War
Overview
The Empire is at war with the barbarian nations it borders. The expected pattern for that war is that the players will, over the next few years, reverse the defeats of the last five decades before eventually invading and conquering new territory. The battles that we put on - as part of the ongoing military campaigns - are part and parcel of the event, so the Empire being at war with someone is unlikely to go away any time soon. So plots that involve the ongoing wars will always be viable in some form in Empire. What follows below is a brief explanation of the mechanical system that we use to calculate the progress of the war and how the PCs influence that.
The Military Campaign
War in empire follows a crude event-based model. The Empire and her enemies both have a number of armies. The map of the world is divided into territories and the armies go "on campaign" in territories contested by the Empire and her enemies. Orders are issued by the barbarian forces prior to an event (so we can cheat and change them when we see what the players do) for the season that follows an event. Orders are issued by the players at the event on the same basis. In effect, by the end of the event, the players and the barbarians have committed their forces for the next season of campaigning that follows the event.
When opposing armies are on campaign in a contested territory then both sides suffer casualties in the encounters that take place over a three month period. The larger force (other factors not withstanding) will inflict more casualties and capture one or more regions (part of a territory). From the arrangement of forces, the civil service are able to use day magic to produce an accurate prediction of the season's campaign - even though it has not yet happened. This prediction is given to the Imperial generals at the start of the event - and they then receive a handful of opportunities to intervene in the campaign - by teleporting half the playerbase into a territory to fight a pitched battle (see below). How hard the battle is - and how successful the players are - determines how big a positive change to the outcome of the campaign from the original forecast the players are able to produce.
In simple terms, there is an ongoing war, whose strategic choices are determined by the PC generals. The war is entirely mathematical - there is no random element to it. The random element comes from the player battles - when the success or failure of the players provides the critical variable that shifts the campaign in the players favour if they win their battles.
In plot terms what that means is this: There is an ongoing military campaign whose success or failure is very important to the players. You can run a piece of plot and one of the outcomes can be to provide the players with benefits in this campaign. An eternal can lend them troops or give them access to a powerful battle opportunity. They can perform rituals that help their armies - so items and potions that help them perform those rituals are valuable. Diplomats who offer military aid or threaten to send aid to the Empire's enemies are making credible threats. Basically we have a simple mathematical model that means that we can take account of plot developments, factor them in - and players will see those plot elements reflected in the world they interact with.
The Sentinel Gate
All our events take place at Anvil - the cultural centre of the Empire where the great and the good meet four times a year to rule the Empire. Anvil is not a city as such, more a sacred meeting place, a cross between the Icelandic Althing and the Field of the Cloth and Gold. As such it is pretty much the safest place in the Empire - and certainly the last place you would expect to get attacked.
To get the opportunities to go on battles, skirmishes and quests, the players need to pass through the Sentinel Gate, an ancient stone gate that draws on the power of the stars to teleport the players elsewhere in Empire for a limited time. This plot device is what enables the players to travel from the safety of Anvil to the dangers of the battle grounds.
The Sentinel Gate has it's own cosmology and rules that determine how it can be used. Please make sure that you read these carefully and make sure your plot works with these rules, rather than against them.
Battles
We aim to run two battles at each event - but the ideal is to present the players with more than one battle opportunity but let them pick between those on offer. While this is expensive in plot terms, (since we have to develop battles we don't run), creative ideas can be recycled and the benefits are significant in terms of producing a game where the players are able to make real decisions. The ideal battle should last between one and two hours and involve 4-600 combatants on either side, half of them players, the other half made up of player-volunteers led by our skirmish crew.
Battles should not be a slog-fest, they are supposed to represent critical tactical opportunities, not a last man standing scenario. The ideal battle should have a number of objectives in it, such as murder the enemy shaman, prevent the ritual being completed, destroy the fort, slay five orgres or whatever. The more objectives the players complete - the more positive the advantage they produce for their armies campaigning in the field.
It is hard, really hard, to do plot on a battlefield. Players are fired up on adrenalin and ready to kill anything that looks at them funny. This makes it more important to try out best, not less! An Empire battlefield should be an epic place to roleplay your character, there should be the potential for cool and thought-provoking encounters, items to be gained, locations to be scouted out. We should aim to cram as much plot into a battle as possible - in particular we can cheerfully ignore the laws of probability - it is not "incredible" that five unlikely things all happen at once on a battlefield because the Empire has used day and night magics to divine the most serendipitous moments and locations to fight. All the dull fighting where nothing momentous happens is done by the off-stage NPCs - the cool pivotal moments when dramatic stuff happens should take place on the player battles.
Skirmishes
A skirmish is like a battle but smaller - only involving one, or at most two, nations of PCs. They are usually shorter in duration than a battle, but should have the same amount of plot detail and sets of objectives. At present we are not running any skirmishes at the first event in 2014, to allow us to concentrate more resources on quests.
Quests
A quest is a small sequence of encounters (a handful) that take place in the woods. They are intended for up to thirty players at a time, but individual quests may be smaller or larger. There is a temptation to try and get as many players on a quest as possible - to try to get players more fighting time - but we want to avoid diluting the experience by having players watching whilst others fight or interact with the encounters.
Everything that holds true for battles can be true for quests. Quests need to have a plot element - though it can be as simple as "go here and fight this creature" - but they can also be seeded with plot elements and leads for other plots. Quests aimed at the military council may provide assistance to them in their ongoing campaign (just like a battle, although with a proportionately smaller impact) - scouting parties assessing a military force, escourting an Imperial courier or intercepting a barbarian supply wagon.
However unlike battles, quests do not need to have anything to do with the Empire's ongoing military campaigns. Magistrates may want to send militia to bring back a criminal, a sorceror or a blasphemer. The Conclave might be requested by an Eternal to send a party to retrieve a lost item from a regio. A map to a valuable treasure might come up for sale in the Bourse.
There are a limited number of quest slots available at each event. Speak to the plot actuation team if you are looking at creating a plot that involves a quest.
Templates
There are templates for submitting quests and skirmishes. If you are creating a quest or skirmish, please make sure that you use the accompanying templates, which are stored on the plot wiki.