Part 1: The Council is in session
Everyone should now have access to their respective House sheet, if that's not the case please let me know!
The trumpets strike three rising notes and eighty-one doves are released as Harald V is crowned king by the Prior Mother of the Cult. The People erupt in a cheer of joy: our hopes of enduring prosperity are renewed with a new king. Foreing dignitaries from Kasuk, Kauppias, Cidlada and Mhuir crowd the royal castle to evaluate the new king and win his favor. The ceremony is followed by a feast lasting for three days and nights along all the streets of Lybra, our capital city. A week later, sitting on his throne behind the grand chiselled door of the Council Room, the new king addresses us for the first time: "Any authority is flickering, and power can be a blessing or a curse for those on whom it is exercised", he says. After a long pause, he adds: "Ruling is an unsolvable dilemma."
Welcome to The King's Dilemma! This is the beginning of our story - or at least, the beginning of one of them. The text above is from our very first Story card; they look like this:
These cards, as the name imply, advance the story of our kingdom and are often added to the Storyboard after a vote. The front has a Storyline symbol in the top right corner, that represents which story the card is part of; these cards oftnen have a signature space and a signature effect on the bottom of the front, which represent the House/nobleman who was responsible for passing the law tied to that storybeat and the possible bonus/penalty their house received for it. For example, a Story card may look like this:
Legend of Special Abilities
By now, you may have seen some of these symbols - either in the example above or in your House's sheet - and you may be wondering what each symbol means. Here's a list of (most of) the symbols we'll encounter during our game:
The Realm Board
Most of the events in the game are going to be tracked on this board:
Time Counter: Every time we resolve a Dilemma by voting on it, the winning outcome will be displayed on it, starting from the right and moving to the left. If we reache the leftmost section (gold with a small skull on it), the King will die of old age if the outcome of the Dilemma has a skull symbol in the back OR if this is the 5th card placed in this slot. This means that a King's reign will, at most, last 11 Dilemmas.
Resource/Stability tracker: Almost every decision will influence the resources on the board, by moving them up (to the right in this case) or down (to the left). Each Resource tends to continue going up when it is rising, or down when it is dropping. This is called Momentum, which is indicated by the color of the Resource marker: If the marker is white-side up, it has Positive Momentum, meaning that it is moving up, and if it is black-side up, it has Negative Momentum, meaning that it is moving down (this is randomly assigned at the start of the first game). If a Resource marker moves in the same direction as its Momentum (such as due to the effects of a Dilemma), it moves 1 additional space and adds a Momentum marker of the same color (white = up, black = down). As long as it has the Momentum marker attached to it, if it moves in the direction of its Momentum again, it moves 2 additional spaces instead. A Resource marker can never have more than 1 Momentum marker. All Momentum is lost if the resource changes direction.
Each time a resource moves up or down the tracker, the Stability marker moves the same amount of spaces. If the Stability marker reaches either end of the Stability Track when applying the outcome of a Dilemma card, the King abdicates and the end of the game is triggered. This can be caused by the King's allies becoming too powerful and forcing him to abdicate so that they can elect their own king (if the Stability marker reaches the top of the tracker) or by a an agry mob forcing him out of power (if the marker reaches the bottom).
End game Scoring changes based on what has caused the reign to be over (King's death, powerful allies, riot).
Storyline tracker: There can be up to 6 distinct storylines happening at the same time - based on the symbol on the Story card - plus one special Event or Trigger card. If a story beat has a mechanical effect, only the topmost card's effect for each "stack" (IE: the one visibile in the Storyline tracker) will influence the game. I will keep a separate chronicle of all the story cards that have been revealed so far, to allow everyone to keep up with the developing story of the Kingdom of Ankist).
Due to the size of the tracker (and since I'd like the text on the Time Counter and Story Cards to be readable), we're going to have our tracker rotated 90°, so that the top will be right and the bottom will be left, like this:
Before proceeding with the first real Dilemma, I would like to lay down some ground rules. I'll specify what can be changed by each House based on their self determination as long as everyone is on board and everyone itt can easily recognize who's doing what.
Sitting Councilmember
- This is the person in charge of submitting the vote on behalf of their House before the end of the voting window.
- The duration for the window is 48h unless otherwise specified in the post that starts it. If the window is missed, the default outcome is "Pass and gather power".
- By default the Sitting Councilmember is rotated after each Dilemma. This can be changed by the House. A Dilemma vote will last on average 48 to 72 hours, in case there is a need of a tie-break by the Moderator. A King's reign will last on average between a week and a month, depending on the Stability and Time counters.
- Make sure to start your message by displaying your current role, for everyone to know who is taking the decisions for your House in the current vote.
- This is the person in charge of bargaining on behalf of their House before the end of the voting window.
- By default, this role is officiated by the Sitting Councilmember and it's rotated at the same time. This can be changed by the House. If the roles are officiated by two different people, only the Treasurer can propose/accept an accord with another House.
- Make sure to start your message by displaying your current role, for everyone to know who is bargaining for your House in the current vote.
- Everyone who doesn't currently have an active Role is encouraged to post (and/or RP if they want to) itt to let their own faction what should be done
and to criticize the obviosly wrong stances of the opposition.
- Always remember that each Dilemma could potentially have far deeped consequences that a simple Resource movement (or none at all!). You are there to let your Active duty kin know what the family really wants.
- By default, the Active Councilmember will be rotated based on the Signup order. This can be changed by the House.
- By default, the Treasurer (if it exists) will be the next in line to be Active Councilmember. This can be changed by the House, if they decide to split the roles.
- This is the current Signup order for each House (I'll add this to each House's Google Sheet as well and keep them updated over there):
