You are Lord of a Province of the Great Empire, the first to ever unify the whole continent.  Under the mighty emperor Bello, the many diverse and cosmopolitan fiefdoms that once dotted the continent became unified under a single empire, and through the Emperor's guidance and stern hand, the Empire prospered.  The Lords of the Empire (you) also prospered, as the Emperor in his infinite wisdom largely allowed each Lord to rule with near total autonomy in the lands they control for as long as they remained loyal to the Emperor.   Now, however, things seem to have stagnated.  The great engine of progress seems to be slowing and proceeding fitfully as of late as an ominous wind blows through the Empire.  Then, the dire news arrives.  The already old and ailing Emperor Bello has mysteriously fallen ill and is not expected to recover - even the best healers the Empire had to offer could do naught to aid the shriveled and sickly form of this once great man.  Now, this once undefeated legend is brought low, as if it were the will of the gods themselves.  To make matters worse, the Emperor has no heir - his only son was killed many years ago in a hunting accident.

Now, while life in the Empire still proceeds normally for the time being thanks to the combined skill of the Emperor's closest advisors and the wisdom that the Emperor can still offer, a pall has been cast over the Empire and the air is thick with anxiety over what lies ahead for the Empire.  The Emperor's steward has called a meeting to be held in 5 moons to discuss the Emperor's will as well as the general state of the Empire, and as this is an event that may very well decide the fate of the entire Empire, you are expected to attend.

For now, prepare yourselves, for this is the calm before the storm.

Welcome to The Unoccupied Throne - the Bellobuilder!  To play just fill in the sheet below:

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LORD

<insert pic of lord here - optional>

—Fill—
Lord's Name: (The name of the lord you'll be playing as)
Lord's Fluff: (Anything we should know about the lord that you'll be playing.  You don't have to write a book about it but please give me enough to work with because your bonuses will be determined by this)
-Do not Fill Below-
Lord's Skills: (Your lord's skills - useful for RP and it may have effects on the game world as well depending on the skill)
Lord's Bonus: (You'll get one positive based on fluff)
Lord's Heir: (The person who will replace your lord if he/she dies)
Heir Fluff: (Optional - you can do this later if he's ever put on the throne or you can do it now, your choice)

PROVINCE

<insert fluff pic of province here>

Province's Name: (What you want your territory to be called)
Color/Location: (Choose a color and your starting location number, can not choose anything in gray, this includes the capital or castles)
Race: (Any mortal, biologically-based race allowed - see the Races section of the rules for more information on this please)
Age: (Self-explanatory)
Fluff: (Anything I should know about your province - what's the weather like, what are the major land features, what's special about it, etc.  Again you don't have to write too much but please give me enough to work with)
Reason for serving the Emperor: (At some point every lord submitted to and pledged fealty to Emperor Bello.  Why did your province choose to do so?  Note that you don't HAVE to be loyal to the Emperor but you should still have a compelling reason why he decided to make you a Lord/Lady and give you power and territory instead of just mopping the floor with you a long time ago during his initial conquest)
—Do not Fill Below—
Currency: 5 (+1/turn) (Needed to pay for buildings/soldiers/other things - can also pay for other stuff as described in the Currency section)
Supplies: 5 (+1/turn) (Needed to pay for buildings/building stuff - see the Supplies section for more information)
Population: 3 (+1/turn) (Needed to pay for armies, see Pop section for other uses)
Food: 5 (+1/turn) (Needed to feed your Population, if your Pop + Soldier count is greater than this number, you can't get any more pop)
Military: Two Levies (1x) (You can rename these to anything as long as it's appropriate, see military section for what this means)
Buildings: (Based on fluff - these are necessary and give bonuses to various things, i.e. farms give more food, barracks train troops faster, sawmills give more supplies, etc.)
Technology / Magic: (Dependent on fluff, generally most people will only be given access to one school of magic unless your bonus says otherwise - see Technology/Magic section)
Resources: (Any special items/goodies that you get during the game that don't fall into one of the other categories)
Morale: 0 (A measure of how good/bad your people are doing - having good morale will lead to good things, having bad morale will lead to bad things.  See the Morale section for more information)
Bonus: (You'll get two, one positive and one negative based on fluff)

