Disclaimer: this page still under construction. The rules have not been playtested, but since the system is very freeform, this should not be a big problem. Suggestions welcome!
The Interactive History concept was introduced by the Aria gameline. The idea was that instead of persons (or in addition to persons) the players would play whole societies. The way this differs from for example playing Civilization (or any other game of strategy) is that the culture is given the highlight. The rules given by Aria for IH provide a rough way to resolve military, but also and more importantly social and political conflicts. The results are also highly interpretative: to really work they need to fleshed out by the players and the GM. This means some work, but when done, it gives a highly enjoyable gaming experience!
The dice system provided by Aria is a bit obscure, and for this and other reasons I decided to try to convert the IH mechanics to FUDGE, a free netRPG. The FUDGE is simple, intuitive and easy to learn and use. It is also very decriptive, thus supporting better the work of the GM (and the players) in playing Interactive Histories.
The IH rules, as given in Aria, do not directly faciliate playing different levels of a society at the same time. For example one player would play the ruling agency and the others would play the key persons of that society. I have given this some thought and will give some guidelines enabling such setup.
The resulting system is very freeform, rather a skeleton and
a set of guidelines than a fully detailed gaming system, and
it is presented below (as much as there is of it).
Page index:
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Each society will have certain attributes, which tells us something of the society. The attributes may be roughly divided to three groups: political, cultural and societal attributes.
The political attributes detail the abilities of influence that entities have in that society. Primarily the political attributes are defined for the ruling agency, but you can give political attributes to others as well, for example each key person or organization. However, it should be noted that ruling agency should always have the greatest degree of power and authority. Otherwise it wouldn't be ruling agency, would it? The political attributes are:
The cultural attributes detail the culture of the society. Its basic philosophy, the variety and importance of different humanities, and its available technology. The attributes are:
The societal attributes detail the abilities and resources of the society as a whole. The attributes are:
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Dice and resolution
Most of the attributes will be defined on a scale from Miserable (-4) to Legendary (+4) detailed below. The scope has a scale from Insignificant (-4) to Imperium (+4). The probability is the probability to roll the given number on the FUDGE dice: 4DF. One fudge dice is simply a normal D6 with two sides labeled '+1', two sides '0' and two sides '-1', so using one dice you have equal probability to roll -1, 0 or +1. With more dice, e.g. four fudge dice, the probability distribution approaches normal distribution.
| Skill (benchmark) | Task | Result | Probability | Scope | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +4 | Legendary (guru) | Epic | Extraord. success | 1% | Imperium (British empire) |
| +3 | Superb (master) | Huge | Superb success | 5% | Huge |
| +2 | Great (expert) | Very hard | Great success | 13% | Very big (French in renaissance) |
| +1 | Good (professional) | Hard | Success | 19% | Big |
| 0 | Fair (journeyman) | Normal | Partial success | 24% | Medium (mideval Britain) |
| -1 | Mediocre (amateur) | Easy | Partial failure | 19% | Small |
| -2 | Poor (beginner) | Routine | Failure | 13% | Very small |
| -3 | Terrible (ungifted) | Trivial | Serious failure | 5% | Tiny (a village or about a 100 people) |
| -4 | Miserable/Gothic (cursed) | Insignificant | Catastrophe | 1% | Insignificant |
Result = Skill - Task + Dice + Modifier
The flow of game is divided to rounds, with each round equaling 1, 5, 10 or any other number of years, as decided by the GM. Each round is divided to four phases: events, internal development, external development and resolution phase.
In the event phase each society rolls for an environmetal disaster (10% chance, or a -2 on 2DF). Should any occure its results are determined at once. The disaster is always assumed to be worst of its kind, so the task should be appropriately difficult. The skill base is the scope of the society + 1, and the task level should be at least Very hard. The results from a disaster can never be positive: they are always regressions of some kind or another.
In the internal development the actions within a society are declared. If there are any situations which require immediate resolution, e.g. so-called critical junctures, they are resolved immediately. An internal critical juncture appears if the ruling agency suppresses its people too much, its concent or power is very low, tolerance of any humanity is very low, severe economic depression, or a severe political scandal has occured. Also critical junctures are things to be avoided: only in case of extraordinary success may improvements occur.
The external development is similar to the internal development phase, except the actions concern other societies. External critical juncture occures if some society has severily meddled in some other societies actions, or their relations have dropped below Poor.
The last phase is the resolution phase. The declared actions are resolved in an appropriate order. The results result in regressions (some attributes drop), improvements (attributes increase) or incidentals and reactions (minor changes). The GM does most of his job at this phase.
