Is there any system for running and expanding a settlement or society? Like, I'm looking for the ttrpg version of Dungeon Keeper or Timberborn or even Civ.
I wanna build specialist buildings and shit, put resources into researching, deal with inhabitants being whiny b***hes, that sort of thing.
The closest I've been able to find is the RPG Wicked Ones (https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/mtytad/wicked_ones_is_now_free_come_grab_a_copy_and/), but it's just a Forged in the Dark hack that's not quite what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something a bit more crunchy, and frankly, the book is pretty but terribly organised, my ADHD ass can't find the rules in concise enough manner to actually make use of them.
Anybody got any suggestions? Failing that, any homebrews people have had experience or fun with? Enough examples, I might be able to retrofit my own.
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Most of them are overly complex messes that feel more like a spreadsheet simulator than an actual game. Because of that, I prefer Renegade Crowns. It abstracts out all the bullshit like the yield of a goat herd and focuses on petty buttholes feuding over petty shitholes in the middle of nowhere. You'd be surprised how easy and effecient it is to run a game where improving a village means executing some lazy cultists instead of having to worry about whether a blacksmith or tavern will give a better revenue bonus.
D&D Rules Cyclopedia has rules for building up a place and how much it costs to do different kinds of buildings or hire different specialists versus how much you make back from taxes each year.
Perceforest for Mythras has an entire section of rules entirely dedicated to building up a small village into eventually a town. That one is done in phases matching with the seasons and every year there's a chance the supernatural forces of The Forest attacks your settlement, where various dice rolls based on the construction of your village (including placement of various things) determine how well you defend.
Placement is important because as you build things you have to draw them on a little grid map to represent where they go, and naturally it's cheaper if your defenses are built around smaller sections, but that means as your village expands you're going to have sections outside of those defenses, which means they just fricking die when The Forest attacks.
Also if you built near a Road or natural obstacles your construction options are limited, but you can guarantee you won't be attacked from those sides, so it's a give and take system.
While I love Renegade Crowns and find excuses to use it everywhere (the town name tables I use even in Western games and post-apoc games), it really doesn't fit that well with what the OP is looking for.
Cool, but not quite what I'm looking for. Honestly, I'm trying to solo rpg a bunch of stranded metroid style space pirates and their super computer, but they realise they're on a standard swords and sorcery planet. Shenanigans ensue.
I do like the Perceforest for Mythras thing. Even if it doesn't have exactly what I'm looking for, I can always take what I like to frankenstein myself up a homebrew. I do especially like the phases ideas and the placement rules.
>Is there any system for running and expanding a settlement or society?
Stonetop
The Quiet Year
The domain tier of old D&D
Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha
There's lots out there OP
Isn't that kinda the point of RuneQuest? You have a family and a clan and the stuff you do effects them and you have a say in what the clan should do.
ACKS, the only system that does this well.
>my ADHD ass can't find the rules in concise enough manner to actually make use of them.
>Anybody got any suggestions?
Ask your psychiatrist. Then play old D&D starting at a higher level.
Nah, for ADHD public waiting list is like, seven years, and there's no specialists in the country anyway.
Nah, but seriously, there's not even a rules summary. Who frickin' doesn't do a rules summary in this day and age? WoD was doin' that shit 20 years ago.
Still, you're the second person to mention old D&D. Which version?
>for ADHD public waiting list is like, seven years, and there's no specialists in the country anyway
Microdoses of psychedelics, my dude. 1/10th the amount needed for a proper trip, may even be totally legal depending on where you live.
Nah, that'll frick with my OCD.
Huh. Seems interesting, very pulpy. Several books though. Which one would be best for building settlements? The one about Lairs looks like it might be good for it.
Stonetop looks pretty good. I do enjoy giving the settlement stats and shit.
The Quiet Year and its stuff is also looking good.
Also, shit, I didn't realise Runequest Glorantha was a thing. I hear Runequest and I think of the MMO.
>Nah, that'll frick with my OCD.
It may do so, in a good way: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9758406/
That's not microdosing, though, it's a full dose, administered once.
Huh. Interesting research to keep an eye on, if nothing else. Kind of a pity the negative connotations stymie investigation into this kind of topic.
I guess I'll wait then, see what the reviews are like. Thanks dude~
I meant Runescape. Glorantha is the one with the King of Dragon's Pass, and *the ducks*, right?
Hm. Studying the ancient scrolls may be good inspiration for further autism. I shall peruse them presently.
Not gonna lie, I do enjoy a good spreadsheet if it's for something I enjoy. Once made a sheet tracking the budget for an airship and its crew. Which is funny, 'cause I've never made one of those for my own household.
>Several books though. Which one would be best for building settlements? The one about Lairs looks like it might be good for it.
Lairs is good, then I'd suggest Domains at War: Campaigns BUT ACKS II is getting released this year, and that book has been incorporated in the GM book, so I'd say wait and get that instead.
>implying ACKS II isn't gonna suck
Historically every announcement of an "OSR Retroclone: The Sequel" has been a harbinger of the suck.
ACKS was great and ACKS II is ACKS + all the Axioms and the Domains at War: Campaigns books, plus additional stuff.
Can't see why it's gonna suck
how does acks domains work in play? what do the players do?
At level 9 begins the "King" part of ACKS, where the PCs can obtain land and a base, depending on your character's class, which you'll need to maintain through adventuring or other ways (more below).
Then you'll start to attract people in it, which will be under your rule and do activities for you. For example, a wizard will build a wizard's tower and start attracting apprentices, or a thief will build a thieves' guild and attract rogues.
Then with the base built you'll be able to do commerce and specific class activities, but more than that you can have armies to do mass combat battles.
There's still too much stuff to say about it, just know that at this point the game becomes a spreadsheet simulator wargame, which is the main reason many actually play it.
>I hear Runequest and I think of the MMO.
You mean Runescape?
The true Grognard has seen through the veil and realizes the horrifying truth, the rulebook itself is the summary. If you have the obsession, encyclopedic memory, and brute aspergers to play AD&D, play AD&D 1e. OD&D is for if you want AD&D but smaller or to merge it with a wargame. Most mortals just play the basic set or a clone like ACKS.
They all have basic tools that let players have settlements, and rules for dungeoncrawling, combat, and travel, but what's interesting is the way you and your players make all the game layers interact.
Yeah, plenty, of all kinds.
Pretty sure the settlement rules for rolemaster include racial bonuses to cotton picking and carpentry, for the spreadsheet enthusiast who should really just be an accountant and not bother other people, while the quiet year is a game with a mechanic that literally does nothing that dictates when you are allowed to speak and is written by someone who hopes their games turn you gay.
It's a broad spectrum.