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If all territories are taken, you can still play as a Hero character.  Heroes are generally much less powerful than lords and don't have as many resources as lords do, but can still affect the game in profound ways if played well.  A hero can agree to serve a lord, in which case that lord may share some of his resources with the hero, but each lord can only have one hero at a time serving him/her and if the lord finds his vassal unworthy he/she may take anything he/she gave to that hero back (aside from non-material things like knowledge, etc.) as a free action.  At that point the hero is free to join up with any other lord that is willing to accept him/her.

To make a Hero, just fill out the following sheet:

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<insert pic of hero here>

Hero's Name: (The name of the hero you'll be playing as)
Hero's Fluff: (Anything we should know about the hero that you'll be playing.  You don't have to write a book about it but please give me enough to work with because your bonuses will be determined by this)
-Do not Fill Below-
Hero's Skills: (Your hero's skills - useful for RP and it may have effects on the game world as well depending on the skill)
Hero's Storage:
Hero's Followers:
Hero's Bonus: (You'll get one positive based on fluff)

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--- RULES (you can just skip to the section you need if you want, please read it all at least once though): ---

SERVER RULES

1. Don't post anything illegal
2. No spamming
3. Please keep OOC bant in the general chat
4. No metagaming/cheating

ROLL CHART

Rolls will be 3d100 (3 actions per turn).  Heroes have 2d100 (2 actions per turn).

The ranges will change as general conditions within the Empire deteriorate/improve.  Advance warning will be given before any changes occur.  1 and 100 will always remain the same, however.

1 - Critical Failure: A failure most spectacular.  No bonuses or combined rolls will save you from the hell you've just brought upon yourself.
2-10: Failure - Whatever action you've tried to take has not only failed but also gone horribly awry.  Expect minor bad things.
11-30 - Nothing - No success and no progress made
31-50 - Small Success - Progress is made, but only a little.  Results might be a little lackluster.
51-70 - Regular Success - A normal amount of progress gets made.  You get average results.
71-90 - Good Success - A much better amount of progress is made.  You get better than average results.
91-99 - Great Success - Whatever you're doing is automatically completed halfway despite the turns required, if it's over halfway done then it's finished.  You get excellent results.
100 - Critical Success: Whatever you're doing is done regardless of the amount of progress left with AMAZING results.

N.B. If an action would be impossible or completely unfeasible in the given circumstances it will fail, even if it's a 100.  However crit 1s will be ignored in this case as well - I'll just treat the roll as if it never happened.

**One extra action per turn will be given to either the person who is chosen to be Emperor OR the person who controls
the capital and all three castles (controlling the Imperial City/Castles negates the Emperor's extra action and neither of these extra actions stack).  However keep in mind that, at least at the game start, these castles along with the Imperial City itself are manned by the Emperor's best and rushing them is ill-advised.  They will stay completely neutral throughout the game until conquered by a player.**

To roll for battle, simply use one of your actions (roll 1d100) to attack (defending is a free action), and then roll 1d10 for each attacking unit and add their combat modifiers (i.e. if I attacked with two swordsmen (2x) and I rolled a 4 and an 8 for each, my total for that combat would be 12.  If the enemy's total is less than this, I would win the combat.)  The margin of victory will determine how badly units are damaged.  In some cases, especially if both sides are evenly matched, combat can take more than one turn to complete - if this is the case, continuing combat is a free action for both sides.

