A bunch of questions

Hi Alex / other helpful folks,

I was wondering if I might have some assistance with a random assortment of questions that might help me understand some of the details of the rules a bit better. Without further ado:

1. The ACKS Companion has great rules for creating your own spells, but they don't seem to extend to the ritual spells. That is, for example, I don't see how Cataclysm or Undead Legion fit into the Blast or Summoning spell guidelines. I'm wondering if there were some guidelines or rules that were applied for working out these spells, or if in future I should just look at any player-proposed ritual spells and thumb-suck it compared to the other existing ritual spells. (I ask because I'm so acutely aware that Alex has a lot of maths behind this game that he hasn't published).

2. The rules for building a stronghold assume 3,000 workers. The rules in D@W Domains let you use your troops as labour, assuming a mix of unskilled and skilled. (I'm presuming the assumption is that the troops will have come from other useful vocations). But if players are wanting to build something in their own small domain, using only their own small domain's labour (say, if they're trying to keep it a secret), are there some guidelines on how many people might be suited to the task?

3. The core book has availability of a number of different kinds of hirelings (healers, mariners, engineers, etc). What about journeyman and master craftsmen? (And apprentices for that matter). Should I just be looking at other hirelings that have 1, 2 or 3 proficiencies in their "thing" and equating it to that? (Healer might be a good equivalent?)

4. Maximum hex population. The ACKS core book sets it based on the the classification of the hex (civilised, borderlands, wilderness). I have also used Brennall's house rules for deterministic land revenue values in the past, which I quite like. I'm wondering if any consideration was (or is, by GMs) given to population limits based on terrain type. A crude example being that snow-covered mountains would likely not support as many families as somewhere in the middle of a major river system. Too hard? Low benefit:effort ratio?

5. This one's a bit more of a flight of fancy rather than a question, but I was wondering if anyone's formalised/codified a system of mechanical impact of different cultures. For example, in a Mongolia-esque nation, citizens might be born to the saddle, meaning a lot more than 1 man in 8 (as per D@W:C) could be a horse archer. Perhaps the ability to ride a horse in war comes as easily to them as being a heavy infantryman does in other cultures. This stems from my interest in running a game of kings where nations are mechanically differentiated by more than just their size and land revenue. (I was originally inspired to try to fudge something based on A Song of Ice and Fire RPG's house improvements, but the scaling doesn't really work. Cultural tendencies, on the other hand...). I'm happy enough trying to work up my own, but am always impressed that so much seems to have already been done by others before me, so thought I'd ask.

I'll stop here for now. Very grateful for any replies :)

 

[quote="SilentTempest"]

1. The ACKS Companion has great rules for creating your own spells, but they don't seem to extend to the ritual spells. That is, for example, I don't see how Cataclysm or Undead Legion fit into the Blast or Summoning spell guidelines. I'm wondering if there were some guidelines or rules that were applied for working out these spells, or if in future I should just look at any player-proposed ritual spells and thumb-suck it compared to the other existing ritual spells. (I ask because I'm so acutely aware that Alex has a lot of maths behind this game that he hasn't published). [/quote]

I provided some optional rules for playtesting here: http://www.autarch.co/forums/general-forums/general-discussion/lower-level-rituals

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2. The rules for building a stronghold assume 3,000 workers. The rules in D@W Domains let you use your troops as labour, assuming a mix of unskilled and skilled. (I'm presuming the assumption is that the troops will have come from other useful vocations). But if players are wanting to build something in their own small domain, using only their own small domain's labour (say, if they're trying to keep it a secret), are there some guidelines on how many people might be suited to the task?

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If you consult D@W: Campaigns Construction Projects section, you'll find the rules you need. Each worker can be assigned a construction rate based on his proficiencies. Simply calculate the construction rate per day of the available workers, and divide the cost of the structure by that total in order to get the number of days required to build it. 

