Mechanic of InkstoneSmash

Inkstonesmash is a medievalistic strategy game, where players pick a country from a fictional world and manage it through the years to come. Your job is to dominate the world!







PBF means literally - play by forum. In short, this is a fabular game played on the forum, where players are role-playing as certain key figures from their country. You could draw a lot of similarities to tabletop games, but the difference here lays in the fact that this one can take a lot more time and don't require everyone to gather up in one place at one time.






All you need to do is to register on the forum and post your application in the designated thread, where you will point which country would you like to take. As soon as admin checks whether it's free real estate, you will be given both private and open forum (space to create your own threads) where you will be required to settle following threads (that will allow you to govern your country properly)






Okay, you managed to receive your forums and your country, but what to do next?

First things first, you need to create topics in your open forum (space accessible to everyone) by copying the following names and the content.

Code:


Name of the state:
Capital city:
Government type:
Stability:


Spoiler:

Code:


You will find all off the events that happens within your country here. It can be some kind of missions, disasters, but you can write your own speeches or ceremonies here


Spoiler:

Code:


You write all the international deals that you made here.
Make sure to keep it in the following format:

Name of the singing countries/Name of the pact/Time in turns for how long said pact was signed


Spoiler:

Okay then, you made those threads? That's great! Now you need to make following threads in your hidden forum (the one that only YOU and GM have access to)

Code:


Turn:
Budget:
Income:
Others:


Outcome:



Food:
Equipment:


Spoiler:

Code:


Tax offices:
Light industry:
Heavy industry:
Farms:
Ports:


Spoiler:

Code:


Spearmen:
Light soldiers:
Heavy soldiers:

Scouts:
Light Cavalry:
Heavy Cavalry:

Stone throwers:
Archers:
Crosbowmens:

Sieging Towers:
Trebuchets:
Balistas:

Transport ships:
Light ships:
Heavy ships:
Warships:


Spoiler:

Code:


Operations centre:
Espionage:
Counterespionage:


Spoiler:

Code:


In here you basically place a map, showing where does your army stay. If you can't be bothered with it, don't worry, because your army will be evenly spread across your entire nation.
If you want to create various armies and put them in specific places, you mark it on your map and show it here


Code:


If you have anything you want to do but don't want others to have a clue about it, you just post it here. Most of the times it will be your army movements or investments in the economy


Spoiler:

Code:


Footsoldiers:
Ranged Units:
Cavalry:
Siege equipment:
Fleet:


Spoiler:

To make things simple, the entire economy of our country is gathered into just a few structures, making it far easier to operate that specifying every last smallest thing.

Tax office
Brings 10gold/level
Costs 10gold/next level


Light industry
Brings 3gold/level and produces 3 units of food/level
Costs 4 gold/next level

Heavy industry
Brings 5gold/level and produces 5 equipment units/level
Costs 7gold/next level

Farms
Brings 2 gold/level/turn and produces 5 units of food/level/turn
Costs 3gold/next level

Ports
Brings 1gold/level and allows to build one ship/port's level
Costs 3gold/next level

FOOD IS STORED, EQUIPMENT LASTS ONLY SINGLE TURN!

Spoiler:

Operation center
Costs 20 gold/next level
More about espionage later!







There will be times when you will want to invest in a specific thing that you believe should bring more income than normal investments. It's completely normal and accepted, but not only you need to invest money into it as well, but how much you will earn from it is in the sphere of GM decision!

War, diplomacy and trade

Wars can bring both benefits (taking over enemy economy, pillaging their lands, showing strength on the international area) and losses (casualties, unrest amongst peacefull population etc)

You can start the war both openly (by announcing it in diplomacy) and covertly (by simply moving your troops to enemy country in your hidden forum)

War turn
There are 1-2 war turns in each normal turn. Each warturn can last between 24 and 48 hours so that everyone will have ample times to do their movements and orders.

War is lead only by the Game Master or the person designed to do it by the GM

Attack
Attacking another country will always be followed by the reaction of your nation. If you have an aggressive country, they might be happy (as long as you are winning!), if you have pacifist country, your population won't be happy with aggressive wars (obviously)

You can attack both players and the bots (countries without a player leading them)

After the war

After winning the war, we have a few options available.
- You can free the country after taking down the enemy leader (destroying tyrannies)
- You can make it your protectorate (you receive small remuneration per turn from them, the amount set by GM)
- You can annex part or the entire country (and you will receive a bonus to your economy, but you will lose stability in most cases, after all, you took over the population that you fought with!)

Non-aggresion pacts

By signing non-aggression pact for a set amount of time, you are prohibited from doing anything that could influence negatively the other country. That includes all kinds of military aggression, spy sabotage etc. GM has the last say in situations that are not clear.

Minimal length of the NAP (non-aggression pact) is 2 turns

Diplomacy

For all and any of deals between countries, you need to announce them publicly, otherwise, your nation and other countries won't be forced to respect them.

Breaking existing agreements will force the violating side to pay HALF of the set amount of cash upfront, while the player himself must enforce the payment of the second half.

