The Mechanics:
"The Numbers"
The game will use percentile dice for actions and results. This game will use Rolemaster's "open-ended" roll concept. This means, that if you roll a 96-100, the dice-roller will reroll and add the two numbers. If you keep rolling 96-100, this process repeats.
Unskilled workers (which accounts for nearly all units when they first join you) - have a natural +0 to their actions.
Certain races innately possess a bonus to rolls in certain situations.
1) Goblins gain a +5 to all Scouting rolls (everywhere) and Harvest Materials Rolls made in Plains.
2) Humans provide a +5 to all Diplomacy Rolls.
3) Dwarves provide a +10 to all Harvest Material Rolls made in Mountains and Hills (only for Stone, Iron and Gold.)
4) Orcs provide a +10 to all Morale Rolls. [This is a huge advantage in combat.]
5) Human Cavalry provide a +10 to Attack Rolls made when they are the aggressive force in a fight.
6) There are other races out there, and they provide different bonuses to different rolls. It is not always easy to find races outside of the list provided in the "Creature Stats" thread.
Leaders and Cohorts each provide +25 to any action in which they provide their "leadership" to another Unit.
This leadership is provided by accompanying a Unit on its task.
For example - sending a Unit of Goblins to scout a Grid, will give them a +5 bonus to their D100 roll. Sending your Cohort with that Unit of Goblins provides a total of +30 (+25 for Cohort and +5 for the Goblins.)
"Success" in an action is based upon rolls of 50 and greater.
Determining the bonuses/penalties and such may seem like a long list - but, it's really not complicated. Actually, they're quite simple. Heck, I had to design them, and thus they can't be all that complex.
The following determine the success and failure of all actions:
- a Percentile (D100) roll
- The presence of a Leader-type. (25 percentiles bonus per)
- If a Civilization Point (CP) is involved, +1 to +8 percentiles depending upon size.
- +4 percentiles for the first activity in a location within a given month.*/
- +0 percentiles for each activity after the first.*/
- -4 percentiles for each activity thereafter.*/**
- +4 percentiles for the inclusion of more than one unit. (per)
- +4 - +12+ percentiles for use of proper equipment, plus a bonus depending upon quality.
- Percentiles added for 'qualitative' bonus of any extras.
- Percentiles added for any skill bonuses of units involved. (such as discussed in the previous post.)
- -10 percentiles if any of your units have been observed in the Grid within the past 3 months.
- -5 percentiles if the area is deemed a 'hot-bed' of activity.
* - Does not apply to actions conducted in your own Lair.
** - Only applies to Scouting and Hunting for an Encounter.
As you can probably tell from this list; after the random die roll: the presence of your Leader and/or Cohort (the two leader-type entities you have) provide the widest margin of bonus to which you have access in the early stages of the game. This means their allocation matters far more than anything else.
The following provides lists of percentile distinctions for quantitative and qualitative differences of places, things and entities in the game.
What this means - is that it is generally easier to find recruits/gear in larger CPs than in smaller.
HIDDEN VALUES and STATISTICS!
There will be two hidden stats for Units: Morale and Loyalty.
Loyalty - affects all units except for The Leader and your Cohort.
Loyalty is affected by factors such as; timely payment, being properly equipped, frequency of dangerous missions, etc. If a unit's loyalty drops too much, they may desert you.
It should be noted that Orcs will never desert you as a result of 'frequency of dangerous missions.'
Morale - affects all units except for The Leader and your Cohort.
Morale is affected by factors such as; frequency of combat, success/failure in missions, and unit casualties. If a unit's morale drops too much, they may leave in combat situations or abandon their posts at inopportune times.
Other Hidden Values:
http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=R21_Obscurity
Obscurity - This is a hidden value for each of your Lairs. As you conduct actions that draw attention; this value will drop. You can get a general assessment of this value by conducting diplomacy in local Civilization Points and Scouting Local Civilization Points. Each Lair begins at an Obscurity level of 100. Certain actions (raiding, gathering resources, construction, and attacking) all have a certain amount of awareness associated with them (between 0 and 2 points). Each action reduces this Obscurity Level by that much. However, each month that goes by without you being discovered REPAIRS that Obscurity by 2.
Availability - This is a hidden value for Civilization Points. As you make purchases and recruit units; Civilization Points will lose availability and it will become harder to make additional purchases in a timely manner. The Size of a Civilization Point, and the Racial make-up are good general assessment's of this value. To gain a better assessment, conduct diplomacy.
Experience Points (XP) - This is a semi-hidden value. You will know when a unit has advanced enough to be awarded bonus stats. When you receive this notice, you will reply with your desired trait increase. On the following week, there is a chance this statistic will increase; if it does not, the chances of increasing it improve dramatically the next time.
Conducting Diplomacy WITHOUT making purchases within the two nearest civilization points CAN REPAIR your Obscurity can amount between 0 - 5. (Success is randomized on a percentile basis, with 5% bonus for Human Leaders and Cohorts.)
Understanding Nodes
Resource Nodes come in two flavors: Materials and Food or Gold.
When you discover a resource node it is categorized by one of the adjectives below. The information following should give you an idea of just how much of a material or gold you can expect to 'haul' each time you perform a harvest action.
Poor Node (Materials) = 2d4
Normal Node (Materials) = 3d4
Exceptional Node (Materials) = 4d4
Astounding Node (Materials) = 5d4 [Requires a scouting roll in excess of 200.]
Poor Gold Node = 1d4
Normal Gold Node = 2d4
Exceptional Gold Node = 3d4
Astounding Gold Node = 4d4 [Requires a scouting roll in excess of 200.]
Poor Food Node = 1d4
Normal Food Node = 2d4
Exceptional Food Node = 3d4
Astounding Food Node = 4d4 [Requires a scouting roll in excess of 200.]
It should be noted that when you use a resource - it degrades. Higher success rolls on harvesting degrade nodes faster.
Sending more than one Unit at a time to a single node improves the amount extracted by 1 die per Unit, or a flat +1 per Leader/Cohort. Sending more units also degrades the node faster.
For those of you who are super interested in knowing some of the 'behind the curtains' bits...
http://growingnovelscommunity.com/RPG/RPOL/Usurper/Usurper_Random_Events.html
http://growingnovelscommunity.com/RPG/RPOL/Usurper/index.html
This page will give you an idea of some of the possible, randomly generated scenarios/things that can happen when hunting for an encounter or scouting.
Fur further information regarding mechanics:
The Mechanics2