LORDS

Your Lord is the leader of the province you control.  Since this is an RP-heavy game, I'd recommend making your lord someone that you're actually comfortable RPing with - memes generally don't make good characters to do this with.  Please do not make any Mary Sues with no weaknesses and unbeatable super strength to start with please.  In addition to helping with RP your Lord can have various in-game effects as well, so be sure not to neglect their growth.  I'll try to give your characters skills appropriate to your fluff, but keep in mind they'll have the same amount of starting skills as everyone else so they won't start out being kung fu masters and Da Vinci level inventors all at the same time.

HEIRS

Through battle, enemy subterfuge, too many Crit 1s in a row, etc. your character can easily kick the bucket.  When that happens you'll need an heir to rule in your now dead lord's place.  This can be either a hereditary affair or whatever else you can come up with, but make sure you have a clear line to the throne because the more people argue about who will lead, the more your people's morale will plummet.

RACES

As far as races go, the Empire is fairly cosmopolitan so it's completely up to you what races you want your lord to be and what races you want to be living in your province at the game start.  However, please keep in mind that this is a fairly low-mid magic setting so races that rely on magic to survive (i.e. an empire of undead, golems, energy beings, etc.) won't be feasible (you might be able to do some of these things in smaller numbers, but thousands of them just won't work).  In addition they must be biologically based (must breathe, eat, sleep, age - basic human functions). Also please don't play anything absurdly powerful (elder gods, angels, demons, etc.) or degenerate (anything based on a fetish, anything too memey or dumb, etc.)

CURRENCY

Currency is an abstract number representing how much wealth your empire has.  Wealth is needed for many things, most notably for paying your soldiers' wages and paying any upkeep that might come with buildings (most buildings that require workers do, if in doubt ask).  Currency can also be used to buy and sell things from other players with, to purchase mercenaries from the Capital and can also be used to buy supplies and other nice things from the Black Market (see the Imperial Market section if you want to learn how to do both of these)

POPULATION

Population is an abstract number representing how many people are living in your empire (minus soldiers).  Population is the literal lifeblood of your province.  If you have no population remaining your empire will receive large penalties to production, so make sure you always have some free population (no, making your soldiers work won't cut it since "soldiers" implies they already have a full-time job training, patrolling, doing the usual things a soldier must do, etc.)  Population will mostly be lost due to disasters that might happen in your province like wars, stuff from bad rolls, etc. as well as through things like recruiting new units.  You will get some new population every turn as long as the total of your population + number of soldiers doesn't exceed your food total. You can also put population in buildings to boost their efficiency - see the Buildings section for more information.

SUPPLIES

Supplies are an abstract number representing how many supplies you have for building/making things (wood, metal, cloth, etc.).  Most things, especially buildings, will use up supplies when you build things.  Supplies can be traded for, and sometimes show up in the Imperial Market from time to time.  They can be produced with various buildings and every province will start out being able to produce at least some.  As far as specific supplies go you can assume that you start with some of the basic building materials - stone, wood, iron, etc.  If you want anything else in particular you'll have to either build a building to make it or trade for it if another player produces it.

FOOD

Food is an abstract number representing how much food your province is producing.  Food is very important because everyone needs to eat something or other.  If your food total is greater than your population + soldier count, you will gain population every turn until that's no longer the case.  If your food total is equal to your population + soldier count, you won't be able to gain population per turn anymore until you have more food than people/soldiers.  If your food total is less than your population + soldier count, your people will begin starving and you'll lose population every turn until your food total is equal to or greater than your population + soldier count.  So yeah, food is important.  Excess food can be sold to other players if you wish - see the Trading section.

MILITARY

While the Emperor's gracious protection was abundant in the days of old, in these uncertain times you will have a need to defend your lands against those who would threaten it.  Your military is another important lifeline, as if it's defeated you'll be completely at your conqueror's mercy.  Therefore even the most peaceful players would be wise to prepare for war.  Your military units will usually look like this - Example Unit (1x).  (1x) would be the unit's combat modifier, which is added to that unit's roll in combat.  Defensive buildings like walls, towers, castles, etc. can reduce the combat modifiers of attacking troops, so be mindful of this.