All kinds of secret dealing are allowed to happen, but won't be binding!

If you want to keep your diplomacy secure and secretive, you need to include your posts in:

Code:


[hide]HERE[/hide]


This way only the people who replied to this thread will be able to see the content of the messages.

Trade

There are two types of trade.

If you want to sell your food or equipment, you can do so by making a deal with other player and transferring resources to another country (needs to have some sort of safe connection!). The trade takes place ONLY after the buyer will include it in his budget!

Fabular trade means that you set a trade route between yours and another country. Profits from doing so should be included in 'others' in your budget and are decided by GM after you describe what you are trading with and why.

Military

SUPPLIES: During peace, every single of your troops needs 1 unit of food to survive. During a war, they need 2 units of food to fight, and in case of hard battles, this can increase to 3.

Every marching unit has 10.000 people
Cavalry units have 2.000 people
Siege units have 10 machines in every unit
Fleets have 5 ships in every unit.

Transporting fleet can transport up to 2 units of any kind.

Spearmen: 0.5gold x Generation + 1 equipment
Light troops: 1gold x Generation + 1 equipment
Heavy troops 3gold x Generation + 2 equipment

Scouts2gold x generation +4 equipment
Light Cavalry4gold x generation + 6 equipment
Heavy Cavalry10gold x generation + 10 equipment

Stone throwers1 gold x generation
Archers2 gold x generation + 2 equipment
Crosbowmen5gold x generation + 5 equipment

Trebuchet10gold x generation + 15 equipment
Balista20 gold x generation + 15 equipment
Sieging Tower50 gold x generation + 30 equipment

Transport ship30 gold x generation + 10 equipment
Light ship20 gold x generation + 20 equipment
Heavy ship50 gold x generation + 40 equipment
War ship200 gold x generation + 100 equipment

GENERATIONS OF TROOPS

Footmen:
I Generation: FREE
II Generation: 25 gold
III Generation: 50 gold
IV Generation: 100 gold
V Generation: 150 gold
VI Generation: 200 gold

Ranged units:
I Generation: 10 gold
II Generation: 30 gold
III Generation: 60 gold
IV Generation: 130 gold
V Generation: 220 gold
VI Generation: 280 gold

Cavalry:
I Generation: 20 gold
II Generation: 40 gold
III Generation: 80 gold
IV Generation: 150 gold
V Generation: 250 gold
VI Generation: 300 gold

Sieging equipment:
I Generation: 20 gold
II Generation: 40 gold
III Generation: 70 gold
IV Generation: 140 gold
V Generation: 210 gold
VI Generation: 260 gold

Fleet:
I Generation: 15 gold
II Generation: 30 gold
III Generation: 60 gold
IV Generation: 130 gold
V Generation: 200 gold
VI Generation: 250 gold

Espionage

You can build your Operation centre building by the cost of 20x level.

Every level of Operation centre allows you to raise your espionage or counterespionage level by 1.

For example, you can have the 5th level of operation centre, 3 levels in espionage and counterespionage.

If you want to make a covert action on enemy territory, you need to detail it in your operation centre, add proper funding for it, and depending on your action, additional funding, your level of espionage and counterespionage level of your opponent, GM will decide the further actions and whether did you succeed.

OTHERS

Politic:
In case of events affecting only your country, GM or event master will write about it in your "actions" thread on your hidden forum. Your nobility might set your ruler a mission for the coming years, some groups might start a protest or outright rebellion, at the very least, your country might be struck by an internal war. In this topic, you will decide how will your ruler react.

ATTENTION! - Posts like "kill all the rebels" won't be tolerated even in the despotic monarchies!


Are there any rules about writing and taking decisions?
Yes! All your actions are taking effect instantly, and that means that after submitting a post, you can't refute what you wrote. It also applies to your war tactics. It's recommended to think through every action before you will confirm it by sending the post.


There is also a rule as to how to write speeches. You always refer to your people as your ruler/high official. While writing the speech, you need to keep in mind the position of the person that is speaking. You always need to inform who is saying his piece and in whose name!

We split our actions/events into two parts. Official speech and pragmatic action. In the description, you sum up what kind of actions do you take, while in speech, you rationalise it. If you are just making a speech, you can ignore the second part. You need to remember as well:
- You shouldn't repeat yourself. Informing about something once is already enough.
- We write with formal language. You can also add characteristics add-ons, like "may the God have you in his care" for theocracies, "For the glory of our empire!" as imperator etc.



New turns and dates:

New turn is decided by GM only. Approx time will be revealed with every new turn on discord or somewhere in the forum. After starting new turn you make new posts with budget for said turn. You do your turns yourself, while GM might only check whether you didn't make a mistake in your budget.


Noobs Protection
The first turn has Noob Protection on, meaning that NOONE can attack ANYONE during that time (except for bots) unless there is a BIG reason for doing so. GM has the right to choose whether your casus beli is enough to break the protection!

PS:

You can only research up to 2 generations per turn (you can hop from cavalry I to cavalry III or do cavalry I -> II and ranged units I->II