Hand of Sand Gaming

Okay, this is going to be implemented as an online game for this website, based around a couple concepts: 1) It will exist in Rathe, probably on the Areopagus, 2) it will involve a system based around resource development or wealth acquisition, and 3) it will tie some out of game actions, such as "GP", to in game benefits.

Here is what I have so far:

1) The Game is going to be partially based the concept of the honor system.  No, not the honor system of thou shalt not cheat at rolling dice, but the honour system of Honorary Titles.  From highest to lowest

[color=blue]
Peerage System - Lords
• King
• Duke
• Margrave
• Count
• Viscount
• Baron
  [color=green]
  Commoners- The Gentry
• Knights
• Landed Gentry
  [color=brown]
  Commoners - The Yeomanry
• Yeomen
• Freemen
  [color=red]
  Serfs - bound to a Liege Lord
• Villeins
• Cottagers
• Low Serfs (a.k.a., slaves)

[color=black]2) Titles will be available by trade via GP, which will be earnable through actions both through GamePages (see [color=blue]HERE[color=black]) as well as through Rathe (e.g., by playing in sanctioned games, or running sanctioned events).

3) Based on your title, you earn either wealth or resource points IN game.  However, you need the necessary resources to support your title, or else you risk throwing your fiefdom into decay and neglect.  Not a good thing.

4) You earn your resouces by assigning your populace (gained through higher ranking titles) to certain actions, such as farming (food resouce), skilled labor (skilled labor resouce), etc. 

For Example:

[*]Billup the Low Serf has no control over his life.  Since he has such a low rank in society, he earns no resources.  Rather, he actually goes into debt.  He'd better get a better station in life to really do something, heck, anything other than exist.

[*]Phillip the Freeman is at least better off, and he earns for himself one resource point for whatever job he does.  However, that's all he can gain.

[*]However, Lord D'Vinssi, Lord of this Land, is pretty well off.  Not only does he have vassels working for him, providing him resouces to direct, but he also is taken care of by his vassels.  It is good to be in the Peerage System.

Okay, so here is where I foresee the Fiefdom headed:

Combat:
There will be a combat system, both micro for on the individual level, and macro for on the battlefield level.  Stats and such will be drawn from a myriad of sources, and the system should be playable online.

Factors to be considered:
Luck - sometimes things just go completely right or wrong.  This will be the dice roll.
Ability & Training - to overcome luck, training will build upon personal Ability, meaning one starts out with just ability and adds training upon that.
Equipment - to better one's odds at over coming luck, and the other person's training.  Doesn't do much good to beat at someone with  a stick if the other guy's got full plate and a two-handed sword, but its just as bad if the person with the sword has no idea what to do with it.

Possible Armor system:
Armor - will have a resistance factor to blows, meaning it will deflect and absorb damage.  If it absorbs or deflects all the damage, then the hit was good enough, but a blow was still landed.
Parry - how adept the person is at deflecting another's attacks.
Dodge - can you simply get out of the way of the blow?

Attributes

There will likely be between 12-15 attributes that will be utilized in the game for mechanic purposes.  They will be divided into three groups:

Mental Attributes - those that fall predominantly to the mind.  Possible alternative name includes "Ethereal".  Candidates include Wisdom/Acumen, Intelligence (book smarts), Spirtituality, Attunement (to the physical worlds), and Wit/Sharp Thinking.
Physical Attributes - those that fall predominantly to the physical body, such as strength, vigor, agility, speed, and physical beauty
Blended/Mixed Attributes - these are usually dependent upon both physical and mental interaction, such as Perception, Reaction Time, Charisma, and Stealth.

Anyhow, they are still in the works, and nothing has been decided upon how to determine how good one is at any given skill, or the degree of interaction between them.  There is a possibility that the mental and physical skills will be similar to the primary colors, with the mixed attributes being the myriad of hues of color.

Update:

Working on the dice mechanics, nearly have them tweeked for a test run.  The attributes are nearly solidified, I just have the physical ones to tweek a bit more.  Other than that, the system only operates on a mundane level, for the moment.  Still need to add in the mechanics of supernatural powers (aka., Magic). 

Death
As far as death goes, I don't think I'll incorporate magic as something one can do to bring someone back to life, at least not on the same level of ease as in D&D.  It'll be more along the line of having to go on a quest.  That being said, I'm going to ascribe to the position that one isn't really dead right away - there is a certain amount of time one has to revive the body, so one might have 4 or more minutes to "bring a person back to life."

So I've been doing a good amount of work, and the Fiefdom combat material has evolved into a basis for a gaming system that'll be independent from the Fiefdom online game.

Development is currently underway for both of them, so updates will continue to come.

Regarding development of the Fiefdom, some programing will need to be done for the online game to be up and running.

Cheers!

we need rules before that can go up and running!

_________________
Jake