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3. The core book has availability of a number of different kinds of hirelings (healers, mariners, engineers, etc). What about journeyman and master craftsmen? (And apprentices for that matter). Should I just be looking at other hirelings that have 1, 2 or 3 proficiencies in their "thing" and equating it to that? (Healer might be a good equivalent?)

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Per D@W: Campaigns, 25% of laborers will be skilled laborers. There will be 1 master craftsman per 100 laborers. There will be 2 journeymen and 4 apprentices per master. E.g. 1 master crafstman, 2 journeyman, 4 apprecentices, 25 skilled laborers, 100 unskilled laborers.

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4. Maximum hex population. The ACKS core book sets it based on the the classification of the hex (civilised, borderlands, wilderness). I have also used Brennall's house rules for deterministic land revenue values in the past, which I quite like. I'm wondering if any consideration was (or is, by GMs) given to population limits based on terrain type. A crude example being that snow-covered mountains would likely not support as many families as somewhere in the middle of a major river system. Too hard? Low benefit:effort ratio?

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The easiest way would simply be to state that certain hexes cannot support a population density of higher than X.

If you consult AXIOMS 2, Domains of Chaos article, you will find rules for Clanholds. These are modeled after historical horticultural societies and work well for representing more barbaric realms that lack "modern" agricultural knowledge. 

I chose the latter path because I tend to believe that (save for the most extreme climates) the real limit on population density is the technological/cultural development of the civilization, rather than the terrain itself. The advanced societies of the Near East were able to sustain high population densities in their semi-arid realms, while the Iron Age Germans had thin population densities in wet, lush Central Europe, because the former had sophisticated irrigation networks and canals and the latter didn't have a plow that could work their thick soil. What later became the breadbasket of Europe was essentially unarable before then! Later, the situation reversed, when the great canals and irrigation of the Near East fell into disrepair and collapsed; Europeans found a desert and contrasted it as poor land compared to their rich homelands. So different terrain requires different technology to exploit it.  And this doesn't even begin to address urban settlements and the possibilities to maintain them through trade. An island-city could have a huge population sustained from imported grain, even if the island itself was a desert, for instance! Modeling all of this would have required a lot of new mechanics, and it seemed simpler to let the Judge handle it.

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> 5. This one's a bit more of a flight of fancy rather than a question, but I was wondering if anyone's formalised/codified a system of mechanical impact of different cultures. For example, in a Mongolia-esque nation, citizens might be born to the saddle, meaning a lot more than 1 man in 8 (as per D@W:C) could be a horse archer. Perhaps the ability to ride a horse in war comes as easily to them as being a heavy infantryman does in other cultures. This stems from my interest in running a game of kings where nations are mechanically differentiated by more than just their size and land revenue. (I was originally inspired to try to fudge something based on A Song of Ice and Fire RPG's house improvements, but the scaling doesn't really work. Cultural tendencies, on the other hand...). I'm happy enough trying to work up my own, but am always impressed that so much seems to have already been done by others before me, so thought I'd ask. 

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Yes. We got your covered!

If you consult Axioms 2, Domains of Chaos, I offer rules for Tribal Warriors. A Skysos clanhold of 120 families can produce 120 troops, of which 30 will be light infantry, 25 will be composite bowmen, 20 will be light cavalry, 25 will be horse archers, and 20 will be medium cavalry. 

If you consult Axioms 4, Elite Troops, I provide rules for elite troops, "able-bodied adults all trained in the same way and all drawn from a particular country, region, or city  which uniformly teaches one  or more proficiencies useful to a particular type of troop. Because all of the troops in a unit know the same proficiency, it affects their unit characteristics and improves their battle rating." 

An example might be Horse Archers with Precise Shooting. 

Precise Shooting: A unit with Precise Shooting proficiency may conduct a missile attack sequence against a target threatening or threatened by it without penalty. The unit may use volleying overhead to conduct a missile attack sequence against a target threatening or threatened by an ally.