Since they do not, he is merely good at his job.

[The Romulan Republic]

Story thread up. Don't know if my first post was very well written, because I was kind of rushed (entirely my own fault, really), but I hope it will suffice.

My poor elves are trying to cross a mountain range in winter, and fairing pretty badly. Jub, I mentioned your faction in my peoples' backstory, based on what we discussed before. Its fairly insulting, I'm afraid, but that's xenophobic elves for you.

Edit: Just to let everyone know, I probably won't be posting much after today until the 27th., because of Christmas. I will try to look in every day on this game in case any major issues come up, especially since Simon_Jester will also be away for some of that time. If anyone has any pressing questions or concerns, you can also PM me (I'll be notified of new PMs by email).

[Beowulf]

Magic

The Dragon Empire has little combat magic. They don't cast magic missiles, or fireballs, or call down meteor swarms. What they can do includes: see through dust, smoke, and darkness; shapeshift; cast illusions (make people see something that doesn't exist, as well as invisibility); weight reduction; fire breathing; animal control; location finding; healing; and of course, disspelling.

Animal control is limited to a single animal at a time. They can use this to see through the eyes of that animal, and control how it moves. It's only usable within line of sight, however. Its most important use is with birds. Falconry is common in the Empire amonst the upper class, and this ability allow falconers to use their birds to scout. Naval usage of this ability usually involves albatrosses instead of falcons.

Weight reduction is an important ability. Although it can't be used like the Orionian similar ability, it can still be used to reduce the weight of the cannon itself, improving top weight on ships, and mobility on land. It can be used for more than just cannons. Anything that would normally be heavy, but needing to move benefits.

Shapeshifting can be used for disguising, and since it does not involve an illusion, is more resistant to revealing the disguise. It can also be used to grow wings. This, plus weight reduction allows a mage to fly. It does only work on the mage himself, not any possessions they may be carrying.

Dragon Empire mages are never lost. They can always know exactly where they are, and can place themselves on a map. That said, they may not know where that is in relation to other places. So they do need maps.

---

In the world building I want, I realized it'd be helpful to be able to reduce the weight of things. The Dragon Empire can't do the fancy mass effect thing, however.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That's funny, we used to be able to go back and edit old posts here in the STGOD forum. Maybe the change to the board software had that effect...

[scratches head]
_________________________

E_F, leasing the guns actually sounds like a very interesting option, although if that is done the Ohioans will probably not bother to buy large amounts of mass-effect powder and shot. They have crews experienced on operating large, heavy cannon and handling cumbersome ammunition in siege operations, after all. However, the guns themselves are of great value and utility.

Your observers would of course be welcome; I'll put them in contact with Sébastien Lepresque, a gifted colonel of engineers. If Ohio had artillerymancers, he would be the greatest wizard of gunnery among them. Since they do not, he is merely good at his job.

If you just want to lease guns, that's fine, but I hope you've got enough 120-pound roundshot and powder for them. THe catapaults come with their own specialised ammo though, exploding shells and proto-teargas rounds for the evilz

I'll be posting my first story post in the next twenty minutes or so, most likely an Orion Frigate out on patrol and engaging a privateer vessel.

Oh yeah, in accordance with OTL laws of war at the time, my ships don't fly their colours until they open fire, don't want idiots realising they're facing a highly superior ship until it's too late for them. Oh, nd we treat Privateer crews as pirates, we do not recognise (nor issue) Letters of Marque. Be warned, oceanic scum!

[The Romulan Republic]

That's funny, we used to be able to go back and edit old posts here in the STGOD forum. Maybe the change to the board software had that effect...

[scratches head]

Yeah. Its bloody inconvenient.

I think I'll enquire further. Perhaps it was a deliberate change of policy, but given how inactive the STGOD forum had been of late until we started this, its just possible its a glitch in the new software no one has reported yet.

[madd0ct0r]

are there any rules for plunder following a battle?

[The Romulan Republic]

Not at present. As I said, I was trying to keep the rules fairly simple. And I'm reluctant to modify them now unless absolutely necessary because of the issue with not being able to edit old posts (though I hope that that issue will be resolved soon if in fact its the result of a software glitch and not a change in policy).

However, if people feel its really important to formally address that, we could say something along the lines of "The victorious army can claim 10% of the value of the defeated force in plunder and add it to their total." Would that be acceptable to all?

Edit: I really hope we can get the editing feature back fast, because if not, its going to make updating OOBs a real mess, as people will have to repost their entire OOB every time they gain or lose a unit, and that just doesn't seem practical to me. Anyway, I've raised the issue in the thread for reporting board software problems.

[Beowulf]

If you just want to lease guns, that's fine, but I hope you've got enough 120-pound roundshot and powder for them. THe catapaults come with their own specialised ammo though, exploding shells and proto-teargas rounds for the evilz

Powder is easy to come by. There shouldn't be any difference for different weight cannon if you don't need the special enchantment cancelling properties. 120lb shot probably is harder to come by, but if you're casting shot, you're probably going to just need a new mold, then you can cast as much as you want.

[Crazedwraith]

Nice start, EF. I see you’re going full Forester with the Indefatigable.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I reached around for a frigate name and that just popped into my head

And I think it's a good start for showing Orion in all it's nuanced glory. We're a rational people, but we don't care for people nicking other people's boats on the high seas. Pirate or privateer, we don't take prisoners.