Some units will have certain tags as well that are added onto them.  For example, cavalry, boats, etc. will have the [Fast] tag, allowing them to move twice as fast across the board, [Siege X] units can help to nullify the advantages of defensive buildings by whatever amount X happens to be, [Ranged] units do twice as much damage to flying units but take twice as much damage from normal units, and [Flying] units do twice as much damage to normal units but take twice as much damage from [Ranged] units.  More tags exist and I'll explain what they do as they become relevant.

MILITARY MOVEMENT

In general, land-based unit without any tags that say otherwise can move roughly one province per turn.  [Fast] units can move across roughly two provinces per turn, and [Naval] units can move roughly three provinces per turn.  It can get confusing so I will likely be the final judge for a lot of this but I will try my best to stick to these rules.

BUILDINGS

Buildings can do a wide variety of very useful things for the people who own them.  Some buildings can grant small bonuses to related rolls.  Some buildings can produce much needed supplies, food, gold, and other useful things.  Note that you can only build one of each building in any given territory, but you can upgrade the buildings you own.  When you get a building, it will look like this: Building Rank E 0/5) - the rank shows how upgraded it is - E Rank represents the building in its most basic form while A rank buildings are truly magnificent buildings which can produce wondrous things.  The number (0/5) next to a building's rank is its capacity.  You can assign population to buildings as a free action to increase this number, and if a building is at full capacity (e.g. 5/5) the building will work twice as efficiently.  Each upgrade for a building will also increase its capacity, meaning higher rank buildings will require more population to achieve this bonus.

TECHNOLOGY/MAGIC

Technology represents the combined knowledge of the people in your province.  While it can be assumed that you have basic knowledge of most aspects of medieval/fantasy life (daily survival skills, basic math, etc., also everyone in the Empire can be assumed to know how to read/speak their native language as well as the Imperial Common language which has become the lingua franca throughout the Empire), anything of a more specialized nature will require the appropriate technology in order to do (if in doubt, please ask on this).  Any tech you've researched will also give you a small bonus on relevant rolls, so it is very worth your while to acquire as many as possible.  Like buildings, each tech will be ranked E through A, where E is basic knowledge and A is mastery.

Likewise Magic represents any magical knowledge that you might have obtained.  Magic is also ranked E through A in the same way that Technology is.  Magic is roughly split into two categories - Schools and spells.  Schools of magic represent your people's affinity with a given type of magic (i.e. fire magic, water magic, etc.) while individual spells are specialized for a single purpose but achieve it with a much greater effect.  Your ability to learn spells is dependent on your knowledge of the school it belongs to, so don't expect to be able to create a tidal wave spell with E-rank water magic.

A NOTE ON TECHNOLOGY AND MAGIC

Unlike other Bellobuilders, this builder's setting takes place in a strictly medieval fantasy setting.  This means that you definitely won't start with advanced technology like machine guns, robots, nukes, etc. and you most likely will not be able to acquire them.  Please don't jump around with techs/try to aggressively techwhore your way to modern inventions.  Regarding gunpowder, it is a thing and things like EARLY cannons and guns (like arquebuses, etc.) may be possible but attempting to push the boundaries on what you can do with these things will generally be met with resistance on my part. A basic printing press has also been invented, so books are commonplace throughout the Empire.  Other than that, anything else is fine as long as it is appropriate for a middle ages setting (think like the 1000-1400 AD timeframe IRL if you want a general idea)

With magic, you can expect its uses to be more limited than what you might have seen in past Bello games as I'm aiming more for a low-medium magic setting.  So don't expect to be able to research world-shattering magic, summon demons, make magical constructs with magical lasers, cause disasters that ravage whole continents, etc.  Keep it simple please.

RULE CHANGES

The rules above may be changed or amended at any point during the game.  Advanced warning will be given for these changes and in the case of any particularly disruptive changes you may receive compensation as well.