The number of actions that a ruling agency can make depends on the scope of the society, and on whether its philosophical orientation is active or passive. Basic number of actions is 2. This is increased by (Scope+4)/2, round up, and decreased by 1 if the phil. orientation is passive. The actions are divided among internal and external.
actions = 2 + (scope+4)/2 -1(if passive society)
The actions are totally freeform. The player tells the GM what he tries and how he goes about it. The GM decides approriate difficulity for the task and the attributes that are used to resolve it. An example list of actions is given below:
Internal: develop/invest, intrigue, observation, elections, fundamental, taxation, exile, civil war, negotiations External: raid, observation, intimidation, diplomacy, espionage, overtures, sanctions, block, alliance
Military conflict is (unfortunately) an important way of interaction between societies. Therefore special rules are given for it. The military power and size depend on the scope of the society, but also from its philosophical orientation and its military structure. Combined military power and size give the military browess of the society.
Note to the GM: standing professional army requires money, money and money. Use it with care.
Effect of philosophical orientation on military force and size:
| Orientation | Force | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Survival | 0 | +2 |
| War | +1 | +1 |
| Conquest | +1 | +1 |
| Equilibrium | 0 | 0 |
| Peace | -1 | -1 |
| Knowledge | -1 | -1 |
Effect of military structure on military force:
| Structure | Effect on force | Effect on size |
|---|---|---|
| Base | ||
| Standing | Fair | Scope-1 |
| Provisional | Mediocre | Scope+1 |
| Modifier | ||
| Professional | +2 | |
| Mercenary | +2 | |
| Feodal | +2 | |
| Conscript | +1 | |
| Volunteer, militia | +-1 (Phl.or.) | |
| All-inclusive | +-2 (Phl.or.) | +2 |
Military browess is calculated from force and size by using the force as a base and increasing it by the amount that the size is bigger than the opponents military size. The smaller side's browess is not decreased from the base. Mathematically speaking:
browess = force + max(0,own_size - opponent_size)
Examples of actions that require military are raid, (military) block and war. During civil war the military force is divided in two.
There are several different kind of natural environmental disasters: an epidemic is the most common, with famine coming close second. Other disasters include a flood, hurricane, earthquake, tornado and drought. The GM randomly determines one of these.
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Results of actions
The results of actions will effect the attributes of the society, although usually not on those attributes that were used to solve them. The effect may be positive (improvement) or negative (regression). Improvements and regressions effect one or more attributes in/decreasing them by one for 1-3 rounds, or even permanently.
The improvements and regressions may be accompanied by incidentals (single but important events) and reactions (behavioral changes in the populance). The GM can, but (s)he does not have to, detail them, too, or let the player decide them himself.
| Result | Improvements or regressions | Incidentals and reactions |
|---|---|---|
| Extraordinary success | (+) 2 attr. for 2-3 rounds | 2-3 |
| Superb success | (+) 1-2 attr. for 2 rounds | 2-3 |
| Great success | (+) 1 attr. for 1-2 rounds | 1-2 |
| Success | (+) 1 attr. for 1 round | 1-2 |
| Partial success | (+) 1 attr. for 0-1 rounds | 1 |
| Partial failure | (-) 1 attr. for 0-1 rounds | 1 |
| Failure | (-) 1 attr. for 1 round | 1-2 |
| Serious failure | (-) 1-2 attr. for 2 rounds | 2-3 |
| Catastrophe | (-) 2 attr. for 2-3 rounds | 2-3 |
Note: the following is an optional rule/guideline to remove minmaxing.
If the task is clearly too easy (or too hard) for a person, the social effects of success (failure) are limited appropriately. For example if a person with a superb skill attempts an easy task, rolls a 0, and scores a superb success, the social influence is limited to the equivalent of a partial success, since the result was what everybody expected. Similarily if a person is forced to attempt something far out of his ability and fails, the attempt has only slight repercussions (partial failure), since nobody really expected a success. If the task was not forced upon him, a stupidity modifier is applied...
A suitable rule of thumb would be to use the dice roll as the maximum (positive of negative) social effect in case the expected happens. Never change a success to failure or a failure to a success, however.
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Playing key persons and organisations
Players may also play something else besides ruling agency; smaller societies (secret societies like free masons, or churches) or single individuals (key persons, heroes, saints). The key persons will have lots of political influence (although not as much as the ruling agency). The heroes will have some exceptional abilities, for example 'strategist' to gain +1 to all war related actions, or 'Machiavelli' to gain +1 to all intrigue attempts. The saints may also have some exceptional abilities, like 'guru' to gain +1 to all influence actions, or 'mystical powers' to gain +1 to war related actions or whatever.
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What about the other societies?
I have found that the most work is not to invent what happens in a given society, but rather what happens in the other, non-player societies. I think a suitable way to handle them would be to roll them events in the events phase, something along the lines: disaster, economic depression, civil war, revolution, raid, war, change in philosophical orientation, and not care too much about the details.