[Raw Shark]

The Aztec Empire does take prisoners at sea. Kind of a lot. Whether you're willing to trade or not, we have uses for them...

[Eternal_Freedom]

Nah, it's not safe to ship them down there. We just shoot the bastards.

[Simon_Jester]

Story post up. Another is fully written and ready to post, which I will do later tonight. The third and possibly fourth will be going up before I leave for vacation. At this point I predict that the sequence contains half a dozen or so; I've already written the climax but need to do the buildup.

If you just want to lease guns, that's fine, but I hope you've got enough 120-pound roundshot and powder for them. THe catapaults come with their own specialised ammo though, exploding shells and proto-teargas rounds for the evilz

I'll settle the exact mix of weapons later. A handful of 120pdr bombards may be desired, but the overwhelming majority of the guns leased would, by weight, be the 36pdrs you use for heavy field artillery and naval gunnery, or the 18pdrs you use as light field artillery.

Lepresque and his sort would have no difficulty whatsoever reducing the fortifications of Detroit with an adequate supply of reasonably portable, well-made 18pdr and 36pdr cannon. That's as heavy as was used historically during the relevant era in any event. Ohioan guns of that caliber are overbuilt and have to be handled carefully due to faults in the metallurgy, at least when made out of iron... and bronze is simply too expensive to make siege artillery out of in quantity.

Ohio can turn out good 4pdrs in quantity, mind, but the siege artillery is cumbersome, and making it light enough to be easily moved around with animal power would also make it light enough that the barrels would wear out quickly and be comparatively likely to blow up.

I'll be posting my first story post in the next twenty minutes or so, most likely an Orion Frigate out on patrol and engaging a privateer vessel.

Oh yeah, in accordance with OTL laws of war at the time, my ships don't fly their colours until they open fire, don't want idiots realising they're facing a highly superior ship until it's too late for them. Oh, nd we treat Privateer crews as pirates, we do not recognise (nor issue) Letters of Marque. Be warned, oceanic scum!

Why are there privateers operating two hundred miles from Port Rigel?

You have a fairly active navy, and it's not like the situation in the narrow seas around Britain where there are safe harbors for the privateers within only a few hundred (or a few dozen) miles of your coast.

Assuming those really are privateers, someone must have sent them and I'd be interested to know who.

are there any rules for plunder following a battle?

Most plunder would have economic value (which is abstracted out) not point value. If you succeed in overrunning an Ohioan army you will probably capture some of their artillery pieces if nothing else, which do have point value and which I for one would let someone else press into service against me. Capturing enemy artillery was a hallmark of military success throughout the Age of Black Powder.

If a bunch of Stone Age hyenorcs manage it, they'll capture a variety of other weapons they can use (my pikemen wear breastplates and some light chain mail, and musketeers of course carry flintlock muskets). But most armies would not profit in that way.

Under some circumstances you might reasonably justify using captured weapons and equipment to enhance your existing forces, but as a rule you won't manage to capture enough assets to do more than partly offset the loss of point-value you took during the battle as a result of your own casualties.

[Beowulf]

I reached around for a frigate name and that just popped into my head

And I think it's a good start for showing Orion in all it's nuanced glory. We're a rational people, but we don't care for people nicking other people's boats on the high seas. Pirate or privateer, we don't take prisoners.

So who's declared war against you? You mention that one of the pirates claimed a letter of marque, but that only works if there's a state of war against the ships they're trying to capture (mentioned to be Orionian here).

[Eternal_Freedom]

Damn I'd forgotten that Letters of Marque only get issued in wartime. Of course, the first mate only claimed such a letter existed, but was kept by the dead captain and nary a trace of his torso could be found so it can't be proved.

I may have to edit it to be an outright pirate ship. One that had much success further south and decided to try it's hand in the rich waters around Orion.

[Simon_Jester]

Clearly the captain was Barrett.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Possibly. Either way, his torso got in the way of a 36 pound roundshot. Not a pretty end but probably a quick one.

[Imperial528]

Does SDN still have an IRC or other chat? I'd hate to have to make posts just to ask quick questions.

[Simon_Jester]

It has one but we don't all frequent it; I know I don't. I even less often use the AIM account that I was highly active in during SDNW4 and which is my primary contact with a lot of my friends.

Probably best to just make the posts; it's not like this forum has any purpose other than whatever games are ongoing.

Possibly. Either way, his torso got in the way of a 36 pound roundshot. Not a pretty end but probably a quick one.

I do hope you listened to the song I linked to. Stan Rogers suffered an untimely death and is less well known than he deserves given what a great singer he was.

[Imperial528]

Well, then due to a combination of laziness and that the search tools suck, Simon, how old is your nation? And how old is Orion, E_F?

[Jub]

Should we have a separate thread for nation descriptions and character bios, or should I just lump that in with the OOB thread?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Imperial@ The Orion Empire is just shy of 3,000 years old at this point. I measure dates as AEF - After Empire's Founding. For us, it's currently the start of 2955 AEF.

EDIT: Maddoctor, what's this about Hyenorks coming to Orion? We'll have to collaborate on them arriving at the border forts

[Imperial528]

How recently did the Empire reach its current borders?